#jc01

Elysium

A vampire bar. Never in her life had she imagined such a thing would exist, but then again she had not thought that she could ever leave a person who knew of her true nature alive. Not before coming to this strange city two weeks ago. A red dress on, she had walked in with curiosity, listening to the host explain what the money she had provided were offering her and thinking of a willing meal made her smile tight to hide her fangs.

Sitting at the bar, her eyes roamed around, gauging the possibilities and the few patrons that the early hour had brought. She wondered if all of them woke up starving as she did or if they had the control her maker had once shown her but hadn't had the chance to teach her before it was too late. "Are we allowed to drain them?" she asked, moving in her vampiric speed, much preferred to the slowness that was required in the human world, sitting by one of the patrons, her eyes on a human that had walked into the room. "Or would that cost more?"

Friday night had been going slow. He sat at home because he couldn't decide where he wanted to go and which group to go out with, he had spoken to Tony but didn't like his plans and then he texted a friend from high school whose wedding he had been at a few months back, they were having family dinners and that didn't seem fun enough. And so after texting multiple people, he was finally throwing on his cardigan over his white shirt and pushing his phone and keys in his jeans' pockets.

A few hours later, good into the middle of the night, music booming over the bar's stereo, the Dj playing what he thought might be house but the young man couldn't quite discern, he had taken off his cardigan, unbottened his shirt and was dancing with the group of friends. They had taken something but he hadn't dared, knowing from the few past experiences where he had felt strangely outside ofhis own mind and body and he didn't like that. Going for the bar he was ready to spend some of his monthly allowance on more shots and that's what he did, ordering 12 Russian breakfast. A man was standing close and he was sure he ahd seen him somewhere, but couldn't quite put where exactly. "Want one?!" he shouted over the music as he turned a glass

You are WV.

Your plants have finally germinated. You are snapping pictures of them with your phone, capturing each green shoot as it breaks the dark soil. You are as proud as any father, although most fathers do not need to actively restrain themselves from eating their children.

You are doing this not because it’s something you do normally, but because you want to send pictures to the Jade Harley girl, as proud and as obnoxious as any father armed with a roll of pictures of his children.

You scroll down your address book, looking for J-names. Carelessly, you scroll down a little too far, and hit the K’s. You scroll up slightly more carefully, and that’s when you see the name. You know this name. It is not Jade’s name. It is not, actually, the name of anyone you know. But you know the format, know the elegant and specification of it that says to anyone reading this is what I am.

Your open up a line of communication. Your fingers tremble with joy as you tap out a greeting.

[msg] JOVIAL CONTRARIAN I AM SPEAKING TO YOU NOW.

[msg] I AM WISTFUL VEGECULTURIST. FOR SEVERAL DAYS I WAS CONVINCED I WAS ALONE, BUT I AM OVERJOYED TO KNOW NOW THAT THERE IS IN FACT SOMEONE HERE WHO COMES FROM THE SAME PLACE I DO.

[msg] PLEASE TELL ME HOW AND WHEN YOU CAME HERE. ARE YOU A FELLOW CITIZEN OF THE REVOLUTION. DO YOU KNOW OF OTHERS LIKE US. WE SHOULD MEET UP SOME TIME. 

As the man enters the elevator, the sight of him draws Delilah up short. Something in his face rings a bell in her head, perhaps... Ah.

Delilah remembers her disastrous attempts at playing a bigger game in her first month here. Putting out feelers, and inspiring some kind of insipid protest by a much more justice-minded resident. And this man, he was the one conducting the counterprotest. How curious. Had she ever learned his name?

The J... Jolly something. She’d looked into him briefly. Not learned enough to remember him. But the thing that’s catching her interest is that he’s getting on from Daud’s floor. Now that’s something useful.