The year is 2020 and Seattle has quickly grown to become one of the vampiric society's finest cities.
The Camarilla rules the city with an iron fist, ensuring the survival of the Kindred, and with it, the
rule of the Masquerade: Their existence must remain a secret to humans, and the Prince of the City sits
at the top of the hierarchy, enforcing the laws of the undead.
The clans of the Camarilla fight for power: It's a game of chess and your next move might determine
the future of all. When push comes to shove, which side will you take - and as a character with the
potential to shift the game, what will your next move be?
SOME RULES ARE UNBREAKABLE
In the past few months, the rate of newly embraced vampires have skyrocketed - most of which has
not been sanctioned by Prince Algernon: The Camarilla have worked day and night trying to track
down the one's responsible, but where one lead ends, another begins. Unable to figure out the culprits
behind the mass-embrace, the Camarilla finds itself caught between trying to restore power and ensuring
that the laws of the Masquerade are not broken - again.
A Blood Hunt has been called, and the Scourge has been sent out - and so the Caitiff are being hunted
down: Nothing but Final Death awaits them.
Rhea had always enjoyed the parks in Seattle, how they gave you the opportunity to enjoy nature in the midst of the hustle and bustle of the city. A year ago she wouldn’t have gone for a walk in one during the night, but today most people she met couldn’t hurt her and those who could generally had no interest in doing so. As such, she was free to enjoy the beach in the soft moonlight. If she were more of an artist she could’ve captured the sight in some form or another, but she wasn’t so she was content with just enjoying the view.
While she occasionally ventured out for a moonlit walk in nature just for the enjoyment of it, tonight she was here with a purpose. Taking a seat on the blanket she’d placed down, she looked out over the water while trying to focus on her breathing. Not that she really needed to, but it tended to be a theme in meditation. She always meditated before attempting to get a reading of an object, and she’d heard that a lot of people preferred meditating amongst nature.
It was almost as if the longer Calliope stayed undead, the more she came to appreciate the simple pleasures that life had to offer. And that appreciation always grew whenever she had the time to walk through any part of the city - the parks especially.
She spotted the girl sitting on her blanket long before she was able to reach her. While Rhea was still beautiful in her own right, there was still something very human about her that made her even more so. And everyone who knew Calliope knew that she was a stickler for humanity.
She was exactly where she'd said she'd be.
"You know that breathing is rather useless to us." She commented, amusement trickling over her features as she drew closer, but not close enough to disturb her more than what she'd done already. Instead, the blonde remained a few steps away, her head tilting curiously as she watched the much younger kindred. "What are you doing?" It seemed that Calliope had developed a tendency to keep herself close to the much younger kindred - and in many ways, she often preferred them. They were a lot less jaded than their older counterparts.
Rhea startled and her gaze snapped in the direction of the voice, her demeanor relaxing once more when she realized who it was. Of course, she had been expecting company, but her focus had fully been on the water in front of her and the necklace around her neck that she was grasping. She gave the approaching woman a small, uncertain smile. Even on a beach of all places Calliope exuded a sort of grace that Rhea could only dream of.
At the woman’s words she realized she’d stopped doing just that – breathing. Trying to regain her previous rhythm, she replied: “Yes, but it tends to be a constant in meditation guides.”
“I’m trying to practice my Discipline. I was, uh-“ she swallowed, looking out on the water once more. “I was hoping maybe you’d have some pointers? I know it doesn’t come fast, but I don’t know if I’m even on the right track.”
A bubbling laughter escaped her at that. "Fair." She easily admitted. To Calliope, the part where one stopped breathing altogether hadn't been the odd part. It was rather the part where one realized one didn't have to anymore. It was sort of like that feeling one got as a human when one became too aware of the fact that breathing came automatically, but at that very same realization, breathing becomes difficult and forced.
Calliope's features turned soft as the girl spoke again and at long last, the blonde finally drew closer. She looked out over the water as a thoughtful frown formed above her brows. "It's sort of..." She began, trying to remember how it had been for her when she'd just started figuring it all out.
"You know when you're looking for a word and you can feel it at the tip of your tongue without quite being able to reach it?" She turned her gaze back towards the petite blonde. "Keep reaching for it."
Rhea didn’t care much for jewelry; she didn’t even have her ears pierced. Those who paid attention to such details, however, would soon notice that she always wore a necklace. In fact, she always wore the same necklace, a silver necklace with a crescent moon pendant. The same necklace she was currently holding in one hand, her eyes now closed as she once again tried to reach out with her mind.
She had tried this plenty of times before, but only once had she ever felt anything like the sensation Calliope had described. She’d lost focus when her phone had started ringing, and after that one time she hadn’t been able to reach that point again no matter what she did. Tonight was proving to be no different.
If paying attention, one would notice Rhea’s posture stiffen along with a frown forming on her face before she finally gave in, laying back and looking up at the night sky with a sigh. “I think I know what you’re talking about, that feeling.” Quieter, almost as to herself she added: “I just can’t seem to even get that far most of the time.”
Amusement colored the blonde's features as she watched the young Kindred give up far too easily. A small huff of laughter escaped her before she drew closer and took a seat next to the much younger vampire.
"If disciplines were easy to master, they wouldn't be worth it." She answered as she let her own gaze drift upwards. "Though I doubt that makes you feel any better."
Lifting her hand, Calliope allowed herself to tap into her own powers: Mirage manipulation. It had been the most difficult for her to learn out of the three disciplines. Moving her fingers in the air, the air started filling with small bubbles barely the size of a wedding ring that glowed faintly blue in the darkness.
"You have so many decades, centuries even, ahead of you. Why are you trying to rush it?" She asked.
“In a way, it actually does” she spoke, softly. Rhea supposed that in the grand scheme of things a year wasn’t much time at all, especially considering her new expected lifespan. And knowing that she wasn’t the only one who struggled with learning their disciplines, well maybe she’d be able to convince herself that she wasn’t simply failing. Ever since she’d learnt about this power she was supposedly able to tap into, she had made sure to set aside time to practice every day. She could count on her fingers the times she had neglected to do so. Granted, she hadn’t been aware or even able to practice the entire time since she became Kindred, but the young woman was used to learning much faster.
Why was she rushing it? Part of it was the frustration stemming from feeling inadequate, but more than that she wanted to be able to make use of this power. All the things she could learn by just a simple touch, things that otherwise would have been lost to history? That was surely incentive enough. Of course, there were more personal reasons as well. She wasn’t just practicing on her necklace for fun or for the ease of it, after all. Being able to read the memories of that necklace would give her a chance to feel close to her mother, something she hadn’t been able to before.
A smile lit up the blonde’s face at the sight of the bubbles glowing in the darkness. “I-“ she paused, trying to find the right words for how she was feeling without making a fool of herself. In her own eyes, at least. “I suppose I’m just not used to this pace of learning. All the human things I’ve learned have come much faster. And I can’t help but imagine the sort of things I could learn, once I can do this. Sure, you can study and make assumptions based on things left behind by history. But being able to experience the memories of those people, how their everyday lives looked? That can’t be found in the pages of a book, no matter how well depicted.”
Once the other blonde started speaking again, the bubbles started slowly fading into to the dark night until they were no longer visible. With that, Calliope drew her attention back towards the much younger kindred and listened carefully to every word.
While a small smile formed on her lips, there was still a hint of sadness that clung to her expression. "You'll come to learn that a lot of the things you knew as a human no longer applies to us." As much as Calliope pretended to be human, she too knew that deep down, she was anything but.
Making herself comfortable next to the other kindred, Calliope folded her arms over her chest as if embracing herself. "You've been reborn into a world that has a whole different sets of rules — and yes, that applies to everything that we are." She shook her head a little at that. "By the rules of possibility and realism, we're not supposed to exist, and yet. Here we are." There were many things that Calliope missed about being human. While yes, being kindred was in many ways better, that didn't mean there weren't things she could have done without, either.
