multiversallogs | familiar faces

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familiar faces

Who: the Chicago Kindred Ladies' Social Club, and Njoki
What: a reunion. Continued from here
Where: Jones and Brie's place
When: late

This city will take a whole lot of getting used to. Despite dying, Chicago had still been Chicago, even if filled with people who ate other people for a living -- this is something else entirely. Rosa had done her best to pay attention to Njoki, considering the things she was hearing were important, but she can't help but get distracted. Njoki's claim to be from the future seems much less unbelievable now that she was out on the street.

The feeling of relief that washes over Rosa when she saw Jones and Brie's apartment is so great she wobbles a bit. She restrains herself from dropping everything and running to the door; instead she walks to the door (albeit a little more quickly than usual) and rings the bell.

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A large thud, like someone's knee just hit the floor, a pause, and within seconds of Rosa knocking, the door is wide open.

"Rosa!" Brie shrieks, as she throws her arms around the girl. A few more minutes and she would have gone running into the streets herself, looking for her dear friend.

Aware that Rosa is likely to be overwhelmed by the experience of arriving in Baedal, Njoki hangs back a bit to keep an eye on the street around them. It's not that she necessarily suspects the locals here of disliking the cruorvores in their midst, but that her 'gentle caution' has allowed her to live to such a ripe old age.

"Brie!" Rosa bursts out laughing, hugging her friend with equal enthusiasm. She's happy enough she almost misses how odd Brie seems -- Brie has always looked a little more alive than most vampires, and she had never felt (for lack of a better word) like a vampire, but this is different. She seems almost... alive? When the hell did that happen? Rosa thinks.

This isn't the time, though. She slots that away in the back of her mind; she'll ask later, when they can talk privately.

Extricating herself, she turns to do introductions. "Ki, this is my friend, Brie Cormac. Brie, this is Ki." It occurs to her that she had been too shell shocked to ever get Njoki's full name. "He let me out of the arrival house."

The knock on the door and the ensuing commotion is more than enough to rouse Jones from her chair, even if she didn't know who was arriving. She follows Brie at a less excitable pace, and pokes her head out the door to see Brie giving Rosa an enthusiastic welcome, and another, dark-skinned fellow behind them—

—no, not a fellow. Well. Actually, it's a face she somewhat recognizes, in that she keeps tabs on fellow practitioners of the subtle arts, and Ms. Rainmaker's been around to the forge more than once.

She gives a friendly nod in Ki's direction, and then a warm smile to Rosa. "'Lo, Ms. Martelli," she says, and stands back from the door. "You're all welcome inside. I imagine it'll get a bit chilly."

Well, chilly for her and Brie at the very least. That, and what with sentiments being what they've been lately... off the streets is probably better.

Brie looked behind Rosa at Ki, and quickly offered her hand. "Thank you Ki, for bringing her here, especially at night."

And right, the chilly part. "Jones is right, please come in."

Now was not the time or place to correct Rosa, so she offered a little wave to Jones and shook hands with Brie. While not a World of Darkness-style shifter, it's reasonable to assume that all the people here are able to get some sort of vibe of 'Not Human' off her.

"Thanks. I'll just warm up a bit before heading out." Which is to say, make sure that the streets are clear and give the residents here some time to settle before she leaves.

"Cocoa or tea, anyone?" Jones asks, as she leads them inside; Rosa, of course, probably won't have any, but she feels it's polite to at least ask. "You can have a seat in here."

The main area is a little cluttered—Jones, while fairly skilled in most domestic areas, has never been much of a housekeeper, and is still working on moving her workshop more into her room now that she has a roommate. There are, however, some old but comfy chairs scrounged from prior occupants and curb sales.

Blithely unaware of any social faux pas, Rosa follows Jones into the apartment. "I'm fine, thank you," she says; social graces, after all, are social graces.

"How long have you been here?" she asks. Their living situation being what it is, it's obvious Brie and Jones have been here for some time.

"I- I haven't been here for even a month yet. But Jones has been here for-" Brie gestures for Jones to finish the sentence.

She shuts the door after both Rosa and Ki stepped in, and motions for both of them to take a seat. Brie can hardly understand the fact that Rosa is actually here, so she starts cleaning profusely everything she can clean that isn't part of Jones's workshop.

Njoki motions that she's fine without tea or coffee and finds a place to rest for a little while. She's not planning on staying long, but she does want to get a feel for this group of vampires and how they fit into Baedal.

"I've been here about, oh, four months," says Jones, after ticking off the numbers on her fingers. "It seems time-wise, though, I departed from about the same time as yourself and Brie, while Anna and Pri—er, Mina came from a couple weeks earlier."

She frowns, and mimes a headache. "I was rather hoping we'd be done with this time travel nonsense, but so it goes. I started renting out this place a couple months ago, and Brie joined me here after her arrival, since, er, she needed certain accommodations..."

Jones casts a glance at Brie. She doesn't know how much Rosa already knows about her, erm, condition; if Rosa doesn't know, it's probably better to let Brie explain at her own pace.

"Yes, about that..." Rosa says. She has picked up some random bit of detritus, and is turning it over and over in her hands as she watches Brie clean. "You seem... different." There. That's a polite way of putting it.

Brie opened her mouth, and then shut it again.

Yes, yes she is. But now isn't quite the time to talk about it. Especially in front of someone she had never met until a few moments ago.

"KI!" she says, a bit louder than comfortable. "Thank you so much for letting Rosa out of the Inn. How long have you been in Baedal?"

"A few months now," she says more than willing to jump in and help derail wherever the conversation was headed. "I've settled in Mafaton and set up shop. Conjure, as the main, and I do fleshcrafting and healing for cruorvores too."

Depending on the sort of vampire, there can be all sorts of nasty injuries: scars, lost limbs, clouded eyes, religious burns, and so on.

The knock comes then, brief and sharp: Anna knows she is more or less expected.

She hadn't precisely been in a hurry to arrive, though: At first her friends' -- just acquaintances, really, but adversity increased their estimation in her mind -- appearance in Baedal had seemed a bright spot in the confusion of this new world. Yet the more she learns of what had happened in Chicago in her absence (or whatever one was supposed to call something that apparently left her in two places at once), the more Anna finds a growing discomfort in the presence of her fellow Kindred. She has made gains in Baedal, and a part of her is scared that the return of the old political play, the old secrets, could ruin everything.

But she's here now, outside the door, looking as poised as she knows they all expect her to appear.

Edited 2011-10-04 04:17 (UTC)

"Fleshcrafting?" As in, fleshcrafting fleshcrafting? Whatever Ki is, Rosa really wants to know. She restrains herself from trying to find out, either by asking or less conventional methods. "Do you see many patients, since vam -- ah, cruorvores heal on their own?"

She looks up at the knock. "That should be Anna," she says. "Has she been here for a few months as well?"

Since she was already up, Brie went to get the door. "Welcome," she said, motioning for Anna to get in, and to get in quick. Brie had been put off by Ki's comment as much as Rosa, and she didn't want this conversation to carry past the walls the of their apartment.

"I don't mean to be rude, but Ki, are you -- " She hoped the woman would fill in the blank.

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/FINALLY APPEARS

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