Claudia (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
belladonic) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
revivalproject2023-07-30 12:40 am
belladonic) wrote in revivalproject2023-07-30 12:40 am
Are you nobody, too?
WHO: Claudia, Lestat, and Billy K
WHERE: The East side of Temba
WHAT: Making a new home :)
WHEN: mid-July
WARNINGS: Toxic vampire lifestyle.
a. morning [for Lestat]
It had been a few hours now since the delivery had been made. The sun would be up soon; the quiet had already settled, and Claudia would not be going out any more before dawn, her night already gone to sitting by the remaining window and watching. There weren't many people here, it had to be said, so keeping track of them all must not have been such a chore, no one slipping through the cracks as much as there weren't any cracks to slip through. It was going to be harder, she realized, perhaps for the first time. They were being watched.
The feeling had crept over her well before she found the man at her doorstep, streets away where she had darted with intent the moment she had found the word LIBRARY on the device Lestat claimed to be too busy to explain to her. It took her some time to orient herself, find the fountain where she had been trapped in her coffin, smelled the penned animals and finally placed herself on the map. A library in this place would be wonderfully instructive, surely there would be more answers there about these people, and how they had brought them here, and maybe what it was they knew about Claudia. What she was. How to become something else.
It was nothing like that at all. It was empty, that feeling whispering up Claudia's arms as the fine hair there raised, and she shivered, resenting the cold, cold, cold, all the way down to her belly. It must have been that pair of eyes reflecting in the dark sending that creeping sensation through her, and Claudia stared back, both of them seeing perfectly through the darkness of this empty hall, watching the other tense and ready to spring.
Claudia moved first, teeth bared with a harsh hiss, and was across the hall in an instant. She didn't expect the cat to go up, feathers brushing her face as they narrowly missed each other, leaving her stunned and fangs resting on her lip as she watched the cat flutter high up onto a shelf. Cold she would remain then. As her gaze dropped down the dusty, barren boards, it was caught by a singular tome, standing up with its spine faced out like it had been carefully shelved right at the end of the row. Had it stood away from the shelf's end at all, it would have been hard to miss. It was enormous.
It dwarfed Claudia now as she sat back in their boarded up lodgings, just the tips of her boots peeking out under its massive cover as she held it in her lap. The first pages had made it clear that it was a diary of sorts, and only some of the pages had actually been used. Leaving it all alone with the cats would have been a cruelty. Though Claudia hadn't found a pencil yet to continue the record, she had entries to carefully read through while she watched for the strange man to return.
It didn't seem likely that he would just leave a golden coffin and go on his way.
b. evening [for Billy]
Most of the flowers along the path drooped heavily under their own weight, parched with wilting stems and petals clinging hopelessly. The sun was supposed to keep them flourishing, and Claudia frowned as she crouched again to consider another spray of them, their faces downturned like they couldn't share that warmth with her anymore. It wasn't like she remembered the sun all that much anyway. She snatched another stem from the ground, quick and violent this time, dragging up roots with it to add to the growing bouquet in the crook of her arm.
By the time she made it just a few doors away, it had swelled into a bushel that she carried in the fold of her skirt, the fabric gathered up in both hands and fragrant petals trailing after her. Maybe she should turn back first and leave these at home. She didn't even have a hand free to knock, staring down into the mass of flowers contemplatively, then watchfully as she carefully raised a fist still tight around the skirt to thump awkwardly against the door without turning any of her prizes out. The disturbance or noise or something Claudia was entirely incapable of sensing sent a shiver through all of the stems, which she watched with a curiously tilted head until an insect she must have plucked up with her collection burst its way out of the pile, startling her enough to go, "Oh!" and give a jerk that sent a scattering of petals around her feet.
When she was steady again, she found she was clutching her skirt quite tightly to keep her flowers gathered, crushing them into the fabric, and the bug was long gone.
Hurried now, she shouted, "Mr. Kaplan!" at the door, and gave another thumping to it this time with both hands. There might be more to find in those flowers.
WHERE: The East side of Temba
WHAT: Making a new home :)
WHEN: mid-July
WARNINGS: Toxic vampire lifestyle.
a. morning [for Lestat]
It had been a few hours now since the delivery had been made. The sun would be up soon; the quiet had already settled, and Claudia would not be going out any more before dawn, her night already gone to sitting by the remaining window and watching. There weren't many people here, it had to be said, so keeping track of them all must not have been such a chore, no one slipping through the cracks as much as there weren't any cracks to slip through. It was going to be harder, she realized, perhaps for the first time. They were being watched.
The feeling had crept over her well before she found the man at her doorstep, streets away where she had darted with intent the moment she had found the word LIBRARY on the device Lestat claimed to be too busy to explain to her. It took her some time to orient herself, find the fountain where she had been trapped in her coffin, smelled the penned animals and finally placed herself on the map. A library in this place would be wonderfully instructive, surely there would be more answers there about these people, and how they had brought them here, and maybe what it was they knew about Claudia. What she was. How to become something else.
It was nothing like that at all. It was empty, that feeling whispering up Claudia's arms as the fine hair there raised, and she shivered, resenting the cold, cold, cold, all the way down to her belly. It must have been that pair of eyes reflecting in the dark sending that creeping sensation through her, and Claudia stared back, both of them seeing perfectly through the darkness of this empty hall, watching the other tense and ready to spring.
Claudia moved first, teeth bared with a harsh hiss, and was across the hall in an instant. She didn't expect the cat to go up, feathers brushing her face as they narrowly missed each other, leaving her stunned and fangs resting on her lip as she watched the cat flutter high up onto a shelf. Cold she would remain then. As her gaze dropped down the dusty, barren boards, it was caught by a singular tome, standing up with its spine faced out like it had been carefully shelved right at the end of the row. Had it stood away from the shelf's end at all, it would have been hard to miss. It was enormous.
It dwarfed Claudia now as she sat back in their boarded up lodgings, just the tips of her boots peeking out under its massive cover as she held it in her lap. The first pages had made it clear that it was a diary of sorts, and only some of the pages had actually been used. Leaving it all alone with the cats would have been a cruelty. Though Claudia hadn't found a pencil yet to continue the record, she had entries to carefully read through while she watched for the strange man to return.
It didn't seem likely that he would just leave a golden coffin and go on his way.
b. evening [for Billy]
Most of the flowers along the path drooped heavily under their own weight, parched with wilting stems and petals clinging hopelessly. The sun was supposed to keep them flourishing, and Claudia frowned as she crouched again to consider another spray of them, their faces downturned like they couldn't share that warmth with her anymore. It wasn't like she remembered the sun all that much anyway. She snatched another stem from the ground, quick and violent this time, dragging up roots with it to add to the growing bouquet in the crook of her arm.
By the time she made it just a few doors away, it had swelled into a bushel that she carried in the fold of her skirt, the fabric gathered up in both hands and fragrant petals trailing after her. Maybe she should turn back first and leave these at home. She didn't even have a hand free to knock, staring down into the mass of flowers contemplatively, then watchfully as she carefully raised a fist still tight around the skirt to thump awkwardly against the door without turning any of her prizes out. The disturbance or noise or something Claudia was entirely incapable of sensing sent a shiver through all of the stems, which she watched with a curiously tilted head until an insect she must have plucked up with her collection burst its way out of the pile, startling her enough to go, "Oh!" and give a jerk that sent a scattering of petals around her feet.
When she was steady again, she found she was clutching her skirt quite tightly to keep her flowers gathered, crushing them into the fabric, and the bug was long gone.
Hurried now, she shouted, "Mr. Kaplan!" at the door, and gave another thumping to it this time with both hands. There might be more to find in those flowers.
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"Aren't you meant to write it in? You've found some used book. I'll fetch you a proper new one."
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"Nothing worth staying for anyone," he muttered bitterly.
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"Who does he have now?" it occurred to her, thinking of Louis alone in that big house. It wasn't as though he brought his own friends around. Lestat was the only one with friends.
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"...I'm done with that," he said, the truth of it that Claudia herself had killed her left obviously unspoken, "And Louis and I have always had an understanding..."
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