Evening at the Park

[Catherine Keyes]

Not all vampires are of the party-hardy varriety, although there was always food in those situations, but even where there was food, to flock like carrion was occasionally considered bad form. The Moon was barely a sliver in the sky and the soft glow of teh parks’ lights shone in the darkness.

It wasn’t daylight, but then it never could be.

Catherine was sitting near her gazebo, a small brick of a boombox nearby. She hadn’t decided if she would be dancing tonight, but considering this was the place where she had run from before she had fallen asleep. It seemed like it was necessary to bring herself back.

She would not dance if there was no audience, but if there happened to be another to join her.

It was a nice evening regardless.

Besides, finals were almost over, there was always someone trying to get a break before the summer.

[Princess]

Tired of the bars and the fawning in her relocation for reinvention, Ms. Prieto decides to stroll the parks that evening. So quiet now, so still.

And there appeared to be someone perfectly still, alone, in the gazebo. A light snack, or another predator? Or perhaps one with delusions of the other.

She steers her stroll casually, windingly toward the gazebo, as though by happenstance she approached to get a look at who was there. Feigning surprise, she says, "Oh, hello there."

[Catherine Keyes]

Catherine heard the voice before the wave of the serpent’s acknowledgement of another Kindred washed over her. The assessment was swift and calculating - weaker and inconsequential.

That didn’t stop certain thoughts from running through the bard’s head, though.

The mekhet looked over the newest arrival, a flash of something reached her dead and blushed skin before she pushed it away.

“Hello, pleasant evening.” ...insomuch as it could be with the faint sounds of distant sirens, the four seasons was a few blocks on the other side of the river...that was probably why no one was out and about.

“You look new, I haven’t seen you around before, I’m Catherine.” she said extending a hand.

How long was I out?

[Princess]

"I am new. My name is Ana. Nice to meet you, Catherine," she replies, her accent thick, but deliberately thinning to better pronounce "Catherine."

She accepts the offered hand for a shake, then looks over towards the sound of the ambulances. "Something unpleasant in the distance, no?"

[Catherine Keyes]

Or perhaps right in front of me.

“That’s just how life is, isn’t it, Ana? Always something unpleasant in the distance.” She was wary of the girl, there was always her previous experiences in this same gazebo that really only reinforced how hidden a shadow could be.

“So when did you arrive, and have you signed in yet?” The Bard said as she rose languidly to her feet with a light stretch.

[Princess]

"The night before the big party. I proceeded there, met with as many as I could," Ana answers, quite specifically vague. She presumed 'signing in' must mean acknowledgment, but there was still that certain mortal dread she hadn't felt that gave her pause about speaking openly.

"You've been here a long while, I take it?"

[Catherine Keyes]

*

I just noticed there are contractions in her speech in the previous posts...they should not be there, I apologize.

“Long enough to see people come and go, but then the city is a large one.” Catherine still hadn’t seen all of it, and she had been in Sacramento about a year as it was.

And I missed a court too, wonderful.

“You do not have to stand, the Gazebo has chairs.” she said with a wave of her hand.

[Princess]

"Thank you much," Ana replies, proceeding to seat herself without turning her back on Catherine. Half respectful, half distrustful, the motion of circling about was nevertheless quite smooth, fluid, as the petite Daeva came to a halt.

"Do you enjoy it here?" she asks, sincerely, as though dubious about living here herself. It seemed so dull to be the political capital to Hollywood's glamour.

[Catherine Keyes]

Catherine knew what was going on, as she watched the girl. “Do you?”

Questioning was not a habit she had ever grown out of, but she was the interviewer not the interview-ee. Though she did shrug in response to Ana's question.

[Princess]

"I'm not entirely sure, yet. I shall have to see," she replies, seeming to wait for the next question rather than carry the conversation onward with the tersely inquisitive Gazebo-dweller. She breaks eye contact to look out over the park before she returns her attention to Catherine.