2020.10.26: Introductions
| Introductions | |
|---|---|
| Jean-Yves and Jacinta meet at the Idyllwild Arts Academy. | |
| IC Date | 10/26/2020 |
| IC Time | NZ, Early Evening |
| Players | Jacinta Jean-Yves |
| Location | Idyllwild Arts Academy |
| Spheres | Vampire |
Setting:
Idyllwild Arts Academy - Grand Library Elysium
This enormous library includes several rooms extending from a single great hall. The walls includes two-story bookshelves accessible via tracked ladders. These shelves surround a lounge area under a vaulted ceiling which seems to hush sounds from sheer open space.
The middle of the room is furnished with a large oriental rug, rustic tables, and plush seating under adequate lighting, suitable for reading as well as discussion. A comfortable, dark sapphire plush throne sits at the head of this section, on a raised platform, and is obviously meant for the Lady of the Library only. A small table with several well worn books sits next to it, all with titles written in different languages, including an early copy of the bible. A simple rosary, and cross sit on the table as well.
There are out-croppings to each side that provide their own specialized collected works on a myriad of subjects. They are more secluded, offering a wooden table and chairs for a private study environment. Every such study area has plugs for charging devices, or plugging in laptops.
Throughout the library, the scent of old books saturates the air and the warm lighting is perfect for soothing weary readers' eyes. You can just feel the history, and grandeur of the well loved, preserved, and respected books.
In the early evening hours at Elysium in Idyllwild, the library is fairly quiet. At one table, there is a woman sat who has the appearance of being Latin American, but that her coffee hued complexion has the palor associated with their kind. There is a stack of books on the table by her seat and one open which she is bent over reading. There are wire rimmed spectacles perched on the bridge of her nose that she does a good job of pretending to need.
A tall, middle-aged enters the library, as elegantly dressed as any Ventrue, save for his Lamba cloth obviously denoting him as some kind of foreigner to the uneducated. His eyes scanning the room carefully. His skin has the same palor overlain onto his naturally dark complexion. His eyes finally settle on the reading woman. He approaches slowly, an awkward look on his face saying he doesn't /want/ to bother here, and yet he still says "Bonjour, Madam. This is..." He pauses, lowering his voice, just incase. "Elysium, yes?"
Jacinta looks up when approached, carefully pulling the spectacles away from her eyes. She sets them down on a folded white handkerchief beside the book and regards Jean-Yves with careful scrutiny, as if she were burning his image into her mind, before a single word is uttered from the soft spoken Pisanob. 'I will need to learn French.' A faint smile forms on her lips, breezily stirred to life and just as suddenly gone, 'It is one of the Elysium.' A short pause follows while her eyes, once again, rove down and up his frame, 'Are you new to the city also?'
"Everyone should. It's the Language of Romance." His flat tone is flat, showing his intentions are not to USE French that way, but would he really be a frenchman if he did not at least brag about that fact a little? "Of course, of course... A meeting place. How novel. So then I need not worry about..." His eyes dart back and forth across the room, to any kindred that may lay in here as well. "...The Secret?" He seats himself across from the Woman. "Oui. Err, Yes. I am new to this state." He pauses. "This continent, really. I was wondering if you could help me with something." His eyes dart across the room suspiciously once more.
Jacinta sits calmly back in her chair and looks across the table at Jean-Yves while he speaks. Her expression is flat, but for the quizzical arch of an eyebrow that perks up at the request for assistance. She watches his suspicious peering around the library and calmly inquires, 'What is your name?' In a voice, her voice? It is firm, in no way timid, but her words are spoken in a deliberately slow, soft and calm. It is as if it were an unbroken habit from her previous life that has carried over - women are to be seen and not heard? - so that when she speaks, unless called to do, she does not say much and she is very careful in the words that she selects. 'And how can I be of assistance?'
"Oh...of course. Where are my manners. Jean-Yves Asante. Lord of the Seychelles." His stance stiffens, as if he were trying to emit an air of regality. His voice falls a little, and a look of realization crosses his face. "err...formerly." He sighs. "...Well, frankly. I was wondering if you could point me to some proper reading on the Laibon of this land. Err..." His voice goes to a whisper, as if he's still not sure if it's OK to talk about. "The Kindred. I was under the assumption that as fellow Children of Cagn, things would not be so different here. I was very, VERY wrong. I seek to educate myself, so that every waking moment in these lands might cease being so... Surprising. America itself is not so difficult, it is understanding it's...Kin that gives me trouble." His voice carries the formal tone of someone who has learned English quite well, but used it little. "Would this be the place to do something like that... or are these books merely ordinary books for show, to avert suspicion?"
"I should hope not or I've wasted two hours on nonsense," Jacinta crosses her legs and rests her arms lightly in her lap. Her hands, beneath the table, curl inward to embrace each other where they lay draped across her knee. A smile forms on her lips, although it is as subtle as the inflections in her voice. 'I believe it is a library for the special use of our kind. I've been studying the histories of the different clans myself. We do not have Camarilla where I am from." It strikes her in that moment that introductions are appropriate, 'I am Jacinta Pisanob. I only last week arrived from Mexico City.' With a quizzical tip of her head, she inquires, 'And I am . . . unfamiliar with the terms that you use? Lord of Seychelles? Laibon? Children of Cagn? What are these?'
"Good... then this shall be an excellent place to educate myself. I have much to learn before I can be accepted into the court proper." He says flatly. His brow rises quizzically at Jacinta's introduction, and question. "Hail, and well met, Jacinta. We do not have them where I hail from either. We do not have any sects, save for eternal allegiance to our own Legacy. ...Err, Clan." He pauses, surveying her carefully. "You're not...a Sabbat, are you? I have heard Mexico City is their stronghold. You certainly don't seem like one." At her questions, he nods sagely. "Laibon. The Kindred of Africa. It is an Maasai word for a spiritual leader. Western Laibon see themselves as cursed. Afflicted with something evil. We prefer to see ourselves in a more...positive light. As a unique bridge between the world of the Living and the World of the dead. I think it's a much...healthier way to see it, but I'll admit it feels like a curse sometimes. As for the Seychelles, it's a series of Islands north of Madagascar. Not the largest domain." He grins slyly. "But Westerners would pay good, GOOD money just to come see our lovely resorts. And I'd rather have a wealthy Kingdom than a large one. ...Had, I should say." He pauses. "Err...Prince. It was my...fief? We use so many different words for the same things." He says awkwardly, before blinking incredulously as something hits him. "Cagn? The Trickster god? Father of all of our kind? You are not familiar?"
"Oh." Jacinta's head bobs a slow nod. 'Cain. Yes.' A long slim hand, elegantly graceful and manicured without polish, sweeps up from under the table and across in a gesture to the surrounding chairs. 'Please, sit." And, then, 'I am not Sabbat, but that is a touchy subject. Pisanob are --," she hesitates, pressing her lips together, "-- we are Clan Giovanni. They were introduced to the Americas during the age of the Conquistadors originally. We have come to an mutually beneficial arrangement, but we are as different as the Conquistadors were from the Aztecs and for much the same reasons." A smile appears, broadens and holds while she briefly slips into silence. When she speaks again, she shifts the conversation back to him, 'I see myself and my role as a mediator between the two worlds, as you do. How could I not?' A shoulder rises in a shallow shrug. 'Athough, I would say that is my belief and not necessarily that of my clan."
'In any case, it is very good to meet you, Jean Yves.' The gesturing hand retreats beneath the table to rejoin the other while her curious eyes scan him down and up, 'Why did you have to - or choose to - leave your fief?'
Jean-Yves pauses for a moment, looking simply dumbstruck at her response. "Cain?" The gears turn in his head slowly. "Wait, from the /Bible/?" He begins to snicker softly. "That's... a bit silly, don't you think? Is THAT what Westerners believe?" He's doing his best to sound polite, but there's a hint of elitism to his tone. "But...I digress. You are Giovanni?" He pauses, giving her a strange look. "We have a...strange relationship with the Giovanni. Burial Customs are sacred to, well, nearly every culture in Africa, in some way or another. The Giovanni in our lands, the Ghiberti, were slavers. But they a little more respect for our dead than our Native Necromancers. ...The fact that they don't look like walking corpses, the way THEY do, helps a little, I suppose. You Giovanni seem to be a more...diverse lot than I was led to believe." His look sours, his eyes turning to the floor as she asks about his fief. "...Have you heard of 'Libertalia'? It is a great city of boats, the 'Anarchs' hold it. Whenever we would give them trouble, they would simply disperse and re-unite elsewhere in the seas around Africa. My predecessor, he decided this simply wasn't enough. They usually simply dispersed... he did not realize the mistake he was making. We put their backs to the wall, and they fought like demons." He grits his teeth. "Most of the Kindred in my domain met their final death in but a single battle... but the Kingdom was mine, and I was prepared to make the most of it." His breath falls in a deep sigh. "...And then the Children of the Demon Zao-Lot came. Thirsting for Blood. Thirsty for Souls."
Jacinta falls silent as death as Jean-Yves speaks. There is a spark of amusement in her eyes, although her expression remains largely flat, by how animated he is. The emphasis and enthusiasm in every word or gesture is observed closely, followed with a turn of her gaze like a child trying to follow a card trick, and she is so fixated or charmed by it that any elitism in his tone is simply smiled at. 'Yes,' she says, nodding when he asks Cain. Again, nodding at the Bible. Grinning now, although with her pursed lips resisting the expanding show of emotion. Giovanni? She bobs a nod, yes. The mention of the Cappadocians does the trick though. Her grin shifts abruptly to a smirk and the look in her eyes turns, momentarily, flat, but she does not interrupt him. "What are the Children of the Demon Zao-lot?"
"...Well. We are..." He pauses, peering back and forth. "Vampires. I have met Were-beasts and many-a spirit in my times. Perhaps I should not be so sceptical. Interestingly enough, we Laibon believe we also come from someone who betrayed their brother, and killed him in cold blood. A strange coincidence, that is..." Jean-Yves raises a brow at Jacinta's sudden frown, as if he didn't understand the significance of what he just said. "They are Laibon. But they are very strange Laibon... they cannot trust any of us. Or even eachother. So they hide, sucking the souls of other Laibon to make themselves stronger. It is a DISGUSTING act, and they embrace it. So when a Kingdom falls, and but a few elders and the King remain... they start showing their ugly face, thirsting for our blood. I had to come to America to escape them... I know they fear the wizards who dwell here. It was the only place I knew they would not follow."
'Oral histories?' Jacinta offers gently in reply to his mentioning the coincidence of brothers war. 'All of our religions are largely the same, the tenets are often the same, the principles the same. Its only the customs that differ or vary based on the culture that embraced them.' Again, she draws a pause, considering her words for a moment before she expands on the thought, 'Even in the case of the Aztech people that is so. The Catholic religion talks about drinking the blood of Christ. Share the blood of this martyr with your neighbor, allow it to heal you and fill and cleanse you.'
'I am sorry for your troubles and for your loss, Jean Yves.'
"It is what it is. Truthfully, I am angrier about the lack of support of my brethren, and the sheer foolishness of my predecessor, than I am about those who tried to fill in the gap. It was they who were waiting until I met my true death to retake my kingdom, because my birth-people's origins lay outside of Western Africa, so they could replace me with one of 'purer stock.'" His face turns sour. "That is the truer betrayal here. ...But thank you." He finally says, still looking rather glum. "But it is not a complete loss. This land is very strange. There are amazing new things to see around every corner. Before I came to these lands, I assume that only Ventrue, Malkavians, Giovanni and Setites were the only other clans to exist, as they're the only ones who ever show an interest in my homelands. ...And yet, I have met some very strange new creatures. I have met something out of my clans myths in the Sewers. I met a Wizard who could manipulate blood and fire with ease. It is a learning experience, constantly. And truthfully, not an unpleasant one."
'I'm glad to hear it.' Jacinta observes him in a stretch of silence after she says this and, during that time, seems a touch reflective. When she returns to the present, she straightens up in her chair, squares her shoulders and confides, 'This is the time that I would once have asked if you wanted a cup of water or tea. A glass of wine? A tequila?' A shrug raises her shoulders as she dismisses the thought. 'Good conversation always came with food and drink.' Another fleeting smile forms, 'So, where have you situated yourself within the Imperial Praxis?' she inquires, almost as if she is using the term to get acquainted with it.
Jean-Yves smiles, almost sinisterly. "Well, were I hungry, I'd suggest going OUT to eat." He says in a sly tone. "But I am quite sated at the moment. You sound like you still miss the pleasures of the mortal world. Still a youngling?" At her question, he pauses reflectively. "I have not, truthfully. I have only begun to take the steps to join the Camarilla proper. I have had some difficulty getting a meeting with the Primogen, so the Scourge has given me permission to operate in their territory in the meantime. Perhaps that is for the best... I would not have had time to study otherwise."
'I am,' Jacinta's head bows in a nod when asked if she is young. 'And, I think I do. I miss a glass of wine with a friend. It is so much more elegant than HAVING a friend drunk on wine and the conversation was much better.' She smiles and tilts her head, 'Oh, well, I just went through my formal introduction, but I have not had my blood work done. I've had no luck reaching the Scourge. It seems we are in a very similar place, although completely out of step.' There is another of her quiet pauses and then she says, 'I could bring you to the Elysium if you like and show you what to expect? It was all quite daunting for me and very short notice, but I ended up quite enjoying the whole event and I'm sure you will also.'
"I would accept, but I truly have a lot to learn about. I didn't even know that Caine was considered the Father of our kind over here. And from what I've heard, our traditions are a little different too, given that the Clans intermingle in sects far more. We only worry about our own. Like, what you call 'the Masquerade', we call 'The Secret'. Less...suspicious to overhear, if you ask me. We all have a secret, after all." He nods at the mention of blood work. "You should. I was terrified it was some kind of ploy to suck my soul, like the Zao are fond of... but it was just a show of magic. Other than a slight prick with a blade, it's actually /amazing/" There's a hint of wonder to his tone. "But perhaps we should meet again in Elysium. Feel free to say hello. I'm sure Mexico is as different a place from California as Africa is, but it is still nice to talk to one who is also an outsider in these lands. Refreshing, even."
"Of course." He says, pulling out a Blackberry (They still make those?) "Here, let me write my number down for you..." He pauses, pulling a pen and notepad from his pocket. (They still make THOSE too?) He writes a series of numbers, before he turns his eyes towards the distant shelves. "But it is time I begun my reading... but you simply MUST drop by my Manor when it finishes renovation. It is such an...empty place, without a Legac-...Clan to share it with. But it would be unbecoming of a Guruhi to own anything less. What is the point of owning fine things with no one to flaunt them to?" There's a hint of humor to his tone, but from how he dresses, that probably isn't a joke. "Good day, Lady Pisanab."
Jacinta reaches for his pen before he puts it away and then, with pen in hand, she opens her hand in gesture for him to offer the notepad, although she adds, 'Please.' Smiling up at him when the notepad is handed over, she sets it on the tape and turns her gaze downward to observe the paper as she records her name and phone number for him. 'Good day, Mr Asante, but not goodbye. Enjoy your reading.' The pen is set on the notepad, pinned in place by her thumb, and both returned to him.
