Arrival

[killyourownkind]

WHO: Claudia, Susan
WHERE: On the barge -- we'll say the stairwell just off the 3rd floor.
WHEN: During port.
WARNINGS: Possible death or near death. Also creepy pokey-toothed child thing.

Comments

[sensiblesusan]

Susan was far enough down the hallway from the third floor stairwell that, had she been anyone else, she might not have heard Claudia. But one of the ways in which being a governess is like being a parent is that one gains a nearly supernatural acuity for the sound of a crying child.*

She followed the sound to its source: a pretty blonde child, clearly alone and distraught-wait, a child? On an extradimensional prison ship?

In hindsight, Susan would later realise that the incongruity of the situation should have been a warning, but for now, her caretaking instincts took over. She half-knelt in front of the little girl. "Hello there," she said, her tone both gentle and polite. "What's your name?"

*And if one already has certain supernatural gifts, so much the better. Or perhaps worse.

[killyourownkind]

And soon, she was no longer alone. Claudia lifted her head slowly, not like someone who had been caught off guard; she simply took her time acknowledging. She stared, her eyes brilliant but sad, and curious at the unusual appearance and attire of the woman who approached her. The woman was not a vampire, but not quite human, either. She did not smell like one, at any rate, but there was a familiar warmth that radiated from her -- perhaps because she was immediately kind, or perhaps it was Claudia's hunger that told it. As it was, the gentle hidden thump of a heartbeat was near, inaudible to human ears, but it touched her peripheral senses as though each pump could make ripples in the very air.

Her instincts pulled her in two different directions -- both insisting she draw this person nearer. One did so with a desire to feed, while the other, equally strong, more practically saw an ally in a strange place as protection she currently lacked.

"Where is Madeleine?" she asked. "Where is Louis?"

[sensiblesusan]

"They're probably not here, I'm afraid," Susan replied. "Are they your parents? What's your name?"

[killyourownkind]

Claudia nodded, but dodged the question to do with her name. "My guardians. Please find them, Madame," she begged. "I don't want to be all alone."