Missive (attn Kem)

Kem had followed a rather interesting toy car into the lobby of Liefde. He'd been intrigued by the sound of the engine, which was far more hefty than an RC car should sound. He'd caught sight of it disappearing around the corner on the sidewalk after parking near Meridian, and, curious, had followed it into Liefde.

He was a little put-out that it had disppeared into an elevator. He was willing to be nosy, but there wasn't enough 'nosy' in the world to get him willingly onto one of those. He'd have to solve the mystery of the interesting little car some other time.

Turning away from the elevator, he heard a humming noise from one of the two small side-rooms near the reception area, where visitors could relax and watch TV or drink coffee.

Curiosity got the better of him once more and he popped his head into the room. A young woman sat there alone, humming to herself. There wasn't an RC car in sight, much to his dismay. Just the woman.

He backed out and headed back to the entrance, then paused.

Deja Vu.

Nic had looked similarly lost and forlorn once upon a time, if Kem's memory served right. He'd stopped then to offer assistance, how could he not now? Most likely she was just waiting on a friend.

He backtracked and leaned into the lounge again, clearing his throat softly.

"Waiting for someone?"

Jumping with a start, Su-Chen lept to her feet and spun about, in a martial defensive stance she'd once seen in a Jacki Chan movie, thinking the chances of someone knowing that she really had no clue about such things would be minimal.

When she saw the man in the doorway, she appeard to relax, standing upright she smoothed out the front of her dress once again and ran a hand over her hair.

"Yeah. I am. Don't know who though. Was just told to come here and wait for someone." She contemplated whether or not she should mention the note. Afterall, she didn't know this man, so for all she knew he was a nobody. Although, he could be a somebody, so in which point she should tell him.

She looked rather confused.

The elevator doors swooshed shut and Aishe allowed herself to breathe a sigh of relief.

She should have known, with her luck lately, that driving the toy car around on the sidewalk would have set off Kem's toy-radar from ten miles away. Fortunately he'd had his eyes glued to the ground when he'd come around the corner, and she'd had enough time to make her getaway.

Darting forward would have attracted his attention, so she'd simply counted on the speed of the car and made a beeline to the elevators. He wouldn't follow her there, not for all the fun toy cars in the world.

Slumping against the back of the elevator, she clutched the little toy to her chest and muttered, "Too close."

Then she closed her eyes. In her mind the scenario replayed, much differently, and he was hugging her close and everything was all right and she could stop playing these games.

The soft bell sounded and the doors swooshed open again. With a cautious glance around, just in case, Aishe stepped back into reality and went back to her suite, resolving to be more cautious at night.

((ooc: Aishe in and out!))

Kem tilted his head at the woman when she hopped into some kind of pseudo-martial arts stance. It was... kind of cute. When she mentioned waiting for someone with an odd look of confusion on her face, he raised his eyebrows.

What was it with people wandering lost into Liefde lately?

"Ah - don't you know who it was who told you to come meet someone?"

It all seemed a bit fishy to him. For a moment he pondered checking with Security, but then he thought better of it. If this was some attempt to somehow get someone 'inside' Liefde, it had to be one of the worst attempts he'd ever seen. Not that his repertoire was enormous. And what if the opposite were true? That she'd been tricked into coming here for some odd reason? He shook his head slightly to himself at that. His clanmates might have their eccentricities at times, but not like that. Not in Evenhet.

He shook his head at the woman and leaned against the doorway, coming fully into view. "If you know who sent you, anything of the sort, I'd be happy to help you find them."

More or less, he added to himself. I swear I'm not going up those steps again...

"Oh!! I remember now!" Was it her, or did that just seem really loud? "I'm supposed to speak to someone named Mari? That's all. Said to come here and talk to Mari. Are you Mari?"

"Why couldn't Liz have told me -anything- about these people? She just told me she had family here and that we were coming here to see them on a kind of holiday. Why'd she have to leave?" She thought to herself.

Kem guffawed.

"Am I... No. No, I'm not MARI."

He had a brief vision of himself locked behind a screen, directing people hither and yon with an air of detached boredom.

"I'm sorry. I don't mean to be rude. MARI is the AI interface here. She's not exactly a person. I'm Kem, by the way."

His manners had certainly flown out the window, and he tried to rectify that belatedly. If this woman was, indeed, a wandering Evenhet then she might need a little help learning her way around.

It -really- had better not involve stairs.

"Oh. Hehe." She laught lightly, nervously, as she blushed slightly. "That may explain why the name was written in all caps. Just thought someone was trying to make sure I noticed the name.

"I'm Su-Chen. And I'm more than a little lost." She was starting to relax, visibly, though she still had an air of unsuredness about her.

Kem considered the frightened-looking young woman in the lounge. Perhaps she would require a more delicate touch than he'd used with Nic.

Who was he kidding? He was as adept at handling people as he was at suntanning. Nonetheless, she was sitting there by herself and he could hardly be callous enough to turn and leave her there to worry.

He entered the lounge and sat down on the couch, leanind forward with his elbows resting on his knees. He gave her a searching look, wondering if she was affiliated with Evenhet, which seemed at least a possibility if not a likeliness.

"Well, Su-Chen," he said softly, "those who are lost generally have a destination in mind to begin with. Where have you come from? And who might you know who would have directed you here, to Liefde? Are you looking for someplace to live?"

Folding his hands together, he watched her face intently for clues.

Letting out a quiet sigh, she watched him for several moments, sinking back into her chair. She was more than a little releaved when he sat down across from her.

"Well, most recently I come from London, England. Liza... er.. Elizabeth Mongomery, she told me, in a letter, to come here. She and I came here two days ago. She said to meet with some old friends. She left the hotel a few hours to meet with them, so I went shopping. When I returned, she was gone and left a note basically saying to wait for further instructions. I don't know why she left me here. Then earlier this evening, there was a nother note, don't know if it was from Liza, but it said to come here. Take a cab, and just tell him the name of the building and he'd get me there. Then I was to wait and speak to MARI or someone of authority.

"As for a place to live, that could not hurt. I don't know how much longer I've the suite at the hotel."

She wiped at the tears she had not realized she had shed. The brief telling of Liza abandoning her hurt to say. Hurt nearly as much as finding out she'd been abandoned enitially.

Oh, the possibilities.

So Kem had on his hands a young woman who had apparently been left clueless by a 'friend.' He had never heard of Elizabeth Montgomery but he could easily check out the name with MARI. Su-Chen, as well.

The various scenarios all played out in his head. She could be a familiar, or a newly-turned vampire. An older vampire though? Unlikely. Why would she be created and then, years later, only be sent to Evenhet? Perhaps she was just an ordinary human and this Elizabeth had sent her here simply for help finding someplace to live. Who knew? Either way it was pretty irresponsible. And Su-Chen didn't seem to be the type to take too much control over her own circumstances, so far.

For the second time in the last few minutes, Kem had to wonder about the rising frequency of lost wandering people in the Liefde lobby these days.

Still, manners dictated that he help out, and Kem, being agreeable to helping on most days, felt obliged to do so. He stood, noting that Su-Chen was tiny indeed, and moved to the panel on the far wall, gesturing for her to follow along.

"Come on, then. Let's see what we can do about finding a place to stay. Perhaps your friend left a message with someone here and it simply hasn't been delivered yet."

Unlikely, again, but Kem was baffled.

She got to her feet and followed him watching curiously. He had been quiet a long time. She hopped there wasn't something wrong. That Liza hadn't fuddled things up. That would be embarrassing. Especially if no one knew of Su-Chen. Liza had once said there were was a process to changing a person from human to vampire, and had only briefly outlined it, not taking much time to explain in too much detail.

She came to stand beside the man and watched him silently. Hoping that Liza had indeed sent word to someone about all of this.

((I never thought that part out.. just made Liza up as I went along in Liu's history.. so feel free to take liberties with Liza.. lol))

Kem smiled at the familiar face that appeared on the panel in the wall. It was tough to remember most days that MARI wasn't actually a person. It only took a few moments to ascertain that Su-Chen was, indeed, registered with Evenhet. A query regarding her access came back as 'high-level security access.'

This kept getting stranger and stranger. So apparently whoever had created Su-Chen had registered her with Evenhet, but hadn't bothered to tell her about her clan. Did she even know about clans at all? Kem felt a little prickle of irritation. If Su-Chen's creator was this Liza, she had some answering to do. How could you register someone within the clan but not let them know anything about it? Kem's pride in his own clan demanded that he determine if Su-Chen was even Evenhet material. For all he knew, she would be a better fit for Tacharan or Anantya.

Be that as it may, here he had a vampire who was basically Evenhet, for all that she didn't seem to have a clue what that meant or what it entailed. If indeed she had been grossly mislead, it wasn't really her fault. So he turned to the small woman and forced himself not to growl or snap at her.

"You are certainly welcome to stay here for the time being, Su-Chen, if not permanently. But I think you and I may both have some questions for each other, and there are some people here who may want to speak with you as well. There's a lot, it seems, that you may not have been told. And you have a right to know it all."

It was cryptic, he knew, but here in the lounge certainly wasn't an appropriate place to discuss such sensitive topics.

"If you like, I can show you to your rooms. If you decide to remain, we can have your things brought over from your hotel."

A very small part of him hoped she'd decline. Her agreement meant stairs. Probably a whole lot of them. Which meant a very deep stairwell to remind him just how far off the ground he was.

He was just going to have to stop coming to Liefde at all. Coming to Liefde meant running into errant vampires, which inevitably led to his offering to help, which somehow translated to "here, let me show you up these godawful stairs..."

Kem let out a very small, imperceptible sigh, hoping none of his hesitation translated over to Su-Chen. He leaned against the wall, arms folded loosely over his chest, and awaited her answer along with the ever-patient MARI.

((ooc: Permission to fudge MARI's responses.))

She watched in facination as the womans face appeared on the screen. Soon to spout out all information on Liza and Su-Chen. She never knew Liza kept such detailed records. Sure she'd seen the woman many times writing things down in one of many leatherbound volumes, and later, as technology advanced, computers. She was even in the habit of carrying about a palm pilot. Su-Chen too had one, and used it, but not as religiously as Liza had.

"Oh, yes sure. Um. I suppose I can at least take a look and see what there is to offer. As I said, I really don't know how much longer I have at the hotel. The last few days have been a whirlwind of surprise. And I'm just all mixed up right now."

A nervouse laugh before she continues. "I'm doing good at remember names right this moment.." She slides a hand thru her hair.

She supposed the rooms were on higher levels. She dearly hoped they didn't have to take the elevator. They were too small and there were no windows.

Kem nodded to Su-Chen and relayed her request for a residence to MARI.

"You'll get used to chatting with MARI yourself, soon enough," he told the woman. "She's great to have around." He indicated the tiles that had begun to light up. "Just follow the yellow brick road here."

He moved to the doorway of the lounge and gestured for Su-Chen to precede him through it. He cast a wistful glance at the exit as he walked through the lobby toward the stairwell.

Sure enough, MARI's light trail bypassed the elevator. Kem resigned himself to more stairs.

It always came back to stairs.

Intrigued, and feeling a little like Dorathy, Su-Chen walked past Kem, and followed the trail of yellow lights. Much to her releife, they passed by the elevator and to the stairs.

She paused a moment to look up and let out a soft whistle. "Going to be a heck of a climb, isn't it?"

She tossed a smile over her shoulder, noticing Kem's lack of enthusiasm, and she started on up the stairs, feeling a little dizzy walking in circles. She climbed and climbed, paying little attention to the man behind her as she kept her eyes on the yellow lights, not wanting to miss her exit.

When finally they reached it, she looked behind her once again.

Kem was glad Su-Chen was apparently taken with the trail of lights; he was busy convincing himself that double digits weren't bad until the first one was 2 or higher. When they hit the 7th floor he sighed. Apparently Liefde's lower levels were all full. Damn.

At floor 10 he had decided he wasn't coming into Liefde again for all the neat little RC cars in the world. He glued his eyes to the stairs in front of him and was relieved when the trail led to the very next floor, where he caught up with Su-Chen. Fast little thing.

Safely in the hallway, they soon found her suite. Kem opened the door for her and once again allowed her to precede him through. He followed, leaning casually against the wall in the living room and letting her take her time exploring.

"This is it, have a look around. If you like it, you're welcome to stay. There are a few things for us to talk over, but plenty of time for that."

And plenty of time, hopefully, for him to figure out what to say. He was loathe to send the girl straight to Alfarinn when he should have been perfectly capable of guiding her through the first steps of figuring out what all this was about. After all, hadn't he been lost and clueless at one point, himself?

But that had been a very long time ago, and Kem had never really been put in a position where his experience as an older vampire was called upon.

First time for everything.

She smiled as she brushed past him and entered the suite. It wasn't as rich as the hotel, but she supposed that was so a person could gussy it up to their own fancy. She first flopped on the couches, testing their confort level. A little too soft for her, after wall, she was used to those fancy lounge couches Liza was obsessed with. Everything in the room was nice, but she hoped she'd be allowed to change it.

She then wondered into a bedroom, noting there were two, much like at the hotel, and wondered why she'd need two. The smaller one, of which she entered first, was still fairly decent, and yet again reminded her of a hotel.

She looked in upon the other bedroom and the baths, and kitchen, and dinning area, which was really just a small table between the little kitchen and living room.

She looked over at Kem. "It is rather nice, but seems like a hotel. Is a person allowed to redecorate? I'm thinking something a little more...well, me. Heh." She leaned against the back of a chair as she looked at him, feeling relaxed for the first time in a couple of days, and smiled.

((if there aren't two bedrooms just shoot me.. the general description said a few rooms.. ))

Kem watched as Su-Chen explored a bit, nodding along with her when she gave her assessment of the suite. Although he rather enjoyed the simple elegance of the suite, he tended to avoid stark white colors because... well, look at me, he thought to himself with a chuckle. I blend right in.

However, the Towers had been designed that way for this specific purpose; so that the residents could decorate them and personalize their own habitat.

So he nodded to Su-Chen. "Yes, should you choose to make this your home, you're more than welcome to change things to suit your tastes. But that brings us to another subject."

Pushing himself off of the wall Kem ventured into the living room, wary of the very large windows with their very disturbing view of the city around (and below) them. He didn't sit, which in retrospect might have put Su-Chen on edge some, but it wasn't really the time or the place to explain the source of his restlessness.

Su-Chen hadn't told him she was a vampire, and he had to admire the fact that she hadn't said anything about it. That discretion spoke well for her upbringing. The only way he knew of her status was because MARI had informed him in her own subtle way. So, best to get that part done with now. Whether or not she'd guessed that he was the same, at least they would be able to talk candidly.

"How old are you? Your true age, please."

"Ah. To the point. Right. Well. I'm about ..... three hundred fifty.... Three hundred fifty-three to be exact." She traced a finger over the back of the chair and looked up at him thru the stray hairs in her face.

She had only paused briefly, doing the math in her head. It wasn't something she exactly kept a tight record of, but she remembered her birth year, and knew to just subtract that from the current year. She also recalled the year Liza had turned her.

She watched him, waiting, paitiently. He was kinda cute, in a Pegasus - she loved to watch "Yu-Gi-Oh" sort of way. Although, he did kinda remind her of that Sepheroth character froma video game.

Kem sighed. She was old, to seem so naiive. Had her creator told her anything at all? He supposed he ought to find out, the better to figure out what and who exactly they were dealing with.

"So, did your Liza tell you nothing at all of Evenhet? Of the clans in general?" Kem, normally laid-back and calm, was hard-pressed to hide his agitation.

Su-Chen's story struck a nerve; as one who'd been turned against his will and unknowingly, then left to struggle with his own identity, Kem could not fathom how one could first create a vampire and then leave him or her ignorant of their own world.

Still, he didn't really know all the facts. So perhaps it was best to wait until he'd heard more.

He modulated his voice some, back to it's usual mellow, deep tones. It did no good to snap at the woman. She looked timid enough as it was.

"What, exactly, do you know of your own kind?"