Chapter 1: Reckless abandonement is a crime!


Blow out the lights, the show is about to begin.

Kuhahahaha! AHahaha! Ah! Ah! AAAH!

Twinkle, twinkle, little star, how I wonder what you are.

The puppets of the sun are drawing near. The father kills the child to hide its body.

Various voices pop up all around me, some sounding familiar, others sounding strange. They pull back my consciousness and force me awake. With my consciousness, fragments of my memories also slowly return. Wait, am I dead?! Neither dead, nor alive, my child. What? Who are you? How can you read my mind?! I am you, you are me, we are many. I try to open my eyes and look at the person, but my body doesn't listen to me. Panic is rolling over me, washing over my whole consciousness and I start to scream – but not a single sound is escaping my throat. 'Hush, hush, no need to panic. Just let me take the wheel, I can steer our body for you.', a sweet voice whispers into my ears. This voice is one of the familiar voices, one that sounds especially comforting... I unconsciously start to relax.

Our eyes open and the smile of father Samedi is greeting us. My inner voices grow excited, upon seeing him. He is our dear father, they mostly like him, of course, except for one. She is still afraid of him, dwelling too much on the memory of our birth. Such a foolish voice. Though I'm still as fresh as morning dew, every baby naturally knows how to love its parent, no? After all, even tigers protect their cubs. Yes, so long as I'm with him, we should be safe.
Father suddenly stopped smiling and picks up a small wooden stick. Eh, what are you going to do with it? WA, WAIT!
I tried to dodge, but before I could react, the wooden stick already penetrated my chest, freezing all my movements. My eyes are still opened wide and still can see his face, but my body won't move anymore. Father casually puts my bra back on, thereby hiding the small wooden stick in my heart. Then he shifts the position of my body on the bed a few times, replacing my arms and legs, until he is finally satisfied. The voices are curious, as to what he is trying to do, and so am I, but I doubt he will provide an explanation. Father turned my face to the side, towards the door, but I can still feel him staring at me. Am I… a piece of art? And he is thinking on how to complete this masterpiece? No way, I don't want to be a lifeless piece of art! Ah, but father can't hear my refusal. He suddenly grabs a mask and puts it on my face.
I can't see what kind of mask it is, but it covers my whole face. Oh no. As I feared, the purpose of my new life seems to be posing as a piece of art.
My thoughts get interrupted, when the door suddenly flings open, and dark clothed people pour in, holding crossbows and swords.
It doesn't take a genius to understand the situation: they must be looking for a medieval convention.
Well, this is definitely not the right place to hold one, those fools… The guys with the crossbows immediately aim it at father and try to shoot him. He manages to dodge one, but the next hits him right in the heart. Uh, that, uh… that's not good. Some of the intruders are holding their heads and moan in pain, but who cares, father is frozen! "Let's take it with us, it might provide us with information.", one of the guys orders the others, as they approach father.
Since I still can't move, I'm forced to helplessly watch as those fiends drag my daddy away. One of them approaches me. Oh no, will they take me as well?
I don't want to play with mean guys like them! He grabs my wrist, which is falling from the bed, and holds it for a moment before releasing it. "Too late. She's dead.", he informs the others. Is… is he pitying me?! I don't want your pity, you son of a platypus!
"Just leave her there, we have to get going.", the commander of the fiends replies. A moment later, the room is empty and not a sign of what happened before is left. Wow. Just wow. Right after being born, this happens?! This is a lot to stomach… But I have the time to do so. Since I'm still frozen.
Great. Just great. Why does this always happen to me?

Having nothing else to do, I started playing 'I spy with my little eye' with the other voices. Is it the condom package on the floor? No. Wait, why is there an opened condom package? Is it the handcuffs? Nope. One of the kitchen knives in the flower pot? Yes! Ok, your turn. I spy with my little eye something dark and scary…
Suddenly the door opens, and a man clad in a long coat enters. He looks mysterious, like some kind of mage or something. 'Is it him?', I ask my inner voice.
'Yes…', it answers, disappointed that I found it with my first guess.
The man gazes around the room, his eyes lingering on my body. He moves towards me, halting his steps less than a meter in front of my unmoving body. I can't see his face, since my field of vision is too low, but I can tell, that he is observing me. Finally, he picks me up and throws me over his shoulder, grabs some clothes from the floor and heads out. First, my face is facing his long coat. Then, I'm facing the door of the car, in which he threw me. And lastly, I'm facing his coat again.

"Good evening, fellow kindred. First, I'd like to thank you all for taking your time and attending this gathering. Well then, without any further ado, this court hearing is officially started. For the first case, I summon Henchman as a witness." My carrier suddenly starts moving again, closer to the voice of this fancy intro.
I wonder, why I'm brought to the set of this play? Maybe they need me as a prop? I'm fabulous at playing trees! By playing a tree, I singlehandedly saved the show in Elementary. Without me dramatically puking tree resin when the troll shopped me down, the play would have been boring!
"My apologies, prince, but Henchman couldn't be found unfortunately. But I found her instead.", dark mage delivers his lines, as he places me down in a kneeling position. I'd like to watch the reaction of the crowd, but my face is facing the floor in front of me right now, unfortunately.
The fingers of the dark mage are grazing my back and he opens my bra with a snap. I can feel the countless eyes watching me. Whisper erupts in these theater halls,
I guess the crowd also doesn't know what to make of this play.
I can feel his fingers again, this time stroking down between my cupcakes, finding the small stub of wood over my heart, and swiftly pulling the stick out.
Finally being able to move again, I leisurely stretch myself. "This is?", the voice from before asks. I turn towards its source, a young-looking man with blond hair and blue eyes, wearing an expensive suit. "Henchman's Childe, I presume.", the dark mage replies. "Ah, yes, he had received permission to sire a Childe last night. But to think he would be so fast in doing so… Tell me, Childe, where is your Sire?" My gaze wanders over the crowd in front of me and towards the blond suit.
I'd also liked to know that. To abandone a newborn baby just to play with some medieval freaks, how cruel!
"The father was stolen by the medieval convention.", I explain to him. "Medieval convention?", he asks again. I nod. "Yes, the one with crossbows and swords. They stole him from me, while I was frozen due to Daddy's little prank." "I see. So, Henchman fell victim to hunters. Truly unfortunate. In that case, I will proceed to the second case. Mr. Galliano, please lead the Childe towards a seat. I will deal with the Childe later." The blond suit seems a tad disappointed and… angry?
Maybe he also hates medieval conventions?
After taking a seat, I close the bra, which has been loosely hanging on my shoulders since dark mage opened it, and take of the mask. It's a neutral white one, how boring. Dark mage returns to the stage, after dropping the clothes from father's room in front of me, and continues participating in the play. The clothes seem to be a cheerleader uniform, consisting of a short top and skirt in dark blue and white. I praise the dark mage's taste in my thoughts, while putting the clothes on. The top is a bit tight around my cupcakes, but apart from that, the clothes fit perfectly.

The play has a judicial setting; witnesses are called and criminals are punished. Most of the cases are about breaches against the Masquerade or something.
To be honest, it's quite boring. I considered filing two complaints to the court. One complaint about father recklessly abandoning me, and one for this court play being recklessly boring. I mean, what will they do, if they bore someone to death? But my boredom isn't the only thing torturing me. My throat also started burning like hell for some reason.
The play finally comes to an end and dark mage approaches me to lead me back to the blond suit. "Pleasure to meet you, Childe. I'm Henry Valois, the prince of this domain.", dolphin prince greets me politely. I do a curtsey, lifting the invisible hem of my dress, and greet him back, "Pleasure to meet you, prince of dolphins. This one hasn't been named yet." I forgot the name I had, before Daddy embraced me, but I have no need for it anymore anyways. Dolphin prince glances at me a bit weirdly.
An annoying task in exchange for a walking billboard. Not a bad exchange for the business fish-imitator.
"What happened to your Sire is a tragedy, my condolences. However, rest assured, the Camarilla will take care of you.", he comforts me with a compassionate smile. "Okey-dokey, dolphin prince.", I reply, not caring much about his words. The burning in my throat is growing stronger and stronger, leaving no place for thoughts of my dear father. "Please call me Prince Valois, and not dolphin prince. I don't know how you came up with that weird nickname, and it's not my concern anyways. Also, I hope you will remember your name soon, fledgling, or at least find yourself a nickname you like. I'd like to be able to properly address you.", he scolds me a bit sternly. "Well, at least you still possess some manners, that is rare for Malkavians, unfortunately. Now follow me, I'd like to introduce you to someone.", he adds.
Behind the stage waits a woman for us, who looks around forty to fifty years old, with a silver-brown hair bun and glasses. She has grey eyes and wears a red pencil skirt and jacket with a white blouse. "Greetings prince, newborn. You wanted to talk to me, prince?", the lady inquires. "Yes, thank you for taking your time. Fledgling, this is Ingrid Graufuchs, the Malkavian primogen of L.A.", dolphin prince introduces me to her. Suddenly the voices grow louder, surrounding me with their noise.

One of us! One of us! One of us!

What does the fox say? Ring-ding-ding-ding-dingeringding…

Shouldn't have skinned the fox, really shouldn't have

Mistress of the labyrinth

Shattered minds can't be taped

Treacherous trees will be burned, evil barbers will be shaved

Wa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pow…

"Greetings, fox lady. Our names are sold out, but we will gift you one, as soon as we find one.", I greet her as well, doing another curtsey, while trying to ignore the roaring voices. Dolphin prince clears his throat, before turning to the fox lady, "Ms. Graufuchs, you're the most experienced with taking care of other Malkavians, certainly you could take in this Childe?" The fox lady smiles sweetly at the prince, while rejecting his request, "No can do. My institution has no vacancies; we're jammed as it is. Someone like her needs special attention, which I can't spare for her at the moment. You'll need to find another babysitter, prince."
The voices in my head start to laugh madly at her strict refusal of the princely proposal and I must bite my lips, to keep myself from laughing out loud as well.
The princely dolphin is visibly upset at not being able to push me off to someone else, however, he doesn't try to persuade the fox lady any further.
"I see. I will find another place for her to stay then. But I hope, you will still find the time to instruct her into what being a Malkavian means."
The last part sounds like an order. "Certainly. She may visit my office from time to time, however at the moment she doesn't even know, what she is, nevermind teaching her how to deal with her madness, she needs to learn the basics about her new existence first."
We bid goodbye and I follow dolphin prince towards the exit of the theater.

He seems to be in a slightly bad mood, probably because he couldn't get rid of me. "I take it, that your Sire hasn't instructed you in the ways of our society yet?", he hesitatingly inquires. Something seems to annoy the dolphin, but it couldn't be us, right? We're interesting after all.
"He didn't gift me a single word, before being stolen away.", I reply innocently. "So… that means you don't know anything about the Camarilla? Or kindred? What did your Sire tell you before your embrace?", he probes further. I tilt my head. "He got permission, but permission for what? For summer-camp? Eating candy?", I reply honestly. Dolphin prince sighs. "He got permission for embracing you, for making you kindred. The kine would call us 'vampires'. You aren't human anymore, you are a creature of the night now.", he explains to me. "Do I get to choose the color of my cape? I want one with bats, that glow in the dark."
"No. capes. Or any kind of flaunting your vampire nature. The kine are not allowed to know about us, which is why we don't show them powers. If they knew, they would hunt our kind, some already do. The Camarilla sets these rules up and upholds them, in order to protect us. If you don't abide by the rules, you'll have to die. Do you understand?" He looks at me sternly. Just smile and nod, smile and nod. I do, like the voice told me to, but that doesn't seem to satisfy the princely dolphin.
"Now, let's start with teaching you how to feed, without announcing to the world, that you're a vampire. Have you drunk some blood yet?", he asks me.
"I didn't get to taste the red juice yet. Apart from master's ambrosia.", I answer him obediently. His expression softens up a bit. "The first time is always the sweetest. I will treat you this time, as a courtesy of mine. You can learn the act of hunting another time. Ah, one thing before your first bite: don't kill unnecessarily. The beast now lurks in you, waiting to break out. Let it roam and you lose control over yourself. The more you let the beast run free, the less control you have over yourself." "The beast, yes. It has bearing its fangs for quite some time now. Growling in the dark, waiting to break free from its cage.", I respond seriously, while nodding.
"I see. It's a good thing, that I'm looking out for you, you might frenzy.", he comments my remark dryly, while leading me towards a black limousine.

The driver gets out of the limousine and opens the portal towards the interior for us. Inside is a young blonde with a ponytail, sitting with her back next to the driver's seat. She wears a dark-grey skirt, black pumps and a shiny blue blouse, which emphasizes her eye color. "Ah, she smells wonderful!", I muse while bathing in her scent. "Mr. Valois… who is that?", the woman asks dolphin prince, sounding nervous and suspicious. "It's… my cute daughter, Wendy. You know her.", dolphin prince replies with a strangely smooth voice.
We received our first name, guys! Who to give it to?
Uh, uh, me!
Yeah, give it to her, it fits her.
Suddenly the woman relaxes and greets me politely, "Good evening, Wendy. How was the play?" I shrug. "Boring. Didn't like it." I turn to the dolphin prince with pleading eyes. "May I eat her now?" He gestures me to proceed. "Hug me, please?" I open my arms and blondie, still in a daze, embraces me without hesitation.
I stroke her back, while drilling my fangs in her soft neck and sucking on the sweet nectar. I can taste her feelings and small fragments of her memory in her blood; they're absolutely delicious. She faints with a soft moan, while I continue drinking her blood. "That's enough."
Ah, but it isn't! This is too sweet; I can't stop.
"Stop." Invisible chains suddenly force me to release her neck. Ah, pity. "She tastes absolutely wonderful", I sigh with a dreamy expression.
"Indeed. I carefully nurture her, it's an honor for you to be allowed to drink from her. I usually don't share my food.", he proudly remarks. He's obviously pleased with my compliment though. I lick my lips and her neck, before carefully placing her back on her seat. Her wounds disappear after licking them, I must have a magical tongue. Neat.
The car door opens, and a deathly shadow silently slides onto the seat next to blondie. The shadow of death has long, black, curly hair and is completely clad in black. He even wears a long black leather coat, completely fulfilling the cliché of being death. Only his cold grey eyes, and his light skin don't emit darkness. A shudder runs over my back. Meeting death once per night is enough for me, why must he visit me again? It couldn't be, that he fell for me? Being loved by death to death, poor me.
"You successfully finished your task?", dolphin prince asks him. He nods shortly, before turning his gaze towards the window. I see. He's playing it cool. That's reassuring, since being courted by death would be too scary. Besides, courting death sounds like more fun. "Good. Back to our haven then."

Our ship starts to sail through the streets of Downtown and I use the opportunity for sightseeing.
Lady night seems to be born anew as well, she seems livelier than she has been before my unlife. Women in short skirts sell love and comfort on the streets, and the ones without homes cuddle together, sharing their booze. Two guys exchange sky medicine in a dark alley and a nervous suit is waiting for the night bus. Pictures with people trapped inside, forcedly smiling while serving strange objects, plaster the streets. How wicked.
I turn my gaze towards the dolphin prince. He's communicating with his dimension device via Morse code. I observe how his fingers swiftly tap over the keys, while his gaze is fixated on the mirror part of the dimension device. Our fingers also used to play this tap-dance for hours in our last life. This life seems so far away from my unlife now, even though it has been just a few hours. Nostalgia tries to wash over me, but I shake it off. No, this unlife is the better choice, I'm interesting now.
Not a little bee, or a flower growing on a wall, but the leading role of this play, cheered on by the dark audience.
Yes, I'm a cheerleader now.