"Heya Sparrow" Dean greeted her as he was in again struck by her beauty, he himself looking a little more dusty since last they had met. "I was hoping to find Abe, is he around?"

"Unfortunately not," Sparrow says. "He's spending the weekend with his family. Anything I can help you with?"

The sensation surprises Dean, a sort of ache that seemed to simultaneously inhabit both his chest and his mind. Here was Abe, spending time with family. Handsome, pampered and able to more or less pick up where he left off. Dean did not hold it against him, no, he was happy for him if anything. But it still hurt.

Here was Dean, a dead thing, about to cut himself off from what used to constitute the basics of normal life. A cellphone, a bank account. To try and convince his family that he was gone, so that they could move on.

It was like he was starting all over again, but everything had bee corrupted. Instead of a family, he had a clan. Instead of a son or a daughter, he could Sire a Youngling. Instead of studying medicine, he now studied way to defend himself against impossibly powerful killers in a war he never asked to join.

"Ah...no, maybe just tell him I stopped by please? And that I'll have a new number soon, so don't bother with the old one. I should be back in a few days." he turns to go, paused, and glances back. "Thanks"

"I will do that," Sparrow says. "And if there is anything you need. ANYTHING. Let me know. I may not be your Sire or even one of you, but your friend is my apprentice and I found all of you. You can always come to me."


"And good luck."

Dean thanks her, and with that he turns to leave.

The elevator ride down was one of the only times he had truly been alone in the past few weeks, and it gives him time to reflect on just where he was and what he was about to attempt. It's an emotional time for him, especially after catching a glimpse of himself in the polished surface of the elevator doors.

He almost did not recognize himself.

There is excitement commingled as well. He was immortal, more powerful than he had ever dreamed possible, and about to take a bike south to Tiajuana to meet up with a Vampire Prince before he tried to sneak back across the border.

But that kid, the one that just wanted to play football and chase girls, he was dead. He had died back in that roadside diner, and now he just needed to bury him for good. Bury him so that others could move on.

He takes a deep breath, even if he didn't really need to. He had a few stops to make, and then, he would be southbound.

On the way down the elevator from Sparrow's apartment, you check the time. It's 1.54 AM Saturday 18 May 2019. Sunrise is supposed to be at 5.48 AM and it's a little over 30 minutes drive across the border, not counting actually crossing the border. And it dawns on you that you have two unique ways across the border available to you. Or you would have if you had learned to transform into animal form. The other is teleportation, if someone would open a portal for you.

And where would he even get the supplies he needed in the middle of the night?


[OCC: You failed the default Area Knowledge roll for San Diego, so you don't know where to find the supplies at this time of night, if there even is such a place open to the public. You could make an online search and let me know of such a store. Or perhaps someone you know knows where to find said supplies. Or you can wait until tomorrow night and hope that a suitable store will be open after sunset.]

Dean opts to spend a little more time with the bike that evening, then hopefully getting a fresh start the next night while some stores might still be open.

While the unique gifts inherent to his Clans blood would undoubtedly be useful, he had been focusing more on survival first, leaving him without that particular talent in event the most novice form.

Later that Saturday, when the sun had set once again, rousing Dean from his unnatural slumber, he picks up the supplies he needs and takes the first bus south. It was scheduled to leave at 9.40 PM and it arrives at the Central de Autobuses de Tijuana a couple of minutes before 11.00 PM. Which gives him about 6 hours and 50 minutes to the estimated sunrise to do what needed to be done.

Dean, who had made a point to feed before he got into the close proximity of the bus, walked himself through the process as he did it. The stop a the store, the bus ticket, those went on his card. Some of the last purchases he would make before he destroyed the thing.

His phone he left on while he crossed into Mexico, letting the towers pick him up.

And finally, he disembarked into the sights, sounds and smells of central Tiajuana. Even being so close to San Diego, it felt very different, and he seemed to feel eyes upon him the moment he arrived.

With is backpack over one shoulder, he began the process of tracking down Louis, the Prince of this region, to make his introductions

Following Asali's instructions, it takes you about an hour to find Luis on the outskirts of the city. In a cabin less than 300 feet from the Pacific.

Luis says something in Spanish.





[OOC: Luis is portrayed by Rafael Amaya.]
This message was last edited by the GM at 20:11, Wed 25 Aug 2021.

Dean was not sure what to expect, but the little seaside cabin was not it. Slowly he was learning that most of the assumptions he had made about his kind, Vampires in general, had proven to be unfounded.

He bows just a bit at the waist, out of habit. "Hola, I don't know Spanish, sorry" he makes an apologetic gesture. "Do you know English?"

"A little," Luis says with a heavy Mexican accent. "You lost?"

"No." Dean shakes his head. "I'm new. From San Diego. I came to introduce myself. Pay respect." He adds with a slight gesture from himself to the Prince. "Then I will go back. I am trying to...disappear. hide what happened, and this seemed like a good place to do it."

"Pay respect. Me. Why?" Luis asked.

With a sudden wave of anxiety, Dean realizes that with all that has been going on, he had juxtaposed Luis, his fellow Clan Schimba brother, with the Prince, and he kicks himself for it.

Still with the language barrier, he hopes he can salvage the situation and still save face.

"Schimba" he says and points to Louis, then jerks a thumb towards himself. "Schimba. Very new Schimba. Familia" he shrugs. "Respect to you, older Schimba, respect to your Prince. Can you take me to them? The Prince?" He asks.

There is a light in Luis's eyes. "Schimba," he says and embraces you. And then he says something else in a language you don't understand. When that becomes clear, he continues. "Visit or stay?" And when he gets your response to that, he adds "Visit how long?"

Dean embraces the man and breaks into a slight smile. "One night? Maybe two?" He replies. "Then I go back" and he makes a gesture with his hand  as if to mimic jumping over something. Dean realizes that there is no wall over most of the border, but he hopes that the gesture may illustrate his point better. "If that's ok?"

"No meeting tonight," Luis says. "Meeting tomorrow. Meet Baron then."

"Many try," Luis also makes the jump gesture. "Many fail. Chosen shape?"

Okay, tommorow then Dean thinks to himself, then feels a pant of doubt at worry at the warning that so few made it back across the border. He had assumed, being a Vampire, an supernaturally strong, durable and inexhaustible, that he could manage it easily. But maybe he had overestimated his own capability.

"Shape?" Dean shakes his head. "No shape. Asali, mi Sire, taught me claws..." he flexes his fingers to emphasize the word. "tough skin" he tapped his own arm. "No shape, not yet." he tries to explain.

He nods as you show him what you know. "Asali, good friend," Luis says. "Know shape want?"

Dean had scarcely had time to ponder such an important question. If you could be any animal, what would you be, and why? came back to him from someplace. An interview question maybe?

His very first instinct was to pick something like...a grizzly bear. It took him no more than a few seconds to realize that was stupid. Even if they were in rural Montana it would have been stupid.

Badass, but stupid.

He went down a notch and thought maybe something like a coyote. Those were native at least, but also rare, and they tended to attract attention and photos.

No, no he needed something that could blend in. Something mobile, something common enough to not even draw a second glance. That brought to mind both the Seagull and the raven.

But we're those out at night? Dean was not the most outdoorsy kind of guy, but he could not recall seeing those flapping around I'm the middle of the night. Then again he had grown up in a desert.

Then it hit him, bats.

Bats were, understandably, classic. They were out at night, they were quiet and he had seen tons of them flirting outside around dusk growing up.

If the ancestors had chosen bats, it ws probably for a good reason, and who was he to disagree with the wisdom of the ages?

Hell yeah, Batman.

"I was thinking maybe something like a bat?" He half states half asks. "Is that really a thing?"

"Yes," Luis says. "Inside. I can give." He opens the door further so that you can come inside if you so choose.

Dean considers his options for the moment. Strangers, in Tiajuana, Vampire Magic. But, Asali had recommended Luis, and then we're all from the same family.

Dean decides to go for it, thanks him and heads inside.

Luis closes the door behind them, offers Dean a seat, and brings out a wooden bowl. It's about 3 inches in diameter at the bottom and about 5 inches in diameter at the top and somewhat over 2 inches high.

He places the wooden bowl on the table, extends one of his nails into a claw, and slits his wrist. Blood pours out of the wound and starts filling up the bowl.

Dean seems a little confused, and gestured to the bowl. "I hope that's not for me" he said with a polite smile. "Asali says that I can't drink Vampire blood." He says as if it was a commandment. Clear in that he won't be partaking, although he is polite about it.