Cassy

### Backstory

While taking a semester off school to travel, Cassy decided LA was her next stop. Her long history with mental illness dictated that she be on an assortment of medications, which prohibited her from being able to drink. But the allure of LA clouded her mind during a party. She vaguely remembered pissing off a fortune teller at a pier. The next thing she knew she woke up in the windowless bathroom of her hotel covered in blood. She had no idea what had happened, but she knew it wasn't anything good. She kept waking up in the middle of the night, which wasn't the weird part. What was weird was she couldn't stay up past sunrise, always finding her way back somewhere safe before it happened. Food worked differently. She could eat and enjoy it like she always could, but no matter how much she ate, she was still hungry. And it never stayed down. Anything she ate always came back up before sunrise. Her body was different too. She was stronger than usual. And she was faster. Maybe not faster, but she felt faster. Running no longer made her out of breath. Nothing made her out of breath actually. But the thing she noticed the most- her medications were not working. she'd take them when she woke up, and found that they always came back up with the rest of it, never digesting. She could feel that they weren't working anymore, her old symptoms returned worse. And new ones arose as well. Most prominently, voices. One voice in particular, that of the pissed off fortune teller. It was so mean, and said the strangest things. She still attempted to take her medications, which the voice found amusing. “Those won’t work you know. I’m not something you can medicate away. I’m a part of you”  Anytime she ate something she’d hear it chime in with something along the lines of “Why do you waste your time on such a useless thing? It won’t do anything. You need real nourishment.” The voice always had something to say, and would never shut up. While the voice was the one that bothered her the most, it wasn’t the only thing. Sometimes when she was nervous or scared she’d freeze in place, and when it happened, nobody would notice. When it used to happen, people would run up to her and ask if she was ok, or more often than that, stare judgmentally. Now, it was like she became invisible until it passed and she could move again.  Then there were the visions. Incoherent flashes of images, sounds, feelings that never made sense. Until they did. They’re were other things too. The beings nobody else could see. They always seemed surprised that she could see them before running off, but they always ran off. Until one day, one didn’t.

It was surprising to be seen, but it didn’t run off. Instead it approached her, and greeted her. “Hello, can I help you? You’re staring, and that’s rather rude.” She vanished. It blinked. “Well that’s rude. You can see me, but I can’t see you.” It spoke in a quiet voice, no louder than a whisper. She was more confused than she’d ever been. And it had been a confusing week. She went through the motions of calming down, close your eyes, deep breaths. The deep breaths helped, but not how they used to. They helped ground her, but she couldn’t feel the air entering her lungs like it used to. She opened her eyes, expecting the creature (whom she did not believe was real) to be gone. It wasn’t. It stood in front of her still, smiling. “That’s better, but we should probably get out of the street before people start noticing you.” It continued to speak in a whisper, and motioned for her to follow into a side alley. Everything in her told her not to follow the not real figment of her sick mind into the dark alley, except the voice. “Follow him. He’ll tell you what you are.” and before she could get herself to run, she was following. Up until this point the beginning was mildly transparent. She could see it, but she felt like she probably wasn’t supposed to. If it was real that was. Up until this point, she could convince herself the creatures weren't real. But as she stepped into the alley, the creature came into focus. No longer transparent, and very, very real. She opened her mouth to scream, but in an instant a hand was covering it. She didn’t see the creature move, but it did, and was now covering her mouth. “Don’t scream! You’ll attract attention!” The being wasn’t whispering anymore, it spoke in a stern, and very serious tone. Once he realized she wasn’t going to scream, he removed his hand. She stood there, mouth open, eyes wide, in terror. Then she was gone. At this point he had an idea of what was going on. “Your not even trying to do that are you?” He asked out loud, not expecting an answer. Cassy blinked back into existence as she spoke. “Do what?” She asked quietly, allowing herself to forget everything she was experiencing and focus on the question. “Disappear. When you hold still and will yourself to disappear. Like this” And he was gone. As if he was never there. She looked around frantically, about to scream again. “No no no! Don’t scream I’m still here!” And he was. Exactly where he was a moment ago. He introduced himself as Nate.

After that, she learned what she was(Vampire/Kindred. Malkavian), what Nate was(nosferatu), and what the differences between them were. She learned about the world she was now part of, and what she had to do to survive in it. At least, that’s what he thought he was doing. Keeping her hidden, keeping her safe. Teaching her about the world hoping she never had to see it, doing everything in his power to keep her out of the night. He wanted to go into the night with her, but he knew he couldn’t. Too many people were after him, and if he surfaced he’d be killed. And if he surfaced with her, she’d be killed too. Or worse.

Ten months, he was able to keep her hidden away, until she decided she was bored. That she learned enough about the world, and was ready to go into it. He insisted he had more to teach her, but he didn’t. He stretched his knowledge out as far as he could. He was preparing ways to keep her from leaving when she snuck out into the night. He followed her, but he noticed too late and had no idea where to look. Before he was able to find any leads, he was found by those who hunted him, and given the final death before he could find her again.

Cassy went out into the world of darkness, meeting people and learning the names of places to go. When she returned to their haven, Nate was gone. She waited for him a few nights before deciding he’d come back when he was ready. She went out each night. Looking for others like her, each night returning and waiting. Finally she heard the name “Maharoni” and decided it was worth a shot.