Reflection 7: Where I Hunt
There are many ways to feed in Vampire the Masquerade, and given the profession and location in which Cassandra and Alistair find themselves in a few are pretty easy to consider. One of which is the Sandman-taking some blood while a person is asleep. From spending as much time in the hospital as I did this past year I can tell you that when nurses are in and out of your room as frequently that when they’re not patients tend to want to just sleep when they can.
And given how I am as a person and since Cassandra is based off of me, I would not necessarily see myself as someone who would get into physical altercations-Kindred or not. I feel guilty if I say the wrong thing let alone if I had caused someone a bit of pain. So that led me to a limited list.
Consentualist was an option, but that comes with the risk of breaking the Masquerade. She could have opened up to Ithan about it and maybe he would have been down to be her juice box. But that also didn’t seem like her style.
So, with the access at the hospital, bagger seemed the best option. But why would a self respecting Kindred opt to drink blood this way? Outside of the Hecata clan where their bite is painful, most Kindred. And more importantly, given that she was given more instruction after her Embrace than most depictions we see in the World of Darkness, would her sire advise this method when he can easily teach her how to hunt without breaking the Masquerade?
(Sparkle) Trauma (Sparkle)
This also opened the door for me to consider about Alistair’s past to a degree and why his involvement with Cassadnra’s training is so important to him. Malkavians as part of their clan are by nature insane. And some take to the voices more readily than others. Those who can’t handle it may turn to ways to…lessen the impacts of the madness so to speak. So without guidance, it wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility that Cassandra’s predecessor when not monitored could have gotten himself addicted and met a terrible fate. Alistair, given how involved he is with Cassandra’s training is determined to make sure that doesn’t happen again. They have enough to worry about without drinking drugged blood.
Thus bagging would be the controlled way of “hunting”. You know the blood is clean, could even find where or who it came from.
All to prevent (or stave off) another tragedy.
And well, to those who know Vampire the Masquerade can see the small hints or nods such as a Warlord named Seven (since Nines is a canon Warlord out in the Los Angeles area) and the use of Warlord over Primogen hints at Albany being Anarch territory over Camarilla. I couldn’t imagine either Alistair or Cassandra bowing to a Prince, not with their ideals and trying to help the Kine despite their status.
Basically this chapter, while simple, was a way to figure out how can a Kindred feed without endangering-or at least endangering the least amount of people, why this is the method, and to place a few pieces on the board to help set the stage for things to come.
After all dearest reader, a Kindred has to eat too.