Estela's haven

Map place !

thursday night still
Entering the haven left to her by her Sire, Estela makes her way to the living room while trying to avoid the precariously stacked newspapers they lay scattered about. She still accidentally knocks one over on her way and with a muffled curse she kicks the newspapers to the side in a vague pile. “Goddamned mess. I gotta remember to get some bags and throw it all out.”
With a sigh, she plops down on the couch and leans back, eyes going through the living room and passing over the open kitchen. She scowls, not happy with what she sees, and pulls her phone out to check the time before idly gazing at the window. After a few moments of doing absolutely nothing, the young vampire rises with an exasperated groan. Her eyes fall on the computer in the bedroom and she shrugs. “Might as well. If I don't do something until day comes, I'll really start to lose my mind.”

After starting the computer, and clearing a bit more of the cluttered desk, it takes Estela only a few moments to reach the students section of Ecole des beaux-arts and log in on her student's id. From there it's only a matter of digging up the email addresses of her old friends from her contacts list. Opening a separate file to start the mail in, Estela leans back in her seat and thinks of what to write exactly. She makes a few starts, but erases all of them. Eventually, the young vampire settles on a fairly general message starting with a cheerful 'how've ya been?' followed by a short list of things she's been up to herself that are mostly true, up to the point that she was turned. Her questions regarding the murders and disappearances are presented as side questions in the form of questions towards the others of their old group and inquiries if 'that maniac' has been caught yet. There are a few changes in the whole mail depending on who she sends it to so that the mails don't look like mere copy pasting, but the general meaning is still the same.

Email sending done, Estela begins to idly browse through the subdomains open to her as a former student to see if she can find anything interesting before the day begins to affect her.

Estela continues looking through the students website for a bit more, rereading a few articles in search of something between the lines until she starts to feel the effects of the sun. Turning the computer off, the young vampire lays down on the bed, arms folded behind her head. She looks up at the ceiling, a frustrated sigh leaving her. Though somewhat unwilling, she still closes her eyes and soon falls into the daytime torpor....

To awaken from it about half an hour after the sun had set once again. She blinks a couple times, pushing herself up to a sitting position on the bed. She looks around, for a moment confused. Then realization sets in and she first scowls, then sighs and shrugs. Stretching and running a hand through her spiky hair, Estela walks towards the computer and sits down in the chair, turning the thing on. A sad smile appears on her face when she sees the replies in her inbox. She reads them one by one, answering as she finishes them. To questions if she'd hang around or meet them at the Water Mirror, she replies that she'd love to, but that she might be to busy. Concerning the rumors of murders and disappearances she simply expresses relief that they are all alright.

“How easy it is to not worry about people who's faces and names you don't know...” Estela muses softly to herself, sending the last reply. She leans back in her seat, wrapping her arms around her knees and pulling them up to her chin. She remains like that, unmoving and staring at the wall with unseeing eyes. After several minutes have gone by, the young vampire blinks, eyes going back in focus. A shudder runs through her body as fear and desperation appear on her features. Her movements frantic, she grasps her cellphone. It takes some fiddling before she manages to send a text to Claudia, asking for her help. Message done, she lets her forehead rest against her pulled up knees. Unlike before, she's now restless, constantly shifting her position. Her breathing, however unnecessary in her condition, comes out in short, shallow, and frantic gasps.

Suddenly she jumps from the chair and begins to search through the building. Every door and drawer is opened and the contents shifted through or thrown across the floor. Unable to find what she's looking for, Estela begins pacing in the living room. Her eyes flit about the room restlessly, passing over all flat surfaces in the room. She's clearly desperate for something, but also hesitant, confused and afraid. Her desperation wins out. Estela almost storms out of her haven, only grabbing her coat on her way out.

Roughly half an hour later, Estela returns to her haven. In her hands she holds a few plastic bags filled with cans and tubes of paints, as well as several brushes of various sizes. The paint is simply dropped on a piece of cardboard. Grabbing the brushes, the young vampire runs them through the paint and then runs the brush over the nearest wall.

It takes Claudia a good hour after having been texted to respond. But it seems it's still not her.
"Hey, Sorry, Claudia's bedridden. She can't get to the phone in her state. Want to call an ambulance or what ?"

It's signed by the same person who had responded the night before, the person who had her phone because she switched it by mistake. It seems this guy is a friend of hers, somehow... But bedridden ? A vampire ? Odd. Maybe after "marking the territory" in this new haven, Estela will try and check on her, somehow. She'd usually hang out in that youth association for Bordeaux 3 students, where kids who have a special odd background can come and study. Most of them were in asian studies, as Estela recalls... Or maybe someone in an Elysium can tell, but it seems too personal for her to have told anyone in Kindred society. Maybe Laure Nolveaux ? They seemed friends, when Estela saw them on Wednesday night.

The largest of the paintbrushes Estela had brought falls from her fingers and hit the floor with a soft thump, the paint still on the brush staining the floor. She takes a step backwards in shock and fear as her eyes run over the walls and even part of the ceiling. Large sections of the formerly even colored surfaces now sport chaotic forms, primarily in red and black with a few traces of yellow, green and purple. At least there where the lack of actual cleaning of the brush hadn't muddled the colors completely. All together, the rough shapes and swipes form an abstract mural with only vaguely recognizable, humanoid figures on it, though none have facial features.

Spotting swiped hand prints throughout the mural, Estela looks down at her hands, only now noticing that she's got paint all over her. Her palms are pretty much entirely covered in black, but there's paint all the way up to her elbows and even on her shirt and pants. The young vampire turns her back on the painted walls and rushes to the bathroom where she tries to wash the paint off. There she discovers that the paint's on her face as well, though fortunately less spread out. A stripe of dark paint over her cheek down to her jaw and a few small drops here and there. In an almost panicky way, Estela begins to try and scrub the paint off, only partially succeeding. She lets out a cry of frustrations, storming out of the bathroom and begins pacing through the building. Her eyes are drawn to the mural. With a mixed look of fury and fear, she throws the towel she'd taken from the bathroom when leaving it at the wall, then seems to almost flee from the building.