Clemente
It’s not exactly...graceful, how Clem ends up in Caido. In fact he’s not sure what a portal is at all when it happens. All he cares about is his next meal, trying to satisfy the hunger that burns in his throat and stomach. He’s ducking past the half-nailed metal siding into his warehouse “home” when the entire world goes sideways. It’s entirely unpleasant, gorge rising in his throat as he feels his atoms seemingly scatter and recompress, only to end up flat on his back groaning. It takes a while to shake the vertigo, blinking his eyes open slowly and finding the night sky twinkling back at him.
Which is concerning to say the least because seconds ago it had been early morning.
Clemente leaps to his feet, stumbling uncertainly on limbs that have less sensitivity than he’s used to. He’s hyperventilating, he’s sure of it, and yet the air seems stale and useless in his lungs. Where is he? Where is he? Whereishewhereishewhereis -
He’s not proud of it, but he begins to cry.
The first thing he does is stumble backwards into the nearest tree, holding his ratty clothes tight to his skinny frame. He...doesn’t feel hungry anymore, but the panic erases all potential realization of this. Clem looks around wildly, finding his vision is at least the same, the shadows receding and the light amplified as it always is past twilight. But this land isn’t his. He hasn’t even seen the forest before. Clem is a city kid, a gutter rat, and this is not home.
The tears don’t register, and he’s too scared to call for help. It’s ingrained in his blood not to, because help either meant the opposite, or having to escape social services. Yeah they had been pretty damn civilized for bloodsuckers. Not that it made Clemente’s life much easier once his mother had overdosed. But there’s nothing to do about it now, and his boyish voice rises into a shriek of panic as he calls out into the darkness.
“Help! Someone, please, I don’t know where I am!”
i stopped being a kid the day
you sent me down here to die
