louis

The world sure did change a lot while I was asleep.

I knew it would, of course. While I was in torpor I dreamed quite a bit of what I would wake up to find. On some level I knew that most of the things I imagined were wild flights of fancy, but more than anything I hoped the world I'd wake up to would be better than the one I left behind. From what I can see, that seems to be the case.

It's strange, how different things are and yet how little has changed. The buildings have gotten so much taller and shinier, but then I'll see one that I definitely remember, old and weathered but still very much there. The horses are gone, for the most part, and when people on the street see one they treat it as if it's some rare novelty. They've been replaced, as on some level I knew they would be. And the skin that people these days are content to show! I don't mind, really, but it's a bit jarring to see.

Of course, upon first waking up the first thing I wanted to do was find a music hall. I hadn't had a drink in over 140 years, so needless to say, I was very thirsty. Got pointed to one quick, but the music I heard inside! I recognized all the instruments, but never in my life would I have known that they could make the sounds, the strange rhythms I heard the players wring from them. Any musician I knew from back then who heard this would have a coronary, but still I found it entrancing, very vaguely familiar but not in any sort of way I could place. Some of the posters outside the hall called it "jazz." What a bizarre new style! But it was clearly good enough for my tastes.

I suppose what really matters, though, is the people and the society. I've tried my damndest to catch up with the papers and whatever strange new media the world's come up with, but even just walking around the city I can see the difference. I see people like me and every color inbetween walking around, allowed in the same places. There's not any signs I can see yet that they're being forced outside of normal society, and that already tells me things have gotten so much better. Not perfect. Sometimes I still read and... watch, weirdly enough, that there's still some things that could definitely be improved. But now, the only funny looks I get are because I haven't changed my clothes since 1860.

There's other things, too. The city has the same Prince as it did when I first fell asleep, which is pretty impressive. But what amazes me more is that he's marrying a man. Not just involved with one, but marrying. Openly, publicized, everything. I don't think I'll ever get over that. Back in my day, our kind weren't so much persecuted as much as we didn't exist. Polite people never even spoke of it, and if it got out, we would be silently dealt with. Now... Again, maybe things aren't perfect, but it's a massive sigh of relief that maybe I don't have to hide anymore. One less thing to worry about.

Everything and everyone I knew, save for other Kindred, are gone, nothing more than footnotes in the history books. But I can't say that I regret passing that time like I did, if this is the future I woke up to.