This wasn’t Andrew’s first trip through Lawrence. He’d passed through a few times before, back in his own world. The city here was much the same as it was back home, sometimes even down to the buildings. He knew the theory behind alternate universes as much as anyone that had personally known the developer of String Theory, but seeing it in reality was…something else. There were differences, of course there would be, but he was surprised at just how many similarities there were.
He was out and about now, trying to get the lay of the land. He wasn’t sure about the other vampires here, but he at least didn’t burn up in the sun. His powers were weakened, but he still had access to most of them. He couldn’t maintain any of his altered forms for as long and his physical capabilities were less impressive, but he was still superhuman in that regard. He wasn’t really sure why. Most vampires from his home dimension flat out lost most of their powers in the sun, but his were merely weakened. He wished he could chalk it up to age, but he’d never completely lost access to them the way others did. Sometimes he wondered about why. Sometimes he figured he probably wouldn’t like the answer. Today was one of the latter days.
He was avoiding notice today. It wasn’t easy, with the celebrity lookalike thing that so many people seemed to have here, but a dark coat, a cap, and dark sunglasses did enough to hide his resemblance. Something told him the white streak in his hair probably helped, too. He hadn’t been able to customize the coat with a sheath for his sword yet, but that was okay, the sword was the least dangerous part of him when he wanted to be dangerous. The lack of notice let him explore the city without the bother of constant stares when someone thought he was a celebrity, and it also let him people watch. He knew a little bit about a little bit, and he was pretty sure that an event as big as the capital A Apocalypse would be having metaphysical correspondences throughout the world. He wanted to see how it was affecting the people, and that was what he was focusing on at the moment.
Which is why he was able to spot the girl wandering around. He didn’t catch it right away, but there was a difference between someone who was walking to a place and someone that was just walking. If you were paying attention, and you’d been around long enough to learn the difference, you could pick out that difference. It piqued his interest, so he continued to watch. He figured she was just a new arrival, someone displaced and as confused as you’d expect, but she didn’t look just confused. She looked about the way he would expect an abuse victim to react, flinching away from human contact and looking generally uneasy. Maybe she was a native who just needed help, and if there was one thing Andrew was driven to do, it was help.
After all, he had a lot to make up for.
It had been a long time since Andrew just approached people, though. His social skills had atrophied. Besides, there was a chance this was a lure. Lucifer or some demon trying to trick one of the particularly redemptive or helpful displaced into approaching. So he wouldn’t approach, not right away. He’d follow first, keeping as inconspicuous as he could. If he decided this was legit, then he would approach her and see if she needed help.