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yerion · 11 months

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jeon jungkook being perfect was a fact you could vouch for; up until he appeared to church without his dear fiancée and his chocolate coloured eyes that delineated so much kindness. the question is—why is it just you noticing his sinister differences?

pairing : jungkook x you (as jia). au(s) : vampire!jungkook, forced roommates!au, enemies to lovers!au. genres : dark romance, mutual pining, slowburn, angst, innuendos of suggestive themes.

content : you tear down jungkook’s fake front of being the most generous soul without knowing he’s an attractive yet menacing curse who lived for way too long. on days you want him to vanish, you sway at his sickly charms—and so does he.

your relationship with jungkook tied into a playlist.

previous chapter. next chapter. chapter directory. masterlist.

chapter two.

word count : 6,4k.

“can you spare some time?” jungkook now smiles in the way you expect. late for you and your suspicions. at this point, you’re just thinking—”surprise me more, jungkook.”

“coffee’s on me.” you suggest gladly. “it’s for yesterday.”

jungkook raises a brow. “are you sure?”

“let me,” you coax. “i’d say the time is quite perfect for it.” you appeal even further as you scan your surroundings once more. everyone’s already gone to where they should be. should you be pleased that no one is near?

“undeniably a perfect time to share cups of coffee.” jungkook nods like he just bought your seduction. “sounds like a plan.”

“you said it was your first day today?” you almost confirm for yourself. this guy hosts chaos in his life; he has too many things going on. you won’t even be shocked if he confesses that he’s actually a father of two children. “how about we walk over to the café at the front? it won’t be as busy as before, so don’t worry about running late to anything.”

“i wouldn’t have asked you if i was in a hurry.” jungkook tilts his head in amusement. “do you have somewhere to be?”

you shake your head in denial. “not exactly.”

“let’s take our time then, shall we?”

the next thing you know, you’re walking side by side with him. he’s half a head taller than you as he strides with confidence under the tender sunlight; one hand hooked onto his jean pocket, his beautifully proportioned legs leads him into taking bigger steps compared to yours. he’s more focused on the scene ahead of him rather than glimpsing at you back and forth; which is an act you’d predict from him, knowing how much of a smart conversationalist he is.

a defined jaw, cheeks full and protruded—it gives him the heavenly balance of youthfulness and masculinity. his eyes are so round and almost reflective with a glimmer, but some strands of his hair are soon going to blanket the starry stars thanks to the attractive length he’s trying to maintain—not too short; not too long.

“does that mean you studied anatomy in the past?” with a subdued voice of yours, you gently intrude his proclaimed silence.

“i unfortunately couldn’t make it further than second year of medical school.” he takes a hitched breath upon chuckling at his own failure. “but i was lucky to be acknowledged in the anatomy and physiology aspect of things, so here i am, giving out additional lectures whenever they need.”

jungkook likely excels in that too; based on the way he’s been conversing with you all this time, he’s been giving you the most detailed and thorough answers to your questions. he speaks fluidly too; he hasn’t stuttered once or spoke too fast for anyone to understand. you can imagine how he’d be when talking to the students in his room.

“everyone’s been wondering what you do.” you confess as you study the side of his face while walking under the trees. shadows envelop his pale face, and you’re no longer able to watch the subtle changes to his expression. “an educator suits you.”

“you think?” his cheekbones move upward; you assume he’s smiling.

“definitely.”

“can i ask how you injured that ankle of yours?” jungkook’s soft, deep voice blankets your ear like warm honey; a voice full of genuine concern. you can tell he’s not asking for the extra point into his account—that much you know after experiencing a life full of tangled twists and hazardous turns. “i happened to notice on the day we met.”

“and i tried so hard to hide it.” you easily admit your defeat in a whimsical exaggeration. “is this your interest in anatomy acting up or was i just awful at acting?” tightening your lips in wonder, you narrow your eyes at jungkook’s face of contemplation.

“i have a feeling you’re going to take back your offer on the coffee if i answer truthfully.”

“i didn’t know you had such a side to you.” you almost scoff before chuckling at his tenuous boast about himself. you suppose he’s not wrong, since no one else noticed for the past few weeks. jimin is an exception.

jungkook stifles a laugh. “i’m sorry to disappoint you.”

outside the trees’ embrace is the café. situated beside the university fountains, the café is petite for everyone’s convenience; the smaller it is, the easier it is for the baristas to receive and submit orders. from what you see, there’s three workers today—a good headcount for the morning wave of students desperate for coffee. their laughter enlightens you; it apprises you that your guess about the rush hour is quite true.

you sigh in relief. “there’s almost nobody around.”

“is there anything in particular you like?”

“i usually go for an espresso.”

“you do?” jungkook asks in surprise when he intentionally takes a bigger step forward. now you realise he’s been trying to walk at the same speed as you this entire time. “you’re the first.” he then says once he reaches the cashier.

“first of?”

“w—what can i get you?” the cashier stutters in nervousness. all the colour in her face has flooded into her cheeks, her shoulders are tense and her fingers are curled into her palms.

is she acting like that because of jungkook?

seriously?

like, seriously?

“we’ll have two espressos to have here, please.” with his customary smile glued to his face, jungkook swipes his card before you can even process your flabbergasted thought.

“wait—” instinctively trying to block jungkook from paying, your hand touches his at the sound of a melodic beep. your body freezes at the familiar sound, knowing it’s too late to bother, so you simply heave out a sigh of disbelief. “that was my chance.”

“how about you decide where we sit instead—” he suggests teasingly. “—after your hand wakes up.”

“i—” you immediately rip your hand off of jungkook’s. “sorry.”

jungkook nods at the cashier upon confirming the order before walking relatively out of the queue, seeing that there’s a student waiting behind. that’s another person witnessing you blatantly holding an engaged man’s hand.

jungkook is engaged.

doesn’t that mean he should be wearing a ring?

that was the left hand you just held—his cold hand—but there isn’t a ring on it.

is there a possibility for it to be on his right hand?

it’s not—that was the hand you held yesterday.

“where would you like to sit?” with the receipt slipped in between his fingers, jungkook turns to you for an answer.

“how about outside?” you suggest. “the sun’s nice, it’s shining this way.”

“shouldn’t that be the reason to avoid the sun?” jungkook shuts down your invitation adamantly; however, in the softest voice and the gentlest smile. without both, you’re sure it would’ve sounded like a warning.

“to some.” you reply vaguely for now. “we can sit over there.” you beckon towards the seat of two in front of the cake display full of creamy confectionery. it’s a place illuminated with mostly artificial light rather than natural lighting.

you know the silence he’s given you is indicative of an approval, but before you can entirely check his expression, you catch a barista approaching the counter to announce the freshly made coffees jungkook ordered just a minute ago. no doubt about it, they’re yours—judging by how small the cups are and how fast it was made.

“two espressos!”

“i’ll go.” you quickly insert. you need to remind yourself that this is not a race, but it feels as if jungkook actually started one. he isn’t good for the competitiveness you were born with.

like clockwork, everything collectively goes on like it should. you, jungkook—the two of you happened to meet out of pure coincidence today, and now, like two freakishly normal acquaintances who are on the same wavelength to maintain a conventional relationship as two catholics attending the same church, the two of you are facing each other—awkwardly—whilst sipping on espressos.

lips departing from the cup, you clear your throat before peering up decisively. “i’m curious what brought you to our church.” your face brightens; grinning heartily with your eyes in play now; they crinkle and shut tight, harmonising with the curve of your lips. “we’re quite undersized if you haven’t noticed already. that’s why you’re making such an impact in the community.”

“you’re flattering me,” jungkook breaks into a short, airy chuckle behind his cup. “but to answer your question, it was merely a suggestion. someone i know recommended your church, saying kazuha and i will be welcomed by a collective of friendly people.” he whispers, “which happened to be very true.”

his answer is so detailed yet so average. it makes complete sense to know he has to consider a friendlier environment for kazuha since she’s not quite fluent in korean, so a friend’s recommendation would be easily followed and trusted.

nothing to note there, and nothing is finding you like electricity like earlier. you could swear his silence spoke so loudly to you back there. was your instinct simply a figment of imagination?

“i assume it hasn’t been long since you moved to seoul,” you ask quietly. “is that correct?”

“i lived in greece for a while before living in busan for a few years.”

“greece,” you lower your gaze to reminisce. your daydreams were filled with overflowing desires to go to santorini one day—the thought still stands, if you really look further down in the crevices of your heart. “i didn’t expect that as an answer.”

“my parents got married there, loved it a little too much and stayed behind longer than anticipated.” jungkook chuckles deeply. “you and i both know how unpredictable life can get.”

“and you moved here because of kazuha?”

“because it all seemed to work out.” jungkook continues, “with the job opportunity of doing something i genuinely enjoy, and to live here with her. it’s much more convenient to stay in seoul if we have to go back and forth to japan as well.”

what if he really is a nice guy?

“that sounds like a dream, despite the constant moving.” bobbing your head with your lips subtly pouted, your thumb traces the curves of the porcelain cup handle. “it must’ve been scary, going from one place to another at a young age.”

jungkook sits in silence when he registers your last sentence. “it might’ve been.” he then admits emptily after a minute. the boy who possessed everything now looks so hollow.

“my father is a neurosurgeon, so he’s always away to operate. my mother is a translator for celebrities, so she’s always overseas, always living in different times.” you breathe out the tightness in your chest. “and it was scary for me, to be left alone like that—since home didn’t actually feel like home, with anyone there but myself. i figured it might’ve felt similar to your journey.”

jungkook lifts his head to smile warmly at your story. perhaps it reached him, like you wanted it to. “your childhood sounds more tough than mine, if i’m being honest.”

“it might’ve been.” you mimic his words playfully.

jungkook sets his cup down onto the table before looking straight into your eyes. he takes you out of thought. given the definition of his gaze, you really do think twice about how much his eyes glow, albeit exceptionally dark. “you said you were significantly interested in something rather than someone.” he tilts his head in wonder, “would that be ballet?”

“it would be.” you answer honestly. “so it’s not nice being handicapped with an injury.”

“tendonitis can be healed as long as you take good care of it.”

“how did you know?” you don’t sound shocked, but your eyes widen at his scarily accurate conjecture. “can you easily tell?”

“please don’t forget kazuha also follows your path.” jungkook grins when he alludes to his fiancée again. “she had the same problem in japan.”

“of course,” you nod understandingly. it’s no doubt that ankles are the first to go when you’re a ballerina. yet here you were, pondering if that was another mishap, since anatomists aren’t doctors or podiatrists.

“perhaps it’s your turn to tell me why you’re here,” he says. “i’ve been curious as well, since i can’t imagine what kind of business ballerinas would have at a university.”

you break into a chuckle at how naïve this smart guy can be. you felt it in the car—this guy feeds you the best chances to attack. “think harder.” you raise a brow teasingly, “this university has more than a normal university would.”

as told, jungkook indulges into deep thought. his look of contemplation shows him habitually tipping his head to the side as his orbs dive straight to the floor. at that, you become aware of his new piercings again. it’s even more noticeable now that it’s reflective.

“the dance studio.” he says after a short skip in time.

“that’s it!” you exclaim like you’ve been waiting this whole time for him to hit the bullseye. “i mean,” not only did you just notice how unnecessary it was for you to be jumping like that, but you also feel his words from before seeping into your spine. “i was only here to take a few of my belongings i left behind.”

jungkook frees an amused laugh. “i don’t bite, jia.”

instantly retreating to your cup of espresso, you take another sip before locking eyes with the guy. “j—just know that i’m taking care of myself.” you stammer in embarrassment.

“please stay away from physical activities.” jungkook leans over, both his elbows resting against his thighs when he does. “i’ll only say it once since i’d hate to be that person.”

“you’re…” you shake your head to cut yourself off. compliments will cause misunderstandings—you’ll save it. “thank you.” is all you mumble.

what if his voice changed a bit?

what if he has some new piercings?

what if he doesn’t wear an engagement ring?

what if he’s overly sensitive to sunlight?

jungkook is right, maybe it’s time for you to face the harsher truths of reality rather than fixating on foolish deceptions. there’s no need to corner such a flawless guy. this isn’t the time to allow your imagination to run wild—you’ve graduated from such thoughts.

what did you expect to discover anyway?

pushing himself back against the chair, jungkook coincidentally stares off to the side and catches the time on the wall. “i’m afraid i’m going to have to end our time here.” he states, “can’t be late to my first class.”

“go ahead.” you reply cordially. “i’ll see you on the weekend.”

“we’ll talk again.”

at his own words, jungkook stands, flashes another grin from above before exiting the café. the barista’s gaze is glued to his back as he leaves, and so is yours. the second you watch jungkook disappear from your vision, your eyes return to the front, only for you to stop yourself from swallowing when you notice jungkook’s cup untouched. the cup is still full of black espresso, now cold from the wait.

in your hands are brand new pointe shoes yet to be broken into, and ahead of you are mirrors, enclosing you in a familiar darkness. you sit there, and only a few lights are illuminated; they’re dimmed, not cranked to their maximum brightness. it’s you that you want to see—nothing else. it’s always been like this for you, though the darkness scares you time and time again.

clenching onto your rigid pointe shoes, you stare blankly at your bandaged ankle. as much as you want to tear the damned thing off so you can slip your feet perfectly into your new pair of pale pink shoes, you just squeeze your eyes shut and sigh out to the greyed ceiling.

will today become a mistake and a regret in the future?

there’s months left till the competition. a brief calculation of 90 days remaining until you fly out to whatever continent in europe and compete against ballerinas from different countries.

the thought of it kills you—it crushes a bit of you inside and you’re in flames to impress, but you know days of patience is what you need rather than gruesome hours of practice.

endure it.

face it.

broken things can heal crooked, and that can’t be you.

the weekend found you like how monday would; it caught you in a blink of an eye. your weekdays felt like vacation because you were only resting at home, caring for your ankle while studying your old ballet videos. you also might’ve squeezed in bits and pieces of your favourite series here and there and maybe cooked yourself two different instant ramen cups at an ungodly hour. you overdid yourself there, but you settled down to officially declare this time as your resting period.

you exit your car, unknowingly stepping into a wet splash. the puddle below your feet pooled throughout your drive here, because after one week, the skies showered the world once more. thankfully it wasn’t as persistent as last weekend, but it was still a hindrance on your way here. cars were desperate to slow down ahead of you, and all you could do was groan behind your steering wheel while selling yourself to the sound of rain pattering against your windshield.

you frown at your partially soaked feet before shaking off any excess water stuck to your sneakers. thankfully it wasn’t your bad feet, otherwise you would’ve dealt with a wet bandage. “the rain and i definitely have issues.” you grumble to yourself.

looking ahead, you see the usual crowd of people at your church, waiting around for the doors of the church to open for today’s mass. you’re exactly on time because of the downfall earlier, so you try to walk faster to avoid the fate of being the last person entering those doors.

when you approach the front, you wave casually to the few people recognising you first—kim jisoo, park chaeyoung and kim mingyu.

“you could’ve taken your time.” chaeyoung’s eyebrows both collapse in concern. “shouldn’t you be taking it easy?”

you shake your head profusely to reassure chaeyoung’s restlessness. she’d always be the first to worry if anything happened to you. “i’ve been taking it way too easy.”

“have you now?” jisoo squints in scepticism. “that doesn’t sound like you at all.”

“i have,” leaning forward into jisoo’s face, all you do is purse your lips and make a ‘tsk’ noise out of them frivolously. “you’d be surprised when you see that i’ve eaten most of the instant ramen you left behind last time.”

“really?” jisoo’s face brightens like the sun on a cloudy day when she hears that you’ve been outwardly taking care of yourself; eating what you want, sleeping as much as you want. “now i’m not worried—so, chaeng, don’t be worried.” she nods adamantly at chaeyoung.

chaeyoung huffs before smiling widely. “okay,” she dismisses softly.

“you say something too, mingyu.” jisoo pats mingyu’s shoulder—and it’s undeniably quite a stretch for her, since mingyu definitely has some height in him. “hasn’t it been long since you last saw jia?”

“i think… it’s been a good two months?” mingyu thinks aloud.

“hm,” you hum before cracking a laugh behind your hand. “i don’t know, you tell me. maybe it’s been three, or even one?”

“stop that,” mingyu uses his index finger to poke the centre of your forehead. you always get pushed back from this, consequently why the guy never stops. twenty more centimetres and you would’ve ran into his forehead with your own. “i went on my business trip when you won that competition.”

“impeccable memory.” you feign amazement by gasping dramatically. “how did that go anyway? didn’t you fly to beijing?”

“says you.” mingyu naturally lowers his hand. “it was nice, since getting out of here always feels good, like the air is different, the food is different, the people are different—”

“he hates us,” jisoo whispers noisily.

“he totally hates us.” chaeyoung whispers back just as noisily.

“no way, mingyu.” you gasp more dramatically than before. “without you here, the air is also different and the church is different—”

“i want you to pray for your safety today.” mingyu quips.

shrugging off mingyu’s wise words, your head turns, and you automatically notice jungkook engaged in a bigger group. some are laughing and exchanging carefree grins to one another, but the focal majority dons earnest expressions. when you glance over, it’s as if jungkook physically felt your stare; he doesn’t make it a secret (not that it’s meant to be) the second he recognises you from afar. eyes first—jungkook smiles, then you observe him slowly excusing himself out of the group crammed with adults and other younger adults close to your age.

“who’s that?” mingyu asks.

“that’s right, mingyu wouldn’t know since he was away.” chaeyoung says. “he joined our church probably a week after you left.”

“he joined with his fiancée—” jisoo adds quietly, “who is weirdly not here today.”

she isn’t?

“great to see you again.” wearing a cool guise, jungkook never misses to sound proper. he offers everyone around a courteous smile to begin before returning to you. “are you taking care of yourself?”

you laugh nervously, feeling rather aware of your friends’ stares. you want to desperately yell at their faces that you’re not homewrecking and this is solely happening because of too many coincidences. “always.” you answer boldly. “and i assume your lecture went well, judging by your friendly face?”

jungkook chuckles attractively at what you said. “even if it didn’t, i wouldn’t be making it noticeable.” he replies. “it went well, and i most certainly wasn’t late to it either.”

“as expected.” you praise. “also, is kazuha not with you today?”

“kazuha urgently flew to japan because her father suddenly had to be admitted for high blood pressure.” jungkook explains, “she couldn’t tell me when she’ll be back, so she preferred me to stay behind.”

“is that so?” you murmur. “please send her my best regards.”

“i will.”

“that reminds me,” you almost forget to make your adorable and speechless friends known to the captivating (and taken) stranger named jungkook. “this is mingyu, chaeyoung and jisoo. they’ve been a part of the church for as long as myself.”

jungkook nods knowingly before facing the two girls first. “thankfully we’ve already met before.” he grins comfortably. “isn’t that right?”

“very right.” jisoo agrees.

“sure did.” chaeyoung straightens her dainty shoulders and tucks her hands into her blazer pockets. “it’s really nice to see you getting along with everyone.”

“you’re too nice.” jungkook deflects.

“that must mean i’m the last person you haven’t met.” mingyu speaks up. “it’s nice to meet you, jungkook.” he offers jungkook a hand. you espy how levelled this whole exchange looks—it’s got to be the perks of being similar height. “i’m mingyu.”

jungkook gladly accepts his hand and gives it a firm yet gentle shake. “it’s nicer to meet you, mingyu.” he replies. “let’s get along.”

“you bet.” mingyu grins smugly.

“we should head in,” jisoo suggests as she brings attention to the opening doors ahead. the two doors swing open heavily with two female reverends pulling each door from behind. light leaks out of the fracture between the doors, faintly igniting the cool evening.

at that, the whole of the community moves towards the entrance. when you walk in, the church is ablaze—from top to bottom, almost every wall is covered in stained glass. it’s a place where you can’t differentiate the time of the day when you’re inside; day or night—the church always stays unchanged. this church isn’t as vast as others, but reasonably cramped and compact—you can see everything from where you are—that being somewhere in the middle, closer to the back.

beside you, there’s chaeyoung with her eyes squeezed shut and hands clasped. jisoo and mingyu went over to the right together, meanwhile jungkook is one of the people in front. upon taking out your rosary from your purse to clench in your hands, the priest climbs a short flight of stairs to stop behind the podium, standing before the pane of religious stained glass.

the mass goes on for an hour. the priest peruses the bible, voicing the god’s prayers. when the first segment rolls over, someone is chosen to read the next prayer behind the lower podium alongside the priest.

you, luckily, have gone up already less than a month ago.

as coincidental as it can get, jungkook happened to be today’s spokesman. how merciless of them, to elect a newcomer like that. nevertheless, in your mind, he seemed to be the perfect prospect anyway. not only does he speak eloquently, but you heard him—the guy never stutters; he delivers every word as if there’s a ribbon tied on top of each term.

jungkook relaxedly rises from his seat and treads lightly to the podium on the left wing. everything about jungkook is so blasé in this specific moment, which you assume is from his so-called experiences. as so, he even seems to be aware of how sensitive the microphone can be, otherwise he wouldn’t be flipping the pages of the bible so quietly. you knew it—he’s in his zone.

“... mother of god, pray for us sinners now, and at the hour of our death.” jungkook articulates. “amen.”

“in the name of the father, and of the son, and of the holy spirit,” the priest recites. “amen.”

like that, the mass reached the end. it’s around 7pm when everyone scatters, returning to the normalcy of sharing conversations under the moonlight before concluding their weekend. the moon looms over half of the people who remain, while the rest bid their farewells until next time. consequently, that’s you saying your goodbyes to jisoo and chaeyoung, since they have a farther way to go than you.

“i’ll see you next week.” you mouth to the pouting jisoo and the pouting chaeyoung waving at you from ten metres away.

“did you drive?” mingyu asks beside you.

“i did,” you answer with your eyes fixed to the two girls ahead. you watch them vanish when they turn a corner into the car park before meeting mingyu’s eyes that were stuck onto you the entire time. “do you need a ride?”

“i was going to ask you that.”

“that’s awfully considerate of you.” you tease in a whisper. “i’m fine though, since i brought my ride with me.” nudging mingyu against his arm, you give him a toothy grin.

mingyu nods once. “you be careful on the road then.”

“don’t think my driving skills deteriorated because of a single injury.”

mingyu snorts at your furrowing eyebrows tagged along with your dauntless remark. “i’ve been thinking that way before you injured yourself.”

“oh,” you blurt blankly. “just go already.”

“i’ll see you next week—” mingyu drops his arm on top of your head. “—shortie.” he mutters playfully.

you kick the air when he’s staring back at you, already metres ahead. “i’m literally taller than jisoo!” you squeak when he’s gone.

in case you forgot anyone, you examine your surroundings once more. apart from you, everyone’s waving to each other, fading into the coal black of the night, disappearing to pursue their car to rush back onto the road. the headlights of some cars in the distance remind you of fireflies dancing in the dark; which urges you into a realisation that those glowing lights will be zooming off soon, turning off the majority of light in your life, so you decide to leave when the amber lights afar start to wane one by one.

walking quietly on your own, you reach your car—and that specific puddle you bathed your feet into last time. you squint and shake your head, denying the thought of making the same mistake twice. after, your hands sink into your purse to fish out your car keys before going around the puddle to jump into the driver’s seat.

the car park is fully vacant, but there are vehicles lined up on the main road just up front. not that you desperately needed reassurance, but a part of you rests easy anyway, especially knowing that there’s mingyu out there waiting for the traffic lights to blink green.

you hum while fiddling with your phone to choose a song for the road. “perfection.” the corner of your lips lifts at your favourite song—charlie puth’s dangerously.

before you can press the accelerator with your beloved music playing in the background, you glance at the church one last time absentmindedly. it’s like a built-in mechanism, checking out your back the second you abandon a place. you think nothing much of it until you catch a shadow walking past the spot you were exactly at ten minutes ago.

you must be seeing things.

if there was really somebody there, the lights would’ve switched on because of the sensors.

for a split second, you feel a shiver run down your spine. your neck and shoulders feel freakishly ticklish from it, but you want to prove yourself once more that you might be wrong. your body slants to the right, your head peeking out to see more of the church. the lights are still off, and there’s no one there.

“what?” you spit out in puzzlement. “stop scaring me.” you whimper in the dark while decreasing the volume of your song. you’re not in the mood for a party in your car anymore.

you’re seeing things.

eyes clung to the church in hopes of finding nothing again, you silently push the button to start up your car. “this is because i rewatched ‘attack on titan’ last night.” laughing nervously under your heated breath, you move your gear stick into ‘drive’.

it’s at this moment you see the light flicker. the light was brief and small, but you definitely saw it glint in your peripheral vision.

what was that?

which light was that?

you think back—if you possibly saw someone—or something go past the spot you were in earlier, it moved to the left—that being the church.

did someone leave something behind?

you think back once more—did you see everyone leave? was anyone left behind—or did you not see anyone leave? what makes you so sure that you were the last person out?

“why am i even thinking about this—” you sigh in disbelief. “let’s just go.”

wait.

hold on.

a thought crashes onto you—it ruptures everything in your head, and you’re thrown back into the endless pit of your unnecessary hyper analysis of everything and anything.

you didn’t see jungkook go.

you didn’t see jungkook when you saw everyone waving to each other.

if you think about it, jungkook would’ve been heard or talked about at the last minute. knowing he’s the star of the church, no one would just let him go without saying a word or two to him.

you would’ve heard that if that happened.

you know you’re crazy; you know you’re insane for jumping to this conclusion and this is psychotic of you.

you immediately shut down your car when you feel a silver of composure upon seeing that it’s only 7:40pm. an illicit disaster can’t feasibly occur at this time, or no one would actually plot to do anything profane at this time of the night. it’s still relatively early, and you’re going to sneak away and rely on security cameras if there’s really someone you don’t recognise in the dark, roaming around the grounds of the church alone.

conscious of the fact that retracing your steps back to where you were will trigger the lights, you duck your head and soundlessly approach another entrance of the church by looping to the side. it’s a separate entry for the priests, so it’s much more upfront than the main gateway. you have no idea if you should be feeling rather grateful or rather dense (for obviously committing to this thought of yours), but at least there’s enough cover for you thanks to all the shrubs encircling the building. no human eye can detect you with this much darkness drowning you as well.

the only disruption for you right now is this door. you can’t see through it because it’s not exactly transparent. anything you see through it is heavily hazy like a cloud, but you could try to make out shapes if given context.

crouching down to align with the height of the shrubs, you push your ear against the door to pick up any noise from inside. for now, there’s utterly no sound coming from the opposing side of the door; merely the sound of your ridiculously fast heartbeats. determined, your jaw tenses up and your toes curl in your shoes as you persist in waiting for the next few minutes.

the sound of doors swinging open—it’s forceful and reverberating. it’s conspicuous that the person behind the door has no intention to keep themselves a secret, like they’ve come with a solemn purpose.

the sound of their footsteps is relaxed, unhurried, rhythmic… they know exactly what they’re here for, and it’s not their first time coming here. otherwise, their steps would be broken up, wondering where to go in this pitch blackness.

“about your beloved girlfriend, that—” he cracks into a disturbing laughter. “i forgot which one.”

is that jungkook?

he exhales in thought, “the one you begged me to save.”

no way in hell that it is.

this guy sounds… completely different.

“she reincarnated,” he says. “and called herself kazuha.”

kazuha?

terror suddenly washes over you; your heart is now throbbing in your ear, and your muscles are completely frozen. now you seriously feel your instinct screaming and pleading you to retreat. even if your mind was detained with horror or not, you can barely understand anything—whatever the hell this guy is saying about saving, reincarnating and about kazuha—she wasn’t even here today.

“you should’ve seen the face she made when i bit her.” he snickers in a breath heavy and husky. “sorry, now i’m really bragging, aren’t i?”

bit?

“you’ve grown,” he mocks. “i was hoping to see you insane again. you’re quite a sight to see yourself.”

is kazuha… dead?

“let’s see how long you last.”

right after that, everything stopped. you couldn’t hear his threats anymore, nor his steps or the sound of the door slamming back shut. you can feel the rate of your heart slowing, but you already know every colour is drained from your face. whatever that was feels like a fever dream to you, and you still don’t know whether to believe if that was true or not. life has never been this questionable to you.

shocked, you muster courage to drag yourself out of hiding nonetheless. your car isn’t far from where you are, but you still think it’s smart to take your time. god knows if that psychopath is still lurking around and talking to the skies. you gradually find your way out of the shadows and see that your car is still undamaged. judging by how things are right now, you wouldn’t even be surprised if your car exploded into flames then ashes.

“jia?”

you stand there for a couple of seconds, feeling yourself shrinking away at the sound of your own name. you try your hardest to contain any shallow breaths and shaky limbs. there’s a weight in your stomach now, and the pounding of your heart is starting to feel painful.

“may i ask why you’re here?”

it is jungkook.

he killed kazuha.

“it’s not nice to ignore someone, jia.” jungkook’s aura completely shifts; there isn’t an ounce of sweetness left in his voice, instead he sounds exactly like that voice from before—you prayed for it to not be his, but deep within, you knew it could only be him.

“i was waiting for you.” crossing your arms, you deadpan as you spin around. this really isn’t time for you to argue, but you’d rather die than exhibit your fear.

“were we ever that close?”

“if we’re close enough to sit across from each other and share cups of coffee,” you challenge. “wouldn’t it make sense for me to stop if i see them doing something awfully strange, like talking about reincarnations and biting into your fiancée?”

“the world calls that nosiness.” with his head lowered, jungkook takes steps forward. everytime he inches closer, your body naturally flees by taking steps backward.

your limbs are free; you’re under control again as you back away from jungkook. “and what does the world call you?”

jungkook finally raises his head and glares into your tentative eyes brimming in perturbation. “instead of talking so much,” his fingers creep around your neck, and you instantly stiffen at his cold hand connecting with the heat emanating from the base of your nape. “why don’t you try and beg me to save you?” forcibly yanking you down to be on par with his lips, he then whispers scarily, “amuse me.”

your heart is beating so frantically, you could actually feel your body beating as one. it feels nauseating when it clashes with the pure fear coursing through your flesh and bones. your breaths are clinging to your throat and you’re failing to swallow them down. your legs are paralysed and so are your shoulders. one single move, and you think you’re going to crumble and fall to pieces.

“no one wants to die.” you answer breathlessly. “did kazuha not tell you?”

retracting his hand, you carefully watch jungkook resort to putting both hands into his pockets instead. “she couldn’t.” he laughs huskily, “she had no idea she was dying.”

snapping your head upward, you scowl at his deranged smirk. “what the hell are you?”

“i’ll tell you,” jungkook harshly lunges forward to press your body against the nearest wall. your back lands rather softly against it, and you think a lot of it because now you understand he’s exceedingly capable of adjusting his brute strength; that being nothing alike to a human’s. “in exchange for your blood.” he crooks his head into the side of your neck and breathes heavily onto your skin.

blood?

panicking, you try to tear him away by pushing his chest. he doesn’t budge, but you find a moment to steal a glimpse of his half-shut eyes that’s centimetres away from your face.

the colour of his eyes are yellow.

“jungkook,” you interject. “promise me you won’t kill me.”

his breathing stops, and you squirm as you watch the rest of his eyes open slowly. his yellow orbs are devoid of any emotion, but they look at you in fascination.

“i’m being serious.” swallowing the lump in your throat, you clench onto his shoulders desperately.

“why should i do that?”

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why-is-thinking-so-hard · 1 month

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more superhero cadina au

this time its regina, once again it gets long, but this time because I got distracted while researching sharks and decided to add so many shark facts

⚠️spoilers for mean girls as always⚠️

I feel like vampire regina has been done a lot and I wanted to try something different so after throwing some stuff around with my friend, we've come to the conclusion of: siren!regina.

I wanted her to have an influential power over people like she does in canon, but, like I said, I didn't want to make her a vampire. this also removes the immortality problem.

general regina superhero cadina au details:

so, regina is a siren from a family of sirens on her dads side, Kylie exists in this au and is also a siren, her mother is not a siren(clearly). she has the classic hypnotizing siren voice, shriek, water breathing, human/mermaid physiology(especially when she touches water, so like she has internal fish stuff all the time but when she wants to have external fish stuff/touches water she can get it h2o style), and manipulation of water

in her h2o mermaid form, Reginas fishform is shark. shark regina. because of apex predator and also because I like sharks and I wants regina to have electroreceptors which sharks do have but we can leave that for a different essay/post

false actually, I cannot keep my mouth shut when ive learned new things and as I said above, I spent an entire afternoon researching sharks. I know that the point of her powers in this au is that she's a siren, but part of that is the whole mermaid physiology bit, so hear we go: ive decided regina would be a bull shark because I realized that if she was a shark, she would need to be near saltwater so she wouldn't fucking die UNLESS her shark part was euryhaline, which bull sharks are, and they've actually been spotted as far as Illinois when going up the Mississippi.

bite force of 5,914 newtons, jaws aren't attached to the cranium so imagine the shenanigans regina pulls to freak people out by moving her jaw in weird ass ways and snatching food without moving her head. sharks have multiple rows of teeth and regularly shed and replace their teeth with no rhyme or reason, so regina will randomly lose teeth with the new ones just immediately popping right up behind it, sometimes she spit them at people who annoy her(Gretchen secretly collects them). her scales reduce drag when swimming so when rubbed the wrong way they're extremely rough so she can literally rub people the wrong way. shark siren form regina is 13ft long. less fun, when food is scarce, sharks can slow their digestion, regina would do this when her mother makes comments about her body. bull sharks are more likely to bite humans than most sharks. extremely good sense of smell, like some sharks can smell one part per million of blood in water and they can determine the direction of a smell the way we can with sound and they're more attracted to the chemicals in the intestines of many species and shark hearing is extremely sharp and they can hear prey from miles away(their hearing sensitivity is in the range of 20 to 1000 Hz), so I can only imagine the migraines regina gets from being around teenagers,

night vision, nictating membrane, sharks have the greatest electrical sensitivity of any animal as they have electroreceptor organs numbering in the thousands that allow them to sense the electromagnetic field of their prey as well as orient and navigate using the magnetic field of the earth and the ocean currents moving within it and creating electrical fields, lateral line tactile sensory system allows sharks to detect changes in water speed and pressure nearby and frequencies in the range of 25 to 50 Hz and lets them distinguish the currents around them, obstacles in their periphery, and struggling prey out of view.

im not sure how some of those would help regina, maybe they help her rule the school, they'd definitely help in superhero situations, but they'd definitely end up with her being hella overstimulated at school and might be why she's so frustrated with people all the time. I get that. anyway, sharks that need to continuously swim in order to breathe do something called sleep swimming, in order for them to actually get some sleep, its their spinal cord that controls the action, not their brain, seeing as regina would be able to breathe like a human and not need to constantly move she wouldn't need to do this, but I think she would have this habit of sleep walking and sometimes she does end up in the pool and sleep swims.

while she's not proud of it because it was prompted by her mothers comments, regina has used her siren powers to curate her popularity at school but no one knows she's a siren so they dont realize that

recurring h2o jokes with regina getting pelted with water and running off screaming "DONT LOOK AT ME" while you hear the h2o theme play faintly in the distance along with a splash will happen be warned. like. the homecoming scene where she gets the water sprayed on her is the same, she does the hair flip and everything and then. realizes. so she runs off screaming DONT LOOK AT ME and in the distance you can hear the h2o theme playing faintly

Regina's "janitor caught cady with a mouse in her mouth" was back in middle school, she, janis, Gretchen, and Karen went to the aquarium and she got distracted at one tank because she was listening to fish gossip and then later they went to the dolphin show and regina had to be forcibly removed from the premises after she started picking a fight with one of the dolphins(it called her 3 different slurs and insulted her clothing) and is no longer allowed at the Chicago aquarium. luckily her mother has a friend that was able to keep, "middle schooler has mad beef with dolphin," out of the headlines.

is regina a superhero herself before cady shows up in Evanston? yes actually. I did think about making her a villain but I want to have faith in regina having even a a molecule of a soul before cady shows up, she does have a younger sister after all and how can regina not have a soul when even my older sister does? just usual sisters giving each other, shit you know, I love her tho 🫶

I may have just written miraculous ladybug minus the bullshit love triangle, so um, there's that... but it's a superHERO cadina au and I wanted them to both be heroes.

Reginas dad runs some shady shit, ive yet to figure out exactly what it is, but the point is it's shady enough that even regina takes issue with it and decides to do something about it(little does she know, her dad is not directly involved in what happened to cadys dad but he has connections and that's how cady eventually gets involved with regina). so she adopts the hero persona of shark girl, it was gonna be a placeholder until I came up with the lore that she was inspired by the classic movie shark boy and lava girl, so as shark girl she fucks with her dads criminal shit and if she's extra pissed off, she will beat people within an inch of their life because she's not a saint. she focuses mainly on her dads business, feels guilty when she watches the news and sees things she could've easily stopped and maybe she helps where she can if she has time but she doesn't make a habit of it, not til cady comes around.

this got extremely long because of the shark facts, which I hope you enjoyed, so um, have some all over the place hcs as a reward for making it this far, even though these make it even longer

because sharks are hunted not only for their fins and meat, but also for the oil in their livers(not exactly a fun fact, but a true one nonetheless), I think regina would joke about just how much her liver would go for on the black market

regina has tried to break back into the aquarium to kill that dolphin, she had the sense to do it with her shark girl suit on so the "shark girl has major beef with Chicago aquarium dolphin" headline did make it to print this time

bull sharks will also hunt birds and terrestrial animals they can get too, as they are opportunistic feeders, so I can see cady and regina going after birds and small animals together while their friends regret not bringing leashes

regina tells cady she's a siren by asking, "would you still love me if I was a fish?" on a random Tuesday morning

I just know that bitch reenacts little mermaid any chance she gets

if you read this far, thank you for indulging all of. this. you've probably just learned more about sharks than you ever thought you would. and I did this for fun. anyway, so these posts were just to get the basic details of their powers out there, the next post should be getting into where the actual canon starts. keep reading, dont, either way, I will be writing more of this and I think the spidey au will be separate from this one. goodnight, y'all

#mean girls #mean girls 2024 #cadina #superhero cadina #regina george #siren!regina #it got long again #mostly because of all the shark facts #so many shark facts #all of the shark facts

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reikunrei · 3 months

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Two Hearts - Brenward, knock 4 times if you can hear me

Recently I've begun going through some of my favorite seasons of Doctor Who to find parallels to Stranger Things, but I got caught up on the detail of Time Lords having two hearts and decided to take a detour.

To start, Stav @heroesbyler has spoken extensively about Brenner's Time Lord/Doctor coding/all of his connections to Doctor Who in general (very good posts btw it's required reading tbh, here's some links), and with some of the other stuff going on with Brenner... it made me want to look a little more closely at the two-hearts phenomenon.

Time Lords have a binary vascular system, meaning they have two hearts pumping blood at the same time. There are several reasons why Time Lords have this physiology, but one of the more basic ones is that it's simply to differentiate them from humans in a substantial way.

Time Lords, on the outside, look exactly like a human, so having a second heart makes them distinctly inhuman when you otherwise might not be able to tell. @aemiron-main has touched on lots of interesting stuff about shapeshifters and doppelgangers making their way (or having already made their way) into Stranger Things, and it's possible that Brenner may be one of them. Point is, while they may appear "normal" on the outside, there's something more beneath the surface/hidden.

Two other major factors that justify the binary vascular system in Time Lords are 1) it allows them to "navigate deep time," and 2) allows them to regenerate into a new body whenever they die.

Let's start with point 1)

(screenshots are taken from the tardis fandom wiki pages) (also, Gallifrey is the home planet of the Time Lords/Gallifreyans)

Now, I did just accidentally stumble down a rabbit hole with the "Web of Time" link, leading me to a "machine-heart" which was built to anchor and lock in the "structure of history," a ceremony in which the obelisk (staring at irl DnD Vecna) the "Eye of Harmony" was its center, of which also gave the Gallifreyans the ability to time travel and regenerate, and this ceremony resulted in ultimate disaster involving the Great Vampires (looking at all the blood transfusions and Brenner's vampire coding that Stav has talked about) which killed a bunch of Gallifreyans, creating a crater on Gallifrey that came to hold an "Untempered Schism," a sacred space-time rift, and...

Like, maybe I'm reaching here, but a lot of this just feels Brenner to me. Something about looking into the Vortex/center of history vs Brenner seemingly poking through timelines to get what he's looking for (specifically thinking of him watching the "same" One disintegration moment on way more screens than he needs, not being able to "let [Henry] go," as well as him trying to "make contact" with the Shadow in TFS in an attempt to fulfill his lifelong devotion to Project Rainbow... like, I'd plant Brenner somewhere between "mad" and "inspired" as soon as he was made aware of how far this could go).

And building off of "without adverse affects to their wellbeing" vs Brenner's blood transfusion project with "Henry" in TFS to make more children with the same blood type, and how it's possible that the blood type may be attributed to their powers, but also to make them immune to Dimension X/the Shadow like "Henry." And, so, would Brenner have tried to do the same thing to himself? James @henrysglock has spoken about the blood transfusions and some of the science in it in posts like this one.

And something about the Gallifreyan children being taken at 8 years of age, the age El was when the 1979 HNL massacre occurred, to stare into the Schism as a rite of passage. Not only was El's face-off with One a "rite of passage" of sorts (thinking: she made a decision to fight One instead of join him, it awoke the true strength of her powers, etc.), but I also instantly think of Brenner pitting all of the lab kids against each other, making them "fight" one another in order to rise in the "ranks."

And THEN there's the Untempered Schism reminding me so much of Walter Bishop's window into the alternate universe in Fringe which is another huge influence for Stranger Things and blah blah blah, see? Rabbit hole. I'm barely scratching the surface of what I read up on here, but I need to bite my tongue for now. In short, all this, I feel, serves as further evidence of Brenner's Time Lord parallels.

Point is, the 2 hearts are intrinsically linked to a Time Lord's ability to travel through space and, specifically, time. And given how NINA feels a lot less like a memory machine and a lot more like a time machine (as spoken about by Stav, James, Em, and several lovely posts by @givehimthemedicine)... well, something rattles about Brenner being in control of what's happening, or able to influence it in his favor, or at the very least is somehow able to see the span of time/multiple timelines, and through that, he's able to create a specific series of events to get the outcome he wants.

(Not to mention all the weird ways in which Brenner seems to be messing with the Creels from the get-go, the way One says Papa uses everyone like pieces in a chess game, and his ability to cover up the truth/create a false narrative starting all the way back in season 1. But anyway.)

As a brief aside, there are parallel universes within Doctor Who, but the Doctor doesn't travel between them regularly (at least in the 2005 reboot's early seasons. I have no idea about later seasons or the original series). Like, there's no consistent interactions with multiple universes at any given moment, it's only for Big Plot Lines (ie. some episodes in season 2 and the overarching plot of season 4). And, from what I remember, the Doctor doesn't necessarily see all the possible timelines in their universe, rather they sort of just know what is and is not meant to happen. I just wanted to specify that because I feel it's a key difference between the series.

As for point 2), I have much less of a tangent to go on with that. Essentially, I think we can all agree that a Time Lord's ability to regenerate when they die and Vecna's regenerative healing are pretty similar.

Another fun tidbit is that, technically, Time Lords are only able to regenerate a total of 12 times. Obligatory midnight reference. I should also note that the Doctor can now regenerate more than 12 times, but I can't remember the exact reasoning/don't feel like going to find it. Basically, it's just a special case.

So, if Time Lords regenerate, and Vecna regenerates, and Vecna seemingly got up and walked away after being flambée'd, and Brenner has seemingly died multiple times and then miraculously been okay, and Brenner is paralleled to Time Lords and specifically to the Doctor... it's all the same guy! Brenner isn't dead! Somehow, he's regenerating! And it's specifically tied to the two hearts!!!

Now, another detail in Doctor Who I want to touch on is in the two part special "The End of Time," which is set shortly after season 4 ends. I'm not going to get into the plot of the episodes or anything (that's for another post because... boy, are the parallels paralleling. Bad dreams, visions, the Master being brought back from the dead and being unable to sate his hunger for energy, etc.).

However, the one thing I want to focus on is the sound of drums that plagues the Master (who's another Time Lord and recurring nemesis of the Doctor). It's 4 beats in rapid succession which repeat ad nauseam in his head. But what are they?

He first began to hear it when he looked into the Untempered Schism as a child, and though it was originally labeled as merely a symptom of being driven mad by the Schism (and is later thought to be the sound of one of the other characters knocking on a door), the President of the Time Lords draws the link to the Time Lord heart beat. So, a driving component of these episodes can be specifically connected to the beating of two hearts.

I was talking to Stav about it the other day, and I can't remember who she said she got this information from and if it's anything that's been confirmed, but she mentioned to me the link between these 4 drumbeats and the 4 chimes of Vecna's grandfather clock, alongside the fact that they both exist in the head of the Master/Vecna's victims rather than being something inherently tangible.

While I was reading up on all of this, and as you can obviously tell, I found that a lot of it specifically paralleled Vecna and the Mind Flayer, but I want to point again to the initial posts from Stav that I linked at the very top which detail all of Brenner's Time Lord/Doctor coding. With that, it becomes pretty damning that Vecna/the MF also have all of these Time Lord parallels.

In a similar vein, Em has spoken here about the weirdness with Henry "being" Brenner and vice versa in TFS, and James has spoken here about the weird connections between Henry -> the Shadow -> Brenner (I know there's other posts too but I cannot for the life of me find them!!). And then you bring in how "Henry" in TFS, One, and Vecna are all shown to absorb or "consume" their victims... basically, I want to emphasize how muddled up all these characters are with each other.

Now, obviously (as far as we're aware) Brenner is a human, or was at least born a human. And while Brenner himself may not directly be the Shadow/MF or Vecna, I think with all of these overlapping parallels it becomes clear that there is a distinct possibility that he somehow became those characters, and I think the Time Lords having two hearts is a fantastic hint at that. While the Time Lords naturally have two hearts/it's a quirk of the species, for our purposes, it's pretty great symbolism for two beings occupying the same body/mind/space, which is also something ST is not unfamiliar with in the slightest, it's just a little more "possession"/virus coded rather than physically linking two bodies (from what we've seen so far).

Which leads me to my next interesting tidbit I came across when looking into the Time Lords' binary vascular system: the Doctor may have been born with one heart, and only after they regenerated the first time did they develop a second one.

This is because they were from an "Oldblood House" on Gallifrey. A House is basically just a bloodline or family of Time Lords. I can't find a solid reason for Oldbloods starting with one heart vs Newbloods starting with two, but it certainly makes me raise my eyebrows at the Doctor starting off closer to human before becoming distinctly Time Lord vs Brenner starting off human and... becoming something else?

As I linked above, Stav spoke about the possibility of Brenner consuming Henward's blood in order to give himself powers/strength/immortality/whatever it is he wants atp. Here's also various links to posts by James about how one of the Ones looks an awful lot like Brenner in that Dimension X sequence, and this post about how Brenner is a lot like Vecna.

So, Brenner and One get merged with each other (whether on purpose, by accident, or a strange mix of both), and bada-boom! Two people in the same body with crazy new abilities, thus becoming a Vecna.

When I was talking about this initially with James, Em, and Stav, James mentioned Brenner's whole spiel about "becoming whole" and what it would mean if that sentiment was applied to himself, and what it would mean if the hearts didn't merge. And Em mentioned it being a way to symbolize Brenner and Henward being part of the same being, but Henward being partially removed from what's been done because he's simply merged with someone else who is to blame. And what with Will's whole talk about Mike being "the heart" of the Party, and the solution to basically all of their problems throughout ST being love... I don't think I have to spell it out too neatly that it would be quite the thrill if Vecna as some combination of Brenner and One was partially beaten from the inside by one of his own "hearts."

Which, this is only tangentially related but I don't really know where else to put it and I think it's interesting enough to include, one way to kill a Time Lord for good is to pierce both of their hearts at the same time.

Gallifreyans can technically survive with one working heart, but they're greatly weakened, and from what I remember, it could result in them dying and trigger a regeneration.

When I was first reading about this, I instantly thought of how frequently the "two man rule" appears in ST. Most obviously, in st3 when the Key has to be shut on/off using two different people. James has spoken about this before, specifically with how there's always a "secret third guy" thrown into the mix (ie. Murray in the st3 Key sequence). However, I won't go into it in-depth here right now because James takes the cake on that conversation. I just wanted to point it out because I thought it was something worth putting a pin in!

To summarize:

Brenner has a boatload of Doctor/Time Lord coding, but so does Vecna and the Mind Flayer/the Shadow. That, matched with Brenner's incessant searching for "Henry" and being unable to let him go, the blood transfusions in TFS, all of the blood consumption language around Brenner, Brenner's lifelong devotion to Project Rainbow, and the constant conflating of Henry and Brenner throughout the series... it feels apt to take Time Lords having two hearts and overlay that on Brenner as further proof that he may have tried merging himself with Henward in some way in order to give himself greater power.

Again, while the binary vascular system is something simply inherent to Gallifreyans/is just part of their biology, having it so tightly linked to their time travel and regeneration, matched with the alternate timelines and time travel in ST, the blood transfusions, and the rapid regeneration we see in Vecna and the fact that Brenner is somehow still standing when he should have been dead a few times over now... it certainly makes me wonder just what's going on under Brenner's skin.

And if we learn that whatever weird Brenward combo we have that possibly created one of the Vecnas has two hearts, I'll shit my pants.

#st dw #i say things #stranger things #this post is a bit of a mess but bear with me lol i don't do this often #martin brenner

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whumpy-writings · 3 months

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The Dhampir Files

For Febuwhump 2024, I will be writing an Of Vampires and Men spin-off mini series called The Dhampir Files.

This story takes place in the same world as the main OVAM storyline, but you don't have to read OVAM to enjoy TDF or vice versa.

CW: Implied forced pregnancy, implied future abusive parents

Felix and Mildred Turner are vampires, Lucians, scientists, and madly in love. They just had their first child together, a beautiful baby girl named Violet. The Turners specialize in biology, specifically vampire and human physiology and anatomy. But they want more. They want to be able to study dhampirs, the illegal offspring of vampires and humans. Dhampirs are hard to come by, but when a friend offers them a pregnant human and her human lover, the Turners can't turn down the opportunity. Once the baby human, Miles, is born, they put their plan into action. Soon enough, they have what they've been dreaming about: two dhampirs. Renn has a vampire father and a human mother, and Cal has a vampire mother and human father. Now all the Turners have to do is wait until the dhampirs reach maturity. . .

General content warnings for this series are abusive parents, multiple whumpers, carewhumpers, and lab whump.

Basically this entire series is about abusive parents (though Renn and Cal are both adults). I know that's a sensitive topic for a lot of people, so if you want to avoid this series, you can block the following tags:

#parent whumper

#renn and cal

#the dhampir files

#abusive parent tw

I'll also be starting up a separate tag list for this series. If you want to be added to the tag list, either reply to this post or send me an ask!

Every time I start a new series I think "This is the darkest thing I've ever written," but with this one it might actually be true. Renn and Cal will be going through some shit. It's gonna be a great time (at least for me, the boys are absolutely not having a good time).

#febuwhump 2024 #parent whumper #renn and cal #the dhampir files #abusive parent tw #dhampir whump #lab whump

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lily-valley-cc · 7 months

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VAMPIRE CAREERS BUNDLE (WIP)

Helloo! Here's a WIP of some spooky careers I've been working on to release in time for Halloween! I'm going to do a couple of Occult themed bundles - Vampires being the first to release sometime over the next week.

Vampire Council - Joining the Vampire Council offers an unparalleled opportunity to influence and safeguard the legacy of the vampire community for generations to come. Being a part of the Council means immersing oneself in ancient traditions, navigating complex supernatural politics, and ensuring the harmonious coexistence of vampires with other entities. Not only does it provide a platform to enact meaningful change and uphold age-old tenets, but it also allows for personal growth in a realm where wisdom, leadership, and diplomacy are held in the highest regard. The Council's role is crucial in guiding the vampire kind through the ages, making it a profoundly rewarding and esteemed career for those who are deeply connected to the essence and future of vampirism.

Blood Bank Operator - Working at a Blood Bank for vampires is a position of profound responsibility and intrigue, nestled at the intersection of ancient traditions and modern science. In this role, you will become an essential link in maintaining the vitality and discretion of the vampire community. The role goes beyond mere management of blood resources; it's about understanding the delicate intricacies of various blood types and their effects on vampire physiology. With the ever-present challenge of ensuring ethical sourcing and impeccable preservation methods, the job requires a combination of meticulous skill and deep cultural reverence. This position offers unparalleled insights into the enigmatic world of vampires, making it not just a job, but a captivating journey into history, science, and the supernatural.

Vampire Counsellor - Becoming a Vampire Counsellor allows you to offer unparalleled guidance and solace to those grappling with their newfound existence. Transitioning into vampirism is a profound and often tumultuous journey, filled with potent emotions, existential questions, and the challenge of navigating a dual life between the nocturnal and the daylight worlds. You provide a sanctuary of understanding and support, helping newly-turned vampires come to terms with their heightened senses, eternal nature, and the intricate dance of coexisting with humanity. Through this profound vocation, you foster a smoother transition for fledglings, ensuring they embrace their new identity with clarity, dignity, and a sense of purpose.

Vampire Rights Advocate - Becoming a Vampire Rights Advocate is a journey of deep conviction and purpose. You will advocate for a community that, despite its age-old existence, remains shrouded in mystery and often faced with prejudice. Vampires, as enigmatic beings navigating the boundaries of the human and supernatural realms, confront unique challenges — from societal acceptance to ensuring their ageless traditions are respected in a rapidly changing world. As an advocate, you stand at the forefront of these challenges, championing for understanding, acceptance, and the inherent rights of vampires to coexist harmoniously with humanity. This role not only reshapes societal perceptions but also protects the rich tapestry of vampiric culture.

Hope you enjoyed this sneak peek! If you have anymore ideas for some more Vampire themed careers - let me know! ❤︎

#ts4cc #sims4cc #ts4careers #sims4careers #ts4 custom content #lily-valleycc

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honeybeezgobzzzzz · 11 months

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Pop in to tell you I really love just one sip. My mind is just so filty, so when I saw the period sex with Dream headcanon you reblogged, I was like, "Wouldn't this be one of Vampire morphy's favourite kinks?" I think generally he neither cares nor gets aroused by this human physiology in their dreams but he absolutely goes crazy and extra caring every month his baby has her period. Imagine reader's initially kinda nervous that her period would put him off, but it turns out Dream just loves the taste of it.

HECK!!!!!!

Now I am trying my best to finish Just One Sip... it's taking me a long time buttttttttttt, now I kinda want to add in a bonus chapter of reader getting her period in the dreaming for the first time (and not knowing what to do cause Morpheus is like a blood hound 👀) and of course Morpheus jumps on her like she's doused herself in chocolate sauce and laid out naked (it aint chocolate if ya know what I mean 😉)

Or maybe a bunch of first times relating to blood in general? Like how would he react if reader accidentally get's a paper cut and across the Palace Morpheus smells blood and is instant both terrified and aroused 👀

I have so many thots now 😭

#yall nonnys are getting me into trouble #like 😂😂😂#omg so many thots #so many

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ranjxtul · 1 year

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VTM Rambles: the Lesbian Cinematic Universe

so i run a chronicle set in new orleans and it's part of what my girlfriend and i call the lesbian cinemtic universe which also includes their berlin by night chronicle that i play in. we call it such because i'm sure you can imagine there are so many lesbian characters. and like, i love it because our games are so queer friendly as they're run by trans lesbians and played by other sapphics. all of us are also experienced ttrpg players or storytellers in some other way too so it's very common someone will have someone else crying or freaking out because of the scene they're playing,

I also think the queerness and our experience with storytelling allows us to better explore the themes of vampire, which to me are what does it mean to be human and what does it mean to be good. We all have characters, PCs or SPCs alike that re struggling with the darkness of the kindred and human world, in fact I think some way all of them are. i love being able to explore what that means for these people and how they react and cope with the pain of their lives. As creators in these games, we've taken a very human approach to creating these chracters as world of darkness seems to believe that once you're embraced you lose all goodness. it also seems to me they believe tiers of humanity are fixed and unuanced when that is simply not the case so i love playing with what each tier of humanity might mean for each character.

as a storyteller, and a player i interpret the beast as more a figurative manifestation of whatever magic that comes with kindredhood and the blood combined with a person's shadow self and subconscious. i'm personally not a fan of the idea that the beast is an actual entity now living in a kindred' head because of the embrace that sucks the good from you. i think the beast forces the kindred to grapple with the darkest parts of themselves that were already there so the fight for goodness or humanity is internal and intrinsic. to me, this has created such an interesting conflict and even fear in certain characters who want to be kind and humane but are scared to lose that due to age or the world etc.

in these two games, we also have some really interesting themes going through. in berlin, i'd say we're creating a theme of healing generational wounds and in nola i think our theme is becoming learning to hold on to the love and kindness in your life, because it will save you in more ways than one. as a creator whether that be on the storyteller or player side, i'm taking these ideas and running with them. for me, a throughline theme helps tie a story together and helps write the story as it devlops even in an rpg.

additionally, i've found that vtm is a great system to explore heavier topics than you more easily could in dnd or something similar. the central questions of the game lends itself to that. for example, in nola i have a plot that has to do with the second inquistion in the cia and how the prince of the camarilla is currently being trafficked as a part of a deal to hold of the cia which was made knowing one day she'd break. i also think the system is a good way to explore power dynamics in society and tradition. even though our political systems are very different in reality a lot of the messiness and the constructs that create those systems are present in the construction of the camarilla, anarchs, and sabbat- to me this is just another interesting way to explore morality in a game like this.

i am a neuroscientist and enjoy tweaking the poorly written mechanics relating kindred anatomy and physiology. i could make a whole post dedicated to what i've messed with in that regard because it's been a lot. i've altered scarring, disease/immune states, the appearance and visibility of disability, metabolism, and fertility to name a few. most importantly from that list is disability and disease. in both games several characters are autistic or adhd or both. there are vampires who use mobility aids, who are amputees, the nola prince and her wife have hiv, one of my pcs has hEDS and the other has lupus. world of darkness erases disability entirely when talking about the embrace and to me, that's wrong. disability isn't awful or heinous and shouldn't be erased in a low (or high for that matter) fantasy game because it's a part of life for so many people.

lastly in this rant s/o to the people who create with me in the lesbian cinematic unverse @rj-thursday @yelenaslightchangeofplan and andi (who's tumblr i don't know) i love yall and i'm so happy to play these games with you... undercover todd forever

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captainsparklefingers · 10 months

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Has it ever been established what sort of arrangement the Szgany have with Dracula? It seems that they're doing jobs for him that he's unable to do himself due to the limits of vampire physiology...yes I know sunlight in the original story isn't an instant death sentence but it does depower Drac, you think that dude could haul several coffins of dirt when he's got the strength of an ordinary old man? I don't think so!

But like. What do they get from him? Beyond the (admittedly understandabe and positive) benefit of not being eaten by Drac and the weed girlfriends Brides, what do they get from this? How was this relationship established? The Szgany know he's a dangerous killer who is using them...is this something that Dracula has cultivated over several generations? And why specifically the Szgany?

I'm not trying to downplay the offensive stereotypes presented by Stoker in the text or how awful it is that a historically marginalized group of people is cast as his thugs and informers, because that's extremely offensive and problematic. And I hope I've worded my query in a way that isn't going to upset anyone. I'm just curious as to what the in universe reason is for the Szgany working for Dracula, how that happened, and why it happened. Because it's not like he couldn't easily turn on the people he's got under his power.

I dunno. I'm just curious. And ALSO, I apologize if this was worded badly, I swear I don't wanna hurt or offend anyone. And I'm also aware that 'Szgany' is Stoker's attempt at spelling out the Romanian language slur used against the Rroma. I only ask my question using that because it's the word used in the text and my question/ is about the in universe circumstances that led to the arrangement that Jonathan is seeing. I can and will go back and change wording if asked or delete this if requested.

#dracula daily #dracula daily 2: vampire boogaloo #dracula #dracula spoilers #dracula daily spoilers #i really dont want this to be offensive because Im sure the out of text reason for this setup is offensive and awful and I won't deny that #but no in universe explanation is ever given so of course I wonder about these things #(I'm sure the in universe explanation is probably offensive and awful too)#(but it's still something I wonder about)

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maxwell-grant · 1 year

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(AO3 link in case you’d prefer to read this there)

(The following text includes excerpts from: Private files and tapes of the A.I Gilbert “Gazebo”’, the field diary of Miss Ion, interviews with the NYU Emancipators Vulturine and Hayato, Yr Fgenar Fgbevr qv Noma Lacri #000-∞, and articles by The Daily Roger.) (FOR DOCTOR SANDRA KIRIGAMI’S EYES ONLY)

--------------------------ACCESS FILES------------------------

DAILY ROGER REPORT: October 13th, 1937 CHAOS AT HARPER MILL! A NEW MYSTERY MAN HOAX? Ongoing conflict between the Harper Mill workers and strikebreakers have escalated, as what was believed to be a surprise terrorist militia among the strikers is now reported, by multiple witnesses, to be instead the work of a single man. Said to operate in masked attire, under the cover of darkness, and with mysterious abilities yet to be determined. Is this a ploy by the Harper Mill strikes to generate fear or sympathy, or is this yet another Manhattan “Mystery Man” emerging? Who is this mysterious figure?

---------------------------------

DR. KIRIGAMI: Thank you all for joining this meeting. I understand that some of you have approached me with concerns regarding the, conduct, of our most recent recruit, and some members of this board have expressed a desire to relocate him to our West Coast facility, or expel him from Emancipator membership entirely. Mr. Bill is willing to accept consequences for his assault on Director Vijgen. He has also expressed rather, colorfully, that he "would do it again" if deemed necessary.

I have called this meeting together so I could offer my viewpoint, as his appointed psychologist, and with the backing of his teammates, as to why I believe he should be allowed to remain a member of the NYU Emancipators, for the time being.

Let us review the facts, regarding the case of

--------------*click*-----------------------

I was, out of commission when he showed up. I reviewed the footage later on the team's cameras and, well, I'd say his name really does do him justice. He shows up quick as a cannonball, bursting through my outer layer and fighting off the bloody things He seemed to have considerable experience fighting them off, and a not so considered regard for his own safety. A total stranger who had underwent a great deal of personal harm and given us enough time and luck to pull a miracle, and give Miss Noma enough time to fix me. I certainly expected no different, of course, but I'm glad the team brought him along. It would be most unseemly to leave him to die on that, awful place.

GILBERT “Gazebo”: Artificial Intelligence, built by former team leader of the NYU Emancipators Andy “Hunk” Huxley. Currently transcribing these files. Hullo!

“Yeah, you could tell this guy was, like, reaally old-school. Prolly took a mammoth to school instead of a bus, right? You know those homemade costume parties you see in family pictures, those really embarrassing ones? He was dressed like that. I didn't even think guys like these, with the underwear and capes and all, actually existed for real, I thought the president or whoever just made em up to sell war stamps.”

VULTURINE: Civilian name Marco Craine. African-American male, 22. New Orleans-based vigilante. Inhuman physiology, liquid-manipulation powers. Claims to be a vampire, possibly part of a concentrated effort in his part to make his powers seem cool instead of gross.

“...I slipped up, should have seen them coming, too many of them coming at us, of course others wouldn't be able to tell in time, cволочь Huxley... Wait, sorry, I, rambling, yes. He, -cough-, Mr.Bill really saved us, just now. I don't know how he went undetected by the morksaya. Me and Noma observed, his readings aren't that different from ours. A little more faint, yes and, they shouldn’t be. His missing teeth and injured ribs don't seem like recent injuries either and… Look I'm, I gotta go back to medical bay, I'm assisting in fixing up the man, making sure he didn't bring anything with him from the canal, and he’s not taking the mask off so they need me to scan for head injuries, can we do this later? K, davai.

MISS ION: Civilian name Kristi Kartoshka. Russian female, 31. Powers include proton manipulation for combat, evasive maneuvers, and healing purposes. Engineering background.

Not-Supposed-To-Be-There. Nowhere-Man. Sad-Man Not-Supposed-To-Be-Here. Ignorant-0F-Himself-Man. Liar-Man No-Place-For-That-Man. Wants-To-Find-Man-Again...Good-Man.

NOMA LACRI: Civilian name and age unknown. Confirmed to have been born human of Italian descent. Has gone by Maria or Lisa on separate occasions, should investigate further You-Will-Not.

“I know, I know, superhero stuff but, it's weird, it's, dude that's, that's Cannon freaking Bill! He's like this old, old guy that my grandpa used to fight with, and part of the team now. Man he's, shorter than I expected and, oh he just saved our as-butts, my bad, by barreling through a wall and wrestling those weird mech-zombies trying to kill us. Like, whaat? It's crazy!...Kinda sus that he was in the Deep Shit Canal* in the first place tho, I mean -”

HAYATO: Civilian name Jeremy Axton. Japanese-American, 24. Millionaire crimefighter based around Lexington, Kentucky. Wielder of the Inkpot Staff and it’s varied magical abilities. Passed out from exertion after giving this statement.

(*"Deep Shit Canal" refers to the uncharted location colloquially known as Desert Snow Canal. Mr.Axton and Mr.Craine both claim innocence in coining that particular variation.)

—----------*click*------------------

DAILY ROGER REPORT: May 24, 1938 CANNON BILL STRIKES AGAIN! The masked terrorist known as Snake Mist was apprehended this morning after a bombing attempt, along with most members of his cult, one of which was revealed to be Senator Jim Vijgen. Press statements reveal that Snake and Vijgen were apprehended by a local masked hero known in the neighborhood as “Cannon Bill”. He was last spotted during the arrest of legbreaker Bart Langley, and has been spotted operating within Morrisania, Little Brazil, Bronx, and even on Staten Island. Cannon Bill spoke briefly with the press and promptly hailed a cab away from the scene. Local police suspect that Cannon Bill might not have been acting alone, as the bomb defusion and Snake’ss apprehending were executed within minutes and at considerable distances from each other. It is unknown whether this Mystery Man has any affiliation with the likes of The Stygian Ant, Colleen Dice or Father Hatchet.

DAILY ROGER REPORT: October 16, 1939 BODYCOUNT RISES AS MONSTER ATTACK CONTINUES Father Hatchet disappeared from his cell last night as his gang, led by a mysterious new lieutenant only known as Frère Jacques, continues to run rampant throughout the Seventh Avenue. Frère Jacques, who appears to be a 10-feet-tall Frankenstein-esque being in friar clothing, appears immune to gunfire, and has reportedly even defeated local hero Cannon Bill in combat. Cannon Bill’s current whereabouts are unknown, as he was retrieved by a passing car quickly after falling from the top of an 8th story building where, reportedly, Hatchet and his gang where holding out.

—----------N-O-M-A-----------------

Doesn't-See-Me-Like-Monster. See-Himself-Like-Monster. Monster-Took-Him-Away.

—-----------*click*----------------

DR. KIRIGAMI: The Emancipators were performing a rescue mission on realm WN-34, at the Desert Snow Canal, a dangerous and hostile river surrounded by broken remnants of a bygone civilization. Said river is made up of a black powder that falls from the skies, concentrated within the canal. It isn’t harmful to human touch, but it has pitfalls, and it hides the real danger of these lands: The “Chrono-Cadavers”, as Gilbert calls them, you’ve all received reports on the cadavers and how they function, what seems to be their origin or leader. Our limited understanding of how these creatures function was a problem for the eventuality of having to face them, and part of the reason Huxley volunteered to go.

The Emancipators had traveled to dimension WN-34 in order to rescue their team leader, Andy Huxley, who had been stranded there on a recon assignment and sent a distress signal. We now understand that this was part of a plan.

As you are aware, your fellow board member, Director Vijgen, and Huxley had worked out a ploy together to ensure that the team's trip to the Desert Snow Canal would go awry, that the team would be caught unprepared and face a potential catastrophe that would only be averted through a last-ditch rescue from Huxley, who would reappear fending off the creatures with the Mark H battlesuit. The built-in cameras and microphones within the ship would have recorded said events and stored it in our database.

Capitalizing off the tragedy, it was Huxley’s intent to outfit the team with Mark H battlesuits and use them to test said suits, before inevitably mass-producing them and lending them out to V.A.P.O.R field agents, and from those, to the US military, or whoever paid the highest bidder. In order to kickstart this, Vijgen would have used this incident to push for more urgent measures within this board of directors, and if voted otherwise, said footage would leak to the media. Positive press for Huxley and the suits, negative press for anyone who vetoed against their usage, public whipped into a frenzy at the sight of a horrid threat only a new super-weapon could stop.

Either way, both Huxley and Vijgen would get what they wanted. A rather predictable plan, really, but nobody on the team was onto it.

There was one little hiccup, however: Huxley never showed up.

---------MISS ION-------------

GOD DAMN IT, I KNEW IT, I KNEW IT WAS A TRAP. I WAS SO STUPID, HOW DID I NOT- …..

Breathe, girl, breathe. It’s fine. Everyone is fine. We came back without casualties and all injuries fixed, and we rescued the man who rescued us back there. We averted the unthinkable. Breathe.

……….

The audacity of that bastard. I’m not even sure if we should tell the rest of the Emancipators? I mean, we’ll have to, but I’m scared if any of the other teams still think Huxley’s coming back, or even should come back. I don’t think it’s sunk in for the rest of them how we were betrayed. We’re all still a little shaken over it all.

I don’t wanna be the one to break it to them how it happened, that he did make contact just before the morskaya struck. I didn’t understand it fast enough, when I’d heard him talk to Gazebo and the director over the intercom:

"Sorry, mate. I got a better offer elsewhere."

—------HAYATO AND VULTURINE----------

“I got claws, I got teeth, I can fly, I can suck blood, what else is missing?”

“You don’t even drink blood, first of all, and you can’t be a vampire if you can go out in the sun, bro”

“Yes I can, that just makes me a better vampire.”

“No it - wait, yeah, we gotta focus, we’re doing a thing about Bill”

“Yeah, Bill. See, Bill didn’t give me shit about whether I’m a “real” vampire or not, and I’d only known him for like three days. He didn’t do that thing everyone else does where they’re like, oh hey it’s Kid Dracula hahaha, oh but vampires are not real, oh you’re just LARPing like, dude, shut up. How come all of you go around calling yourself Captain Fantastic Man just cause you dress funny, but I can’t be a vampire cause you don’t think the way I do it counts? Where’s the respect?”

“Oh yeah bro, you’re a real masterclass in respect”

“Zip it, Tweety. Point is, Bill didn’t do that. And, y’know, that was cool.”

“He was going to stake you through the heart the second he woke up and saw you.”

“Well, duh, that’s what the rest of you SHOULD have done, if you took this hero thing seriously.”

—------*click*------

DR KIRIGAMI: Upon his recovery, I assisted Cannon Bill in the process of adjusting to his new environment. Contrary to what his teammates expected, he had his memory intact, and he had jumped forward in time from the 1980s, instead of the 1940s. It seems he was one more victim of the, well, You-Know-What, as reports indicate he was injured even before battling the cadavers.

Our means of temporal travel were damaged, and we needed as much help as possible following Huxley’s betrayal and the pressing need to eventually re-enter WN-34, but we promised Bill to take him back to his time period as soon as possible, an offer he refused. For private reasons, he deemed it important that he stay behind and work with us to fix the problem. The problem being, successions of hundreds of other problems big and small but, one step at a time better than no step at all. That is how Cannon Bill joined the Emancipators. That is how he became my patient as well.

I find it imperative to bring this up because, and it must be stressed, that Cannon Bill joined us entirely of his own volition. That he rejected the option to return home, an option he still has should he so desire, to instead remain here in this strange distant future.

And yes, it goes without saying that his stay here hasn’t been without frustrations.

--------*click*---------

Bill has been rather sturdy, in his resistance to cooperation. All members of the Manhattan Emancipators wear suits wired to my communications hub, standard procedure. No earpieces, those were troublesome, the ear coverings built into the suits take care of that. But... Well, forgive me if I sound petty but, he doesn’t seem to like me very much - “Gazebo”

Sensory overload. Well he, didn’t call it that, the term wasn’t known in his time, but it was pretty clearly what he was trying to describe when I asked him. I can relate, yes, even if ours is different. He gets very uncomfortable with jarring noises as well as having his ears blocked or even touched by anything. He joked that he lost his front tooth making sure a neighborhood bully "got the memo" and that his mikvah took forever just because he kept complaining to the rabbi about getting his ears wet, and his Ma never let him live that down. We're finding workarounds to communicate with him on the field. - MISS ION’s Field Diary

“Oh dude he did NOT like Gazebo at all, it was pretty funny. I mean, I'm mostly used to tuning that thing out, but Bill? He spent a couple of training sessions looking like he was gonna pull a Van Gogh on the spot everytime Gazebo gave him directions, or patched him over to someone, or cracked banter in that Monty Python voice he's got. Wish we did city training just so he'd flip a car or something” - VULTURINE

“I think he'd kill me if I said "ok boomer" in earshot” - HAYATO

“Nobody uses that joke anymore, idiot. Besides he's like, pre-boomer, he's gotta be like silent generation or something. Wasn't he middle-aged when your grandpa was active?” - VULTURINE

.”..Actually yeah, he was grandpa's senior, when was this guy born exactly?” - HAYATO

---------------

DAILY ROGER REPORT: November 22, 1940 MYSTERY MEN JOIN THE WAR EFFORT A local coalition has reached the Daily Roger to announce their existence. Consisting of several local “super-heroes”, they have announced the formation of a group in order to join the upcoming war effort and provide assistance to the Allied forces. Calling themselves the “Camelot Circle of America”, the group’s leader has reached out to the press with the intent of transparency with the public, with the hopes of acquiring trust in such difficult times.

Among the super-heroes present within this group is our local bruiser “Cannon Bill”, who makes his first public appearance in over a year, showing what seems to be a full recovery from his battle with the monstrous criminal Frère Jacques. He declined to speak with the press on any affairs.

—-----Gazebo--------------

He did join the Camelot Circle of America along with Mr Axton's grandfather, but after that, very little from 1945-onwards. He wasn't around for the team's disbanding in 1952. Some news reports in the late 40s, 50s, 60s, and nothing in the 70s and 80s until the, You-Know-What, happened. And obviously he was there, no superhero or supervillain at the time, active or retired or even dead, could ignore the call at You-Know-What.

Said You-Know-What seems to be how he wound up in the Desert Snow Canal in costume. I'd heard of some superheroes who survived the event and were found weeks, months, even years later, stranded in locations without memories of how they got there or who they were. But he's been very clear that he remembers everything. That he did join the fight, during You-Know-What, and that he took off from home. He must have known he'd wind up somewhere he couldn't come back from.

Which raises the possibility that he wanted to be there.

—------N-O-M-A---------

"You-gotta-get-up, partner, we-can't-stay-here, gotta-stop-them, we'll-make-it-through-this-I-promise-but-please-get-up, get-up, get-up, get-up, get-up, get-up, get-up…"

What-This-What-You Leave-Man-Alone LEAVE-Past-Alone

----------Miss Ion’s Personal Diary---------

I was actually not that surprised to find out he was a cat guy. You all think it's nonsense when I tell you, cat people can recognize each other, but it's true. I knew that cranky slab of concrete had a soft spot somewhere. I’d say I probably made a lot of progress today in getting him to use smartphones just by showing all the pictures of Miya I can store and look at whenever I feel like it. I joked that back in his day he’d probably have to carry photos in his wallet to do that, and then he just pulled a dusty wallet from his belt with, what else, some cat pictures.

I forgot to write this early but, Bill is actually a veterinarian. Or, was, he’s not practicing now but, from what he told me, way back after the war was over and he decided to retire from superhero work, he wanted to go back to school and “make something out of himself”, get a degree and everything. And so he wound up becoming a veterinarian.

I asked why he didn't become a doctor outright, and he said he didn't think he was smart enough for it, and that he also thinks all doctors with superpowers or super-tech end up going bad. That there's a "pipeline" from getting a degree to costumed terrorism. I, I do get it. I don't think that's universally true (maybe we should ask Dr Kirigami about this next session) but, I get his reasoning all too well.

He did tell me that sometimes he was asked to patch up some heroes who couldn’t get proper medical attention, and he didn’t like it very much, but “them’s the breaks”. I don’t get what that means. He was offered to get his teeth fixed in here and he refused, said it "keeps me smart, keeps me from being too much of a wise guy". Does he think being wise and being smart are opposites? Probably some cartoon expression that makes more sense to English speakers.

I do think it's upsetting that he downplays his intelligence like that. I've seen him on field, when he stops throwing himself at problems and actually listens and thinks, he is very quick on his feet and good at counter-planning. But even besides that, didn't he create the alkaline formula that gave him his powers? He seemed rather confused by my questions and I left it at that.

He doesn't ask me invasive questions, least I could do is return the favor.

—-----HAYATO AND VULTURINE-----------

“We did find common ground on one thing: The costumes. They suck! I mean, YOU can afford bulletproofing those giant shiny wings to fly around in, but me and the girls have been stuck making do with drab pajamas for way too long and hey, turns out even the dinosaur agrees with me on that. I'm a vampire! Not dressing up in style’s practically a death sentence”

“It’s not like we all dress up the same, bro. I don’t know what it is with you and Ion, Noma never complains about her uniform.”

“Dude, Noma IS her uniform, kinda, and come on, you think anyone’s gonna try and enforce dress code policy with her?”

“You make her sound too mean sometimes, bro.”

“She’s awesome! Really, I don’t think she’s mean enough, for someone who can just eat her problems away.”

-sigh- “Well anyway, at least you got something with him. It’s, he really just doesn’t have much patience for jokes, and I get with yours, as a comedian you make an excellent mortician, but-”

“Comedian AND mortician, I’ll take that as a compliment.”

“-I mean, look, I get that some of this modern superhero stuff is not his speed but, come on, you really gonna tell me he didn’t crack one-liners back in his day? That he wasn’t pulling out zingers while punching Capone’s face in or whatever?”

“I think those guys had more serious catchphrases, like, “The milk of crime spoils fast! And the bill of evil doesn’t come cheap! So says Cannon Bill!” and then he just shoots everybody while they’re confused.”

“Ooooh wait, we haven’t gotten around to making bill-based puns with him! Yeah, guarantee he’s not gonna resist pulling one of those eventually.”

“You know how old people are, they like their jokes like farts in an elevator. You never see it coming and you can’t escape it once they do.”

“TMI, bro. But, yeah, I was getting to that, he knew my grandpa. Grandpa loved his one-liners, and so did a lot of those other Camelot dudes he hung out with. I just, you’d think a guy dressing up in circus colors would be a little less moody. I’m not criticizing him! Really, I’m not, I just, don’t like seeing people down.”

“See, this is why you get picked for team leader, because you take a look at all this and you think, “Well, I say! There’s not enough clownery in this circus! I’ll get the octagenarian to laugh at my fart jokes or die trying! Die trying is my middle name!”

-laugh- “Eat shit, bro”.

—-------*click*-------------------

DR. KIRIGAMI: However, it must be emphasized that, over the past couple of weeks, Cannon Bill has made progress, in regards to adapting to modern times, the demands of the job in regards to his duty as an Emancipator, and to his teammates. He has adapted to us, and we have adapted to him, as it should be in any collaborative effort.

He dislikes the suits, but he works with them, and we make some accommodations for his discomfort. He dislikes comm links, but together we devise other ways of communicating. He’s not used to informality and humor, but he’s adapted to it. From our sessions, it even seems to be having a positive effect on him. He’s having some difficulties still, and he still has never unmasked before me or his teammates. We all respect that, and so will you.

I bring this up as part of my plea. You gentlemen must remember that the Emancipators started, first and foremost, as an initiative to redeem and uplift. A group that took in heroes, and even villains willing to sincerely redeem themselves, and through careful education and training, we allowed them to make better lives for themselves. The Emancipators were never designed to be the next Pantheon of Aegis, the next Kamigata Dynasty, it was never a competition for ratings or money or whatever carrot you dangle before yourselves to do anything. V.A.P.O.R has spent the past decades trying to groom us into becoming the next Vanguard and, well, you must forgive me for once again expressing what a terminally idiotic idea that is. I simply have to, when said mindset was what led to the catastrophe before you. A catastrophe that was indeed averted, by the man you’re trying to get rid of.

Still, you did demand to know which member tagged along with him, when he marched up to Director Vijgen’s office, and no platoon of armed officers could stop him. I will be delighted to inform you, actually:

—-------HAYATO AND VULTURINE-------

“…Don’t tell me you’re thinking about going back there, dude.”

“I’m not! I’m not, it’s just. Look, I don’t wanna be like, I’m not running off on my own, and I know it’s not my grandpa in there. But…man, what if it’s someone’s grandpa still?”

“Like, whom?”

“I don’t know! But if all those grey things used to people, we should be going back for them. Even…even if we can’t save them, at least give them funerals. Let em die like people, y’know, and not whatever else they've been made into. They gotta have someone waiting for them back home, right?”

“…”

“…Sorry dude, my bad, didn’t mean to-”

“It’s fine. It’s stupid, is what it is, but it’s fine. Look it’s, let's just let Dr Kiri and the suits sort out that mess. We gotta start prepping up Bill’s party.”

“Wait, what? Bill’s having a party?”

“Not any party, idiot, it’s Rosh Hashanah. We’re gonna do a Jewish New Year thing for him as a team. Kristi’s idea, really.”

(It was not Kristi’s idea, but Craine had a long-standing policy of never risking embarrassment by admitting to doing anything nice).

“Oh, cool! When?”

“…No idea, actually.”

“Wait, what?”

“Yeah I, uh, I don’t know when it is.”

“Can’t you just Google it?”

“I keep getting inconsistent dates, I don’t know if those’ve changed since his time, I don’t know when he celebrates it.”

“Can’t we just ask him?”

“Oh yeah, sure, let’s ask the guy when is his own surprise party happening!”

“But how are we-”

(We’re cutting off the tape by this point as the discussion no longer has anything to do with Cannon Bill’s case. It must be stressed, however, that a surprise Rosh Hashanah is a terrible idea, and that it isn't really a party the way Marco and Jeremy presumed, but, they'll figure it this out later with some help).

------------N-O-M-A-----------

"Gotta-try, gotta-try-for, for-the-both-of-us" Irresponsible-Data. Intrusive-Data. NOT-FOR-YOU-Data.

We-Trust-Doctor. We-Trust-Team. Do-Not-Trust-Others.

Many-Others-In-World. World-Hurt-Man. World-Hurt-Team.

ARE-YOU-WORLD?

WORLD-HURT-US

HURT

WORSE

--------------------- --------------------- --------------------- --------------------- --------------------- --------------------- --------------------- --------------------- --------------------- --------------------- --------------------- --------------------- --------------------- --------------------- --------------------- --------------------- --------------------- --------------------- --------------------- --------------------- --------------------- --------------------- --------------------- --------------------- --------------------- --------------------- --------------------- ---------------------

Kristi’s Personal Diary

We, ended up talking about Petyr.

Everyone on the team knows it, I made it clear as day that I wouldn’t be working with someone who had a problem with it. I guess I just put off talking with him cause, y’know.

I was actually just gonna bring up this theory I had regarding his powers, see if he could confirm any of my notes on how his time desynch works (he might not like that name and, well it’s his power, but I do think it helps to explain, also it sounds cool) but, some work stuff got in the way and I forgot. Only remembered now I was, supposed to bring that up to him. He asked me why I picked my name, why Miss Ion, and then we just kinda, talked.

We ended up talking about things, memories, of sorts, outside of Dr Kirigami’s office. Things we left behind, things we missed, things we were glad to be away from. Scientific curiosity - no, no, stop, do we really gotta look for the worst intentions all the time even from ourselves? Don’t do that to yourself.

From what he tells me, he never married, never even really dated much. He stopped taking in clients a while before departing, left the pets in his care either with their owners or with people he could trust to look after them better. Said he only really missed his cat, but he trusted his niece to take better care of her than he did. He misses his family but, he didn't have much left before he went, and they must have made peace with him being dead, he says he doesn’t want to take that away from them, that he’ll drop by once he finishes the mission. And so he asked me if I had “folks” looking after me.

So, I told him about Petyr. I mean, there’s not much to talk about, I just, kinda explained to him why Petyr wasn’t a boyfriend, wasn’t a relative or whatever. I do love Petyr, Petyr was doing the best he could, but… I was Petyr but Petyr wasn’t me, I told him. And that’s the why I can’t really go back to my “folks” and, I made peace with that. I made peace with Petyr, others didn’t. My family would have preferred to make peace with my death than me living in a way they couldn’t claim. So, I refused to die. I had someone to live for, still.

He says he didn’t get it but, I think he got it. He made an effort, at least. He became very quiet when I told him I had someone to live for. I didn’t ask, but I think he wanted to tell me something important.

He took a deep breath, and he was reaching for his mask when Dr Kirigami called him for their next session.

—------------*click*--------------------

DR.KIRIGAMI: Well, it was me. You certainly did not think I'd sit by and let Vijgen's plan be forgotten, if not tried again, at the expense of my patients. You certainly seem to forget the things that this team is capable of. And I certainly don't think you've forgotten who I used to be, what I used to do, to protect my own.

Calm yourselves. This is not a threat. Anemia endulged in threats. Dr Kirigami merely makes stern warnings. At present, I do not know if any of you were a part of Huxley and Vijgen's plot, and if so, how many. So I lay this warning to all of you: I am not your enemy, and neither is my team. The upper management at V.A.P.O.R likes to think of the Emancipators as just another military branch of the organization. They underestimate how useful that delusion is to us, and so I let them. You, however, are not the upper management, you are the middle men, those who take the blame in situations like these. They would quietly destroy or execute all of you, if reports of Vijgen's role in the incoming crisis reached the public. Because Bill and I got to him in time, he's merely being transferred, more scared than hurt.

In his days prior to the costume and powers, you see, Bill made a habit of letting Pinkertons pick their own teeth off the sidewalk, and making sure everyone could see them do so, to make a point of it. Give them a chance to stop and do good, or see how worse it could get.

It is the chance Bill is giving you now. I would not have been so kind. You’d be surprised at how persuasive a man of so few words can be.

Consider this, when you play your part in deciding his fate.

—--------ACCESS CLOSED—-------------

A combination of his own effort, remarkable luck, and the efforts of his teammates made it so Cannon Bill wound up not being transferred or fired, for assaulting the once prestigious Director Vijgen. Kelvin Vijgen himself would wind up calling the board of directors, insisting that Cannon Bill be allowed to remain on the team, out of fear of consequences from the upper management at V.A.P.O.R if the situation escaped containment, a greater fear of incurring Bill and Kirigami’s wrath again as well as that of the NYU Emancipators, and perhaps, just a smidge of regret.

Cannon Bill had been consigned to a form of house arrest within the Emancipators headquarters and not allowed access to the internet or smartphones, a punishment vastly more effective to 21st century adults than to him. He sits in his room at present now, unmasked and with reading glasses, quietly reading the tutorials Miss Ion left him on how to paint nano-tech costumes. It’s a work-in-progress, but one he's getting the hang of. Unmasked, he looks rather unremarkable. A short, balding, square-jawed old man, packed with muscle. No abs to speak of, but with a strong gut, a weight lifter's gut. Sturdy hands capable of uprooting oak tree stumps held a paintbrush in most delicate fashion. He wanted to get this right. He had to get this right.

Cannon Bill had no idea when he would ever return to WN-34, whether he would be forced to fight hollow mockeries from his past again, and the thought of whether his teammates would survive said excursion eclipsed any fears towards his own survival. He had no idea his teammates were currently busy calling up other Jewish superheroes to learn the right way to throw him a celebration. He had no idea when would he reveal his true name to them, and he paid no mind to such affairs right now.

The seas of time parted open to give him a moment of solitude after so long, and he’d take any breather he could.

By his side, his wallet laid open atop the table he was using to work. Often, he liked to look at pictures of Brick, a big sturdy beast some would mistake for a housecat, to calm himself down, as it was impossible to take much of anything seriously looking at Brick. His niece must have loved her so much, God bless her. But he was looking at a different photo now. Very, very grainy in quality, not preserved quite right, but it was all he had still.

Of two men standing in front of a taxi car, arms around each other’s shoulders. One of these men was a short and stocky man in a suit, wearing a duckbill cap, and he had his eyes closed and a great big smile on his face. He had never been much good for smiling in photos, and so his father taught him this wonderful trick of yelling a dirty word you find funny just before the shot, a trick that did wonders for his insecurities about his missing teeth. His name…well, it remains his. A mystery man is entitled to some mystery, no?

The other man was taller, leaner, and his smile was more reserved, if no less warm. He was dressed in a strange strongman get-up, wearing a skintight yellow bodysuit with blue shorts, gloves and cowl. His name was William Ken Scott, and though his eyes were not visible behind the cowl, he didn’t care he had accidentally ruined the shot, too busy staring at his companion instead of the camera.

“You hang tight in there, partner. I got this far, right? …I’m not quitting on us.”

#my writing #tagging #dan schkade #since this started as a prompt to that idea #superheroes #cannon bill #fyi Bill is Sephardic Jewish #didn't find space to put that in but I thought it was important to clarify

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penig · 1 year

Text

So what, exactly, does the Dracula epilogue do to my conviction that Mina was pregnant and that Stoker intended/expected his readers to realize that she was pregnant; given that Quincey Harker could not have been conceived earlier than three months after Quincey Morris died and that there is no mention of other children?

Only adds the conviction that Mina miscarried, probably on the trip home.

And no wonder! The woman hadn’t eaten in, what, three days? Driving four-in-hand over steep snowy roads that can’t have been much more than a couple of wagon tracks, sleeping rough (if at all) for two nights? With her body simultaneously working to grow a whole new person and prepping the existing person for the drastic physiological state of vampirism? And then she has to get through another night of either sleeping rough where they are, or climbing to the doorless castle and sheltering in the rooms where her husband was held prisoner (it seems unlikely that any others were remotely suitable for human occupation)? Followed by a long trek back down the snowy wagon ruts on already hard-worked horses, carrying a corpse, to the nearest habitation that would take them in and help them?

If she had only just missed a period in September, she may still be in the first trimester, so maybe she can get away with nothing worse than a bleed and cramping typical of a heavy period (which is still bad enough and will scare the non-doctors witless); but if it was sufficiently advanced then for her to be showing now, it could be pretty nightmarish. Of course Stoker wouldn’t write about it, either way; and even if he did, it wouldn’t be published. Victorian novels locked the medical horrors specific to women and reproduction up behind private doors and walls, and didn’t let the male characters or the general public in until all the blood was washed away and the mother, however tragic her state otherwise, was clean and pale and interesting in a room where the weird smells had been aired out and covered up. But miscarriage was every bit as common as maternal and infant mortality, for the same reasons, even without the stresses and rough conditions Mina was being subjected to, and anyone savvy enough to pick up the pregnancy clues earlier could be counted on to fill in the gap.

The main story ends where it ends because no one, least of all Mina, had the strength and will to keep any records or wrap anything up. They still had a lot of surviving to do. It takes seven years for Jonathan to write the codicil because it takes seven years and a nice quiet family tourist jaunt to Transylvania for sufficient mental and emotional healing to occur for anyone to be able to take out the documents again, tidy them up, and write in some closure.

They probably all still have nightmares occasionally; but now, when they wake, the nightmare stops.

#dracula daily #Mina is pregnant y'all

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zooophagous · 1 year

Text

"So sorry I'm late." Artemis shuffled out of her blazer as she found her way to her side of the table. She always sat at the same side of the same table, Strauss seemed to prefer the location because of the window. It gave him something to look at when he didn't care to make eye contact.

He was using it now, starting listlessly out the window with his usual black coffee only barely tasted and settled between his folded claws, savoring the warmth of the mug. He looked up briefly and waved his hand in dismissal. "Do not apologize. An immortal has all the time in the world." He smirked.

"I got hung up in meetings. We're re-doing our entire security protocol for visitors. I didn't expect Troy's new boy friend to be around so much and we aren't really built for outside visitors."

"Does he know anything of what this place is?"

"Only what Troy has told him. Officially I guess this is an experimental hospital and both of you are patients with shiny new diseases that may or may not be super powers. It sounded a bit of an involved lie."

"Not really a lie though, is it."

"Depends on whether you classify these conditions as diseases." She shrugged. "But, that's not really what our meeting is about. I hope you're feeling well? I have some questions for you that are going to be uncomfortable."

"How do you know they are uncomfortable for me if you haven't told me what they are yet?"

"It's a topic you've been very avoidant about in the past. It has to do with your origins."

"Origins? I am a former doctor from Trier. I have been open about that."

"No. Your origins as a vampire. See? You're doing it again."

"Ah." He shifted in his seat uncomfortably. "Yes, that is a delicate subject."

"But it is one I very much want to know more about. I understand that this topic is upsetting, I won't make you keep going if you don't want to. If you need to skip a question, you can just say 'skip' and I'll move on to the next one, ok?" She poured herself a mug of coffee from the metal pot and began loading it with sugar and cream. "These are mostly yes or no questions, to make them easier to answer at first. I may ask you to elaborate on an answer. You may end the questioning at any time."

She sat down with a warm smile and folded her hands neatly in a mirror of his own pose. "If you humor me, I promise I'll get you into the research library, as agreed."

"About that, Frau Van Helsing." He pulled his gaze from the window and stared at her with unblinking eyes.

"I was wondering if it were possible to change the terms of our agreement, before we begin."

"How so?"

"Initially, I had asked for access to the research library, to be able to conduct my own personal research on vampire physiology at my liesure."

"Yes. What else did you want?"

"Well. I do not think you actually want my stories in exchange for that. What I mean is, I believe you would allow me into the library whether I cooperated or not, if I asked nicely. This means that it is not a worthwhile exchange to inflict pain onto my own psyche for it."

Artemis stifled a chuckle. "Well, Strauss, you're right. I wouldn't deny your request whether you cooperated tonight or not. You got me." She shrugged and splayed her hands out palms up. "Truth be told, everyone has the right to an education, and everyone deserves to know their own body. I have no good reason to deny you that kind of reading."

Strauss smirked. He seemed to remember Troy mentioning that he was Artemis' 'favorite,' and he was beginning to believe it. "So, I request a more fair trade. I will share with you my most painful history, and in return, I request that you share yours."

She blinked in surprise. "Mine?"

"Yes. There is much I don't know about you. About this place. About your research project in general. I am of the opinion that much of my ignorance is by design." He sat up tall in his chair and looked at her coolly down his nose. "I should like to ask open questions about it and get honest answers. I will also do the same for you. We will have no secrets with each other."

She bit her lip. It was a hard bargain, but also not an unfair one. "That might be sort of a breach of the therapist-client relationship."

"I don't care." He replied slyly. "It is my offer. Or we can continue to make small talk. It is your choice."

"You know what, Strauss?" She tilted her head. "Fine. But the same rules of courtesy extend to me. Give me a heads up about what's coming, I'm allowed to skip questions, and I can stop at any time. Fair?"

"Of course. I enjoy our meetings and I want you to enjoy them as well. I do not want to find some sordid information to blackmail you or hold over your head, Frau Van Helsing." He reached his claw across the table to 'shake' on their agreement. "I only want to know you a little better. To know you as you know me."

"Alright. We can do that." She met his hand and gave it a firm shake. His spider-like appendage curled around her hand and held it, and lingered just a moment too long, and he let go and sat back content.

"Begin, then. I know you are eager to pelt me with questions."

"Yes. Ahem." She found herself back to her seat, looking ever so slightly flustered. "As I said earlier, these questions have to do with your origins as a vampire. They are yes or no questions, and I may ask you to elaborate. If you want to skip a question, just say 'skip.' First question."

She sipped her coffee and made determined eye contact with the creature that sat unblinking across from her. "You passed away and were buried at approximately 55 years of age."

"Yes."

"You were living alone at the time of death."

"Yes."

"You died in 1790, or thereabouts?"

"Yes."

"Ok. They start getting harder. When you became a vampire, were you bitten? Or did you become a vampire by other means?"

"That is not a yes or no question. But, if you must know, I was bitten, yes."

"And you consumed the blood of another vampire orally to complete the transformation?"

"...Yes."

"And did you become a vampire of your own free will?"

He paused. He finally broke his stare and glared out the window once more. A scowl tugged at his lips. "No."

"Can you tell me more?"

"Skip."

"Strauss."

"Why does it matter?" He snapped. "Why are all of you so damned obsessed with the night I died? I became a vampire and now I am here instead of collecting mold with my wife and daughter. That is all that is important."

She paused, taken aback at his sudden aggression. "Strauss. Luther." She reverted to his first name to hopefully snap him out of his mind frame for a moment. "I'm not asking these questions to torment you. It's important because we want to know more about how someone becomes what you are. Not just the biting and physical mechanic, the mindset too. We want to know if you sought it out. If you wanted it at any point, even if you regret it later. We want to know someone's motivations for doing so, or whether they're recruited, or lied to for it to happen. Or just forced."

He turned his head to look at her again. "I was murdered."

She drew in her breath sharply. Of course, no matter which way it happened, it was technically a murder. But she knew what he meant. "What happened to you?"

"I will start from the beginning. To give you the best idea of the condition of my mind at the time. I ask you in advance not..." He swallowed hard. "Not to judge me. And do not interrupt. It is a hard story to tell."

She sat quietly. "Go ahead. No judgment here."

He inhaled sharply and pushed his coffee cup away to nervously drum his fingers on the table. "I have told you before that I was once married. I had a wife, and together we had a single child, a daughter. My wife became ill with a sickness of the mind... she could no longer bear to be around myself, or the child, soon after her birth. She left us shortly before our daughter was a year of age.

I did nothing to stop her- please do not think that this was a cruelty on her part. Her ailment was one still poorly understood by medicine today, and the treatment is only now in its infancy. At the time she stood no chance against it. For her own safety and happiness, I would not, could not force her to remain with me. I am, and I was, a difficult person to understand, and it was only with effort that she was able to meet me at my level. Effort she no longer had the strength for."

He rubbed and scratched as his neck and temples. "It was a hard blow, but it was not my fatal one. I was tasked with the raising of our daughter alone. It was difficult work, even with hired help. I was lucky to have the money to give her what I could. But I did not hate the work. In fact, child rearing came to me quite naturally."

He blinked heavily and stared very pointedly at the floor. "It was, despite everything, one of the happiest times of my life. I felt this little growing thing was one of the few beings in all the world who did not find it a chore to communicate with me. She had no unkindness for me. She was genuinely happy to see me, and I to see her. All she asked for were that her needs were met, and that when she spoke, someone paid attention. Her laugh made me laugh, and her smile made me smile. That small girl had more of my heart than I ever knew."

"And she became sick."

"Yes." He breathed heavily again. "Sick, deadly sick. For days and days she grew worse, suffering terribly, covered all over in rash and fever that refused to break, until finally it did, and her little body grew colder and colder and colder." He shook his head.

"I was more than broken. I was angry. I was furious. Furious at God, for allowing every prayer to go unanswered. Furious at myself for my failure as a physician, and furious at the concept of medicine as a whole. What good is the church or science or any doctor, if they cannot even help one little girl?" He dragged his nails along the table, leaving a deep groove in their wake.

"I wasn't entirely ignorant of the arcane at the time. I had a concept of it, as I'm sure all laypeople do, but I believed it all to be fake. However, it was the only thing remaining that I hadn't tried. There are no shortage of lying mediums who take your money in return for a concocted message from the so-called dead. They were not what I wanted. I was chasing resurrection. I wanted... I wanted..."

"You wanted immortality."

"Yes. I told you not to interrupt. But yes. I had failed utterly as a doctor. But there were mentions, whisperings of people who had cheated death. Those who had beaten it, and beaten it for years, for centuries even. What kind of doctor would leave a lead like that unexplored? I had a duty to at least try. Even if it could do nothing for my daughter, I could perhaps find a way to spare a similar heartache for my patients. I could find a way to save the next sick little girl. Once and for all."

He paused again. "Please do not judge me."

"I'm not, Strauss. Who did you go to?"

"It took many years of searching. I let my medical practice fall to the wayside. I became obsessed with this one, singular goal. If it was real, it would all be worth it. And finally I found them. It was not any one singular vampire I came to, but a group, a pack. I believe your lot refers to them as a 'coven.' At the time I believed them to be the saviors of mankind. I know now that they were cruel degenerates. Not only unsympathetic but actually malignant to the world as a whole. Interested in nothing more than their next bit of amusement, and I amused them very much."

He scowled deeply. "They told me they could show me the secrets of immortality quite easily, and that I would be able to impart the gift in turn. I didn't know, at the time, what a vampire was, or what it meant to become one. They gave me a demonstration. I was dragged into their house and into a dark room, where I was attacked and stabbed over and over. I believe I was bitten several times as well, but I am unsure. I only know that it hurt. I tried to fight for my life, but what is a man against a creature like that? Against a pack of creatures like that?"

Artemis sat quiet with her hand over her mouth. He continued. "I was brought carefully to the brink of death by bloodletting when one of them pressed their hand to my lips. They had cut open their palm, and demanded I taste it. "Drink! Drink!" They told me. "Drink it or die!" I was... afraid of death. More afraid of death than I was the unnatural horror in front of me. I know now it was a mistake. I did as I was told, and they laughed at me. After all of that, they laughed at me. I was left on the floor to finish bleeding, and I did, about an hour or so later. I tried to stand up and run away, but I was too weak."

"So what happened to you then? Do you remember any of the transformation itself?"

"No. The only mercy of this mechanism is that I was not conscious for any part of it. I must have been discovered, or else left where someone who knew me could find me, for I was buried with my name in the family plot near my daughter. I regained consciousness underground, and I began to panic, but I found the lid to my prison lifted easily, despite the fact that it was stone and weighed several times what I did. It was obvious right away that something had changed. The first thing I noticed was that I could somehow, even at a distance, hear every heartbeat in the chest of every passer-by. But I could not hear my own."

"Did you ever go back? Confront them?"

"I tried. There was nothing I could do to take vengeance for myself, they were stronger than I was even then, and I was outnumbered. They would only tell me that... that I got what I had asked for, and there was nothing they could do to take it back. I asked what I should do, and they would only show me their fangs and tell me that I 'knew' what I needed to do. I understand now that they meant I was to be a predator of humankind. What I needed to do was feed."

"And they didn't offer to help you?"

"I never returned to them, I hated them as much as I was afraid of them, even then. I carved a living for myself in the graveyard as best I could. I would not ask them for any guidance. Not if it meant living the way they did. I had followed this idiotic venture to help people, not to murder them, and I wasn't about to start now. Not just because I was sad or hungry. I would sooner destroy myself. It was meant to be in the name of medicine, in the name of a little girl whose father loved her very much. I wouldn't dirty her name by attaching it to that."

"I see. Where are they now? Do you know?"

"Their condition is unknown. The house they had made their den in burned down one evening. It was deliberately set, and a crowd of people watched to ensure nothing came out. I was not involved in the arson- I hated them, but I was still no murderer. Not even for a wretch such as they. I heard screaming from within the depths of the crumbling embers but there is no way of knowing if any of them escaped. There were perhaps a dozen occupants, but I could only make out the screams of two or three. It is possible the others are still out there. For all of our sakes, I hope not."

Artemis reached across the table to touch his hand. He flinched, but then returned the gesture and held her hand for comfort.

"That was a lot of information. Thank you for being so open with me, Strauss. I don't think anyone would judge you for that story. Grief is a powerful motivator. Certainly a better one than... I don't know, a lust for power or something."

"Maybe I do lust for power. You don't know." He smirked, though it was more an effort to contain tears.

"There's just one more question for you."

"Go ahead."

"You always refer to her as 'my daughter' but never by her name. What is her name?"

He finally allowed a tear to fall.

"Hanna. Her name is Hanna."

#wayward souls #writing #long post #big one today fellas hope its ok

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