Problem Child

[likeits1999]

...So, uh. Got some things I should probably tell you guys.

[ Kevin seems a little nervous, he has trouble doing "eye contact" with the mirror. ]

I guess like... first of all, I'm Kevin? I'm from New York? I skate? I've met some of you but not everybody so...

[ He shrugs. ]

You ever known somebody who... uh, has a personal problem? But it turns out that if you know 'em and are around 'em all the time it kinda winds up to be their crap ends up being everybody's shit to deal with?

It's kinda like that.

[ Everything about trying to explain this is awful. Everything. ]

The thing with me is... well..

I'm... kind of a vampire?

[ There. He said it. Getting that part out helps him square up and face it a little better, his gaze steadies straight on the mirror. ]

Actually, not "kind of" at all. I'm definitely a vampire. I drink people's blood. I have to. Been doing this shit a good while, too. The Green's got my back with the whole sunlight deal, but I still ain't exactly keeping down regular grindage if you know what I'm saying.

[ Kevin winces a little. He tried. ]

So... here's the deal: I need to drink blood sometimes. Otherwise I get hungry, and when I get hungry I stop... being able to be a person so good? It's bad. Trust me.

[ Please, please trust the self-described vampire. ]

It's not a lot all the time, I can go a bit if I'm full up, and I can stretch it on animals and junk like that, but it's... yeah, dog.

[ He makes his lungs pull in air and breathe it back out in a long hwoo. ]

The other thing is it's probably... if I'm gonna be real with allay'all, I don't want to put my teeth in you? I mean, I got 'em.

[ He takes a second to drop fangs and show the mirror before pulling them back in, which probably does a whole lot of good for his image with the team. ]

It does stuff to people, though? And I don't want to be like that if we're gonna be doing this Lord of the Rings shit together, alright? If we're gonna be real, I'm gonna be real.

[ Kevin's shoulders sink a little as this sudden surge of confidence falters. ]

I don't know what I'm supposed to do about this, but I'm not lying about it and I'm not gonna sneak around. And I mean.... if y'all wanna run me off into the woods, cool, but I'm gonna end up stuck comin' back like any of the rest of us.

If I could just go find someplace else to be, I mean...

[ He smiles weakly. ]

You wouldn't be hearing this.

Comments

[outofresets]

Yeah, kinda got that feeling from the way you were talkin' about it. Sounds like it would suck. [Is that supposed to be a really insensitive bad pun? Or is he really just that oblivious? Who knows! It's really hard to tell.]

What kinds of monsters do you guys have? Do you have chupacabras? Because we're supposed to have those but I never found one.

[likeits1999]

It does.

[ He says that perhaps a little too brightly. Like damn, it sucks, being able to say it sucks is invigorating in a way. ]

Iunno about chupacabras but like... there's creepy stuff that we don't all know what it is and things.

Like...

[ He fidgets a little with the mirror. ]

It's probably better not knowing? Cause if you know, then they expect you to do shit about it. And that doesn't go so good.

[outofresets]

[He doesn't seem particularly perturbed by that idea. If anything he's more curious, as if he's never heard about what curiosity did to the cat.]

Doing stuff about creepy and dangerous things is basically my job already. I mean most of the time I just end up fighting crooks, but when I was working with Young Justice, we like, literally went to hell once. [And that was one of the less dramatic missions, outside of being temporarily brainwashed by parasite demons. ]

But does that mean you're the one having to do stuff about the creepy monster things on your world?

[likeits1999]

Yeah?

[ That's what Bart does? He looks over Bart with some uncertainty. He doesn't look like somebody who fights monsters in hell.

Then again, Kevin supposes vampires don't all look the way he imagined either. ]

It's... okay like I guess it's kind of my job now, but it's because...

[ Kevin scratches the back of his neck. ]

I saw a monster one time and now I guess nobody actually cares that I don't know how to fix that? Like... for real, vampire stuff, I'm not a big guy and I'm not important.

They don't put you where I am if anyone gives a shit.

[ It's not that Kevin's tore up about it, it's just... sort of embarrassing? ]

[outofresets]

Yep.

[Kevin can't really be blamed for thinking that. If anything Imp looks more like a kid who got dragged here from a comic convention than a fighter of evildoers. Not that he seems to be aware of that fact.

As Kevin explained his situation further, Imp's perky demeanor swiftly shifts.]

So, they're making you fight things you ran into by accident 'cus they think you're somehow worth less than the rest of them?

[Okay, it was one thing to have to fight monsters and things after you found out they existed, especially if you have some powers to back you up (which he's hoping Kevin has, most vampires seemed to). That's something that happens all too often in their world. But being forced to fight something you stumbled into, by people who think you're just expendable, that was something else.

He'd seen a lot of screwed up crap, sometimes even from their own mentors, but one thing he could say for them, even Wally, was that they had always looked out for the kids best interests first. Sometimes to an obnoxious degree, but they never saw them as expendable or worth less than the rest of them.

The idea that a group would put one of their own in a dangerous position for no other reason then not caring if it gets them killed, was unthinkable.

Unless they were villains...or politicians.]

Where did they put you?

[likeits1999]

I mean like... I saw it first so I guess that's more than pretty much anybody had heard about the thing, but yeah.

[ Kevin shrugs. He's not even angry about it. Perhaps that's kind of weird, but he just can't muster that feeling. It makes him tired more than anything, tired and maybe not as scared as it probably should. ]

It's not actually a big deal, it's just kinda how it is if you're not important. You do shit important people tell you to do. Or, you just don't get noticed.

[ That's clearly the better option. ]

But when acid slime shit comes creepin' around you gotta go report it because that's what you do. Everybody else's gotta live here too.

[ As for where they put him... ]

I'm on the Garbage Crew. That's what they call us. I don't know what everybody else did to get on the list, but it sure ain't black tie.