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

[easy_as_cake]

[Trance isn't dumb, but she obviously hasn't managed to figure out these mirror things yet because the view from hers is shifting all over the place, like she's fidgeting with it mid-call. Because she totally is.]

Hi, Kevin! I'm Trance! [She's perky like he hasn't just poured his soul out to a bunch of strangers. It's a talent.] I've never met a vampire before, at least I don't think I have. I don't know why anyone would want to run you off anywhere, though. It's a lot better to walk places when you're stuck out in the wilderness like this.

[She shakes her head, obviously confused about why people think running through the woods for no reason is a good idea.]

[googledox]

[Brainiac is in the Brugh at the moment. He sits there and ponders, a hand rubbing his chin. The grim expression on his face makes it look as if he's going to make some kind of grave pronouncement, some kind of hostile remark.]

[But then he actually speaks, and though his expression is still grim as he considers the difficult logistics of what they need to do next, his words are gentle. Very clinical but still...somehow gentle.]

I currently have several venous catheters and IV tubing in my medkit but we'll need to find a means of very thoroughly sterilizing them in between uses for infection prevention and they'll only last so many times before they start breaking down. Finding some kind of viable alternatives that are easier to scavenge or synthesize in our new surrounds is going to be vital.

We may be able to salvage some supplies from a hospital if there is one in the city everyone is currently in, or in a hospital in another city if we find similar ruins again later. But judging from the city with the Wheelers, the technology of this world may not be up to par for our needs. Chemical synthetics and fossil fuel-based plastics are potentially beyond the people of this world. [A pause.] Rubber might be a possibility, however.

For right now, what we have on hand should serve as a way of safely drawing blood from volunteers until we find something else.

Creating a schedule that optimizes the hematopoiesis process for those that donate should be simple enough, and we can potentially shorten the necessary recovery time with the right nutritional supplementation - at times we have abundant food resources at least.

We should already start taking considerations with the food resources available here in this realm to see if it's possible to transfer them over during the teleports anyway.

[outofresets]

Whow! So your fangs are all retractable and stuff?

[ Apparently someone learned to make his mirror float because both hands are free to mime fangs dropping from his mouth. Which is totally being sensitive of the situation. ]

The movies got that bit all wrong, huh?

And dude, you don't need to feel like you should go running off in the woods! At least you were upfront about it. But if feeding with your fangs does weird stuff to people, do you have any other way to eat? Like would it work to just drink from a cut or something? I don't know if we have medical stuff for drawing blood.

[shipoftheseus]

[Phos isn't entirely stupid. They can make sense of the "vampire" thing easily enough from all the following context clues about drinking blood, and they're pretty sure blood is the stuff that leaks out of organic creatures when they're damaged. So...they guess they can see how that might be considered "bad", but no one else seems to be freaking out about it so far...?

Sitting in the Brugh with their mirror, Phos looks more confused than shocked or horrified or anything.]

So what's the problem? The others can give you some of theirs, right?

[Everyone seems pretty cool with it. Their head tilts as they frown thoughtfully, trying to make sense of the whole big deal it's being made out to be.]

Can they run out? Is that it?

[They grimace bemusedly. What would even happen then??]

[konman]

[The teenage boy on the screen isn't looking so good. Kon's still recovering from having sucked some life energy from the dementors while trying to protect Superman. It wasn't exactly a fun time; it's not quite like it was poison, but it was still something like trying to breathe car exhaust straight from a muffler.]

[Aside from making him feel like crap, it messed with the dark magic thing like crazy and made it so he hasn't changed back to his usual self yet. He's still a mess, his eyes an inky black, black veins spidering all over his face. His lips are a pale grey. He looks shaky and clammy like someone that's recovering from food poisoning or some other queasy, miserable ailment.]

[Kon's in the Brugh and Brainy can be seen right nearby, though, fussing over him a little bit, making it clear he's being taken care of. He's got a blanket around his shoulders at least, so it could be worse.]

Hey man, I'm Kon.

Fyi, you're not the only one who's dealing with some dark side supernatural crap. Since I got here, I got some black magic nonsense dumped on me by whatever brought us here. [He flicks a hand at his face, presenting it theatrically.] Hence my movie star good looks.

And even before that...

[A pause.]

[It's not easy for Kon to talk about this. Easier than it was, but not easy. But this dude looks equal parts scared and almost...beaten down. Look at that shoulder slump, it's terrible. Kon's not really keen on getting all Dr. Phil here, but he can at least give him something solid, something that isn't (hopefully) temporary like the dark magic thing.]

See, I'm a clone. And half my DNA comes from one of the best people I've ever met, but the other half is... it's from the worst human being alive. No joke. Think Charles Manson levels of psycho, but with a much higher body count and even more lives ruined. And he did all this stuff to make me hurt people once. People I cared about. With mind control junk.

[He takes a deep breath and his expression is very kind.]

Nobody ran me off afterward. I hid for a while all on my own but everyone I knew treated me like it wasn't my fault and made it clear I could come out when I was ready.

Some of us get it, being something you don't exactly want to be and having a part of you you wish maybe wasn't there. And some of us even get having stuff going on where we're worried about people getting hurt - or y'know, hurting them again.

So I guess what I'm trying to say is nobody's going to run you off, okay? Even if we could. That's not how we roll. We'll figure something out so you're taken care of.

[balladin]

[ Robbie's expression is pretty inscrutable. This isn't a reveal he's used to, but it's something to be dealt with. Kevin's right. He can't be kicked out of the group - if he could, there wouldn't be a group left.

Kevin's being honest about his, er, diet, and no one's been found sucked dry. This is manageable. ]

If Brainy's has a sanitary way of drawing blood, I'm not afraid of needles. It's probably a good idea to figure out a way to do transfusions anyway, and who has what blood type.

[ It's so bleak, and he wants to soften it, but the joke is too harsh a juxtaposition to really pull off a jovial tone. ]

We gotta find you a dentist or manicurist for the inverted beaver thing.

[ He half-heartedly mimes filing a tooth. It's hard to joke when you've volunteered as a vampire soup kitchen. ]

[awfulcer]

[Oh boy, another one. At some point, Dixon figures they're going to hit critical mass of people in this teleportation radius. And it's another teenager too. After watching teenagers drop like flies and stagger around with their souls blackened at Weathertop, Dixon gets antsy to see another one around to get screwed up.

Especially when it looks like kid already has a problem.]

Have you tried drinking your own blood?

[loadme]

You really should be a little more confident, Kevin. Even if you're just pretending.

Besides, we're all friends here!

[sort of.]

[coiledscales]

A vampire? Think nothing of it. I'm a dragon.

[ Also a necromancer, but minor details. ]

Just don't drink from me - I'm sure we can make other arrangements.

[ofnovalue]

-At first, the news is frightening, to say the least. To hear someone speak so casually about an unholy status such as vampirism was mildly terrifying, given how such creatures were in her own world, the unholy living dead born from dark rituals. And yet...

The more she listened, the more it was obvious this guy was mostly just another young man. He couldn't have been much older or younger than herself. And it seemed, most of all, that he just... didn't want to hurt anyone. He wanted to feel like he could be part of this group. And her heart wavered for him.-

No matter the curse, we are stronger together than any one of us apart. Twould be a road to a meaningless death if you forced yourself to be someplace else, simply from fear of your nature.

Personally, I can not and will not stand to see you exiled, regardless of what anyone else may feel, despite... all of that. -She gulped.-

My name is Ovelia. Tis... nice... to meet you, Ser Kevin.

[mark_in_the_sands]

[ Cassie looks wan and bruised up from the fight, but she digs up a smile for the guy anyway. ]

Thanks for being up front about the situation, Kevin. It's easier to solve a problem when we're all working on it.

...Also, thanks for not wanting to bite any of us, because I had a bad experience with someone trying to drink my blood and I might reflexively break your nose if you bit me. But I'm willing to donate. I don't know for sure, but my blood might have some of the oomph that I don't have in my fists right now.

[righteous]

[Alistair normally would be shocked and conflicted about this information, but these were different circumstances and the boy was honest. He liked honesty.]

Thank you Kevin. I'm sure most of the group appreciate you being forthcoming about this. I... [he hesitates at the thought] can't say I can help you with the issue myself, but if I think of something, I'll let you know.

[there's a soft nervous smile]

We need to stick together to get through this, if this is just the very beginning of the journey. Oh, right, I'm Alistair by the way.