Summary:The Living Vampire crosses paths again with Eve…and a strange pact is made. Log Info:Storyteller: None |
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How did it come to this?
She was a Nobel laureate, a giant in the field of biochemistry, an expert in the pathology of genetics. She had been at the table of great minds, of great leaders.
And now she was skulking around in the dark like some reptile.
She made her way down the stairs to the door under the sign EMBRACE THE NIGHT. It was, of course, painted purple. She opened the door and stepped inside.
The place was one of those boudoir settings. Overstuffed chairs, red leather seats, mahogany counters, a bartender out of a Victorian daguerrotype.
Down here, she was not a Nobel laureate. Down here, in the dimness, where men in black clothing posed for women in latex, leather, or lace, or some combination of the two.
It is a very odd feeling to pass people who smile broadly at you while knowing YOUR fangs are real…
Eve…
Eve blends here. Not so exactly as Michelle does. Of course not. for one, she's not wearing fangs, nor does she have red eyes or such thing. Rather, she blends in on account of her elaborately gothic attire. She's been here. She's been here a while. Waiting for her, of course, since they'd agreed to meet at a place like this previously and thus sooner or later, it would need to happen.
And so she's here, waiting at a table, a drink left across from her as a signifier that she's expecting company. Who's here. She's waved off the attention she's received so far.
Michelle looks across the room and sees her. She looks much the same, of course. The blue hair is easy to pick out.
As she sidesteps a table, a young woman with red hair smiles to hair. "Hello, there. What clan are you a member of?"
"Clan Morbius," she says quickly.
"Haven't of it. How many of you are there?"
Michelle looked at her. "There is no one like me anywhere…"
The redhead seems to shrink back, her mouth opening slightly in some unreadable emotion.
Michelle continues on, pausing as she reaches the table. "Hello again," she says politely. Still the flawless pallor, still the crimson eyes, the fangs gleaming to the point of translucence. But the savage nature is restrained.
"…"
Eve watches this exchanbge. It's close enough to her that she can overhear it. Her hand goes over her mouth to hide obvious amusement before she kicks the chair out qand welcomes Michelle to it.
"Stop traumitizing the poor girl and get over here and have a seat. You gonna make me sit here alone all night or what?"
Michelle begins to sit…then stops. She looks at Eve with some odd curiosity, but settles into the chair across from Eve. She looks around, her eyes wary. "I did not expect to hear from you. I expected the police to appear in short order. When they did not, I was…unsure what to think."
"I mean, where would I even send them? No, I get that you have a problem and that you're trying to deal with it the best way you can, but murdering even deserving people is ultimately problematic. Sooner or later, you're gonna run a foul of the wrong person." She puts her hands together behind her head. "So, let's talk."
She is startled. This was not how she expected this to turn out.
"A…'problem.'" She does look slightly rueful at that. "You have a gift for understatement, whoever you are, I never got your name from the bartender of the other place…just a date and a time. You did arrive, but I know nothing about you…other that your liberal attitude towards unredeemable people."
"Eve. Some people call me 'Morning Glory'. It doesn't really matter," she adds, shaking her head. The bunches sway.
"I mean, it's a huge problem, right? As for irredeemable…" She holds her hands out, "I guess we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. What I know is that you can't go around eating people. It's not a good long term survival strategy"
Michelle sighed. She was going to have to trust someone, and this person knew enough about her to cause serious trouble anyway.
"I suppose you can call me Michelle. And I hope you will forgive my lack of experience in dealing with this…CONDITION. I have ways of knowing about certain people through my work., and this…" She looks around. "I never knew such places even EXISTED before a few nights ago. It seems so unreal, so unlike the life I once knew…but I suppose that this…existence…it is preferable to dying as a result of the disease going untreated. I think it is safe to say that if I did not take such drastic steps, you would be seeing my name in the obituaries page."
"Nice to meet you, Michelle. And, yeah, there's always been a bunch of vampire poseurs and what not. It's a legacy of the nineties, really," she adds, "when vampires really started to take off in popular culture again." A shrug follows. Some of her next words are enough to make her look a little confused. "So, what, you infected yourself with vampirism to… stave off some other disease you had?" She asks, hesitantly, because it SOUNDS like that but not… quite.
Michelle looks to her. "It is called 'ALAD Porphyria. It is very rare, but is not contagious. It is genetic. I cannot create a necessary enzyme vital to the creation of hemoglobin. The results range from relatively mild reactions…tingling of the hands…to the horrific. Nerve damage, seizures, loss of motor function, and eventual complete loss of voluntary motor function. I can be a jittering marionate on a string, breaking my own neck, or spend years in a hospital, a prisoner inside my own body. And no…I would not get to choose. I was developing something to cure myself of this, to enable my body to create this enzyme. Initial tests were encouraging." She smiles sadly, "The death knell of any protocol."
"I'm familiar with porphyria. You'd be surprised how many people here claim to have it," remarks Eve, dryly, a glance over at some poor fellow weaving his tale of woe to a girl who's hooked on it. Of course, they're just having fun.
She looks back to Michelle, giving her a sympathetic look, "So… you did this to yourself. Okay. I'd say that's kinda fucked up." She pinches the bridge of her nose. "And then…?" She enbcourages her to continue her own tale, of course, though it has them looking no different than many others.
Michelle looked at her for a long moment. How to explain to this odd-smelling girl that adults face choices that only range between Bad and Less Bad? That when her mother expired after a four-hour seizure, she looked RELIEVED to be dead?
No, she had no intention of being some Tragic Figure to this girl.
"At first, it appeared to be working. My convulsions were farther and farther apart. I could hold a pen for the first time in three days. And then…"
She rubbed her face, making for a very aggrieved-looking creature of the night. "I felt…HOLLOW. I tried to go home, but I was accosted. A man who turned out to enjoy assaulting women. I will…spare you the details. But in the end, he was lefting fighting for his life with the help of one of the costumed individuals filling this city, and I was…almost whole again."
"…aaaaand that makes sense," she rubs her face. "I mean, this is the world we live in. How did that even… I mean. I guess vampires had to cvome from /somewhere/, right?" She slumps back into her seat, mulling it over. "I don't know that I can help you, but if you need blood, I can provide. It won't hurt me any," Of course, Eve has no idea her blood won't do a thing for the other woman, but you know, offering this is better than her murdering people.
Michelle looked startled. "I…Hmm." She looks thoughtful. "Perhaps you should come by the lab. I am not as desperate as I was, and I think it should be handled in a more…"
"You BITCH!"
"…CLINICAL environment…" Michelle says with a scowl, looking up to see two women glaring at each other. One was wearing a matte black bodysuit, black corset, and some sort of latex mask. The other was the redhead Michelle had met earlier.
The redhead spits invectives at the woman before telling her, "How COULD you? He and I were DESTINED to be together!"
"Maybe he got tired of your sub ass and knew what he REALLY wanted!" The other woman smiled hotly at the redhead, then strode away, the apparent victor in this argument.
"…oh boy," says Eve with a sigh as the jealousy begins to spill over. "This does happen. Too much twilight and 50 shades of grey." She puts a hand to her face, thne adds, "CLinical environment. Right. Shouldn't be biting someone in place like this. Who knows what you'll catch?" Her tone is very, very dry.
Michelle looks thoughtfully at Eve. "I must confess, you are coming to terms with this…entire situation with greater calm and temperament than I expected. Even within my own observations after the first night, I did not…handle it as well as you are handling it now. I had become quite…emotional."
"You might have guessed this isn't something I'm completely unfamiliar with by now," returns Eve.
"You can't take a step in New York without tripping over /some/ weirdo, you know? I've done the whole 'superhero' thing a couple times."
Michelle ahs. "Perhaps that is it. I only traveled here from Athens a few months ago, to continue my research. I have lived most of my life in Greece." She pauses. "You are one of the 'superheroes, Eve?'"
"No, not really. I moonlight as one from time to time, but mostly, I really just do landscaping. I do have some control over plant life. At least, that's what I publically acknowledge when I need t4o, anyway." Of cour3e, putt4ing it that way it obvious that there's far more to the story. She waits a moment to let Morbius digest that.
Michelle raises an eyebrow. "Control? As in you can manipulate them…in what way? Physically? Mentally? Is physical contactinvolved?"
"Mmmn," says Eve, giving a little shrug of her shoulders. She's disinclined to answer at the moment. "Maybe I'll show you later," She smiles, briefly, then says, "But anyway, all this means is that I'm not going to be weirded out or horrified by you, okay? I've seen and dealt with /way/ worse." Which is true but probably doesn't make anyone sitting at the table with her feel any better.
Michelle's red eyes dilate slightly, and then she smiles almost sheepishly. If sheep had fangs.
"You must forgive the innate curiosity of a scientist. It is none of my business, and I am prying into your personal life. I humbly apologize."
"You don't need to apologize. I get why you'd be curious. I just told you I had plant powers, after all. Curiosity is natural. But this isn't about me, it's about you, and I'm just wanting you to understand that I'm not going to judge you right now." Eve explains, carefully picking her words. "You've done the best with what you've had to deal with so far, while being worried about what might become of you and who you could conceivably turn to for help. That sound about right?"
Michelle nodded. "It has caused me to…if I may use the term ironically…embrace a life I never expected to have. I've been to dinners with kings, presidents, prime ministers. This…is a drastic alteration of my life, and I am still feeling my way…"
She paused. "The redhead I ran into is leaving via some stairs in the rear. And it looks like someone is following her."
"Is that why the bondage suit?" asks Eve, giving Michelle a weird look at that one. "I mean, not judging what you're into, but.." And then there's a glance over after the redhead and she sighs, "Really?" She pinches the bridge of her noe and rises to her feet.
Michelle rises as well. "Protective coloration. I stand out enough as it is…" She takes a deep breath. So much for being 'dead.' "I'll go with you."
"Okay. But no eating anyone," says Eve, firmly, giving Michelle a look. NO EATING PEOPLE.
She heads that-a-way.
Michelle sighed, but followed.
The short flight of stairs led into ht back entrance of the club,. a cavernous tunnel that opened out into a back alley. A popular entrance for those liking the mystique of the catacomb-like place.
Right now, the redheaded woman is being cornered by two people. One of them is the blonde woman she was arguing with, wearing a smile that had no warmth in it. The other is a big black man in black clothing, a vest that exposes his muscled arms, black chinos, and combat boots.
And he is talking. Actually, demanding.
"…you know how it is, Alisha. You don't get to simply leave. You belong to me, thrall." He bares his fangs. More acrylic numbers. One can tell by the fact they are whiter than the rest of his teeth. "And because no one else will have you."
"There's a problem here. The lady goes with no one she doesn't want to go with."
Eve is a five foot nothing, of course, and she's an unhappy looking thing at the moment. "I'd reccomend letting her go unless you want your asses kicked — and seriousjly — I'll kick all your asses. I won't even have to take off my boots." She folds her hands together behind her head, giving herself a twist at the waist to make her spine nsap.
"Here, let me have the rest of this conversation for you. You'll be like 'Back off, bitch, this doesn't concern you!" She makes her voice all gravelly sound," and then I'll be like: a woman belongs to no one but herself alone or another she chooses to! So back the fuck off!" and you'll be like, 'Make me!' and then you'll send your friends to attack me because you're a pansy! And then I'll kick your friends ass, then I'll kick YOUR ass, and how about we skip to the part where you just leave and nobody actually has to get their asses kicked?"
Eve was certainly brave. Michelle didn't know for sure if she really was a superheroine, but she had the backbone of one.
The redhead, Alisha, looked from the man, then to Eve, then to Michelle as Michelle strode up behind and to thje right of Eve. Recognition kicks in suddenly and she looks pleadingly at the two of them.
The big vampire looks at Eve and at Michelle, then pushes the girl against the brickwork roughly. "Let's go, Vanessa. Later for her." He points at Alisha, then begins to walk away. The blonde, Vanessa, follows.
"You ever lay a finger on her like that again, I will break every bone in your hand."
Eve's reply is cold after the shove. "Every. One." She watches them go. She's not going to make a scene of it any more than she has to. Her eyes go backj towards the girl left behind.
Alisha has descended to sitting against the wall, looking down. "I should have known…I should never have left him…" she says softly.
Michelle approaches awkwardly, unsure of what can be done. She seems safe, but what happens tomorrow, or the next day? Or next week?
Eve moves towards her, of course, sitting down beside her. "I'm going to give you my number. You go home and call me tonight when you get there. Right away. Then we'll figure out how to keep you sade from those assholes. Okay?"
She glances to Michelle.
Alisha takes the number with trembling fingers, then looks to Michelle as Eve does. "I've never seen you before."
"I'm…new to the city."
Something clicks way back in Alisha's eyes. "May I…have your number? Do you have a phone number?"
Michelle raises an eyebrow, but takes out a slim card, handing it to the girl. It says simply "DR. MORBIUS" and a phone number. "You can write her number on it, as well."
Oh no.
Eve looks back and forth between them, then covers her face with her hand to hide the amused smile.
Alisha slowly rose to her feet, looking at Michelle, then at Eve before nodding. "I'll head back to the club. I should be safe there."
She bows slightly, then begins walking towards the stairs up to the club.
Michelle smiled wryly to Eve. "See? No eating people…" She stopped. "What's that smile for?"
"That girl is gonna try to climb into your pants, probably," says Eve, carefully.
Michelle looka at the stairwell, then at Eve. "That's nonsense. She doesn't even know me."
"I did all the talking and she forgot about me immediately and liked you. She likes what she likes — no shame in that — and this is a fetish scene and club. Of /course. she's into you. She doesn't have to know you to wanna. I mean, look: you're wearing skintight leather in a fetish club. Come on." She shakes her head, then adds, "Okay. Let's get out of here."
Michelle rolls her eyes. "I think you are making far too much out of nothing." She points to the other end of the tunnel. "Let's leave that way. Too much…activity in there."
"Yeah, well, we'll see who she calls, won't we?" says Eve.
And then down the tunnel she goes.