+ Your imagination can't hurt you! +

[vitaelamorte]

Who: YOU!
Where: The Mindscape
When: starting November 11th
Rating: may be up to R for character deaths
Summary: Navigate challenges to learn valuable lessons about nonviolence, cooperation, and self-sacrifice! Release your inner animal! Read more about the event here, and on the bulletin board.
The Story:




"If you know yourself, you have nothing to fear."
"Working together is the only way."
"Deaths are a necessary part of life, but not all deaths are necessary."
"The needs of the many outweigh the life of just one."

Comments

[hypoxic]

Unless you've filed them down, they aren't the sort of thing one normally finds encouraging.

[He'll stay well out of arm's reach, frowning deeply.]

[vampdetective]

Gotta eat something red to live. Fangs are just part of the package. Not my choice.

[He's a little sensitive about it, admittedly. Part of the whole brooding monster gig.]

I'm not going to bite you. Unless you're an incredibly well-disguised quart of pig's blood, you've got nothing to worry about.

[hypoxic]

[That's exactly what someone would say if they fully intended to take a bite out of him. Monsters don't stop being monsters just because they know how to put on a good face.]

I'm certain that's exactly the case.

[They're not friends. They're so not friends.]

[vampdetective]

[But Fitz.

Angel sighs, folding his arms across his chest.]

Look. I can't make you trust me. I know that. But clearly, whatever is going on here? We're going to have to work together, at least for a little while.

[hypoxic]

[But vampires.]

We've not had time to grow acclimated to the limitations of this setting. For all we know, we're being utilized as some kind of performance art.

[Which implies that he's been tossed into a lion's den to act the part of an errant hunk of steak. It isn't encouraging.]

[vampdetective]

I've never understood performance art.

[Not even a little bit the point, Angel.]

So what do you propose instead, then?

[hypoxic]

Would it be cliche to inquire about garlic and holy symbols?

[Religious garbage, most likely. But he'll learn something from how the vampire reacts to the question, he thinks.]

[vampdetective]

Garlic? Great on pizza. Most holy symbols aren't a problem, either.

[Most.]

Used to be a big fan of cathedrals and convents back in the day.

[hypoxic]

And the bits about coffins and stakes. Also fallacious?

[vampdetective]

Coffins are just Hollywood propaganda. Stakes, on the other hand-- that's real. Beheading, too.

[hypoxic]

Well, there are few things that could manage to remain bipedal and mobile without access to their cerebral functions.

[Why wouldn't it be real?]

[vampdetective]

Not us. At least, not where I come from. A vampire who's been staked or beheaded turns to dust.

[Much the same as what happens when they have a close encounter with fire, but a whole lot faster.]

[hypoxic]

[He squints at that.]

"Dust"? You mean there aren't any corpses left behind?

[vampdetective]

Nope. No blood, no gore, nothing left behind to rot.

[A quick once-over with a broom and there's no trace of them left at all.]

[hypoxic]

That sounds rather convenient.

[It's a little too convenient, all things considered. It strikes him as an easy way to hide details.]

[vampdetective]

Not for the vampire in question.

[He's just saying.]

Makes cleanup a breeze for Slayers, at least.

[hypoxic]

You're hunted, then.

[The way he says "slayers," it sounds like an organized military affair.]

[vampdetective]

With good reason.

[Their numbers were overwhelming as is. If left alone, the body count would be beyond imagining.]

One of the reasons I'm not exactly popular among my own kind. I hunt them, too.

[hypoxic]

That sounds like a good line to use when you want to get people to trust you.

["I'm a good vampire" probably gets them all nice and close.]

[vampdetective]

You'd think so, but wouldn't you know, people aren't that quick to trust a vampire, especially one who kills his own kind.

[Either it's hard for them to believe, or makes them think he has no loyalties-- or both.]