inbox ∞ meadowlark

[riskless]

@nile.freeman | ■ ▲ ◌ ▼

Comments

[riskless]

a child? not being manipulated, just doing it on their own?

[deadthenred]

It was a vampire. Not really a kid anymore. Just something wearing the body.

[ He tells himself that, anyway. To make it easier to swallow what he had to do.

That's why he has the nightmares. ]

[riskless]

yeah. that makes sense. if they were alive for that long and wrecking that much havoc... they left childhood behind a while ago.

[deadthenred]

Anything else you want clarified?

[riskless]

you found me, sounds more like you wanted to explain for yourself

you go on to be a vampire hunter?

[deadthenred]

What? No. That's not a job.

[ Blade doesn't have a job. ]

[riskless]

apparently they run rampant in your world, i assume someone's gotta take care of them. no buffy the vampire slayers?

side gigs?

[deadthenred]

They don't.
Run rampant.

[riskless]

so what happened in the dream was basically a fluke? one and done?

[deadthenred]

Maybe three times.

[ A pause. ]

No, four.
What's the weird stuff in your world?

[riskless]

so there's at least four vampires

i got stabbed in the neck and woke up a few hours later perfectly fine

[deadthenred]

Most of it was different shit with the same vampire.

[ Baron Blood. It's always Baron Blood. ]

And?
I mean, was it Flash Gordon space science or a natural healing factor?

[riskless]

like a king of all vampires.

spontaneous healing factor. i can't die now. back home at least, this place took it away almost as quickly as i got it.

[deadthenred]

The king's another guy. Haven't dealt with him much.
Everything dies.
But maybe we should talk.

[riskless]

this vampire leader information keeps changing on me.

eventually, yeah. but for now i'm pretty much immortal. i came back from every injury sustained since the neck one.

pretty sure we're already talking.

[deadthenred]

I meant, in person.
If you want to.

[riskless]

sure. i feel like i might be missing something

i'm still kinda new here, so it might be better if you picked a good place

[deadthenred]

[ Here's some coordinates. It's nothing fancy, but there's a table at this diner that doesn't have any cameras on it. ]

I'm free tonight.

[riskless]

ok.

as long as you promise no vampire surprises.

[deadthenred]

If there are vampires, I can take them.

[ But there are no vampires. Just Bucky waiting in a booth. He's recognizable from the dream the same way you can see someone in their yearbook photos a decade on. His hair's long enough he has to have been in New Amsterdam for awhile, and he keeps his arms close, but his eyes are the same clear color.

He is not 95. ]

[riskless]

[ she believes it. though it does make her wonder about vampires here. if any of the displaced are vampires, would they lose their... vampire-y abilities? do they need blood? she spends the walk to the diner contemplating vampires and taking in the walk. ]

[ she slips into the diner, cases the tables, and spots a very familiar face, looking only slightly older than the last time she saw him. she slides into the seat opposite him, raising her eyebrow. ]

You sure you're 95? I promise I won't be weirded out if you're secretly over 100. It won't even be the oldest I know.

[deadthenred]

I turned twenty in 1945. [ And that was the last birthday he got in the proper order. He's closer to 90 than 100, thanks. ] It's not what you're thinkin', though.

[ Whether it's vampires, or something else. ]

[riskless]

[ there's no dramatic wtf, she already knew he was old. ] I turned twenty in 2014. [ she is a child compared to all the old men and old andy she apparently knows, but that doesn't make her childlike. ]

My only thoughts are vampire or immortality, so any third options are definitely gonna need explanation. [ a beat. ] And to be clear, that's immortality without the need for blood sucking.

[deadthenred]

[ He frowns. ]

Immortality and slowed aging aren't the same thing. [ But that's not the point, so he switches the subject. ]

You wanted to know what happened to me, after the war. I blew off my arm in '45, fell into a coma, and when I woke up it was 2015.

[ Which is true, more or less, but he's leaving something out. ]

[riskless]

Technically you never said anything about slow aging till just now.

[ she pauses a moment to wonder if their limbs grow back? has andy ever lost an arm? joe a leg? when she thinks about it, she still has a lot of questions. ]

Cryogenics? [ yes she knows a fancy word or two! ]