WEEK 1

[strangerpeople]

WEEK 1

[Well, it seems that you are all here now. Stuck, with a power, and with two individuals who are...very different from one another, inside an old, decrepit home. There's not much to do now than to stew, look for food, and figure out what the hell you're going to do to pass the time - if not get out of this place entirely.

There has to be a way, right? And what the heck happened to the fifteenth name on the list that was handed out? Is there someone else here? If so, who are they? Do they even exist?

So many questions to answer-and, it seems, more than enough time to try to figure them out, hopefully.


There are 15 (?) strangers in this place.]

Comments

[joinhands]

[Krone thought she knew it wasn't wine, but that answer doesn't narrow things down very much, so she has no idea what kind of favor the overwhelmed man could actually want. She pulls up her legs in her arms and rests her chin on her knees.]

Sure, I can find some space in my busy schedule.

just so everyone knows in advance I AM **NOT** GOING TOWARDS VAMPIRISM-AS-AIDS-METAPHOR HERE

[yonosoymaria]

I had expected vinegar, or... I don't know what, really. But it smells like it's blood, Krone. If I'm going mad, then perhaps it isn't, but...

[Helplessly, he lifts the bottle, tilting it towards her.]

The cork is secure - be very careful, it only occurred to me it could be contaminated after I'd opened it. Just a sniff near the opening should be enough to tell, it was enough for me to know.

Mods!!??

[joinhands]

[Well, Krone can't read the subject lines, so she's getting up and marching over with a pretty flat lineface. She remains standing as she reaches down with one hand to get the bottle and grips it by the neck, deftly pinching the cork.]

[strangerpeople]

[Well, in this case, Eric's mind has not led him astray.

It's definitely blood Krone smells.]

[joinhands]

[Okay then she gives it back.]

When you said human monsters, I never dreamed you were being quite so literal.

[yonosoymaria]

[He accepts it, and lets his head fall back, and squeezes his eyes shut tight. It is hard to look someone in the face when revealing that paperback-horror nightmares are a simple fact of his reality.]

Human and inhuman. I've... even at home, men of science do not want to understand there are worse things than simple monstrous humans out there. I've not been completely forthcoming, and... I understand if you already think I am a madman. But there are creatures which feed on life by drinking blood. They walk as humans do, speak as we do, but they cannot create, they exist only as imitations of life, greedy and desperate for what they can never have.

[He pauses, swallows hard, and then continues.]

A place like this is a typical lair for one which has "lived" some time. Stored blood, evidence that there were human servants but those are now gone... well, it doesn't look good.

[joinhands]

I think you could use a real drink, but worry about you, being—cu-cuckoo!—[gesturing "screwed up in the head"]—never.

[She puts one hand on her hip.]

Don't misunderstand me. I'm only questioning you so far as— [Her other hand is placed flat, orthogonal to the plane of her face - a "secret", except it's obviously just for show, with no one else in the room to overhear.] In my world, known evil beings are physically a hundred percent one or the other!

[She sits down on the easy chair that is closer to the head of the couch this time, leaning down with eyes glittering like cut lapis lazuli.]

So? What parts are real? The garlic? The wooden stakes? [She claps her hands together. It's Christmas.] Wait!!!! Don't tell me!! Are we in an overcast region because they'd sparkle in direct sunlight??????

[yonosoymaria]

[For a moment, when he opens his eyes and looks over at her, Eric looks far younger. He's shocked, and not only that, he's hopeful. The best reaction he'd expected was polite disbelief, not an admission that her world, too, was stalked by things which weren't meant to be. There is no hint of mockery, just her usual exuberance - as compromised as he is, simply being believed has him overwhelmed.

He manages to rein himself in, and pushes himself up to sit facing Krone, relief now the most clear thing about his posture and expression. To talk about his work, to talk about the things he was raised to confront - he can do this. This can get his feet back under him.]

I confess that sparkling is something which I've never heard of, but... garlic does work to an extent, as a repellent. There's very little that won't die if you put a stake through its heart and remove the head - [and for the first time in months, there's only a little hitch in his voice after those words, only a moment remembering what he'd been forced to go through with - ] and they do have distinct physical characteristics. Perhaps not one hundred percent, but... fifty to sixty, if you know what to look for.

[He clasps his hands together in his lap, having carefully set the bottle to one side of his feet. His father was always better at explaining these things, but he can try....]

The teeth are the most immediately recognizable tell, but their eyes tend to be either red or golden in color, and most have pointed ears as well. Unless they've just fed, their skin is corpselike, pale or ashen. Their most human forms are usually far taller than any human. I don't know if the vaudeville duo running this place are vampires, but it's possible that they're servants of one, with their consistent references to a "lady".