The Library of Babel (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
libraryofbabel) wrote2021-08-24 10:13 pm
libraryofbabel) wrote2021-08-24 10:13 pm
Transitions of Vampire Society in the Modern Era, Early 21st Cen
You’re tapping your finger idly against your knee as you sit in the passenger seat of the slightly dated sedan,1 occasionally glancing over at the redheaded, bespectacled man in the driver’s seat2—a colleague—and then glancing back at your watch, and then the radio, which is on the oldies station.3
“Just a few more minutes and we’ll live in a very different world,” you say.4 “I can’t believe it’s finally almost here.”
The impeccably dressed, young-looking blonde5 in the backseat pipes up: “This was a really great idea, too, Avery,” she says, nodding to the driver. “After all, it’s like—definitely going to be weird for everyone, for a while, so having friendly faces out there should help. I know Liz really appreciates it.”
“Of course—after all, we want to send a clear message to mortals we’re not a threat to be feared and resisted, and the media’s a great way to do that. I’ve got everything set up. I'm just worried about the blackouts, since there's no word from Denver.“6
The other girl in the backseat, with her vivid blue-dyed hair,7 leans forward. "Are we sure Daniel Jericho isn't pulling something? He was really, like, trying hard to recruit me to some effort to stop th—"
The radio screams and the ground shakes, and the car skids across the pavement, tires screeching as your colleague slams the brakes, glasses almost sliding off of his nose. He looks up: “What—“
A building ahead of you—the office you were heading to, you realize with dismay—is ablaze, the roof half-caved in from… something slamming into it, you realize, as you immediately reach to let yourself out of the car. But even though so far it’s been a quiet night, it’s far from quiet now—
You turn slowly, and see the city behind you, the skyline of Los Angeles visible in the distance, and the sky blazing red as—there, something streaking down from above to land in a fiery crash.8 And then another, and another, and you’re already crossing yourself, because, hey, your world might as well be ending again, that might as well just be fucking happening—
“Holy shit,” says the woman in the backseat, climbing out behind you to look, and you shake yourself out of the reverie you didn’t realize you’d quite entered.
You turn to your colleague. “Avery, if there’s any survivors—or for that matter, if we can find out whatever the hell that was—“
He’s already nodding, and taking off his blazer, and you roll up your sleeves.
In the end, at least the majority of the office staff had gone home, with it being late night, with only the couple vetted journalists for your interviews remaining—and one, at least, you’re able to pull from the wreckage to relative safety. And in the top floor, Avery finds the twisted, burning-hot remains of a de-orbited satellite right under the hole in the roof.
You’re all leery of traveling out in the open, after all this, and once you get back to the two women in the parking lot, who seem to be more leery of fire and have clustered close to the building to avoid more falling debris, you tentatively land on the plan of at least making part of the journey back to downtown proper through the sewers, with what salvaged evidence you can carry. You summon your accursed strength,9 pull up the nearest sewer plate, and climb down before gesturing for the others to jump down so you can catch them.
Christ. It’s going to be a long night. You can only hope that Iris, across the city, is safe.10
[1] Yi suspected the car was probably newer than she thought, and that things simply became mid-century upon exposure to the car's driver.
[2] Avery Anderson was good-natured and generally on the harmless side of conspiracy theorists; he was among the colleagues she was quite fond of. To date, she is unsure if the past tense is appropriate or not for him.
[3] "Total Eclipse of the Heart," of all things.
[4] Vampires around the world had organized with the intent to reveal themselves to the public that night. They referred to this as "dropping the Masquerade," the "Masquerade" being the vampire parlance for hiding the existence of the supernatural.
[5] She was someone familiar, but not someone to whom Yi was particularly close; perhaps they had a mutual friend, at best. They were of the same vampire "clan," but Yi had never been one to socialize much with those of the same lineage due to the fact that she found most of them insufferable and they found her a little too arcane and stuffy.
[6] The reveal of vampires' existence had been intended to go timezone-by-timezone, with each area having a central "model" city for the announcement. Los Angeles had been prepared as the Pacific coast's representative.
[7] Samantha Moon was, at that time, a member of the Carthian Movement, a vampire political organization with aims toward modernizing vampire social and political structures, taking inspiration from human societies. Yi would later learn that she was Avery's sister by supernatural blood, explaining their early rapport; Moon would also later join the Ordo Dracul, the research organization Yi was part of.
[8] She would later find out that this was happening all across the world, in the cities selected to be the flagbearers for the effort to drop the Masquerade.
[9] It did not escape Hope's sense of irony that most of BAD END=DEAD END's powerset is within the scope of the powers granted to her by her vampiric curse. Strength had always been the one she was gladdest to have—the only one that didn't by its intrinsic nature infringe on the freedoms of others.
[10] Iris Virga had arrived in Los Angeles at Yi's request, not long prior to that night. Yi had been optimistic about dropping the Masquerade, but had expected she'd need help steering things in the right philosophical direction with Los Angeles being one of the flagship cities. This turned out to be true, but not in the anticipated way.
“Just a few more minutes and we’ll live in a very different world,” you say.4 “I can’t believe it’s finally almost here.”
The impeccably dressed, young-looking blonde5 in the backseat pipes up: “This was a really great idea, too, Avery,” she says, nodding to the driver. “After all, it’s like—definitely going to be weird for everyone, for a while, so having friendly faces out there should help. I know Liz really appreciates it.”
“Of course—after all, we want to send a clear message to mortals we’re not a threat to be feared and resisted, and the media’s a great way to do that. I’ve got everything set up. I'm just worried about the blackouts, since there's no word from Denver.“6
The other girl in the backseat, with her vivid blue-dyed hair,7 leans forward. "Are we sure Daniel Jericho isn't pulling something? He was really, like, trying hard to recruit me to some effort to stop th—"
The radio screams and the ground shakes, and the car skids across the pavement, tires screeching as your colleague slams the brakes, glasses almost sliding off of his nose. He looks up: “What—“
A building ahead of you—the office you were heading to, you realize with dismay—is ablaze, the roof half-caved in from… something slamming into it, you realize, as you immediately reach to let yourself out of the car. But even though so far it’s been a quiet night, it’s far from quiet now—
You turn slowly, and see the city behind you, the skyline of Los Angeles visible in the distance, and the sky blazing red as—there, something streaking down from above to land in a fiery crash.8 And then another, and another, and you’re already crossing yourself, because, hey, your world might as well be ending again, that might as well just be fucking happening—
“Holy shit,” says the woman in the backseat, climbing out behind you to look, and you shake yourself out of the reverie you didn’t realize you’d quite entered.
You turn to your colleague. “Avery, if there’s any survivors—or for that matter, if we can find out whatever the hell that was—“
He’s already nodding, and taking off his blazer, and you roll up your sleeves.
In the end, at least the majority of the office staff had gone home, with it being late night, with only the couple vetted journalists for your interviews remaining—and one, at least, you’re able to pull from the wreckage to relative safety. And in the top floor, Avery finds the twisted, burning-hot remains of a de-orbited satellite right under the hole in the roof.
You’re all leery of traveling out in the open, after all this, and once you get back to the two women in the parking lot, who seem to be more leery of fire and have clustered close to the building to avoid more falling debris, you tentatively land on the plan of at least making part of the journey back to downtown proper through the sewers, with what salvaged evidence you can carry. You summon your accursed strength,9 pull up the nearest sewer plate, and climb down before gesturing for the others to jump down so you can catch them.
Christ. It’s going to be a long night. You can only hope that Iris, across the city, is safe.10
[1] Yi suspected the car was probably newer than she thought, and that things simply became mid-century upon exposure to the car's driver.
[2] Avery Anderson was good-natured and generally on the harmless side of conspiracy theorists; he was among the colleagues she was quite fond of. To date, she is unsure if the past tense is appropriate or not for him.
[3] "Total Eclipse of the Heart," of all things.
[4] Vampires around the world had organized with the intent to reveal themselves to the public that night. They referred to this as "dropping the Masquerade," the "Masquerade" being the vampire parlance for hiding the existence of the supernatural.
[5] She was someone familiar, but not someone to whom Yi was particularly close; perhaps they had a mutual friend, at best. They were of the same vampire "clan," but Yi had never been one to socialize much with those of the same lineage due to the fact that she found most of them insufferable and they found her a little too arcane and stuffy.
[6] The reveal of vampires' existence had been intended to go timezone-by-timezone, with each area having a central "model" city for the announcement. Los Angeles had been prepared as the Pacific coast's representative.
[7] Samantha Moon was, at that time, a member of the Carthian Movement, a vampire political organization with aims toward modernizing vampire social and political structures, taking inspiration from human societies. Yi would later learn that she was Avery's sister by supernatural blood, explaining their early rapport; Moon would also later join the Ordo Dracul, the research organization Yi was part of.
[8] She would later find out that this was happening all across the world, in the cities selected to be the flagbearers for the effort to drop the Masquerade.
[9] It did not escape Hope's sense of irony that most of BAD END=DEAD END's powerset is within the scope of the powers granted to her by her vampiric curse. Strength had always been the one she was gladdest to have—the only one that didn't by its intrinsic nature infringe on the freedoms of others.
[10] Iris Virga had arrived in Los Angeles at Yi's request, not long prior to that night. Yi had been optimistic about dropping the Masquerade, but had expected she'd need help steering things in the right philosophical direction with Los Angeles being one of the flagship cities. This turned out to be true, but not in the anticipated way.