vampthropologist (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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piper902020-09-23 08:17 am
vampthropologist) wrote in piper902020-09-23 08:17 am
Entry tags:
[network] [video] [locked to new hires]
[the man before you is tall, long-haired, quite pale, and wears tinted glasses. He takes them off as he speaks, revealing glowing red eyes; astute viewers may notice that his nails are dark and oddly-shaped, more like claws.]
Good evening. Or morning, or afternoon, as the case may be. My name is Beckett. I'm a recent arrival. I'm making this post by way of introduction and some explanation, since my nature may be, for some of you, cause for concern.
I am what most of you would call a vampire. I am clinically dead, resurrected by supernatural means and sustained by the blood of the living. That being said, I'm also not bad at chess, a decent poker player, and a wonderful dancer.
[He pauses briefly, for laughter. That was An Joke. He is Putting You At Ease.]
Good evening. Or morning, or afternoon, as the case may be. My name is Beckett. I'm a recent arrival. I'm making this post by way of introduction and some explanation, since my nature may be, for some of you, cause for concern.
I am what most of you would call a vampire. I am clinically dead, resurrected by supernatural means and sustained by the blood of the living. That being said, I'm also not bad at chess, a decent poker player, and a wonderful dancer.
[He pauses briefly, for laughter. That was An Joke. He is Putting You At Ease.]
I am given to understand that I'm not the first of my kind to arrive here, although the young man who preceded me appears to have vanished. I'm not sure how much of an impression he made. I'd be happy to answer what questions I can, within limits. To start with the obvious one: Jorgmund has seen to my nutritional needs, so I won't be asking for volunteers.
[He means to smile reassuringly, but mostly just bares his teeth.]
Any other questions?
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[Nora doesn't seem like she feels threatened. She's slouching at one of the cafeteria tables and gesturing at him with a limp french fry to underscore her point.]
Re: video
I thought it best to get things over with, as it were. Honesty is generally considered the best policy, though I'll admit I'm rusty in that regard.
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[She likes Kevin, so that comes out as fondly amused rather than disdainful.]
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At any rate, it's a pleasure to meet you, Ms...?
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Yeah. He was cool.
You should probably ditch the whole "Mr. Whoever" thing. Makes you sound like a headmaster.
[Implication: Beckett is not cool.]
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Totally.]
Did he ever mention his clan to you?
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[Honestly, he might have and Nora just forgot. Either way, the result is the same.]
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video
He doesn't feel that way anymore. Dan's too open-minded a person to allow himself to pigeonhole an entire race (species?) over the bad actors. He successfully drank and partied and screwed and drove his way out of feeling any kind of anger at all. He talked himself out of it, in his head, with every vampire he encountered.
This is an individual. Just an individual. They aren't responsible for anything in my life.
So. Dude sounds fun! Dancing! Poker! The eternal hobbies of the cheap and lively. Or would-be lively, if not for being technically dead.
He hops in on video, a scruffy-looking guy with a baritone voice that sounds as fried as lard in a skillet.]
Are you a decent poker player who wants to play against another decent poker player?
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[Beckett's voice is cultured and just a touch high-handed, in an unconscious way. Someone accustomed to control, even if they only choose to exercise it over themselves.]
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[The clash in their voices is almost comical, but Dan's all friendliness.]
But no one ever improved none without practice.
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[Beckett is trying for friendliness, quite earnestly, but the predator peeks through around the edges. It's been three hundred years since he interacted with the living as anything but prey, and habit is a hard thing.]
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[Dan might be flirting or he might just be Like That, even he’s not sure. He sees the predator peeking through and, well, that’s fine. Bloodlust and habit are a hell of things, he won’t judge. He just won’t let his guard down.]
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[He smiles, quite satisfied with this outcome.]
A night off trawling through this ridiculous excuse for a library won't impede my progress.
Want me to set up a log?
Ugh, libraries. If there are audiobooks, Dan hasn’t been able to read the instructions on where to find them. Real books give him hives; it’s like being surrounded by dark trees and shadows in a forest late at night, only for his brain.]
Meet you there in an hour? Gives you a chance to meet some other folks first.
sure! i'll hit it up tomorrow though
[It would be a rakish grin if he wasn't discussing, you know, eating people.]
I'll see you shortly, then.
I'll put it up today!
Looking forward to it!
Re: I'll put it up today!
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Tons, but let’s start with, how are they meeting your, uh, dietary restrictions?
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[He gives a resigned shrug.] It's not ideal, from any perspective. But I'm not going to starve to torpor or final death in this godforsaken place.
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... we definitely don't want anyone to die.
[ There's a definite grey area around what, exactly, "dead" is, at least in this case, but obviously sentient and therefore entitled to continued sentience. ]
I'm going to hope its synthetic. They can grow meat on some words, so why not blood?
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[He's not, really, being long accustomed to his unsavory nature. But it's the sort of thing he's sure you want to say to mortals. He's trying.]
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[ It's blood. It's not supposed to taste good, to his mind. Not a lot of blood sausage goes on the menu in the 'burbs of Connecticut where he grew up. ]
If it makes you feel better, the human food is pretty gross too. Calling it cafeteria food is an insult to cafeterias. Calling it food is ... debatable. Does yours taste like depression? Because that's what most of the meals I've had taste like. It's like I suddenly have this deep understanding of Calvin from Calvin & Hobbes, because when they scoop something onto my plate it just plorps off the spoon.
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[In answer to the other question, he tries another small, scarier-then-he-means-it smile.]
It tastes dead, is the best way I can put it. If it didn't work, I'd say it was past its shelf life.
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[ He’s used to explaining his references to the uninformed. ]
Yeah, uh... I wouldn’t know about that. My food’s always dead.
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[He's making conversation, no one's freaking out, this is going very well]
Yes, but you can tell when it's gone off, lost its capacity to nourish? The same sort of thing. Dead.
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[ It's a conversation, to be sure, although the comics portion is definitely preferable to the dead food part. ]
I don't know if I can tell when it's lost it's "capacity to nourish". You can DEFINITELY taste when it's gone bad though, moldy or sour or whatever.
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I definitely wasn't just trying to use the word rabble-rouser.
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