"Vampire?"

Pause.

"Damn, girl.  What the hell have you been drinkin'?"

Darius removes the hand that he'd subconsciously placed lightly on Gracie's arm as he'd waited for Chans response... and seeing that she's phycically well enough he returns the sibling huge, thanking God (even whispering as such) that she was ok.

Over her head he finally takes the opportunity to look to the others.

How things had gotten here were beyond him... but the suggestions were sound, sure enough. "Yeah. Let's get you home." He says meaningfully.

Another look is given. "Gracie?" He asks, wordlessly inviting her to join the pair... then on second thought. "Actually. Everyone. Let's go, I'll get you all home." He adds with assertiveness. Sure it might start out a little crammed, but the 4Runner would provide sufficient room to give everyone rides safely home.

Darius seems oblivious to the homeless guy, and more intent on getting everyone (especially his sister) well and clear of this strange acid-trip-like experience. Yeah. They must have spiked our drinks or something back at the Pizza place. I feel ok to drive though. Must have worn off?

Buffy stared after Gabrielle and her fleeing pack of vampires. There was the issue of what was clearly a nest of them, as well as who the mysterious sniper was who'd saved the day...

And there was also probably some explaining to do. Buffy unconsciously whirled her stake in her hand yet again, ignoring her classmates who were picking themselves up after the dust-up. Buffy just stood there, breathing slowly. It had been a long time since she'd had to do anything that demanding. Not even athletics. She sighed softly to herself and turned to face her peers in time to hear Darius.

"Home sounds good. If there's not enough room in your car, I'll walk."

Buffy was sure that, out of all them, she'd probably be safest on her own.

Gracie grins, she is glad that everyone is alright. She looks at Darius "Oh, sure. I can go with you if you want. I will be fine. I am still wondering what the hell those girls were. How can vampires be real?"

She looks at Buffy "No one should go home alone"

Vampires? Likely some PCP junkies or something. They likely arranged to have a hallucinagin laced into our sodas or something. Just having fun with us. Yeah.

"Ok, let's go everyone. We'll make room. It's a big vehicle... there might not be seatbelts enough, but we'll make it work." Darius moves to take the lead in ensuring everyone begins moving away from the scene where it had all unfolded. Best to put distance between themselves and the event, both physically and mentally. Easier to put it away and forget it ever happened.

He strode forward, banishing his own fears and imaginings. He had to be strong, he had to be solid. They'd draw strength from that. Just like the Team during crunch time. Keep them moving. Keep them distracted.

"Plus, did we pay? They likely think we dined and dashed back there. Can't even call them, because I have to wait until tomorrow to get my phone back." He prattles a bit, trying to stear topics away from the insanity and back towards the mundane.

Garrett composed himself, as Mel ran a hand through his hair. Blood stained his hand from the cut on his arm. He clucked his tongue at the sore spot and looked at the others. That new bouncy blond girl had ninja reflexes, from what he had seen pinned beneath that snarly, bite-y woman who was either way too kinky or trying to taste his insides. Whoever that girl was, bouncy blond being a “Slayer”—or whatever—probably explained it.

Garrett barely saw the homeless man who milked Melba for change until she said he was probably the money-wanting vamp-type. “If that vampire just wanted my money,” he said pointing to the side of his neck the she-vamp had tried to munch, “then next time I’ll just throw my wallet and they can buy all the stupid liquor they want.” He arched a drawn-black eyebrow and folded his arms.

He looked at Melba, “Wait, so we’re just going to go home after that like it was just a near-death rumble during football practice in an alley?” His question was loud enough to be heard by the whole group; mostly he targeted the bouncy blond war machine. Garrett took a step in her direction to get her attention.  He squinted his eyes and pursed his lips, “What’s going on here? What’s a Slayer?”

Buffy paused and looked at Gracie and Darius. She stared. Seriously? PCP druggies? Did they not notice the inhuman strength? The horribly disfigured and fanged faces? Buffy heard Garrett speak up and nodded her head. At least someone wasn't going to ignore this...well, she didn't plan on it, but...



Buffy closed her eyes. Of course, this. Great. She turned to him.

"It's exactly like it sounds."

Buffy hefted the stake for emphasis.

"I put the sharp end through a vampire, they go poof, day is saved. Yay."

She looked around, her face saying she didn't really want to talk about it, but Buffy also knew the inevitable tide of questions was coming...

Chan was already starting feel like she was losing her mind, and suddenly seeing Buffy enshrouded in an aura of red certainly wasn't helping any. On the one hand the 'Slayer' had probably helped things from being a lot worse than they were, but on the other hand nothing strange had happened until after she met Buffy. Not being sure exactly what to do, Chan simply rubbed her eyes and looked away hoping that her eyes were simply playing tricks on her, and then decided that she really hadn't seen what she thought she had. "Vampires aren't real outside the realm of fantasy, they aren't. They can't be." She said sounding an awful like she was trying to convince herself. It was far more comforting to think that she was losing her mind than it was to believe that monsters actually existed.

She fished her cell out of her purse and handed it to Darian. "You can use mine... It would be a shame if we couldn't go back again..."

Melba sighed.  "Obviously they're real, we just need to separate the real from the fantasy, niet wahr?" To Garrett she said, "Okay, so maybe we don't just go home, then what?  We need to consider, work out sttrategies, whatever, but (a) why reinvent the wheel when Buffy here is already riding a Harley..? and (b) neither of us is exactly Zorro."

Darius was on the verge of accepting his sisters phone, still trying to herd everyone... until he watches Melba and Garret succumb to Buffy's words. In his mind, Darius hears the imaginary sounds of a nine engine train crash. He'd lost too much momentum, and everything was spiraling.

"It doesn't matter if Vampires are real. Darius snorts. It wasn't so difficult to believe, even if he was convinced that's not what he'd seen. At least he hoped not. They were biblically real. Demons too. So why shouldn't they be real?

"What matters is that we just went through a bit of tauma, and standing around discussing it in the streets won't do anyone any good. Firing off fifty million questions at Buffy won't help either Zoro." This last he adds for the sake of Melba or Garret no doubt. "Give the girl some space. Give the whole scene some space. Everyone just breathe.

"We'll all go home, and relax. Think about this if you must. Decide what's important. Then... tomorrow maybe, if you still NEED to overanalyze what just happened... maybe we should all gather and talk about it." Apparently Darius was willing to concede whatever at this point in order to expedite getting everyone safely home and off the streets. He vainly hopes that by morning everyone will be willing to dismiss it all, and focus on the good and forget about their nightmarish encounter.

Of course, he believed that about as much as he believed a PCP Junkie could juke light lightning.

Gracie normally agreed with Darius but he seemed to be just trying to blank it out. "Darius. We need to talk about this. Something really weird just happened and I could use a drink and not a soda but something stronger. I don't want to ever see those things again but if they are real, I want to know about them."

Unseen by the group, another observed their conversation.  Clive Whitlock discreetly shoved a polished wooden stake back into his coat pocket.  He listened quietly from the shadows.  Vampires in Savannah.  It looks like they were right, after all!  Special attention was paid to Buffy.

Hmm.  She's here, too.  Silently, almost like a shadow himself, Clive slipped away.  He smiled to himself, wondering what tomorrow would bring...

Buffy looked around the group. There was definitely wavering back and forth on issues that needed to be discussed. But not here and not now. Buffy felt the adrenaline draining from her, leaving in its place a longing for sleep. Buffy just wanted to leave today behind her. She wanted to just curl up in bed and pretend it never happened.

But, she knew that it did, and that they all now had to be on alert...because they'd pissed off quite a few fanged faces tonight. She looked at Darius.

"I'm with you. Home could be good. We can talk about this tomorrow...somewhere private..."

They didn't want to risk any vampire or vampire wannabes hearing them. Or worse, fellow classmates hearing them and ridiculing them for being crazy.

The next day

Another school day came and the classes seemed to drag.  One thought loomed obsessively in the kids' minds: talking about what happened.  Eventually, lunch time finally arrived.

Surprisingly, Chan found the private spot they needed: the art studio on the West end of the "Fine Arts" building.  The art teachers would likely hit the Gryphon Tea Room or the downtown branch of "A Taste of India".  Chan had near unlimited access for her art projects.

Which meant a relative hour of privacy!


OOC:

Process what happened.  One quick scene, followed by a surprise "Stinger", and we'll call it an Episode!

"So", asked Melba.  "What's the skinny?  They're vampires whether that's Le Fanu's opiates on legs, Stoker's evil undead immortals, Martin's predatory aliens, Mattheson's infected or Anne Rice's poor misunderstood blood junkies.  So what does that mean?  How do we kill 'em and how do we recognise 'em?"

Gracie walks into the art room. She had never done anything artistic but then she was like a piece of art, wasn't she? She was not sure she wanted to be here but something told her she should.

She looks at Melba "So, you want to know everything, don't you? You mean you have not researched it all yet?"

Melba shrugged in a manner reminiscent of jello.  "Of course I want to know everything.  I haven't researched it because I assume most of the published sources are rinddreck, each author makes a point of saying the others are all wrong.  I'm guessing that Buffy, on the other hand, knows."

Chan already had her head in a sketchpad when everyone arrived, and only looked up to wave at Darius. She sketched the vamp leader as she had appeared during the fight. It still seemed completely unreal to Chan and she fervently wanted to believe what they'd seen was a lie. However the truth was slowly seeping back in, and she wondered exactly how she had known how much trouble the kid in. "I think that we can rule out friendly vampires entirely. It reminds me more of the old myths than anything modern." She said without even looking up.

Darius had showed up late. Even the prospect of meeting Gracie and walking to the meeting with her hadn't proven motivation enough to get him headed in the right direction early enough to be on time (or even close to it).

By the time he arrives, begrudgingly, the conversation already seems to be underway. The star athlete wears a frown, and even though he returns his sisters wave and moves to lean against the wall by Gracie... it's clear he's not too happy about being there for the meeting. Likely he was there with the strict purpose of ensuring his little sister didn't caught up in some sort of cult nonsense. Mom and dad would kill me if that happened...

Buffy walked in shortly after Darius. She walked in with a very cautious look on her face, though inside she felt like she was walking towards a firing squad. It was one thing to argue about the reality after they'd just been attacked. It was another to have this kind of discussion now when the others had gone home and had a chance to rationalize things.

It wasn't vampires, it couldn't be. They don't exist!

'If only...' Buffy wistfully shook the thought away as she took a seat on a table and looked around at the others. She wasn't quite sure what to say...or if she should even say anything to start this little pow-wow...

"I don't know any thing about vampires to know what might be myth or not and I really didn't care before. So, could it really be true, I mean really, how could they exist and the press not be reporting it, they find out everything else" she could tell Darius didn't want to be here but was, probably for Chan. She knew how he felt for his little sister and she would protect her also.

"Two scenarios..." suggested Melba.  "One: we try to explain it away, look for logical explanations and they come and hunt us down, eat the likes of me and turn the cute ones like Garrett into more vampires (unless they're Martin-vampires in which case that's impossible).  Two: we believe they're vampires and it turns out they're some new kind of sorority and we end up looking like idiots.  Now, for myself, I prefer looking like an idiot to being dead.  What about the rest of you?"

Garrett meandered his way behind Chan, craning his neck to spy on her sketch pad. Thumb to his mouth, other arm crossed around his middle, he said, "Wow, if you had it any more right I might piss my pants right here." He pointed at the furrowed brow, "I was about to get a close up with this much ugly when ..." Garrett took a step to the side, "Well let's say I had to scrub the bloody pulp out of my hair. Not fun. Emotionally scarring."

He looked to Melba. Letting out a dejected chuckle, Garrett raised his hand. "Me, I don't want to be dead. And beside miss blondy bulging biceps over there I'd say I was the closest one to becoming all dead-y. No way there was anything Anne Rice about those femm-monster mashes, so I wanna know the real situation here."

Tightly folding his arms, Garrett stood next to Melba facing Buffy. "We can guess all day, but my guess is you can put us out of our misery. What are we dealing with? And what happened to the one on top of me?"
This message was last edited by the player at 23:02, Sat 02 Apr 2011.

Buffy looked at Garrett first. 'Ms. Blondy Bulging Biceps'? Really?

"Hey! Watch it with the words, mister..."

Buffy lapsed into silence for a second before looking around at the room. How did one even begin to tackle this? It seemed impossible. To Buffy, it felt like every time she'd ever had to do a class presentation...combined. She sighed and looked around yet again.

"Look...I don't know what you all want me to say. I'm not going to tell you that it was all fake. That you're being Punk'd. No Ashton. No cameras. They weren't druggies or drunks, either. They were vamps."

Buffy paused.

"And it's not like I know everything about it...'cause I don't. I really truly only know the basics. Like, if you stake them in the heart, they die. Poof, cloud of dust. Nasty stuff."

She looked at Garrett again.

"As for the one on you...I honestly don't know. I can tell you it wasn't me, though."

Buffy lapsed back into silence.

Melba nodded,  "So, stake through the heart... does it have to be wood and does it have to be through the heart.  Would an arrow do it, or a crossbow bolt... or a pencil?  Anything else?  Decapitation? Sunlight? Fire?"

She paused then said... "As for the one on Garrett... I think somebody shot it, but then that raises the questions 'who', 'why' and 'with what'?  I'm guessing somebody knows and it ain't Buffy and they ain't telling us... and you know what, that makes me wanna turn green like Lou Ferrigno."