26th Blood | It came from the Dairy Aisle!

[makemebreakfast]

[Phone | Unfiltered]

[In the evening, just before sunset begins, the groaning voice of a woman comes over the phones. She lets out a long groan once, then pauses for a moment before finally speaking.]If anyone's even still not in that thing...don't go near the blob stuff. It'll pull you right in

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Phone (Hope you don't mind the backtag!)

[walking_nuke]

[Sounding a little unnerved at first.]

I'm still here. Mostly. Had a few close calls.

[A beat.]

You're sayin' that ain't some kinda giant slime?

[walking_nuke]

-Yeah, I guess magic'd explain it just as easily. I was thinkin' "virtual reality" myself.

[makemebreakfast]

I don't know about that.

...whatever that is.

[walking_nuke]

[A beat passes before Balin responds.]

'Kay, you know about computers any?

[makemebreakfast]

Not really.

I know they do stuff and humans spend a lot of time on them.

[walking_nuke]

Eh, well, if you know what'ey are I guess'ats enough to explain'is ...

Virtual reality's basically a recreation of reality in'a computer. I was thinkin' they might have us all jacked into somethin' like that. So this might not even be happening in'a "real world," wherever we are; our minds're just thinkin' we're trapped in some kinda goofy Fifties town where'ey got full control over everything.

[makemebreakfast]

Well then how would they have gotten someone that isn't human into something like this?

I'm pretty sure I could tell the difference no matter what...and if it's something that works on humans it's not guaranteed to work on me.

[walking_nuke]

Well, I dunno. A brain's a brain, ain't it? If'ese guys are stickin' us in'a VR sim an' it's good enough to feel like it's'a real thing, then they oughta know enough about mind-machine interface to get around any differences.

[A beat. Now his curiosity is piqued.]

If you ain't human, what are ya?

[makemebreakfast]

I'm what you humans call a vampire. As such the things I perceive are different than the things humans perceive.

I don't think a machine built by humans could possibly mimic those kinds of things.

1/2

[walking_nuke]

Whoa-holy shit, how many vampires did'is town grab?!

2/2

[walking_nuke]

[Another beat.]

Uh, well-maybe'ey can. No tellin' what'ese guys're really like. Maybe they got enough experience to deal with a vampire's mind. I mean, where I'm from? I fight along side alien races daily. An'ere's hybrids of humans an' aliens runnin' around.

[makemebreakfast]

As far as I've seen there's a number of vampires here. I mean, it's my job to stay on top of these kinds of things.

But I really don't think anyone using machines built by humans could comprehend a non-human mind. Aliens are one thing, but I bet there are plenty of aliens with minds pretty close to humans.

Someone with a mind like that, trying to understand the mind of someone like me...well..I don't think they could do it.

It's got to be adaptive magic in that case.

[walking_nuke]

It is?

[He sounds genuinely surprised that there's a vampire tasked to keep track of all the others.]

There some kinda Vampire Association of America or somethin' I don't know about? Or Mayfield, I guess. I dunno.

Anyway, is it really that different? I mean, at most you guys can't be that far off from'a Eloh or Neph ...

[makemebreakfast]

For me, at least, it's very different.

I dunno if there's some kind of Vampire Association of America...but I've never heard of it.

[walking_nuke]

Eh, well-just kinda seemed funny that'ere'd be a vampire keepin'a ... vampire census. You know, like some of'a more recent vampire movies where there's'a whole secret society thing goin' on.

[Balin then remembers what Arcueid just said.]

Or-maybe you wouldn't. Aheh. Well, there was'at one kid I met-what was his-oh yeah, Merem. He said somethin' about how his world has'is whole rankin' system for vampires.

Anyway, I guess I'll hafta take your word on'at. Wish I knew more about xenobiology, though, knowin'is kinda shit might help figure out how Mayfield ticks.

[makemebreakfast]

Oh, Merem. He's not here anymore...but yea, he worked for the Church so it was their business to know as much as they could and rank all the vampires because for some reason they felt like they could take them on.

I dunno about that. This is less xenobiology and more a mysterious magic or power that nobody here seems to know anything about. It might just be unique to the world its in.