Vampire prom
Jun. 30th, 2011 11:10 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabethIt is the end of the school year, and we all know what that means: proms full of vampires requiring you to burn down the school gym. That wasn't quite what I dreamed, but that was where it started. The next year the vampires did not go to the official prom, they were sneaky and ran a meaner-and-cooler pre-party version in a broken down building. The kind of thing where you couldn't just buy a ticket and show up, you had to know someone who knows someone, and be the right kind of person.
... the right kind in this case being gullible, but they got enough takers to significantly increase the teen body count at the last high school based minute.
So the year after that there was me. I turned up at this party. The building was a wreck, but interesting music could be vaguely heard, and lots of cool, or at least leather clad, people were drifting in. So I get to the entrance hall and the first step is a doozy. Mark from high school arrived too and we wondered how to get past the gap where the first flight of stairs had fallen in already. But then one of the cool people arrived and solved it by just stepping off the edge and landing with bent knees. Mark reckoned if they could do it he could do it and jumped.
... in real life Mark knew physics and was not in fact that stupid.
In the dream he landed, folded, rolled, and was lost to sight, followed by a croaking declaration of 'easy!'
*facepalm*
So I found handholds and climbed down the side where the stairs had been.
Once down there was a dance floor, dim flashing lights, lots of people, none of them familiar, at least one in a halloween mask.
I looked for somewhere to throw my coat.
I found Mark lying on a bench staring dreamily up at the ceiling with two neat little puncture marks in his neck and red around his mouth.
I grinned, threw my coat down, and grabbed two guys. I told them to protect Mark. If the one guy protected him, the other would get a pass, and vice versa. Pass from what? I pulled out a stake. And cheshire grinned.
After that things got fighty and vampires turned to dust. It was awesome. So many vamps, so little time. And so few stakes, so I started running out. Plus I was stuck in the doorway protecting this daft teenager who might rise up and hunt me before the night was out anyway.
Then the 7th Doctor arrived. With the Brigadier, in full uniform. And the Rani. In metallic pink.
I was *blinky* even in the dream, I assure you.
But I decided to delegate the Doctor to look after Mark, and the Brig with him. The Rani was the Doctor's problem, since I wasn't going to stake her.
The Brig looked kind of funny. Kind of pale. Also really really young for this era. And, okay, he could have just travelled, but... I checked the Doctor's pulse. Right number of hearts, right speed, right temperature. I asked if he could do this job, and he assured me yes. So I left them to it.
Then I got out on the dance floor with room to manuever.
The guy in the fright mask, the one who looked like Darla's sire the master, decided it was his turn. we fought, I won, I staked him... he didn't go poof. And that was my last stake. Oops?
I backed up and ended up next to the DJs. They were starting the song again. Same song. All night, so far. So I paused to ask them to change the track. It was good, yeah, but on repeat? So they swapped it out for something else on vinyl, on their one record deck, and in the silence I pulled my swords.
:-D
Turns out if you decapitate a vampire and slice the torso in roughly a * pattern it falls apart so bad it can reasonably be considered dead, even without being dust. The master went down, looking really surprised, in a heap of slithery bits. Some of the heart bits I pulled out and flicked away, just to be sure. And then some of his friends turned up with swords of their own. Fight!
With soundtrack from the 80s, cause they only had that one suitable single. School disco from hell.
... until my swords shattered. Either there was magic or I bought them cheap and stainless. It was set at prom age, I might have been that ignorant. Still, not to worry, everyone else in the room had swords, I'd just borrow one of those! So I pick a fat and awkward looking guy, not considering at that time how you'd get to be a fat vampire, and run in, disarm him, turn and swing to decapitate in one move. Rock.
... *boing* Rubber sword! Shit!
I drop it, back up, and start a spell. The problem is I'm 99% sure it'll take longer than I have with all them vampires around me. I keep backing up to buy fractions of a second. A vampire charges forwards, reaches me, raises his sword and... disappears in a cloud of dust.
The Brigadier appears behind him, the proper and somewhat impressively elderly age, white hair gleaming, wearing tweed, leaning on a stick and holding a crossbow. He nods at me, reloading. I nod at him and let the spell rip.
Fire.
And now the vampires are giving it all up as a bad job. They meant to lock their prey in, but they're just as trapped, there's no fire escapes, and lots and lots of pretty flammable things just lying around if you know where to look. For instance, other vampires. Fire shot out my hands, licked up the walls, along the bar, up around the DJ desk. Vampires scattered and ran in every direction. ... except the DJs, who screeched when their vinyl caught fire, went vamp face, and jumped in to attack.
The Brigadier's second crossbow bolt caught one square in the chest, and he tossed me his stick to finish the other one off. It left him leaning against the wall to reload, but needs must. I fenced with the second DJ, unable to really do damage until his sword sliced me a nice point on the stick, and then *foompf*, dust to dust.
So now the vampires were no longer a problem, though the Brig was loaded and ready just in case, but the fire was becoming a bit of an issue. The main stairs were definitely not an option, even ignoring that gap at the final flight. The Brigadier threw me a shopping bag full of I didn't know what and pointed back to the room with the coats, which come to think had little windows way up high, and benches, and hooks on the walls. Right! I went to help the Brigadier move but he said he'd be right behind me and they needed me in there more, so, given the privileged information involved, I went.
Inside the Doctor had more than half way constructed an escape route. Everyone but Mark could have made it out easy. He was still unconscious, tended by the Rani. ... yes, he was definitely having a bad day there. The younger Brigadier, the uniformed one, looked pale and ill and wrong, still. He had backed as far away from Mark as he could, and he wasn't watching the door, just staring at the guy. Probably specifically at the guy's neck. He was sweating. It looked wrong, for sweat.
I checked the shopping bag and it was full of papers. 'Medical records?' I didn't see how that was going to help. But then the Doctor grabbed them and started flicking through at top speed. The Rani stood to read over his shoulder. 'You're here for a cure, aren't you? For the bitten ones, the half way vampires.' I looked at the young Brigadier, and Mark, and grimaced. I was all out of weapons and the guys were still breathing. They were not my problem. Not yet.
The Doctor reassured me, and I figured I could leave this particular problem with him. Then he stopped and asked where I'd got the papers from. I said he'd said not to tell. The Doctor showed me the last page. It was a diagnosis of cancer, and it was under a very familiar name.
I left them to their escape and raced back in to the disco.
Flames everywhere now, and Alistair was not immediately visible among them. Smoke rising to the cavernous roof, the heat was more a problem. Everyone would sweat now, until the flame reached them.
I spotted him still against the wall, slid down it now, guarding the door with his last bolt. I dodged and ran and got over beside him. He yelled, said he'd ordered me to leave. I slid down next to him and said I wouldn't without him. He told me I had a whole life to live, he was old, he had this one last battle left in him. Leave him to go out the way he lived. I yelled right back, he thinks he's old? How old was I? We don't get to be that old. In every generation is a girl, not a woman, not someone old enough to be a Slayer's mother. One last battle - they're always the bloody last. Until they're not, and we get up again. You think the world won't need you tomorrow? How do you know?
So slowly and crawling we drag each other back to the cloakroom, now streaming wet, water crashing in through the top windows. The escape route benches go all the way to them, and if we can dodge the fire hose, there's a way out. I climb, I pull and push, I get an arm around a hook and wave out the window til a fireman notices, and Alistair never loses his weapon. Until the fire crew take it from him.
All out, all safe. And we survived high school. Again.
And in the morning light the news headlines are suddenly full of vampires, caught on a train, boxcar slaughter halted, two in custody, more news to follow. We're not fighting them alone any more. And a hell of a lot of people suddenly need all the knowledge we can give them, and all the leadership.
Even if it's his time, he'll go down not just a soldier, but a Brigadier.
*salutes*
... the right kind in this case being gullible, but they got enough takers to significantly increase the teen body count at the last high school based minute.
So the year after that there was me. I turned up at this party. The building was a wreck, but interesting music could be vaguely heard, and lots of cool, or at least leather clad, people were drifting in. So I get to the entrance hall and the first step is a doozy. Mark from high school arrived too and we wondered how to get past the gap where the first flight of stairs had fallen in already. But then one of the cool people arrived and solved it by just stepping off the edge and landing with bent knees. Mark reckoned if they could do it he could do it and jumped.
... in real life Mark knew physics and was not in fact that stupid.
In the dream he landed, folded, rolled, and was lost to sight, followed by a croaking declaration of 'easy!'
*facepalm*
So I found handholds and climbed down the side where the stairs had been.
Once down there was a dance floor, dim flashing lights, lots of people, none of them familiar, at least one in a halloween mask.
I looked for somewhere to throw my coat.
I found Mark lying on a bench staring dreamily up at the ceiling with two neat little puncture marks in his neck and red around his mouth.
I grinned, threw my coat down, and grabbed two guys. I told them to protect Mark. If the one guy protected him, the other would get a pass, and vice versa. Pass from what? I pulled out a stake. And cheshire grinned.
After that things got fighty and vampires turned to dust. It was awesome. So many vamps, so little time. And so few stakes, so I started running out. Plus I was stuck in the doorway protecting this daft teenager who might rise up and hunt me before the night was out anyway.
Then the 7th Doctor arrived. With the Brigadier, in full uniform. And the Rani. In metallic pink.
I was *blinky* even in the dream, I assure you.
But I decided to delegate the Doctor to look after Mark, and the Brig with him. The Rani was the Doctor's problem, since I wasn't going to stake her.
The Brig looked kind of funny. Kind of pale. Also really really young for this era. And, okay, he could have just travelled, but... I checked the Doctor's pulse. Right number of hearts, right speed, right temperature. I asked if he could do this job, and he assured me yes. So I left them to it.
Then I got out on the dance floor with room to manuever.
The guy in the fright mask, the one who looked like Darla's sire the master, decided it was his turn. we fought, I won, I staked him... he didn't go poof. And that was my last stake. Oops?
I backed up and ended up next to the DJs. They were starting the song again. Same song. All night, so far. So I paused to ask them to change the track. It was good, yeah, but on repeat? So they swapped it out for something else on vinyl, on their one record deck, and in the silence I pulled my swords.
:-D
Turns out if you decapitate a vampire and slice the torso in roughly a * pattern it falls apart so bad it can reasonably be considered dead, even without being dust. The master went down, looking really surprised, in a heap of slithery bits. Some of the heart bits I pulled out and flicked away, just to be sure. And then some of his friends turned up with swords of their own. Fight!
With soundtrack from the 80s, cause they only had that one suitable single. School disco from hell.
... until my swords shattered. Either there was magic or I bought them cheap and stainless. It was set at prom age, I might have been that ignorant. Still, not to worry, everyone else in the room had swords, I'd just borrow one of those! So I pick a fat and awkward looking guy, not considering at that time how you'd get to be a fat vampire, and run in, disarm him, turn and swing to decapitate in one move. Rock.
... *boing* Rubber sword! Shit!
I drop it, back up, and start a spell. The problem is I'm 99% sure it'll take longer than I have with all them vampires around me. I keep backing up to buy fractions of a second. A vampire charges forwards, reaches me, raises his sword and... disappears in a cloud of dust.
The Brigadier appears behind him, the proper and somewhat impressively elderly age, white hair gleaming, wearing tweed, leaning on a stick and holding a crossbow. He nods at me, reloading. I nod at him and let the spell rip.
Fire.
And now the vampires are giving it all up as a bad job. They meant to lock their prey in, but they're just as trapped, there's no fire escapes, and lots and lots of pretty flammable things just lying around if you know where to look. For instance, other vampires. Fire shot out my hands, licked up the walls, along the bar, up around the DJ desk. Vampires scattered and ran in every direction. ... except the DJs, who screeched when their vinyl caught fire, went vamp face, and jumped in to attack.
The Brigadier's second crossbow bolt caught one square in the chest, and he tossed me his stick to finish the other one off. It left him leaning against the wall to reload, but needs must. I fenced with the second DJ, unable to really do damage until his sword sliced me a nice point on the stick, and then *foompf*, dust to dust.
So now the vampires were no longer a problem, though the Brig was loaded and ready just in case, but the fire was becoming a bit of an issue. The main stairs were definitely not an option, even ignoring that gap at the final flight. The Brigadier threw me a shopping bag full of I didn't know what and pointed back to the room with the coats, which come to think had little windows way up high, and benches, and hooks on the walls. Right! I went to help the Brigadier move but he said he'd be right behind me and they needed me in there more, so, given the privileged information involved, I went.
Inside the Doctor had more than half way constructed an escape route. Everyone but Mark could have made it out easy. He was still unconscious, tended by the Rani. ... yes, he was definitely having a bad day there. The younger Brigadier, the uniformed one, looked pale and ill and wrong, still. He had backed as far away from Mark as he could, and he wasn't watching the door, just staring at the guy. Probably specifically at the guy's neck. He was sweating. It looked wrong, for sweat.
I checked the shopping bag and it was full of papers. 'Medical records?' I didn't see how that was going to help. But then the Doctor grabbed them and started flicking through at top speed. The Rani stood to read over his shoulder. 'You're here for a cure, aren't you? For the bitten ones, the half way vampires.' I looked at the young Brigadier, and Mark, and grimaced. I was all out of weapons and the guys were still breathing. They were not my problem. Not yet.
The Doctor reassured me, and I figured I could leave this particular problem with him. Then he stopped and asked where I'd got the papers from. I said he'd said not to tell. The Doctor showed me the last page. It was a diagnosis of cancer, and it was under a very familiar name.
I left them to their escape and raced back in to the disco.
Flames everywhere now, and Alistair was not immediately visible among them. Smoke rising to the cavernous roof, the heat was more a problem. Everyone would sweat now, until the flame reached them.
I spotted him still against the wall, slid down it now, guarding the door with his last bolt. I dodged and ran and got over beside him. He yelled, said he'd ordered me to leave. I slid down next to him and said I wouldn't without him. He told me I had a whole life to live, he was old, he had this one last battle left in him. Leave him to go out the way he lived. I yelled right back, he thinks he's old? How old was I? We don't get to be that old. In every generation is a girl, not a woman, not someone old enough to be a Slayer's mother. One last battle - they're always the bloody last. Until they're not, and we get up again. You think the world won't need you tomorrow? How do you know?
So slowly and crawling we drag each other back to the cloakroom, now streaming wet, water crashing in through the top windows. The escape route benches go all the way to them, and if we can dodge the fire hose, there's a way out. I climb, I pull and push, I get an arm around a hook and wave out the window til a fireman notices, and Alistair never loses his weapon. Until the fire crew take it from him.
All out, all safe. And we survived high school. Again.
And in the morning light the news headlines are suddenly full of vampires, caught on a train, boxcar slaughter halted, two in custody, more news to follow. We're not fighting them alone any more. And a hell of a lot of people suddenly need all the knowledge we can give them, and all the leadership.
Even if it's his time, he'll go down not just a soldier, but a Brigadier.
*salutes*