trans_9 | There are worse things out tonight than vampires

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There are worse things out tonight than vampires

Taking some friendly advice, Zouichi had come down to visit the Media Library and get a rundown on some advanced human interaction. He should probably have asked which movies would be best suited for the task, however, because there were quite a few available in the pod room.

He picked a title at random, instead -- an action movie about a half-vampire marauding about with bladed weapons fighting other vampires.

Well, there seemed to be plenty of magical or mythical beings aboard the ship -- maybe this would make good research material.

He kicked back and began to watch.

[Doing this mainly to meet up with Kanaya, but feel free to come in if you feel the need to watch cheesy vampire flicks.]

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This wasn't the first time Kanaya had contemplated visiting the Media Library, but it was the first time she'd actually managed to get there without being distracted by something else of interest on the ship. Today, though, she found herself in need of a good book... or in need of some other distraction.

Cautiously, unaware of whether or not it was occupied, she opened the door to the pod room. Upon seeing the film in progress and the room's occupant, she winced. "Ah, pardon me," she whispered, glancing between Zouichi and the film. What was going on there?

Zouichi turned in the direction of his unexpected visitor, fishing around for the Omnicomm. When he found it, he typed out a message on its screen, showing it to Kanaya.

Hello. Can I help you with something?

"I -- I did not know that this room was taken. I apologize --"

Kanaya paused, apparently more interested in what was going on in the film than in whatever reason Zouichi had for typing instead of speaking.

"May I ask what you are watching?"

It's no problem. I was not in the middle of anything important.

It's some sort of film about a vampire. However, he does not get along with the other vampires because he is half human. Also, he rides motorcycles.

That was an extremely poor summary of a Blade movie. But clearly the motorcycle part was important.

While preparing for her work assignment on Earth, Anwei had watched a broad range of vampire movies from the planet. Some of them were quite good, although she certainly wasn't cut out to be a Hammer vampire bride. She would never be able to carry off having those huge, jutting, gleaming white fangs.

But she heard the word 'vampire' from whatever was playing in one of the Media Library rooms. Curious, she stuck in her head.

"Have I seen this one?" she asked the room in general and the back of the head of the occupant.

Wait, what? That voice was definitely --

Zouichi turned abruptly in his seat. It was Anwei, all right. No chance of slipping out, either, since they were the only two people in the room.

Are you a fan of vampire movies?

Anwei blinked at the omnicomm screen, but quickly figured it out: Fuyu had said that Zouichi wasn't talking because of the spells. But still? If there was a proper memo system in place on this ship, she would have been writing a very nasty one to Magic/Mystical in her head right now.

"More a student than a fan - I watched them for information," she said, coming another few steps into the room and pausing. On the screen, a half-vampire drove a stake into what appeared to be a man, and he dissolved into a shower of ash. "And I'm pretty sure this half-vampire character is just made up."

"Vampires?" Kanaya was vaguely familiar with the human term for rainbow drinkers, but there was still something curious about this. "How is it that he is a half-human? Is that possible?"

Kanaya paused a moment, then decided there might be an easier way around this. "May I join you?"

This movie is supposed to be fiction, he offered. However, I was hoping it would still offer some useful background on vampires.

She wasn't asking about the Omnicomm, but then, she had been there when he'd started to figure out what was going on. Still, he'd been hoping to avoid this meeting for a little longer, at least until the Magical/Mystical department could sort out his condition.

So what brings you here?

According to the film, his mother was bitten before giving birth to him, Zouichi typed. But I still don't understand why that would eliminate all the negative side effects of being a vampire. It seems more likely he'd be born as a misshapen mutant than a fully-functional superbeing.

Way to make with the light conversation, Zouichi.

Certainly. Pull up a seat.

"I would say - if I'm remembering it correctly, this is the first in a series - that the older vampires: the dry ones, the ones who sit in the dark silence and make their plans, they are accurate to what I know about real vampires. Which, granted, is mostly pieced together from media recordings and their own testimony - and both might be lying."

She looked sympathetically at Zouichi. "Just stretching my legs and my neck after spending too many hours at the computer. I poke around at the Media Library, seeing what things are here that never existed on the Earth that I visited. I'm also looking to see if there are any fictional films about the Ohm, or the Daligig for that matter."

Zouichi blinked. So there are actual vampires on Earth, where you come from?

He shook his head. I don't think it's very likely that you'll find much information about the Ohm here. Alex mentioned that fictional works pertinent to the people aboard the ship are systematically removed.

"I was sent to Earth by the Vizsnunishne to find vampires - or rather, a vampire. And I interviewed offworld ones before I went there. There was this one alien vampire, flonk.flonk.flonk.," (she clicked her tongue after every 'k' to indicate the dots), "and he was quite well-mannered and willing to talk about himself and his species, except he just kept staring at my neck, much too hard." She demonstrated what this looked like - eyes huge and locked on Zouichi's throat - and then smiled to dispel the expression.

She didn't twitch, but she felt something inside her relax at his next words. A second confirmation that no records of her more - colorful - life experiences would be showing up here. "Why would Stacy not want us to have all the information we can get about the Ohm?"

It was a little disturbing how well Anwei pulled off that facial expression.

I do not know. The rationale behind pulling records of our personal lives is, apparently, that the ship wishes to avoid giving us knowledge about what will happen to our worlds in the future. It stands to reason that something similar would hold true for our experiences aboard the ship.

In fact, I rarely hear even crew members discuss the Ohm.

She'd seen that expression in the mirror often enough.

"What will happen to our worlds in the future? So the idea is that even if our realities are destroyed, there are parallel ones that run closely enough that such information would be strategically useful. Ah, I can see why Stacy might want to hide that. Think how tempted people would be to find that dimension just like theirs - or just like theirs but better - and stay there."

She leaned on the back of the flesh couch with one hand. "People just seem to get so - distracted. Nobody seems to want to keep any sort of record of what happened, they just keep it all in their heads. And our heads," she tapped her forehead with one finger, "are not the best place for them. Why isn't there a standard precis on the Ohm that's loaded into every omnicomm when we get them?"

I'm sure that not everyone would choose to do so, but I suppose the possibility is there. He paused. I can't see much problem with a crew member choosing to live in a similar dimension if their own was destroyed. Where else would they go?

Am I to take it, then, that you've made some progress in getting some solid recordkeeping going on the ship?

"The problem would be if we found such a dimension, and everyone was tempted to leave the ship before the Ohm are defeated. Which would be grossly self-destructive of course, because the Ohm could just show up and wipe them out, but - some species do not take well to being kept. Humans are one of them."

"Some," she said, see-sawing her hands in the air. "Billy Cranston in Engineering - have you met him? He seems very energized - put together an excellent inventory database, and I'm trying to get it adapted elsewhere on the ship. And he's also set up a timekeeping program that syncs over the omnicomm, so if someone leaves and comes back we can at least guess how long they have been gone. It's a slow process, very slow."

Obviously, once all the information about the ship was in one database format, it would be ever so much easier to move it elsewhere - if she had to.

He let Anwei's words sink in for a moment. I do not think that possibility is very likely, he said finally. There is no guarantee that any dimensions they might choose to stay in would be free from threat. Also, in theory, crew members could leave the ship when we arrive at a mission location and choose not to return. However, I have heard of no such instances of this occurring.

I have not, he said, But if you approve of him, I will consider him highly recommended.

Another vampire was summarily dealt with onscreen.

I do not understand why the vampires explode.

"I am probably underestimating how tightly the crew has bonded with each other, and with the people who may or may not be waiting for them in the pods" she admitted. "I am used to an environment with people constantly shuttling on and off."

"He's a department head, so far as I know he's standard human stock, and he's managed to survive and remain sane on this ship while carrying an incredible workload," she replied dryly. She had definitely noticed how often Billy was in Engineering, and how little he seemed to sleep. "He doesn't need my recommendation."

"I think the explosions may be a cinematic addition. While a biological analysis suggests that a vampire needs to absorb energy with incredible efficiency - they are depicted as being able to live very extended lifetimes on a rather minimal diet - I don't think they would really release it all at once like that. But on a movie set, if the vampires were not exploding and turning into ash, the hero would soon be waist-deep in dead vampires. Which would rather inhibit his movements. Hopefully if there actually are exploding vampires on board, Security has non-lethal tools to subdue them."

Some of them may also be staying aboard out of a sense of responsibility, said Zouichi. Or perhaps they simply had nowhere else to go, as in his case, and staying aboard the ship seemed like the most likely way to one day return to their own worlds.

Human... stock? He'd never heard that particular expression before. Many human professions require extraordinary workloads. But it is true that those careers don't usually involve fighting interdimensional aliens.

If I were waist-deep in dead adversaries, I would move, said Zouichi, blinking. Anyway, it would take a veritable mosh pit of them to pile up that high. Usually they only reached knee-high, at best.

"I have...thought about that. Thought about my responsibilities and my duties...for the moment I don't see any great contradiction between what I am doing here, and what I would be doing back with the Fleet."

Stock was a slaver's term of course; it had just slipped out. "Humans are one of those species that seems to blend with others very easily, it's even in their media," she said, gesturing to the half-human on the screen as he fought, leather coat flaring around him like a cape. "I can only hope that the humans here have been chosen not just for their talents, but for their endurance as well."

Anwei put both elbows down on the back of the couch, resting her wide chin on her hands. "Yes, but it's part of the film - part of its design - that the half-human hero is standing still at the center of the screen while his enemies come to him. It happens again and again. Or he moves and they are struck down in his path. The smoothness of motion, that is a part of the movie. It wouldn't be quite as graceful if the actor was constantly hopping over dead bodies."

He nodded. Yes. For now, it is an extension of my usual mission.

Zouichi followed Anwei's motion back to the screen. Blend...? he asked, blinking in confusion. A beat.

Ah! Now he appeared visibly embarrassed, looking away from the screen and Anwei both. After a moment, he began typing again. I wouldn't really know. However, I believe that in this case, no... blending was involved.

Do you think so? he asked. He had to step over dead bodies all the time, but he'd never really considered whether it would be more or less graceful to do otherwise.

Kanaya stepped into the room proper. "That does seem like a recipe for the creation of an abomination," she mentioned casually; apparently, this was light conversation by her standards. "Nonetheless, fantasy is its own beast, is it not?"

"I feel much the same," she said, thinking of a certain oath she had taken.

"Yes, if I recall his mother is bitten, just before he is born? I imagine that if that worked in reality - or the reality I know at least - people would be hunting down vampires to take their saliva and dose pregnant people with it. This character seems to have been considerably enhanced by the exposure, with very few negative side effects."

She laughed. "Maybe. Or maybe the actor had sore feet and refused to hop. I spent several thousand hours studying Earth media before I went there; it rather ingrained their film techniques into my memory. I'm looking forward to exploring the Library in more depth, once I have more free time." With a half-smile, she asked, "Are you enjoying the films so far?"

I suppose some suspension of disbelief would be required for an escapist action film, he admitted. It's a little difficult. I cannot help picking it apart a little.

I'm Zouichi, by the way. I don't believe we've met before.

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There are worse things out tonight than vampires

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