open | one of those nights that started off so damn good.

[saget]

[ there's a tiny, five foot tall redhead (vibrant redhead) creeping down the corridors of the ship tonight. she's not exactly sneaky, and she's armed with a stake. that's right, a wooden stake that's clasped tightly in her right hand, looking more the picture of sheer nervousness than the lethal threat she has the very real potential to be. ]

Please be vampire weirdness, please be vampire weirdness. [ one might hear her chanting under her breath in the most hopeful voice she can muster through her fear and uncertainty.

careful, though! she may scream, run, or lunge if approached suddenly... or approached in general. possibly d) all of the above. ]

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[transferee]

[Allison has been kind of on and off the boat but currently she's on it and this girl seems pretty freaked out so she's going to offer an awkward smile as she approaches her.]

There are vampires here but they aren't responsible for this, I'm pretty sure.

[saget]

[ lottie screams. it's a loud, shrill scream that involves dropping the stake and waving her hands frantically in the air. she should probably pick up the stake or run, because this girl could totally be a vampire, but she fails at being sensible.

sometimes. definitely right now. (she's working on it.) ]

[transferee]

[O-oh.

That's very loud.

Allison holds her hands up, trying to show she doesn't mean any harm.]

Hey, hey, hey, I'm just trying to help, I promise.

[saget]

[ yeeeeaaah, sorry about that. but she at least stopped screaming and is trying to calm herself down, hands clutched tightly together in front of her heart. ]

Okay. Okay. Say I believe that. ...but if you really want to help, you'll had me my stake.

[ a vampire wouldn't give her back the weapon she'd use to kill it with, right? ]

[transferee]

[Stopping screaming is good. And look, as a measure of good faith Allison is grabbing that stake and handing it back to her.]

Better?

[saget]

Yes. Thank you.

[ she clutches the stake to her chest like it's a prized stuffed animal, something that'll bring her comfort in trying times. ...which, it sort of is. ]

...so, you're not a vampire. That's good.

[transferee]

You know about vampires? [Well that might at least help with the adjustment here. Maybe.]

[saget]

I'm a Vampire Slayer. Of course I know about vampires.

[ she says it indignantly, as if people are supposed to be able to take one look at her and tell that she's one of the chosen many. ]

Are you a Slayer?

[transferee]

I'm not. I know Buffy, though. [She didn't realize there were many slayers to choose from, though.]

[saget]

Slayer ally or just groupie? Do we have groupies?

[ who in their right mind would want to pal around with a bunch of girls who killed things and could break you in half? but hey, stranger things have happened. ]

[transferee]

Ally, I guess. I never heard of slayers before Chicago but I come from a family of hunters.

[saget]

Define hunters.

[ because now that she's a slayer and clued into the wonderful world of demons and things that go bump in the night, she knows that hunter might not mean someone who gets trigger happy during deer season. ]

[transferee]

We focused on werewolves specifically but the supernatural in general.

[saget]

So you've seen one, a real werewolf?

[ all charlotte's had the pleasure of seeing is other slayers. lots and lots of other slayers. ]

[transferee]

Several in fact. [She may sort of have a habit of dating werewolves the way Buffy has a habit of dating vampires.]

[saget]

Wow. That's... I don't know if that's cool or really scary. [ she laughs, tucking an errant strand of too red hair behind one of her ears. ] Would you listen to me? Scary. I'm a Slayer! I shouldn't be scared of stuff that should really be scared of me.

[transferee]

It's okay to be scared. I mean, it can be kind of scary, sometimes.

[saget]

Slayers used to die a lot. [ the mythology and history the slayer was one of the things she'd managed to get filled in on during her short slayer tenure. ] There used to be just one. One girl in all the world, a chosen. She alone... You get the picture. A Slayer would die and another one would be called to take her place. Some vampires even made it a sport — you were a legend if you managed to kill a Slayer, and apparently our blood is some kind of vampire aphrodisiac.

[ she shrugs. as real as this reality is for her, sometimes it just sounds like a farfetched bedtime story. ]

There's a lot of us now. Hundreds, with new girls being called every day. I guess it takes some of the fear away knowing that you're not alone, that there are other Slayers around to have your back, you know? Like, I'm not the Chosen One. I'm just one of many. I don't have to fear dying so much.

[ then again, she doesn't know the full extent of the slayer organization drama or how some of the girls are being hunted. she's blissfully unaware. the biggest her world ever got was five minuets of humiliating fame on america's funniest home videos. ]

[transferee]

Still, even with a lot of you it's dangerous. You have to be careful.

[The Argents teach vigilance above almost all else. If someone gets bite they have to make the tough calls. That's their lot in life. They have one another's backs to a certain degree but you have to be able to stand on your own.]

[saget]

Maybe...

[ she trails off, unsure. ]

But I don't think being a Slayer means you have to slay anymore, you know? Why can't I be something else? I shouldn't have to put my hopes and dreams on pause because some mystical cycle has decided I now pack the kind of punch that sends sousaphones flying across the football field.

[transferee]

It's true, you should be able to do whatever you want. My dad didn't tell me about the family business for a long time -- I think because he wanted me to have the chance to be something else.

[saget]

I didn't find out until after I wound up on America's Funniest Home Videos. Who gets activated in the middle of a halftime show? Me, apparently.

[transferee]

If it helps, I discovered my boyfriend was a werewolf during a winter dance. I think it's probably not as uncommon as you think. High school and the supernatural make for a weird mix.