fangednconfused (fangednconfused) wrote in birthrightrpg, @ 2021-11-11 15:25:00 |
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Entry tags: | derek mitchell, npc |
At Least It's Not a Bathroom
Who: Derek/NPCs
What: Legendary Creatures Plot
Where: Las Vegas Convention Center
When: Present
Content Warnings: Violence, Language, Injury, Blood
Derek pulled up to one of the valet stands at the sprawling Las Vegas Convention Center. He usually wouldn’t shell out the money for such an extravagance, but the massive parking garage made him anxious and he was here tonight to enjoy himself. He stepped out of the Chevy and handed the keys over to a gentleman in a red vest, trying not to feel self-conscious about the modest little car. It normally didn’t bother him but he couldn’t help comparing it to the luxury vehicles he noticed around him. The vampire headed toward one of the convention center’s entrances and caught sight of his reflection in the glass. He was there for a relatively small gathering of comic book and pop culture fans, and tonight he decided to honor a franchise that had stuck with him since childhood -- and pretend it had no author to speak of. As such, he was wearing a Hufflepuff cloak purchased from Etsy, a white dress shirt with a black and yellow striped tie, black pants, and black Converse sneakers with yellow laces threaded through them. In his hand was a wand, a replica of the one Harry Potter used in the films. Mostly because he couldn’t find one that belonged to a Hufflepuff character.
He followed the posted signs to the convention hall, loading a QR code on his phone that was scanned by a bored looking employee sitting at a podium in front of the entrance. People milled about, in and out of costume. Derek recognized most of the visual references, and he wondered briefly if maybe he needed hobbies outside of movies and video games. That concern was driven from his head, however, when he spotted the manager of the rival souvenir stand that had taken up residence a few busy blocks down from Derek’s. The vampire narrowed his eyes and approached the merch table they had set up. Why hadn’t he thought of that? “Hey, Trey,” he spoke casually, twirling his wand in one hand and surveying the goods. They sold an inferior product, in his opinion, and he didn’t even want to get started on their lack of showmanship. “This is a sweet gig. You can sit and relax since you’re not too busy.” He picked up a medieval-looking sword and examined it before balking at the price tag.
“Devin,” the other man answered with a smirk. Derek rolled his eyes. He knew that Trey was aware of his name and was just being a tool. His gaze swept critically over the vampire’s Hufflepuff costume before he spoke again. “You might be interested in our newest selection of t-shirts.” He swept his hand over a pile of neatly stacked shirts that, upon closer inspection, Derek realized was nearly identical to his tarot card Odd-i-tees that he had spent days fastidiously designing in Procreate. These weren’t nearly as clever or carefully detailed, but it was still supremely blatant and annoying. “They’re our top selling item,” Trey continued, grabbing a half-eaten Chipotle burrito and taking a bite. The vampire stood speechless as he watched beans spill out and fall onto the plastic tablecloth.
How did one go about copyrighting a t-shirt design? That was something he needed to look into once he got home. Did he know any lawyers that he hadn’t punched? “You can’t even think of your own designs and these Medieval Times knock-off swords suck,” he told Trey, not trying to hide the bitter note in his voice. This guy was so lucky that Derek didn’t still eat people. Maybe he could deliver a warning bite…Once again, his train of thought was derailed by external circumstances, this time in the form of a wave of murmurs, then screams that began issuing from the crowd down the merch ‘alley’. The vampire craned his neck to try to locate the source of the commotion.
Trey set down his burrito and wiped his hands on a brown paper napkin bearing the Chipotle logo. “I heard one of the Hemsworths might show tonight,” he commented. “I hope it’s Chris.” He shrugged and shot Derek a glance that was difficult to interpret. “I find Liam inaccessible.”
If Derek knew one thing, it was screams of terror. This was no Hemsworth hysteria. “Trey, you’re an idiot.” He set his wand down on the table and stepped forward into the surge of people who were trying to make for the exits. He was nearly bowled over by a dude dressed as the Mountain from Game of Thrones. “Giant snake,” he gasped as he grabbed the vampire’s shoulders in a not-so-gentle fashion. “Not a prop!” The Mountain looked over his shoulder and pushed Derek aside, who stumbled and had to right himself against a table full of airbrushed fandom drawings. A giant snake? What could be…? And then the vampire caught sight of a large reptilian tail swinging around the corner. He looked down at his own costume. No, it couldn’t be. Could it? As if to answer his question, the giant serpent raised its head and made eye contact with one of the vendors. The person’s eyes widened in terror, and their entire body seemed to go rigid. When they toppled over and fell to the ground, the screams of the crowd intensified. It was a basilisk. It had to be, but what were the odds? He ran back to Trey’s table and picked up the sword he had been looking at earlier. “I need to borrow this. Gather your friends and help lead everyone out. Tell everyone: don’t make eye contact with it.” Trey dropped his burrito and turned to the other employees behind the table while Derek searched for something reflective. A lightbulb went on his head and he pulled out his phone, turning on the video recording function and holding it up in front of him like a shield. He prayed to whatever would listen that it worked.
He moved through the crowd like that, shouting to everyone he passed to not look at the basilisk’s eyes. Through the phone, he could see that the creature was slithering its way to the main hall. The message about looking away seemed to be spreading, as people were ducking their heads and looking downward as they tried to make their way away from the beast. Derek kept the sword pointed downward lest anyone accidentally ran into the sharp point. That was the last thing he needed, to accidentally kill someone when he had spent the better part of the last year and a half actively avoiding that outcome. The vampire was gaining on the basilisk, who thankfully had to move slowly just by virtue of its size. It was whipping its head around, seemingly searching for something in particular. Derek nearly halted in his tracks when it opened its mouth and revealed lethally sharp fangs that were half as tall as he was. He did not want to meet the business end of those, whether he would survive a bite or not. What would Harry Potter do? The vampire was behind the end of its tail now. He braced himself...and began climbing atop it in an effort to reach the snake’s...neck? Was it called a neck? He needed to focus.
The basilisk didn’t notice his presence. It did, however, appear to be ready to strike at a group of people cowering near a concession stand. “Cover your eyes!” Derek shouted to them as he lifted the sword up with both hands gripped tightly around the handle. With all the vampiric strength he could muster, he brought the weapon down on a collision course with its thick, scaly hide. The sword pierced through a couple of inches...then bent in the middle and snapped in half with a metallic clang, leaving him holding a metal nub attached to a uselessly ornate handle. “Goddamn it, Trey!” Absolutely shoddy projects. The basilisk hissed loudly and swung its head around, causing Derek to topple off of its tail and to the ground. He rolled a couple of times, tossing the useless weapon to the side. Scrambling to his feet, he looked around wildly for something else to use and found absolutely nothing. He felt the serpent’s gaze on him and averted his eyes quickly. He would just have to use his own built-in weapons. His fangs descended and he began running blindly toward the creature. The vampire jumped and grabbed onto what he could, and sank his teeth as deep as possible into the serpent’s flesh.
“Ew ew ew,” Derek muttered, spitting out chunks of basilisk. “Really bad idea.” With his eyes closed, he didn’t see the snake turn its head and snap its jaws at him. One of the fangs pierced his side, cutting through his robe and shirt and sinking into the skin above his hip. The pain was blinding and instantaneous, and he let go off the serpent and fell to the hard ground, clutching the wound. He had forgotten about the venom. Half curling into the fetal position and half crawling under a table, the vampire winced in agony. He wasn’t sure if it would kill him, but it certainly wasn’t doing him any favors and now the creature seemed to be focused solely on taking him out. A moment later, its head crashed through the table and it split in half on top of him. He used his feet to lift one half up as a shield while he pulled up his shirt to examine the damage. It didn’t look too deep and it seemed like his internal organs were intact, but the area around the bite was quickly turning a vivid shade of scarlet that his pale skin normally didn’t take on. Luckily it seemed contained for now, a silver lining of having an underactive circulatory system.
As he struggled to keep the basilisk from attacking him further, he realized that violence might not be the solution to defeating the monster. With his eyes screwed shut, he racked his brain and tried to remember what he knew about the creature that was currently trying to kill him. While he didn’t know a lot about mythology beyond the basics, he did know pop culture. Maybe that knowledge could come in useful after all. What could stop a basilisk? Looking into a mirror, the crow of a rooster. There were none of those around, but maybe...Derek lifted up his phone and went into the Youtube app, typing rooster crowing with one hand. He misspelled crowing as ‘crawing’ but some videos popped up anyway. He clicked on the top one which promised ten straight hours of roosters doing their thing, then flipped the volume up to max and held the device up. ”When you don’t have time to cook, Blue Apron offers…” Fucking ads. “Oh my god, skip!” The vampire mashed his thumb against the skip button and finally the caw-cawing issued out of the iPhone’s speakers. From beneath the broken table, he saw the snake’s tail turn as it began to slither away. He didn’t know if that meant the sound was repelling it, or it had found new prey to target. He really hoped for the former.
Derek began crawling away, gasping from the pain in his side that was made worse with movement. A dark red stain was slowly growing over his white dress shirt. Good thing they came in a pack of two from Walmart. He kept going anyway because there was simply no other choice in his mind. He couldn’t run away and save himself and let the basilisk continue on its rampage. It just simply couldn’t be allowed to leave the convention hall. The electronic crowing seemed to be keeping it at bay for now, but it wasn’t strong enough. He used a booth as leverage to get to his feet and scanned the large room for something, anything. The vampire was starting to go dizzy, swaying slightly on his feet as the venom slowly branched outward from the fang wound. And then a choir of angels could have begun singing at that moment, because Derek’s eyes locked onto a DJ booth complete with a large speaker system. The only issue was the giant serpent was blocking his path. “Okay,” he told himself. “You can do this. One foot in front of the other...just really fast.” The vampire looked down and made eye contact with a woman painted blue and dressed like a Na’vi from Avatar. She gave him a silent nod of encouragement.
He closed his eyes and began running. When he reached the body of the basilisk, he stumbled momentarily before regaining his footing and hefting himself over it. He could feel the hot breath emanating from its mouth, but he was too quick this time. Once he was past the line of fire, he opened his eyes and launched himself behind the DJ booth. Derek could hear the serpent turn and crawl toward him as he searched frantically for any kind of auxiliary cord or something that would connect his phone to the speaker system. The vampire found a black cord that looked like it would fit and plugged it into the iPhone before searching for the volume controls. There was a burst of static from the speakers that made him cringe and cover his ears, but a few seconds later, the rooster sounds began issuing from them in the cavernous hall. The sound was grating and nearly ear-splitting, but it seemed to be doing the trick because the basilisk brought its head upward toward the ceiling and gave a rattling hiss that was nearly drowned out in the cacophony. Several people began to tentatively uncover their faces and watched as the beast flailed, opening and closing its jaws in a futile attempt to fight back. Derek watched in morbid fascination as dark brown fluid began leaking from its mouth and nose. After a moment or so of its thrashing, it became suddenly rigid and still. And then it fell on its side with a shaking thump, its eyes twitching for a split second before rolling back in its head.
It wasn’t until Derek was absolutely sure the thing was completely motionless and was going to stay that way, that he disconnected his phone from the speaker system and clicked out of Youtube. The relief from the sudden silence was palpable. There was an odd sensation in his midsection, and he lifted his shirt again to watch as the wound began to slowly heal, though not without a significant amount of discomfort. He stepped toward the dead basilisk and used his phone to snap a picture of its lifeless form. A couple of hundred feet away, he heard gasps and murmurs as the person who had been felled by the serpent’s stare was lifted up with the assistance of fellow convention goers, a confused and shocked look on their face. The vampire was exhausted and needed to feed. He wondered what the valet would think now. As he walked slowly through the scattered crowd, he could feel eyes on him. Derek returned to Trey’s deserted merch table and picked up his wand and began to make for the exit when he paused and reconsidered. After a split second of deliberation, he turned and scooped up the pile of knock-off shirts, too. Once he was out front and waiting for his car, he composed a group text message along with the photo of the dead snake.
Text to Maddy, Ronnie, Rhiannon, Tasha, Brianna, Ellie, Marsh, James, Celeste, Gabe, Brian, Frankie, Nesryn, Echo, John, Katherine, Ro, Mo, Shimmer, Radek, Penny:
-Just fought and defeated a basilisk at the convention center.
-It bit me and paralyzed someone but the effects wore off as soon as it was dead.
-So there's that.