milliways_bar | (no subject)

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Milliways is up one vampire Slayer, wandering in from the staff wing with her nose buried in a book.

No, this is not as rare a circumstance as you might believe: the book in question is a Watcher's Diary from the 18th Century, and the history of Vampire Slayers happens to be Mel's very personal area of dorkery.

Without once looking up from her book, she swings by Bar, picks up a pint of nog and a plate of fried paradoxes and finds her way to a table in the middle of the bar.

And there she remains.

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"Why don't I just continue doing what I love, or why don't I want to go hunting suckers?" Sunshine says, just to be clear.

"Second one," Mel says. "I get not giving up your thing. I still have my job."

"Maybe it's just a question of job security?" she says, wryly. "That high turnover rate is no joke."

"I was lucky once - once - and they want me to work for them. I only survived because the vampire didn't expect it to work, either."

That... wasn't a good night. Ugh.

Mel considers this, and accepts it with a one-shouldered shrug.

"Maybe different. If I don't do it, no one else can."

"That's essentially what they told me," Sunshine says, looking uncomfortable. "Just that we're losing the war, and we need every bit of help that we can get, or else the suckers'll be running the show in another century or so."

"I have... well, in essence, my nickname is more accurately descriptive than most."

That's greeted with a raised eyebrow.

"Portable sunlight?"

She huffs out a soft laugh. "Something like that. It's my affinity, sunlight. It just comes with an unfortunate counter-affinity for vampires."

...

"What's an affinity?"

"It's where someone from a magic-handling background draws their strength?" she says. "You get Water affinities, Air affinities, the usual elements, some have affinities for certain types of wood, or metal. Mine just happens to be sunlight, of all things."

"Affinities for one thing will give you a counter-affinity for another. Waters and Airs often become volunteers to fight fires, for example. The hoses work better in the hands of a person with a water affinity, and those with an affinity for air never suffer smoke inhalation."

"Huh," says Mel after some pause to absorb this.

Thoughtfully, she asks; "it common?"

"I've never heard of another person with a sunlight affinity, no. I didn't even know it was one of the possibilities."

"Hnh," Mel says, drawn back and deliberately uncommitally.

Mostly because she's trying not to be all judge-y here.

"Vamps a big problem on your world?"

Sunshine is well aware and unapologetic about her status as a nice, human wimp.

"Though on paper it says we won the Wars, apparently they'll be running the show in another century or so."

If there's nothing or no one to stop them.

"What d'you think?"

Mel has little truck for 'apparently' and 'on paper'.

Sunshine thinks for a moment, before answering, slowly. "I trust Pat. He's one of my regulars, and though he's SOF, he's always been honest with me."

He, Theo and Jesse had just about handed their jobs and lives over to her on a plate, in order to be honest with her.

"And, while I haven't seen the specific numbers, I know that the world's population isn't rebounding like the officials thought it would, and the suckers still hold a significant percentage of the world's wealth."

Her mouth twists and she tears a piece off her cinnamon roll. "I know that I should go and... help. It's just more complicated than that. It's not black and white."

Not with Con.

Mel shrugs, taking another bite of bread.

"Don't know from 'should'. Know I couldn't know I could help and not help - not when I see people dying around me."

"That's just it, though. I never really saw people dying around me. I was a baker, just feeding people and making them happy. A few months ago, though, I... caught a vampire trying to dry-guy a girl a few blocks from the coffeehouse, and I didn't even stop to think. I just ran up to him and killed him."

And that kind of action, without thought or any kind of reason, scares the snot out of her. Apart from the whole if-I-miss-they'll-tear-my-head-off-before-I-get-a-chance-to-correct-my-aim thing.

"I shouldn't have been able to. But they're wanting me to somehow save the world because I got lucky once."

It's a lot to take in, over a short period of time, especially when one has been raised to essentially be a bitchy coward, and has a vampire who believes things could be different between humans and vampires.

"Guess so," Mel concedes reluctantly.

"My brother was killed by lurks. I got it close up."

Also, Destiny. It runs strong in her no matter what she believes.

"I was just a kid when the Wars happened, and the Wars around New Arcadia were relatively light."

The Wars actually propelled it from being a little backwater city to being one of the top 10 places to live in the former United States. It still draws in a lot of refugees.

"I've never really been that brave."

Charlie was brave; he started a coffeeshop in the derelict Old Town by begging a bank for a loan. Sunshine's mother was brave; when she left Rae's father, she had a six-year-old daughter and little more than the clothes on their backs, even though her own family had kicked her out for marrying Rae's father in the first place. Sunshine's boyfriend, Mel, was brave; after a life in a biker-gang, he and his gang volunteered to ride dispatch during the worst of the Wars. He still wouldn't tell Sunshine much of those years.

Mel shrugs.

"Killed a lurk when you needed to. Counts for me."

"My net total impact on the vampire population is nil, which, if I could have my way, would be ideal."

"I..." and this is hard to say. She most certainly wouldn't be able to say it back in her world. It's the equivalent of admitting to committing high treason against every nation in the world. "I saved one. Though I say the honors were pretty even at the time, since he saved me too, he doesn't seem to think so."

Mel gives her a lot of credit for even admitting that.

"Sometimes things turn out complicated."

"Yeah," she says, emphatically.

Really complicated.

She's not thinking about him. Really. Just tearing a cinnamon roll to pieces.

"I suppose I might as well try and learn more about fighting vampires, whether I decide to throw my lot in with SOF or not. The... group of vampires that one vampire and I saved each other from is still after us."

"Learning's always worth it," Mel agrees. "I'd offer help, but my technique's prob aren't your techniques."

"I have techniques? Run at them with a stainless-steel table knife, hoping that they won't tear my head off before they realize that the stupid human knows something they don't know about the effectiveness of such an otherwise flimsy weapon?"