bluesuit_handy | EVENT: Part Deux: The nerd patrol meets a vampire

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"I'm sure we could work something out," protested Handy, slipping sideways along the desk in an attempt not to be cornered against it. "And--oh--and I'm not human! I'm probably the wrong temperature!" He gave a weak grin that didn't reach his eyes as he wracked his mind for anything he might have in his pockets that would prove a defense against Eric. He did still have the lamp in his hand, at least, and that might do as a weapon.

"Nonsense. I can tell you are," Eric said with a predatory smile as he cocked his head aside slightly. "I'll be very gentle, I promise."

"You're threatening to drink his blood, and we're supposed to trust your word?" Topher asks skeptically. He's never been that quick to trust. He takes another careful step towards them, holding up his hands in a sort of let's not do anything hasty gesture, even if no one is paying too much attention to him.

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"Can't say I put much faith in a vampire's promises," said Handy, remembering the plasmavore again. Though she hadn't exactly promised to be gentle, had she? More like she'd had her slabs hold him down while she'd stuck a straw in his neck, which had hurt, by the way.

He finally stopped backing away now that he was in a position where he at least wasn't trapped against the desk, forcing himself to hold his ground in the hope that Eric would stop moving toward him if he stopped trying to move away. "Come on," he said, reaching for a calmer tone of voice. "You don't really need it right this second, do you?"

Smirking, Eric nodded. "Yes, I do," he said simply, and with that he stepped right up in front of Handy, placed his hands on the other man's head and gave it a tilt to the side. After a short sniff, just for effect, he quickly dipped his head so that he could take a brief, playful nip at the other man's neck.

Just as swiftly, he straightened back up and shrugged. "Hm. I must have been mistaken," he said calmly, reached up to run his fingers through his hair.

When Eric steps forward, a mix of anger or desperation flares up in Topher. It's less than a week since Adelle was killed in front of him -- even if it didn't really happen, it runs deep with him, and he is not seeing another of his friends hurt.

He's not even thinking as he quickly steps forward, snatching up the metal half of the lamp, not hearing what Eric says before he bonks him hard on the head -- not hard enough to knock him out, but definitely hard enough to give him something to think about -- before stepping back, wide-eyed at what he just did.

Handy's eyes went wide when Eric stepped in toward him, but he was too late to move before Eric had his hands on his head and was tilting it over and this was a bit of a flashback, wasn't it? "No," he said, "Hey--no--no!" He let out what could be uncharitably referred to as a squeak when Eric nipped him and tried to wrench himself out of the other man's grasp.

The next few events happened very quickly. Eric let go of Handy just as he was beginning to struggle in earnest, so that he overbalanced backward and fell to the floor a second time even as he scrabbled at the desk to stop himself. He barely registered what Eric said--'mistaken?!'--when Topher suddenly materialized behind the former vampire and clonked him on the head. And in the next moment, all three of them were plunged into darkness as Handy's lamp hit the floor and shattered, the fire in it going out.

At the impact of the lamp on his head, Eric stumbled backward and cast a murderous glare in Topher's direction. If he were home he wouldn't have thought twice about showing his attacker just how horrible of a mistake he had just made, but he isn't home and starting a brawl in the middle of a dark hallway would not earn him any more friends in the long-run (not that he was concerned about friends, of course, but he didn't need any unwanted trouble).

"That was unwise," he said calmly, rubbing the back of his head. "If I were really a hungry vampire you both would have been bitten already."

Topher freezes up when the lights suddenly go out. Right, so he's pretty sure he just pissed off a hungry vampire before being thrown into total darkness. And vampires have good night vision, don't they? Not good. So very not good.

His only response to the threat is a rather audible gulp, and taking several steps backwards in the dark, holding tightly onto the lamp as if it'll offer him some protection. Somewhere in there, though, his brain registers that Eric acknowledges not really being a hungry vampire, but that information gets lost in the fear of dark and danger and blood.

"Topher!" said Handy, trying not to move so he wouldn't get any of the broken glass on the floor in his skin. "He didn't bite me!"

He reached a hand out for the desk, uneasy even after the revelation that they weren't dealing with a real vampire here. "Maybe if you didn't keep provoking us, you wouldn't have been hit," he said, trying to draw Eric's attention to himself. "Ever think of that?"

Truth be told, he felt more than a little proud of Topher in that moment. Even if hitting Eric over the back of the head hadn't really accomplished anything, and was probably more than a little counterproductive at this point, it had been rather brave of him.

Eric glared at both of them, then ran his fingers through his hair to put it back to rights after that bash to the head. "Humans take everything far too seriously," he said. "Even if I were vampire once more, you would never be in any danger. At my age I could sustain myself perfectly well on just a sip or two."

No bitage. Okay, that's a good thing. Topher tries taking a deep breath. And no vampiring either. Also good. Not that it's totally calming, he did just hit an already somewhat unfriendly guy on the head with a lamp. At least he's on the team with two against one.

"Well, at least we know the abilities aren't connected to the electricity," he points out nervously, because he would very much like to not focus on the blood-sucking or the hitting each other or anything. Sciency stuff is much more calming, and distracting from the dark.

Oh, right, the dark. He's the one with the matches, isn't he? He sets the broken lamp down on the floor and pulls out the matches, lighting one so he can see what's going on.

"Like we knew that," retorted Handy to Eric. "Not from your universe, remember? Last time I met a vampire--well, a plasmavore--she nearly killed me. And I wouldn't have been the first that day."

He squinted against the light of the match, remembering that he had a few candles in his pockets and a matchbook of his own. "Do you need a candle?" he asked, getting them out and lighting one up.

Eric chose to ignore Handy's whining. "No, I can see just fine without anything," he said and finished fixing his hair. "I'll be returning to my room, seeing as I found out what I came down here to do."

Topher lights up the lamp again -- works fine without the glass anyway, although it might be blown out easier, but, well there's not exactly much wind -- and pockets the matches again, standing back up. He's not going to object to Eric leaving. He's not going to apologise for hitting him on the head either. He is tempted to ask Eric what exactly he did come down here for, though, but he's not so much with the talking.

Handy pulled himself to his feet once more, careful with the candle. He could hear glass crunching under him, and hoped he wouldn't find any in his hands later.

"And what's that?" he asked sullenly, not so reticent as Topher.

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EVENT: Part Deux: The nerd patrol meets a vampire

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