i believe every day's a good day when you paint

[acherontiastyx]

[...so, shortly after breakfast, there's a note posted to the refrigerator door (and well, shoved under Elda's door, all things considered) in handwriting that's come to be really easily recognizable in its jankiness.]

YO. WE HAVE PAINTS. WE HAVE SPRAY PAINT. WE ARE ALLOWED TO DO WHATEVER WE WANT TO THE WALLS AS LONG AS WE DON'T BREAK THEM.

LET'S MAKE THE ACADEMY'S WALLS OUR CANVAS.

BE IN THE ART STUDIO AT 6:00.

[At the appointed time, when those interested walk into the art studio, they'll see that holy shit, Guzma got a lot of paints out of the storage room and put them all over the tables. There's a lot of stuff there, ready for everyone to grab and spread out all over the academy and paint all over everything.]

Comments

[foundfate]

[That is an interesting choice.]

...

Can vampires turn into bats?

[matchbreaker]

What, no, of course not! That'd be silly.

[ Hahaha... ]

But we do have a long standing relationship with bats.

[foundfate]

Why? Er, for the longstanding relationship, I mean.

[matchbreaker]

You can use bats to spy on people and places, and skilled vampires can use them as extensions on our natural abilities. For example, the manor I live in has a network of bats flying around it at all times which convinces humans they don't want to get anywhere near it without them knowing that's what's happening.

... Oh, and if you have enough of them together, you can fly with them.

[foundfate]

Oh! So that must be where the 'vampires turn into a cloud of bats' rumor came from.

[matchbreaker]

Mmmhm! But of course, because the bats are their own thing, you need to maintain the colony near the manor. In the Marker clan, we have our own personal jerky we make for them.

[ This is clearly something she has pride in ]

[foundfate]

...

Don't bats eat bugs?

[That is clearly the biggest problem with a family of vampires keeping a swarm of bats for flying and mind-suggestion purposes.]

[matchbreaker]

Oh, it depends on the species!

[ Nod. ]

[foundfate]

There's species of bats that eat meat?

[matchbreaker]

Mmmhm. Most bats do eat insects of fruit, like you said, [ She's back to spraypainting ] And we do keep some of those, but a lot of them are smaller. There are vampire bats too of course. But there are some larger species that eat birds, lizards, all small creatures like that.

[foundfate]

[Trying to imagine a bat large enough to eat a bird is scary.]

They must be pretty good hunters, to get lizards off the ground and stuff.

But is that why you feed them jerky? To make it easier for them, so they stay nearby?

[matchbreaker]

Mmmhm! Plus if you're traveling with them, you'll usually try to keep them close-by and it's not a particularly comfortable space for them. My husband and son tend to keep several under their cloaks when traveling just in case.

[ And then, because Elda is really boastful ]

Of course, I don't need to worry about that!

[ Whahaha!! ]

[foundfate]

Because of your dresses, right?

[See he gets it! Maybe.]

[matchbreaker]

Nope!

[ And she turns now, smirking. Her fangs are exposed and her eyes are predatory mode. But mostly, she's just boasting right now ]

It's because my control over bats is so good it doesn't matter if their wild or some other clan's, I'll still command 'em.

[foundfate]

[The fangs and eyes do stop him for a moment, but that moment is much shorter than when Elda is being purposefully scary.]

You still feed them afterwards, right? Instead of just commanding them once and then leaving them.

[matchbreaker]

...Well, usually. But if I were to say, take the Reegans' bats for a spell because I was in the area, they'll be well fed anyway, so I'm just borrowing them.

[foundfate]

[He's speaking lightly here, clearly to tease Elda.]

Wow, how bold of you. Borrowing someone's bats without paying a fee for doing so.

[matchbreaker]

The Reegans are bootlickers to begin with. They married their nancy son off into the Brownlicks and Elsman thinks that entitles him to get uppity at the Assembly. I wouldn't pay them a fee if it killed me.

[foundfate]

[Wow those sure are feelings right there.]

It sounds like there's a lot of politics to being a vampire.

[matchbreaker]

Only if you get too caught up in it all. My family, the Markers, was prestigious back in Europe and with all the effort my James and I put into the manor, my children and grandchildren can all live independently comfortable lives. It's climbers like the Reegans or people like the Brownlicks up north who tend to play politics more. Complaining year after year about beans in humans' diets or the birth rate, like they can change those things.

[foundfate]

I'm not sure how beans really affect that much, but alright.

[It sounds like a mess, and he's glad he doesn't have to mess with that kind of thing.]

[matchbreaker]

There are some people who are convinced that beans help increase human's clean blood flow. Some of those fogeys are concerned about what all the sugar and fried food in your diets is doing to your blood.

[foundfate]

That sounds like the kind of thing that would need a medical study to be proven true or not.

[But if Vampires live in secret, then they're probably not funding very many scientific studies.]

[matchbreaker]

Probably, yeah! [ She laughs. ] There's one of two families who are in with the farmers of Japan, but I don't know about scientists.

[ Three cute purple bats are now there. ]

[foundfate]

[Watanuki is done with his masterpiece, so he moves to a new spot near Elda and Starts on a new one.]

It would make sense. If you're long-lived, then you might as well get involved with the people who are making the future.