Vitae: 3/10
Willpower: 2/5
Julius had to tell his mother the truth. He didn't want to, but he couldn't lie to her like this. Not when she'd always been straight with him, not when she was the only person left in the world that cared about him.
Not when she was all he had left.
If he lied to her now, where would it end? With beings like the Man of Steel and Wonder Woman around, and their equally powerful foes, when would Julius feel strong enough to protect her? With monsters like The Joker around, when would Julius stop being afraid for the people connected to him?
How tempting would it be to use the mind-altering powers he (probably) had to keep her safe and separated from his new unlife?
Even the thought of it was a thrum of sickness through Julius' unbeating heart.
Leaving his phone on his bed, he changed into one of his own outfits, and slid his desk out of the way of his door. His room wasn't the biggest, but having a twin bed gave him just enough room to have a desk in front of the (now sealed) window.
Stepping out, he found his mom sitting in the living room area, just outside his door, with her walker standing next to her. When he poked his head out, she let out a long, relieved breath. Then she pointed sharply at the couch next to her, all without saying a word.
His mom was one of the few people in Gotham with a naturally upbeat demeanor, it was part of what made her so good at her job, half of which was motivating her trainees to push through the pain. When she got quiet like this, it generally meant she was feeling very strongly and trying to hold that in.
He sat down, unsure of how to start, especially since he wasn't sure what her mood was like underneath. When she didn't speak immediately, he took his best shot. "Hey mom. How, uh, how was your day?"
Her eyes narrowed dangerously. "My day? My day was just perfect. I woke up to a lovely note from my son, telling me something wild had happened last night, in the sloppiest handwriting I've ever seen from him. And then when I tried to check on him and make sure he was okay, his door was locked, and when I got my spare key for his room, it turns out that he barricaded it from the inside. And sealed his window, I could see from the balcony. Oh, and don't forget how he ignored all of my calls. And when he finally comes out of his room, eleven hours later, he asks me how my day was."
They both let her rant hang in the air for a long few moments, while she caught her breath. Since she seemed to be waiting for some kind of reaction from him, he took a deep breath, and started in. "I'm sorry mom, I didn't mean to upset you, I just ran out of time, and I'll explain everything now that I'm up."
She just reached over and pulled him into a shaky hug. "In a minute. I just- I was so worried about you. I spent the whole day wondering if you'd been shot or worse, and imagining that when I finally called someone to break the door open I'd find you still on the bed, with a halfway stitched up bullet wound, or something equally stupid."
Julius hugged her back, letting her familiar presence ease the freshly-remembered pain of the bullet wounds that had claimed his life yesterday.
The thought of lying to her teased itself across Julius' mind again, seeing how upset she was by the mere thought of him getting hurt so badly. He crushed the thought, having already resolved himself to taking the straight road with her.
After a while he pulled away, and gave her a small rueful smile. "Alright, so, you're not going to like anything I'm about to say, but I just want you to remember that at the end of the day, I'm still here, and not going anywhere."
Having recovered some of her pep after venting some of the steam, and more importantly getting to hug him (though he was strangely cold), she at least tried to crack a little joke. "Julius, I've avoided alcoholism for thirty-four years, please don't cost me my streak."
It was funny, or at least both of them thought so, but other than a small chuckle from him, it fell rather flat. There was too much weight in the air.
Julius took another deep breath, and decided to just tell her the story of his night chronologically. How he and Cody had used his car to act as couriers for a drug deal, the biggest they'd ever been involved in by far. And it was just weed, none of the hard stuff.
There was a lot of silent tension through that part of the conversation. She knew, and he knew she knew, but being pretty sure that's how the bills were getting paid and hearing him admit it to her directly were very different things emotionally for her.
Then he told her how things had gone bad, and how he and Cody had been shot. How he'd woken up in the morgue, so full of strength and so impossibly hungry. How he was still hungry even now, as he regaled her with his tale. How he healed his wounds, broke out, and fled into the night; the men he'd attacked for sustenance, and even his passing out at dawn.
She leaned back on the couch. "I don't even have words for this, Julius. You're seriously telling me that somehow getting shot turned you into a vampire?"
Julius shuffled uncomfortably and nodded. It sounded so much dumber when she said it like that, in part because of the word vampire. He'd been avoiding it for a reason; vampires weren't real, they were video game bad guys and Hollywood villains.
Of course, a century or so ago most people would have said someone like Superman wasn't possible, but still, Superman was demonstrably real and vampires were just a myth. He wasn't unwilling to believe the facts, but it was difficult to swallow, even for the one living it. He didn't blame his mom for having such a hard time.
"Honestly Julius, you're pale and cold and telling me crazy things… I don't want to, but I have to… are you on drugs?"
He couldn't even be offended, he did just tell her he'd been selling, so he'd prove it to her. He walked over to the kitchen, ignoring her concerned look, and grabbed a knife.
"Julius, please, put the knife down."
"Sorry about this mom, but this is the only way I have to prove it without breaking anything valuable. Just a little cut on the back of my arm; if I was just tripping all night so hard that I forgot I was using, I'll have only a tiny cut and we can get me clean."
"Julius please don't hurt yourself, please."
He ignored her, and cut himself. As promised, it was a very shallow cut, though he made it two inches long so it was more visible. Walking back over, he held his arm up so she could see the cut, and tried to will the injury closed.
His blood shifted again, and now more used to it, he was able to feel that it also became less in the process. Moments later, after perhaps the most wasteful blood expenditure of his short unlife, the two inch nick was gone.
Healing: -1 Vitae.
She nodded slowly, and leaned back again. "Okay, okay. I believe you now, just, please never hurt yourself like that again."
He sat down sheepishly. "If it helps any, I don't feel pain very well anymore, that cut felt like a little pinch or a needle."
The annoyed look she gave him made it clear; that did not help at all.
After assuring him that, beating heart or not, he was still her son and she would always love him… she said she was exhausted and needed some time to process things, and left him to his own devices.
She made him promise three times to be careful if he went outside before going back into her own room, though.
That had been a long conversation, several hours at least, but even then it was only eleven. Julius had most of the night left, and since he'd resolved to let Cody rest, that meant he had nothing pressing to focus on.
He might have spent more time agonizing over that decision, but he was so emotionally exhausted after talking to his mom that he just didn't have it in him at the moment. So, focusing on something practical it was.
First, he could start researching Gotham's myriad mask-wearing vigilanties and criminals. The best place for that was MetaHumans Online, a forum dedicated to all things cape and crazy. Not everything on there was trustworthy, but given how little exact information about a lot of the world's biggest events and most powerful people (the ones with capes and costumes) actually made it to the general populous, it was as close to a reliable resource as Julius could get.
Second, he could go hunting. He was very hungry, again. Not enough that he was afraid of losing control, but it wasn't pleasant. Even though he knew mom would let him bite her if he asked, Julius didn't have it in him to do so. It was traumatizing enough hearing her make certain noises when his father had been alive, Julius didn't have it in him to cause them himself. He'd sooner burst his own eardrums. So, that left him with going out for a bite to eat. He didn't know where would be good, since he didn't want to just keep leaving people unconscious outside bars, doing that would eventually become a problem. He'd have to think about it more after he left, if he decided to prioritize feeding.
Third, he could start researching Vampire lore. A lot of the old myths were on the internet, and there were wiki pages for a lot of popular vampire characters and settings with vampires. It would be a lot of reading, but it would give him some idea of what kinds of abilities he could expect to have available to him, and thus make things more efficient for him when it came time for testing his abilities out. And even if he didn't have some of those powers, knowing that they could, theoretically, be available to him would at least tell him what other things he could work towards developing. This would also tell him what weaknesses he should test to see if he has.
Each of those things were going to take the rest of the night to properly accomplish.
[ ] Get on MetaHumans Online and start researching Gotham's cast of costumed crazies. Knowing who Julius needs to be careful of (and a bit about them) is the best way for him to stay safe.
[ ] Go hunting; having the energy to actually use his powers is the best way to keep himself and his mother safe. Plus, if he wants to experiment with his powers later, he'll need the energy for that too.
[ ] Deep dive Vampire lore. Knowing what he could possibly be capable of would be a great way to focus his efforts going forward, and may raise extra opportunities for deception as well.
[ ] Write In (Requires QM approval)
This vote will be open until tomorrow night, about 20 hours from now.
