Growing Up Vampire [IC]

[Dr Archeville]

What?

Wat?

"Vas?"

To Jack & Taylor's surprise, the look on Archeville's face could only be described as "stunned confusion" -- head tilted just a tad, the brow lightly furrowed, eyes looking beyond them, and the mouth just a bit agape.

But soon it passed. "Vell... you two certainly did not vaste any time, eh?" he said with a chuckle, "but... before I can even begin to make any sort of assessment, I vill need to know more about you two. Medical history stuff, und de like. Und do not vorry," he held his hands up, "I am not going to start right avay mit de probes und de electrodes und all dat 'freaky' Super-Science stuff. Just some basic qvestions, und a few basic tests, taking your temperature und blood pressure und veight."

The Doktor walked over to one small work station and began to pull basic medical exam tools from the drawers. "Computer, fangen an zu notieren; gesichertes und verstecktes Faltblatt*," he said to the air next to him, "Now, my first qvestion is, just how long haff you two been in your present situation? Und here I refer both to de pregnancy -- or vhatever it is -- und your own parahuman states."

* "Computer, begin recording; secured and hidden folder."

[alderwitch]

"I think I'd prefer the 'freaky super science stuff'." Taylor said with what sounded like resignation but she headed dutifully forward to have her vitals taken as she elaborated, "Both my parents are doctors."

Unlike Jack, Taylor's body temperature remained in the range of human normal unless she was currently exposed to extreme climates. She'd never tried to take her temperature in sub artic conditions but she had no idea if she regulated there as well. Most likely the good doctor would be testing that too. Her blood pressure was low but not unhealthily so, while her heart rate was on the high end.

"I have no idea - if I really am pregnant - how long its been. All four tests I took were positive but it could still be a curse. There are weird curses out there... Anyway, t can't have been that long, right?" Taylor frowned, her brow furrowing, "Chronologically in this dimension, I've been Phantom for over a year. About a year and a half, but I spent some length of time training in one of the transitive dimensions. No more than five years, no less than three by my guess. So... four and half to six and a half years as Phantom? I don't get sick, don't age, and can take a nap in deep space. My body actually fluctuates in and out of shift with prime subconciously and regenerates. I haven't had my period since then so I figured that was one of those things that was frozen like my age. Apparently I was vastly mistaken."

Taylor shifted, trying not to gesture with her hands and instead turned to watch the monitor curiously, "I have been tired lately, but I started getting teleport enduced vertigo around Christmas."

[Avenger Assembled]

"Four years," said Jack quietly, having looked over at Taylor to make sure she was finished speaking. "I became a vampire four years ago. I've been clinically dead ever since. I distinctly recall the moment of corporeal death during my transformation, the sensation of gradual numbness, stillness, and then...reawakening. I don't have a heartbeat. I don't breathe except by my will. I don't even need to breathe to talk," he added, demonstrating by not doing so in the slightest. "I don't have blood of my own. What I consume dissipates within hours, when it's not being used to substitute for other fluids. I frankly have no explanation as to why my eyes and mouth have lubrication besides blood; it's not a question I've ever been able to fully answer. My body is generally at room temperature. I rarely have involuntary physical reactions anymore, though it has been known to take place." His recitation was cold, almost clinical in its own right.

[Dr Archeville]

Archeville perked up a bit when Taylor mentioned her parents were both doctors. "Are sey, now? Vhat fields?"

The Doktor went about taking some basic and routine readings, making small "hrm" noises as he checked this and that, and nodded along with what his two "patients" were telling him.

My, my, this is a head-scratcher!

Unclean! Incinerate them both!

After muttering a bit in German, Archeville stood back and gave them one more look-over, then turned slightly to face Taylor. "Vell... I vould take de teleportation-induced vertigo as a sign dat someding is 'off-kilter' mit you, as dat is von of de more common side-effects pregnancy induces on a metahuman. However, your regenerative abilities, und de lack of menstruation, indicates dat you haff not merely ceased aging biologically, you haff ceased aging chronologically. Dat is to say, your body appears fixed at de moment you became... vhat you are now, restoring itself vhen damaged until you return to vhat you vere, und I vould assume requiring no more nourishment dan you did at de moment you vere changed."

"Vhich," he continued, "presents problems for any attempts at impregnation: you should not be able to get pregnant now, because you vere not pregnant sen."

"Und as for you, Jack," he pivoted slightly to face the other half of the conundrum, "from vhat I can tell, de only biological functions you can express are vons under your conscious control, such as vhen you force yourself to breathe or move, but not involuntary vons such as a heartbeat. In addition, any sperm mitin you should haff died off long, long ago, as it appears -- based on mein studies of de skin samples I took months ago -- dat you haff no true cellular activity. So not only should you incapable of fertilization, you should not even be able to... 'rise to de occasion', as it vere."

[alderwitch]

Archeville perked up a bit when Taylor mentioned her parents were both doctors. "Are sey, now? Vhat fields?"

The Doktor went about taking some basic and routine readings, making small "hrm" noises as he checked this and that, and nodded along with what his two "patients" were telling him.

"My father's an anesthisiologist, my mother is a trauma surgeon. They both work at the hospital. Actually, so does my brother in cardiology. Three doctor Chuns in the family." Taylor said with a slightly rueful tone to her voice. Her discipline was considered a 'soft science' a little indulgently by her right-brained family. She had griped many, many times to Jack on the car-ride home about that fact.

Taylor nodded along with the doctor's explanation as that was along the line of what she had surmised of her condition herself. Her lips parted to respond when her brain caught up to Archevielle's lightening quick summary of the vampiric condition and she briefly boggled at him.

"Hey, the rising is perfectly fine. More than fine, really. Exceptionally good." Explaining supernatural hijinks, easy. Talking about her sex life and she always turned into such a ninny. Taylor made a somewhat strangled noise at that, her cheeks burning bright pink as she shook her head desperately. She turned a pleading glance to Jack as she made one last ditch attempt for recovery.

"There's no problems with any of that is all I'm trying to say."

[Avenger Assembled]

Jack squeezed Taylor's hand momentarily, a sign of his repressed tension, before he answered the doctor levelly. "I am capable of simulating a variety of human bodily functions," he said as if he were a well-programmed android, softening as he went on. "I've been told it's part of the curse. A way to forever simulate human behavior but never really...experience it. As well as a way to further the seduction of the innocent. Scientific expertise on the topic is...rare."

[alderwitch]

Taylor threaded her fingers through Jack's, squeezing them in return as she cast him a grateful glance. She had been expecting a good deal of personal questions but that didn't make it any easier to field them. In a steady voice, although her cheeks still remained flushed with color, Taylor slipped into the realm of metaphysics,

"There are ways for vampire to father off spring on human women. Most folklore is easily explained away as excuses for ill-gotten offspring on unwed mothers but there is a kernal of occult fact to it. It is possible, even within the realm of my arcane knowledge to accomplish such a task but it isn't something you just do by accident. And that's for the realm of normal human, which I clearly no longer am. "

Her voice rose a trifle unsteady at certain points. Taylor was feeling woefully out of her depth for once. A rare and rather unpleasant experience, and the fight over all of this hadn't helped her emotional state one bit. This time it was Taylor's finger's tightening on Jack's as she tried for a steady tone of voice that kept the thread of crackling tension to a minimum, "We haven't had any sort of weird metaphysical sex with any weird necromantic rituals. Nothing has changed! There weren't any altars, no fetility rites, none of that."

[Dr Archeville]

Methinks the lady doth protest too much!

I am sure she is just very nervous and shy about discussing such matter in a frank and open-

And that family - three medical doctors! Why'd she fall so far from the family business?

That can be a matter for another discussion.

Archeville was silent a moment, party to let Taylor collect herself, and partly because his mind was working on the issue -- not just the pregnancy, but the very nature of the two parents -- from many angles. "Vell, if it is not someding you intentionally did, could it be something either of you vere unknowingly exposed to? Have you been around any metahumans -- 'magical' or not -- mit advanced regenerative capabilities? Or could dat 'Demonic Invasion' be de cause?"

'Magic'... 'demons'... bah! Superstitious nonsense, all of it!

'There are more things in Heaven and Earth-'

Oh, cram it! Taylor's the ones using philosophical and psychological crutches, and Jack's just a victim of a metaviral STD!

[alderwitch]

Taylor's brow creased as she tried to recount back anything off, "No one that we haven't spent time around with before all of this. There's a regenerating zombie that we've also added to our list of companions but while some cultures have some necromantic fertility associations, it's hardly his balliwick. The invasion seems unlikely as well although Jack did injest a rather large quantity of demon blood during it. However the 're-wind' that happens would have negated any lasting effects from that encounter."

Shaking her head, Taylor did her best to run backwards through enough odd encounters to fill a book, ticking them off on slender fingertips, "It would have to be something we were both there for, which does narrow the list down. We also spent part of the time on an actual vacation. While eventful, there's nothing I can think of as a likely contributing factor. I did help summon a genie, but Jack wasn't there for that one. The only other summoning was Moira and it isn't really part of her baliwick to go enducing fertility either. It's possible that there's something I missed during the ritual that might have had wierd effects on me but it really seems unlikely..."

Taylor slanted another blushing glance at Jack as she ran through the events of that particular day. As unpleasant as the whole affair had been, it had been a day that ended well. Reluctantly and in the interest of full disclosure she added, "But I have to allow that we did certainly do things conducive to creating this current predicament not long after."

[Avenger Assembled]

Jack remembered one especially painful memory. "I doubt the...incident on our wedding day played into it. If he could do that, he'd have done it before." He pinched the bridge of his nose, thinking back. "We did the dimensional tour, but you've taken me on plenty of those. It's not as if we visited the planet where the Dead Walk Among the Living, or something." He muttered a small, painful curse. "I just don't know. Maybe it's my nature interacting with yours. Vampires usually don't sleep with anything that isn't theirs."

[Dr Archeville]

Oooh, lookit me, I'm a young waif of a bride who has lots of sex with my sparkly undead hubby! Oh, but now I don't know what to do about these weird feelings I've got in my tummy! Gag!

Oh, hush. They are newlyweds, and both young; some 'eagerness' is fully to be expected. Especially on her part, if tales of his exploits -- and of the heightened sensuality of vampires -- has any truth to it.

Pft... 'vampires'... mutants & monsters, all of 'em! Best be done with 'em all, even if there are some a few 'white sheep'.

... you do realize that if you replace 'vampires' in that sentence with 'German scientists,' you -

Shut up!

"Of course, it is entirely possible dat vhat you haff is not a pregnancy, but rather someding else dat is mimicking some of de signs of pregnancy," Archeville explained as he went to another workstation and began to rummage around in the drawers. "You can teleport und turn intangible, und both dose powers tend to make von vulnerable to infection by all sorts of dings. Haff you had any encounters mit anyding dat might b inclined to do dat, 'jump' into your body und ride along? Or been anyvhere vhere such dings are not unheard of?"

It looked as if the Doktor were assembling some sort of... something from the components he had pulled from the drawers.

[alderwitch]

Taylor shook her head slowly, her expression pensive, "No, my intangibility comes from being slightly out of synch with every dimension. There's no poison or illness or parasite that's ever been able to take hold of my system and I have been to some rather toxic places. Unlike most of the supernatural community, I'm not weak to magic any more than anything else either. I've been possessed before but I've always shaken it off. And never any physical sort of possession."

She raised her hands, spreading her fingers wide and palm up, "I've been places where such things aren't unheard of, but never directly affected. I just shake anything off when I slip out of the world. I'm intangible more often that not, especially when I'm working. Anything is possible I suppose, though. I know I haven't run into everything, not by a longshot."

[Avenger Assembled]

Jack put his arms around Taylor, hoping his embrace would cover his ignorance. He had no idea how a dhampir could be made without arcane rituals or blood ties that he and Taylor certainly didn't have, and he knew so little of his bride's work that he had no idea what she did that could have made her fertile to his body's terrible advances. Grim, vaguely obscene imagery of an undead sperm sucking the life out of Taylor's egg flitted through his mind, and he shuddered at the thought of a monstrous fetus clawing its way out of her womb, hungry only for blood and dying a miserable freak in the world outside. "I wish I could tell you more, doctor. Name a test, and I'll do it."

[Dr Archeville]

Fool! Just because something hasn't yet happened to you doesn't mean it can't!

Well, statistically speaking, it-

Quiet, you!

"Out of synch mit every dimension? Vell, den, vhat of de Terminus?," Archeville replied. "Is dat not 'outside' of all dimensions, flowing around dem like a river around stones? Und vhat of... of... oh, how did she vord it... " The Doktor paused a moment, tapping his chin with one finger, then, "Ah! Vhat of ''de incohate und alien spaces beyond de planes'?"

Whoever 'she' was, she knew of the far realms which birthed entities such as The Unspeakable One.

"Vhatever dis is, Jack," Archeville continued, now in a rather detached tone, "I strongly advise against feeding from her. If she is pregnant, her body vill be producing an increased volume of blood, to nourish both her und de fetus, und dey vill need every drop. Und if it is someding else... vell, I vould rather not haff two patients to deal mit. How is de blood substitute from de vedding gift I made for you?"

As he talked, he continued to assemble the unknown device he was building.

[Avenger Assembled]

Jack shook his head. "It's dangerous to feed on pregnant women," he said. "I wouldn't do it anyway. The shock of the bite, particularly when transmuted into pleasure, can be enough to..." He shot a glance at Taylor, bloody images again superimposing themselves over her, and amended his words. "Well, it's not good, is what it is. Can you tell if Taylor is safe?" he asked the doctor with concern. "If this is hurting her, or endangering her?"

[alderwitch]

Taylor went white and silent for a moment. She was unable to repress a shudder that ripped through her at the doctor's casual references of those that were beyond. Just the mention of it made the pins in the brain sensation of being around the doctor worse and she tucked her cheek against the cool but solid shoulder Jack presented while he talked. Once she was certain that the pressure of the doctor's alien nature wouldn't cause her to be sick all over his pristine floor, she swallowed and answered his questions but the lines of tension remained around her eyes and she avoided looking at Archevielle.

"Out of synch with every dimension." Taylor confirmed. "I exist partially in whatever dimension I'm currently in but I remain also partly in the Void. I bi-locate, you could say. I am always partly in the Void which is not unlike the Terminus in how it winds through the Cosmic Coil. The Terminus is but one of a classification of spaces that wrap around the other dimensions but its not the only one. There are others. The Zero Zone, for example."

Closing her eyes, Taylor continued on with a rote explanation that showed an extrodinary depth of knoweldge of dimensional physics even if the names were probably a little off to the doctor. Normally, mystics were notoriously closed mouth but as Taylor assumed the Doctor was asking this for her personal problem, it seemed appropriate to be more forthcoming, "As for the Nameless Ones, while certainly one of their Sleeping Gods could manage it, I think Heshem would step in." I hope. "I haven't been out there. There's not been a need in my lifetime."

[Dr Archeville]

"Dat is vhat dis device is for, Jack" Archeville replied in a moderately warmer tone, "to get a peek inside und see just vhat is going on."

Sentimental fool!

Oh, hush; you could learn a thing or two from him.

BAH!

"De Void, eh?," Archeville turned back to Taylor, "Dat's a new von to me, dough I haff heard of de Zero Zone. Can you tell me more of it? Are dere any creatures native to it, or dat use it mit any frequency?"

You! Tell me more! More!

What? I thought you said this was all hokum?

Their approach and terms for it are, yes, but only a fool denies or ignores any source of power!

"Oh, und vould you stand over here, please?," he indicated a spot bordered by three panels, each about 7 feet high, covered in Science!-y stuff on the outside but perfectly reflective on the inside, arranged in a triangular configuration but with open corners. The Doktor approached one of the panels with his newly-constructed gadget in one hand, and used the other to manipulate controls on the panel.

[alderwitch]

"I'm going to be fine, Jack. The Doctor is very, very good and I am obnoxiously hearty. We'll get through this." She promised quietly gave Jack as reassuring a squeeze as she could manage before leaving his embrace to go stand in the doctor's designated area. She eyed the mirrored surfaces before letting her hands drop to her sides. It took an act of will to not shield her torso with her hands.

She lifted her chin and straightened her shoulders up. Her gaze met Jack's over the doctor's shoulder. Her voice was steady and measured as she answered his questions, "You've been there, actually. Its what we went through when we went to one of the Other-Earths. It has no real up or down, just endless night and the flash-fire of eldritch energy. Its home to nothing and no one. Well, except for me. It's not very large compared to other dimensions. I use it for transport. Storage sometimes."

[Avenger Assembled]

Jack took a step towards Taylor, acutely conscious of his own failure to appear in the machines she was standing amongst. All those reflective surfaces showed just two human beings in the lab. "Doesn't sound like a place that provides a lot of life for itself," he said quietly. "Or for those who pass through it. I almost have to believe that anything we passed through hapened here."

[Dr Archeville]

Well, look at that -- he does not have a reflection!

Which partly explains why some of our sensors don't detect him... but why? Bah! How can I disprove all this silly superstitious nonsense if I cannot use all my equipment?!

Scientists have been doing work for millennia without the ultra-tech scanners and measures we have. And if we could sit down and talk with him for a while, then I am sure-

Bah! Let's just do this scan, the one we can do... assuming his STD freakishness hasn't rubbed off on her!

Archeville did a few more checks on the three panels, then looked up to Taylor. "De scan dis device performs vill take a few moments; once it is done it vill create a highly detailed 3D hologram for us all to see. Vhile it works, I vill need you to remain wholly in dis dimension; it does not vork on intangible beings."

Archeville turned his head and nodded to Jack, then hit a button on one of the panels. From out of the floor, at the gaps in the pen triangle that the three mirrored panels formed, rose telescoping metal rods, each with a metal ball on top. The rods extended up the full length of the panels, but were not quite wide enough to completely close up the triangular space.

"Sorry," he said a bit sheepishly, "I guess I should haff asked if you are in any vay claustrophobic. But, since ve are already here...."

Let this Abomination Unto The Lord... begin!

Oh :roll:

Archeville hit another switch.

The three metal rods began throwing off hundreds of tiny bright blue electrical sparks that arced between the gaps between them and the panels, while the balls on top threw off longer bright blue bolts which arced all over the place. The hairs on everyone's arms and the backs of their neck were standing up, the tang of ozone filled the air, and the hiss and crackle of the electricity would make any attempts at conversation a touch difficult.

Inside, the mirrored surfaces were glowing faintly, one red, one green, and one blue. Taylor could also hear another sound, just audible over the crackle and pop of the electrical arcs: the sound of the machinery, or so he assumed. chhhg... nrrr... fffnnn... chhhg... nrrr... fffnnn... chhhg.. nrrr.. fffnnn.. chhhg nrrr fffnnn... chhhg-nrrr-fffnnn...

"AH HAH HAA HAH HAH HAH!!!" Archeville was in full-on Mad Scientist cackle mode; Jack missed when or where he got the goggles from.

"AHHH HAH HAH HAAAAHHH.... right, dat's enough of dat," the Doktor said after a few moments, just as abruptly switching back to the calmer mode he'd been showing earlier. He hit another switch, and the (completely harmless) electrical arcs stopped, the metal rods retracted, and two of the three panels swung out so they were arranged less like a triangle and more like a three-way mirror; Taylor was quick to dart out of the area. He manipulated some controls on the device he'd constructed earlier, and a very realistic life-size 3D image of Taylor appeared where she had been standing.

[alderwitch]

On second thought, that little paper shirt wasn't sounding so bad. With an act of will, Taylor fought down every instinct that told her to phase and phase now, as she was surrounded on all sides by that needle-in-the-brain sensation that the doctor caused. Apparently his mad-devices created a similar sensation. She managed to not twitch a muscle but by the time the machine had shut off her pulse was hammering and her palms were damp. As soon as she could, she was out of the device and intangible. Her body flickered from solid to intangible and back to solid again rapidly enough to look like some bizarre strobe sensation. It took her almost half a minute before she could calm down enough to not phase through the floor when she went to stand on it. Her subconcious registered the good doctor as some sort of threat and standing in the electrical field had not done a darn thing to convince it otherwise.

Taylor chafed her arms with her hands, trying to scrub the sensation off of her skin and turned a curious expression to the hologram. Creepy. At least it was clothed for the moment. She snuck her hand back into Jack's once she was sure it wouldn't just pass right through his, "Impressive."

[Avenger Assembled]

Jack put his arms around Taylor, not feeling terribly well-disposed towards Dr. Archeville just then. "That's one word for it." If he hadn't trusted Viktor Archeville so thoroughly, he'd have had some pretty harsh words for the man...but he knew it was just Archeville's way. Do I really have grounds to accuse anyone of being inhumane? "My turn, now?" he asked Archeville hopefully. "Or can you tell us what all that showed first?"

[Dr Archeville]

Right, now that that bit of unpleasantness is over, we can carefully peel back th-

- the layers of Avenger's necrotic flesh so we can see with our own eyes what makes him tick?!

... no.

Bah!

"Now," he began, waving his Electromagnetic Screwdriver at the image like a laser pointer, "I said dis vas a 3D holographic image, but it is really qvite more complex dan dat. But... vell, I shall just show you, since dat is vhat you cam here for. So, first, ve peel avay dese outer layers...."

The holo-Taylor's clothing suddenly dissolved, as did her skin, revealing her slim musculature under and interwoven with a network of veins. It moved, going through the same motions the real Taylor had made during the short time she was in the box.

"Hrm, de blood vessels seem a touch distended... but dat is to be expected, given your elevated blood pressure. Und going down a bit further..."

And no sign of puncture marks along the musculature at the neck, wrists, or sites of other major veins, so he must not be feeding on her, and using our blood supplement!

Or it's her regenerative ability completely masking those signs.

Invisible blades flayed the holo-Taylor's musculature away, revealing a skeleton with numerous organs in its ribcage, and unblinking eyes staring out from the sockets. Again it repeated the motions Taylor had made while in the box.

"... everyding looks normal here... no signs of parasites or such... now, to check de uterus...."

The pelvic bone and bladder on the Holo-Taylor floated away, then the uterus behind moved down and out of the body and grew to triple normal size. The walls of it peeled away like a flower, revealing a 14 week old fetus.

Archeville seemed truly shocked. "Vell... I suppose congratulations are in order."

[alderwitch]

And when Taylor said 'Impressive', what she meant was 'Creepy as Hell'. That opinion did not change as the Doctor gleefully peeled back her facscimilie to its composite layers. Taylor had that studied blank look that she used to face the horrors of the Omniverse as Archevielle cheerfully showed them the 'visible woman' version of Taylor Chun. Privately, Taylor really hoped that he'd delete her image when they were done but she rather doubted it.

She was shaken from her inner musings as they were treated to ultrasound-Doctor Archevielle style. Her lips parted and she took a stuttering step forwad. "Is it...?"

Taylor's voice came out low and raspy before she shook her head and continued determindly, "Is it normal? Healthy?"

Human?

[Avenger Assembled]

Inside his head, Jack screamed and screamed again, horror writ on his very soul as the grim reality of what he and Taylor had wrought together came ripping out of her simulated abdomen to glare into his face with monstrous blood-shot eyes. "Is Taylor healthy?" he asked Archeville quickly. "Has there been any vampiric contamination of her bloodstream? Any sign that the fetus is altering her body beyond what you'd expect?"