18323/Is it Safe...

Is it Safe...
Date of Scene:	14 June 2024
Location:	88 Oakbend Lane
Synopsis:	Candace gets some hard advice and is now in the wind.
Cast of Characters:	Candace Hill, Bruce Wayne

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Candace Hill has posed:
Candace quickly lands and looks around. Good no one saw her. That's for the best. She quickly makes her way to the Safehouse and keys in the code. The door opens and in she goes. Closing the door behind her, she looks around. Its pretty basic inside. A good place for someone needing to lay low really. She quietly moves and takes a seat on a couch that happens to be in there. Her stomach growls as she sits there.

Its a brutal thing sticking to her principles while necessity states that she drink blood like a good little vampire. She has refused thus far. Maybe she can raid a blood bank or something? That would keep her from having to attack anyone. Maybe she could just attack bad people? That way she would get what she needs and still be protecting people? She smacks herself in her head. She is trying to rationalize and she can't do that. She can not give in to her needs right now.

Bruce Wayne has posed:
Very little happens in Gotham that Batman isn't, at the very least, aware of. He can't watch everything and he can't be everywhere, but that's why he has people. People who keeps tabs on those things that he needs to be aware of, but may not need to act upon immediately. Damian amongst them. Providing Candace a safehouse where she can lay low, potentially unaware that she's being watched. Infra-red cameras when she's in the safehouse. All around the building to track her movements.

Until Batman can come visit her.

Tonight is that night.

He's cloaked in the shadows, making it difficult to see him by human eyes and protected by Justice League Dark lent talismen to further hide him from the vampiric senses. Until he opts to be seen, stepping forward from the hallway behind the couch where she sits with his cape draped down the front of his chest, casting a long, pointed shadow across the front of her legs running up the far wall.

Candace Hill has posed:
She was completely oblivious that she was being watched. Her attention was on her hunger at the moment. That hunger is relentless. Still when she sees a shadow move she jumps. "Oh please don't be her again." She comments as she turns around and sees the silhouette of Batman. "Oh Wow! You're Batman! Nice to meet you, I wish it were under better circumstances." She frowns and shakes her head. "I thought you were someone else. I thought somehow that woman... Mary something. I thought she got into here and was going to try to convince me to sate my hunger."

Her stomach growls again, letting her and Batman know that her body is craving sustenance. "I'm sorry. I haven't eaten anything or umm anyone's blood." She shudders. "I've been trying to not do that but the temptation is really getting to me!"

Bruce Wayne has posed:
Batman is as omenous as any figure, vampire or human, peering down at Candace with his eyes covered in a lense of white set in the black cowl. "Seward." He says the woman's last name. He give Candace a singular nod, "And it will continue to grow stronger until you give in. Because what you're dealing with is a parasitic curse. It is turning you into a different kind of life form, with predatory instincts and the same inclinations towards spreading as any virus." His voice is cold, but not necessarily directed at her specifically.

His arm jerks, a quick motion, and brushes his cape off his right hand raising to present her with your standard type blood bag that one might find in a medical facility. "You shouldn't go that long without feeding or the urge to hunt will grow to strong to control. You will hurt someone." He holds it out to her, still watching her. The way she moves. Every bit of information is valuable, no matter how small it might seem to someone who is not him.

Candace Hill has posed:
Candace nods slowly. "Okay. I will do it." She hates the idea of drinking blood but here is Batman holding out what looks to her like a glorified juice box at this point. She accepts the blood bag and using her fangs, she bites into the bag and begins draining it. She makes an,"Mmmm!" Sound as she continues sucking down the red liquid. It may as well a liter of Kool Aid to her right now because it certainly tastes like it despite it being rather iron-y flavored.

About halfway through she stops and lets out a sigh. "Thank you Batman. I really needed this. I don't want to attack people. Yes! Mary Seward. That is the name of the woman who was in my Uber last night. We were talking. I didn't know she was a vampire. I mentioned that I am an activist and she said something about fighting for freedom. The next thing I knew, I was willingly offering my neck to her and couldn't fight her off. Its like she sapped my will."

"I also saw her on the way here. She was encouraging me to feed." She looks at the half empty bag she was just feeding on and shudders. "Sorry I don't think I am going to get used to eating blood." She sighs and looks down. "She said she will know where I am because we are connected now." She sighs. "She wants me to go for a night on the town and decide. I told her to give me twenty four hours to make my choice on drinking blood or not. Now I'm glad I didn't. I don't want to hurt anyone. At least no one who doesn't deserve it."

Bruce Wayne has posed:
For what it's worth, Batman doesn't actually watch her feed from the blood bag. While he doesn't take his eyes completely off her, because turning his back on a vampire is a poor decision and he didn't get where he is by making those on a whim. Nor does he dismiss what she tells him about her experiences with the individual who turned her, giving a fractional nod of his head in acknowledgement. "Continue to fight against that urge. As soon as you hunt a human to sate your hunger, there are no cures that I've found that can fix you. It is the cement that makes your turn permanent." At least from what research he's down, as extensive as it might be, in the last few weeks.

His hand slips out from beneath his cape once more, holding a small vial. "This will taste a lot less pleasant than the blood. You will not have the satisfaction you receive from consuming it, but you will satisfy your hunger. For now, anyways. I am still working on it. It has been effective with others." He holds it out to her, "And you will not have the stigma of drinking blood. It only works if you've consumed blood, however. Which is why you had to go through that." This is not an apology for feeding her the blood, jsut a statement of fact.

Candace Hill has posed:
Candace accepts the vial and nods. "I will try my best to only drink the vial the next time I'm hungry. I don't wanna be a vampire. Its kinda cramping my style!" She laughs a little. "I kinda absorb sunlight and not being able to be out in the sun is kinda... Not good. I suppose I could try pulling energy from a light socket. I dunno if that will work. I can pull heat energy from people... Not exactly a good thing to do." She laughs a little. "Sorry I am still learning about my normal powers. I'm also Ted Kord's driver. I think I'm going to need to send him an email and explain that I can't work days right now." She facepalms and shakes her head.

"I don't even know the benefits and draw backs of being a vampire! I sorta got turned and then pressured to feed. Mary called it a gift that she gave me. Its a lot to take in." She shakes her head. "I suppose in the worst case scenario I could hit a blood bank. That way I don't feed off anyone." She sighs.

Bruce Wayne has posed:
"You usually accept a gift without being pressured." Batman doesn't comment on all the other things Candace said. Not because he's disinterested, but because this point seems the most important. "What she is, is a monster pretending to be a subjugated minority. She turns people and then teaches them nothing about their abilities, nothing about control. She sets fledgling undead loose to figure things out on their own and claims it's a gift so you don't feel inclined to destroy yourself."

He shakes his head and pulls his cape back across his chest.

"I'll have someone come and educate you on what you are capable of doing in this new form. At least until I have properly synthesized a cure. For now, I suggest you wear this.." He holds out a small set of beads with a charm dangling from the center. "So long as you have it on, she will be unable to communicate with you or track you. Which does nothing up to now. So I suggest you leave this safehouse and find somewhere new. You need not worry about contact me, I'll find you." Mary might too, he has no doubt she has her own, more mundane, methods.

But he trusts his a whole lot more.

Candace Hill has posed:
"That sounds about right. That's basically what happened. She sucked my blood. If not for a cop She would have sucked me dry. She took the cop and well... I guess he became the main course. I was unable to do anything." She frowns and shakes her head. "I want to be a hero and I could do nothing to stop her from drinking my blood or hurting that cop. And now I feel like I'm doomed to be something horrible."

She looks at Beads and charm and just holds onto it. "Batman, I don't want to be a victim in all of this. I want to take this curse that she put on me and I want to use it against her. May I help in some way?" She asks curiously. "I may not be in costume but I believe I have the heart of a Hero."

Bruce Wayne has posed:
"You may be able to, yes." Batman says with a nod to Candace, "For now you need to keep yourself safe. Stay on the move. I'll send someone to speak with you, give you gear to defend yourself." He turns then, walking back down the hallway from which he'd entered the small safehouse. He stops short and points towards the table. There's a small tablet, about the size of a common cellphone. "It has one number in it. Do not use it unless you need to."

Then he's gone, walking down the hall into the darkness of the hallway.

Where did he go? It's hard to say.

Batman has ways. This was one of his safehouses, after all. And while it's burnt now, it doesn't mean there's not still uses in the long term. Suffice that he's given Candace a chance and a promise for a cure should he be able to find one that works consistently. It's all he has at the moment, but it'll have to do.