Owner	Pose
Janet van Dyne	New York was lousy with vampires for some reason. A chance encounter with Captain Britain and his old foe, Baron Blood, had spiraled into a much larger problem of vampire infestations cropping up. Mostly they were small-scale; a trio of lesser vampires, or a pack leader with a few thralls under their command. For Britain (and The Wasp), their foray into this underworld had put them in a deadly encounter with a bunch of Renfields. The two had nuked the site with silver iodide smoke grenades and fled the decrepit old building with several new injuries in their collection. The situation had turned dire enough for Janet van Dyne to suggest a meeting with an expert in the occult. Fortunately enough, the Avengers had the Sorceress Clea on their roster. A meeting was set soon after, mid-day at Avenger's Mansion. "I wonder if she's going to walk in the door or just--" Janet makes a *poof* gesture. "Appear in front of us." She rolls her green eyes over to Britain, one foot absently kicking her chair back and forth in lazy pivots. "If I could teleport around like that, I don't think I'd waste another minute of my life in an elevator." The socialite is dressed for her day job, in a black powersuit with a bumblebee-yellow blouse and matching patent leather stilettos.
Brian Braddock	"I would wager on some sort of metaphysical arrival of sorts," Brian agrees from where he stands over by a window. The grounds of the Mansion spreads out below and with the nearing arrival of summer (and some excellent gardeners), the expanse is verdant. Spots of color show where flowers native and non-native alike bloom in proliferation. His hands remains tucked to his sides, he in his own variant of his day job duds: his suit, Union Jack in color and chest-pattern. Of course his hood is up and mostly concealing his face. Turning around, the broad-shouldered man considers Janet. "I'm hoping she can shed light on a method for getting ahead of the Baron. Stomping on proverbial anthills doesn't staunch an infestation and only frustrates the bloody hell out of me."
Clea	Clea, much like Gandalf, arrives at the precise time that had been set. One minute the room is just occupied by the two of them and then there is the folding of space and metaphysical means to show that the sorceress has arrived. She's dressed in black jeans, boots and a purple jacket. She gives a look over Janet and Captain Britain as she settles her feet on the ground. "I trust that the two of you are alright?" the white haired woman asks. Then she smiles, "I didn't mean to interrupt conversations, what can I help with today?" she asks as she finds herself actually standing still for the moment.
Janet van Dyne	Janet beams a smile at Clea's arrival, and gets to her feet to offer a squeeze of fingers and polite cheek-kisses. "You're fine," Janet assures Clea with a dismissive flickering of her fingers. "And I'm good, thanks for asking. I-- you know Captain Britain, right? On loan to us from England?" She gestures at that notable and waits politely for he and Clea to exchange their pleasantries. Once the rules of decorum are satisfied, Janet invites Clea and Britain back to their seats with a gesture. "So like I said, it's this vampire thing," Janet reminds Clea. She crosses her legs neatly at the knee and interlaces her fingers in her lap, sitting primly upright in the office chair. "We had a bad encounter with this guy, Baron Blood, a few weeks back. Then, last week, Britain and I responded to a missing person's call and discovered a whole nest of juvenile vampires. Creepy, nasty undead things. Britain cut one of their hands off and it kept kicking and fighting. I guess we're--" she looks to Britain plaintively. "What -are- we looking for here, precisely?"
Brian Braddock	Clea's arrival brings the Captain back over from his survey of the gardens below. He waits until the appropriate moment before giving Clea a winning smile as well as a hand for her to shake. Kiss-kiss, if she allows it, to each cheek, of greeting. "We do know each other, yes, from the training session I was invited to some weeks back. It was very busy and full of...robots, if I remember correctly," he muses. His seat is taken and boy, does he take up the seat in terms of presence. Janet relays the short and sweet of encounters and once she looks to him, his masked eyes return to Clea. "We wanted to seek your knowledge about the process of making vampires, Miss Clea. Baron Blood's managed to create a disturbing number of them lately. If we know how he's doing it, whether via draining the targets entirely or through sharing his own blood, there might be a way to quickly stop the next nest from forming -- or an antidote instead of blowing the entire place to bloody smithereens. The files we have access to, for both Baron Blood and his predecessor, Vlad Drakul, have little to no information on this process. It's the most frustrating of trade secrets," he drily jokes.
Clea	Clea shakes off some of her stiffness when Janet greets her and there's a smile to her and a return of cheek kiss with a squeeze of fingers in turn, just not trying to break anything. "I do know the Captain, I was here when he first came to introduce himself." she nods to that. She reaches out to take Brian's hand and there's a shake, "Nice to see you again." she tells him. She doesn't mind cheek kisses! She settles into a seat after that and listens to Janet and Brian as they talk on things. "So we're dealing with the European brand of Vampire on this particular case." she nods to that. "And the last I knew, Vlad was alive and well, but his exact locations were unknown." she comments. She reaches to her right, into the empty air and draws a light filled circle that shows a little window into a very old place, "One moment." she states as she fidgets in the chair and sticks her hand into the portal. There's a crack of something on the other side, "Wong stop hitting me with stuff." she grumps out. "I just need a book." she sighs. She grabs one of the tomes and an older Asian man peeks out of the portal towards the library, "Visit and bring a sandwich next time!" he scolds her before she shuts the portal. "Ahem..." she looks to the two of them sheepishly. "Most vampiric lore is tied to threes. In Dracula for example Lucy is drank from three times and then killed. Then she rises as a vampire. There tends to need to be some blood shared from the vampire to the person they are targetting or they won't rise again. But that's not how it works with all vampires." she explains. "And with all the Hollywood misconceptions, it's a mess." she admits as she opens the book. "But, European vampire branches tend to follow the same rules as Dracula's story." she explains.
Janet van Dyne	Janet pulls a face at the size of the tome that Clea procures from Wong, and gives the sorceress a look of profound despair. "There is no chance of a Cliff's Notes version of that, is there," she asks in an exhausted, rhetorical tone. She takes a deep breath and blows away that problem with a puff of air from her cheeks. "I guess we also need a crash course in vampire society," she admits to Clea. One hand gestures vaguely at Britain. "Baron Blood almost got me permanent during a routine flyover in Chelsea. We're following leads, respond to a missing person's-- hey presto, it's a nest of crazy flesh-eating zombie vampires." Hands gesture back and forth, equivocating. "So who is the Big Bad here? Is Blood making all these different vampires? Is there a bigger player in the shadows we haven't seen yet?"
Brian Braddock	Amusement flickers through Brian's regard as Clea finagles her way through a portal and into the libraries of Kamar Taj. He doesn't know the persnickity librarian on the other side, but apparently, the librarian knows Clea; it's the demand for a sandwich which makes the corners of his lips quirk for a split second. But only for a second. It was disheartening to hear confirmation of Vlad living -- not that the Captain had much hope otherwise, but it does make him a grim figure seated in his highbacked chair now. He listens and nods as Clea speaks...and he glances over to Janet rather than watch the sorceress flick through pages of the unwieldy tome. "Yes," he concurs of what's been asked. "It'd be easy to hide behind the smokescreen of someone more dramatic, such as...Baron Blood." His tone stands in for an eyeroll. "And antivenin. I should ask if someone's managed to make antivenin for the vampire bites."
Clea	Clea settles the book down into her lap and there's a look between the two of them, "The cliff notes version is generally...don't get bitten by a vampire. But sadly the vampire activity here in New York and other places has cropped up. I know one of the vigilantes...Moon Knight, specializes in them and all of that. But not sure if he's a part of this new onset." she admits. "I can give a crash course in vampire society and probably make a dossier on them that is kinder than this." she pats the book in her lap. "Wait, flesh eating?" she asks. "That's..." she wrinkles her nose at that. "That's easier to pare down as there isn't that many types of flesh-eating vampires, unless some lines have made a hybrid and that's sort of scary." she admits. "I'm glad they didn't get you permanently though, Janet." she tells her. "If you'd like my honest opinion, Blood is probably a pawn or someone that is being made the face of whatever is going on. Master vampires or ancient vampires tend to stay to the shadows and only come out when they have to." she explains. She gives a nod to Brian, "Yes, that exactly. Blood is known for being much more likely to take out into public and cause mayhem. Count Dracula...Vlad...whatever his moniker is these days, would not be." she states. "We could see if there is someone that can look into making a serum or something just to be safe. Have either of you been bitten?" she asks.
Janet van Dyne	At Clea's question, Janet's eyes go wide and she shifts her weight to put both feet on the floor. Britain is flashed a worried glance, then her focus goes back to Clea. "The, uh, zombie vampires at the nest, all they did was claw us up," she says, and touches the mostly-faded crescent indentations on her slender neck. "But Blood, uh..." She dithers then leans forward and lifts the hem of her trousers. Right at the meaty part of her calf is the unmistakeable wound site of being bitten by some fanged predator. "I mean, we got back here fast and Helen was on call. She gave me an IV with something silver in it, then slapped a gross witch doctor poultice right on the bites. I haven't changed, so I guess that...worked?" An uptwist of inflection on that last word makes it more question than statement.
Brian Braddock	Brian //does// indulge himself in a bit of smug at Clea's confirmation of his theory. Again, however, it doesn't last long. The idea of the proverbial larger shark circling in the shadows doesn't sit well with him at all. He shakes his head at the question of being bit and wants to reply, for a second, 'not yet'. It never leaves his mouth, mostly because he doesn't want to jinx things. But also because Janet //has// been bit and he nods before glancing at the bite site. It makes his cheeks lift in a quick clench of empathy. "What Helen did worked wonderfully," he confirms. "But an antivenin would be faster to administer and might work on an advanced state of envenomation. I..." The gravity of Janet's uncertainty hits him. Clea gets a more intense look from the Captain now as he echoes, "Did it work...?"
Clea	Clea leans forward when Janet is moving to show her bite and there's a nod to her, "I'm going to go out on a limb and say that he's not able to turn people with a single bite and if he is...we'll have to get that noted in a lot of places." she admits. "Don't worry on it though. Burning things out with silver tends to be a good quick response so everyone did the right thing." she states. "We can also monitor if we think that anything else might happen. I'm sure Doctor Banner would love to have some vampiric stuff run across his desk." she states to the two of them. "I can see if there is any remenants of any virus in your blood magically if that would ease your mind?" she offers to them.
Janet van Dyne	Janet exchanges a relieved look with Britain when Clea pronounces her safe. "I was pretty high after he bit me," she admits. "Well, high-er, anyway. I think between my amplified metabolism and Britain saving the day with Cho, they got it out of my system before anything went septic." She's already unbuttoning her jacket and stands up, revealing a sleeveless, tailored blouse beneath the outerwear. She curls her right arm, then her left arm, then extends them both and aims her inner elbow at Clea. "Pick a vein," she suggests.