Chapter 87: The Trade

Ashby's grave is placed next to Rex's. One of the grandchildren leaves their toy fire engine there as a memorial.

"Happy birthday, sis!" Yasu shrieks. But Shu Fang is primarily interested in cake.

It is at this moment that Yasu gets one of her ideas, and zips away to invent it.

"I've been thinking about what to do with Rhett," Shu Fang begins.

"I don't wanna hear about you being kinky," Xue interrupts.

"He's a vampire, and he wants to turn me. The benefits of being a vampire are so incredible, it seems like an obvious choice, to be turned if given the chance like this... but everything I've read suggests that being turned changes a person."

"If he wants to change you, screw him," Xue says. "I mean not literally. I mean dump him."

"He's my best friend. I can't think he would ever want to hurt me."

"Listen, Fang. No pun intended! I've snogged a vampire. They're no different from other boys."

"How many boys have you snogged?!"

"Trust me on this. If Rhett makes you uncomfortable, ask to be just friends."

Shu Fang's graduation ceremony is happy, and crowded. It's also Rhett's graduation day.

Most of Rhett's family are in attendance. In the background is his mother, Janet, and Janet's dad Jose, the cop.

Rhett's little brother Dave could not possibly be any more bored than he is at this ceremony, and begs loudly for attention from their grandfather.

Pauline is here, with her son Kelsey. Being a vampire would mean entering a complex, elitist network of other supernaturals. As a vampire, Shu Fang would never feel alone or unimportant.

Pauline's daughter Jeanna is the valedictorian. Also graduating today: Kirk Khan.

Khan gives Jeanna's furry headgear a strange look.

Shu Fang arranges to meet Rhett at the art museum, at nightfall. While waiting for him to arrive she spies Kipp and Kerry having an argument. She wonders how people end up together when they should have realized they were an unsuitable match, or how well-matched people allow themselves to drift apart.

"You are a beautiful flower of the sun," Rhett greets his grown-up girlfriend. "And I'm a monster of the night. Our schedules will always be opposed. You'll resent me, for being unable to go places with you in the day, and for feeling my strongest at night when you want to sleep."

"I could be a night owl," Shu Fang offers.

"But it's not the same."

Shu Fang leads Rhett into the museum. "Then maybe you should turn me."

"I want to. I don't want to have to watch your beauty fade, any time soon."

"Old women can still be beautiful."

"I'll be used to that idea when I'm an old man. Probably not before."

"Are you breaking up with me?" She watches Rhett shift uncomfortably.

"I don't know if I can handle a mortal girlfriend. I love you, but... we are different species."

"Then..."

"Do not ask me to turn you because of that. It is a decision you have to make for you, not for me."

"...Turn me."

Rhett presses his palms to her cheeks. They're clammy, like the dead, and grow even colder as he charges some kind of magic, prepared to share his gift with her.

Shu Fang has never been bitten before, so will never understand how different this feels from a normal feeding.

"Is is done," Rhett whispers. "Prepare yourself to wake into the eternal night."

"Where are... my fangs?"

"You won't transform immediately," Rhett informs her.

"I already feel different," Shu Fang says distantly. "Like you froze a part of me."

Rhett tilts his head, unsure what to say.

"I feel very drained actually," she continues. "I think I'll go home for now."

Shu Fang leaves. Kipp is creeped out by the public display of magic.

With no Ashby to put out the fires efficiently, the ghosts worriedly crowd around poor Yasu.

Yasu's near death experience does nothing to deter her from working on her inventions again in the morning.

She takes a break to fill in some mysterious holes that cropped up all over the property.

"You've been acting strange since last night," Yasu observes, watching her younger sister eat a sandwich for breakfast.

"This is my favorite food, but it does nothing for me."

"Yeah? Try the pancakes."

"It's no use." It's as if she can't feel pleasure, right now. Or pain. "Yasu, yesterday I was in mourning for our grandmother. Today I'm empty inside."

"Grief does strange things to people. And this is the second grandparent we've lost. It's not going to feel exactly like the first. You shouldn't put expectations on yourself."

"You are my sister," Shu Fang continues. "I have pleasant memories of us. But looking back, I feel nothing. It's as if I don't know you. I know what I'm supposed to feel and I don't feel it."

"Maybe you need to lay down for a while..."

"Father, I have to get out of here." The Archer home, once so comforting, is suddenly a source of stress for the vampire-to-be. The love she has always had for her family is no longer there, and in its place is a disconcerting hole in her soul. The expectation that she should feel something, and the anxiety when she feels nothing. She sees Fischer is upset by this news, but feels no sympathy.

Normally she would run to Rhett, sob on his neck, breathe in his subtle scent and be comforted.

Now she has no desire to see him. She isn't angry with him, though wonders if she should be.

When Xue gets home from work, Yasu falls into her arms, wailing.

"Little Sis had Rhett turn her into a vampire and now it's like she barely recognizes us! And she moved out!"

Xue blinks. "Sorry, what? Slow down."

One explanation later, Xue can only say she's "sure" Shu Fang will get over it.

"I found my own place," Xue says finally. "I can move in as soon as I can get my stuff packed and over there."

"You should stay here. Not to sound all possessive, but this mansion is big enough for two families. I don't want it to be just me and Dad, hangin' out, with our eccentric reputations." Yasu grins. "I want you to be eccentric with us. We could even build you a music stage, like the one outside the house across the street."

"Oh shut up Yasu! You're the genius and the heir, and everybody knows it! I'm not going to put up with all the crap that comes with inheriting a storied estate. Not in this gossip town. I'm going to make my own destiny."

"You're talking like a crazy teenager."

"So? Let me." Xue stalks down to her room to pack, locking Yasu out.

Khan finally puts in an appearance.

"We're adults now," Yasu sniffs. "You can stay with me, here. You don't have to go back to your crazy mother."

Alone since his much older brother's death, Chauncy Khan stood no chance against his psychic ex-wife, Kellie. They're back together and Chauncy is more or less a slave. As a half vampire himself, Kirk is safe from mind control, but not from his mother's attitude and expectations.

"If I fled here, you would have her wrath. I am her only son."

"You have three sisters!"

"Does it matter?"

Yasu pulls Kirk Khan inside the house. "I'm not afraid of your mother."

"And... of me?"

"Oh I'm definitely not afraid of you. Don't be silly."

"I'm an adult, now. The cravings are all the time."

"I can take anything you can dish out," Yasu promises. "Test me. Bite me. If that's what it takes to reassure you."

The bite is painful, but somehow relaxing. It's science. Though he lacks the proper fangs and the bite is more of a challenge, Khan's teeth are still coated with a substance meant to confuse and subdue victims.

"I could get used to it," Yasu says, trying to convince the both of them. She reaches into a pocket on her shorts, withdrawing a set of keys. "Here. The science lab. Take what you need, but do it after hours."

"I can't thank you enough."

"Thank me when you're better." Should she be calling vampirism a sickness? She isn't sure, but Khan's obsession with not being what he is is certainly unhealthy, and one way or the other Yasu wants it to stop.

 Khan sets to work immediately, testing compounds and trying to understand the sloppily written but extremely complex notes scientists wrote generations ago about how they went about testing and creating VBG. What VBG is is clearly written on the bottle, but it's more helpful for Khan to know the process behind its initial development.

"You didn't ask me if this man could stay here," Fischer states his displeasure.

Yasu begins to weep, feeling she's under a lot of stress, with Shu Fang gone weird and her grandmother dead and her best friend leaving little holes in her skin. "I've done worse than that, Dad."

"I don't want you losing your head over a boy! Especially not a vampire. I see why you never bothered to introduce me. The first time I even saw him was at your adult birthday party."

"I didn't realize you had a thing against vampires, considering Pauline and Janet were always invited to family get-togethers... and you had no problem with Shu Fang dating Rhett..."

"And you see how that turned out. For all I know Rhett used his psychic abilities against her."

"Just stop it and let me finish. You didn't even let me tell you about how I stole the science center keys." Yasu is, at heart, a rebel. And that means nothing unless everyone knows what she's done. "Khan is ill... in the body or the mind. And I want to help him."

One explanation later, Fischer is feeling less hateful towards the strangely named vampire in his house.

"We'll do our best to help him," he tries to reassure his tearful daughter. "I can give the scientists an assignment to do so. I fund them, after all."

Yasu expected to be yelled at, not comforted.

Kirk settles in. The ghosts are the most challenging thing to get used to. He's counted over twenty spirits haunting the Archer place, not counting the lesser spirits kept in containment boxes in the basement.

Khan's mother calls him several times a day, demanding his return home.

Khan sleeps more peacefully in Yasu's bed than he slept at home.

Though the sun creeps slowly towards him.

Fischer offered Shu Fang a fair share of the family wealth when she left, but she only accepted enough to purchase a tiny two bedroom starter home.

He's shocked at her transformation, though he shouldn't be.

"How have you been, Shu-Shu?"

"I've just... been."

"We should at least go inside."

Shu Fang shrugs. She's beginning to understand why so many Riverview vampires traipse around in the sun. The discomfort and pain is there, but the vampire brain pushes through the pain and continues to function. For a while.

"I heard you broke up with Rhett."

"Word gets around, I suppose."

"I heard from Felicia," he admits. Fischer was working on his latest children's book, Red Rover Rights, when his cousin sent him a message. He doesn't know how the quiet Felicia keeps up with all the town's gossip, but she does. "So I knew I needed to stop being a recluse, and come to see you."

"Thank you," Shu Fang replies tonelessly. "I know I should give you a hug now. A child comforted by her parent."

Fischer frowns. "Only if you want to."

Shu Fang nods, and turns away. "I want to prepare to work. I have an entry-level job at the hospital. With my extended lifespan, it's conceivable that I will learn and master medicine, better than a mortal doctor with only a mortal lifespan of experience. I can provide some small benefit to the community with my existence."

"I'm proud of you," Fischer chokes. But his emotion does not move her, positively or negatively.

Yasu re-paints the irony mobile and uses it to go to the bookstore, sirens blaring.

____________________________________________________
Etc.: Story progression decided to break up Rhett and Shu Fang, despite their maxed relationship. It also had Xue break up with Leon and start a relationship with Nathaniel Medina. I kept Xue in the house for a day longer than I was supposed to, because I wanted to do some "scenes" with her. One of those story vs. rules decisions. I don't think it was that big of a deal.

Kellie Khan really was constantly calling her son. It was funny.

Kirk Khan's traits are really stupid. I picked him as a child because he had genius, and since then he's picked up crap like technophobe (a genius technophobe is a story, but not the story I set out to tell). I'm going to switch it out for computer whiz at some point, since his career is trait dependent. I may or may not switch up the other traits too. He has green thumb, virtuoso, and heavy sleeper. Alternately, I could indulge him in his gardening and musical fantasies.

Yasu is a lucky, excitable, eccentric, rebellious genius. When she rides her motorcycle she gets a positive "Rebel Ride" moodlet.

I am aware of the definition of species. In most universes, vampires would not be considered their own species. Here, they are. And like the borg, they will assimilate entire towns.