"Enough of this." Carmilla glared at the two Overlords sitting at the opposite end of the table. "You will tell us where Vox is at once or this council will search Vee Tower ourselves in order to drag him out!"
Valentino snorted, the moth had become a far too common sight around the city these days after taking over Voxtek. Every billboard, every screen, every advertising spot in the city had his face slapped on it. Carmilla wondered if Velvette was aware of just how much of the limelight her partner was hogging for himself or if she was too busy trying to salvage what remained of the Vees reputation to pay attention.
"You're welcome to it señorita," he drawled breathing out a long streak of sickly pink smoke that made her scrunch up her nose in disgust. "maybe then you can stop calling these pointless meetings all the time, some of us have actual work to do."
Zestial let out a low hiss of displeasure from her right but Carmilla didn't glance at him. She trusted him to act responsibly, one of the few current Overlords that she could make that claim for. Zeezi muttered an insult under her breath while discordant music started to play from the corner that Maestro had taken a seat. Rosie looked unbothered but Carmilla had worked alongside the woman for long enough that she could see the tension in the pinched eyes of Cannibal town's leader. While her territory didn't require as much electricity to function as the rest of the city the frequent power cuts were starting to take a toll.
Alastor hadn't said a word but the displeased pops of static that occasionally cut through the arguing was enough to show that the Radio Demon was in a foul mood.
For the sake of her own sanity Carmilla ignored Valentino and turned her attention to Velvette instead. She looked tired, angry and upset as opposed to Valentino's uncaring attitude. Which meant she was their best chance of getting to the bottom of this mess.
"As I've told you both before, if you want these meetings to stop then produce Vox for us. Powering the city is his responsibility, no matter how humiliated he feels after that disgrace with Heaven." Mumbles of agreement echoed her statement, all of them happy to forget how eagerly they thrown their support in with the TV Demon.
"Yeah? Well if you actually let us get on with searching for him maybe we'd have some fucking answers for you!" Velvette snarled, shooting to her feet and slamming her phone against the desk.
Carmilla met her burning gaze evenly. The lights in the room flickered for a few seconds and everyone waited with bated breath to see if they'd have to conduct the rest of the meeting in darkness. They stayed on this time.
Carmilla resisted the urge to pinch her brow, exasperation wouldn't help here not when the entire city was on the brink of running out of power.
Alastor snapped his head ninety degrees to regard Velvette, more than one Overlord flinched at the noise. The Radio Demon had torn a bloody streak across several districts a few days ago and everyone was on edge wondering what the unhinged Overlord would do next. Acts of chaos from Alastor weren't uncommon but this most recent one had lacked any greater purpose, it had just been rampant slaughter and judging from the radio dials spinning in his eyes the violence hadn't been enough to satisfy his bloodlust. The last thing Pride needed was critical infrastructure falling victim to Alastor's tantrum that his favourite playmate was missing.
"Then perhaps it is time we hunt for our missing colleague ourselves," Alastor declared, smile stretching wide across his face. "Since it is clear that neither of his two trusted partners have any clue where he is. I wonder how long did it take for him to realise that you'd stolen everything he worked for right out of his hands."
Velvette's eyes locked on Alastor and she let out a shriek of rage.
"Don't you fucking dare!"
Carmilla curled her claws against the top of the table. Where was Vox?
Vincent stepped off the bus and pulled his coat tighter around his body as the cold air hit. The other passengers, small red fiend-like beings, pushed past him in their rush to get to their destinations. Vincent felt a brief stab of envy for their certainty. He still felt lost but at least he'd made it out of that awful place he'd woken up in two weeks ago.
His head…screen glitched and he winced at the spike of pain, stumbling a few steps forward to rest against the side of a building. Raising bleary eyes to the sky he could just about make out the words on the sign above the station.
Imp City
Fuck, he kept forgetting that he was in Hell. In Hell with a fucking TV for a head that was way more advanced than anything he'd seen back when he'd been alive. He'd made the mistake of connecting to the 'internet' and had been flooded with so much information he'd blacked out. The only thing he was certain of was that everyone back there hated him. Vincent didn't know how he knew but it was true; flashes of downward spiralling graphs and scathing news articles flickered through his mind and he shook his head.
It was late, he should find somewhere to stay. He'd worked out how to access one of his bank accounts that he apparently had set up for himself down here so he wasn't completely without resources, the figure had been ridiculously high so he had to be cautious. Taking too much was bound to draw attention. It had been a while but he was used to scrapping by paycheck to paycheck before he'd taken his destiny into his own hands.
Vincent stood up to his full height and straightened his tie.
Imp City huh? Time to find out what he could achieve in a town like this.
Jonathan on the 12th: This thing isn't human, I just watched him scale the bloody walls like a fucking lizard, what sort of beast am I forced to be in contact with????
Jonathan on the 15th: Saw the old bastard scaling the fucking wall again and honestly fuck this shit I am so over it hope he falls actually.
Some ridiculous thoughts that occurred to me upon catching up with six weeks of Dracula Daily all at once
Arthur’s blood type is… LOVE!! I guess
The entire plot of this novel might have been different if the Victorians used post codes
I avoided reading Dracula Daily for an age because I thought reading about Lucy declining would be like being punched in the face. I was wrong. It was like being REPEATEDLY punched in the face.
‘Unopened by her’ - excuse me while I weep
I cannot believe that the first utterance of the word vampire was in relation to a cowboy’s HORSE
Why is this book determined to orphan everyone????
Afafafafafssggsgaaffsagag THE TENSION
I love all these characters SO MUCH and will be angrily defending them against their dreadful film portrayals for the rest of my life. LEAVE MY LUCY AND MINA AND QUINCY AND ARTHUR AND JOHN ALOOOOOOONE.
Genre savvyness has a lot to answer for. I adore how everyone is behaving as real people would if faced with the prospect of the undead. (Except for Quincey, who I refuse to believe has ever existed. Sorry.)
I need a Mina. Preferably to marry. And I’m a straight woman.
Let’s reintroduce communion wafers as a weapon against vampires! Also tides and wild roses and terriers!!
We could tell each other what we know… or we could read each other’s diary!!! Seward and Mina, you are the most ridiculous dorks.
It occurs to me that I have never seen an adaptation of this book that really does a Lucy justice. So many of them try to ‘empower’ her by making her flirty or have her join a secret society of arse kickers or some such. All this ends up doing is implying that she is boring or disempowered for being as she is in the books and completely invalidates a perfectly reasonable lifestyle choice - there is nothing wrong with being sweet and innocent! Or worse, it seeds the idea that she deserved her fate because three men fancied her and she MUST have done something bad to make that be the case.
Hunting vampires but still the woman ends up doing the damn typing
I had no idea that ‘taken no chances’ was an Americanism (I am British. We say it.)
Loving how every member of the working class in Dracula is like ‘since the systematic class-bound inequality of Victorian society means I am unable to improve my financial circumstances and your middle class existence is a painful reminder of the inevitable destitution awaiting my children, I shall not help you further unless you provide me with alcohol. Thank you very much.’
Me before September 30: this polycule stuff is but fancy and nonsense
Me after September 30: this polycule stuff is canon
The men of this novel: the count targets women so let’s leave the one woman in the party alone and out of the loop. I’m sure this will be fine.
Also, why are you not all regularly checking your necks for bite marks??? YOU HAVE A VAMPIRE NEXT DOOR!!!
Googles ‘stertorous’
Jonathan says that if Mina becomes a vampire, he will too??? WHY IS THIS NOT THE MOST MEMORABLE SCENE OF EVERY ADAPTATION EVER?????
This book has more wafers than a KitKat factory
‘Oooh Quincey, such a dominant’. Seward, this is not the time!
Dracula was a great man due to the beneficial effect of a local volcano. Ok then.
If our band of plucky heroes were not independently wealthy and able to bribe all and sundry, presumably England would now be overrun by the undead. Happy thought.
