thinking again about vampirism as disability
what if you slept all day and woke at night, lonely and frustrated. what if you couldn't go to social events, or even mundane public spaces like stores. what if you couldn't see the sun. what if you couldn't go to the pool, or the beach, or the creek. what if you couldn't eat what everyone else is eating. what if you couldn't eat at all. what if your basic needs came at the cost of your loved ones' quality of life. what if you became agitated, confused, maybe even violent if your needs weren't met. what if people blamed your behavior on demons, or worse, your own inherent evil. what if people saw you as a threat to your own community. what if the default response to your suffering was either indifference or violence. what if people thought you were better off dead, that you no longer count as human, that they're doing you a favor by letting you disappear. what if people assumed you must somehow deserve all of this. what about that.
Read this thinking about Bat Child from City Council of Darkness. Girl just wanted to study zoology, even had an her internship at the Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium. Emily has pointed it out in the season but she literally can’t access her dream anymore because of her vampirism. She can’t attend classes because most are during the day, and even if she could get her degree, what zoo is open overnight?
Not only that, but she’s essentially pulled from her whole life. She and Darkness man leave Omaha to protect their secret from Nancy Danderhoof (even if she has managed to track them down). I almost wonder if she’s using the “I’m a half-bat half human” thing as a coping mechanism because she can’t accept how her vampirism has pulled her from her old life. My poor baby girl 😭
