Tiger & Bunny - Vampire/supernatural AU
Mar. 24th, 2013 05:42 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lirillithTitle: Karina the Vampire Slayer
Fandom: Tiger & Bunny
Characters: Karina, Kotetsu, Nathan, Ben; mentions of many more
Word count: 1600 words
Rating: PG
Warnings: None to speak of.
Summary: Karina Lyle, the newest Slayer, is notified of her destiny by two of her teachers on her first day of high school. She really doesn't take it well at all.
Notes: For the "vamp/were/supernatural" square on my Trope Bingo card, despite the fact no actual vampires appear in the story. Like the steampunk AU, I have everyone's roles figured out for a much longer AU fic I may never write; this is just meant to set up the universe.
****
Kotetsu didn’t get calls from Ben Jackson, Tomoe’s second Watcher, very often, so he had a pretty good idea what it was about even before he answered. He locked the classroom door; had Ben known it was his planning period? “Hey, Ben. Business or pleasure?”
“Business again, I’m afraid. There’s a new Slayer.”
Five years since he’d lost Tomoe. That meant some girl, somewhere in the world, probably hadn’t lived to see twenty. “Already,” he said, heavily.
“Tomoe was special, Kotetsu. You know that. I don’t just mean to you. No one I know had heard of a Slayer living as long as she did. I think you and Antonio were at least half the reason for that.”
“Nah, it was all her,” he said, trying to make his tone light. “Who is it? A transfer student or someone I might know?”
“New student. Karina Lyle. Her watcher’s the new choir teacher.”
“The choir director? Not the new science teacher?” Brooks; young, good-looking, and kind of… intense-seeming. Kotetsu had pegged him as a fighter of some kind on sight, going by the way he moved and sized people up. He wasn’t very friendly, either. He hadn’t seemed much like either of Tomoe’s Watchers, but he also hadn’t seemed like an ordinary teacher.
“No, definitely the music guy. Nathan Seymour. Why?”
“Just a hunch. Guess I can’t always trust my gut, huh?” No, he was trusting his gut. He’d have to keep an eye on the new guy… and the Watcher, and the Slayer. He’d have his hands full. Time to rope Antonio into this, he thought. And start carrying stakes and holy water again.
*
Karina Lyle was not thrilled about her high school prospects. She’d wanted to go to Mnemosyne High School for the Performing Arts — she’d auditioned, she’d felt really good about her chances, she’d passed the academic part of the entrance exam and everything — and instead, she was going to Atlas International Magnet, which was far enough from her house that she’d need be on the train at six-thirty in the freaking morning so she could be at school on time, and their music program wasn’t even part of the magnet.
The six-thirty thing could have been survivable, but it was really annoying. She hadn’t been sleeping well, anyway. She kept having creepy recurring dreams: some tattooed guy with pink hair who turned out to be a vampire, an old man with glasses instead of eyes, a snake with its tail in its mouth, cowled figures carrying torches. Twice the night before the first day of school. They never made any sense, they never went anywhere, and she kept waking up in the middle of the night, freaked out, like she was getting so much rest and could really afford to lose any to her subconscious’s idea of a spooky movie.
But as long as she stayed awake in class, she was doing okay. Her locker was nice and centrally located, and she didn’t have any long runs from one end of the building to another between classes. Her science teacher, Mr. Brooks, seemed kind of like a jerk, but he was young and good-looking; her history teacher, Mr. Kaburagi, seemed funny and nice; and her math teacher, Mr. Lopez, was also the soccer coach, according to the first friend she’d made, so maybe math would be pretty easy this year. More to the point, she’d made a friend. Pao-lin, the girl who played soccer and knew Mr. Lopez already, was also in her science class, and they’d hit it off immediately. They had the same lunch hour, too, so that was another hurdle already covered.
Fourth period was choir, the hopeful highlight of her day; the teacher was a tall, androgynous-seeming black guy, the most obviously gay teacher she’d ever encountered, who opened the class promisingly with, “Let’s just get this out of the way. I am flaming. If that makes you uncomfortable, you’re going to need to get over it.” Everyone had laughed, some nervously, some delightedly, and Karina had liked him right away.
Which helped, because after class, he asked her to stay, when she just wanted to run off and meet Pao-lin for lunch and buy something caffeinated. “Karina, isn’t it?” he said. “I hear you tried out for Mnemosyne?”
“Yeah,” she said. How did he know that? “I just didn’t make the cut on the musical portion.”
“Sorry to hear that, but I have to say, I’m glad to have you here instead. Bit of an odd question— have you been having trouble sleeping?” She flushed — had she been nodding off in class? “Weird dreams, anything like that?”
“That’s— that’s awfully personal.”
“Have you noticed you’re clumsier than you once were? You break things, you don’t seem to know your own strength anymore…”
“What are you getting at?” She had her back to the door now. She didn’t think he was threatening her, exactly, but this had turned really creepy all of a sudden.
“Sweetie, you wouldn’t have believed me if I hadn’t opened with the strange stuff,” he said. “Vampires are real. You’re the Slayer, the one person who can fight them. That’s what all this is about.”
“That’s crazy,” she said, pushing the door open with her backpack. “That’s… this is a really weird joke, Mr. Seymour. I have to go get lunch. I’ll, um, I’ll see you tomorrow.”
If she didn’t transfer out of choir first chance she got.
*
Lunch, at least, helped restore some sense of normality. She met up with Pao-lin, and Pao-lin’s very shy friend Ivan — the school wasn’t kidding about the “international” part, it turned out — and ate disgusting burritos, and then went on to Civics (Ivan was in that with her; the magnet program felt like a really small school.) Mr. Goodman repeated himself a lot, but he let them seat themselves however they wanted. And her last class of the day was English, taught by Mr. Petrov, which at least meant a blessed end to a day that had gone all freaky on her midway through. Now she just had to decide what to do about choir. Should she go put her name in with the guidance counselor right away? She really didn’t want to give up on an elective that let her sing, though. She knew the school put on musicals, too, but she wasn’t sure about her acting skills. She just wanted to sing.
And not run into Mr. Seymour on her way to her locker. Karina saw him before he saw her, and she ducked into the library to hide from him — how long would she have to lurk here? — only to turn around and find herself face to face with Mr. Kaburagi.
“Oh, um, hi!” she blurted out. Had she looked too weird or furtive darting in here? What had he seen? Could he have seen Mr. Seymour from here? She tried to edge around him, putting some distance between herself and the door so Mr. Seymour couldn’t find her. The librarian was nowhere to be seen.
“Karina, right? Are you okay?”
“I’m fine!” Crap, she had looked shifty. “I’m just, uh, just…”
“Hiding?” he suggested, looking amused. “What’s so scary about the new choir guy?”
“You don’t even know,” she said darkly. Then she realized he might think she was freaked out that he was gay, which was so far from being the problem it wasn’t even funny. She could just leave it at that, but if one of her teachers was going to be so crazy she was considering quitting choir, she didn’t want another of her teachers thinking she was a nutjob who’d run away and hide from a gay teacher like he’d give her the plague or something. So she had to explain a little. Maybe it’d even help. If Mr. Seymour was weird enough to start telling students about vampires, maybe he was weird with the other teachers too.
“He was making really strange jokes about vampires…” And he seemed to know what kind of dreams she was having. And he knew about the “knowing your own strength” thing, too; she’d accidentally ripped the doorknob out of her closet door that morning. “I dunno, I guess I just don’t get his sense of humor! But it was really awkward and I’d just rather avoid him right now, that’s all, so I’ll get a book—”
“Did he tell you you’re the Slayer?”
“Not you too!” Karina wailed. Were all her teachers crazy, or was this some kind of hazing ritual?
“Sorry, yeah,” he said. “Me, too. My wife was a Slayer before you, and she found out when she was your age. It just took two of our classmates getting killed by vampires before we believed it. I’d prefer if it didn’t get that bad here. Will you let me show you some news articles first?”
“Where on earth is the librarian?”
“Ms. Joubert? Back room,” he said. “I’m covering for her while she puts some things away. Listen, I swear I’m not making this up. Will you just give me a chance to show you what I’m talking about?”
Karina frowned at him, considering her options. She couldn’t drop history like she could choir. Mr. Kaburagi was at least offering some kind of proof beyond creepy mind-read-y I know your spooky dreams stuff, and crazy as it sounded, having two different teachers talk about the same bizarre thing made it seem less completely impossible. And he seemed awfully… trustworthy, somehow. “Okay,” she said. “Show me whatever insane proof you think you have.”
Fandom: Tiger & Bunny
Characters: Karina, Kotetsu, Nathan, Ben; mentions of many more
Word count: 1600 words
Rating: PG
Warnings: None to speak of.
Summary: Karina Lyle, the newest Slayer, is notified of her destiny by two of her teachers on her first day of high school. She really doesn't take it well at all.
Notes: For the "vamp/were/supernatural" square on my Trope Bingo card, despite the fact no actual vampires appear in the story. Like the steampunk AU, I have everyone's roles figured out for a much longer AU fic I may never write; this is just meant to set up the universe.
****
Kotetsu didn’t get calls from Ben Jackson, Tomoe’s second Watcher, very often, so he had a pretty good idea what it was about even before he answered. He locked the classroom door; had Ben known it was his planning period? “Hey, Ben. Business or pleasure?”
“Business again, I’m afraid. There’s a new Slayer.”
Five years since he’d lost Tomoe. That meant some girl, somewhere in the world, probably hadn’t lived to see twenty. “Already,” he said, heavily.
“Tomoe was special, Kotetsu. You know that. I don’t just mean to you. No one I know had heard of a Slayer living as long as she did. I think you and Antonio were at least half the reason for that.”
“Nah, it was all her,” he said, trying to make his tone light. “Who is it? A transfer student or someone I might know?”
“New student. Karina Lyle. Her watcher’s the new choir teacher.”
“The choir director? Not the new science teacher?” Brooks; young, good-looking, and kind of… intense-seeming. Kotetsu had pegged him as a fighter of some kind on sight, going by the way he moved and sized people up. He wasn’t very friendly, either. He hadn’t seemed much like either of Tomoe’s Watchers, but he also hadn’t seemed like an ordinary teacher.
“No, definitely the music guy. Nathan Seymour. Why?”
“Just a hunch. Guess I can’t always trust my gut, huh?” No, he was trusting his gut. He’d have to keep an eye on the new guy… and the Watcher, and the Slayer. He’d have his hands full. Time to rope Antonio into this, he thought. And start carrying stakes and holy water again.
*
Karina Lyle was not thrilled about her high school prospects. She’d wanted to go to Mnemosyne High School for the Performing Arts — she’d auditioned, she’d felt really good about her chances, she’d passed the academic part of the entrance exam and everything — and instead, she was going to Atlas International Magnet, which was far enough from her house that she’d need be on the train at six-thirty in the freaking morning so she could be at school on time, and their music program wasn’t even part of the magnet.
The six-thirty thing could have been survivable, but it was really annoying. She hadn’t been sleeping well, anyway. She kept having creepy recurring dreams: some tattooed guy with pink hair who turned out to be a vampire, an old man with glasses instead of eyes, a snake with its tail in its mouth, cowled figures carrying torches. Twice the night before the first day of school. They never made any sense, they never went anywhere, and she kept waking up in the middle of the night, freaked out, like she was getting so much rest and could really afford to lose any to her subconscious’s idea of a spooky movie.
But as long as she stayed awake in class, she was doing okay. Her locker was nice and centrally located, and she didn’t have any long runs from one end of the building to another between classes. Her science teacher, Mr. Brooks, seemed kind of like a jerk, but he was young and good-looking; her history teacher, Mr. Kaburagi, seemed funny and nice; and her math teacher, Mr. Lopez, was also the soccer coach, according to the first friend she’d made, so maybe math would be pretty easy this year. More to the point, she’d made a friend. Pao-lin, the girl who played soccer and knew Mr. Lopez already, was also in her science class, and they’d hit it off immediately. They had the same lunch hour, too, so that was another hurdle already covered.
Fourth period was choir, the hopeful highlight of her day; the teacher was a tall, androgynous-seeming black guy, the most obviously gay teacher she’d ever encountered, who opened the class promisingly with, “Let’s just get this out of the way. I am flaming. If that makes you uncomfortable, you’re going to need to get over it.” Everyone had laughed, some nervously, some delightedly, and Karina had liked him right away.
Which helped, because after class, he asked her to stay, when she just wanted to run off and meet Pao-lin for lunch and buy something caffeinated. “Karina, isn’t it?” he said. “I hear you tried out for Mnemosyne?”
“Yeah,” she said. How did he know that? “I just didn’t make the cut on the musical portion.”
“Sorry to hear that, but I have to say, I’m glad to have you here instead. Bit of an odd question— have you been having trouble sleeping?” She flushed — had she been nodding off in class? “Weird dreams, anything like that?”
“That’s— that’s awfully personal.”
“Have you noticed you’re clumsier than you once were? You break things, you don’t seem to know your own strength anymore…”
“What are you getting at?” She had her back to the door now. She didn’t think he was threatening her, exactly, but this had turned really creepy all of a sudden.
“Sweetie, you wouldn’t have believed me if I hadn’t opened with the strange stuff,” he said. “Vampires are real. You’re the Slayer, the one person who can fight them. That’s what all this is about.”
“That’s crazy,” she said, pushing the door open with her backpack. “That’s… this is a really weird joke, Mr. Seymour. I have to go get lunch. I’ll, um, I’ll see you tomorrow.”
If she didn’t transfer out of choir first chance she got.
*
Lunch, at least, helped restore some sense of normality. She met up with Pao-lin, and Pao-lin’s very shy friend Ivan — the school wasn’t kidding about the “international” part, it turned out — and ate disgusting burritos, and then went on to Civics (Ivan was in that with her; the magnet program felt like a really small school.) Mr. Goodman repeated himself a lot, but he let them seat themselves however they wanted. And her last class of the day was English, taught by Mr. Petrov, which at least meant a blessed end to a day that had gone all freaky on her midway through. Now she just had to decide what to do about choir. Should she go put her name in with the guidance counselor right away? She really didn’t want to give up on an elective that let her sing, though. She knew the school put on musicals, too, but she wasn’t sure about her acting skills. She just wanted to sing.
And not run into Mr. Seymour on her way to her locker. Karina saw him before he saw her, and she ducked into the library to hide from him — how long would she have to lurk here? — only to turn around and find herself face to face with Mr. Kaburagi.
“Oh, um, hi!” she blurted out. Had she looked too weird or furtive darting in here? What had he seen? Could he have seen Mr. Seymour from here? She tried to edge around him, putting some distance between herself and the door so Mr. Seymour couldn’t find her. The librarian was nowhere to be seen.
“Karina, right? Are you okay?”
“I’m fine!” Crap, she had looked shifty. “I’m just, uh, just…”
“Hiding?” he suggested, looking amused. “What’s so scary about the new choir guy?”
“You don’t even know,” she said darkly. Then she realized he might think she was freaked out that he was gay, which was so far from being the problem it wasn’t even funny. She could just leave it at that, but if one of her teachers was going to be so crazy she was considering quitting choir, she didn’t want another of her teachers thinking she was a nutjob who’d run away and hide from a gay teacher like he’d give her the plague or something. So she had to explain a little. Maybe it’d even help. If Mr. Seymour was weird enough to start telling students about vampires, maybe he was weird with the other teachers too.
“He was making really strange jokes about vampires…” And he seemed to know what kind of dreams she was having. And he knew about the “knowing your own strength” thing, too; she’d accidentally ripped the doorknob out of her closet door that morning. “I dunno, I guess I just don’t get his sense of humor! But it was really awkward and I’d just rather avoid him right now, that’s all, so I’ll get a book—”
“Did he tell you you’re the Slayer?”
“Not you too!” Karina wailed. Were all her teachers crazy, or was this some kind of hazing ritual?
“Sorry, yeah,” he said. “Me, too. My wife was a Slayer before you, and she found out when she was your age. It just took two of our classmates getting killed by vampires before we believed it. I’d prefer if it didn’t get that bad here. Will you let me show you some news articles first?”
“Where on earth is the librarian?”
“Ms. Joubert? Back room,” he said. “I’m covering for her while she puts some things away. Listen, I swear I’m not making this up. Will you just give me a chance to show you what I’m talking about?”
Karina frowned at him, considering her options. She couldn’t drop history like she could choir. Mr. Kaburagi was at least offering some kind of proof beyond creepy mind-read-y I know your spooky dreams stuff, and crazy as it sounded, having two different teachers talk about the same bizarre thing made it seem less completely impossible. And he seemed awfully… trustworthy, somehow. “Okay,” she said. “Show me whatever insane proof you think you have.”
