Re:PERSPECTIVE: Rosalind Base.

“The Calculated Queen of Recklessness.”

People had called me that all my life.

I didn’t MIND, obviously; I took it as more of a compliment.

Lot of people probably never took it that way, though… hm… makes me wonder sometimes about how many of them took it to mean one thing or the other. But, that’s most people, right?

Whatever. It wasn’t about my past at that moment.

It was about my present.

For you see, there was something… interesting about me.

Not my natural blue hair due to a genetic mutation, though that might be interesting depending on who you ask.

And it wasn’t my… shall we say, penchant for thought-through madness, either. Though, that one likely warrants some mention, too… hm… perhaps I should have rethought the syntax.

…

Yeah, I should have done it this way from the start. Let me start over.

From the start, when my cousin showed me all of his RPGs, two things stuck out. One, despite being six I could understand what was going on, and two, I was always going for the berserker builds. I could do the stupidest, most defense-sacrificing builds ever, but I’d always win the fight because I knew exactly what to do with the power it offered me.

And, well, it kept going from there. Taking part in only specific chugging challenges at parties because those were the drinks with the least alcohol content and I had already secured a back route exit AND a ride home. Doing the most idiotic cliff-diving challenges straight into the 5:00am Pacific Ocean after cramming on impact-reducing techniques. Looking enough into chemicals to make a chemical bomb that could NEVER get traced back to me that our chemistry teacher would get a whiff of before clearing itself up, allowing us ten minutes of free laughter as he babbled in an indecipherable language, his conscious mind lost in the infinite darkness none the wiser.

Yes, I was the Calculated Queen of Recklessness, benevolent and fair in my granting of wicked-ass good times to my subjects. I loved them as a ruler, and they loved me as peons.

But that last little exploit I mentioned leads into what I was ACTUALLY going to talk about.

What was unique about me, and fueling me in that moment sitting in my dorm room, in my present.

More than being a queen, I had… an interesting fascination.

…........

A kink. I’m talking about a kink. Fuck.

But yes, I discovered something of an affinity for… shall we say… twisting the minds and free thoughts of those I found attractive. And should I find ways to do so while maintaining my reputation… all the better.

So guess who concluded her college roommate was a probably-definitely-vampire and decided to make her subjects proud, however many dimensions away they were?

~ ~ ~

Okay, my read on her:

Pale skin? Check.

Really suspicious eyes? Check.

What did Mesmerra say her name was? Velvet? Sounded hella check to me.

And what was the question she asked? If magic existed, huh? Perhaps she needed to see if magic was real because an OCP would be the best way to ease her affliction! Ha!

Now, how to take advantage of it… well, there was a way. But was even I crazy enough to attempt it?

Yes.

Yes I was.

“So, uh, Velvet, right?” I tried.

She turned around almost immediately. “...where did you hear that?”

“Ah, well, I mean, the dean said it in front of everyone, so…” I kinda just threw up my hands.

Velvet relaxed pretty quickly after that. “...oh. Right. I guess she did do that, huh? So whaddya want?”

“Oh, well, I just had… a thought and an idea to go with that thought. I wanna help you out a little bit, you know?”

Her eyes narrowed. “...I don’t know, as a matter of fact. How about you tell me?”

“Well, I, uh, don’t want to assume, but… Velvet… you’re a vampire, right?”

Velvet's eyebrows fell with alarming speed. All at once, her piercing golden eyes began to burn with the fires of hell and the room dropped a thousand degrees. Blackness began to spread out from behind her, enveloping the room in its vile embrace- an embrace which froze me to the spot. Velvet floated- she FLOATED- towards me, got up really close in my grill.

And she hissed. The teeth were what scared me the most. I was used to cheap Halloween props, frankly. This was like living your whole life knowing of BB guns and only BB guns, but then seeing a REAL gun. Feeling the distinct air of danger and the CANYONS of difference between the atmospheric pressure the sight of each choked you with.

And the gun was in the hands of someone who might want to kill you. No way for you to know.

Somewhat hypocritical to fear such a death given what I had planned, but I ruled with a Calculated fist, thank you very much. I liked to think that was the difference.

“So what if I am, huh, Blue? What do you think you can do about it?”

“N-nothing! Well, something, actually, that’s why I brought it up, but I don’t mean for that to come a-across as- ohhhhh god I’m gonna be sick…”

“SPIT IT OUT!!!!!!”

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH OKAY! Okay okay! I’ll tell you, just… drop the blackness, I can’t concentrate!”

Velvet’s face contorted a little bit, like my proposal was something she was toying with in her mouth with her tongue- turning it over and giving it an analysis. Like a tough piece of steak, really. “...fine,” she muttered. Instantly, she floated back three feet and the room was no longer bathed in shadow hell. “So what’s the idea.”

“W-well, it’s… just… you know… god, these rooms smell REALLY good, don’t they?”

“FOCUS, you scatter-brain.”

“Sorry! Sorry! I’ve been called that a few times, yeah…” I gulped. It was go time. Then or never. “So, you have to eat people, right? It probably wouldn’t be so bad if normal people food still did anything for you, but you seem kinda shaken up about being a vampire. Do you HAVE to eat people?”

Velvet looked shocked at the frankness of the question. “Wh-wha?”

“Seriously, I’m going somewhere with this.”

“W-well, um… yeah. I don’t have to feed THAT often, but I do have to drain blood from people every once in a while. It’s like… more than hunger, it’s like a demon. I can’t NOT do it. Like my survival instincts take over even more than they probably should. And the people I feed on… they don’t just die. They’re like zombies. Zombies bent to my will. Knowing that the soulless corpses I’ve hidden wherever I could that was out of the sight of the rest of society… were once PEOPLE… do you know how much that bears on me?” She scoffed. “Best I can do, based on what I’ve tried to figure out but never properly tested, is make someone ELSE a vampire, bent to my will too. But… why the hell would I want to do that to someone else, you know?” Velvet walked over to the couch and plopped her weight with a resounding muffled thud. “Aaaaaaand being in the presence of all the rest of the magical energy around here, because it can’t be anything else, weakened me and I need to feed again already. JUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUST great.”

“Well, you don’t need to leave to eat, for one thing.”

“Ha! You make it sound like you’re off-” Velvet, smirking, looked in my direction.

At me.

Rubbing my neck with a deadpan expression on my face.

“...no. You’re fucking with me. You CANNOT POSSIBLY EXPECT ME TO BELIEVE THAT YOU ARE SO READY TO THROW YOUR LIFE AWAY.”

“So? Just a drop or two couldn’t be THAT bad for me, could it?”

“I just… please. I know I’m talking all tough, but I’m just mad. This has messed me up so much, you know? I don’t want anyone else to be messed up like this too. Please don’t throw your life away.”

“And I’ll tell you right now that I know exactly what I’m doing. Now go, before your ‘instincts’ take over and you take more than you or I want you to.”

Velvet looked downright stunned. “...Shit, it REALLY must be whatever they put in here that smells so good, huh? Screwing with students’ sense of good ideas, making shit like this happen more often, would make sense…”

She got up and hesitantly stepped toward me.

And took a breath in.

I took one too.

My heart was POUNDING away at my everything.

Velvet slowly opened her mouth, her fangs starting to elongate as she did so.

She took another sniff as she closed in on my neck, slower and slower by the second-

“SLEEP.”

Velvet collapsed to the floor.

Holy fuck, I did it.

I mean, I know I calculated for the chances of putting otherwise-harmless chemicals in my shampoo to interact with my unique hair and create a mind-altering smell that would affect everyone but me, but… THAT MADE NO PART OF THIS LESS SCARY.

Deep breath in.

Deep breath out.

I looked at my newest peon, sprawled peacefully on the floor.

Well. Guess the rest of MCU had to look out, because the Calculated Queen of Recklessness had a message coming their way:

“Vampire pet.”

That was it. That was the post.

“P.S. You’re all next!”