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[diociopath]

[It's sometime during the silent date auction that Dio posts this, a video feed that at first only shows the inside of Dorian Gray's room, for those familiar with it.

The camera soon moves, showing a charred corpse that's slumped over on the ground rather ungracefully. It lingers for only a few seconds, simply because the egomaniac recording still thinks the focus here is him.

So he shifts the communicator in his grasp, moving it to one hand and turning it around to record himself instead. His current outfit's questionable as ever, by the by, but at least he's wearing pants with it.

Also still doing that weird shadowed out face thing. Only his mouth is really visible, despite it showing his whole face.]

Assuming we don't have another pyromaniac roaming the streets, it seems our local lunatic struck again. A pity. If I'd heard this going on, I could have stopped it.

[Something he sounds assuredly confident about. He's also abnormally calm about this whole dead guy thing.]

I suppose for now, informing those of you of a more heroic persuasion about this is all I can do.

[About three of four seconds annnnd there, you all got your moment. The rest of this is now about him.]

In any case, I, Dio, will need a substitute for Dorian until he returns. I'd been using him to feed up until now, but with him out of the picture [yes he said that intentionally] I'm rather stuck for now.

It's blood, by the way, and I'll need someone who can provide enough blood that would kill the average person, so don't go volunteering yourself without considering that.

Ah, one more thing...to you specifically, Lunatic, if you're listening. I'm not sure if your self-righteous witch hunting requires repeat performances in the event of ImPorts coming back, but if they do...I wouldn't bother, if I were you.

If you step foot inside this house again, any of your efforts will be useless. Understand? Useless, useless, useless. My only warning.

[It's not as nice as it sounds, unfortunately. It's like being angry someone decided to sneak in and ruin your perfectly good steak that regenerates everytime you eat it, rather than some kind of need for vengeance against someone who killed a friend or something.]

Comments

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[debauchewy]

[A frown at that, Dorian-? But-]

He should be back then, I imagine, Dorian? Aren't most people here eventually?

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[diociopath]

As far as I'm aware.

But until then, I'm out of luck.

[Granted he could probably go a few days without food but, y'know. Noone has to know that.]

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[debauchewy]

Take a walk.

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[goldenlegacy]

[...so dio doesn't see how hard giorno wants to headdesk at that outfit.]

I don't know how you feel about substitutes, but I can probably turn something into blood, if you want.

[...]

I didn't know you knew Dorian, though. Sorry your buffet died.

In retrospect, maybe I should have arrested Lunatic after all. Kaine was right when he said it could be annoying.

[diociopath]

It would have saved me a lot of trouble, but it's not insurmountable by any means. I'll manage.

[Ugh, making blood. He kind of gets a power trip out of sucking it directly from people though, that's the big issue here.

Otherwise he'd rely on the blood packs sitting in his fridge the government provides.]

Although...if it's necessary, I'll contact you about it. I'd just prefer it directly from a fresh source.

[goldenlegacy]

[trying hard not to think about the reasoning here.]

Eh. It's hard to imagine anyone volunteering for that, but I'm not going to stop them if they want to.

How long do people stay dead here, anyway? On average.

[selfequipped]

[A meal. It's what stands out to her at the end of it, like it's some nagging thing she should be paying attention to. No, that's not it: she wants to focus on that, rather then the simple fact: Dorian is dead. Loki's text brought to her attention that something was up. Now she knows.

No, it's not the "meal" part that she comments on, her tone restrained.]

Can I come in and have a look? Dorian and I are ... [Close? In a not-relationship? In an arrangement that doesn't involve meals?] We're friends, so I'd like to help if I can.

[diociopath]

Of course. I'll be here all evening.

[Tbh their own arrangement goes a little further than just feeding but...well. That's not important right now.]

[selfequipped]

[Oh, she has a feeling it does.]

And next time? Maybe don't give proof unless people ask for it.

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[dionychus]

[There's...a lot happening in this video that he has to process, but the whole feeding thing really does explain why the two of them were uhh...close.

He doesn't seem terribly beat up about Dorian being dead but, then again, apparently he can be revived. Interesting. The other thing that's interesting is him asking for blood so openly but maybe he gave up on keeping the whole vampire thing a secret. Weird...]

When do you think he'll be back? [He's just curious and, yeah he's feeling kinda uncomfortable about that death, even if Dorian was pretty annoying. What a way to go.]

[diociopath]

[So many people know by now, is there much point in keeping it a secret? He's sure if it's ever relevant at all, his """family""" will give it away immediately. He's lost the element of surprise because of them.]

I can't say for sure; I've never heard of how this process works.

But to take a guess...somewhere between one to three days. I suppose we'll see.

[If anything, it's a nice source of info. Thanks Dorian.]

action; can be heard by the neighbors, sorry about the noise

[acrobrat]

[Anita had conveniently stepped out when this happened, and didn't think it necessary to even bring her communicator. She had just bought her first batch of Christmas presents and was placing them on the living room table when she hears Dio speaking.

"...inside this house again, any of your efforts will be useless..."

She follows the sound to Dorian's room hurriedly. Did someone break in and do something to Dorian's portrait? Had Dio found out? Ugh, after all the trouble Anita went through to keep that thing safe...

Her annoyance at the thought of someone breaking in instantly evaporates at the sight of the corpse, as well as all notion of movement. Anita freezes a few steps away from the remains, trembling from head to foot, feeling as if a bucket of ice had just been dumped all over her, the frigid sensation spreading down her spine. She doesn't even notice what Dio is wearing, because who cares what he's wearing or even that he's wearing anything at the moment? There was a dead, burned body in Dorian's room, and...and...

She drops to her knees and screams. She just screams, a piercing shriek of despair and rage and shock, covering her eyes with her hands. Hot tears stream down her cheeks.

Dorian was one of the first people she met. She had kept him safe, endured his bibliophile tendencies, thought of him as a cross between one of her crazy sisters and Nenene, the author who needed bodyguards. In a way, Dorian reminded her of home. Not only that, he liked her enough. It was just too much, even knowing that people here don't stay dead for long. Dorian didn't deserve this. No one did.]

if only she had someone able to acually deal with this around

[diociopath]

[Unfortunately, Dio is not a very...emotional person. Not in the sense of not showing it (although that applies too) rather he's just very indifferent towards other people's feelings. Once Anita shows up, he half turns on the spot to look at her, the buildup to her eventual breakdown expected. Serious she may be, but most children are still children, so the sight of a body - a friend - in this state...no, it's no wonder she's not handling it well.

But he's not the type of person to offer any sentiments, or comfort. Rather than say anything or move to her, he instead places his communicator down on the nearest surface and moves to Dorian's bed, picking up a suit jacket he'd brought for him from his room. To think if he hadn't decided to wait a few more minutes just because he was being inconsiderate (almost finished that book of his, he couldn't stop for something like that) he probably would have shown up in the middle of it all.

Then again, he did hate having to waste energy. Maybe it was better he avoided it.

With the jacket draped over one arm, he moved to Dorian's closet and started moving some clothes around - although the burn marks are very notable. He puts the suit jacket to the side and pulls out the portrait's frame - really Dorian, he should have put this somewhere safer - and starts taking out any damaged clothing he can find.

Only then does he put the suitjacket in where it belongs, neatly resting on a hanger.]

You should step outside. [Back still turned to her, inspecting the damage near his body.] Staying here isn't going to do you any good.

[And maybe cry elsewhere because that is one loud kid.]

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[motherboxes]

Blood?

[Oh, now there are vampires in all this too? Somehow Brenda wasn't really considering that to be a Thing even if she is from a world with actual superheroes and powers. Not that she knows Dorian but that isn't the point. The Lunatic talk also stands out, but not so immediately just yet.]

Er, I'm just a normal person so I can't help there but some of us aren't....human so I don't know if one of them might be able to offer? And what do you mean Dorian is 'out of the picture'? You didn't kill him or something?

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[diociopath]

[Considering she was no help on the blood thing, he decides to just ignore everything she said about it.

As for the last part...that gets a light grunt, as if she just asked a stupid question.]

Do you really believe that I, Dio, would murder someone and reveal it on the network like this?

[He shakes his head.]

The corpse here is Dorian. I'm assuming his killer was a deranged vigilante we have burning "sinners", as he calls them. He attacked my son recently as well.

[standsproud]

It'd be better if you just saved us all the trouble and died.

[diociopath]

I'm afraid you're out of luck, Kujo. I have no intention of dying any time soon.

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[grimreaping]

[ Have a very stern looking teenager. ]

You're certain who did this and you're content to issue a warning?

[diociopath]

[He's like 98% sure. But he still nods, sounding confident.]

It's exactly as I said.

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[fistofthejoestar]

[it's terrible, but the corpse really doesn't bother him much anymore. the implications certainly do, but that's not something he cares to discuss with the present company. which is fine because there's mildly more pressing matters anyway.]

Is it absolutely necessary you find a replacement?

[because honestly he suspects the answer is no and that this is just more pointless melodrama]

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[diociopath]

In the event he's gone. I can't even say for sure whether or not Dorian will return.

[Everyone can say people ressurect here all they want, but do you really think that he, dio, trusts anything.]

There's nothing wrong with a bit of caution. This is my survival we're talking about.

[ Text ] wow wait to go html

[anthropophagite]

[ what is even going on in this place. Shouldn't the military be doing something?! And shouldn't you be contacting the police instead of showing burnt bodies on the network for everyone to see?! And shouldn't you be IDK worried there is a body in your place instead of being so relaxed about it and make a network post? Holy. ]0

Have you called the authorities?

[ and... blood... vampire? ]

Why don't you ask the blood banks to provide you blood?

the bane of rp'ers everywhere

[diociopath]

The ImPort population ought to handle this. Do you think ordinary authority could handle this kind of situation? They'd be lambs to a slaughter.

[As far as he's aware anyway. Doesn't think there's any superpowered cops.]

...as for the blood, I suppose I ought to. It's just a matter of I, Dio, preferring it from a fresh source...it is unnecessarily picky, I'm willing to admit that.

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[glowsferatu]

[ well, that's...grisly. something about this just feels off to her, putting a corpse on display and making it all about your own hunger. there is more to unlife than the hunger, dio, show some dignity!

but then, why she's expecting dignity from someone dressed like that is a mystery in itself. ]

If you need that much, you might as well be supplementing with the synthetics.

[ she never thought the day would come, but here she is, actually suggesting that godawful synthetic blood the government provides. ]

[diociopath]

If I must, I must.

[No resignation, more like..."yeah, I know."]

Dorian's spoiled me quite a bit since we agreed to this little arrangement of ours; the man never bleeds out. [A beat, then a chuckle.] I must look terribly fussy, making such a request like this.