Let Mom do Her Thing

“Mom, would you go talk to her?” You ask, “I feel like you might be able to disarm her. With your attitude, I mean.”.

“I can try,” She says simply, “Give me the stamp.”

You hand it over and she quickly gets up to basically walk past the woman’s back and possibly get the stamp onto the back of her neck? You aren't completely sure what her plan is.

The woman is seated at the bar of the diner, looking a little bored. At this point you're all looking over at her, but your mom hasn't made her move.

Then, she slides into the other seat and starts to talk with her. You can only see Mom's face as she delightfully smiles and talks as if she’s maybe flirting with the lady.

“Hey Eden, could you tell how old she must be?” You ask.

“Well, I'd guess probably between 25 and 30.”

Hmmm… you wonder if it’s working and then your Mom points back at you and waves. You all wave back as the woman takes a good look at all of you.

“What’s going on over there?” Ashley asks. “I thought Mom was supposed to stamp her.”

“Yeah, that’s the idea.” You tell her, being very confused yourself.

Eden then whispers, “They're talking about the stamp now!” At a volume that probably wouldn't travel that far.

You decide to just get back to eating your meal, having left about half of it on your plate. You don't want to jinx anything by watching them talk.

“Looks like mystery lady is curious about it,” Eden continues, “Your mom is offering to show her what it says… And… she stamped herself?”

Wait, that's kind of bad. That means that this lady might figure out the effect of the ownership power, right? Does that makes sense? You think it does, but you don't actually know enough about it to know if that's true.

“She’s coming over.” Eden says, getting real quiet.

And then, as both the trench coat lady and your Mom walk over, she finally stamps the back of her neck. You hear it pretty clearly, even through the clammer of the diner around you all. A solid “Thump” sound that seems louder than it should be, but maybe you were just really listening for it.

As she steps up to the edge of your table, you see her eyes widen for a second before she accepts whatever fate has in store for her.

“Hey.” She says, “She was just saying that…” she looks around the table until her eyes settle on yours, “...you own everyone here. I didn't believe her, but I'm starting to change my mind.”

“Yeah, that's right. I own Ashley, Sabrina, Eden, My mom, and…” as you speak, you point at everyone to introduce their names, and then point a finger directly at her and say, “...you.”

“I guess you do,” She rolls her eyes, “Should I take a seat?”

“Sure. What’s your name by the way?” You ask as she slides in next to Eden.

“Jodi. And before you ask what I'm doing in here, I'm looking for someone. Well, it would be more accurate to say something, but I digress.”

That surprises you. You're assessment of what kind of 90’s action movie she’d be from was correct, “Who- I mean, what's that?”

“A vampire,” She says simply.

Ashley repeats her, “A vampire?”

Jodi takes a look at your Mom’s cup of soda water and shrugs before taking a sip. At the same time, you wave Mom in to get her to sit down next to her.

“Yes. I was out all last night looking for her, but I'm a little afraid she caught my trail. She won't show back up unless she thinks I'm an easy mark.”

“Wait, so you’re being 100% serious?” You ask, “Vampires are real? Are they like, freaky monsters or sexy people? Or, where are they on that spectrum.”

Jodi grins at that, “I don't know how I would describe them. Rare. That's one thing about them. Never more than one in a pretty big area. Like to put a city or two at least between them. But in terms of looks? I guess they're a little more like twilight than not.”

“What the fuck are you talking about?” Sabrina says, her mouth agape. She’s obviously pretty excited and surprised by this insane world lore drop. “Then who are you?”

“Well, I'm Jodi Belmont. Vampire hunter. Uh, I guess I also collect some physical media. Kind of a loner, if I have to describe myself.” It's pretty obvious that she’s not used to talking this much.

“And you're just telling us the truth?” You ask, “You have to, right?”

“I just told you five more than I've told anyone about me. Nobody really knows my name anymore. Except you all. Now at least.”

“So, what are you packing then?” Eden asks, “Not silver bullets.”

Despite being pretty obviously unsociable, she gives a smile at Eden’s comment that convinces you that she’s inherently the coolest person you’ve ever come into contact with in your life.

“No. A stake. Like, the wooden ones. You didn't notice the hammer down my boot.”

“No, I didn't.” Eden responds, apparently getting the same vibe from this woman.

“Hey, we’re going on a road trip,” Ashley realizes, “Is it going to be okay for you to come with us? I know that's what Erik’s going to want, but like what about the vampire you were like, hunting?”

“Like I said, she’s not coming out. She’ll probably keep a low profile for a couple months and I’ll have to sneak back into town. Maybe find her somewhere else. It's not great, but I think I spooked her enough that she’ll keep the feeding pretty light for a while.”

“God, you’re the coolest person ever,” You tell her, “But, you live on the road pretty much?”

“Sometimes,” she says, smiling at the compliment, “I’ve settled down for a while a couple of times. It doesn't last forever though. I have a duty to keep track of the vampire population of America, even if it is pretty scarce. I'm living out of a van right now, which isn't the greatest.”

You think about getting her to drive the van alongside the RV as you travel, but you realize that’ll be more of a hassle than it's worth.

“Okay, well, how about you come with us? If you ever need to go, I can get you a better van any time I'd like. You can just move your stuff into the RV and then leave the van to get towed.”

“I guess what was mine is yours.” She says pretty flatly. “Thanks for letting me keep my stuff though. I appreciate that.”

“I like to keep my people happy, I guess.” You respond. “Did you already eat?”

“Uh, no.” Jodi says.

“You can have some of mine. I'm not going to finish.” Mom says, sliding her plate over a few inches.

Jodi looks up at you and you nod, telling her to just do it.

The rest of the meal ends pretty uneventfully as everyone else starts to introduce themselves and ask a few more questions of Jodi. You’re excited to see what she looks like under all her clothes, but you still enjoy the discussion.

On the way back out to the RV though, Eden goes to help Jodi bring her van over and start transporting some of her stuff over and you notice something that's kind of disquieting.

“Hey mom,” You ask, “That’s Dad's car, right? I mean, it's not just the same kind?”

Your mom squints, but says, “My eyes aren't really what they used to be. Looks… similar though.”

“You and Ashley should get inside. I have a bad feeling about this.”

“Okay, we’re going,” Ashley sighs, making her girlfriend follow her inside.

You decide to follow them in too, leaving Sabrina and Jodi to take everything inside on their own.

[Author's Note: Hey, I just made a little character profile chapter. It's branched off of my first chapter in this thread, so it might be a little bit of a hassle to go through from here, so I have put the link below the note here. I'll also be posting it again at the bottom of the next chapter. It doesn't really go very in depth into the characters, but there are drawings of basically what I think the characters look like lol. It's not perfect but whatever. Anyway, thanks!]

https://chyoa.com/chapter/PornisWhack%27s-Character-Profiles%3A.1672804