15793/A cure for.... Dracula

A cure for.... Dracula
Date of Scene:	12 November 2023
Location:	GIRL HQ
Synopsis:	Vampirella heads to GIRL for some help with an unusual problem. Nadia Pym provisionally takes on a job to cure Dracula himself. What could possibly go wrong!
Cast of Characters:	Wasp (Pym), Vampirella

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Wasp (Pym) has posed:
GIRL HQ, located part way between Gotham and New York in a Kane Industries owned former subway station, is functionally up and running. With just a few last security and safety checks to go before it's fully open to the public.

Of course Nadia doesn't need to wait for any of that. So in a way she's got early exclusive access to all the equipment she could need or want. Even if it's a little less fun working by herself.

Word has gone around the super community that for those in the need science help can be found here. Beneath a giant sparkly pink sign there's stairs going down into a sleek and modern facility. Wide open plan office space, couches and snack machines, it could be any tech start up. Probably all the fancy stuff is further down.

And of the GIRL herself? Nadia Pym is working late as usual. Wearing a pink summer dress with white knee socks and smart buckled shoes. Sitting one of the tables. Doing responsible Science Director admin things. And totally not doodling ideas for inventions in the margins...

Vampirella has posed:
Vampirella is not a part of the super community. She's met a few, here and there; some of them she even knows are superheroes. Regardless, it's not her scene. Earth science is absurdly primitive compared to Drakulon's, and just because she's stuck in the galactic equivalent of a Renaissance Faire doesn't mean she has to drown herself in the techniques of how to make objects that stopped being useful centuries ago.

But sometimes a problem comes up outside of your own area of expertise, so you take the help that's available, and GIRL seems like they might have the expertise Vampirella needs. Or the closest thing to it.

Vampirella does not feel like putting up with any security checks, so she looks the security checkers in the eye and tells them they are happy to let her pass, and the security checkers discover they ARE in fact happy to let her pass, so they do the thing that makes everyone involved happy. A few minutes later, Vampirella is forming opinions of Nadia Pym based on her outfit (which may seem judgmental but she considers it preemptive fair play, since Nadia Pym is likely about to do the same to her) and announcing to the scientist's back, "I need a cure for a Dracula virus. Can you make one?"

Wasp (Pym) has posed:
It's probably for the best GIRL uses mostly automated systems for security. The limited on site staff mostly there to greet and direct visitors as to verify them. They probably don't need much convincing at all to allow Vampirella in. Unusual visitors are pretty much expected at a place like this!

For Earth technology things certainly seem to be at the premium end of the renaissance fair. Between the members assorted skills and lots of Kate's money no expense has been spared. There's even a vending machine that makes passable microwave hotdogs. Thanks to the wonders of SCIENCE!

For someone who could probably pass as a high school student Nadia seems unusually calm for someone approached from behind unexpectedly. She taps the pen she's been doodling with against the table. "I suppose that would depend on a variety of factors," she says after a moment to consider the question. "Such as the nature of the virus. What samples you can provide for me to work with."

There's a hint of a shrug.

"Do you need it for yourself? Or to give to a third party?" She motions for Vampirella to take a seat. "And if you need it personally what infection risks should we be accounting for right now?"

Vampirella has posed:
Vampirella shrugs lightly, standing there in the doorway, one hip cocked slightly, one leg slightly extended to the side. "I don't know its nature. I'm not a doctor. Most of what I know, I got from a vampire oracle who dressed it up with a lot of religion. As best I can tell it's a congenital infection that targets chromosomes, created when Dracula fed on some peasants who had some kind of flu. The disease in their blood became integrated into him and his curse became aerosolized. The virus terraforms the victim on activation, transforming them into Dracula over time. Pretty much everyone in the Carpathian mountain region during his first death in the late nineteenth century was infected from the droplets released by his body. Every descendant of theirs could be a carrier. The oracle gave me a mystical cure to the problem but that's a ritual I can't go through enough times to cure everyone." Her flat delivery takes on a hint of wry humor there at the end, lips quirking a bit, though her eyes remain as emotionless as a serpent's.

Back to business. "So you need samples? What parts of people do you need?"

Wasp (Pym) has posed:
"Into Dracula as in a specific person?" Nadia wonders. "Or do they get Dracula-like powers?" It's a good thing the Red Room covered all sorts of exotic and esoteric scientific fields. Or else she'd probably be assuming this was a practical joke. "I think you might be best filling me in on the specifics."

With her offer to sit declined she turns round. Better to face someone when you quiz them.

"Are you infected yourself? How many people is 'everyone'? How time critical is this?"

She holds the pen ready to make notes.

"If there's a genetic component then we could probably put together a targeted gene therapy using Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats." A beats pause. "One of my members did say she was a witch. Possibly she could look into any curse removal techniques. Magic and adjacent fields aren't something I've had time to study yet."

There's nothing like a complex and potentially dangerous situation to help the petite scientist focus when she needs to. "Parts? Ideally I would need patients. The more samples I can take the better. And if there is any risk of contagion it's vital that we set up a quarantine zone."

Vampirella has posed:
That's a lot of questions at once. Luckily, Vampirella has a good memory.

"First: yes, as a specific person. His memories re-emerge. They coexist with the host's for at least a few years, and I don't know if they'd erase the host's in time. I never let him get that far.

"Second: I'm not infected. I doubt I can be. Different physiologies.

"Third: I don't know how many people lived in Transylvania in 1893 or how many people are descended from that population. Seems like probably a lot.

"Fourth: the virus seems to lie dormant until I kill a Dracula. Then a new one pops up after a few years. This suggests to me that his will exists and he chooses hosts.

"Fifth: I know how to defeat the curse, but I don't have time to fall in love with each individual infected, marry them, spread Transylvanian soil on our honeymoon bed, make them drink my blood at the moment of climax, then drink the infection out of them. Maybe my romantic standards are too high but I don't think I can fall for the population of an entire city's descendants."

Wasp (Pym) has posed:
"So that'd be a lot of potentially infected people and it's unlikely you'll ever be able to track down all of them," Nadia says with a shake of her head. "Not without someone with the speed force or extreme super speed to assist with diagnosis." She makes a few cryptic notes in shorthand with Cyrillic characters. "It certainly sounds like a magical element. No normal virus can trigger like that."

There's a little giggle. "You also forgot to tell me one other important thing. Who are you?" Now Vampirella has confirmed she's not contagious the petite Russian holds her hand out in greeting. "I'm Nadia Pym by the way. This is my facility."

Her brow furrows at the description of the ritual.

"That sounds very impractical. By the time you've removed the curse from one person several infected children would have been born. You'll forever be playing catch up... And it will cost a fortune on photographers and divorce lawyers."

Vampirella has posed:
The less petite, probably not Russian takes the hand briefly and shakes it. "Vampirella. I'm not from around here. And the ritual wouldn't work if I went into it looking for a way out. Dracula's vampirism is a perversion of love. If you're going to attack it on a metaphysical level, then you need real love. That's why I was thinking of attacking the physical component."

Wasp (Pym) has posed:
"So that rules out a very polyamorous marriage ceremony," Nadia says with giggle. "Not that I was seriously considering it as a solution. Not seriously anyway. Though it would be good to test the parameters of the situation. Then we could establish the rules which govern your predicament."

She taps her pen a few times.

"Do you actually need to kill the individual infected? Have you considered trapping Dracula in some sort of status? If he never dies then it wouldn't trigger the next incarnation. Does it only infect males? Or are women at risk too?"

She scribbles some more notes down. "It seems like the risk of collecting data is relatively low," she muses. "So if you can get several carriers to visit so I can take samples. DNA, blood, tissue, and pretty much everything they consent to." Another pause. "If you are immune then any samples you can provide might help too? We could look at patching some of your genetic material in to replace what we've removed..."

Vampirella has posed:
One of those questions makes Vampirella pause to think. "I don't know of him ever activating a female host. Based on my experiences of him, he probably considers women beneath him, but maybe he would activate one in a tight spot. I think he'd choose spending some time as a woman over death, and even if he didn't, his cult would." Her gaze is abstract, not looking at Nadia at all but into herself, checking her memories against her theory. They seem to match well enough, but the problem is, they're her memories. A small, bitter smile curls her lips.

Wasp (Pym) has posed:
"And does that rule out freezing him in time? Or stranding him between dimensions?" Nadia asks cheerfully. Once the prospect of immediate virial contagion is off the table it's the sort of problem she can enjoy puzzling over. "I would like to consult with the rest of GIRL regarding the case." She raises an eyebrow at Vampirella quizzically. "Will that be a problem? If you can also provide some contact details that would be ideal."

"To achieve the level of coverage you'd want for guaranteed global infection I'm not sure it would be ethical. We'd need to release a virus that would infect the vast majority of the worlds population. And that risks mutating with unintended effects. So really the most practical solution would simply be to put infected individuals into tanks for targeted treatment."

Vampirella has posed:
"Yeah, maybe don't engineer a virus," Vampirella agrees drily. "That's never worked out for anyone." She rattles off a phone number, then looks at Nadia for a long time. "You've got a lot of mad scientist vibe going on. You understand the importance of not playing with this, right?"

Wasp (Pym) has posed:
"Don't worry," Nadia teases. "That was a little geneticist joke. Of course we're not going to cause a world wide pandemic." Not until they've explored all the options like statis fields, parallel dimensions, and trapping Dracula between atoms for eternity. All perfectly normal avenues of research.

"I'm a member of the Titans and have my own bleeding edge research lab," she points out. "And it's currently being certified to store material for Avengers level threats. I think I can handle a little occult virus."

Besides. She's a Pym. Her family have access to a technology that could end the world if misused. It's hardly new ground for her!