For a single night, strange bats descended on Destiny City after construction disturbed their nest! They flew over Destiny City's Fall Festival and a few nearby locations, descending on the local populace and attacking anyone they could. Being bitten by these bats leaves two small marks that will itch for a few hours. Then, anyone bitten will feel exhausted and fatigued. They become extremely sensitive; skin feels like it becomes overheated in sunlight, and bright lights are painful to the eyes. The victim will feel constantly cold and hungry, no matter how much they eat or drink. They may also be prone to agitation and bouts of violence. These afflictions may last only a few hours or a few days and then suddenly disappear. Destiny City can find no explanation for the sickness, and it has been unofficially dubbed 'The Vampire Sickness'. If you were bitten, how are you handling this? Is someone you know suffering the affliction? Are you convinced it's a conspiracy or joke, and just media frenzy?


“Thanks man, keep the change.” Kidder noted, with a shiver as he exchanged cash for pizza, wishing the warmth radiating through the cardboard boxes would soak into him. His hands, half muffled in the pulled up sleeves of a hoodie, felt like ice, and he was wearing an almost uncomfortable number of layers under said same hoodie, which he was hoping to disguise from family members who continued to smother him with a certain degree of concern every time he acted less than what they estimated was ‘normal’.


Everything at home lately was grins, jokes, routine, and being careful not to sneeze or frown. Unfortunately there was no getting an excuse past about the bats. Clips had been all over the news, and one of them, and oh lord he looked surreal in it, had been him pile driving a bat into the pavement. He looked, in his own degrading estimation, like a twiggish Conan.


His father was at least at work for now, so he felt mostly secure to relax, and just feel actually miserable. He thought it was the flu at first, but instead of vomiting he got hungry to go with the shuddering chills, and the pounding headache every time he turned on a strong light. It was making Bodi fussed out, and she’d bitten him three times. He was used to being bitten. Being bitten was just part of having a bird, when her beak stood in for a certain lack of hands, and a lot of communicating comfort, but it had been a while since she’d bit him that hard, and he had a bandaid on one finger from it, which he did not begrudge, since he knew damn well she could have done considerably worse.


The pizza guy made noise that was equivalent to thank you without actually being words that Kidder could recognize and trotted down the steps on his way to the next stop. Kidder closed the door and wandered back through, wrapping an arm around the boxes long enough to put an empty plate on top, grabbed a few cans of soda still in their plastic ring and wandered back for his room. Normally he’d have put the box in the fridge but normally he wasn’t this hungry. He didn’t think he’d been this starving since he was still going through wild, awkward growth spurts.


Bodi screeched and bobbed up and down as he came back in, then climbed across to hang from one of her toys, flapping and manipulating the colorful blocks to check for treats.


“Sorry, no pizza for you, Murder Bird.” He joked, putting the pizza down on his desk and wrapping himself up in the blankets on the bed, leaving arms out to help himself to a hot slice from the box, and taking a bite that he barely tasted, which was just as well since the melted cheese was hot enough to hit his lip and chin and burn, and he made annoyed noises of protest and gulped it down, immediately reaching to open a soda and have a few swallows to cool off the hot brick in his stomach, which didn’t make him feel any warmer anyway.


The computer was up, playing through youtube videos and he’d stopped picking what came next because it felt like far too much work. Just working his way, doggedly, through the pizza and soda felt like work, though at least on some level he felt like he’d slowed down enough or it had cooled down enough to taste it.


He glanced at the screen, let his eyes wander down to the instant messenger tabs and saw nothing. He wasn’t sure if he was surprised by that or not. Not he guessed. Crazy night, people were probably searching for clips on youtube. He was pretty sure he was on there too, he just didn’t want to look. He could already picture the memes people were probably making, and how much ‘fun’ this burst of internet fame was going to be. Destiny City. Good for a laugh he guessed. If you hadn’t been there and been assaulted by giant bat monsters people probably assumed was a prank. He’d have assumed it was if he hadn’t been there, if he couldn’t still imagine the living heat of that leathery wing and fur.


Suffering was funny if it happened to someone else, and everyone was someone else to someone. Don’t kid a Kidder right? Everyone was good for a damn laugh.

At least they'd named this bullshit plague apparently going around in time for the Holiday. it was almost festive.