Cordelia picked up the plain cracker without the least bit of enthusiasm. Come on, she willed herself. You have to eat.
She didn’t have the slightest desire to eat the cracker, but figured that surely she could stomach something this inoffensive.
There was no denying of what did sound appealing, and it wasn’t the contents of her bowl, or anything in her kitchen. But that was not an option. This was insane. A bad dream she had to wake up from.
The actual horrid dream, or rather, the nightmare that kept coming back night after night in some iteration flashed up on her mind. It felt so real. Worst part was that while thinking back on it made her uneasy, she found herself salivating.
Will help get this dry cracker down, at least, she thought grimly. Come on then. One, two… three.
She leapt up to dash for the bathroom, but was able to hold the food down. This time. An improvement of sorts.
Who was she kidding? There was no reason to celebrate. And no way she’d be able to eat any more of those crackers…
No time to think about that. To Cordelia’s horror, the front door opened. She watched Dandelion enter the front room as if in slow motion.
“Dandy!” She blurted out, noticing how high-pitched her own voice sounded. “You need to leave.”
The elf frowned. “Look, I know you said you wanted to be alone, but I don’t think-“
She took a step back as the elf moved towards her. “No, you stay away.”
“But you’re still sad!” Dandelion objected. “You said you needed space, or whatever, but it’s not helping. You look-“ He didn’t seem quite sure how to finish the sentence.
“It’s not that.” Cordelia shook her head. “I… I think I might be pregnant… with a vampire child.”
For a moment, Dandelion just stared at her.
“Wait… what? I don’t understand…” He managed finally.
For that, she couldn’t blame him. But how on earth could she explain what happened?
“It’s… complicated. Morgyn… Micah… Micah and I…”
“You’re having a vampire child with Micah? But… I thought you loved Morgyn? I thought you and Micah were just friends?” The elf tried to make sense of the mess of it all.
“Yes. I think.” She added uncertainly. On one hand, calling Micah even just a friend was probably stretching the truth now, with how awkward everything got. On the other hand, those feelings hadn’t gone away.
“So… but… so how are you pregnant with Micah’s baby? How could that… happen?”
“How do you think that kind of thing happens, Dandy?” She snapped.
The elf’s cheeks flushed a bright red. He attempted to cover his face with the palms of his hands.
Cordelia regretted her words instantly. It wasn’t fair to let her frustration out on him. She knew that.
“I’m sorry, Dandy. I’m really on edge. That’s no excuse, I know.” She sighed. “I… I’m a mess. My feelings are all over the place. And I haven’t been able to get any food down. I’m craving blood. That’s why you need to go.”
“Oh.” For some inexplicable reason, the words had the opposite effect on the elf from what she had expected. He seemed to calm down.
“Have you not heard me?”
“I think I can help.” Dandelion said.
“What? No! I’m not really going to drink your blood. I’m not actually a vampire… I don’t have fangs or anything.” At least, Cordelia sincerely hoped she wouldn’t suddenly grow fangs.
She doubted she could truly ingest blood. Did that mean she could trust herself not to attack Dandelion though?
“Dandy, please go.” She pleaded with him. “I don’t really understand what’s happening. But you shouldn’t be near me. I don’t just want any blood. It’s… especially yours.”
“That makes sense,” he nodded, unphased. “Elf blood is meant to be really nice or something. At least that’s what Micah said.”
“Did Micah drink your blood?” Cordelia asked, horrified.
“No. And you won’t either. Just come to Sylvan Glade with me. It will be easier to explain there…”
“But what if I hurt you?”
“If you want to hurt me, you won’t make it to Sylvan Glade in the first place.” The elf shrugged.
***
It was somewhat of a relief she was able to get through the tree passage, although Cordelia was scared to let herself relax. They passed Dandelion’s house. The elf showed no signs of stopping.
“Where are we going, Dandy?”
“Eden.” He said. “I know you don’t have your bike with you, but it’s really not that far on foot.”
Eden. Cordelia thought back on Love Day last year, the two of them under the glow of the growfruit trees. Seemed like a lifetime ago.
Except, when they reached Eden, the glow was gone.
“Dandy? What happened to the trees?” Cordelia asked uncertainly. “Are they… dead?”
Perhaps their last visit really was another lifetime, she thought.
“No, not dead.” The elf shook his head. “They’re just… something else now. Go have a look.”
She moved towards the trees, finding herself oddly drawn to them.
A sticky liquid streamed down each tree. The fruit growing on the trees looked plump and juicy… She couldn’t tear her eyes off them.
“You should try one.” Dandelion encouraged her. He handed her a straw. “It’s meant to be easiest with one of these.”
“Right.” She ripped one of the plants off the branch, piercing the skin of the fruit. Cordelia had to stop herself from drooling.
It was like nothing she’d ever eaten before, but at the same time, she would quite happily never eat anything else. So sweet. And bizarrely, she would feel her emotions lifting. For a moment she almost felt… hopeful for the future?
The feeling went away once she finished drinking. Did the fruit make her feel things? More importantly, how come this was the first thing she could actually stomach?
“You like it.” Dandelion noted, his face almost sad.
“It’s the most delicious thing I’ve ever tasted.”
“You’re probably right about the vampire baby then. I think it tastes disgusting. Like copper or something.” The elf told her.
Cordelia’s head spun. It was one thing to hide away in her house with the truth, but having someone say it out loud…
She turned her attention back to the trees to distract herself. “What is it? The fruit, I mean.”
“I call it plasma fruit. I made it.” Dandelion’s expression brightened up a bit. He looked… proud of himself.
“Made it?”
“This time last year after… well, everything that happened with the vampires, everyone was so sure they were going to come back. And I didn’t know if they’d want your blood again, or maybe mine, or whatever… but I figured there had to be something I could do to prepare. So I made this.”
He made a fruit for vampires. What in the world… “But how?”
“Spliced growfruit and elf blood. I had both, so… it was pretty easy.” A sheepish smile crept across his face.
“Dandy!” His blood… he used his blood to somehow turn these trees into what they were now? “You could have hurt yourself!”
“Oh, I only used a few drops,” he shrugged off her concerns. “I just started off with one growfruit, to see if it worked. Once I tested it, I used the first one I made to change all of these.”
“Change… how did you all that in just in a year?” Cordelia looked at the tall trees around her. “There’s so many of them, and they’re full-blown size already…” Bearing fruit, no less, she thought.
“Magic, duh.” Dandelion shrugged. “I know I’m not a sage or anything, but elves do have some of the most powerful magic, you know. So that includes me.”
“Right.” Her mind was all over the place. “Wait… when you say tested it… This is what Micah’s been eating, isn’t it? He really doesn’t feed on people anymore…”
Dandelion’s face fell. “Well yeah, of course he doesn’t feed on people. He’s pure of heart, after all. I figured you knew. Since you’re having his baby and all.”
His baby. Micah’s baby… She couldn’t stay in denial about it any longer, could she?
It took Cordelia a while to realise Dandelion was waiting for a response from her. But what was she supposed to say? She didn’t even understand her own feelings anymore.
Dandelion cleared his throat. “Well, I guess the fruit does work for you. So you can just eat that. I’m sure Micah won’t eat all of these on his own. And I can always grow more.”
Did seem like the only thing she could actually ingest, Cordelia thought. And that nice hopeful feeling she had while she drank the fruit’s juice… maybe that could help her set those jumbled fabricated emotions aside.
“Thanks Dandy. You’re the best.” She said weakly.
“Am I, though?” The elf asked. He was serious, wasn’t he?
“Well, duh.” She smiled at him encouragingly. “You always know how to make me feel better.”
“Right. Well, that’s good. Anyway… I’ve got to go… do something. But you stay. Maybe pick some fruit to take with you?” Dandelion suggested.
He didn’t wait for her response, walking away from the garden.
He looked so sad, Cordelia thought. She understood that there was a lot for him to wrap his head around, with this whole pregnancy thing. But it wasn’t like her having a baby would have that much of an impact on Dandelion… it was her life that was about to change, not his.
Or was there something else bothering the elf? He hadn’t really been himself today at all.
Cordelia wished she understood, so that she could help him. Then again, she wasn’t really in a position to help anyone, was she? She had more than enough problems of her own.
The Plumbob 
Well, get you Micah. I guess your undead balls work after all. 😂 Wow, this is going to be a disaster of epic proportions. Spliced growfruit and elf blood sounds ethereal, delicious and down right grim all at the same time. Will the fruit be able to satisfy her human appetite? Does it have calories and nutrients or just ‘absorb’ like it does in a vampire? Hmm.
Or maybe she is actually becoming vampire but isn’t aware yet. Or it’s all a very, very long dream; she’s still wearing the same socks, even in the glade.
Oh, poor Dandelion. At least he knew about the birds and the bees, I thought Cordelia might have had to draw him a diagram when that conversation started. But he’s still so darn innocent. What’s on your mind, Dandy? Come here, lemme give you a hug.
LikeLiked by 1 person
You know, typically in vampire fiction I’m more inclined to subscribe to the concept that male vampires can’t even have sex at all, because you know, no blood flow. But seeing that’s not the case in the sims and it wouldn’t quite work for my storyline (I can’t envisage Morgyn pursuing a romantic relationship with someone who can’t have sex), I had to settle on a compromise. I did actually come up with reasoning behind why Micah would be able to get Cordelia pregnant that I’m reasonably happy with, but I’ll spare you the random lore dump on undead procreation – unless you really want it, lol.
Ethereal, delicious and down right grim all at the same time is exactly the vibe I was going for, yay! Good question. Growfruit in BC tastes like nothing but does provide sustenance, so I’d imagine anything that’s derived from it would retain the nutritional value. Oh geez, I’m really set on boring you with random fact today, aren’t I? Sorry about that!
The real mystery clearly is the one of Cordelia’s socks. It’s certainly nothing to do with me being too lazy to give her more than one sleepwear outfit, nope 😀
Oh lawrd, Cordelia giving Dandy the birds and bees talk is a level of cringe I was not prepared to write, haha. Maybe some other time. He could use that hug, though.
LikeLiked by 2 people
To start with the positive side, Cordelia still has access to Sylvan Glade.
Dandy is such a dear and caring friend. We can all use a Dandy and once again he gives Cordelia exactly what she needs.
It’s good that Cordelia at least senses his sadness and that she feels encouraged to help him.
When it comes to Cordelia, the future looks even more complicated.
Why does she suddenly have a craving for blood?
Is it the child who demands it or is she about to turn into a vampire?
My experience with Plasma Fruits in the game is that everyone but vampires get sick from them.
I understand that you have your artistic freedom to disregard that truth, so therefore I am not yet convinced that I know the answer.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes, she can still get to Sylvan Glade, so she has that going for her. Definitely a good idea to try to count the positives now, with how messed up everything got.
We could all use a Dandy for a friend, yes, let’s just hope we’re pure of heart enough that we wouldn’t take that for granted 🙂
Those are good questions. You’re right that so far some of the BC lore has deviated from how things work normally in game, like becoming a spellcaster and performing some of the higher level spells. So it’s a good idea not to assume plasma fruit works like in the game as well.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I think it’s time that Cory does a pregnancy test. I mean, vampire baby here or there, but the pregnancy hormones are hers so it should work 😂
Another explanation may be that she may have been accidentally bitten in the heat of a moment? Half-turned? If she can’t stomach any food, it looks quite grim for her, if plasma fruit don’t substitute enough for a living being x.x
Some people have dope attention! I did not notice the socks! xD
LikeLiked by 1 person
Who knows, she may have done one – the information we get here is not all that conclusive 🙂
That’s a good theory!
Lol, ok, it is now cannon that Cordelia buys her socks in a Costco multipack 😂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Well, she says “I might…” so I assumed she does not know. Or “might” may refer that she does not know if the child is vampire or not? 🤔
I might over-analyze this 😂
LikeLiked by 1 person
We’ll find out soon one way or another 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Woah Cordelia is pregnant from that one time rendezvous. EEEK. And she has that same blood tinted vision Micah had when he bit into Morgyn. I wonder after she conceives the child will she continue to have a taste for blood.
Poor Dandy. No smile on his face this entire chapter. Even when he talked about his creation his the sides of his lips never really lifted. He held it all in very well.
I hope we get to see more of Dandy’s magic. Is that in the cards? Can’t have Morgyn taking all the glory when Dandy’s been solving everyone’s problems.
Cordy, I understand why you’re hesitant to talk to Dandy, but… for everything he did for you, and you knowing that you’ve forsaken him in the past, the least you can do is catch up to him and ask him what’s wrong instead of letting him walk away like that.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Weeeell one night does not necessarily mean one time 😬 Good question! I guess IRL you get some women who develop diabetes during pregancy, for some it goes away after the baby is born and for some it stays… not that this is necessarily a similar scenario, haha.
I know. Not much to make poor Dandy smile in this one, I’m afraid. 😭💔
I hope so too!
You’re right. It does seem she should be able to do that much for him. Sadly she’s way too in her own head right now.
LikeLiked by 1 person
🙊🙉🙈 considering how ovums only stay alive for 24 hours, im just going to put cordy down as super lucky im fertile department… looks like cordy wasnt tracking her.. uh days right when she said she was. That mental pic you gave me though eeeh 😆
LikeLiked by 1 person
Lol! I am aware. Lucky or unlucky, depending on perspective. She was definitely not tracking ovulation. But perhaps luck or timing is not necessarily the actual culprit here. Perhaps it’s more to do with the immortal dude – maybe that’s where the “shelf life” may differ from the norm. Not that any of this is likely be explained in the story, haha.
LikeLike
O.M.G.. You’ve given me even stranger things to think about. I’ll share the least offensive one. We received a critical patient sample and was to process his bloodwork immediately. While doing that, we received a call that the patient didn’t make it. And we’re processing his tissue samples halfway…. 😂
My other ideas have to do with urology since we’ve gotten to that subject. But I’ll spare you the images. Lool 😅😅😂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Lol, oh dear. The comment section has really taken a turn on this one 😂
The short of it is that I did come up with semi-plausible reasoning in my head as to why a part-vampire part-human pregnancy would be possible for my own justifications, which also happens to partitally explain the apparently perfect timing, but not to worry, the BC characters will not be discussing urology in any of the upcoming updates (😂) because none of them really know how it’s possible. We best leave it at that, poor Dandy is already incredibly uncomfortable as is 😆
LikeLike
Cordelia sure likes lounging around in her pyjamas these days. I’d call her out on it but I’m just as bad when I have nothing important to do. Still, for her it seems more like a symptom of depression than a symptom of laziness.
Oh, hell, so she is pregnant. Or at least, she thinks she is. I wonder – Micah hasn’t changed in decades, and Verena stayed a child even after all this time. If those two have a baby together, how long will it take for it to grow up? Will it grow like Cordelia did? Will it need food? Or just blood?
Glowfruit and elf blood. That is delightfully disturbing. It even looks wrong, with the way you’re describing it. Dandy really has been busy. He’s helping Micah, he’s helping Cordelia… and from the looks of it, he’s pretty powerful himself. We’ve never seen him use magic I think? So I wasn’t thinking about Dandelion in terms of magic ability. Aaaaah I feel so bad for him again. His “Am I, though?” just broke my heart. Cordelia keeps choosing everyone but him.
Geez, Cordy, the least you can do is chase after him and ask him what’s wrong. It’s not hard. If you don’t understand, you ask Dandy. She’s so wrapped up in her own problems that she’s once again shoving Dandy aside and taking his help for granted. I know she thanked him for the fruit but.. gah!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Haha yeah, I’ve been living in leggings lately so I really can’t judge 😀 But yes, it’s definitely at least in part because of her current mental state; not sure if she’s depressed per say, but down in the dumps for certain. Add to that that she’s been unable to keep food down so she’s low on energy from not eating much and being sick, clothes probably don’t take much of a priority.
Yep, none of the “regular” vamps age whatsoever, so good question. It’s unchartered territory so we’ll have to figure it out with them.
Delightfully disturbing; why thank you, that’s high praise from you 😀 Dandy’s magic… he’s not really done any formal study of magic, so he doesn’t know a great deal of spells, but that definitely does not mean he doesn’t have raw magic as such. He just doesn’t necessarily use it in a conventionally distributed way. I mean, he is the only one that’s managed to get the sprites to listen…
I know 😦 She really is very wrapped up in her own troubles right now. And before that she was wrapped up in her happy bubble… But neither is exactly a good excuse. I do feel for Dandy too.
LikeLike
Whew, Cordelia really gets in deep before she’s even had a chance to think a situation through. Her inability to draw boundaries is a real problem with epic consequences. I mean, she couldn’t even negotiate a triad with Morgyn but somehow, they are going to all three navigate having a baby?
I saw someone else mention undead procreation and I gotta admit, I AM CURIOUS. I love that kind of world-building stuff. Sometimes, I agonize over my own chapters because I need all the underlying logic to add up, even if no one ever sees it.
I still don’t love the way she treats Dandy. It seems like he’s starting to get a sense about constantly being used by everyone as a convenience. I hope it leads to a bit of an evolution where he demands people do more than just show up in his glade when they need him for something.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh I know, she hadn’t thought about any of the practical sides of this whatsoever and just plunged ahead.
So the very condensed explanation is that the vampires stay as they were at the time of death (for instance, if you were to cut Micah’s hair, it would just reappear) and do not decay, so they’re basically like a very fresh corpse. Because it is possible to use sperm posthumously within the 24 or so hours, and everything continues to reset, so any, err, activites don’t matter in terms of… using up the reserves. So I reasoned that if a male vampire was fertile at the time of death, he would forever remain fertile. Except normally that wouldn’t manifest in any way since they wouldn’t typically sleep with mortals, and there is no chance of knocking up a vampirical lady partner, since their bodies also reset to the state of death version.
So there you go 😀 (I mean, my original reasoning behind it was “it’s possible in the sims, so I’m going with it,” but my own brain needed me to expand on that, lol)
I also don’t love the way the way she treats Dandy. Poor Dandy, always saving everyone’s butts and getting so little in return. Hopefully he will stop letting people take advantage of him in the future, like you say, we’ll have to wait and see.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Honestly, this is how my brain works and now it too is like: yes, this is fine. Adds up.
LOLOLOL! I love it!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Dandy is sad that Cordelia is having a baby with someone else because he likes her! it’s so obvious but Cordelia is completely obvlious.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I know, she is so oblivious. She never did view Dandy as more of a friend, though you’d think she would figure out his feelings towards her… but then, that would probably require her to have better self-esteem.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I FELT Dandy’s bluescreen at the pregnancy. Who could blame him? It’s too much to ask for reality to make sense. And oh, thank hell she told him why she was trying to put some distance between them; this could have gone the sitcom route where a miscommunication spirals out of control, but, as expected, BC doesn’t go for the low-hanging fruit.
Speaking of fruit, Dandy is a treasure. I have questions that cannot be answered about the splicing process when blood is one of the things being spliced—is Dandy fronting and did he really need stem cells? Marrow? Though I think he already addressed this with “magic, duh.”
I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop and for the tree pirate to do something that makes him less endearing, but am not holding my breath while doing so. It’s a nice fuzzy middle.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Welcome back to this mess! Yes, I can’t say I blame Dandy for not being able to make sense of a situation that makes very little sense. Poor Dandy, his brain may overheat 😀 I think there’s already enough on everyone’s plate to add in superficial misunderstandings based on semantics, haha.
It wasn’t quite explained beyond his “magic, duh,” so I’ll leave it up to your imagination. It definitely wouldn’t be out of character for Dandelion to claim something required much less of a sacrifice than it really did. Yes, enjoy the one wholesome element of the story, lol. Though maybe you’re right and everything good is fleeting. More of a reason to enjoy it, I suppose.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Nothing wrong with a single wholesome bit, I suppose! This boy’s just really earning his song lyrics. He might need some more.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m not sure anyone stays wholesome forever 😬 He is still very young, so we shall see!
LikeLike
Being Pregnant with a vampire is gonna take its toll for sure. Poor Dandy trying to make sense of all that is going on. I too imagine plasma fruit to have a vile coppery taste to it, like a really sweet copper taste XC i really love the idea of it being a mix of elven blood and growfruit. Seeing Dandy seem sad hurts. Come here Dandy and I will bake you some warm cookies!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Definitely not looking like a conventional pregnancy! Cordelia is in for a rough time. Yes, sweet copper taste sounds accurate. Still that metalic blood-like quality, but elf blood’s got to be sweeter, right? In my head anyway 😀 Thank you! I had fun figuring out how plasma fruit came about, I thought it would be nice to incorporate its creation rather than having it exist in the universe from the get go. Poor Dandy, he’s helping everyone out and he himself is hurting.
LikeLike
‘Poor Dandy, he’s helping everyone out and he himself is hurting.’
I feel you Dandy, losing yourself in trying to constantly help others is a big fucking mood and I feel all the worse for him because I know exactly how much it sucks. The poor thing.
LikeLiked by 1 person