THE MOMENT
Beaumont was starving, and he felt more alive than he had in centuries. He was deliberately choosing not to partake of the polluted blood he had access to unless his survival depended on it; and, at the moment, he still had plenty of energy. The excitement of learning had taken hold of him, and he was enjoying every moment.
Beaumont thirsted for knowledge almost as much as blood, and it was a literal joy to have a problem to put his mind to. He knew others weren't as lucky as he was; but, Beaumont always had difficulty considering the needs of others. He always considered himself first, and when he had the opportunity to become a vampire he did not hesitate. He was eager to leave his old life behind if it benefitted him with several extra lifetimes to spend studying. His was the only viewpoint he ever took into account.
And, this new project was no different. He woke to new world and quickly learned about the tainted blood in this new crop of humans. Beaumont vowed to do something. Not for anyone else; solely for his own comfort. And, he went to work studying the problem. With microplastics everywhere in the environment, it was easy to experiment without an excess of murders. He wasn't strictly against the idea; it was usually simple to get the local authorities under his control. But, it was also an exercise in discipline. The hunger gnawed at him and didn't want to tempt himself with foul-tasting blood when a clean version was within his reach.
Only a few weeks after he began the project, it was ready for a test run. Now, all he needed, was a victim. The gadget he built was portable enough to carry with him; but, he chose to leave it at home as he went out into the night. His plan was to bring a guinea pig back to his place instead of risking a malfunction out in the open. The hunger was borderline unbearable; but, Beaumont knew how to keep a level head no matter how much his inner animal was raging to be let out. It was important for him to be seen as a 'Civilized' vampire no matter what age he woke up in.
He turned a corner that he'd passed by several times already since he woke up; and, he discovered something surprised. Every other night, he'd walked by an empty lot. But, this time, a shining, brand new store named 'Chroma Convenience' s replaced the empty space. Beaumont walked into the store without even thinking about it. He was so puzzled that entering it seemed like the most natural solution.
"Hi, welcome to Chroma Convenience," a Clerk smiled at him from behind the counter. But, she tilted her head. "My goodness, you look famished; you're probably the reason I'm here," she added as she left the counter and walked over to the row of refrigerators. Beaumont was surprised enough to let her play out whatever she was about to do. She easily identified his current state, and she seemed polite.
"Here you go, free sample," she smiled as gave him glass bottle of blood. He didn't register it at first, until he read the label; "Chroma Corp. Blood", and he looked at the assortment of bottles in the cooler and realized they had quite a selection of blood.
"What is this place?" Beaumont asked. Did he die of starvation? Was this vampire heaven?
"Chroma Convenience, run by Chroma Corp. We serve Fae customers across the multiverse. This Earth isn't where I was trying to go.. but, I guess you were really hungry," she giggled. "The store kind of goes where it's needed."
"I am hungry...," he nodded as she looked at the bottle in his hands.
"I can't promise the store will be here tomorrow; but, here you go," the clerk offered him a transparent glass card. "This is a node, you can use it to enroll yourself in Chroma Corp.'s social services. You can even get blood delivered so that you don't have to feed on the humans here," she added.
"Well...," Beaumont always prided himself on being adaptable, and it seemed that times had changed once again. This sort of convenience was the last thing he expected; but, he was willing to accept anything that made his life simpler. "... I guess filtering will be easier at least...," he nodded.
"Filtering...?" the clerk asked.
"Yeah...," Beaumont nodded. "... I woke up kind of recently and discovered microplastics to be a huge problem as far as taste goes. Something needed to be done, so I came up with a filter to clean microplastics from the blood before I drink it."
"You don't have to worry about a thing," the clerk smiled and reached for the bottle in his hand. She spun it around to show him the other side of the label with a dragon logo proclaiming 'Microplastic Free!' "Chroma Corp. has a special filtering process too."