Dental Issues

This game was submitted to the 2024 Queer Vampire Jam, and while on the surface it’s not about queerness at all, vampirism is a clear metaphor for queerness in the story. It centers on a family gathering, where the Vietnamese protagonist’s parents, grandparents, aunt, and uncle have all come together for the yearly Tết celebration. The topic of vampirism comes up at the dinner table, and when the relatives begin to disparage this disruptive new “cult”, your options are to laugh along, stay silent, or try to push back. Efforts to do the latter are brushed off, and sentiments like “Just imagine if that happened in this family!” and “I wouldn’t mind it if only they would just be quiet about it” continue.

It’s soon revealed that the protagonist, Nha, is herself a vampire—and that her parents are aware of this, but rather than defend their daughter, they’d prefer to maintain a charade of being normal, respectable people in order to avoid any embarrassment. This comes to the fore when Nha, called out for not eating anything, is coerced into taking a few bites and immediately feels sick and retreats to the bathroom. Her father comes to the door and reminds her that he and her mother just want what’s best for the family, that everyone has to compromise and make sacrifices and this is no different, that Nha owes this to her relatives because of all they’ve done for her.

Internally, Nha acknowledges how much it hurts to have the people she loves be unknowingly bigoted toward her, and how unfair the situation is. She pushes back on her dad’s demands, but is only met with more of the same arguments. Ultimately, she gives up and gives in, ending the game by yanking out her fangs with pliers. Her painful, bloody removal of this vital yet socially undesirable part of herself is a painfully visceral image that echoes the real-world pressure some queer people face to change who they are for the sake of others.