I'm here I guess

They’re both trans, and the fae is a couple decades older than the vampire.

Turns out the “curse” doesn’t make them corpses or inhuman… it just desynchs them from the flow of time. As time flows on, the world itself seems to subconsciously push them away, back to places of nostalgia, where time has passed less noticeably.

Am I not known for my story, worldbuilding, and TTRPG concept shitposts?

Lying to the reader

Lying to themselves

Simply misinformed

Not paying attention

Has weird priorities

Assumed you knew

Hates you personally

Bad at communicating

Easily sidetracked

Will believe anything

Has weird prejudices

(list is based on my personal preferences, not polling others or anything like that. i am just some guy. also, it's not only applicable for pda people; the desire for agency is common to most people, it's just especially strong in pda. in fact, i daresay you should strive to give every person agency for ethical reasons but yknow do what you will. also, pda affects "small demands" in everyday speech too, but ill just talk about deliberately asking for a task to be done)

BEST: working collaboratively with me to decide what the best way to address the problem is, valuing my input, letting me choose details that affect me within reason. if i am in fact going to do [x], that decision was— at least in part— up to me. we are equals, fellow persons, and i take actions because i have decided they will make my life and the lives of my loved ones better. if you need me to change what im doing or how im doing it, communicating why and letting me discuss it with you. ideally, letting me go unsupervised and not questioning how i decide to handle the details (ie the order i take, what tools i use, whether i multitask, etc.)— and if that's not possible, clearly communicating why. There is so, so much more I could say, but the core is always respecting me as an equal person to you with free will, and not valuing perfection over that respect unless necessary.

GOOD: letting me know that you would like [x] to be done, and why, and letting me decide myself whether i would like to help you by doing it. giving me the chance to discuss it with you, or decline and suggest alternatives. respecting me if i reasonably decline.

POOR: asking me— "would you please [x]?". it still reads as a demand, since it's a decision you made about what to do with my time, and ive gotten used to it being used as a euphemism for a command, wherein i am not actually allowed to say no but it sounds more polite. however, if you actually mean it, it does theoretically still give me the chance to say no, and the use of polite language implies that you're okay with me making choices about how and when to do it. probably fine, but be cautious of doing this too much. it adds up.

BAD: using imperative language to command me to do [x]. ah ok so i just dont have a choice at all. im under your control. ok

I AM GOING TO KILL YOU WITH MY BODY: telling me that i am going to do [x]. you have succeeded in both telling me that i have no choice and power in the situation AND in hiding your own responsibility! you have removed yourself from the equation entirely, as though your own demands for me are so important that they extend beyond your own personhood, and override my own free will. implies you dont even think it's worth considering that my desires may be different than yours. awesome.

consequences of GOOD task communication: we trust each other as equals and agents. i feel good about doing things that make you feel good, and therefore am more helpful to you. i feel safe around you, and dont get tired as easily in your presence. i have more respect for you. there is more wiggle room, where im not affected as badly by demands from you, even if theyre communicated in a worse way from time to time. i trust that you see me as a person.

consequences of BAD task communication: in the short term, i will have a MUCH harder time performing the task, and may perform it worse, because my brain and body are reacting to a threat and my sympathetic nervous system is in high gear— im in fight or flight. i will run out of endurance quickly. i will probably be more mean to you, as i wont have the spoons to watch my tone. the same task will become harder in the future, as my "wall of awful" around it builds up. in the long term, i will start to see you as a threatening person and an enemy. i will avoid being around you, because your presence makes me anxious and fatigued. i will not trust you to see me as a person, and will hide information from you and avoid helping you. i will see you as a selfish and prideful person, and believe that you see yourself as more important than me, like i am a tool and not as much of an individual as you. i may actively make things worse for you as a form of rebellion, as im looking for any little way to feel freedom from your control. both of our lives are worse.

what does this have to do with boiling your surgical tools? well look, the boiling water releases bubbles of steam which carries the malign influences up to heaven. you boil a knife, you send all the miasmic particles off with the steam to heaven. if you rinse the knife off in a bucket the water isn't hot enough, the particles go into the water and then right back on to the knife. you gotta boil it to get the particles all the way away. how can a tool or rag or a bed have miasmic particles on it when you can't smell them? humans have a lousy sense of smell. look at your dog on the hunt. are there no rabbits in the woods just because you can't smell them? we know that miasma is carried on the air, and is what makes stench so dangerous, and we know that humans can't smell worth a damn compared to dogs cats horses etc. a dog can smell if a rat died in a corner of the room last week. you can't. do you think licking the spot where the rat died is going to go well for you? luckily, what humans lack in snout we make up for in brains. we have extra brains where our sniffers should have been. God set that up for a reason.

and why does a rinse with wine spirits work? man, look how fast alcohol evaporates. my guess is that because wine contains a lot more vice than water, it evaporates a whole lot faster, in sort of an equal and opposite way that a rock falls faster than a feather. if you want the miasmic particles to get off there FAST, you dunk it in something that's going back to heaven at a gallop.