All The Stories Always Said

There was no point in trying to outrun a vampire. Even without lunges or the wings of a bat, a vampire will easily outpace even the swiftest humans. Any energy expended in running away would be better used in fighting back instead. But Abolish wasn't running away. He was running towards.

The depths of the woods was not a suitable place to be able to hold his ground effectively. But Abolish had grown up in these woods, and he knew them well. He couldn't outrun the vampire on his trail, but he could lead them to the clearing he knew, where he would have sufficient room to actually fight back.

So he ran, mentally tracing his path. Past the dead oak, turn right before the stone that looks like a fist, follow the deer track until you reach the creek.

The creek was the only problem with his plan. There were two ways over the creek. One involved hopping between mossy stones, close to the water's surface. Possibly the safer option, but it would mean he'd have to double back along the bank to reach the stones. The other option was to jump it.

The deer track lead to a point where the creek had cut through a raised hill, causing a small ravine a few meters deep and nearly as wide. Abolish couldn't hear the vampire behind him, but that didn't mean he was free and clear. He maintained his momentum, pushing air steadily in and out of his lungs, eyes locked on his path. It had been a long time since he had last missed the jump over the creek, but he'd never done it with a vampire chasing him.

He was approaching it faster than expected, and had to chip in an extra stride to get his dominant leg to land in the right place for a clean take off. He had no choice but to commit, and launched himself forward.

He landed cleanly. He swallowed a triumphant laugh, refusing to lose momentum, and kept sprinting towards his destination.

He made it three strides into the clearing before he heard the sound of something breaking through the treeline behind him. He dropped into a forward roll, narrowly avoiding the claws that swung towards his throat. He was back on his feet in a second, balancing on his toes as he pulled his weapon from his belt.

He had no armour, no silver, not even a dagger. All he had was a single stake. The adrenaline from his sprint through the woods had his heart pounding, but he was still breathing perfectly. He faced his attacker, stepping sideways to avoid another swing of claws. The vampire was a little taller than him, so had better reach. But rather than jumping back to get out of range, Abolish surged forwards and ducked under the vampire's next attack. It gave him a clear shot, so he didn't hesitate. He kicked hard at the back of the vampire's left knee and drove his elbow into his ribs to send him sprawling to the floor. He spun, dove forward to pin his opponent down with his knee. With a forceful shout, he adjusted his grip and slammed the blunt end of the stake down onto Morcant's chest.

"Two inches too low," Morcant said.

"Fuck," Abolish snapped.

"Language," Morcant muttered.

"Sorry sir," Abolish huffed. He lifted the stake, repeating the swing of his arm, trying to memorise the correct spot. He got it on the third try, and repeated it once more to lock the motion in. Satisfied, he pushed himself up and reached down to offer Morcant a hand up as well. The vampire didn't need it, but it would be rude of him not to offer. Morcant gave him a small pat on the shoulder once they were both on their feet again.

"That was better," Morcant said, as they began the walk back to Thornvale Manor. "You got me immobilised much faster that time, and you picked a better location to confront me."

"Thank you, sir," Abolish said.

"Though you should have taken the stones to get over the creek," Morcant added. "You would have been dead if you missed that jump."

Abolish couldn't help but frown.

"I was confident I could make the jump," he said, trying not to sound petulant.

"And what is more important than confidence?" Morcant asked, casting him a sideways glance. Abolish chewed the inside of his cheek.

"Certainty," he answered, remembering his lessons. There must have been a tone in his voice, despite his best efforts, because Morcant gave a small sigh, and brought them both to a stop.

"You are skilled, Abolish. Do not doubt that," he said, voice firm and even. "But when it comes to life or death, you must be certain you are doing everything in your power to stay alive. Your skills will mean nothing if injure yourself taking unnecessary risks."

"I understand," Abolish said. Morcant nodded, and they resumed walking.

They walked in silence for a few moments, Abolish thinking on Morcant's words. They were most of the way back to the Manor when Morcant cast him another sideways glance, grinning this time.

"It was a very impressive jump, though," he said, voice dropped to a conspiratorial whisper. Abolish felt a flush of pride.

"Thank you, sir," he said, in an equally soft voice.

****

Let me repeat that: she burns alive. 

The video editing emphasizes this as a big deal.  Shelby’s narration in the aftermath concludes that “if i asked for a chance to talk, they would have just killed me without a second thought.” From Shelby’s perspective, they did just kill her without a second thought. It is the climax of their episode 3, and one of the first things Shelby mentions in episode 4. It is a major turning point for the character, with good reason.

As far as Shelby is concerned, the vampire vs human conflict began with her experiencing a horrific death for the grand crime of crouching next to a beacon. 

From this point forward, non threatening interactions with humans vanish almost entirely. 

The only conversation Shelby has with a human is episode 4 is her face to face with Avid, which has high points and low points. The low points include Avid telling her about staking his partner because she attacked him.

Shelby, does, however, visit the town later, where she finds Avid burning her house down.

And then Legundo reads the cure book in front of the house’s ashes. 

Legundo also scolds Avid for burning down the house, but Shelby misses that part. In fact, Shelby missed all of the pro Shelby comments made in the town around that time. 

According to the post series creator’s commentary, (which i can’t link because twitch deletes old vods so it probably no longer exists aajfas;llllldg) this isn’t even a matter of clever editing- Shubble was legitimately out of range for all of the parts of the story where people agreed that they wanted to help Shelby. 

In episode 5, she is approached by a group of Drift, Cleo, and Pearl. Shelby is surrounded, and asks them to put their swords away. Pearl takes a minute to do so, and when she does she switches to a bottle of holy water. Shelby backs away and Pearl moves forward. 

The start of this conversation very much has shades of an interrogation: “why do you look so different? Did you eat truffle?” 

Shelby tells them about being burnt alive, and the response she gets from Cleo is “but you got better”. Which sucks, and serves as an ironic mirror for the way that Scott and Owen are dismissive about the trauma involved with turning people. Both factions are expecting Shelby to just walk off the wrongs done to them, but the Oakhurst faction is openly threatening future harm to Shelby.  

Of the three of them, Drift is the most supportive. The conversation improves from there, and some nice things are said, but Shelby was still threatened. It was still the preamble to the nice and productive part of the talks. 

Then she has the meeting with Avid where he asks to be turned, which goes fairly well but ends with Avid being decidedly non human. Also Owen replaced one of Avid’s messages to Shelby with a death threat, so Shelby was still threatened over it. 

Episode 6 has the Oakhurst invasion where all of the vampires visit Oakhurst and Pearl gets chased around. Shelby doesn’t really talk to anyone here, but she sure does get to hear Pearl make a generalized threat. Because Shelby can never catch a break.

We also see another instance of Shelby assuming that the townies are after her: her narration says “i thought Pearl was chasing me”

Then there’s a conversation with Sausage. Sausage pulls out a stake because of course he does. 

Then Drift pulls Shelby aside, and they have a lovely chat where there are no threats of bodily harm. However, Drift is a vampire, so it doesn’t count. Rip. 

When Avid starts talking about the cure, Shelby’s immediate assumption is that if Avid asks to be cured, the humans will stake her without a second thought. She also is the one to suggest sabotaging the cure for the sake of protecting herself and the other vampires. 

Episode 7 sees Shelby dealing with humans twice, and both of them are decidedly hostile interactions

The first bit of human contact comes when the vampires burn down the walls of Oakhurst. This is, naturally, open combat. Shelby makes a point of targeting Martyn.

Her second human interaction in episode 7 is running into Abolish, who promptly introduces her to the Veylocke murder box. In other words, Shelby is stunned, rendered immobile and helpless, and executed in cold blood. It is not an easy death.

Abolish even acknowledges that she didn’t do anything, and then kills her anyway. 

episode 8 is the finale, where she fights some humans, hides from humans, eventually has a truce with humans for the first time ever, and then wanders off into the sunset with Drift and Scott.

That’s basically all of Shelby’s major human interactions post episode 3. There is never an instance where speaking to a human is not linked with being threatened by a human after that point. 

For the most part, this is entirely the result of the people of Oakhurst’s own priorities and character choices, but there is one vampire that tries to make sure that Shelby can’t talk to the humans. Someone that tries to isolate her, someone that uses threats, someone that is willing to lie to keep Shelby in the castle and away from town. 

That person is Owen. 

Owen interferes with Shelby speaking to townsfolk three times, to mixed results: he joins the conversation with Apo and successfully diverts them from trying to convince Shelby she’s wanted in town; he replaces Avid’s letter with a threatening message, but Avid manages to set up a meeting with Shelby and clear the air with her anyway; and he appears in the Pearl-Drift-Cleo meeting with Shelby in episode 5, which arguably improves the situation because he took the conversation in a useful direction and Shelby had already felt threatened anyway.

…actually, all three of these things happen in episode 5. Owen has a very brief window of being invested in the coven in this particular way. He does some pretty nasty lying in that window, though. 

While this could be an interesting plot thread, Owen’s contributions are something of a cigarette in a burning warehouse. Shelby got killed twice as collateral damage, and both deaths were exceptionally traumatic. No amount of intercession on Owen’s part is going to speak louder than the wrongs done to Shelby by the humans themselves. No amount of lying on Oakhurst’s behalf is more damning then Oakhurst’s own failure to address the damage they’ve done in any way. He’s burying a relationship so far underground it is already in hell. 

Even seemingly minor things like Pearl’s tendency to casually arm herself do more to damage Oakhurst’s reputation then Owen is really capable of- there is a direct line of cause and effect between Pearl saying she has a stake and Shelby assuming that Pearl is chasing her down. Shelby is rightfully skeptical of the claims Owen makes about other people, but when someone else is making those kinds of statements, she tends to believe them. 

And then there’s Shelby’s backstory. 

Shelby’s backstory, where she is isolated from her entire community growing up. Where people she considered friends and neighbors didn’t care about her in turn. Where nobody had even done something as basic as telling her that she’s fun to be around. 

 Of course Shelby thinks that Oakhurst is willing to write her off at the drop of a hat. That’s what her hometown did. 

In conclusion

1: the town is not blameless in the Oakhurst vs Castle conflict. They have done real harm to the Coven, and most of it has fallen on their friendliest and least aggressive member.

2: Shelby is indeed afraid and isolated, but the bulk of that fear and isolation is generated and maintained by the people of Oakhurst themselves. The one time Scott had an opportunity to sabotage one of Shelby’s outside relationships, he chooses not to.

3: Scott is Shelby’s first friend, ever, and the feeling is mutual. This is a key component of why Shelby is Like That. 

4: The answer to most gripes regarding vsmp’s story arc and ending is Shelby. Why did Scott live and Pyro die? Shelby. Why did Scott suddenly pivot to pacifism? Shelby. Why can’t the humans just wipe out the coven and call it a day? Shelby. Why was the coven a legitimate social structure in the first place? That’s also Shelby. It’s Shelby all the way down.

In Shelby’s story, Scott is the prize she wins for her kindness and Pyro becomes the avatar of all of the senseless violence she has suffered. 

Shelby’s character arc is one of being the collateral damage of other people’s agendas so frequently that she becomes convinced that she must use violence herself. This culminates in her killing the most direct and personal threat to her physical safety, which is Pyro. Shelby’s other character arc is about seeking peace and companionship despite the bloodshed around her. This culminates in her turning her closest companion from the path of violence, and that companion happens to be Scott. Scott and Pyro’s conclusions are mirrored halves of Shelby’s finale, and reflect Shelby’s greatest triumph and lowest low.