#teef.exe

NAMES

I hit up Behind The Name's random name generator for inspiration, and it eventually spit out the name "Scilla", which of course had me thinking about the myth of Scylla and Charybdis, which I've always had a fondness for. And to me, Scylla and Charybdis are lesbians, so I simply had to name my leads after them! And so, Scilla and Carrie!

SCILLA

It took me a bit to figure out her entire personality, but from the jump I knew I wanted Scilla to be at least a little bit antisocial. So many of the human leads in paranormal romances tend to be wishy washy, struggling with deciding between two worlds, so I wanted my lead to not be hesitant about making the switch at all. She can barely stand to be around people as is, so to completely switch to another species? You don't need to ask her twice! And that decisiveness is the keystone to who she is as a person. She knows what she wants, and she's more than willing to put in the work to get it.

In terms of looks, going back to Twilight, it's honestly Kristen Stewart who I have in mind for her. Not so much Bella Swan, but the weird greasy stringy lesbian vibes of Lou from Love Lies Bleeding (and honestly a lot of her more recent stuff, to be honest).

CARRIE

In terms of personality, Carrie's the type of person who doesn't show much outwardly, but clearly feels things deeply. She's got an intensity to her, like a lioness with her eyes locked onto whatever's going to be her next meal. She doesn't speak much, but the judgmental weight of her stare leaves no room for wild speculation. And when she does share her thoughts, she tends to get straight to the point. She's not necessarily cruel about it, she's just not one for sugar coating. She's also not really one to open up about herself to just anyone. She's the kind of person who feels like a privilege to know, because she lets in so few.

As for looks, I was trawling through Unsplash for images to use for the WIP Aesthetic Tag I did a while back, looking for vintage photos, and when I found this one I was like, "Yeah. That's her."

Vampires are also far more resilient to injury, when compared to their human origins. The bones, muscle, and skin of vampires is far denser, making them more resistant to physical damage. Vampires are able to heal from injuries at a rate magnitudes quicker than a human, allowing them to survive wounds that would have resulted in a fatality if they’d received them in their human life. The most efficient way to kill a vampire is to destroy their brain, for so long as that’s intact, they can regrow any other body part, both internal and external.

While vampires can still eat normal food and drink normal beverages, they cannot live on that alone. Vampires need to feed on the life essence of other living beings, and blood is the most efficient way to get that. Through intense training, some vampires are able to ambiently absorb the life energy of those around them, but this is neither a cost effective or efficient way of feeding. Unlike humans, who will starve to death if they’re deprived of food, a vampire deprived of blood for long enough will enter a state of hibernation. They can be brought out of this state if they are given blood, but the longer they’re stuck in hibernation, the more corpse-like and desiccated they become, and therefore more fragile and easier to kill. Eating normal food can hold off this hibernation for a while, but not indefinitely. And vampires don’t need to drink only human blood. The blood of any living thing, be it natural or supernatural, carries within it the essence that vampires need for survival.

While vampires can drink the blood of other vampires, a vampire’s blood (henceforward referred to as “ichor” for the sake of differentiation) lacks the vital essence that the blood of other beings has, and so provides no “nutritional” value. Despite this, some vampires will drink ichor for several reasons. One is the acquisition of information - while not quite as complete or powerful as psychic mind reading, vampires can “read” each other’s memories through their ichor. Obviously, one can gain more information from ichor freely given rather than taken forcibly, but that doesn’t stop some vampires. It was a common practice in antiquity for the ichor of renowned warriors and philosophers to be harvested after their deaths in order to impart that vampire’s skill or wisdom unto others. Another reason is to form a “blood bond” between two or more vampires. Again, while not true mind reading, this low level empathic connection allows vampires to feel each other’s emotions, and to sense the general location of anyone they share a bond with. While not inherently a romantic bond, it does feature heavily in vampire marriage rituals.

Vampires who choose to continue eating normal food in conjunction with feeding on the blood of others will look indistinguishable from humans, which allows them to more easily mingle amongst human society. Vampires who only live off blood look more like what pop culture thinks a stereotypical vampire should look like: gaunt and washed out, sunken eyed and deathly.

When first turned, the colour of a vampire’s irises will change (shades of brown change to shades of red/orange/gold depending on the lightness of the original colour, while greens or blues will brighten to inhuman shades). Vampires who eat regular food will revert back to their original eye colour, only changing to their new colour when they utilize any of their supernatural abilities. Vampires who only drink blood perpetually have their vampiric eye colour. Regardless of whether or not they currently have their original eye colour, all vampires possess tapetum lucidum, which always reflects red.

Of the weaknesses that folklore claims vampires have, most aren’t true. Garlic doesn’t ward them off, they don’t need to be invited to enter a building, silver and sunlight don’t harm them, and they can cross flowing water. They also have reflections, and do require sleep (though they can go longer without sleep than humans can, before they start feeling the effects of sleep deprivation). Vampires, like any entity, can be warded off with an apotropaic item, and these can come in many forms, crucifixes included. But not every crucifix is apotropaic. Vampires are susceptible to poison - especially to wolfsbane, thanks to their common ancestry with werewolves - as it directly interferes with the speed at which they heal, which can cause them to succumb to injuries they should have been able to bounce back from. And like any other living being, if you hit them hard enough with a heavy enough thing enough times, they’ll be killed.

On both a biological and metaphysical level, vampires are a separate species from humans, and so crossbreeding is not possible. Biologically, vampires are only able to breed the insemination way if a womb-carrying vampire still has enough eggs. Humans with ovaries are born with all the egg cells they’re ever going to have for the rest of their lives, and they aren’t replenished when the human is turned into a vampire. Once the eggs runs out, they’re out. Like with humans, vampires with testicles will produce sperm forever, but they are no longer compatible with human egg cells, just vampire ones, so if a vampire couple wants to have a biological child, they better hope that the one who would be carrying the child still has some eggs left. A child born from such a union will be fully vampire, and as such, would need blood instead of milk. This child will grow up being indistinguishable from a human child, aside from their diet. And like a human, if they’ve got testicles, they will make sperm forever, but if they have ovaries, they’re only going to have whatever eggs they’re born with.

Because of this narrow window for procreation the genital way, vampires are able to propagate by turning humans into vampires. To do so, a vampire will drain a human of most of their blood, and then have the human drink their ichor. There’s always a risk involved in this method, as a vampire has to be careful about how much blood to drain as to not kill the human, and so it’s not uncommon for humans to die before the turning process has a chance to take. The stresses of the transformation can also exacerbate the likelihood of the procedure failing. Successfully turning humans is a skill that some vampires put serious dedication into mastering.

Due to the fact that a newly turned vampire only has their sire’s ichor in their veins, in this newborn state, a freshly turned vampire is almost an extension of the vampire who sired them, and as such, the sire is able to control the sired almost like they are an extension of their own body. In this state, newly turned vampires are called thralls. The length and strength of thralldom can vary, mostly dependant on how much of the sire’s ichor is in the thrall’s system, and how wilful the human who turned was. Someone who wasn’t easily swayed before their transformation will be able to resist more of their sire’s demands in comparison to someone who was a people pleaser. And once the sire’s ichor has left the thrall’s system, the fledgling vampire will be able to fully resist their sire’s control. Because of this, some vampires will artificially prevent their thralls from producing their own ichor (often through magical means), and have them only feed off their own so that they can control them for longer. And some would rather kill their thralls than let them become independent vampires, as it’s not uncommon for the sired to try to kill their sires for any mistreatment they received at their hands.

As with any trend over the course of history, the popularity of having thralls has waxed and waned, and varied from region to region. Regardless on whether it’s seen as laudable or gauche, maintaining thralls is a skill that not all vampires possess. However, it’s not uncommon for vampires under threat to turn humans into thralls in order to use them as bodyguards against whatever they’re currently facing, as the odds of these thralls being killed before they need to be taken care of is quite high. This saves the sires from having to deal with their thralls in the long run.

On a societal level, vampire culture is as varied as human culture. Oftentimes, the two cultures are indistinguishable, except for what they need to eat to live. Some vampires prefer to live solitary lives, while others would rather live in groups. Some prefer a loose community, and others favour rigid structures and disciplines. Generally, in Europe, you will find vampire courts - congregations of vampires that operate more like gangs than government bodies. These courts will stake out a territory and demand anyone living within it, supernatural or otherwise, to bend the knee. This has naturally led to more than a few conflicts over the ages. A court’s members are responsible for holding its territory, and so the more members, the more turf. Prime real estate is often fought over by warring courts, each side trying to whittle down the other’s numbers so that they can come out on top. At the conclusion of these conflicts, the survivors of the vanquished court are absorbed into the winner’s, as they’ll need the manpower should another court come looking for a fight. The courts didn’t get much of a foothold in North America, as the local vampire societies weren’t about that kind of life, and most of the European vampires who immigrated had done so to get away from court drama.