#wolfsrainrules

This AU kinda jumps off the idea that Vampires can shift what dynamic they are perceived as by the 'standard' AOB AU. It does that by playing with what a "Vampire" actually IS in here.

For the purposes of this AU there's two 'subtypes' of vampire. Those that came to Earth, and those in the AOB verse that get turned. As an aside, when they get turned, they keep the body-make up of whatever their secondary was before they were turned. This means the 'those that came to Earth' vampires don't actually HAVE any dynamics.

Which is why I started thinking about how we all have the "Uncanny Valley" effect thing in real life- and how it's possible through various studies to have genetic memory from those in your family line. My logic was well in order for all of humanity to do that, there has to be SOMETHING out there- more than one thing even- that caused it.

That makes it so very instinctive for humans to look at something that looks, acts, reacts like us and isn't and just know that something is off. That has something just slightly off that makes all of our instincts latch onto it like it's a threat, or something we need to be aware of.

So in this AU, my thought was that part of that reason was Vampires. The very first introduction of vampire species happened ages ago in this AU. Since this was built around DC as the basis for the AU I figured aliens are standard anyway so-

It was an alien species introduced, that looked like humans but wasn't. They're a creature that is meant to adapt, to be an apex predator. To be THE predator wherever they went. Most Vamp AU play with the 'ancient functioning immortal' thing- and these aliens that landed are to be fair.

But I wondered what it would be like, to have a vampire that has...adaptability. Rather than going the old and stuck in their traditions and ways route in the way standard Vamp lore does, I wanted to change it up. They're a hunting species. They are built to travel to different universes/worlds/across space and fit in.

It's not instant of course, they cant just like...shapeshift. So what they do, is they look for races that are of similar make up in at least looks first. If they can land and blend in, they have time to adapt as needed. They're long lived and just as clever as humans can be.

When they first landed on Earth, they looked like AOB standard humans- but they didn't have the secondaries, they didnt fit quite right. And they hunted. As they spread across the world, and stories of these beings that looked human, but didn't smell like them, didn't have quite the right body build for an omega, an alpha, or a beta, were just so slightly OFF, the stories humans would tell about creatures (the long white faces, the solid black eyes, the sharp teeth, the avoidance of sunlight, the things that could maybe be human but are just the slightest bit NOT, enough to get your attention and make you wary) across the world spread. Stories that said be wary told children be careful.

The longer they stayed, the more they adapted: faces shifting to closer to standard, learning to mimic the kind of scents AOB verse has, the structure of the body changing. Adapting to deal with the sun instead of burning in it in a way a human didnt- still sensitive to it but no longer deadly if managed correctly. Learning that humans were clever and creative, were INTERESTING, changing often enough to keep an immortal on their toes. But also enough to kill them if they werent more careful. That the pack instincts would make whole neighborhoods turn on them if they stepped wrong And thats just the ones that came TO Earth.

Then you have the people who were CHANGED. The ones that were on Earth and earned the regard of a vampire enough they chose to change them. Those that started in an AOB verse, who had dynamics. Some were changed out of love, yes, but a lot for control.

The turned blend better- it's not an adaption to look like AOB humans, they ARE, their just MORE now. Those that had to shift to blend still set off the uncanny valley effect now- but humans at this point are not as aware of the supernatural possibilities that are REAL in DC verse (and maybe vampires helped that be so, so only certain communities remember and still learn and pass things down) The turned that might at some point leave Earth, that would travel space in any capacity will find they adapt to places across the galaxy and unless they have a teacher dont know why. Don't know the race of vampires are BUILT to adapt to species and hunt them, to blend in and feed, are built to spread the 'virus' that originally created vampires on their original home world before they ever steps food into the wider verse.

This does mean that BORN Vampires (at least of the generations that came before this Earth) can only breed to make born vampires with those that have the right parts to their standard (since my brain works with AOB dynamics having the parts needed to have children in omega). Thinking the vampires that come to earth have functioning "sire and carrier" gender subtypes, but their make up might be a bit more...alien than standard AOB.

But it works in functionally the same way. Once AOB verse people start getting changed, they still have their sexual secondary body make up and if they want biological pups would still have to make it work by standard- though there is always the child by adoption or child by bite.

Speaking of child-by-bite! Since it's an alien based take on Vamps that can and will adapt to blend with other species (again it's not shapeshifting in full, so they cant shift too far from human base looks hence looking for species that CAN be blended with) children that get turned or are born vamps actually age to prime before they stop. Better to blend and hunt with later, so the cells allow for change to continue until it's in prime shape.

So for this AU I'd get to play with alien vamps, how old they actually are, bringing in bits and pieces of culture, tech, and knowledge of various species across numerous galaxies, and maybe even eventually dimensions, when they figure out that it's possible to jump those.

VS

AOB turned Vampires who are learning some of the stories passed down all over the world are actually based off THIS creature, are real and something they should have been aware of and are now part of.

I wanna play with how Bonds present from their packs when they die, vs Bonds made by turning someone, how a pack that WILL be having their packmate back, vampire or not, that want the bonds back would mix across in "a vampire capable of making bonds that aren't turning, but instead built on pack bonds" and the virus that adapts to hosts when it changes them, and is BUILT to adapt the host to new environments and take advantage of everything it can to make sure they survive.

I wanna see a virus based in adaptability that MADE vampires what we would know them as running straight into Human's are space orcs and their world is a death world mixed with all the things that come with having pack bonds and AOB dynamics. Because the virus is going to latch onto everything it can once it enters a new host, and in learning how the body functions, read what should by optimal from every blood-drink, and possibly change its host to work with that, and adapt

If AOB verse vampires leave the Earth to travel elsewhere, and were to change someone, the virus would work to adapt their body to AOB standard. Maybe not the secondaries as a regular AOB human would know them, but the bonds created through pack? the senses? the differing body make up to let them hunt and be dangerous from pre-city days? the differing pathways in the brain that are lit up?? It's going to change all of that. Add it, use it.

Turning is painful, and often deadly due to the fact the virus DOES that. That it uses everything it's picked up from all the races to come before, and it will work on making the best adaptable hunter it can, will make it so it has more change of being passed on, of living. A pack-based world like an AOB?? The virus would have a wild time.

So- the more willing a turn, the more likely they are to survive! Mind over Matter sort of- it's still really dangerous of course, still very much possibly deadly, but a willing change makes the body more likely to survive all of it. If they're utterly unwilling, it's much more likely to kill them! Which means most vampires when they decide I want to keep this one actually TRY to get consent, to win over their chosen, because they WANT them to survive it! (Some of it can be love, but some can also be done through manipulation and lies, or other such things so it's not always HAPPY and willing.)

Hunting is done with the intent to blend in and feed- a good chunk of the vamp population- turned and born, earth-made and other, nowadays are all careful to only take what they need, to be careful with how MUCH they take, and to vary whom and where they take it from. Never to turn, but to simply feed.

You have, of course, the bad eggs that will just take that want a thrall not a partner or family or just manipulate people into following them without making them a thrall depending. That turn many, and break them through the bonds made, bend them to their will but that's more likely to bring hunters.

(Its also why the rumors about vampires are so much LIKE that- the ones found are often new and not in control, or just plain don't care and will rip through whole populations. But the good ones? The ones that want to adapt and hunt and thrive? they're very very good at being careful. Of making it just some tick- a kink they have with bloodplay, or working together to get blood bags, of finding a way to make it odd, yes, but not dangerous and worthy of being hunted over. So a larger population that normal vamp lore in this verse are actually willingly turned one way or another. Or those that didn't want to be turned, but are absolutely the type to want to survive no matter what. (The brain is fascinating and I wanted to play with that and how it might effect survivability of a turn)

Animals can't be infected by the virus in my head, cause it needs that bit of sapience to actually latch in and change them properly. I just absolutely believe some of the original vampires took various other planet pets with them if they could. And unless the creature already had the ability to make a sort of mental bond, it wouldn't actually have a bond with their vampire, or through them to others. They can be trained to respond to things and do it well of course but not linked into the mind in my head. Though if it IS an animal from another planet that DOES have the right level of sapience to actually change and it manages to survive that change...I'd say it has a bond with the 'sire' that changed it, Should they later be added to a pack, the pack would be able to sense the 'familiar' but not quite so well or as close as the one it's bonded to.

Running past animals I had some thoughts about Heat and Rut and how it plays with vampires verse. Vampires being present as predators to packs absolutely contributed to the way they synch on rut and heats, on the denning down for better defense among other things. I like to imagine the rut and heat hormones- since my AOB AUs do not allow actual mating or pack bonds to be formed when they're in heat or rut cause the pheromones fuck up the bond settling right- develop that as a partial defense against vamps in this au. or at least it works unexpectedly in their benefit, since my AOB au has that even in non vampire aus.

The level of wild chemicals and pheromones and everything going on means that Vamps CAN drink blood during someone's heat or rut, but it would mess with the vampire. Those who came to earth- their bodies dont know how to process or handle those chemicals and it makes them all kinds of off and unbalanced. Makes them want to drop the meal and just NOPE right out of it most of the time. Or makes them kind of high or drunk. Body just cannot process it.

The cocktail of chemicals in the blood CAN be addictive to some of these kind of vampires cause it's so different and can lead to a serial killer type problem that needs to get handled but the normal response for most is to decide not gonna drink that when they're bodies are all over the place and then sometimes to go find their mate cause they end up kinda horny.

AOB turned vamps get shoved into a kind of...phantom or pseudo heat/rut because their brains REMEMBER this cocktail and what to do with them- so it doesn't lean into a feed frenzy or something, it's more likely to set them into whatever habits they had when they went into heat or rut- to convince their body they are in one. So around pack theyre gonna nest down and/or caretake, maybe go find their mate, around enemy pack, it makes them aggressive and dangerous, which just leads to messy fights they dont want to set off. So they're careful about that. Brain functions and are again fascinating, and the vampires CAN breed so I've been debating if turned AOB vamps still get some version of a heat or rut still.

Vampires turn each other with bites, draining, and shared blood. So I think pack-bonding would work with a bite as well, since their bodies are literally built off of it, and an AOB turned vampire would have all the right glands to bite too, so it works on 'came to earth' and 'turned AOB Vampires' too.

Since I imagine an almost-pack bond between those who get turned and the one who turned them, they DO have the mental bonds! They're not QUITE as deep as a pack bond, but it does give them the awareness of each other, the emotional sharing, and a bit of sway. AOB Vamps tend to have an even deeper bond to those they change, though it's still not quite pack. Not unless the INTENT is there, because I imagine AOB all have venom sacks of their own that let them add to their packs, or give mating bonds, and the vampire venom is just...a newly added sack. AOB Pack bonds are deeper. What I'd refer to as "soul level" in my head. More open, thicker, stronger. More able to support communication on them, more varied uses. Vampire Turning Bites are more...surface level? An awareness of the person they turned, a little sway on them, but none of that emotional vulnerability or give and take in the same manner. A double bond- pack that was then turned by pack- is more akin to the soul mate bond in my head. all of what you'd get as pack but deeper still- now able to send images and share senses between them, make each other stronger. Things like that.

I do love the idea of some areas having packs that worked with and bonded to Vampires as pack or mates, who adapted to coexist and may not remember it now (or maybe theres some that DO so you have pockets of interesting worldbuilding and safe spaces for not only vampires but those that want to learn about them and know where or who to ask. Places for vampires to bring humans they want to turn so they can learn and get a second opinion from. So those that adapted with the vampires are more prone to be...enticing to a vampire. Their scents, how they move, what they know. Vampires are- in my head- actually built to BE social if not with the pack bonding they once had- the virus wants to spread- it needs to meet people to do that, build.

So packs that react well to vampires and welcome them actually usually end up with generations worth of protectors from them! In the know towns or buildings, people- they act as a sort of...underground railroad type but for blood and the things vampires need. Maybe even other supernatural creatures that can learn to function and live in relative peace with each other. Genetically, I feel like these people who blended with vampires, maybe were born far enough down the line to NOT be vampire on birth- are more likely to survive and thrive with the change, smell better, have a bit more predator to them, a bit danger to them.

Now to jump back to the original verse I built this for because I saw DC Vampire Dick Grayson and my brain went HELLO???-

My thoughts about this AU in specific were more Dick's circus is a traveling set of vampires Some of them are came to Earth vampires, are very old, and it makes their circus remarkable because there's things from literally other worlds in there that can blend as props or normal enough.

Mary and John- Dick's parents- are actually TURNED vampires. They have Dick as a born vampire, but he grows up in a troupe that shares all the stories he needs to know so he knows a lot more than most turned vampires do.

They also survive this AU. they end up discovering Batman and Bruce Wayne while there, and are fascinated (eventually leading to a polyship there and an eventual (but not without some major thinking and planning on B's part and only in this case talks) turn on Bruce's part!)

So Robin does still take to the skies if a bit differently- and there may be some extra capes depending on Mary and John. I still want Tim to see Dick at the circus and maybe the Grayson's still fall but as vampires dont actually die and Bruce as Batman KNOWS about the supernatural and is able to help them get out of there? And I know Talons and the Gray Son were a thing in regards to the circus that leads me to the fun thing about them in this AU-

Talons aren't native to Earth in this AU either!! They're a previous world's attempt to kill off vampires and they like to hunt them down from world to world, and turn their own soldiers, make them undying so they can match up to a vampire and possibly kill them.

You could technically still set Dick up to be Vampire King if you wanted in this au, or not but it lives rent free in my head now.

We have Alphas Jay and Cass, Omegas Tim and Dick, Damian is unpresented but approaching the time he would present properly, and he’s an Alpha-to-be. Alfred, Steph and Duke are Betas. 

The Death Angels: For those not in the know, they are large, kind of spider-like in movements, VERY fast, and fully armored. The armor stands up to bullets and knives, and explosions can toss them but don’t seem to do damage. They’re entirely blind, have claws and a mouth full of sharp teeth and their hearing is VERY sharp. Their head opens to expose soft insides that work like a super-ear, tracking sound, and that’s really the only vulnerable spot, and they can’t swim. That’s all canon to their verse. I’m playing with them a little, so that the planet they come from is laced so deeply with kryptonite they’ve adapted to sort of work on supers, as in they can’t use their powers on them. I’m upping that armor to be stronger than standard canon, as we do have metas running around and I want them to really only be vulnerable while hunting and exposing the ear to hunt. 

It means to kill them, you have to get close enough to be heard, to be HUNTED. You have to be clever. Usually with some kind of blade, as most other things (especially guns) are too loud, and even if it works it brings the hundreds of death angels in the area, every single one that heard it, your way and then your fucked. On top of all of that- if they close the plates of armor that shield their ‘ear’ bullets don’t penetrate it, and blades skitter off. You have to get to that soft unshielded ear to take them out. The hearing was picked up real quick by the Bats and they tried to use that.

On technicality, very high pitched feedback sounds can fuck with their hearing, and cause them pain, usually making he plates that cover the ear kind of…lock up? And then they stagger around, can’t track people or what’s around them, and the ‘ear’ stays exposed cause the plates of armor are locked in an open position, even if they’re jerking around like animatronics move trying to make the sound make sense and stop hurting.

I’m messing with that cause I want to make this more difficult lol. If you manage to mess with the main method of hearing, the death angels are evolved to slam the armor plating that covers their ‘ear’ closed, block out the sound, and shift to a low clicking-purr sound that vibrates their body and acts as a makeshift sonar type ability over the kind of echolocation they’d been using, reading the vibrations of it through their legs and basically triangulating prey and obstacles around them and it makes them more dangerous because it’s a response to being hurt and they do NOT appreciate it. 

In canon rain/waterfalls can hide you, if you keep the sound level under the sound of the water. I’m going to keep that, saying the rain hitting the ground hard enough can sort of hide people from that sonar too, if you move carefully. Caves are also a good place to hide- provided the death angels don't get inside. Which means the Bat-Cave is a kind of ‘safe’ space, far enough underground they can speak softly, and the equipment inside is safe to run, so long as they are careful with the clock-entrance. 

I babbled to wintersnight (@iphoenixrising) for a good while about this AU (@north-peach doesn’t like horror, she thinks the protags are all stupid and it drives her nuts so she missed this ramble lol)  but Winter followed my logic and encouraged me to actually post this somewhere lol

Leading into the Next Important Thing: 

Cities are death traps. All that confined space and the noise of it? The death angels came in like moths to a flame. Large groups of moving people trying to evacuate? Too much noise. Death angels stampede in and hit the group like a pack of wolves cornering prey. 

Gotham was one city of many that hit hard and fast. The Bats are good at what they do,  but they’re not omniscient no matter what anyone thinks. It was so fast. 

This verse would be covering the AFTER of the invasion of the death angels, AFTER they’ve swarmed the world, after so many have died. This verse would be the ‘post-apocalypse’ survival AFTER. 

Zeta-tubes are technically usable to get them out, and up to the Watchtower, but the sound of them activating is loud enough to pull the death angels, and the tube gets destroyed in their hunt for the sound. This also works in reverse- if you use them to come back down, the creatures will swarm towards whoever arrived, and the tubes still end up getting destroyed.

Coming back to the AOB concept: 

I love how all of what’s happening opens the chance to play with their instincts and protective territorial instincts. The urge to den down in a defensive position. To patrol their chunk of space, keep their pack alive and safe 

To fight. 

They were all scattered when the invasion happened, so they have to work their way back to the cave by foot, cars are too loud, and their grapleguns make enough sound to also be unusable when firing as well as anchoring down. They can’t open the hidden entrances for vehicles, it’s too loud and opens a way straight in, so they have to find other ways in. If they can get into the manor, the clock would be an option, it opens smooth and quiet, but the trade off is risking any sounds inside the cave traveling up the stairs and getting the location found. 

So most of the Bats running around Gotham are going to sneak into the hidden natural entrances into the cave systems and navigate back to the cave. Defenses and redirects are going to be set up to prevent death angels from getting in.

Which leads to my favorite part of this AU:

How this situation combines with AOB instincts in the Bats specifically. 

How clever the Bats are. 

I want to play with that. Wanna address how smart they are, their instincts going absolutely feral-survival-mode wild in this kind of life-or-death situation, with threats actually actively hunting them, zero chance of reasoning with them.

Wanna address the genetic memory of packs before cities were made being drawn out. Wanna look at how packs actually hunt when those instincts are stirred and it’s life-or-death, how the Bats work together. When an Alpha, Omega or Beta is pushed to the brink, pushed to feral, their pack, their territory all threated, all in actual danger by something that can and will hunt them back. I want to see their senses cranked up and used to track death angels down, hunt and kill them.

How terrifying it probably is to go into rut or heat in this kind of situation. Being hazy and vulnerable, instinct driven, unable to focus well, in a situation like this one. How, once the situation has settled correctly into their psyche and bones, it might change. The mess that is a presentation heat or rut in this kind of hell, because Damian is within the age of when it happens (between 13-16 is average in my head, this AU places Damian at 15 in my head, so he’s due for it). What it does to the pack of the person in heat or rut for them to be so vulnerable while something like this is happening.   

The protective pup-instincts triggered by an unpresented Damian. What the urge to shield the pack, keep it alive and safe, and protect pups might look like when combined with the hero-vigilante instincts in them, and finding pups who survived the invasion, but are abandoned or the last of their packs, with no one and nothing left. What the drive to protect and expand their packs, keep them alive and thriving might look like.

The territorial instincts playing out, in a hunted/hunting situation with- as Winter put it- “The backdrop of Gotham and how many traps they'd set since this is their territory and they know every rusty fire escape, crumbling Bailbondsmen, and gargoyle in this entire city.”

She understood where I was going with it lol. I adore how well they’d know Gotham, and exploring how that knowledge would play out in setting up traps and triggerable distractions for the death angels, to help in hunting and killing them. How it’d be fed by those territorial instincts of their city being invaded, their people killed, and their pack in so much danger. 

On top of all of that, I also like exploring how the pack leader (Omega Bruce) vs pack alpha (Jason) would react in a situation like this, and the give-and-take of compromise and keeping their pack safe in such a situation.

I imagine, when all this starts happening, the Bats are collectively scattered all over Gotham. When it happens, they try fighting first, but the creatures are fast and deadly. They figure out sound being what they use to track quickly, that they need to be quiet, and they’re trying to save who they can but… in a city, always moving, always going, full of crime and all the screams with only so few Bats and everywhere ELSE having the same issues at the same time?

They get forced to retreat and fallback. None of them are sure where the others are, who’s in active danger, they can’t talk to each other over comms, can’t make any sound too loud.

They just have to be dead quiet and make their way to the cave on foot, make jumps that they know they can land silently on buildings, watch for the death angels when they move, being so so very careful. Unable to check in and see if their packmates are alive or not. Bonds blocked on the job, to not distract their pack, and having to KEEP them that way, while headed for the cave, to not distract each other coming home. 

Oracle being in the Clocktower- frantically shutting down the clock so it doesn’t ring over the city and bring the creatures to her, shutting down any alarms or alerts that could be too loud from her equipment. Sending the news all over Gotham any way she can, as silent as she can, on how the creatures work, and how the survivors can use that knowledge to STAY alive. 

Being scared as she watches trackers, and prays, terrified any time they’re still too long that they may be hurt or dying. Praying she doesn’t see the trackers start moving a vehicle speeds, cause it means they’re going to get chased down by creatures OR a creature has grabbed them and soon the alerts for vitals will scream at her. 

Dick shows up at her tower to get her out with Damian on his heels, so they can get her to the cave, because a city destroyed by invasion is not really wheelchair accessible, much less getting all the way over to the cave silently while trying to get through the rubble. 

Now for my favorite boy:

Tim. Tim in this AU has lost his pack bonds while on Brucequest. He hasn’t accepted a place back in the pack, hurt and distrustful of if the others mean it, after having been pushed out of the pack in his eyes, rejected and unwanted. 

They’ve been trying to fix that, mending bridges and working hard to prove he not only has a place but is WANTED. Building bridges back out with him. By the time the invasion happens, he’s actually starting to believe them- he’s coming to the manor, interacting, trusting they’ll back him, save him, welcome him.  He’s coming around- but he still hasn’t accepted a pack bond yet. Not again.

Didn’t feel quite ready for it, so he doesn’t have a bond with any of the other Bats. He doesn’t know if they’re alive or dead, can’t sense the bond and know for sure, and they can’t check on HIM like that either. 

The panic of both sides of that equation is REAL. All of them have seen these creatures hunt and kill and destroy. And they don’t know if-

This event, this potential of loss on both sides is what makes Tim realize he is NOT willing to keep going without that bond in place. That he wants to feel them in his head again. He could have died or lost any of them, and never had the chance to be bonded to them as pack again, and-

He can’t do that again. He wants the bonds nestled in his chest, wound around his ribs and heart, thriving and anchored in his head. I may write the scene I have in my head out for Tim coming back to the cave last and just having a breakdown cause everyone is THERE, they’re alive. 

This AU is going to be tagged “Quiet Night AU” on my blog, so keep an eye out for more.