Shelby Is Not Naive, Or: Everyone Cares Too Much About Scott Goldsmith
Shelby fully expects the people of Oakhurst to kill her at the first opportunity. Shelby is so invested in the coven and so willing to excuse the flaws of other vampires because she has bought into the idea that the humans can and will hurt her at the first opportunity. There are many reasons for this, but Scott Goldsmith is not one of them.
Scott is her bestie because he stands still and says nice things while everyone else is running around introducing her to new and exciting forms of torment nexus. It is a “luigi wins by doing nothing” ass situation.
Once Shelby is turned, it becomes nearly impossible for her to talk to a human without being threatened. Many social interactions from the very instant she walks back into town after the fishing trip are shadowed by someone openly planning to hurt or kill vampires.
Avid tries to test if she’s repelled by silver and then starts building a jail cell in front of her. Apo isn’t directly threatening, but basically comes to Shelby with the hypothetical “what if there was an evil vampire”. And then they emphasize the importance of keeping a stake at hand.
Shelby asks Ren if they’ll really have to fight each other, and Ren says that it’s just the way of the world. Sausage emphasizes the point by yelling “stab them all until they’re dead!”, which isn’t really a great thing to hear when you are one of the “them” in question.
Eventually, Apo gets turned, and most of the vampires convene at the beacon, where Martyn burns her alive.
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.
The outcomes they get make sense if you position Shelby as the central character, and her choices were the ones that decided their fates.
In light of recent revelations, what if we were to create a fanon OC to fill in the role of v!Avid?
Like, I know that some people are planning on swapping out Avid in fics for an OC, but I'm saying that we as a fandom come up with a name that we all can use in fics and out to further separate the character from the content creator, and maybe decide to all portray him as blond or something, idk.
I just feel like if we came together as a community to create a fill in, it would allow for more consistent Ao3 tags, character discussion without having to constantly specify C not CC, and shipping without discomfort.
Any crossfangs would be awesome! I love how you write them and their relationship.
Oh boy this one got away from me. Somewhat of a continuation of this scene, with some vampire biology/dynamics once again inspired by the incredible @audioeidolon
cw: morally ambiguous characters, mildly suggestive in a secret third thing kinda way. I dunno what their vibe is here but it... it sure is something.
****
The fledglings had finally settled down to rest. Scott left them curled up together in the coffin and slipped out into the night. He had forgotten how ravenous fledglings were. They were burning through their reserves quickly, and while Scott was loathe to leave them alone in the Castle, he had no choice but to go out hunting.
It would be easier if Owen was pulling his weight, but at least he was self-sufficient, and not an active drain on resources. It just meant it was up to Scott to do all the hunting for the fledglings. Which was fine, he was more than capable. But he had gotten used to a certain kind of luxury, with a coven that looked after itself and a town that offered respectful sacrifices. It had been some time since Scott was a sole provider.
Nighttime cloaked him comfortably, as he moved into the forest, flitting into bat form to swoop over the ravine. He didn't plan on venturing far, just deep enough to snatch a few unsuspecting animals, fill the collection of bottles he had brought with him, and return before the fledglings even knew he was gone. But as he landed in the bough of one of the ancient pines and retook his vampiric form to scent the air for prey, he caught the whiff of something else in the woods. Something human.
There was a human near his Castle. That simply wouldn't do.
He wrapped the shadows around himself easily, disappearing from sight, and begun to move towards the offensive scent.
He was beginning to wonder if it was time to make a proper example of one of the humans, if they were going to keep coming so close to his home with nothing to offer in return. He had put up signs and tried to be civil about it, but if they were going to keep ignoring the polite warnings, perhaps it was time for some good old fashioned heads on pikes, or corpses dumped at the gates of town with threatening messages carved into them. A little gauche, for Scott's taste, but needs must.
His plans shifted a little less murderous, though, when he saw exactly which human was lingering near his home and his fledglings.
Abolish emerged from a small rocky outcropping — too small to even call a cave — with a bag hoisted over his shoulder that Scott could tell was full of freshly mined silver.
Scott had been watching the hunter carefully over the last few weeks. There was something fascinating about him, how unaffected he was by it all. Calm and focused, he slipped under the notice of the panicked humans. But Scott had noticed. He had also noticed, after the first few weeks in Oakhurst, that Abolish's scent had changed.
What had once been a clean and neutral odour (deliberately neutral, by Scott's guess), had shifted to something earthier, and more naturally human. But what had caught Scott's attention was the scent that lingered around Abolish's throat. He had only noticed it the rare chances he got to get close to the hunter, so faint he needed to lean in and breathe deep to scent it. But, after their last encounter in the woods, Scott was certain he had not been imagining it. Abolish had a coven scent.
His initial instinct was that Abolish must be an escaped thrall, like the farmer was, but he had none of the haggard desperation to suggest it. An attack dog, then, perhaps? He had known some covens to keep skilled humans close at hand for easy feeding and to be disposable weapons. Scott thought it was far too much work, especially when you could just turn the skilled ones to keep forever, but to each their own.
"Can I help you, Scott?" Abolish asked over his shoulder, continuing down the path towards town. Scott had to admit he was impressed. That was twice now Abolish had been able to sense his presence, even through invisibility. He slipped out of the shadows in easy step next to the hunter.
"You're the one practically at my doorstep," he said. Abolish shrugged.
"I figured y'all wouldn't be wanting this silver anyway," he said, giving a vague gesture to his bag. Scott hummed, and leaned in. The coven scent was almost entirely faded, but Scott had a sharp nose, and his instincts were clearly telling him that the hunter carried the scent of another Elder vampire, one that Scott didn't recognise. He shifted his steps to move into Abolish's path and forced them both to a halt. The hunter twitched an eyebrow at him, but that was the extent of the reaction.
"Who exactly are you, Abolish? I admit, I cannot figure you out," he said, taking another step into Abolish's space. As always, not even Abolish's heart rate gave a reaction. Scott let a low, almost inaudible growl rumble through his chest. The sort of sound he used to chastise the fledglings, or bring Owen to heel. Abolish simply tilted his chin to maintain eye contact. Definitely not a thrall then, any drop of vampiric blood in his would have caused at least some kind of submissive response.
"I told you, Scott," Abolish said, sounding downright bored. "I have a job to do. I just want to do it, and go home."
"And what job is that, exactly?" Scott asked. He took another step forward, slow and deliberate, just to see what Abolish would do. Abolish shifted his weight, taking a half step back, but not in a way that felt like yielding ground. It almost felt like a dance, Scott leading, pressing Abolish backwards as he followed easily, never breaking eye contact.
"It's irrelevant to you," Abolish said.
"And yet it has you poking around my home, while my fledglings are resting," Scott said, letting the threat hang clearly in the slither of air between them.
"Like I said," Abolish replied, "I was just getting the silver. You weren't using it anyway."
"I should kill you just for the fact you're traipsing another coven's scent through my territory." Scott let his growl build and flair into his words, stepping forward again.
Finally, there was a reaction from Abolish. That last step had pushed him back enough that Scott had him all but pressed against the trunk of a tree. He was not pinned, but he would have to be very quick and clever to be able to get away if Scott decided he wanted him to be. But it was not the scent of fear that rose from Abolish in that moment. Instead, he let out what was distinctly a huff of frustration.
"I was hoping that would have worn off by now," he muttered.
"It mostly has," Scott admitted. "The fledglings wouldn't notice it, I doubt Owen would either. But this is my territory. It's bad enough there's humans here, with their heartbeats and sweat-stink, I don't need someone else's pet getting their scent everywhere too."
He let disdain drip off his words. This close, he could see subtle shifts in Abolish's expression, the way his brow furrowed slightly and the edges of his lips tipped down in what could almost be a frown. Scott wasn't sure what reaction he expected. Humans usually got oh so offended when he spoke of them like that, but Abolish seemed mostly unbothered, if a little confused.
"I'm not trying to mess with your territory," Abolish said, and Scott was surprised by the honesty of the statement. "Like I said, I thought the scent would have worn off by now."
"The coven scent of an elder takes a long time to wear off," Scott said. "I'm assuming you were using something to cover it up initially. I should have scented it the moment I saw you."
"Yeah, but I ran out. So you'll just have to put up with it, I guess," Abolish replied with a calm shrug, like they were discussing the weather. Scott kind of wanted to bite him just to see if he would even react to that. Instead, another idea formed in his mind.
"I have a better idea," he said. "Something that won't matter to you, but will make me much more willing to turn a blind eye to you roaming about my territory."
"And what's that?" Abolish asked, but the slight narrowing of his eyes suggested he at least had some clue what Scott was suggesting. Scott smiled sweetly, and let a gentle purr build in his chest. It was such a soft sound, he doubted Abolish's human ears would be able to actually hear it, but they were close enough he would be able to feel the vibration of it.
There, Scott thought, as he saw Abolish twitch, just slightly. It was the subtlest tilt of his chin, a cut off motion as Abolish locked down whatever habit he had been trained into. Scott wondered how long it had taken the Elder who's scent he carried to train the young man to bare his throat at the sound of a purr without the help of vampiric instincts.
"You want your scent on me," Abolish said flatly, in a way that suggested there was a clench to his jaw as he spoke. Scott purred a little louder.
"Your silly human nose can't even smell it, and your Elder will happily cover it back up if somehow make it out of here," he said, grinning. He watched Abolish scan his face carefully, obviously looking for some kind of threat or trick. Scott waited, still purring softly, as the hunter finally came to a decision.
"Fine," he said, and Scott's grin widened. "But if I feel fangs, I will stab you."
"Don't threaten me with a good time," Scott drawled, and Abolish rolled his eyes. Scott waited one more beat, building the sound rumbling through his chest to it's full volume. Slowly, with the same care he seemed to approach every task, Abolish tilted his chin up and to the side, exposing the soft skin of his throat.
Scott could dive in, drive his fangs into the vein and drain the hunter faster than he could react. He might get a stab in, might even do enough damage to actually hurt Scott, but there was no real threat to his life. Not like there was to Abolish's. And yet, there he was, backed up to a tree and giving Scott full access to his neck.
Scott had heard Owen talk of a moment of trust, between him and the doctor. Perhaps this was something similar.
Scott leaned in, and pressed his cheek against the warm skin of Abolish's throat. He nuzzled in, stepping even closer to press his chest firmly against Abolish's, so he could feel every rumble of every purr that rolled through him. The forced proximity had Abolish resting a hand on Scott's hip, simply because there was nowhere else for it. Scott rubbed his cheek along the line of Abolish's neck and up over his chin, feeling the faint scratch of freshly shaven hair. This close, the unfamiliar coven scent was painfully obvious, and Scott's purr shuddered to a growl as he let himself melt into his instincts, desperate to cover it up with his own scent. His hand came up to press his wrist to the other side of Abolish's throat, coating him at every point where the intruder's scent lingered. The hand on Scott's hip flexed, ever so slightly. Out of concern or warning, Scott wasn't sure. He didn't care either way, he wasn't stopping until he was certain Abolish was drenched in his scent, and his alone.
The heat of Abolish's living flesh added another layer to Scott's scent, an undercurrent of something almost herbal beneath the sweet metallic tones of the Goldsmith coven scent. He ghosted his lips across the line of Abolish's jaw, letting his breath dance over his skin. No was no trace left of the unfamiliar coven scent as Scott breathed in deep through his nose. An edge of tension in his chest began to ease. A threat removed. Slowly, with one last nuzzle against Abolish's cheek, he leaned back.
Abolish's expression was a blank mask. But even someone with such brilliant self-control clearly had limits. It was subtle, but Scott could hear how Abolish's heart rate had stepped up, ever so slightly. Still no scent of fear to him, but for the first time, Scott could see Abolish was not entirely unaffected. He grinned down at him.
"There," he whispered, "much better."
"Are you done?" Abolish asked. Whatever emotion that had pushed into his heartbeat was not audible in his voice, as he maintained eye contact with Scott.
"Yes, yes," Scott said with an airy laugh, finally stepping back to allow Abolish to move away from him. "On your way then, Abolish. I look forward to our next meeting."
Abolish gave him a flat look, re-shouldered his bag that had been discarded on the floor, and walked away without another word. Scott watched him leave, comforted by the way his coven scent lingered in his shadow.
****
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(Continuation of my Shelby + Legs starter vamps AU! Somebody help me name it hhh)
Shelby wasted absolutely zero time to tell her baby great- (x10) grandnephew everything and offer him the gift of vampirism. Good thing he is a fucking freak and accepted immediately, otherwise things might have gotten awkward
So! In this AU (name pending), Shelby and Legundo are the starter vampires!
Shelby is the ancient vampire matriarch of the Goldsmith family, who was cursed into 600 years of sleep after pissing off a coven of witches with her overbearing curiosity and sunny demeanor. Oops.
After waking up, she’s at first heartbroken to see her castle in ruins and her coven nowhere to be found, but she quickly finds a new spark of joy to drive her - discovering her great-great-great-great-great-something grandnephew Scott among the humans gathering in Oakhurst! The Goldsmith lineage has apparently dismissed their past of vampirism as nothing but old ghost stories, but Shelby is intent on helping her last living relative remember…
As for Legundo, he keeps his war criminal + military doctor past, but here, he was bitten and turned by one of his patients in the trenches. When his condition was discovered by his superiors, they decided this could be useful, and had him use his new powers to bat behind enemy lines and tear apart entire units with his bare claws and teeth.
When the war finally ended, Legundo managed to escape and continue his work as a travelling doctor, but now with a very specific goal - make up for the lives he’s responsible for taking by preserving an equal amount of lives - permanently. Any patients he cannot cure or treat by conventional means, he turns into vampires to “cure” them of death. He aims to continue this crusade of spreading vampirism across the land until the numbers match up, at which point the plan is to stake himself. (This is still Doctor "Guilt Complex" Legundo we’re talking about)
Shelby Is Not Naive, Or: Everyone Cares Too Much About Scott Goldsmith
Shelby fully expects the people of Oakhurst to kill her at the first opportunity. Shelby is so invested in the coven and so willing to excuse the flaws of other vampires because she has bought into the idea that the humans can and will hurt her at the first opportunity. There are many reasons for this, but Scott Goldsmith is not one of them.
Scott is her bestie because he stands still and says nice things while everyone else is running around introducing her to new and exciting forms of torment nexus. It is a “luigi wins by doing nothing” ass situation.
Once Shelby is turned, it becomes nearly impossible for her to talk to a human without being threatened. Many social interactions from the very instant she walks back into town after the fishing trip are shadowed by someone openly planning to hurt or kill vampires.
Avid tries to test if she’s repelled by silver and then starts building a jail cell in front of her. Apo isn’t directly threatening, but basically comes to Shelby with the hypothetical “what if there was an evil vampire”. And then they emphasize the importance of keeping a stake at hand.
Shelby asks Ren if they’ll really have to fight each other, and Ren says that it’s just the way of the world. Sausage emphasizes the point by yelling “stab them all until they’re dead!”, which isn’t really a great thing to hear when you are one of the “them” in question.
Eventually, Apo gets turned, and most of the vampires convene at the beacon, where Martyn burns her alive.
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.
The outcomes they get make sense if you position Shelby as the central character, and her choices were the ones that decided their fates.
#As someone who hasn't yet had the time to sit down and watch all the perspectives this is such an interesting cool thing to see
#Bc it's also once again another instance of that perspective creep of course townie pov mains and even even some vampire mains are inclined
#to see her as sticking by the coven as a result of the coven's actions - most if not all townie povs have her as *the* poster child example #put forward it town for why the vampires shouldn't be dealt with w unidirectional unrestricted violence
#“Shelby is still Shelby” is strewn all over the town fights all throughout episodes 3-6ish in Doc's pov as is the underlying idea of her as #“a forgivable monster” to the rest of the coven's unforgivable both in Owen's pov and at least partially in Avid's
#So it's hard to conceptualize of her as *not knowing that*- but it also speaks to its own kind of negligence
#The town cares about Shelby enough to tell she's not *changed* since becoming a vampire just not enough to seek her out and double check or
#Or even to seek her out and tell her this to her face
#She's well liked enough but she's no one's priority - no one thinks of her *first* and even those that do don't *tell her*
#For all the many ways to be alone in a crowd it's no wonder at all she'd stay where she's safe and actually wanted
Actually, I’m curious, it seems to be kind of implied that vampires get some unique individual powers (Owen with his memory thing, etc) what is everyone’s headcanons about what powers everyone in vsmp would get? I wanna hear aaaalllllllllll the ideas
i am fond of giving Pyro water powers because of the Trauma.
Apo's power should always be something she doesn't like, for thematic consistency. being able to sense violence and bloodshed is a good one, but you could also do something with how she manages to evade other people in combat so many times, or even the boat trick she uses to do it. paralysis, maybe?
Scott has something that makes him even more impossible and implacable. mind reading, clairvoyance, straight up immortality, whatever. something that is tactically useful and tips the scales in his favor.
Whatever Shelby has, it's subtle, and it doesn't make her any better at combat or socializing. maybe the ability to summon minor trinkets, or shape an area, or know the emotional state of someone drinks blood from.
Drift definitely gets the ability to read people better. detail spotting, empathy, mind reading, something like that. something that makes her a better detective
Avid... i feel like his power is having a sort of Presence. you can feel when he enters a room. you know how he's feeling at any given time because his aura shouts it in your ear. he might learn to turn it down with time, but it never turns off.
jackdaw really just said "doc getting possessed by louis" and now I'm thinking about doc slowly losing himself to a ghost that uses his body and life to be with owen and doc is trapped inside himself and even if he wants his life back part of him, or even eventually most of him, calls that want selfish because this is just another way to be useful, right?
Oh god now I'm having more and more thoughts. I should be editing.
But:
The first time Legundo claims to be a vampire, it's a lie. It's a strategic one, to help the town come to grips with the others in their midst with the... malady gift condition. It's to promote social cohesion by piercing the 'us versus them' rhetoric through the heart before its roots can grow deeper.
He knows it will be a challenge to maintain the illusion, yes. But so many things about vampirism feel almost...correct, in the way the information slots itself so neatly into his mind. He feels confident he can fake it.
It's odd to encounter a condition which behaves so intuitively. It makes him wonder...no matter.
It is assuaging the fears of the townsfolk that is important, and that goes both for the humans and for the vampires among their number.
So he lies.
And he finds, over the coming days, that it is almost too easy a fiction to slip into. He finds himself proud of how meticulously he keeps track of thresholds, and permissions. He switches his sleep schedule almost as easily, and the food presents an issue, yes. But slipping into the cattle pens for food is like slipping into familiar dress, and he finds himself quite the natural at winning the favor of the cows.
So he does, and while he pretends to sate his appetite on the livestock he stuffs his pockets with the potatoes set to go to the pigs, and Cleo gives him a knowing glance and makes sure they're topped up.
There's something of a joke there, he thinks. He's eating the food meant for the livestock. Owen would find it funny, no doubt.
He's in such a terrible state, these days. Legundo's heart aches at the thought, and who he might have been before the death of his friend. He can almost imagine it.
...He has.
But the point is he slips on the clothes of a vampire with the same curious ease with which he's found his tongue in this town. People listen to him, as long as he listens to himself.
...
The second time Legundo claims to be a vampire, well. It's part of the act. He must maintain it if he's to keep peace in the town. And really, it's just an ongoing effort, after the first. He's not sure it counts.
So perhaps it's like this:
The proper second time Legundo claims to be a vampire is eight days later, when he finds Owen perched halfway up a tree. The sight sparks a certain fondness in his chest, and it's with a natural kind of ease he cranes his neck and asks Owen if perhaps the branch might have room for two vampires.
Owen's answering expression makes him look like an owl, and Legundo explains it as a joke. He shoves the disquiet down and makes pleasant conversation and when he eventually leaves, he has forgotten entirely about it.
Owen has not.
It is only much later that he will tell Legundo this: his heartbeat had betrayed no sign of a lie.
Shelby bit her lip “is it really that big of a deal?”
“Ehh. you don’t give wine to alcoholics”
“What?”
Scott waved a hand “you know how it is. They ask for one glass to ‘take the edge off,’ and the next thing you know they’re halfway through your liquor cabinet and you can’t remember your older brother’s name”
Shelby’s eyes widened. “Did that happen to you?”
“Mm hmm. Which is why neither of you should be alone with Louis. Especially you, Pyro.”
Ice began to form in Pyro’s stomach. “Why me?”
Scott looked almost pitying. “Because you’re a pretty young man. And Louis likes pretty young men.”
d’you think part of the reason shelby was so eager to join the coven was because she knew she was wanted. even if it was in such a brutal dehumanizing way. scott wanted her enough to lash out at pyro for “taking” her. pyro wanted her enough to “take her” from scott. etc etc etc
I think more AUs should make v!avid the tormented oracle trope. because a) it’s…honestly very canon?? b) put avid in the torment nexus c) I think avid could be a really good example of an oracle who both knows a Lot, yet struggles to interpret it, further lowering his credibility and d) if we’re going full superpowers AU than making Avid’s power foresight means that you can do something Else with the demon curse, because I don’t think it’s very superpower coded and it feels a lil lazy besides (obviously no offense to anybody who chooses to do as such, but it is the easy option for better or worse)
One of the things that still lingers in my head about Owen's perceptions of vampirism versus what we see demonstrated in the show (and in Cleo and Scott's backstories) is that at one point, he says vampires are largely reclusive creatures.
I do not have the computer time at the moment to figure out when this was, but the lovely @mytoomanybookstoread says it's likely in episodes 4 or 5.
This makes sense from a worldbuilding perspective: large predators tend to need a large range to get enough food to sustain themselves, and with such a slowly-reproducing species as humans as their preferred prey, vampire territories would need to be large indeed, resulting in a tendency towards the solitary.
But we see this contradicted: Louis himself offers to spend eternity with Owen. Scott turned his friends. Cleo grew up in a coven, and when they left it there were ~300 people in the compound. Even assuming ninety five percent of those were thralls or 'livestock,' that still leaves 15 vampires living together in a group.
And even post-canon, we see Shelby living with Scott, and Drift popping by!
So. What does this mean about Louis?
There are a few possibilities, but I want to suggest: He wanted to keep Owen from other vampires for as long as possible.
Now, why would he want that, when vampires are social creatures?
I can see a few reasons. Maybe sires are territorial over new fledglings. Maybe he was unusually territorial.
But.
Modern vampire society is unbalanced and controlling in a way that favors vampires heavily. Humans are treated as nothing more than livestock -- Cleo themself said (in their lore stream) that even their mother's attitude towards humans was 'We have goats at home.'
Louis, meanwhile, tended his town carefully. You could see this as a vampire who preferred to be left alone to manage his...ah. Human ranch. But he didn't even raise a hand to hurt any of his people as they led him to the pyre. He saw Owen's pain and tried to use vampirism to mend it.
I think Louis had some very strong disagreements with the way vampire society treated humans.
And I think Louis knew how prone Owen would be to anti-human extremism. Looking at Owen, it would have been easy to see how easily he could be swayed into thinking of humans as less-than. He'd spent his whole life tormented by them, and then the first vampire he'd ever known had come from nowhere like an angel of mercy with an offer of salvation. Between that and a lifetime without access to the social connections to learn the nuance of social situations...
Cults recruit the desperate and isolated for a reason.
From there, we can go in two directions.
The first is pretty intuitive and familiar: Louis as a cult leader trying to turn Owen into a devoted member of his inner circle. I'm not really going to explore this here, just bringing it up to acknowledge it since it is a very easy read of what I've laid out here.
What I find interesting is the second read:
Louis as a genuinely well-intentioned man who wanted to give Owen a chance at not falling in with the cults and other high-control groups so common among vampires.
With this, we get an interesting double-edged reason for the isolation: keeping Owen sheltered from other points of view is exactly what a cult leader would do. Would he have eventually told Owen the truth? Presumably! He might be able to hide the rest of vampire society from Owen for a few years, but certainly not centuries. It's a question of practicality. But that gives him plenty of time to convince Owen of his own feelings on the matter.
And yes, this is falling into cult territory again. Because that's the thing, isn't it? If you're raised in an environment like that, as Louis most certainly was, then the tools that environment gives you are the ones you have. They're the ones you default to if you're not mindful.
So: Ex-cult/coven member Louis, trying to spare Owen from the vampire cults he knows are out there (that he has personally experienced, perhaps), but using the tools his life has given him to do so: the same isolation and warnings about outsiders that cults will use to cut new members from a chance at escape.
He'll lie to Owen, and tell himself it's temporary: just until Owen finds his feet and stops being so starved for attention that he'll follow the first charismatic vampire to tell him he can be powerful. He'll keep Owen to himself until Owen is healed, until Owen can distance himself a little from the deep and ragged wounds of his human life.
Just until then.
He can have a fledgling. For the first time since he isolated himself from other vampires, Louis will be able to have company that understands who Louis is, who can see all of him. Owen won't leave him. Owen loves him.
oh damn i forgot to mention also!!! because i posted 12k in the last week i’m gonna push my updates out a little?? stagger style, because i want to get back to late monday/early tuesday eventually, but gradually so i’m not stuck trying to speedrun lmao i don’t like the effect that has on my prose
so IDEALLY barring catastrophe it should roughly be:
ch9 on 5/7
ch10 on 5/13
ch11 on 5/19
then ch12 on 5/25, and back to the usual weekly schedule from there.
that’s my cool plan
goldsmiths be like
🧛🏻👩🏽🚒
👨🏻🎓🧝🏻♀️
🐺👨🏻⚕️
and i love having fun so here’s some spoilers in hieroglyphic* form
🧎🏻♂️➡️🫱🏻🫲🏽🧎🏽♀️
🪡🪢❤️🩹
🙎🏻♂️💆🏻♂️🙍🏻♂️
🕴🏻👁️🫵
*i know emojis are not actually hieroglyphs please do not come for me linguists i’m just being silly
it's crazy how much the field of computing has been able to do with just semiconductors. imagine what would happen if they managed to get full conductors working. twice as much!
when I worked at Intel a decade and a half ago, they were just starting to put copper in their chip designs. The problem is that copper is an absolute bastard to keep out of other things; you can put a penny on a silicon wafer and if you check it twelve hours later, the back of the wafer is unusably contaminated by copper atoms migrating through the lattice.
there was a guy in the factory called the Copper Czar whose entire job was making sure that copper contamination didn't fuck up entire runs of chips. Every set of tools came with one green handled version (never use this on anything that touches copper) and one orange handled version (only use on filthy, filthy copper).
so like. This post is a joke but it's also more true than you think.
