its lori @treespeaking and I am regrettably obsessed with minecraft. vampires fucking got me (+dsmp, empires, life series, hermitcraft, yogscast) | icon by @bluebirbbunderscore
Was thinking about Shelby, both her sire and fledgling dead, and the sort of supernatural grief that comes with that as a vampire. The tragedy of these three makes me crazy, and especially how it all falls onto Shelby in the end. The idea that she alone has to bear grief for them both whilst also being angry at Pyro, his blood on her hands, and knowing how close she was was to dealing with Avid herself. The amount of conflicting thoughts and feelings in her, aough.
In my mind this piece was called "Missing Links", the idea that in this siring line Shelby was what bridged Avid and Pyro, and with both of them gone she links no one despite knowing she is meant to. Similarly, with Pyro gone she has lost her link to Scott in the siring line. I know this has no affect on anything but also I feel like in a supernatural sense it would hurt, to feel disconnected from your coven like she has been.
Edit putting my process under the cut for under the cut for fun <3
so initially I was going to include Scott to emphasis the gaps in the siring link but i felt it took too much focus away from Shelby so i cut him off. Then i planned where i wanted the blood spray to go and how the bg might look. You will also notice i remembered Pyro's stake as well. Then finally the lineart! Though I ended up reducing the scaring on Pyro's face, it largely remained! I'm really happy with it!
I build bridges with these arms
I will not build a fortress
In the circle 'round the kitchen table
I say my "amen" because I feel blessed
- Big Houses, Squalloscope
can somebody help me out?
i can't find my feet
i'm sinking in the deep
can somebody pick me up?
the voice is too loud
i'm losing in the crowd
because i can't breathe
oh, i can't breathe
because i can't breathe
oh, come and help me out
somebody help me out
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
I would say that it's one of those situations when two things are True at the same time. Yes Shelby has a legitimate reason to fear the town. You listed it pretty clearly and i have nothing else to add that. This is objective correct.
Scott doesn't do much to keep her on his side that is also true. Mostlycuz he and Owen assume she doesn't need any encouragement to stay. They like being a vampire and the town really hurt her. Avid often talks about her as she was dead after all.. But at the same time she herself does a lot to stay. When they talk about her like she's just food they call it out but ultimately ignore it when voicing her discomfort with that is brushed off. When Pyro brings up that he's scared of Scott SHE brushes it off. When Owen says something off-putting she refused to hear it or finds an excuse for him. And this is what I think most people refer to when they say she's naive. I wouldn't call it that - its more of a wishful thinking than naivety to me, but that's my personal opinion. Shelby isn't "Naive" because she doesn't go back to town, she's "naive" because she stays with the coven. Which isn't the same thing. Every time someone brings Scott's flaw she finds an excuse for it. He wouldn't hurt her, hes thier bestie. He was hungry. You attacked us first. He's just old and needs to be show the proper modern ways. Hes learning. Her turning was SCOTT'S plan, and Only Scott's. He attacked her and drink her blood too. But she only ever blames Pyro cuz it's easier. Cuz he is the one who got the final hit and it's easier to forget Scott was ever there. Cuz she's scared of the town so much that she needs to excuse what coven does because if they are both "bad" she has no other option. And she pretends as such until she can no longer - until Pyro and Owen hurt her fledgling. Not a friend, fledgling. She's not mad at them for killing Avid she's mad at them cuz they excluded her from that decision. And when they do so, they are deemed the worst people on the planet. She no longer excuses Owen as misunderstood or just sad. She claims Pyro to be just far gone. Because it wasn't a Coven Issue it was Owen and Pyro issue.
PLEASE note that the most important criteria is what they cut from their pov
(I wanted to include as many as possible but I had to cut 2 members for this poll because there are only so many slots and so my sacrificial lambs are avid and owen. because let's not kid ourselves)
legs and owen's whole deal can really turn the gay fanfiction problem into a gay fanfiction opportunity. is the 3rd person pov character referring to himself, the other one, or the secret third he/him haunting the narrative? not even he has to decide
A/N: A short piece inspired by the autopilot au created by @vampostingtime and @jackdaw-sprite - with a focus on Cleo, because brick duo my beloved :)
.
"He's dead, Owen."
Owen doesn't drop his invisibility, which at this point is just rude. Cleo's clocked him – they can hear his footsteps prowling behind the clinic – and yet she's forced to track him by the shimmer in the air.
The footsteps falter, and then resume.
"Really, Cleo, I thought you'd be smarter than that," comes Owen's voice. "I can hear his heartbeat from here."
"I'm talking about Louis, obviously."
"Don't you say his name, or–"
Cleo laughs, short and cutting. "Or what? Oh, I'm sorry, was that supposed to be a threat?"
"You don't want to make an enemy out of me, Cleo."
"I think I can risk it."
The footsteps start towards the back door of the clinic, and Cleo moves to intercede. "You're not getting anywhere near him. Not after what you've done to him."
"I'm taking care of him."
It's amazing, really, how even devoid of a heartbeat or breath, the anger pumps so potently through her. She turns to face the man standing in the clinic doorway,
There is nothing physiologically different about Legundo. When the possession rises to the fore, his eyes do not lose their colour, his scar doesn't fade; there is nothing... tangible that Owen's dead lover overwrites.
And yet, there is something indelibly altered in his bearing. The part-military, part-exhaustion stance is eased, the guilt reforged into gentle grief, and his smile...
The man who wears the doctor's face is smiling now. It's so open. So benevolent.
Cleo hates it.
"Taking care of him?" they echo. "Do I look like an idiot to you? You're taking care of no one but yourselves."
"Cleo–" He reaches for her.
She recoils with a hiss. "Don't."
Louis, indeed, doesn't. He withdraws the hand calloused from two decades' doctoring, a hand marred from memories that have shaped and scarred the body he inhabits. "He was in pain, Cleo. I'm helping."
"He was in pain, and you took advantage of that," they retort. This isn't... this isn't going anywhere. She reins in the fury, and tries again. "You died."
"I do remember."
"I'm not finished. You died, and I'm sorry about that." She almost manages to make the sorry convincing. "I'm sorry you went through what you did, but you've had your time. You don't get to steal more from someone else."
Owen scoffs. He's dropped his invisibility. "Legs didn't want it."
"And that makes it fine, does it?"
"Would you rather this happened to someone who did want their life?"
"He's happier this way," Louis says.
Cleo just manages to curb the fuck you. "You need to let him go," she says instead, and she doesn't know if she's talking to Louis or Owen, or both. "It's his life, not yours."
"Think of it this way," Owen says. "At least he's being useful."
Cleo doesn't think. They rake claws across Owen's face, a warning shot fired across the bow, and Owen leaps back out of range. "I don't care if the doc has asked for a truce," she snarls. "I will kill you."
Owen nurses the open wounds, already beginning to scab over. "He told me once, he didn't deserve eternity." He flakes away the drying blood with disdain. "That he only wished to repair his damage, die, and the world would be better for it. Surely you agree this is kinder."
"Do you want me to stake you?"
A hand falls on her shoulder and, although she shakes it off, it halts her before she can take another strike.
"I understand you're going through a lot right now," Louis says, and when he speaks, it's still with Legundo's voice. The words may differ, the turn of phrase unfamiliar, the lilt softer, but it's still him. "Grief is a perfectly normal response–"
She laughs again, and this time the sound crests hysterically in her throat. "Do you hear yourself? I'm the one who's grieving?"
"The doctor was a dear friend of yours–"
"Is," they amend sharply. "Don't give me that was business. He's still alive."
Louis gives her a look of such pity. "He has been waiting for the end for a very long time. This, at least, is on his own terms."
"Is it? Or is that what you've told him?" She curls her lip, revealling the edge of a fang. "Forgive me for not believing the monster puppeteering his body."
I find it interesting that so many people draw him with victorian clothes despite him falling asleep in the middle ages. Here he is in some medieval inspired clothes!
origamiaround
turnnoffyourmind
janainaart
snowghoul
yousharknotpass
annaxmalina
jacobvanloon
