❝ i know i need help but i'm not quite ready to ask for it. ❞ from Kellan ( @morningthroughshadows )
A FEW VARIOUS SENTENCE STARTERS - @morningthroughshadows
Maria had been watching Kellan, she was supposed to be reading but her eyes kept flickering up to him as he sat at the library table grading papers. There was something bothering him, she could tell. In the short time they'd come to know each other she'd learnt a fair bit about him, well about his mannerisms, about what he looked like bothered, happy, annoyed, sad. She like to see more of the second but she figured that would take more time.
When he spoke she looked up at him and closed the book she was reading, putting it on the desk in front of her.
"What if you don't have to ask?" Maria said, fingers tracing over the indented cover on the book she'd been reading. "What if I ask the questions?" Because to her it sounded like a question, it sounded like he was wrestling with something, that perhaps he was ready if he knew it was safe too. And it was safe too.
Maria like him, she'd help him in anyway she could.
"What is it you need help with?" She offered, because she sensed, that even though he hadn't talked about it there was something traumatic in his past, probably, like her, something to do with his turning.
While, they are indeed genderfluid, they really do just prefer Erika rather than Erik. In fact, their name is ultimately Erika.
The only reason that the whole Erika/Erik is a thing is because of the importance on names. While, they’re more than content with just being called Erika (as that’s the name they identify with and everything) they also realize that they CAN make other vamps switch between the names and it really illustrates how powerful they are within in the vampire society.
Erika is really, the only vamp with this sort of... power? No other vampire has gotten vampire society to switch between names for them. Other vampires have MULTIPLE names or aliases, but they have no control over what they are called.
Erika on the other hand, has gotten to this point where they can control what they get called, which makes them the first vampire to be able to have such control over their name after the first establishment. (The first establishment is where a vamp first declares their name, but this is the only chance that vampires get to control what they are called at all. After this point, they can’t change it or anything beyond adding a family name.)
They’ll have vamps switch between names in mid-conversation, correcting them back and forth, simply because they can.
With Henry though, their long-term sort of lackey vamp, they just have him stick with calling them Erika. Since they already have control over Henry, there’s not really a power-trip over what he calls them. After the first few years, they explained the situation to him, and he’s called them Erika since.
Henry also gets a lil of this power-trip action, too.
Since one of his aliases has Erika’s name in the title, when someone calls him say “familiar of Erik(a)” he can keep making them change the title by “correcting them” on Erika’s name. Which he gets away with this as he claims a psychic connection with Erika, and thus knows when they’re either Erika or Erik. Thus, by disrespecting him on his title the vamp is actually disrespecting Erika which is an offense most vampires don’t trespass.
THIS IS A STRONG REMINDER, THAT 95% OF THE INFORMATION ON MY VAMPIRES COME FROM THE BIASED SOURCE OF SAM, THE EXTREMELY PREJUDICED VAMPIRE-HUNTER, DURING THREADS!
SAM BREAKS VAMPIRES DOWN INTO STOCK CHARACTERS AND BEHAVIORISM WHICH IS VERY DETRIMENTAL TO INFORMATION ON THE VAMPIRES I’VE MADE.
THERE IS A WIDE VARIETY OF VAMPIRE TYPES AND LEARNED ABILITIES - ALONG WITH THAT THERE IS AN EXTENSIVE SOCIAL AND POLITICAL HISTORY TO THE VAMPIRE COMMUNITIES WHICH THE HUNTER ORGANIZATION AND OTHER HUNTERS KNOW VIRTUALLY NOTHING ABOUT!!!
Sometimes, killing the vampire(s) is too much for you at the moment. Or ever. This deals with how vampires will track or chase a human, and how to permanently lose them. Remember, “Sight, Sound, Smell, Pattern.”
*Some vampires can problem-solve and losing them is a different situation that will be depend on the vampire and end goals/morality/etc. If they can think like a human again, then you’ll have to lose them like a human... with a trained dog.
HOW Vampires Can/Will Track You
Sight
Sound
Smell
Pattern
The list is listed in order of importance. The rule of thumb is to accomplish cutting off each of these senses/etc. that the vampire has on you in order. “Sight, Sound, Smell, Pattern.”
Get out of their sight, make sure they cannot hear you or your overbeating heart, get them to lose your scent trail, then don’t follow a traditional “prey path.”
Sight
Sound
The first two are very basic and almost go hand-in-hand. Vampires will LOOK for you, and they have nightvision so you can’t hide in a shadow. There has to be something opaque between the two of you. They also have rather good hearing, but not so much as to be able to hear you whisper from a block away.
Smell
They’re going to be able to smell your blood most of all, especially if there’s a bleeding wound exposed. Sensing blood still inside of you is only a worry at close encounters. You also have body odor and your natural scent which can be tracked like anything can smell your particular scent then any animal can track it.
Pattern
This is the one that needs explanation. Part of their instinctual hunting skills, that every vampire has is predicting where prey will run.
For example, you’re not going to go towards the woods, you’re going to head towards the center of own. That’s a goal prediction. Then there’s also the typical path predictions, where you’re obviously going to go down the LIGHTED street as opposed to the one shrouded in darkness. Same with long stretches of road that go towards your goal. People don’t want to get stuck in a dead-end and head a bee-line for their goals. Areas that are lighted or give some false-sense of security that prey are likely to go towards in their escape route are “safe zones” that vampires can recognize pretty easy.
Now, this is even worse if the vampire has already frequented the area you are in because they will take shortcuts to cut you off on your path. Well, more accurately to hide and wait for you to pass then jump you.
They were human, so this isn’t a magical hunting skill. It’s their original survival instincts sparking up saying “Go this way.” Their own survival skills are different though as the new body brings a different way to survive and different things to fear.
How To Get Away
Once again, “Sight, Sound, Smell, Prediction.” Once, you’ve beaten all of these you just need to not wander back into their sight or hearing again, as for smell you will be fine as long as you don’t have any wet or dry blood on you. These steps are going to go into order of an escape from a direct confrontation with a vampire(s).
First, get some DISTANCE between you and the threat.
Do your best to calm yourself once out of sight. Heartbeat can sometimes be heard, but sweat will definitely be smelled short distance.
Obviously, you should run and try to round corners or anything to get out of their line of sight. Keep an eye on the vampire, they will lunge at you to grab you instead of maintaining their run then grabbing you*. It’s also not uncommon for them to run up beside you enough to slash at you/your legs.
*Vampires don’t slow down. They always use momentum built up for lunges or leaping into something where they can reach a sudden stop. NOW, they may grab you only to slam you into the ground then do some turn about to make their way back to you.
However, if you aren’t a safe distance from then in 30 seconds then you need to improvise otherwise you’ll get tired from dodging the vampire occasionally lunging at you. Regardless, you will likely need to do something like this to get enough distance where they cannot HEAR you. Here are some suggestions that will cover your options.
1. Turning tight corners in thin corridors is a good tactic sometimes. They’ll either try to swing around the corner on something or bounce off of the far wall to keep their momentum. So, if there’s say something metal on the edge of the corner and you know it’s not nailed in then you can almost ensure a vampire will grab onto it and fall wonderfully as the protrusion from the edge comes out. Or, if there’s no protrusion then the vampire will bounce off of the wall straight ahead to make the turn. So, if the wall will break on contact then you’ll have a vampire on the ground. If the wall has a “slow” springy consistency to it (like a wire fence) then imagine a trampoline where you either fall or lose all your momentum from bad timing when you press down while falling. The vampire will be pushing off of it as if it were a solid wall, so you will at least slow them down.
2. Scare them away. Survival is the best motivator. Machines are your best bet here, unless you can magically make yourself huge or extremely loud. It’s an illusion that there is something bigger and stronger than them that will hurt them. Now, if you have a vampire that can talk then you are going to need something that you could actually HURT them from. Since that’s usually an easy enough development for vampires, just assume you’ll always need something that you can hurt them from. Anyways, noise is easier to achieve and more important. A bulldozer is big and threatening, but it won’t be nearly as effective as a car that you rev loudly. Loud engine revs are the best sound you’re going to get.
3. Entice them with weaker prey. Now, obviously you could actually sacrifice someone or hurt a large animal with some human blood smeared on them, but I’m just going to address the tricks. This illusion is based on more vulnerable/easier prey elsewhere. It’ll have to be heavy enough to be human, so 50 pounds of weight ormore, and it needs to have some classic “hurt prey” signs. Simulated erratic movements/heavy breathing. This isn’t easy, but if done correctly this plan will also take care of Smell and Pattern, so you’ll be safe. Audio playing of distressed sounds coupled with smell can work. Props to you if you can get the 50 pounds worth of vibrations to keep going without using a live animal.
4. Distract them with certain smells. Certain concentrated chemicals can attract attention almost as well as blood, but more so in large quantities than a little blood and will cause enough of a distraction to maintain distance. Chemicals that go into white blood cells are probably the most potent you’ll get, or just something that smells like blood. What kinds exactly, I have to research more, but yeah this will work. “Dead” smelling blood won’t work, blood goes bad and will repel more than attract.
5. Make the kitchen too hot for them. Like I said, intense heat that lasts. If you are in an area that is very hot or even warm, vampires will not stay. Heat that lasts long enough will speed up their blood and the “poison” inside them to the point where it’ll begin to disintegrate their body and cause a chain reaction of doing so. That’s how the sun kills them, sunshine on their skin/clothes. Saunas, some factories, anywhere that’ll STAY hot.
6. Creating a “Sun” alternative will work, but only if it’s powerful enough. One of a vampire’s survival instincts is to hide when sunlight begins to show or displays of intense heat that last. For this, you are going to need a STRONG light. I’m talking, a light strong enough to light up your entire area VERY brightly. Obviously, this is just a trick to give you a few minutes as vampires will realize it’s still nighttime. They also, have an internal clock, so if you pull this 30 minutes before the sun actually rises you could probably be safe for the rest of the night.
ABSOLUTELY, DO NOT TRY TO HIDE IF YOU ARE BLOODY! Even regardless of blood, you will stink of your own scent and they will find you if you try to hide within a 50 foot or so radius of them. You NEED the distance to be safe, hiding only works if you can absolutely cover your smell or they’re unaware of you.
Now, make sure they’re not following your scent trail.
There are a few ways to do this. The most important thing is to make sure you’re not bleeding then worry about everything else. Get rid of your scent, cover it up, change it - just make sure you’re not leaving a clean trail of breadcrumbs.
1. CLEAN YOURSELF AND GET DRY. Wipe off any blood on you and wrap it to the point where the blood won’t soak through all the layers. If you have any blood on your clothes either toss them or wrap the stain like a wound. Be very careful about rinsing out stains as the water with bits of blood can then soak into other parts of your clothes or dry on your skin without any notice. Dried blood is not as bad as a lot of sweat. Just STAY DRY. That is the important thing, sweat or wet blood is going to be your biggest worries. Dry sweat/blood/etc. is not something you have time to extensively take care of, and is rather minor in comparison.
1.5 Get rid of your “dry scents” if reasonable. This stuff is hard to do so it’s recommended to not bother with it usually. Your natural scent will stick to your clothes, so you can get rid of them to lessen your trail, but ultimately it’s best to keep everything so you can use it as a distraction package if needed later on. If you’re thinking being completely nude will help significantly, it will not. If you have time to wash your hair, you have time to get somewhere safe.
2. Change your personal scent. Now, if you were to wade through a lake of horseradish that would be best, but clean water isn’t going to help you much and is more trouble than it’s worth. Air Freshener, Perfume, smoke, strong chemicals, whatever - spray it on you, just douse yourself with it. Bonus points if it’s a vamp repellent like long dead blood. If you can’t completely cover your scent with it, then do NOT spray. If the scents are mingled then the strong smell will be temporarily associated with you and MUCH easier to follow. You could have the spray going off somewhere else, but it’ll only cause a short delay and be more trouble than help. [Strong scents that also repel vamps to some degree: long dead blood, horseradish, salty/dirty ocean water, hot spices.)
2.5 Switch your scent with another. If you switch clothes with someone then go separate ways the vampire will get confused. Especially, if you were previously travelling together. Be warned, that this won’t work if it can smell blood from one, but not the other. Also, if you WERE travelling together then it’ll pick one of your scents that it thinks is the real “both of you” rather than try to figure out which way you alone went and disregarding the other person’s smell (if they didn’t meet said person.)
3. Break your scent trail. There’s a lot of ways to do this, but ultimately you can diminish all of that to two different ways of going about it. You can either leave “scent packages” to attract the vampire, or you can do something to block the scent trail.
“Scent Packages”
Now, there’s a lot of different way that you can go about this, but scent packages are a pretty basic concept. If you read the section about getting rid of your smell then you’ll know what to put in scent packages. Some article of clothing on you that you’ve worn or are wearing is okay, but it won’t distract a vampire as much. You can consider that a medium scent package.
Then there’s big scent packages, so to speak. If you really want to make a vampire stop and look for the scent package, then you need to put some human blood on there. Preferably your own, since you’re trying to get it away from you, and that’ll help mess up the chase. If you’ve bled before or are currently, now’s the perfect time to take whatever you’ve been bleeding onto and leave it in said scent package. The more the blood, the better, make sure the blood stain is in the open air and not wrapped up. If you don’t have any wounds, just keep in mind that you’ll have to quickly wrap up the wound you make. Prepackaged blood of yours is good too, better than having to cut yourself.
Distributing the scent packages
This is pretty strategy based. There is no one definitive answer that you should always do, and it’ll depend on your current situation. Think of your scent trail as a trail of bread crumbs. You can make alright scent packages like tearing off a bit of bread and dropping it, or a big chunk of bread which will be scent packages with your blood in it. Obviously, you can’t keep tearing off huge chunks of bread, but the medium bits of bread won’t attract as well. ONE important note, you should always BACKTRACK after dropping off a scent package. This gets the vampire to go the wrong direction, get confused that the trail isn’t going on, then backtrack to find the split where you actually went.
So, you can use medium scent packages to get yourself time and distance, but because of limited supplies you should think of what will be better for long-term survival tonight. You don’t want to be in a similar situation 30 minutes later without anything to make a scent packages with. Wiping your blood on the wall can only do so much. These are good for when you have some definitive plan that will work and just need time to get a couple blocks away undetected or set a trap.
The big scent packages are helpful in that they will give you minutes of time, as vampires will still search for a couple minutes around the scent package before trying to follow your trail again. Another thing you can do is hide the scent package slightly as it will still be detected with the blood, and the search will take up more of their time. With so much time, you have a chance to either drench yourself to get your scent off of you or break your scent trail - either way losing the vampire by smell.
Stopping/Blocking your scent trail
This is arguably the easiest way to lose a vampire by scent. You don’t have to drench yourself in anything, switch clothes with someone and risk their lives, nor try to strip and hide in a lake. It’s easier than drenching yourself and just as effective if done correctly.
The two main things are distance and blockage. Obviously, the farther away you are the more time for wind to push away your scent trail and the weaker your trail will get. Blockage is when you either physically put barriers between you and the vampire or leave an odorous block.
Blockage is by far more important than distance. Go through as many obstacles as you can and leave behind even more. If you can actually CLOSE a door behind you that’s spectacular. That’ll disconnect your trail and with in addition to a scent package nearby the vampire will go there then be confused to the point of losing your scent trail.
Odorous obstacles are better than physical ones, but only work if you can completely cover the width of your path. Do not try to do an odor block in a two-lane road, too much time to do it and you’ll be caught before you’re done. Rip open garbage bags and make a line from building to building in an alleyway, with a few more bags for strength. Pour a VERY strong-smelling liquid on the ground somewhere behind you. If it smells strongly, and you can get it to completely reek the entire width of the path then it will work beautifully.
Finally, don’t be predicable in your escape route.
You’ve definitely gotten them to lose your scent trail or at least enough to where they’re not sure where you’re at. Well, you’re not done. Don’t forget the whole prey pattern prediction. All vampires were human once and there’s only a handful of cases where their survival instincts were not maintained during their transformation. If you’re not sure how this works, then go back earlier where I first explained the “Pattern” topic.
This means, that you have to THINK and go down paths that you normally wouldn’t, as well as possibly change where you’re headed. If you’re going to where a lot of people/lights/sounds are then either be VERY careful or pick another safe place.
Avoid easy paths or ones headed in a bee-line toward your goal. Lighted paths will be the first kinds predicted that you’ll take most of the time, so, sorry, but don’t follow the light for long or often. Basically, if you see a direction and it looks super safe or you get a big charge of hope that if you take THAT way you’ll be safe in no time - do. NOT. take. that. direction.
The only exceptions are when you are close to your goal or any other direction would leave you outside for another 3 hours. However, be aware that the vampire will pass through there in all likelihood. Just assume.
AND NOW You’re practically home-free.
If you follow all of these successfully, then all you need to do is make sure that you stay away from an area with vampires. However, as long as they don’t see or hear you - you should be fine. Obviously, if you’re bleeding they’ll smell that, and then you’ll have to lose them again.
Still, your ordinary scent shouldn’t stand out since it’ll mingle with the residue of tons of other people’s scents, but if the wind is blowing from you to the vampire then it will most likely attract them mildly enough to search around you. They’ll give up the search if they don’t see or hear you though, THIS IS AN ACCEPTABLE TIME TO HIDE!!! If you’re not bleeding, and you’re just evading a mildly interested search (which will last shortly) then you can hide. Even better, if you can make a sound far away from you then they’ll forget about your scent until picked up again.
IF you are hiding, here’s some things. One, be quiet. Two, be out of direct sight. You could cover yourself with a blanket and be perfectly fine for the most part. Three, STAY CALM!
Here’s the thing, normally your heartbeat doesn’t make much of a difference, but if they’re 10 feet away from you THEY WILL FEEL AND SENSE A FAST HEART-RATE. Additionally, you’ll be sweating which is, once again, pretty bad scent-wise.
It’s actually not uncommon for vampires to pass by people sleeping on the ground now and then. When you’re asleep your heart-rate lowers. Since most of the time they’re covered with something to protect from the cold, that blocks most of the visual. The difference really is if the person is around smelly stuff and smelly themselves or not. If they are in a clean area and don’t smell terribly of something beside themselves - then 99% of the time the vamp isn’t passing them up. However, if they stink of say- garbage or are next to a dumpster then vampires virtually always pass them by.
Another option is to hide in a dumpster and completely cover yourself with trash then wait, but tbh do you really want to stay out at night after seeing a vampire or stay in a dumpster till morning? After they lose your smell, you can always just hide and wait it out.
You know, with time and enough blood, vampires' brains DO recover and ignoring their experiences are very similar to humans. Sure, the originally inactive brain parts are still get back to anyway from 30% to 95% capability so there’s some iffy stuff, but with effort and consciousness vampires can interact the same as they were when human.
i.e. with time and blood vampires are almost the same as humans, and vampires can be “people”.
Which means that Sam has killed like 100 potential people.
The Concept of Potential Relationships Between Vampires and Humans
Because I just queued a post that made me think about it, the whole “gender neutral terms” twitter post.
So, there’s nothing outright stopping a vampire and human from forming any relationship... but there’s a lot of unlikely stuff. Actual romantic relationships is one example.
So, quick mention on vampire’s brain functions/morality. The most inactive parts of the brain are “killed” when a vampire is turned. So, however the person is in their last moments has an effect on what they’ll be like as a vampire.
However, the parts of the brain that were “killed” can have low-functioning ability with enough time and as long as the vampire stays healthy.
Now, provided that the vampire is not thirsty this means that vampires are not complete monsters and thus relationships could potentially form with humans. The issue comes with the stigma AGAINST vampires as well as a few other issues.
There are a very small percentage of humans that are open to vampires, and a small percentage of vampires that try to talk with humans outside of peace agreements or feedings.
So, there CAN be good friendships or romantic relationships between vampires, but there are very few that actually exist because of circumstances.
The most common sort of relationship comes from vampires feeding on humans and there being a sort of prey/hunter relationship with the human fearing/hating the vampire. Then there’s the typical relationships vampires have with hunters.
After that there is a good subset of relationships that is neither completely positive or negative. Such as the benefits relationship, where a vampire feeds little bits off of a human in exchange for something or without their knowledge. There’s a subset where the vampires and humans get it on. Then a subset where the two know each other, but like how you know a neighbor sort of deal, usually with the human being unaware the other is a vampire.
After that comes the few good relationships.
Now of course these are all just generalizations and the relationships can be complex depending on who is with who and everything, but this is just a general rule of thumb for the society as a whole.
Like none of these directly applies to Erik(a)’s relationship with Sam- which is creepy. Yes, Sam hates Erika. However, Erika has this almost obsession with Sam which actually lends to some unknowing protection for Sam. Of course Erika also wants to kill Sam so I mean, that little protection isn’t that great, but hey it is what it is.
There are a very few and rare vampires that have managed to integrate themselves into human society while staying undercover. Put some plugs on their teeth, get a job where they can stay away from the sunlight or heat, find a way to keep feedings discrete- and they’re fine. In those cases they are fully able to have the full range of relationships (considering they won’t have their cover blown and are in human society because they WANT to be).
