Rules: Make a moodboard with your character's aesthetic, a playlist that fits their vibe, "badly summarize them" (like, talk about their personality, but funnily), etc. It absolutely does not need to be super detailed!!!!!
Rules: Make a moodboard for your WIP, a playlist (3+ songs/music will suffice but it can be as long as you want) and describe the Vibe of your WIP.
Thanks for the tag!
OC wheel fell on Alex my robot guy, so I'll be using his/Trevor's WIP
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Moodboard
Playlist
Right now my playlist for the WIP and the characters are basically the same, so here's a few picks from Trevor/Alex's playlist!
Michael Crawford - song - 1994
The Ink Spots - song - 1999
Bing Crosby - song - 1993
Vibes
Vibes are kind of...
Tragic
Keep going despite all hopelessness in the faint desire to see something spring to life
Despite it all, it's still just them (Trevor/Alex)
Trevor and Alex are survivors of The Horrible Thing because they adapted, even if they didn't realize that's what they were doing. They tore up the definition of what they were without meaning to, and came face to face with that once they come face to face with each other.
Honestly I was on some kind of trip thanks to a combination of a long day and very little sleep, had just finished binge-playing Stray with bouts of Fallout 4 between bouts and then sat there at three AM watching Wall-E whispering, "he can change people because he changed and that's the only reason he survived when all the other Wall-E's died..." and then my sleep-deprived brain realized that's what was missing in my vampire story and then I plunged into The Stage of writing and came out with these two messed up guys and a half-baked story that I'm...still working on lol
Thanks for the tag, thanks for reading, and game taglist under the cut!!
Tagged by @diphthongsfordays (here) and @willtheweaver (here!) Thanks for the tag, guys!
So far my lines to find are:
a line about dreams, a line about hope, a line about cold, a line about loyalty, a line introducing a character, a line about dreams, a spooky line, a line where a character questions themselves/ their beliefs, and a sarcastic line
(And we're just gonna be pulling from all the WIPs lol)
IF YOU PLAY:
Find A line about love (platonic or otherwise), A line about reading, A line about a bug (or someone being called a bug?), A line about food, and A line about a dance!
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a line about dreams (Abracadabra, Rod POV)
Everything around me grew distorted by the suddenly-vibrant purple sky, things beginning to fade in and out of sight like a dream.
a line about hope (Crunchy Vampire Wasteland WIP - Trevor POV)
On that, so far no response. Again. Still. Ever. But something in me can't just give up hope.
a line about cold (Halfblood WIP, Kashi POV)
I pulled open the door and we slipped from the warmth of nature to the artificial cold, enhanced by the tile floors and vents every few feet.
a line about loyalty (Halfblood, Kashi POV and this was the closest I could get lol)
"I said I trust him as far as I can throw him." Layla gave me a look and I spared her a glance. "I can throw very far."
a line introducing a character (Crunchy Vampire Wasteland WIP - Trevor POV)
Turns out, I managed to snag myself what looks like a prototype for one of the fully synthetic humans they were advertising way back when.
a line about dreams (Discarded bit from Halfblood - Kashi's POV)
“We’re a little past ‘I had a bad dream’ and not talking about it,” I said, sitting.
a spooky line (Abracadabra, Rod's POV)
As we walked, the ship almost seemed to breathe, complete with the walls shifting and creaking despite the fact that it hadn’t moved yet.
a line where a character questions themselves/ their beliefs
(I know I'm going to have these scenes but I haven't written them yet so no lines to share😅)
a sarcastic line (Crunchy Vampire Wasteland WIP - Alex line)
"Yeah, I doubt that they thought about apocalyptic wasteland living when they decided on that feature."
Heeeeeeere's a few lines from the wasteland vampire WIP:
Some of the hardware in the head and the chest are busted though. Rusted through. Sort of looks like there might've been someone trying to adapt a power source in the center of the chest and failed. Or just didn't complete it before something happened.
Premise: List the names of any OC pairings (romantic, platonic and/or otherwise) you’d like to talk about. Let people send you an ask with any of the listed pairings and share whatever you’d like about them! This could be a fun fact, a ramble, an introduction, a snippet, etc - anything you want! (PS: oc x canon is more than welcome!)
So, with Trevor and Alex, they weren't originally a pairing that I planned on. They're...interesting. I came up with Trevor first, then eventually put him in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. As I started to explore the idea of a vampire living in a dead radioactive wasteland, suddenly I found myself curious about robots in the same wasteland (given that it's supposed to be in the far future, I figure there would be robots) and before I knew it I was developing this idea of a cybernetic-humanoids fighting vampire overlords and like...it felt like a really fun idea.
Which also means that, at their core, Trevor is a human that has been dead for a long time and thinking about being done with all of it. And Alex is a human consciousness that was successfully put inside a fully cybernetic body that was considered a failed experiment and fought for their own survival.
They're opposite sides of the same coin. One organic. One cybernetic. Both alive in a sense, but dead in every other sense. And because the way the world developed, both would be completely expected to kill the other, but with the knowledge that if they did they'd be left utterly alone.
It's kind of a fun dynamic that I'm really enjoying exploring. Also Trevor wound up a bit of a himbo on accident and Alex wound up a bit of a horndog on accident so.
Summary: Trevor's a pretty normal guy that's decided to live a crunchy lifestyle; home garden, vegetarian, makes his own meals, a little stall at the local outdoor market, a book that he's working on and a complimentary blog. Oh. And he's a vampire.
Sunlight. It streamed over the land and covered the garden, stretching its fingers over the small cabin-like house in the middle of the suburbs. The golden fingers slipped through the closed shutters, over the couch, and began flicking at my nose. I woke up with a thunderous sneeze that catapulted me to the floor, and found myself struggling with an oddly-confining jacket under the redwood table. After a moment of sleep-deprived panic, I won the confrontation and peeked around at the clock pressed against the wall.
Shoot. It was a bit past feeding time.
I wormed my way to a standing position, left the villainous outerwear to sulk on the floor until tomorrow morning, and made my way out to the garden.
The green plants celebrated the sun, and I joined them for a moment. The sun was warm on my skin as I stood, breathing in the morning air before going about my day. The bell peppers were finally ready, the tomatoes juicy red, and the ears of corn seemed to wave like volunteers for harvest. Gathering them into small bundles, I brought them into the kitchen to rest and went out for a second round. Going straight to the back of my garden, I took a moment to talk to my beanstalks, admired them for their growth and thanked them for their contribution. Then I knelt and began to dig them up by the roots.
Escorting the bundles back into my kitchen -- and trying to ignore the giant dirty boot prints smearing dark mud across the linoleum tile -- I set to stripping the roots from each beanstalk, cleaning all my products, and getting them ready for both farmer’s markets I was to attend later in the day. Hunger began to set in as I worked, so I grabbed a couple of spare roots I kept in the freezer and began to chow down.
Ugh, the taste wasn’t exactly what I wanted. Metallic yet smooth, with a tiny bit of sweetness as an aftertaste. I needed something to drown it with. Another trip to the fridge produced a large cup full of green chalky liquid, and I downed it in just a few gulps. Sweet, sweet chlorophyll. The smooth taste was welcome after the metallic hemoglobin, and it went down easily thanks to the coconut water mixed in. The pairing of chlorophyll and coconut water was a great substitute for blood.
Oh, right. I’ve been living with it so long, I often forget not everyone knows about us.
Hi. The name’s Trevor. I’m a chlorophyre which, at its core, is a ‘vampire’ that lives on chlorophyll instead of hemoglobin. I used to be a vampire, but ever since I found out there were other, healthier ways of living, I decided to take a more natural approach to life.
I finished cleaning the greens, packaged them in little baskets, and stacked them in brown paper bags which then made it into my Hybrid car. I took the few veggies and beans to my stall out at the local farmers market and set up shop.
The humans were nice, as usual. A good number of lookie-loos, a handful of loyal buyers, and I even managed to convince one or two new faces to buy a basket of beans. It was a long day, made even longer with the knowledge I had committed to this booth for the next two days as well. I may have technically been a member of the ‘un-dead’ but that didn’t mean I enjoyed derelict houses or used familiars to do my work for me. The weekends at the farmer’s market helped pay my bills.
When time was up, I began cleaning my booth and storing things away while my neighbors did the same. We swapped stories about harvesting, soil prep, and the latest news on governmental damage in relation to agriculture and the environment. We traded farewells, knowing we’d see each other the next morning, packed the last of our unsold wares into our cars and drove off.
I made sure my veggies were safely stored away at home before going about my day; buying new seeds, working home-made compost into my soil, looking up the latest in natural pesticides. I couldn’t take too long, as I only had a few hours between markets. My second booth was scheduled to be set up right after sundown, and by the time I finished my daily chores, the sun was starting to drop below the horizon. I had to hurry.
I gathered up all the leaves and stalks of my plants and worked them, getting out all the chlorophyll I could manage and dividing the results between green-tinted eight ounce glass bottles. Then I removed the fresh root clusters from the fridge and bundled them, the fraying hemp rope scratching at my fingers. The cabinets above the sink held generous supplies of coconut water, which I removed and mixed with half of the chlorophyll bottles. Gotta create a good example of each product, after all.
The last step was to make sure all my pamphlets were in order, each one printed on eco-friendly paper with biodegradable ink. They contained information regarding a plant-based alternative to blood, and explained it in more detail than I could manage in the short time I was at my booth. It was definitely better than it sounded, but most vampires wouldn’t understand why green was better if it wasn’t explained properly. I had my work cut out for me, to be sure, but I deeply believed in chlorophyrism and wanted to get the word out to as many as I could.
Packing up my nightly wares, I got back in my Hybrid and took off for the Night-Market, a farmer’s market for nocturnal-based creatures. Parking in my regular spot, I gathered my things and began down the secret forest trail leading to the bridge where the market was held. Apparently, even under the cover of darkness, our gatherings must be veiled in secrecy and subterfuge.
I set up shop like normal, putting out my pamphlets and products and ignoring the jokes at my expense. I’d been doing this long enough to know responding in kind got me nowhere. The other vendors knew my product and knew where I stood on the matter, and so long as they didn’t upturn my booth or break my stuff, I wouldn’t burn their coffins in the middle of the day.
Instead of sinking to their level, I waved to the werewolf across the bridge selling distilled Wolfsbane pills. Apparently she had managed to figure out a formula able to reverse the werewolf curse for a limited time. I’d never seen it work in person, but she had plenty of regulars. The she-wolf must have been doing something right.
The market opened. Night-creatures began to pour in from all sides. Blood-suckers bought packets from the vampire vendors. The she-wolf’s regulars padded in, panting for her antidote. There were bottled nightmares, brain samples, animal parts, and a couple of the booths even sold ‘deals’. I was never quite sure what ‘deals’ were sold, but I didn’t try to find out.
A couple of curious vampires stopped by my booth. “What’s up with this?” one of them asked while sucking on a sample packet. “Is this a joke?”
The other one leaned in and whispered, “Vampire-hippie. Walk away slowly.”
“It’s nothing like that,” I said with a forced smile, sliding one of the pamphlets across to them. “Vampirism has its place in the world, I guess, but have you ever wondered if there was a better way?”
One of them looked like she couldn’t care less, but the other peered at the pamphlet and seemed to be listening.
“I mean, sure: drinking the blood of others has sustained us for a good long while. I’m not saying it hasn’t. But the world was...different back then. Less chemicals in the blood, less preservatives in the food.” I gestured towards the shrinking blood sample, which was now leaking in the corner. “Do you know how much more monoxide is in human blood these days thanks to burning gasoline and oil, as opposed to 100 years ago?”
The packet-drinker shrugged. “Nope. But if that’s true, why not just drink animal blood?”
“They’re inhaling the same air, for one thing,” I stated. “But if we all switched to drinking animals, do you know how badly that would impact the environment? It would take years to breed enough animals for them to be a sustainable alternative for all of our kind...not to mention there’d be competition from all sides.” In answer to the sarcastically-quirked eyebrow, I gestured around to a few of the other booths. “Vampires aren’t the only ones that feed on animals.”
The one reading the pamphlet finally spoke up. “So how is this any different?” she asked. “What’s the catch?”
“Ah, that’s the best thing,” I said, holding up a small glass bottle. “There is no catch. Drinking from plants instead of people is a much more sustainable alternative; you can grow your own food, so you don’t have to worry about things like cameras and cell phones tracking your movements. There’s more than enough soil to use, either out in a garden or in a potted plant, and you don’t have to worry about soil erosion so long as you rotate and feed the plants properly. And best of all, you know exactly what’s going into your food: because you’re putting it there.” I gestured to the ever-shrinking blood packet. “Do you have any idea what kind of life your food was living? How much blood-poisoning might have happened?” I looked back to the other one. “Using plants, you don’t ever have to worry about it again.”
The two glanced at each other. The blood-sucker shrugged her shoulders. “It’s not like I’d catch any of their diseases. Plus, this sounds like a lot more work.”
But the other one had picked up a bottle and was looking it over. “It’s not any more work than hunting down human prey in this digital age,” I said. “Plus, the switch is easier than ever with our root bundles.”
The blood-sucker was looking away, her packet nearly empty. She was clearly debating if she wanted to go back to the vendor a few booths down and purchase a couple packs for the fridge. But the other one looked up at me. “Root bundles?”
I nodded. “Did you know that the legume plant has nodules that produce the exact same substance as blood?” She peered at the bundle of roots, fingering one of the small gnarled ends. I could see she was interested, but unsure what her companion would say. I nudged her a little more and told her that the movement I was a part of had a small online presence. If she wanted to give me her general whereabouts or territory, I could have a representative stop by and give her more information. She shrugged and wasn’t sure, so I suggested she take my card and come back the next night to take another look at the nodules. I offered her a small sample root bundle as compensation for her listening ear, and as a little something to snack on when she had the time.
She seemed grateful for the offer and accepted, slipping the small bundle into her coat along with my card before spinning around to join her companion. They loudly mocked the chlorophyre movement as they left, and I later spied the two buying a generous supply of packets from the vampire two booths down.
I didn’t mind. I may not have gotten a chance to tell them about the side-effects, how drinking chlorophyll was like drinking a natural sunscreen, how it converted sunlight into energy like the plants, but that was something I saved for customers showing a genuine interest. Vampires generally don’t believe that part of the deal, and I can’t blame them. The first chlorophyre I saw was met with equal cynicism, and I didn’t believe the movement until I tried it for myself. Anyway, it isn’t easy to make the switch from ‘acceptable’ to healthy, especially when clan pressure is involved. Said pressure is one of the reasons I now lived on my own.
A few more vampires came over during the night. A few more mocked my products openly or over their shoulders. Another couple passed by and stopped, familiar faces that wanted to purchase another bundle and learn more about growing their own. We talked while I gathered their order, and I found out that they prowled an alley a couple streets down from where I lived. With a smile, I offered them to stay at my place for a bit. They could learn more about growing their own food, and my house was definitely safer than the streets.
Soon the sun was on its way up, and all the booths were dismantled. I packed up what I had left and headed to my Hybrid, wondering if that couple had made their way to my house yet. I wondered if the two vampiresses from earlier in the night would come back. I loved talking to an open mind, something startling hard to find in the underworld. I got behind the wheel and drove, wondering once again what the she-wolf’s Wolfbane pills actually did for werewolves, or why they’d take an antidote in the first place.
I got back home and brought everything inside. I grabbed from my personal stash of chlorophyll, drinking it down as I laid out on the couch and enjoyed the slight tinge of rum added to the mix. It may not have had the same effect on me as it once did, but the flavor was still a nice addition. I stared at the ceiling, the full moon making silver tracks through the darkness, and contemplated the night. There was still some gardening I could do, but there was also online marketing to work on, a seminar on Essential Oils to watch, and more information to gather for the book I was planning on self-publishing later this year. One of the added benefits to being a healthy chlorophyre meant working in the day and the night, as my body no longer required sleep to function. I stared at the ceiling, sipped my drink, and wondered which of my projects to work on next.
Summary: One of his friends founds out Trevor is a vampire
WC: 1448
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The hard thing about being a modern vampire was dealing with humans. More specifically, finding ways to let them in without actually letting them in. Humans have this way of sensing when you don’t quite belong, and the best way to survive is to prove them wrong via blending in.
Unfortunately, this also means a potential increase in your actual friends trying to eat your human ones.
I walked into the kitchen with a fresh bowl of greens to find one of my houseguests about to suck on my neighbors neck. A firm yank separated the two and I shoved my neighbor away, nabbing a bottle of garlic-infused holy water and spraying my ‘houseguest’ in the face. While he recoiled and hissed I pushed my neighbor into a secluded room lined with silver.
It burned me a little bit to cross over the material, but didn’t prevent me from crossing the barrier completely; one more unexpected benefit of getting hemoglobin from plants instead of people.
I sat her down on the couch and looked her over; no skin broken on her neck. Good. Her eyes were a bit dazed, body limp, so I tried to gently bring her out of it.
“Kara?” I said her name softly, rubbing a finger against her cheek. “Are you alright?”
She broke the trance with a shudder and a spasm, arm whipping out to make contact with my face. Flames grew on the side of her face as she pulled her knees up and away from me, voice reaching epic screeching pitch as she screamed, “you’re a VAMPIRE?!?”
I took a breath along with two steps away, holding my hands up. “Calm down Ka--”
“You’re a vampire!?!” she repeated, feet on the couch. “Trevor the vampire!?? How are you a vampire, Trevor!?!”
“Who told you--”
She jabbed a finger at the door. “Your friend! Out there!! Before he tried to eat me!!!”
There was a slap as I facepalmed myself, silently cursing Tommy for spilling the beans. And breaking his diet. “Alright, look--”
“How long have you been a vampire!?” she demanded, standing on the couch. “How can you be one? You’re too nice. And vegan!! I don’t believe this. Vampires aren’t real. Tell me you’re not a vampire, Trevor! Tell me I haven’t been spending my sunday afternoons having brunch and garden parties with a vampire named Trevor!!”
“I…” I hesitated. She stared, waiting. “You want me to answer in order, or…?” An angry snort was all I got, so I assumed that was a yes. “Okay. Yes, I’m technically a vampire. But I prefer the term ‘chlorophyre’; it means I drink from plants instead of humans. I was Turned during a rave in the 90s. I’m...honestly not sure what to say about the correlation between vampires and garden parties, but…” I shrugged. “I guess you have been.”
She stared, mouth hanging open between bouts of gibbering incomplete thoughts. Kara finally scraped together some words into a sentence, sputtering, “what about him? Is his a…” she peered at me, a new thought emerging. “You haven’t been asking me around for him, have you?”
I shook my head. “Of course not! Kara--” My one venture forward was met by a flailing of limbs and backing against the wall. “Alright. I apologize for Tommy, but sometimes I offer my home to others when they’re trying to make the change from people to plants. It’s easier for them when food is right there. They can learn the ins and outs of gardening, and I can monitor how many times they hunt versus how many times they get from the fridge. Plus it’s just…” I flashed a smile, “...nice.”
She hesitated, latching onto another new idea. “...plants?”
I nodded. “Some plant roots produce what is essentially hemoglobin...mix in a bit of coconut water and you’ve really got something.”
“...so you don’t drink blood?”
I shook my head. “I don’t drink blood.”
“...and your friend?”
“Got sprayed in the face with garlic,” I answered. “He’s in the process of rehabilitation. And I’m sure he’s very sorry.” She slowly came down from the back of the couch, peering at me as she moved. I took a breath. “Now for the real question...are you going to tell anyone?”
She paused, foot dangling in the air between the couch and the floor. “Tell…?”
“Other humans.” A hesitant laugh slipped through. “Kara, you can’t tell other humans about us. About me.”
A sudden, hysterically nervous laugh burst from her. “Other humans. Right. Because you’re a vampire. That eats plants.” Another fit of laughter dropped her right onto the seat of the couch. “My neighbor’s a vampire.”
“Chlorophyre,” I corrected. “Still vegan.”
She pointed at me. “Right. My neighbor's a vegan vampire. And he houses other vegan vampires. I live next to a vegan vampire commune!!” She dissolved into giggling fits of hysteria, and I let her descend into slight madness, waiting for her to sober up. I went and got her some water from the far side of the room, bringing it to her and waiting for her to calm down long enough to drink. She sucked it dry and stared at it, finally coming back up to me.
“...so how old are you?”
Really? That’s the first question she asks? I sighed, snatching the glass back from her. “I told you, I was made back in the 90s. If you’re hoping for some juicy tidbit about 1700s France, you’re out of luck. I didn’t pay much attention in history class.”
“...was Dracula real?”
I stared at her, glass still in hand. “In the 90s, Kara. 90s. I have no idea if Dracula was real.”
“How come you didn’t react to my cross jewelry?”
“Because it was jewelry.” I held up a hand to ward off a host of other questions. “Kara, I still need to know. Are you going to keep our secret?”
A smile crawled from one end of her mouth to the other as she flashed me a huge grin. “Are you kidding?! My neighbor’s a vegan vampire!! I’ve got to tell--”
“No,” I interrupted her. “No you don’t. This isn’t a tweeny vampire novel.” Her excitement went down a tad, smile falling at the edges. “Kara, humans have been hurting and killing each other over things like skin color or which gender they find attractive. Can you imagine what they’d do to something they’ve been told to fear for centuries?”
“But...but you’re not--”
“I know I’m not. And now you know I’m not. But not everyone will know that. People will hear ‘vampire’ and immediately think ‘blood-sucking monster’. Even you, when you first found out. Granted, you found out the hard way, but still. You were ready to run. People do stupid things out of fear. You know this. It’s a battle I don’t want to fight right now...so are you willing to help me?”
“But…” she hesitated. “How many others are like you?”
“More than you’d think.”
“So there’d be enough to prove the stereotype wrong.”
“No. There’s not enough of us for that.”
“But if you don’t fight for yourself...if you keep hiding in plain sight…”
I shook my head. “Please, don’t. Not now, Kara. Believe me, I’ve had this conversation. The thoughts have gone round and round with no real answer. I’m not asking you to keep my secret forever. I’m just asking for now. Help me stay safe in today’s world, and let’s worry about the future later on.” She glanced away, thinking. She looked around. I could see her thinking through my plea, considering what I said. Putting a gentle hand on her knee, I asked again. “Kara? Are you going to tell anyone?”
Taking a breath, she put her hand over mine. “I...I guess not.” She flashed me a nervous smile. “Wouldn’t want to lose my friend. My...vampire friend.” I smiled and moved to get up, but her hand held mine down as she stared. “...You’re warm.”
“What?”
“Vampires.” She held my hand up. “I thought you guys were all supposed to be cold and clammy and stuff.”
Okay, we were gonna have to have a talk about acceptable questions. Instead, warned her away from the use of ‘you guys’ before answering and preparing her for dealing with Tommy.
Like I said, it’s not easy being a modern vampire dealing with humans. But I guess not all of them were difficult. Some humans were worthy of being let in to your life. Plus it was a little nice knowing I now had a friend, someone evidently willing to advocate for me, even if it was a little misguided. It was still...nice.
