Stream of Unconsciousness (Hypnovamp Hyperfixation Powerhours)

Y'all can still send in questions/prompts too. (Please)

 

How long do Lexis psy commands actually last on Lia? Also what up with his psy, and also the firsts? (I had one question and it had kittens, sorry)

 

As long as he wants them to; they can be indefinite, but because intent matters they'll wear off as they become irrelevant.

Lexi has fairly average psy for a vampire, he just also has his not-psy which causes some interference, which is why he needs permission that first time. It mirrors psy in the way that magic sometimes can, but operates under different rules- Lexi's just forcing it to work as psy because he doesn't know what it is or even that it exists.

I should probably name it at some point.

The First was a magical science project, and the experiment that made them the First vampire gave them a hell of a boost. They're a ridiculously strong mage, and would have even stronger psy than they already do if it weren't for the signal interference of the third thing. Their psy is just so strong that it still works as normal, except for the complete lack of finesse. They're too strong; it's like trying to do surgery with pickaxe.

I talked a little about the third thing, and the differences between it, psy, and magic here.

 

Would the bond remain intact if Lexi turned Lia? Also how would both of them feel about the idea?

 

It would, yes. Psy works a little differently between vampires, but this is something else being used like psy, so it would remain.

Lexi's response to the thought of turning Lia is


Lia's response is [thonk emoji] interrupted by Lexi's frantic "NO"

 

Kinda related to something you said earlier, do the other vampires think Lexi is keeping Lia as just a donor, or as a potential turn?

Also, a) did he ever drink from her and what would the consequences of having her be his donor be?

 

They think she's just a donor; Lexi's been pretty clear that he has zero plans to turn anyone and some wonder if he even can because of how weak his psy seems to be.

He does eventually. He tries not to too often because of how frequently she gets injured and loses blood, but public feeding is a bit of a Thing in Caelia's line and it's more of a hassle to justify not doing so than it is to just take a small amount. It's the trance that's weird for Lexi, so the only real result of drinking from Lia is that she's got a little less blood, same as anyone. Lexi would be able to feed without making a pseudo-psy connection to his donors if he was willing to drink without trancing them, but that would hurt them and he's unwilling to do so.

 

Ok this one is a bit weird for me to put into words but. During the post Spider hunt bit on the SPR, you mentioned if Deergod hadn´t happened Lia would´ve probably flopped down at Lexis feet. does she just like sitting there or is there a reason she´d be inclined to do that?

Related, what´s formal protocol for private donors/pets at gatherings look like?

 

So two resons: one is that Lia is slightly hypermobile and incapable of sitting 'properly,' so she's equally as likely to sit in a chair as she is on the floor. The other reason is that she was covered in spider gore and the thought of getting it all over his pants in what looks like a friendly gesture amused her. Private donors will sometimes sit at their patron's feet, especially if the relationship is closer to 'pet' as a reinforcement of that, but Lia only does when she's expecting trouble and then she tends to crouch instead.

This is mostly for Caelia's line, but typically they're introduced and the fact that they're protected is announced, but if a vamp is keeping someone close all night and they're not known to be one of Caelia's it's usually safe to assume. Of course, if someone isn't announced or introduced as a private donor/pet other vampires may choose to assume that they're a free donor and can do whatever they want. Also Caelia doesn't offer protection to them, that's the sole responsibility of their patron, so some vampires may take a "if the patron doesn't find out then it didn't happen" stance; private donors are typically kept at the very least in sight at a gathering so they can't be hurt and then threatened/shamed into silence to avoid retribution. Among Caelia's line sitting at their patron's feet, or in their lap, is pretty common. They'll usually get fed on during the gathering, both as a bit of a show (because of the line's trance amping up non-pain tactile response it's real easy to make getting fed on feel really good, and the line is kind of casually hypersexual) and as a display of ownership. Because there are no protections other than those granted by the patron, a vampire harming their own private donor is completely allowed, but doing so in public without reason is considered kind of gauche. (Granted, it doesn't take a good reason; punishing a pet for perceived petty slights is acceptable, if still a little tacky.)

 

More random bits on vampires:

Blood doesn't hold any power or nutrition for very long after it's been removed from the body; things like blood bags or bleeding into a cup just don't work. The most removed it can get and still feed a vampire is wound licking, and the wound has to still be open. If the blood has started to dry at all it's no good, either.

Vampires can technically eat and drink non-blood liquids, it just doesn't do anything for them. It also tastes bad. Not awful, but kind of unpleasantly bland.

 

I love people saying that Caelia's so hateable, it makes me very fuzzy

but honestly? I feel sorry for her. Caelia's line is basically a case study in the cycle of abuse.

Charilaos's line is one of the worst when it comes to treatment of humans. Iva's may kill without remorse, but that's it: they hunt, they feed, they kill. Though their trance doesn't completely kill the pain of being fed on, very few of them are interested in causing harm to their victims (other than their death, natch.) Charilaos is a vampire supremacist, and by extension so are most of his line. The ones he's turned are blessed, they're worthy of his great gift, the ones he considers turning are contingently worth something, so long as they continue to hold to his high standards. Any other mortals should consider themselves lucky to have his attention for any longer than it takes to feed. He has a long history of playing with mortals, stringing them along- sometimes with feigned affection, sometimes with promises of being turned- until they're utterly and hopelessly devoted to him. And then he kills them, and when he's particularly cruel he lets them see it coming, lets them know that he never loved them, never meant to turn them, that they never meant anything more to him than some brief (relatively, his 'games' can last years) entertainment.

So there's Caelia, an artist, talented but not up to his incredibly high standards. But she is pretty, and a little naïve, and desperate for validation both personally and toward her art. Charilaos kept her for five or six years, both as a lover and an artist under his patronage, which was unusually long for him. But she was absolutely devoted to him; everything he asked she did, even as his requests became increasingly abusive and harmful- there are rumors that she killed her sister on his word. By the time he decided to kill her it wasn't because he got bored, but because he thought telling her the truth of their relationship and then making her suffer when he killed her was Peak Comedy.

Charilaos is kind of a bastard.

At that point if he had asked her to slit her own throat she'd have asked him for a knife, so he was expecting a lot of crying and heartbreak and not a lot of fighting back. She fought anyway. Due to a series of mistakes and bad decisions he was interrupted, and Caelia managed to injure him enough to draw blood, which she ingested. It's fairly hard to turn someone accidentally; there's a very small window between ingesting a vampire's blood and dying where a person turns instead of heals, but Charilaos pushed forward and killed her the rest of the way dead instead of waiting forher to heal and the blood to leave her system, so he ended up with a baby vampire on his hands instead of her being plain ol' ordinary dead. And because she died fighting, fighting Charilaos and fighting being turned, and because of the level of betrayal involved warping her psy during the turn, she woke up strong and with her own resonance; she woke up a line founder.

Charilaos, experiencing a bad case of consequences, subsequently abandoned her; she was briefly picked up by a member of Liborio's line who taught her the basics and then set her loose.

So there's a new, very powerful vampire who spent at least five years in the mother of all abusive relationships that culminated in her attempted murder. It was her first relationship to boot, and while she should have gotten therapy she got immortality instead. And while Charilaos made it abundantly clear he never loved her, Caelia was very much in love with him.

Things Caelia learned from Charilaos: that love hurts, that manipulation and love might not be the same thing but they are intrinsically tied, and that you can do whatever you want to someone as long as they love you.

Charilaos is a bastard who knows he's playing with people and has zero actual affection for the mortals he's hurt. Caelia is, every time, convinced that she's actually in love, and that they actually love her in turn. She's a deeply, fundamentally broken person who's had nearly two thousand years of reinforcement for her behavior, because as a vampire there are very few people willing to go "wow! That's kind of fucked up! Maybe you should not!" Especially when there are vampires like Charilaos or Dionne around.

Caelia hurts people in a way that mirrors how she's been hurt, though not a direct copy. And members of her line hurt by her hurt others the way they've been hurt, and on it goes.

 

M a n
If there ever was a time where a capital n Necromancer getting involved would have been useful, or at least would have drastically reduced the number of casualities, it's this one.

 

Fucking ay

although now I'm treated to the mental image of Roman Matt-equivalent beating Charilaos over the head until he stops being a fuck

 

I mean seither that, or roman-era Geme.

Since Summoningverse vamps do not necessarily involve necros for 'internal' stuff like that. Sometimes (mostly) it's other vamps going 'cut that shit out or so help me'
And if shit is not cut out, then the Necro gets activated and then usually someone ends up regretting their bad vehaviour

 

Usually it's only either the First or the vamp's line founder who intervenes if they're inclined to, but the First does so very rarely, and not for a single vampire's actions- they intervened during the vampire kingdoms because that was a lot of vamps being fucks who needed to cut it out. And Charilaos is the line founder.

The First is also uh. A little alien, morally. They knew exactly what kind of person Char was when they turned him, so they're not inclined to stop him. They tend to turn people they think will do something interesting with immortality, regardless of morality.

 

Yeah for summoningverse, since vampires aren't 'out' to the world, there's considerable social pressure to Fucking Behave God Damn It from other vampires because nobody likes a pyre.

It can still get bad, especially in places without a strong necro or an established Vampire presence, if the first to set up shop is an asshole.
Chicago had it Real Bad because the guy more or less running the scene before Simon put a second Old Vamp on his kill tracker never got out if the blood Sport ideas of ancient rome.

 

Yeah, vamps are half out after the kingdoms; people know they exist but think there are way less of them. The First did intervene because things were looking a little torches-and-pitchforks leading up to probably-a-war, and that was an outcome they really didn't want. If anything ever gets that big again they'll likely show up to smack sense into folks again. Charilaos gets away with it because he only targets a handful of mortals at a time, tops, and spreads the killings out. He's not active on enough of a scale to make the humans worry enough to be dangerous.

 

Yeah summoningverse vamps aren't out at all outside of the people directly involved with them.
That said, Dionne herself would have gotten turbosmacked if not by a necro than by fellow vampires, and her maker would have gotten slapped as well because 'are you insane? are you out of your tiny little mind? Do you want the pitchforks back you absolute walnut?'

Charilaos might get away with it depending on power constellation where he lives and actual impact on people but chances are a bloodline like that would get smacked eventually for bad behaviour (again depending on local power constellations)

 

Considering Chars chances in hunterverse and... Signs point to "bad" unless he learns cooperation when beaten over to head with a clue by four.

Pre-Accords he´d probably be fine as long as he managed not to piss off another faction by stealing someone's novice/dinner. Post Accords he´s in breach of them and prime candidate for having a Hunt called on him for very similar reasons to summoningverse aka "Do you want to bring the pitchfork mobs down on us all?"

 

Fortunately the rest of his line are elitist assholes, but most of them don't play the same games. They're typically not nice to their donors, but they don't do the same bullshit. Charilaos is demanding towards potential turns, but he doesn't play with anyone he actually intends to turn. A lot of his line have a bad case of "notice me" but they're not messed up the way Caelia is.

He's also been a bit more careful since. He hasn't stopped being a complete ass bastard and it mostly translates as making sure his murders don't get interrupted, but he doesn't have any more fucked up sub-lines, which is. Well. Not as great as if he stopped altogether, but the world does not need a second Caelia.