New Vampire Shit Thread! Now with 100% less bitching about

[Prak]

I'm working on writing a novel. I want my vampires to come off as vampires, at least to the majority of people, so I've been asking a lot of people what they think of various things, especially vampire characteristics.

there is no team good in this, there's the mafia like vampire Family, there are the bestial werewolves who will always try to kill vampires when they encounter them, and there are mortals who don't know about any of this.

With the set up I've planned so far, vampires just represent civilization, and werewolves nature.

I'm thinking about throwing more supernaturals in, but I'm worried about conceptual space and complexity. I've already gone through several ideas that are just way too fucking complicated (for example: entropy vampires cursed by a stasis avatar being empowered by the entropic nature of sunlight after they've become powerful enough to not die in sunlight)

So what I'm looking at adding to the supernatural society right now:

• spirit possessed (with an animistic cosmology, basically each is unique)
• magic users, everything from "wise woman of the ancient woods" to fireball slinging warlocks
• "promethians"
• transhumans

and pretty much anything other supertype that was discussed in AWoD, but there aren't subtypes, vampires are vampires, werewolves (currently) the only lycanthropes. So with two supernaturals that are "generic" and one that's a bunch of "Steve's" how much conceptual space remains for a single book?

[Neeeek]

That way people feel more for their beset-upon opponents who don't get anything for being on Team Good.

[okay, that was a bitch response.]

there isn't really a team good.

There is always a team good. Just because you don't see it, doesn't mean it isn't there.

[Prak]

how so Neeeek? I seriously don't plan on there being anyone in this book who's "good". Merely less psychotic or monstrous, maybe.

[Neeeek]

how so Neeeek? I seriously don't plan on there being anyone in this book who's "good". Merely less psychotic or monstrous, maybe.

Sorry, I was pretty drunk when I wrote that and now have no idea what I was thinking of.

[Prak]

eh, np. I suppose it's technically true in a "there will always be a team comprised of less assholish people that the audience will root for."

except that team good actually contains bigger assholes than team evil fairly regularly...

I don't know. Who's team good in the sopranos?

[Neeeek]

I don't know. Who's team good in the sopranos?

Usually it's his wife and his therapist.

[Prak]

oh, ok then. I don't know, I might add in someone trying to "change him for the better" except that trying to change a vampire for the moral better is actually bad for their, er, unhealth....

[Prak]

Ok, I've got a couple more questions for this vampire novel business, one not subjective in any way, although quite morbid, the other probably pretty damned silly, but I am looking for a collective opinion.

1-Would a tap, like those on beer casks and such, work if jammed into an artery. By work, I mean, not fall out, and give you blood on tap from the person/corpse, at least for a little while.

2-Would a vampire who carries a tap around in his pocket and uses it when attacking other vampires, so as to put diablerie on tap, be as hilariously awesome as I was first inclined to think, or just stupid?

[Cynic]

it's a little corny.

although i can see Cassidy from "Preacher" doing that shiite.

[Maxus]

Ok, I've got a couple more questions for this vampire novel business, one not subjective in any way, although quite morbid, the other probably pretty damned silly, but I am looking for a collective opinion.

1-Would a tap, like those on beer casks and such, work if jammed into an artery. By work, I mean, not fall out, and give you blood on tap from the person/corpse, at least for a little while.

2-Would a vampire who carries a tap around in his pocket and uses it when attacking other vampires, so as to put diablerie on tap, be as hilariously awesome as I was first inclined to think, or just stupid?

I remember some little vampire short story where the vampires did that just to make sharing blood easier...

No reason it should. The heart's pumping would push the blood out, so given the right design...

[Username17]

Blood only comes out of arteries because it is under pressure. It's under pressure because the heart is beating and the smooth muscles in the arterial walls contract to give a good peripheral resistance. When someone dies, the heart stops beating and the vessels stop contracting, so the blood just pools. There is, in short, no "gas" in a corpse keg, so nothing would come out.

For living folks, we actually do have taps, but they don't work how you think they work, and would be pretty fucking useless in a fight.

-Username17

[Crissa]

There's a reason we hang carcasses. A tap might be useful in that case, but what would keep the tap from leaking?

-Crissa

[Neeeek]

2-Would a vampire who carries a tap around in his pocket and uses it when attacking other vampires, so as to put diablerie on tap, be as hilariously awesome as I was first inclined to think, or just stupid?

I think it'd work as a sight gag on a show, but less so in a novel. Though I'd make it a hollowed out stake with a tap on the end.

[Prak]

Blood only comes out of arteries because it is under pressure. It's under pressure because the heart is beating and the smooth muscles in the arterial walls contract to give a good peripheral resistance. When someone dies, the heart stops beating and the vessels stop contracting, so the blood just pools. There is, in short, no "gas" in a corpse keg, so nothing would come out.

For living folks, we actually do have taps, but they don't work how you think they work, and would be pretty fucking useless in a fight.

-Username17

What about just a gravity fed spigot?

It's been long enough since the idea popped into my head that it's lost it's hype to my mind, but if I can have a character do it once for the sheer bizarreness, and as a statement about that character's personality, I'd like to.

I'm now working on how to explain and create an ancient vampire cult that died out but knew the origin of vampires, but is somehow unknown to vampires and humans. It's... kind of a difficult thing to do...

oh, also, Frank, or anyone else that knows, what are the definitive signs in medicine that a patient is alive, and how many must be met? I figure I should figure out whether medicine would consider my vampires alive or not, even though I know that science almost assuredly would (growth is kinda questionable, but they do heal, and do so by replacing cells, since there aren't many other options, so, technically....)