Biomechanicalbastard - I Never Finish Anythi

Stuck on the idea of vampires as a kind of reverse fae, or like someone's twisted, perverse attempt at moulding humans into fae.

They're repelled by liminal spaces.

A vampire could never enter fairyland, not just because they'd never be welcomed, but because most of the usual entry-ways are naturally barred to them.

They can't cross running water. They can't be seen in mirrors. They will wait forever at a crossroads, unable to pick a direction to go in. They can't even step over a thresh-hold unless there is absolutely no ambiguity about whether they are welcome inside.

They crave human blood, iron and salt, but are repelled by herbs and plants. They are supernaturally prevented from harming you unless the rules of hospitality have been invoked.

A fairy may replace your newborn child with something unnatural and ever-hungry. A vampire will do the same, but with your grandmother's corpse.

The fae are typically associated, even in stories where they're the bad guys, with flourishing and purity. Vampires, even in stories where they're the good guys, are typically associated with decay and corruption.

The fae turn ancient human burial mounds into fancy halls for their courts. Vampires take ancient human castles and let them grow mildewed and cobwebbed, exchanging the beds for coffins, turning them into burial places.

Fae don't tend to live among humans, but can generally pass for them with relative ease if they so choose. Vampires nearly always live among humans, but tend to find not revealing themselves a huge struggle.

I can't think of many stories I've read where fae and vampires even exist in the same universe, let alone ones where they actively interact. I feel like their enmity is almost more inevitable than that between vampires and werewolves, however.

The rivalry between vampires and werewolves is, essentially, the rivalry between two apex predator species who share a territory. (Even in stories where the werewolves aren't actually hunting humans.)

The vampires hate the werewolves because the werewolves interfere with their access to prey. The werewolves hate the vampires either because they consider themselves aligned with humans (the prey species), or because they are also predators and the vampires are competing with them.

By comparison, I think there's some story potential in the fae finding something genuinely creepy and uncanny valley about vampires.

They're immortal, like them, but also dead. They can be beautiful, like them, but that beauty is something they actively require humans to sustain. They like to inhabit beautiful and ancient ex-human dwellings, like them, but they actively work to make those places dark, damp and empty.

Fairies who are unflappable in the face of all sorts of Otherworldly monsters, can look an eldritch horror in the eye(s) without blinking, and have never been phased yet by any human, but will recoil from even the weakest vampire.

Vampires who hate fairies just as much, but in a more envious way. The way that the creature for whom immortality is a curse is bound to hate the creatures for whom immortality is an eternity of sunlight and laughter.

Maybe their touches burn each other. Maybe vampires can't stand physical contact with anything so alive and vital. Maybe immortal fairies become ill from too much exposure to the undead.

Maybe they fight over the human population when their territories overlap. The fairy need for servants and people to make deals with, competing with the vampire need for thralls and blood to drink.

Just… fairies and vampires. We need more stories about them interacting.

can't today. busy.

since I FINALLY finished a proper ref of Thunderclouds, I thought it would be time to properly introduce him, so, here's this guy's lore:

Distant Thunderclouds is the fourth oldest member of the Eternal Glaciers Local Group (or, the second oldest if we only count the inner group), as he was built not long after Fading Echo was finished. The whole group was built on a tundra, but Thunderclouds specifically was built on the flatter areas as his can was built next to a large void fluid processing facility. He was created to oversee the operations at this facility as well as in his city.

For this reason, his creator, an ancient by the name of Twisted Spine, All Promises Kept (a total douchebag), wanted to make him as efficient as possible. But after the authority in charge of the creation of iterators refused to let Spine alter Thunderclouds's systems officially, Spine became frustrated that his project wasn't going according to his plan. So, instead of going through official channels to modify Thunderclouds's systems to become more efficient (efficiency basically meant a lack of empathy and free will, and the inability to commit any sins to Spine, because he was still a pretty firm believer in the old ancient philosophies and religion), he decided to do the modifications himself in secret. This, however, messed up Thunderclouds's systems pretty bad, as he had already developed the sentience that his creator didn't want him to have, and even attempting to modify it caused Thunderclouds a large amount of pain. After a while, Spine grew more frustrated about the whole situation and started taking his anger out on Thunderclouds, who, at this time, still saw Spine as a father figure, but was slowly starting to dislike not only Spine, but ancients as a whole.

Thunderclouds was also really reserved, and only spoke to most of his local group out of necessity. The only exception to this was Solemn Contemplation, the outer group's senior, who became kind of a mentor/almost a mother figure to Thunderclouds. He eventually managed to find a friend outside of his local group as well, an iterator by the name of Marble Blood, who aided him in finding ways to bypass his city's security protocols, which he would later use.

Still, his relationship with his creator only worsened, to the point where he'd be punished for simply talking to other iterators, as Spine still only cared about him as a tool, and slowly, Thunderclouds became frustrated by his situation, and grew hateful of the ancients inhabiting his city. And when a huge snowstorm disabled his communications for dozens of cycles, and he was blamed for being unable to call for assistance, he decided he had enough. He turned his city's security systems against its inhabitants, which resulted in the death of most of his can's population, including Spine. After the storm cleared, and the ancients of the other iterators' cities realized what happened, Thunderclouds was declared a hazard to the ancients, and his systems were disabled (he basically got his power shut off, causing him to go into a kind of coma).

A long time after all of this, and after the ancients all ascended, was when he finally got reactivated using a neuron that Ten Open Passages created, that he sent using a genetically modified slugcat (the icebound).

(And that's basically all his backstory, cause I don't have anything written down after that, so, that's it for now)

Gog Agog, ruler of the seven part world and bearer of the word BEAST

five pebbles checking his steam account after moon called him on discord at an inconvenient time

decided to do that one twitter meme lol

enjoy ig

I am standing here, realising

Talking to people about your characters really is a game changer. You'll start saying things about them you didn't even know you knew.