Snowflake Challenge 11: Why M Loves Vampire AUs

[stardust_rifle]

One of my favorite tropes to write and read in fic is Vampire AUs (I like to joke that my fic-generating ideas are just a venn diagram of “vampire au” “omegaverse” and “trans!fic”) and I’m going to try and explain why!

- Firstly, I love putting characters under inhumane amounts of pressure to see how they react, and vampire AU is so good for this. You have to eat people or you’ll die. You’re fundamentally alienated from humanity, trapped by the sun, never aging. You’re being hunted down by an inhuman monster. You’re loved by an inhuman monster. So many different ways to put a character under pressure.

- Relatedly, I love seeing how characters would act as vampires! It’s such a wonderful tool for exploring the nuances of a character. How do they get blood? How do they navigate various vampiric weaknesses? What do they do with their time? How alienated are they from humanity?

- For verses with more fantastical worldbuilding, you can do some really creative stuff vis a vi incorporating vampires into the world. I once read a fantastic Bleach fic that did some really cool stuff with making interesting Bleachverse vampires, and I’m sure you could do similar stuff in other canons.

- And, of course, I just love blood and biting and immortality and healing factors and Weird Goth Shit!

Comments

[vendettadays]

I never thought about vampire AUs as a mechanism to put characters under inhumane amounts of pressure, but you're so right — all the things that a vampire goes through to survive is exactly that kind of pressure.

Bleachverse vampires! What a wonderful idea. I'd love to read that if you a link :D

[dandelionblizzard]

Yes yes yes! It cuts right to the morality troubles – do you eat people, and if so which people "deserve" it more? Or if you go to a blood bank, are you technically still killing someone with a rare blood type by drinking all the reserves, etc.

Also trans omega vampires FTW.

[bluapapilio]

Totally agree! (and I too would like the link to the Bleach fic if you have it)

[musyc]

And, of course, I just love blood and biting and immortality and healing factors and Weird Goth Shit!

Yesssss. That's delicious stuff right there.

[rogueslayer452]

(Here via snowflake_challenge)

I definitely love vampire AUs, which on the surface it was mostly because of the eroticism of the biting and blood-drinking and the intimacy elements attached to it, however I have seen a lot of creativity over the years of how people handle the vampire world-building in a canon that isn't of that nature. Figuring out the dynamics of the characters, is this a world where they're all vampires or does a character suddenly get turned and has to deal with the aftermath of now being one? What are the rules in this particular AU setting for vampires? Since there are plenty of variations of vampires in fiction, it can lead to some interesting paths to explore depending on how deep the AU fic goes.

[zimena]

Hi. I fell into this post via the Snowflake challenge. YES about vampire AUs. I have a whole vampire verse featuring some of my favourite snooker players in my head, but for now I've only written some meta about it, not any actual fic. It's very true about the pressure, though I've never really thought about it in those terms. I guess, for me there's also something very fascinating about them having to exist in a mostly human world without being noticed - that's its own kind of tension, too. Anyway, glad to see another person into the most sensual creatures of the night. Happy New Year and happy snowflake challenge.

[stardust_rifle]

I also love that idea of that pressure, coming up with ways these characters would exist in such a situation and how to deal with it (so much characterization potential)