App for realityshifted
Character: Aurore Molière
Series: I’ve Lost a Goddess
Deviance: 1
Age: 76 ; looks 24
Gender: Female
Species: Vampire, ex-human.
Appearance: http://feedessylphes.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/louise_monot_21.jpg
And, besides the picture, I feel that it is important to note Aurore’s sense of fashion here; since it is very important to her character in a faintly odd way. Aurore is almost always immaculately dressed, made up and otherwise styled. It is rare for her to have a hair out of place - it is usually neatly tied back or done in the style of the time. It is also always about shoulder height; rarely shorter, never longer. This is because hair is very hard to grow back and actually can’t grow beyond the length it was at death. Thus her hair is very important to her, and very carefully tended.
Her make-up is also very important to her. To the point where she’ll do it several times just to get it right. Aurore will never show up on the Plane unless her make-up is absolutely perfect. And she tends to go the whole hog too: eyeliner, eye shadow, blusher, lipstick… Basically she’ll never be seen without make-up, ever.
Her clothes are, as stated above, perhaps the most important part of her general look. She tends to wear mainly designer brands, things of quality. Her style could probably be best described as vaguely retro: she usually looks like she just wandered through a time-hole from the fifties most of the time. This doesn’t mean that she acts like she’s from the fifties, but she certainly looks like she longs for it still and all that jazz.
Oh, and she also always wears fabulous shoes. For fabulous shoes are important.
Psychology: The first thing that you have to notice about Aurore is that she’s very determined. As in: extremely determined, as in could hold on longer than a bulldog if the desire took her. She is not the type to give in easily, she is not the type to ever back down no matter what is at risk. She tends to cling to her beliefs, cling to her motivations and if anybody can get her to back down it pretty much means that they’re the most important person in the universe to her.
This manifests itself most clearly in her attitude towards fashion. As stated above, in the appearance section, Aurore makes a point of always looking perfectly put together. Never a hair out of place, never a bit of make-up put on wrong. This perfection is also a testament to her drive: sometimes she does her make-up three times a night before she considers it perfect and acceptable to go out wearing. She’ll even rope her sire, or other friends as time progresses, in to watch her put on make-up and tell her if it looks good. That’s how committed she is.
This perfection is also a statement about her attitude to the outside world. Let us first start with her ex-boyfriend/murderer: the one responsible for her near-death and transformation into a vampire. Part of the reason that he murdered her was because she was rather a spoilt airhead in life, inclined to care more about clothes than “Important” matters. As such he made sure to leave her in a mess after he almost killed her, her fondness for fashion ripped to shreds around her. Thus her current obsession with perfection is a strike against him: he didn’t ruin her fondness for pretty things, he didn’t end her love for the faintly irrelevant. Her fondness for fashion is basically a finger stuck up in his direction.
But her fondness for fashion is also a finger stuck up at the world. Aurore is now a little more world wise than she once was, a little more inclined to pay attention to society beyond her sphere. Thus she is well aware that some people consider fashion a childish pursuit, or one only frequented by airheads. Thus her obsession is also a strike against the world: a way to show that she’s moved beyond the stupidity of earlier years but is still herself and isn’t going to change any time soon.
One might think that this not only speaks about the depths of Aurore’s determination but also about the less savoury elements of her personality. And that would also be true! Except it does just speak about the less savoury elements of her personality, it speaks about most elements of her personality.
First: let’s start with the positives. Aurore doesn’t care what the world thinks about her, her obsession with fashion is for her and nobody else. She tends to laugh other peoples’ opinions off, or ignore them if they’re being uncharitable about her. Most things seem to be like water off a duck’s back to her: not worth really worrying about.
This leads, also, to a sort of intelligence. Since she’s no longer really in the habit of getting insulted by opinions she can now pay attention to the world in a greater amount of depth. Thus she’s very up on current events, and can usually discuss what’s happening in the world in great detail. Granted, she tends to pay most attention to matters of fashion or what’s going on in the world of style. But she also has a strong knowledge of politics, music and important world events.
Aurore also possesses a certain kind of curiosity. She is no Pandora, creaking open a forbidden box to find out what lurked inside, or cat, to die peering under a bus, but she does possess some desire to learn about the world around her. And will often try to ask the right questions to improve her understanding.
This also lends itself to an appreciation of culture beyond fashion. Aurore came from a rich family before her death and so had a fair few (though not that many, during the Second World War) opportunities to experience the high life, a style also aided by becoming a gangster’s mistress. But she never really appreciated such things until she almost died and became a vampire. These days her style runs to a very high standard, with a strong preference for classical music and classical operas of a dramatic variety.
…This taste, however, does not really extend to literature. Fashion magazines all the way, baby!
Whether this sophistication lends itself to a sense of humour, however, is debatable. Aurore is not really the type to laugh at prat-falls or impressions lacking malice. She does, however, definitely have a sense of humour - but it is very dry and more inclined to manifest in pointed comments or dry quips. Aurore is sarcastic all the time, it’s something that she can’t help (and doesn’t really wish to.)
The sarcasm probably links back into the same routes as the fashion. She’s being wry for her own motivations and the world can just deal with it. This is good, as she’s rather self confidant and unlikely to collapse into a streaming pile of tears when somebody doesn’t appreciate her sense of humour, but it can also lead to bad things…
The thing is, quite frankly, that Aurore is not a nice person and feels no need to act like one. Her sarcasm is almost always cruel, almost always used to point out the failings of others. And even when her cruelty is pointed out to her she usually won’t care.
This is probably because she’s arrogant, extremely arrogant. Aurore is very self-possessed, usually a good thing, but she tends to take it too far. There is only one other person with an opinion that matters and everybody else is automatically wrong if they oppose her, even if they do have valid criticisms. Her inability to listen to pretty much everybody is certainly a flaw.
It can also lead to her being quite patronising to people. A arrogance born of both her age, seventy six and quite proud of it, and her disregard for others. Even if they’re bound to have more intelligence than her, if they’ve been travelling around the universe for a thousand years to give a example, she’ll still probably be fairly condescending if they disagree with her. Certainly not a nice trait even if it does speak of her determination.
Aurore could definitely be said to have a certain lack of empathy. She can be insensitive, dismissive and often downright cruel when her opinion is challenged. She could also be said to be very proud: and this is supported by the fact that she considers her opinion to always be the right one, even when she has clearly been shown that she’s wrong. She’ll also often be insulting and quite catty when dismissing challenges to her world-view, thus also making her selfish.
This selfish nature, however, could also provide some excuse for her behaviour. Aurore has always been very self-centred, from practically the moment of conception, and so her actions are often simply selfish instead of malicious. Often, even these days, she doesn’t seem to notice that other people have feelings too and that those feelings should be respected. So she doesn’t really act out of cruelty, she often acts mainly out of a certain selfishness that still dictates that she’s the most important creature in the universe and all others should bow down to her. She’s improved a lot, thank god, but it’s still there.
Another thing that plays a part is the fact that she feels a certain separation from society, a feeling that is faintly understandable considering what she is. Aurore doesn’t really experience things as humans do. She can’t taste anything, be it wine or food, besides blood and most feelings that’d be reasonably intense to a human are faint prickles to her. This makes it faintly awkward in human society, since when there are discussions about great food or amazing drink Aurore can only sit there and look vaguely awkward. She still drinks wine, of course, but she can’t really taste anything - and this, despite her general stance on other people, occasionally makes her rather bitter.
Not to mention the other thing in society that makes her rather bitter. Yes, that’s right - it can’t really be avoided. Modern society is absolutely obsessed with sex and various subjects within it, which is a rather awkward proposition for a vampire. Aurore can technically have sex, she’s still got the right physicality for it after all, but she can’t really feel anything. What’d be utter ecstasy for a human is a mild tickle for her, and thus not really worth her time. She’s a lot less bitter about it now than when she was first turned (going from being a very sexual creature to only being vaguely sensual is not fun) but she still gets a bit grumpy about it sometimes.
This has also affected her attitude to relationships. Before she was turned Aurore was one of those people who went into every acquaintance with a man with the expectation of a relationship at the end of it. Now she has mellowed a great deal, to the point where, if a person is really interested in her, a desire for a relationship usually has to be pointed out to her several times. In mile high letters. Possibly with a marching band.
This separation, however, (and the grumpiness that often attends it) does not affect her appreciation of her vampire-state. Aurore is not the type to sit around angsting about her life is so hard ‘cause she has to drink blood and have a perfect complexion and be dead, WOE. Not being able to tan at all is a bit of a drag, yes, but she recognizes that being able to stay young forever, heal from most injuries and dart around at the speed of light are all pretty awesome abilities. And so she’s unlikely to sob about them.
And this definitely links back to her determination. Being a vampire could’ve been a terrible experience, one filled with the angsting usually attending teen melodramas about a leprechaun or something. But it wasn’t: and that’s because Aurore, above all else, is very determined. She has a urge to survive; she fought her way back from being stabbed in the stomach and has experienced a few moments of hardship since then. She is unlikely to ever fall over and die, and that is the true driving force of her personality. Human or vampire.
…Even if being a vampire does affect her to a certain extent, to the point where she sometimes seems more monster than human and more likely to rip out your throat than give you a smirk. But she covers it well, better than some vampires, and what happens when she does lose control is unfortunately common to all vampires.
Other Skills/Abilities: -Excellent hearing; she mainly uses this to monitor heartbeats.
-Can see for some distance; rather like a hawk.
-Increased healing ability. Will heal a lot faster than a human; big injuries (such as internal organs being ripped out) will still take about a day but her recovery time is a lot faster.)
-She’ll never age past 24, this is awesome.
-Can move at super speeds. Best compared to a cheetah - can’t be sustained over long periods but suitable for quick darts.
-Excellent climbing ability. Can scale any wall that she chooses.
-Good sense of smell. Can detect and often separate scents.
-Great balance; will never fall over no matter how hard you wobble her.
-Super strength. Sometimes hindered by the fact that she’s 5’4 and quite slim but, providing that she could take him by surprise, she could probably lift a fairly heavy man of 7’0 and throw him through a wall.
-Minor hypnotic skill. Not “You are feeling very sleepy…” but more like a snake, she can briefly look into the eyes of prey and make them freeze until she strikes.
-A ~Fabulous~ sense of style.
Other Weaknesses: -Cannot be recorded, be it by camera or video. Considering that she once held hopes of being an actress this is quite a bummer.
-Has to concentrate really hard to see an image of herself in the mirror. Which is, again, kind of a hindrance when you love fashion as much as she does.
-Will die in sunlight. Won’t stand around for a few hours rhapsodising on life, won’t be saved by a magic ring and certainly won’t sparkle like she has the skin of a fail!killer. Nope, the moment that sunlight touches her she’ll crumble into ash. Wooteh.
-Repelled by religious imagery. Feels an acute sort of pain whenever she goes near a cross; and does not just extend to crosses - she feels a distinct aversion to rosary beads, the image of the buddha and the Qur’an too.-Finds it heavy going to cross water. Can still do it but will usually need a nice lie-down afterwards.
-Needs to drink blood at least once every three days or she goes into “monster mode,” a state where she’s more animal than human and will do anything to get blood.
--In “monster mode” she can’t speak, will attack anybody for a drink, doesn’t recognize any friends or acquaintances and won’t remember anything that she did when she wakes up. It’s a fun state to be in.
-Has a severe aversion to garlic. The effect can be compared to a peanut allergy; her throat will swell up and she’ll be severely affected for several hours after.
-Apart from the hypnotism thing she has no ~special psychic powers~. Her mind is a blank wall to others, they can’t penetrate it, but it goes the other way too - she can’t hear thoughts or connect with people on a metaphysical level.
-She’s severely slowed down by wood. A splinter in the palm won’t kill her, but it will make her act like she’s a bit drunk.
-She feels in a different way to humans; and, no, I’m not talking ~emotional babble~. What’d severely pain a human, like spilling a kettle full of boiling water all over their arm, is simply a faint prickle for her. Most feelings seem muted in Aurore world.
-This also extends to eating and drinking. Apart from blood Aurore can’t really taste anything; it all seems a bit like ash or wet cardboard to her. (This, however, doesn’t stop her from drinking wine - Wine is awesome.)
-She’ll die if you stick a stake in her heart. This is totally something that only happens to vampires, yep.
-She’ll also die if you cut her head off and fill it with garlic. This is also something that only happens to vampires; a human would shake that right off.
History: Once upon a time…
Actually, Aurore’s history has nothing to do with a fairytale. It just adds a sense of gravitas and style to begin a history like that, and Aurore has always been fond of style.
Aurore Marie Molière came into existence on the 24th of January, 1935 in a hospital in the middle of Paris. Her father was a businessman, a big name and quite a wealthy guy. Her mother was… A mother, Aurore doesn’t really remember her mother. Her father was rich and fickle and didn’t tend to keep his trophy wives around for long, the birth of his precious baby girl was no reason to stop that trend.
From the very first moments of her life Aurore was swaddled in luxury, kept from the outside world and raised to be rather a spoilt brat. She was an only child, from three wives at that point, and so was doted on to a great degree; even when, at one year old, her mother was divorced and packed off to Italy. She got everything she ever wanted; and, in time, she wanted everything.
Even the Second World War didn’t touch her much, as far as that was possible. Her father lost a lot of money, of course, and terrified adults surrounded her in those years. But there Aurore’s youth and general selfishness saved her. She was five years old when Germany invaded, ten years old when the war ended. She was an innocent, and self absorbed, child - the full horrors of the war didn’t really touch her.
The darkness that descended after the war didn’t really touch her either; her father had lost a lot of money, of course, but he never let any of that loss touch his precious little darling. They simply moved to a slightly less expansive apartment (one that made her wrinkle her nose and cry at first,) hired a slightly less expensive nanny and went on with life. Untouched, unseeing - utterly selfish as she always was.
It took until seventeen before anything changed.
By seventeen the sheltered lifestyle that Aurore had led was starting to show its unsavoury hand. Aurore was bored, bratty, a airhead that even the ladies of the French court would’ve rolled their eyes at. She was obsessed with fashion, obsessed with men and showed little interest in the world outside her expensive treats and gifts. By that point it was 1952, and the world was slowly starting to heal.
One day, weak to his brat’s daughter’s insistent demands Aurore’s father consented to letting her see the world outside, and from that day she was hooked. A thousand shops, a thousand shoes, a thousand dresses… Immediately she embarked on an orgy of spending that would’ve horrified any right thinking person and that did horrify the finances of Aurore’s father. Within half a year he had to politely, ever so politely with his pockets weeping, request that Aurore please stop spending so much.
And this drove Aurore onto other folk to provide her money.
Her neighbourhood, in those days, was a well to do one. But like any neighbourhood, in those and these days, it had a local gang - a group of boys who liked to think themselves tough but who actually were just nice-dressed men who hung out on corners, had nice jobs during the day and were easy prey. These young men had seen Aurore, like a princess in a tower, and fancied her for years. So when Aurore arrived on their corner, offering her services as a girlfriend for a bit of cash… Well, they leapt at the chance.
And so, in seven years, Aurore had many boyfriends. She never loved any of them, though she slept with most of them - sex to her had absolutely nothing to do with love in those days, but she found them very useful for keeping her in the luxury to which she was accustomed. She had a thousand furs, a thousand silks, a thousand pretty things to wrap around her… And so she was happy, content in emotional manipulation for the gaining of wealth.
And her father, oddly enough, was fairly happy too. Without the strain of his daughter’s desires his business was doing well again, and with the aid of a fairly frugal trophy (one a lot smarter than both him and his usual type) he was finally starting to get rich again. Thus his daughter’s excesses didn’t worry him; he remembered what it was like to be young, he would let her get to twenty five and then would gracefully steer her towards a nice heir who would bolster his fortunes again, no harm done…
If the plan had been stuck to.
You see, although the gang was mainly made up of boys who would stop when the going got too hard there would always be the odd truly ambitious one. And, as it turned out, his truly terrifying older sister. Aurore moved onto Philippe Albéniz at 23, a year later she was left almost murdered in the street with her stomach cut open.
Camille Albéniz was an ambitious and extremely cold woman, you see. Dark, sophisticated and three years older than Aurore she realized that she could manipulate her brother to gain a true foothold in the world of crime. Within a year, she calculated quite coldly, she could be the head of crime for the whole of France with nobody daring to stop her, nobody even trying.
…The only problem was Aurore, pretty and vacuous. Who had secured Camille’s brother as her latest conquest and seemed determined to lure him away from the proper, emotionless way of living.
So Camille took steps, big and vicious steps. She played on her brother’s ambition, his desire to go beyond his boring life, and so convinced him that Aurore would be a drag, a useless waste of space. ‘Kill her,’ she nodded, and placed the blade in his hand, ‘it’s not like she’s worth anything, dear brother, and she’s already taken so much…’
He dallied for only a month after Camille put the idea into his head; on a cold night in October, on the way back from a stylish performance, he took Aurore into a alley and ripped her stomach out; then left her to bleed on the dirty floor with her expensive, wasteful clothes spread all around her. The year was 1959, she was only twenty four years old.
And that was when life begun for Aurore.
You see, Aurore had never noticed many things due to her narrow, selfish view. And one of those things, of course, was the world beyond the human world. The coven of witches that existed just below her nose in the middle of Paris, the werewolves that howled in the night in rural areas, the ghouls that idled in isolated houses, the vampires that roamed the world…
Sofia was a hundred years older than Aurore, an ex-servant girl who had been turned in Italy and had been wandering the world ever since. She came across Aurore, moments from death, almost stepped in a pool of her blood… And, having recently fed very well, decided ‘why the hell not?’ and changed the dying Aurore into a vampire. A new sort of creature entirely.
Aurore, understandably, was a bit shocked by this.
But Sofia was sensible, if not too mothering, and so spirited the young Aurore away from confusing life in the capitol. She had a property in Versailles, a little thing gifted by a former friend, and so settled them there for several years. Teaching Aurore all that she needed to know about vampire life, teaching her a bit of what she needed to know about life.
And Aurore, stunned and disgruntled and knowing very well that she was supposed to act the innocent victim and sob a bit, lapped it happily up and set about maturing into a new personality.
By 1963 she managed to convince Sofia that life outside would be a bit of a ball; and so they departed - travelling around Europe by night, experiencing sophistication, culture and an awful lot of blood wherever they chose to go. They saw Milan, Gothenburg, Venice, a few days of Rome in the dead of winter…
And, along the way, they had adventures.
A mad werewolf attacked them when they were crossing back into France in 1973. Despite all books, and there are a lot of books, vampires and werewolves have no particular aversion to each other - but this one was practically rabid. It went for Sofia’s arm, got her hand and was eventually fired full of silver by a fast (and oddly) thinking Aurore. Borrowing a gun from a nearby farmer somewhat acquainted with such problems.
They found a vampire hunter in Paris in 1980; a bearded man with no empathy and a pathetic desire for glory and women at any cost. Aurore tried to drain him dry, found his blood disgusting due to drugs, and in the end watched Sofia kick him off a building. They had to stay out of Paris for a few years after that.
She was captured by an amateur group of witches on the way to Denmark in 1988. They tied her to a chair for two days and chanted several rather puzzling verses of magic at her without any effect. Luckily a British witch, Cordelia Delainy, arrived before she could go into monster!mode. She freed Aurore and allowed her to drink from a servant that’d been accompanying her. Aurore has been well-disposed to the Delainy family ever since.
She did go into monster mode in the wilds of Russia (a brief, and only, trip) in early 1999; Sofia found her a few days later - confused and covered in blood and snow. Aurore’s still not sure what happened there, and Sofia certainly isn’t telling her.
But that was twelve years ago. And it is now 2011 for Aurore and she has been a vampire for fifty two years. There have been some events, as there are in any life, but otherwise her existence has been fairly peaceful, fairly lovely…
But there’s something rumbling on the horizon.
Reality Description: Aurore comes to the plane from Paris in mid-February 2011. Her world is a perfectly ordinary world; with no creatures, no murderers, no things that go bump in the night and certainly no supernatural business. Nope, nothing to see there!
…Oops.
Okay, so on the surface Aurore’s world looks like a perfectly normal, perfectly modern world. At the time she comes from it is mid-February, twilight in Paris, France. Her world has all the modern conveniences: hospitals, lightbulbs and I-pods roaming the streets ready to pull the casual commuter into a world of bliss. It also had all the events that are known in history, even if Aurore didn’t really participate in most of them: The Second World War, Vietnam, the Berlin Wall… All of that. In fact, on the surface, it resembles our earth exactly.
It’s under the surface that things start to get interesting.
Basically there are four main types of supernatural creature that I’m going to describe, the main ones that Aurore will come into contact with: These are ghouls, Witches, Werewolves and, of course, Vampires.
…Let’s start with the vampires, for perfectly obvious reasons. Vampires are, in Aurore’s world, the most decidedly solitary of the supernatural creatures. They’re like cats, or all cats besides lions, they prefer their own company. It is possible to see them travelling around in twos (as Aurore does with Sofia) or even threes but beyond that they don’t really gather and tend to get quite ratty when they do.
Vampires also travel an awful lot. They aren’t, unlike most ghouls and a few werewolves, territorial beings at all. They slip from city to city, country to country with little attachment to any. Most develop a certain fondness for certain cities, as Aurore has for Paris and Milan, but they don’t go in for owning much property. It’d tie them down after all, and they want to leave as small a trail as possible.
Part of this aversion to forming a trail comes from a very logical reason: vampires need to feed. The famous food for a vampire is the blood of a human and, well… the vampires on Aurore’s world certainly don’t walk around sipping tomato juice. They also don’t tend to go for the blood of animals; an occasional sip won’t hurt them, though it tastes horrible, but a regular diet would just damage the digestive system and cause a vampire severe pain. Vampires on Aurore’s world need human blood, there’s no vegetarian option to be seen.
Luckily vampires don’t always kill when they feed, since that’d definitely be difficult to cover up, but they do usually take enough for the victim to feel woozy for about a week. They have fangs, sharp fangs, and they use those to open a cut and draw out enough blood to satisfy their hunger. They all also have superb abilities at finding veins, they hear them quite simply.
All vampires, or any who have a speck of culture in them, tend to hypnotise their prey before biting in. The method is rather similar to that of some snakes - it requires no words, no ticking pendulum. A vampire like Aurore just has to stare her prey deeply in the eyes and soon they’ll be falling into her grasp.
This leads into the fact that most people aren’t entirely informed that they’re being fed on; Aurore would, for example, be quite unused to asking permission for a feeding, she would either hypnotise a person or try to catch them in a faintly altered state. This, luckily, has become a lot easier with the onset of modern club culture - people tend to think a lot less about snuggling up with a stranger in a corner these days, and that’s where vampires tend to get most of their prey.
Oh, and while vampires don’t usually kill while they’re feeding they’re unlikely to angst too much if they do accidentally go too far, they’re also very unlikely to leave their victim sprawled out with puncture marks on their neck. If a person dies in a feeding then they are quickly covered up; no harm done, no angst spared. Simple.
This links into the fact that vampires don’t loose their heads and go absolutely insane when they’re turned; in fact they generally have a tendency to become a far calmer person. Vampires are faintly animalistic underneath, its true, but they keep their intelligence, keep their shapes and the thought of becoming a blood crazed beast is laughable to most of them. (But, again for most of them, in a faintly scary way - sometimes the description of being a beast is too close to the bone.)
Despite keeping their shape and general intelligence vampires are certainly not normal creatures, and they have powers beyond them. A vampire like Aurore can hear really, really well. To the point where, if they concentrate, they can hear heartbeats and the blood in veins. This sharpened hearing is usually only used to focus on blood, but it is still important to note.
Another thing that it’s important to note is the increased sense of smell. This, again, is mainly used to sniff out blood and easy prey. But it is also very delicate: able to pick out one person’s blood and track it even if several other people decide to bleed everywhere. This sense of smell is also very hard to confuse, and only scented herbs (and garlic) have been known to manage it.
One final thing on increased senses is sight. On a clear day Aurore can see for miles; in fact a vampire’s sight can be compared to that of a hawk. They can see for great distances and can focus in on individual prey if they need to.
Another good thing about being a vampire is the increased healing ability. This isn’t quite as simple as “break a leg; leg snaps back within an instant” but it is still pretty useful. Tiny cuts will heal within seconds, big cuts within minutes, fractures within hours, big broken bones (such as thigh or arm) within days. The longest time that a vampire has taken to heal is a week, and that was because most of his internal organs were torn out.
Vampires also have increased climbing ability. Remember that scene in “Dracula” where he effortlessly scales the wall? Yeah, Aurore can do that too. No matter how high or how precarious the surface she’ll probably be able to climb it. Vampires are the cats of the supernatural world, able to scale everything and leave people going “wut” as they appear from absolutely nowhere.
Aurore can also move at a super fast speed for brief distances, a skill best compared to a cheetah. Her speed is not something that can be sustained for hours on end, she’d tire eventually and need a lot of blood, but over short distances she could beat any sprinter. This is a skill most used for pouncing on reluctant prey, and so is a little less polished than some of her other skills.
Another “super” for Aurore is her strength. In Aurore’s case it can be limited, due to her general size and shape, but if a vampire was a male in the prime of life he could easily take on a whole gang without breaking a sweat. Even a vampire like Aurore has some skill at pinning down folk a awful lot bigger than her. Give her some preparation and she can often show a quite alarming sort of strength.
For all a vampire’s strengths, however, there are also weaknesses and mild inconveniences. Aurore’s type of vampire can never be caught on any type of film; be it casual camera or TV camera. An awful lot of vampires have held aspirations of being great actors, an awful lot of vampires have failed.
It’s also hard, but not impossible, for a vampire to see themselves in a mirror. It takes an awful lot of determination and draining concentration to do so, and even then the image is always wavy and not entirely clear.
As expected all vampires are repelled by religious imagery, but not just Christian imagery. A Qur’an is just as likely to drive back as a bible and no vampire can enter a church; the amount of belief in such institutions sends them scuttling to the hills at the speed of light.
Linked into this, and also as expected, is the problem with crossing water. Now, let’s be clear here: vampires can cross water; there is no block against it, there is no special magic that stops them. But crossing water is also an arduous process that requires a good rest to follow it. Vampires will not die, vampires will not burst into flame… But they tend to avoid crossing water whenever they can.
Another severe aversion is the aversion that vampires experience to garlic. It won’t instantly kill them, again, but the effect can be compared to that of a peanut allergy - if any Garlic is consumed the throat will puff up and the vampire will turn red. Not fun and not something to be courted.
Also not to be courted is wood. As expected a stake through the heart will kill a vampire, it will kill anybody, but bits of wood elsewhere will also strongly inconvenience them. If a vampire has wood in their body, even a tiny sliver, they will be slowed and a little befuddled. It’s like the worst kind of drunkenness, for vampires - the point where everything has stopped being fun and you really just want to go home and sleep for a while.
Which is a pity, really, since vampires can’t get drunk in any other way. They can’t really taste any food besides blood, or any drink. Everything basically tastes faintly ashen to them - as if their nose has become so attuned to blood that all other food has stopped being important.
This also applies, to an extent, to feelings. What’d be agony for a human is a faint prickle for a vampire. They don’t feel in the same way that humans do; which can, on occasion, make humanity seem faintly annoying.
One final weakness, and one pretty damn obvious weakness if I’m going to be honest here, is sunlight. Vampires cannot stand sunlight, and it isn’t because they don’t want a tan. If a vampire from Aurore’s world stupidly walks into sunlight then they won’t sparkle, they won’t stand it for a few hours. If a vampire from Aurore’s world walks into sunlight they will die. No ifs, no buts - just instant ash and several tutting spectators.
Now, I’m almost done with the vampire section. But there are still two fairly important bits to note.
Vampires on Aurore’s world have no particular psychic ability to speak of. Their mind is a brick wall, yes, which can’t be broken or slipped into. But it works both ways - Aurore’s type of vampires cannot communicate with their minds, it’s a pity but it’s something that definitely won’t change.
The Monster!mode. Or, to be more technical: what happens when a vampire from Aurore’s world goes too long (about three days) without blood. Basically, as has already been established, vampires from Aurore’s world need human blood: and if they go too long without it then they turn into animals.
The thing is that vampires from Aurore’s world do have a beast within them, and if you starve that beast… Well, it surges back with full hunger. In monster!mode Aurore’s type of vampire have no control over themselves: they don’t remember people, they don’t remember friends and they’ll rip apart anybody to get a taste of blood. In this state they’re also a lot stronger, since their powers aren’t being moderated at all, and generally don’t have control of themselves.
Oh, and they also won’t remember what they’ve done when they surface from it. All they’ll have is a vague sense of guilt and a lot of blood, it’ll be left to other people to explain what exactly they did and how horrifying it was.
…It should be noted here, however, that this is a very rare state. As in “once in a century if then.” It takes severe circumstances for such a level of hunger to be reached. And when it is the repercussions will always be vast.
Now! With that babble on vampires done (seriously, four whole pages on word: what on earth) let’s get onto the others! Witches are probably the next most important creature and they play a large part in the politics of the world.
Basically witches are the acceptable face of the supernatural, being entirely human and slightly more capable of acting like functioning creatures. There’s a main coven in every country and, depending on the size (E.G. America, Australia, Russia…) several sub-covens dotted around. Most are ran by females, and most members are female, but being a witch is not restricted to them. Considering that, if you have magical ability, you can hardly repress it that’d be kinda stupid. And witches are very smug about being smart, thank you very much.
Their practices tend more towards the wise woman face of witching, more concerned with herbs and ancient chants than big bits of flash. The general demeanour of the wise woman, however, varies from country to country - some choose to go the more “daughters of the earth” route while others (looking at the London coven here) have turned their beady eyes to business.
The London Coven are probably the most important ones to Aurore and so shall be focused on here. Priding themselves as “the great start of witchcraft” (though, really, it started long before several people decided to colonize a series of rather cold rocks) they’ve turned to the more businesslike side of witchcraft. Marketing themselves to those in the know as general handywo/men, ready to take on most magical jobs and do them well. Their leader/Crone (though she hates that term) is Cordelia Delainy, a powerful witch that once saved Aurore’s life. She’s the one responsible for most of the marketing and is also damned fierce, Do not mess with her or she shall cut you and feed you to the crows.
Now, the witches (and, in particular, the London coven) are also important for one other thing - their goddess, Hekate.
The common image of Hekate is a maiden with odd eyes, a little scary but nothing to be truly terrified about. The reality of Hekate is a very different proposition: a terrifying creature, ever shifting, with her own motivations and her own drives. In one moment she can have three thousand heads, fourteen thousand eyes and can speak with a million voices. She’s terrifying, she’s powerful, she’s faintly immoral…
And, thanks to the witches, she’s safely locked away. About a thousand years ago, back when everybody was called Harold, a witch from every coven gathered and locked her away in an unbreakable prison. Her power was too terrifying, they reasoned, so it’s best to keep an eye on her. Due to the honour of this achievement the unbreakable prison is moved to a new location every fifty years (E.G. 1900, 1950, 2000) And guarded fiercely by the host coven. Currently it’s in London, perfectly safe…
Or not, since a young witch took pity on the goddess and decided to release her. Now Hekate is on the loose and the young witch is desperately searching for her and hoping that it takes a while for the coven to realize. Aurore doesn’t realize this yet, but soon…
Well, the drama has already been hinted at! So let’s move onto the werewolves instead, a quite fascinating breed who are, of course, wolves half the time.
The werewolves have a certain reputation, in both human and supernatural circles, for being beastly, uncontrolled monsters who desire only to feast and live in giant, faintly incestuous packs. And, true - there are rumours of some packs lurking in mountain areas, feasting off goats (and the occasional human) and being generally horrible. And it is also true that they have to transform into a werewolf every full moon, and can be quite touchy when they do so…
But the werewolves are really a lot more cultured than most give them credit for. There is a loud minority, there always is, who ruin things for the rest. But most werewolves are just ordinary people who have a fondness for meat and a need to turn into a wolf at least once a month. They can be a bit hungry, yes, but they’re not evil and most of them certainly aren’t stupid.
In fact, even in wolf form they tend to keep their intelligence. They can get a bit snappy, yes, but wouldn’t you get a bit snappy if you were forced to turn into a wolf? Overall they are lovely people, who tend to hold quite important jobs in society and occasionally disappear for a long weekend.
…Oh, and most tend to stick a finger up at the moon as they pass it. But that’s really fairly understandable.
Now, finally onto ghouls… Nobody really knows much about them but it’s worth putting here anyway.
What is known is that ghouls were once living humans; one people who lived and breathed and walked and… Tended to be quite large characters, if everybody is being perfectly honest. A ghoul is an intensified version of a ghost (merely the remaining images of the living on Aurore’s world) and tends to play that to their advantage. Quite a few become poltergeists, a few of the less imaginative ones go for the whole stair trick, a few really enterprising ones stretch themselves over several castles and make a good job of scaring unsuspecting guards.
Most ghouls are tied to one house, and can be fairly protective of that house. It is their house and if anybody but them dares to hurt it they will die. Ghouls, for this reason, have developed a reputation as the most possessive of supernatural creatures. Though, of course, there are exceptions…
And that leads me nicely (or not so nicely, since the ghoul I’m talking about is actual several folk down on this list) to the population!
Most important is Sofia, Aurore’s sire and sort of mentor. A hundred years older than her and born as a servant in Italy Sofia is less obsessed with fashion and a lot more obsessed with politics. Generally smart and often quite boring she tends to keep people alive to lecture them about dust or something, Aurore hasn’t actually listened in several decades so she wouldn’t know.
…Seriously, though, Sofia is Aurore’s strongest link on her world and the deepest bond. She saved Aurore from death and so shall always be important, and always protected to the best of Aurore’s abilities.
And, no - there’s nothing going on between them. Aurore considers her an aunt and would be vaguely worried by the implication. A relationship? With somebody that boring? Ew!
…And now to the ones who will arrive after her intro! Since, y’know, this section will be rather short if I don’t do that.
The most important person who arrives after her intro is probably Hannah Delainy, granddaughter of Cordelia Delainy and the young witch who released Hekate. Hannah has good intentions, sweet intentions, but is one of those people who goes about them the wrong way. She’s a lovely person, to the point where she could put you off chocolate for life, but she has a general tendency of causing horrible offence to absolutely everybody. Which makes life with her a little bit awkward on occasion.
Oh, and linked into Hannah is Hekate, the goddess that Hannah freed and is now trying to hunt down. Mainly noted here to state that Aurore, being paralyzed by all things vaguely religious, is absolutely terrified of her. Which makes hunting rather interesting.
Mark Dekker is a werewolf that also gets dragged into Hannah’s quest. Sweet, earnest, young and studying to be a barrister he wants to change the world for the better. This is unfortunately faintly hindered by the fact that he turns into a wolf every month but he’s trying to battle through that. He has a tendency to lecture people on morals; a tendency that causes Aurore to be more immoral than ever.
There’s also Faustus, a ghoul haunting a house scheduled to be demolished who hops along for the ride. A lot less possessive than other ghouls, and thus a bit of an oddity, he’s mischievous and theatrical - dedicated to playing pranks on anybody in the area. Common opinion runs that he was once a actor who possibly got stabbed to death in a brawl; whether he was more than that is up to debate.
And, last but not least… there’s Camille, the main villain of the piece. Now a cold lady who hasn’t aged past her fifties (due to vampire mojo) she controls both vampire and human crime in Paris and has her eye on the Paris coven. With Hekate being released she’s decided to take her chances and convince the goddess to wreck the world. A general motivation that means she has to be stopped too.
And that’s Aurore’s world! Strange and weird but… Nah, still a bit weird. Sorry about that!
Series: I’ve Lost a Goddess
Deviance: 1
Age: 76 ; looks 24
Gender: Female
Species: Vampire, ex-human.
Appearance: http://feedessylphes.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/louise_monot_21.jpg
And, besides the picture, I feel that it is important to note Aurore’s sense of fashion here; since it is very important to her character in a faintly odd way. Aurore is almost always immaculately dressed, made up and otherwise styled. It is rare for her to have a hair out of place - it is usually neatly tied back or done in the style of the time. It is also always about shoulder height; rarely shorter, never longer. This is because hair is very hard to grow back and actually can’t grow beyond the length it was at death. Thus her hair is very important to her, and very carefully tended.
Her make-up is also very important to her. To the point where she’ll do it several times just to get it right. Aurore will never show up on the Plane unless her make-up is absolutely perfect. And she tends to go the whole hog too: eyeliner, eye shadow, blusher, lipstick… Basically she’ll never be seen without make-up, ever.
Her clothes are, as stated above, perhaps the most important part of her general look. She tends to wear mainly designer brands, things of quality. Her style could probably be best described as vaguely retro: she usually looks like she just wandered through a time-hole from the fifties most of the time. This doesn’t mean that she acts like she’s from the fifties, but she certainly looks like she longs for it still and all that jazz.
Oh, and she also always wears fabulous shoes. For fabulous shoes are important.
Psychology: The first thing that you have to notice about Aurore is that she’s very determined. As in: extremely determined, as in could hold on longer than a bulldog if the desire took her. She is not the type to give in easily, she is not the type to ever back down no matter what is at risk. She tends to cling to her beliefs, cling to her motivations and if anybody can get her to back down it pretty much means that they’re the most important person in the universe to her.
This manifests itself most clearly in her attitude towards fashion. As stated above, in the appearance section, Aurore makes a point of always looking perfectly put together. Never a hair out of place, never a bit of make-up put on wrong. This perfection is also a testament to her drive: sometimes she does her make-up three times a night before she considers it perfect and acceptable to go out wearing. She’ll even rope her sire, or other friends as time progresses, in to watch her put on make-up and tell her if it looks good. That’s how committed she is.
This perfection is also a statement about her attitude to the outside world. Let us first start with her ex-boyfriend/murderer: the one responsible for her near-death and transformation into a vampire. Part of the reason that he murdered her was because she was rather a spoilt airhead in life, inclined to care more about clothes than “Important” matters. As such he made sure to leave her in a mess after he almost killed her, her fondness for fashion ripped to shreds around her. Thus her current obsession with perfection is a strike against him: he didn’t ruin her fondness for pretty things, he didn’t end her love for the faintly irrelevant. Her fondness for fashion is basically a finger stuck up in his direction.
But her fondness for fashion is also a finger stuck up at the world. Aurore is now a little more world wise than she once was, a little more inclined to pay attention to society beyond her sphere. Thus she is well aware that some people consider fashion a childish pursuit, or one only frequented by airheads. Thus her obsession is also a strike against the world: a way to show that she’s moved beyond the stupidity of earlier years but is still herself and isn’t going to change any time soon.
One might think that this not only speaks about the depths of Aurore’s determination but also about the less savoury elements of her personality. And that would also be true! Except it does just speak about the less savoury elements of her personality, it speaks about most elements of her personality.
First: let’s start with the positives. Aurore doesn’t care what the world thinks about her, her obsession with fashion is for her and nobody else. She tends to laugh other peoples’ opinions off, or ignore them if they’re being uncharitable about her. Most things seem to be like water off a duck’s back to her: not worth really worrying about.
This leads, also, to a sort of intelligence. Since she’s no longer really in the habit of getting insulted by opinions she can now pay attention to the world in a greater amount of depth. Thus she’s very up on current events, and can usually discuss what’s happening in the world in great detail. Granted, she tends to pay most attention to matters of fashion or what’s going on in the world of style. But she also has a strong knowledge of politics, music and important world events.
Aurore also possesses a certain kind of curiosity. She is no Pandora, creaking open a forbidden box to find out what lurked inside, or cat, to die peering under a bus, but she does possess some desire to learn about the world around her. And will often try to ask the right questions to improve her understanding.
This also lends itself to an appreciation of culture beyond fashion. Aurore came from a rich family before her death and so had a fair few (though not that many, during the Second World War) opportunities to experience the high life, a style also aided by becoming a gangster’s mistress. But she never really appreciated such things until she almost died and became a vampire. These days her style runs to a very high standard, with a strong preference for classical music and classical operas of a dramatic variety.
…This taste, however, does not really extend to literature. Fashion magazines all the way, baby!
Whether this sophistication lends itself to a sense of humour, however, is debatable. Aurore is not really the type to laugh at prat-falls or impressions lacking malice. She does, however, definitely have a sense of humour - but it is very dry and more inclined to manifest in pointed comments or dry quips. Aurore is sarcastic all the time, it’s something that she can’t help (and doesn’t really wish to.)
The sarcasm probably links back into the same routes as the fashion. She’s being wry for her own motivations and the world can just deal with it. This is good, as she’s rather self confidant and unlikely to collapse into a streaming pile of tears when somebody doesn’t appreciate her sense of humour, but it can also lead to bad things…
The thing is, quite frankly, that Aurore is not a nice person and feels no need to act like one. Her sarcasm is almost always cruel, almost always used to point out the failings of others. And even when her cruelty is pointed out to her she usually won’t care.
This is probably because she’s arrogant, extremely arrogant. Aurore is very self-possessed, usually a good thing, but she tends to take it too far. There is only one other person with an opinion that matters and everybody else is automatically wrong if they oppose her, even if they do have valid criticisms. Her inability to listen to pretty much everybody is certainly a flaw.
It can also lead to her being quite patronising to people. A arrogance born of both her age, seventy six and quite proud of it, and her disregard for others. Even if they’re bound to have more intelligence than her, if they’ve been travelling around the universe for a thousand years to give a example, she’ll still probably be fairly condescending if they disagree with her. Certainly not a nice trait even if it does speak of her determination.
Aurore could definitely be said to have a certain lack of empathy. She can be insensitive, dismissive and often downright cruel when her opinion is challenged. She could also be said to be very proud: and this is supported by the fact that she considers her opinion to always be the right one, even when she has clearly been shown that she’s wrong. She’ll also often be insulting and quite catty when dismissing challenges to her world-view, thus also making her selfish.
This selfish nature, however, could also provide some excuse for her behaviour. Aurore has always been very self-centred, from practically the moment of conception, and so her actions are often simply selfish instead of malicious. Often, even these days, she doesn’t seem to notice that other people have feelings too and that those feelings should be respected. So she doesn’t really act out of cruelty, she often acts mainly out of a certain selfishness that still dictates that she’s the most important creature in the universe and all others should bow down to her. She’s improved a lot, thank god, but it’s still there.
Another thing that plays a part is the fact that she feels a certain separation from society, a feeling that is faintly understandable considering what she is. Aurore doesn’t really experience things as humans do. She can’t taste anything, be it wine or food, besides blood and most feelings that’d be reasonably intense to a human are faint prickles to her. This makes it faintly awkward in human society, since when there are discussions about great food or amazing drink Aurore can only sit there and look vaguely awkward. She still drinks wine, of course, but she can’t really taste anything - and this, despite her general stance on other people, occasionally makes her rather bitter.
Not to mention the other thing in society that makes her rather bitter. Yes, that’s right - it can’t really be avoided. Modern society is absolutely obsessed with sex and various subjects within it, which is a rather awkward proposition for a vampire. Aurore can technically have sex, she’s still got the right physicality for it after all, but she can’t really feel anything. What’d be utter ecstasy for a human is a mild tickle for her, and thus not really worth her time. She’s a lot less bitter about it now than when she was first turned (going from being a very sexual creature to only being vaguely sensual is not fun) but she still gets a bit grumpy about it sometimes.
This has also affected her attitude to relationships. Before she was turned Aurore was one of those people who went into every acquaintance with a man with the expectation of a relationship at the end of it. Now she has mellowed a great deal, to the point where, if a person is really interested in her, a desire for a relationship usually has to be pointed out to her several times. In mile high letters. Possibly with a marching band.
This separation, however, (and the grumpiness that often attends it) does not affect her appreciation of her vampire-state. Aurore is not the type to sit around angsting about her life is so hard ‘cause she has to drink blood and have a perfect complexion and be dead, WOE. Not being able to tan at all is a bit of a drag, yes, but she recognizes that being able to stay young forever, heal from most injuries and dart around at the speed of light are all pretty awesome abilities. And so she’s unlikely to sob about them.
And this definitely links back to her determination. Being a vampire could’ve been a terrible experience, one filled with the angsting usually attending teen melodramas about a leprechaun or something. But it wasn’t: and that’s because Aurore, above all else, is very determined. She has a urge to survive; she fought her way back from being stabbed in the stomach and has experienced a few moments of hardship since then. She is unlikely to ever fall over and die, and that is the true driving force of her personality. Human or vampire.
…Even if being a vampire does affect her to a certain extent, to the point where she sometimes seems more monster than human and more likely to rip out your throat than give you a smirk. But she covers it well, better than some vampires, and what happens when she does lose control is unfortunately common to all vampires.
Other Skills/Abilities: -Excellent hearing; she mainly uses this to monitor heartbeats.
-Can see for some distance; rather like a hawk.
-Increased healing ability. Will heal a lot faster than a human; big injuries (such as internal organs being ripped out) will still take about a day but her recovery time is a lot faster.)
-She’ll never age past 24, this is awesome.
-Can move at super speeds. Best compared to a cheetah - can’t be sustained over long periods but suitable for quick darts.
-Excellent climbing ability. Can scale any wall that she chooses.
-Good sense of smell. Can detect and often separate scents.
-Great balance; will never fall over no matter how hard you wobble her.
-Super strength. Sometimes hindered by the fact that she’s 5’4 and quite slim but, providing that she could take him by surprise, she could probably lift a fairly heavy man of 7’0 and throw him through a wall.
-Minor hypnotic skill. Not “You are feeling very sleepy…” but more like a snake, she can briefly look into the eyes of prey and make them freeze until she strikes.
-A ~Fabulous~ sense of style.
Other Weaknesses: -Cannot be recorded, be it by camera or video. Considering that she once held hopes of being an actress this is quite a bummer.
-Has to concentrate really hard to see an image of herself in the mirror. Which is, again, kind of a hindrance when you love fashion as much as she does.
-Will die in sunlight. Won’t stand around for a few hours rhapsodising on life, won’t be saved by a magic ring and certainly won’t sparkle like she has the skin of a fail!killer. Nope, the moment that sunlight touches her she’ll crumble into ash. Wooteh.
-Repelled by religious imagery. Feels an acute sort of pain whenever she goes near a cross; and does not just extend to crosses - she feels a distinct aversion to rosary beads, the image of the buddha and the Qur’an too.-Finds it heavy going to cross water. Can still do it but will usually need a nice lie-down afterwards.
-Needs to drink blood at least once every three days or she goes into “monster mode,” a state where she’s more animal than human and will do anything to get blood.
--In “monster mode” she can’t speak, will attack anybody for a drink, doesn’t recognize any friends or acquaintances and won’t remember anything that she did when she wakes up. It’s a fun state to be in.
-Has a severe aversion to garlic. The effect can be compared to a peanut allergy; her throat will swell up and she’ll be severely affected for several hours after.
-Apart from the hypnotism thing she has no ~special psychic powers~. Her mind is a blank wall to others, they can’t penetrate it, but it goes the other way too - she can’t hear thoughts or connect with people on a metaphysical level.
-She’s severely slowed down by wood. A splinter in the palm won’t kill her, but it will make her act like she’s a bit drunk.
-She feels in a different way to humans; and, no, I’m not talking ~emotional babble~. What’d severely pain a human, like spilling a kettle full of boiling water all over their arm, is simply a faint prickle for her. Most feelings seem muted in Aurore world.
-This also extends to eating and drinking. Apart from blood Aurore can’t really taste anything; it all seems a bit like ash or wet cardboard to her. (This, however, doesn’t stop her from drinking wine - Wine is awesome.)
-She’ll die if you stick a stake in her heart. This is totally something that only happens to vampires, yep.
-She’ll also die if you cut her head off and fill it with garlic. This is also something that only happens to vampires; a human would shake that right off.
History: Once upon a time…
Actually, Aurore’s history has nothing to do with a fairytale. It just adds a sense of gravitas and style to begin a history like that, and Aurore has always been fond of style.
Aurore Marie Molière came into existence on the 24th of January, 1935 in a hospital in the middle of Paris. Her father was a businessman, a big name and quite a wealthy guy. Her mother was… A mother, Aurore doesn’t really remember her mother. Her father was rich and fickle and didn’t tend to keep his trophy wives around for long, the birth of his precious baby girl was no reason to stop that trend.
From the very first moments of her life Aurore was swaddled in luxury, kept from the outside world and raised to be rather a spoilt brat. She was an only child, from three wives at that point, and so was doted on to a great degree; even when, at one year old, her mother was divorced and packed off to Italy. She got everything she ever wanted; and, in time, she wanted everything.
Even the Second World War didn’t touch her much, as far as that was possible. Her father lost a lot of money, of course, and terrified adults surrounded her in those years. But there Aurore’s youth and general selfishness saved her. She was five years old when Germany invaded, ten years old when the war ended. She was an innocent, and self absorbed, child - the full horrors of the war didn’t really touch her.
The darkness that descended after the war didn’t really touch her either; her father had lost a lot of money, of course, but he never let any of that loss touch his precious little darling. They simply moved to a slightly less expansive apartment (one that made her wrinkle her nose and cry at first,) hired a slightly less expensive nanny and went on with life. Untouched, unseeing - utterly selfish as she always was.
It took until seventeen before anything changed.
By seventeen the sheltered lifestyle that Aurore had led was starting to show its unsavoury hand. Aurore was bored, bratty, a airhead that even the ladies of the French court would’ve rolled their eyes at. She was obsessed with fashion, obsessed with men and showed little interest in the world outside her expensive treats and gifts. By that point it was 1952, and the world was slowly starting to heal.
One day, weak to his brat’s daughter’s insistent demands Aurore’s father consented to letting her see the world outside, and from that day she was hooked. A thousand shops, a thousand shoes, a thousand dresses… Immediately she embarked on an orgy of spending that would’ve horrified any right thinking person and that did horrify the finances of Aurore’s father. Within half a year he had to politely, ever so politely with his pockets weeping, request that Aurore please stop spending so much.
And this drove Aurore onto other folk to provide her money.
Her neighbourhood, in those days, was a well to do one. But like any neighbourhood, in those and these days, it had a local gang - a group of boys who liked to think themselves tough but who actually were just nice-dressed men who hung out on corners, had nice jobs during the day and were easy prey. These young men had seen Aurore, like a princess in a tower, and fancied her for years. So when Aurore arrived on their corner, offering her services as a girlfriend for a bit of cash… Well, they leapt at the chance.
And so, in seven years, Aurore had many boyfriends. She never loved any of them, though she slept with most of them - sex to her had absolutely nothing to do with love in those days, but she found them very useful for keeping her in the luxury to which she was accustomed. She had a thousand furs, a thousand silks, a thousand pretty things to wrap around her… And so she was happy, content in emotional manipulation for the gaining of wealth.
And her father, oddly enough, was fairly happy too. Without the strain of his daughter’s desires his business was doing well again, and with the aid of a fairly frugal trophy (one a lot smarter than both him and his usual type) he was finally starting to get rich again. Thus his daughter’s excesses didn’t worry him; he remembered what it was like to be young, he would let her get to twenty five and then would gracefully steer her towards a nice heir who would bolster his fortunes again, no harm done…
If the plan had been stuck to.
You see, although the gang was mainly made up of boys who would stop when the going got too hard there would always be the odd truly ambitious one. And, as it turned out, his truly terrifying older sister. Aurore moved onto Philippe Albéniz at 23, a year later she was left almost murdered in the street with her stomach cut open.
Camille Albéniz was an ambitious and extremely cold woman, you see. Dark, sophisticated and three years older than Aurore she realized that she could manipulate her brother to gain a true foothold in the world of crime. Within a year, she calculated quite coldly, she could be the head of crime for the whole of France with nobody daring to stop her, nobody even trying.
…The only problem was Aurore, pretty and vacuous. Who had secured Camille’s brother as her latest conquest and seemed determined to lure him away from the proper, emotionless way of living.
So Camille took steps, big and vicious steps. She played on her brother’s ambition, his desire to go beyond his boring life, and so convinced him that Aurore would be a drag, a useless waste of space. ‘Kill her,’ she nodded, and placed the blade in his hand, ‘it’s not like she’s worth anything, dear brother, and she’s already taken so much…’
He dallied for only a month after Camille put the idea into his head; on a cold night in October, on the way back from a stylish performance, he took Aurore into a alley and ripped her stomach out; then left her to bleed on the dirty floor with her expensive, wasteful clothes spread all around her. The year was 1959, she was only twenty four years old.
And that was when life begun for Aurore.
You see, Aurore had never noticed many things due to her narrow, selfish view. And one of those things, of course, was the world beyond the human world. The coven of witches that existed just below her nose in the middle of Paris, the werewolves that howled in the night in rural areas, the ghouls that idled in isolated houses, the vampires that roamed the world…
Sofia was a hundred years older than Aurore, an ex-servant girl who had been turned in Italy and had been wandering the world ever since. She came across Aurore, moments from death, almost stepped in a pool of her blood… And, having recently fed very well, decided ‘why the hell not?’ and changed the dying Aurore into a vampire. A new sort of creature entirely.
Aurore, understandably, was a bit shocked by this.
But Sofia was sensible, if not too mothering, and so spirited the young Aurore away from confusing life in the capitol. She had a property in Versailles, a little thing gifted by a former friend, and so settled them there for several years. Teaching Aurore all that she needed to know about vampire life, teaching her a bit of what she needed to know about life.
And Aurore, stunned and disgruntled and knowing very well that she was supposed to act the innocent victim and sob a bit, lapped it happily up and set about maturing into a new personality.
By 1963 she managed to convince Sofia that life outside would be a bit of a ball; and so they departed - travelling around Europe by night, experiencing sophistication, culture and an awful lot of blood wherever they chose to go. They saw Milan, Gothenburg, Venice, a few days of Rome in the dead of winter…
And, along the way, they had adventures.
A mad werewolf attacked them when they were crossing back into France in 1973. Despite all books, and there are a lot of books, vampires and werewolves have no particular aversion to each other - but this one was practically rabid. It went for Sofia’s arm, got her hand and was eventually fired full of silver by a fast (and oddly) thinking Aurore. Borrowing a gun from a nearby farmer somewhat acquainted with such problems.
They found a vampire hunter in Paris in 1980; a bearded man with no empathy and a pathetic desire for glory and women at any cost. Aurore tried to drain him dry, found his blood disgusting due to drugs, and in the end watched Sofia kick him off a building. They had to stay out of Paris for a few years after that.
She was captured by an amateur group of witches on the way to Denmark in 1988. They tied her to a chair for two days and chanted several rather puzzling verses of magic at her without any effect. Luckily a British witch, Cordelia Delainy, arrived before she could go into monster!mode. She freed Aurore and allowed her to drink from a servant that’d been accompanying her. Aurore has been well-disposed to the Delainy family ever since.
She did go into monster mode in the wilds of Russia (a brief, and only, trip) in early 1999; Sofia found her a few days later - confused and covered in blood and snow. Aurore’s still not sure what happened there, and Sofia certainly isn’t telling her.
But that was twelve years ago. And it is now 2011 for Aurore and she has been a vampire for fifty two years. There have been some events, as there are in any life, but otherwise her existence has been fairly peaceful, fairly lovely…
But there’s something rumbling on the horizon.
Reality Description: Aurore comes to the plane from Paris in mid-February 2011. Her world is a perfectly ordinary world; with no creatures, no murderers, no things that go bump in the night and certainly no supernatural business. Nope, nothing to see there!
…Oops.
Okay, so on the surface Aurore’s world looks like a perfectly normal, perfectly modern world. At the time she comes from it is mid-February, twilight in Paris, France. Her world has all the modern conveniences: hospitals, lightbulbs and I-pods roaming the streets ready to pull the casual commuter into a world of bliss. It also had all the events that are known in history, even if Aurore didn’t really participate in most of them: The Second World War, Vietnam, the Berlin Wall… All of that. In fact, on the surface, it resembles our earth exactly.
It’s under the surface that things start to get interesting.
Basically there are four main types of supernatural creature that I’m going to describe, the main ones that Aurore will come into contact with: These are ghouls, Witches, Werewolves and, of course, Vampires.
…Let’s start with the vampires, for perfectly obvious reasons. Vampires are, in Aurore’s world, the most decidedly solitary of the supernatural creatures. They’re like cats, or all cats besides lions, they prefer their own company. It is possible to see them travelling around in twos (as Aurore does with Sofia) or even threes but beyond that they don’t really gather and tend to get quite ratty when they do.
Vampires also travel an awful lot. They aren’t, unlike most ghouls and a few werewolves, territorial beings at all. They slip from city to city, country to country with little attachment to any. Most develop a certain fondness for certain cities, as Aurore has for Paris and Milan, but they don’t go in for owning much property. It’d tie them down after all, and they want to leave as small a trail as possible.
Part of this aversion to forming a trail comes from a very logical reason: vampires need to feed. The famous food for a vampire is the blood of a human and, well… the vampires on Aurore’s world certainly don’t walk around sipping tomato juice. They also don’t tend to go for the blood of animals; an occasional sip won’t hurt them, though it tastes horrible, but a regular diet would just damage the digestive system and cause a vampire severe pain. Vampires on Aurore’s world need human blood, there’s no vegetarian option to be seen.
Luckily vampires don’t always kill when they feed, since that’d definitely be difficult to cover up, but they do usually take enough for the victim to feel woozy for about a week. They have fangs, sharp fangs, and they use those to open a cut and draw out enough blood to satisfy their hunger. They all also have superb abilities at finding veins, they hear them quite simply.
All vampires, or any who have a speck of culture in them, tend to hypnotise their prey before biting in. The method is rather similar to that of some snakes - it requires no words, no ticking pendulum. A vampire like Aurore just has to stare her prey deeply in the eyes and soon they’ll be falling into her grasp.
This leads into the fact that most people aren’t entirely informed that they’re being fed on; Aurore would, for example, be quite unused to asking permission for a feeding, she would either hypnotise a person or try to catch them in a faintly altered state. This, luckily, has become a lot easier with the onset of modern club culture - people tend to think a lot less about snuggling up with a stranger in a corner these days, and that’s where vampires tend to get most of their prey.
Oh, and while vampires don’t usually kill while they’re feeding they’re unlikely to angst too much if they do accidentally go too far, they’re also very unlikely to leave their victim sprawled out with puncture marks on their neck. If a person dies in a feeding then they are quickly covered up; no harm done, no angst spared. Simple.
This links into the fact that vampires don’t loose their heads and go absolutely insane when they’re turned; in fact they generally have a tendency to become a far calmer person. Vampires are faintly animalistic underneath, its true, but they keep their intelligence, keep their shapes and the thought of becoming a blood crazed beast is laughable to most of them. (But, again for most of them, in a faintly scary way - sometimes the description of being a beast is too close to the bone.)
Despite keeping their shape and general intelligence vampires are certainly not normal creatures, and they have powers beyond them. A vampire like Aurore can hear really, really well. To the point where, if they concentrate, they can hear heartbeats and the blood in veins. This sharpened hearing is usually only used to focus on blood, but it is still important to note.
Another thing that it’s important to note is the increased sense of smell. This, again, is mainly used to sniff out blood and easy prey. But it is also very delicate: able to pick out one person’s blood and track it even if several other people decide to bleed everywhere. This sense of smell is also very hard to confuse, and only scented herbs (and garlic) have been known to manage it.
One final thing on increased senses is sight. On a clear day Aurore can see for miles; in fact a vampire’s sight can be compared to that of a hawk. They can see for great distances and can focus in on individual prey if they need to.
Another good thing about being a vampire is the increased healing ability. This isn’t quite as simple as “break a leg; leg snaps back within an instant” but it is still pretty useful. Tiny cuts will heal within seconds, big cuts within minutes, fractures within hours, big broken bones (such as thigh or arm) within days. The longest time that a vampire has taken to heal is a week, and that was because most of his internal organs were torn out.
Vampires also have increased climbing ability. Remember that scene in “Dracula” where he effortlessly scales the wall? Yeah, Aurore can do that too. No matter how high or how precarious the surface she’ll probably be able to climb it. Vampires are the cats of the supernatural world, able to scale everything and leave people going “wut” as they appear from absolutely nowhere.
Aurore can also move at a super fast speed for brief distances, a skill best compared to a cheetah. Her speed is not something that can be sustained for hours on end, she’d tire eventually and need a lot of blood, but over short distances she could beat any sprinter. This is a skill most used for pouncing on reluctant prey, and so is a little less polished than some of her other skills.
Another “super” for Aurore is her strength. In Aurore’s case it can be limited, due to her general size and shape, but if a vampire was a male in the prime of life he could easily take on a whole gang without breaking a sweat. Even a vampire like Aurore has some skill at pinning down folk a awful lot bigger than her. Give her some preparation and she can often show a quite alarming sort of strength.
For all a vampire’s strengths, however, there are also weaknesses and mild inconveniences. Aurore’s type of vampire can never be caught on any type of film; be it casual camera or TV camera. An awful lot of vampires have held aspirations of being great actors, an awful lot of vampires have failed.
It’s also hard, but not impossible, for a vampire to see themselves in a mirror. It takes an awful lot of determination and draining concentration to do so, and even then the image is always wavy and not entirely clear.
As expected all vampires are repelled by religious imagery, but not just Christian imagery. A Qur’an is just as likely to drive back as a bible and no vampire can enter a church; the amount of belief in such institutions sends them scuttling to the hills at the speed of light.
Linked into this, and also as expected, is the problem with crossing water. Now, let’s be clear here: vampires can cross water; there is no block against it, there is no special magic that stops them. But crossing water is also an arduous process that requires a good rest to follow it. Vampires will not die, vampires will not burst into flame… But they tend to avoid crossing water whenever they can.
Another severe aversion is the aversion that vampires experience to garlic. It won’t instantly kill them, again, but the effect can be compared to that of a peanut allergy - if any Garlic is consumed the throat will puff up and the vampire will turn red. Not fun and not something to be courted.
Also not to be courted is wood. As expected a stake through the heart will kill a vampire, it will kill anybody, but bits of wood elsewhere will also strongly inconvenience them. If a vampire has wood in their body, even a tiny sliver, they will be slowed and a little befuddled. It’s like the worst kind of drunkenness, for vampires - the point where everything has stopped being fun and you really just want to go home and sleep for a while.
Which is a pity, really, since vampires can’t get drunk in any other way. They can’t really taste any food besides blood, or any drink. Everything basically tastes faintly ashen to them - as if their nose has become so attuned to blood that all other food has stopped being important.
This also applies, to an extent, to feelings. What’d be agony for a human is a faint prickle for a vampire. They don’t feel in the same way that humans do; which can, on occasion, make humanity seem faintly annoying.
One final weakness, and one pretty damn obvious weakness if I’m going to be honest here, is sunlight. Vampires cannot stand sunlight, and it isn’t because they don’t want a tan. If a vampire from Aurore’s world stupidly walks into sunlight then they won’t sparkle, they won’t stand it for a few hours. If a vampire from Aurore’s world walks into sunlight they will die. No ifs, no buts - just instant ash and several tutting spectators.
Now, I’m almost done with the vampire section. But there are still two fairly important bits to note.
Vampires on Aurore’s world have no particular psychic ability to speak of. Their mind is a brick wall, yes, which can’t be broken or slipped into. But it works both ways - Aurore’s type of vampires cannot communicate with their minds, it’s a pity but it’s something that definitely won’t change.
The Monster!mode. Or, to be more technical: what happens when a vampire from Aurore’s world goes too long (about three days) without blood. Basically, as has already been established, vampires from Aurore’s world need human blood: and if they go too long without it then they turn into animals.
The thing is that vampires from Aurore’s world do have a beast within them, and if you starve that beast… Well, it surges back with full hunger. In monster!mode Aurore’s type of vampire have no control over themselves: they don’t remember people, they don’t remember friends and they’ll rip apart anybody to get a taste of blood. In this state they’re also a lot stronger, since their powers aren’t being moderated at all, and generally don’t have control of themselves.
Oh, and they also won’t remember what they’ve done when they surface from it. All they’ll have is a vague sense of guilt and a lot of blood, it’ll be left to other people to explain what exactly they did and how horrifying it was.
…It should be noted here, however, that this is a very rare state. As in “once in a century if then.” It takes severe circumstances for such a level of hunger to be reached. And when it is the repercussions will always be vast.
Now! With that babble on vampires done (seriously, four whole pages on word: what on earth) let’s get onto the others! Witches are probably the next most important creature and they play a large part in the politics of the world.
Basically witches are the acceptable face of the supernatural, being entirely human and slightly more capable of acting like functioning creatures. There’s a main coven in every country and, depending on the size (E.G. America, Australia, Russia…) several sub-covens dotted around. Most are ran by females, and most members are female, but being a witch is not restricted to them. Considering that, if you have magical ability, you can hardly repress it that’d be kinda stupid. And witches are very smug about being smart, thank you very much.
Their practices tend more towards the wise woman face of witching, more concerned with herbs and ancient chants than big bits of flash. The general demeanour of the wise woman, however, varies from country to country - some choose to go the more “daughters of the earth” route while others (looking at the London coven here) have turned their beady eyes to business.
The London Coven are probably the most important ones to Aurore and so shall be focused on here. Priding themselves as “the great start of witchcraft” (though, really, it started long before several people decided to colonize a series of rather cold rocks) they’ve turned to the more businesslike side of witchcraft. Marketing themselves to those in the know as general handywo/men, ready to take on most magical jobs and do them well. Their leader/Crone (though she hates that term) is Cordelia Delainy, a powerful witch that once saved Aurore’s life. She’s the one responsible for most of the marketing and is also damned fierce, Do not mess with her or she shall cut you and feed you to the crows.
Now, the witches (and, in particular, the London coven) are also important for one other thing - their goddess, Hekate.
The common image of Hekate is a maiden with odd eyes, a little scary but nothing to be truly terrified about. The reality of Hekate is a very different proposition: a terrifying creature, ever shifting, with her own motivations and her own drives. In one moment she can have three thousand heads, fourteen thousand eyes and can speak with a million voices. She’s terrifying, she’s powerful, she’s faintly immoral…
And, thanks to the witches, she’s safely locked away. About a thousand years ago, back when everybody was called Harold, a witch from every coven gathered and locked her away in an unbreakable prison. Her power was too terrifying, they reasoned, so it’s best to keep an eye on her. Due to the honour of this achievement the unbreakable prison is moved to a new location every fifty years (E.G. 1900, 1950, 2000) And guarded fiercely by the host coven. Currently it’s in London, perfectly safe…
Or not, since a young witch took pity on the goddess and decided to release her. Now Hekate is on the loose and the young witch is desperately searching for her and hoping that it takes a while for the coven to realize. Aurore doesn’t realize this yet, but soon…
Well, the drama has already been hinted at! So let’s move onto the werewolves instead, a quite fascinating breed who are, of course, wolves half the time.
The werewolves have a certain reputation, in both human and supernatural circles, for being beastly, uncontrolled monsters who desire only to feast and live in giant, faintly incestuous packs. And, true - there are rumours of some packs lurking in mountain areas, feasting off goats (and the occasional human) and being generally horrible. And it is also true that they have to transform into a werewolf every full moon, and can be quite touchy when they do so…
But the werewolves are really a lot more cultured than most give them credit for. There is a loud minority, there always is, who ruin things for the rest. But most werewolves are just ordinary people who have a fondness for meat and a need to turn into a wolf at least once a month. They can be a bit hungry, yes, but they’re not evil and most of them certainly aren’t stupid.
In fact, even in wolf form they tend to keep their intelligence. They can get a bit snappy, yes, but wouldn’t you get a bit snappy if you were forced to turn into a wolf? Overall they are lovely people, who tend to hold quite important jobs in society and occasionally disappear for a long weekend.
…Oh, and most tend to stick a finger up at the moon as they pass it. But that’s really fairly understandable.
Now, finally onto ghouls… Nobody really knows much about them but it’s worth putting here anyway.
What is known is that ghouls were once living humans; one people who lived and breathed and walked and… Tended to be quite large characters, if everybody is being perfectly honest. A ghoul is an intensified version of a ghost (merely the remaining images of the living on Aurore’s world) and tends to play that to their advantage. Quite a few become poltergeists, a few of the less imaginative ones go for the whole stair trick, a few really enterprising ones stretch themselves over several castles and make a good job of scaring unsuspecting guards.
Most ghouls are tied to one house, and can be fairly protective of that house. It is their house and if anybody but them dares to hurt it they will die. Ghouls, for this reason, have developed a reputation as the most possessive of supernatural creatures. Though, of course, there are exceptions…
And that leads me nicely (or not so nicely, since the ghoul I’m talking about is actual several folk down on this list) to the population!
Most important is Sofia, Aurore’s sire and sort of mentor. A hundred years older than her and born as a servant in Italy Sofia is less obsessed with fashion and a lot more obsessed with politics. Generally smart and often quite boring she tends to keep people alive to lecture them about dust or something, Aurore hasn’t actually listened in several decades so she wouldn’t know.
…Seriously, though, Sofia is Aurore’s strongest link on her world and the deepest bond. She saved Aurore from death and so shall always be important, and always protected to the best of Aurore’s abilities.
And, no - there’s nothing going on between them. Aurore considers her an aunt and would be vaguely worried by the implication. A relationship? With somebody that boring? Ew!
…And now to the ones who will arrive after her intro! Since, y’know, this section will be rather short if I don’t do that.
The most important person who arrives after her intro is probably Hannah Delainy, granddaughter of Cordelia Delainy and the young witch who released Hekate. Hannah has good intentions, sweet intentions, but is one of those people who goes about them the wrong way. She’s a lovely person, to the point where she could put you off chocolate for life, but she has a general tendency of causing horrible offence to absolutely everybody. Which makes life with her a little bit awkward on occasion.
Oh, and linked into Hannah is Hekate, the goddess that Hannah freed and is now trying to hunt down. Mainly noted here to state that Aurore, being paralyzed by all things vaguely religious, is absolutely terrified of her. Which makes hunting rather interesting.
Mark Dekker is a werewolf that also gets dragged into Hannah’s quest. Sweet, earnest, young and studying to be a barrister he wants to change the world for the better. This is unfortunately faintly hindered by the fact that he turns into a wolf every month but he’s trying to battle through that. He has a tendency to lecture people on morals; a tendency that causes Aurore to be more immoral than ever.
There’s also Faustus, a ghoul haunting a house scheduled to be demolished who hops along for the ride. A lot less possessive than other ghouls, and thus a bit of an oddity, he’s mischievous and theatrical - dedicated to playing pranks on anybody in the area. Common opinion runs that he was once a actor who possibly got stabbed to death in a brawl; whether he was more than that is up to debate.
And, last but not least… there’s Camille, the main villain of the piece. Now a cold lady who hasn’t aged past her fifties (due to vampire mojo) she controls both vampire and human crime in Paris and has her eye on the Paris coven. With Hekate being released she’s decided to take her chances and convince the goddess to wreck the world. A general motivation that means she has to be stopped too.
And that’s Aurore’s world! Strange and weird but… Nah, still a bit weird. Sorry about that!