Trollpire AU worldbuilding/headcaonon
Feb. 10th, 2011 12:03 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
soc_puppetHeadcanon/worldbuilding for the AU in which this fic takes place.
General information
* The vampires live in an old hotel building on the rural fringes of some town. It's a dilapidated mess and practically in the middle of nowhere, so they managed to get it pretty cheap.
* Each vampire has some sort of freaky-by-human-standards power (complimenting their Homestuck abilities and/or titles whenever possible).
-- Sollux is a hacker-mage who can "reprogram" the universe to follow simple commands, like allowing the vampires to pass as human most of the time; after hacking reality, computers are downright simple. He can do bigger/more complicated things as well, but it takes a ridiculous amount of time and energy.
-- Kanaya is the only vampire who can walk freely in the sunlight. Sollux made charms that can allow the others to walk in the sun for up to twenty minutes at a time, but after that they start to sizzle a bit. As a result, Kanaya is the one who interacts most with the human world.
-- Equius is still freaky-strong, surprise surprise.
-- Tavros still has a psychic bond with animals.
-- Vriska has mind-reading abilities at about the same strength as her canon mind-controlling abilities, and can see through illusions; she can still put humans to sleep, but it takes a lot of concentration and effort.
-- Aradia's communication-with-the-dead thing is pretty much the same as canon, but as with Vriska's narcolepsy, commanding the spirits to do anything takes extra effort and energy. She mostly uses them as a sort of spy network/security system.
-- I have pretty much no idea about anyone else \o/ Except that Karkat has got to be able to do something fucking awesome with blood, but really, that's all.
* The vampires have the same hemospectrum as trolls, and generally look the same. I'm reasonably sure that, if they have the same blood color politics, it's way toned down/considered pretty old-fashioned and ridiculous. No idea whether any of the trolls are amphibious still or not.
* Karkat is particularly sensitive and secretive about his blood color; between having the same color blood as the pink monkeys vampires feed on and his nubby horns, he's secretly afraid that he's actually some freakish vampire/human hybrid. (I'm undecided whether he actually is or not.) He had some serious self-esteem issues tied up with it earlier in life, which may or may not still pop up from time to time, depending on how ridiculously cheesy you want to get.
* Vampires normally live in clan/pack-like groups with their human partners. Larger groups can consist of a few hundred individuals, sometimes forming entire towns, while smaller ones number from thirty to fifty. Vampire children are raised communally. "Our" vampires are mostly looking to build their own new clan/group/thing, which is why it's just the twelve of them.
* I have only the vaguest notions about how vampires reproduce. I'm going to go ahead and say that they don't "turn" anyone, which helps the vampire romance quadrants work out better. I'm tempted to keep the Mother Grub (in a much smaller form) and have her lay eggs from which itty-bitty vampirelets can somehow be produced (possibly involving ingestion, and, if we really feel like going all out, mpreg), but you can probably talk me around to just about anything other than "turning".
* For the purposes of anyone who may feel like writing anything explicit, I'm going to say that vampires are pretty much the same as humans in that respect 8)
* I'm picturing everyone at about eighteen or nineteen for this. The kids are all going to a university/college in town, which may or may not be how they met. John is majoring either in astronomy or computers and minoring in the other, Jade is majoring in physics and probably minoring in botany, Rose is passive-aggressively double-majoring in psychology and literature (English?) and maybe also minoring in botany (VERY maybe), and Dave is majoring in music and minoring in business (or possibly the other way around) and may be taking online courses ironically after having ironically flunked out the first semester for who-the-fuck-knows-what (but you can bet it was ironic).
* I'm only for certain planning on "our" four kids getting involved with the vampires, but I'm open to eventually inviting the grownups, human!exiles, characters from other series, and even possibly human OCs (though probably only in the calming quadrant).
More vampire romance details I didn't get into in the fic
* Vampire matches show more with power compatibility. Each vampire's powers get a boost with someone they're compatible with; the better the match, the stronger the boost. A perfect match can even lead to sharing of certain powers. Calm quadrant sharing is less powerful but more sustainable. Passionate quadrant sharing is more for when you're desperate. Literally sharing blood can boost all of this, to the point where a perfect passionate match can have identical boosted powers, and an exceptionally good calming match can have a power boost beyond what's normally imagined in a perfect match. (That is, since calm quadrant romance doesn't allow power sharing, it only boosts, but it gives more powerful boosts. Passionate sharing allows for a modest boost and full power sharing.)
* Humans in long-term relationships with vampires, particularly a passionate one, will get various benefits: immunity to disease, slightly boosted physical strength, and a lifespan/aging at the same rate as the vampires (assuming the vampires live longer than humans, which again, I haven't actually decided anything on yet). Similar to vampire romances, with particularly good matches, humans can occasionally pick up a bit of their partners' power(s). So basically it's a variation on the soul bond cliché, and I am a huge romantic dork.
* I haven't figured out particular names for any of the quadrants or relationships formed within them, so if anyone wants to volunteer suggestions, I'm way open to it. I do mostly picture the quadrants set up basically the same way as the canon quadrants, except red = vampire/vampire and black = vampire/human instead of red = pity and black = hate. I'm totally open to alternate symbol ideas as well, though.
* Though matches are confirmed through blood (usually), they're probably two-thirds to do with personality and similar compatibility.
Plotty bits
* This group of vampires is pretty much all that survived after a freakish cult (lead by, you guessed it, Jack) went on a killing spree. All the other vampires, and probably their human companions as well, were killed. They're sticking together out of solidarity and for protection. There is a real possibility that the cult is still out there and will track them down at any time.
* Sollux's reality hacking was probably what ultimately allowed the vampires to escape Jack, but left Sollux himself seriously drained afterwords. The vampires are pretty desperate to find trustworthy humans as soon as they settle down; animal blood can help sustain them, but isn't nearly as nourishing as human blood. Similarly, human blood given freely is better than human blood taken, which lead to a number of raids on local blood banks. (← I totally have an idea for that, but that's about all at the moment.)
* My brain so wants this to be a long-ish action fic with a romance sub-plot or co-plot(?), including the vampires being in hiding, Jack and whoever's left of the cult trying to find them, perhaps a kidnapping or three, epic showdowns, etc etc. I don't actually have any idea how it would go, though, so input as to how to go about this, or whether I even should, would be really cool ^^;;; Alternate options include a just plain romance/social aspects plot sort of thing, and a "Jack is dealt with on their escape" with maybe some slight suspense sub-plotness but mostly the romance/social aspects main plot.
* One way or another, I'm pretty sure John is the first human in the area the vampires trusted with their secret.
Shipping
* Karkat/John is pretty much a given here, since that's how this whole AU started.
* That said, I tend to ship poly as often as not, and wouldn't rule it out for anyone here - human or vampire. I'm thinking "hinges" would probably work best in general, since that's how the vampire/vampire and human/vampire passionate quadrants are kinda set up already.
* Vriska was about this close to getting a passionate match with John, but Karkat's reaction was at least twice as strong as hers was. She ended up getting a very strong calm match with him instead, but will totally go for a passionate match if Karkat ever drops the ball (or if John somehow manages to have more than one passionate vampire match, which I'm not going to rule out as possible, but is probably not going to happen).
* I'm putting my foot down and making Kanaya's passionate human match Rose. I'm leaning towards making Vriska her passionate vampire match, but am willing to be overruled. Otherwise, they're just a really fantastic calm match.
* Basically, I lean towards canon lines here, and will probably go mostly with that if no one else has any particularly strong preferences.
* I kinda wanna make Sollux able to have two ideal passionate matches possible in either quadrant, because he is Sollux. Possibly dependent on whether he's on an upswing or a downswing. Otherwise, I'm leaning towards passionate with Feferi and a particularly powerful calm with Aradia.
I'm pretty sure that's all I have. Now taking ideas for anything else here.
General information
* The vampires live in an old hotel building on the rural fringes of some town. It's a dilapidated mess and practically in the middle of nowhere, so they managed to get it pretty cheap.
* Each vampire has some sort of freaky-by-human-standards power (complimenting their Homestuck abilities and/or titles whenever possible).
-- Sollux is a hacker-mage who can "reprogram" the universe to follow simple commands, like allowing the vampires to pass as human most of the time; after hacking reality, computers are downright simple. He can do bigger/more complicated things as well, but it takes a ridiculous amount of time and energy.
-- Kanaya is the only vampire who can walk freely in the sunlight. Sollux made charms that can allow the others to walk in the sun for up to twenty minutes at a time, but after that they start to sizzle a bit. As a result, Kanaya is the one who interacts most with the human world.
-- Equius is still freaky-strong, surprise surprise.
-- Tavros still has a psychic bond with animals.
-- Vriska has mind-reading abilities at about the same strength as her canon mind-controlling abilities, and can see through illusions; she can still put humans to sleep, but it takes a lot of concentration and effort.
-- Aradia's communication-with-the-dead thing is pretty much the same as canon, but as with Vriska's narcolepsy, commanding the spirits to do anything takes extra effort and energy. She mostly uses them as a sort of spy network/security system.
-- I have pretty much no idea about anyone else \o/ Except that Karkat has got to be able to do something fucking awesome with blood, but really, that's all.
* The vampires have the same hemospectrum as trolls, and generally look the same. I'm reasonably sure that, if they have the same blood color politics, it's way toned down/considered pretty old-fashioned and ridiculous. No idea whether any of the trolls are amphibious still or not.
* Karkat is particularly sensitive and secretive about his blood color; between having the same color blood as the pink monkeys vampires feed on and his nubby horns, he's secretly afraid that he's actually some freakish vampire/human hybrid. (I'm undecided whether he actually is or not.) He had some serious self-esteem issues tied up with it earlier in life, which may or may not still pop up from time to time, depending on how ridiculously cheesy you want to get.
* Vampires normally live in clan/pack-like groups with their human partners. Larger groups can consist of a few hundred individuals, sometimes forming entire towns, while smaller ones number from thirty to fifty. Vampire children are raised communally. "Our" vampires are mostly looking to build their own new clan/group/thing, which is why it's just the twelve of them.
* I have only the vaguest notions about how vampires reproduce. I'm going to go ahead and say that they don't "turn" anyone, which helps the vampire romance quadrants work out better. I'm tempted to keep the Mother Grub (in a much smaller form) and have her lay eggs from which itty-bitty vampirelets can somehow be produced (possibly involving ingestion, and, if we really feel like going all out, mpreg), but you can probably talk me around to just about anything other than "turning".
* For the purposes of anyone who may feel like writing anything explicit, I'm going to say that vampires are pretty much the same as humans in that respect 8)
* I'm picturing everyone at about eighteen or nineteen for this. The kids are all going to a university/college in town, which may or may not be how they met. John is majoring either in astronomy or computers and minoring in the other, Jade is majoring in physics and probably minoring in botany, Rose is passive-aggressively double-majoring in psychology and literature (English?) and maybe also minoring in botany (VERY maybe), and Dave is majoring in music and minoring in business (or possibly the other way around) and may be taking online courses ironically after having ironically flunked out the first semester for who-the-fuck-knows-what (but you can bet it was ironic).
* I'm only for certain planning on "our" four kids getting involved with the vampires, but I'm open to eventually inviting the grownups, human!exiles, characters from other series, and even possibly human OCs (though probably only in the calming quadrant).
More vampire romance details I didn't get into in the fic
* Vampire matches show more with power compatibility. Each vampire's powers get a boost with someone they're compatible with; the better the match, the stronger the boost. A perfect match can even lead to sharing of certain powers. Calm quadrant sharing is less powerful but more sustainable. Passionate quadrant sharing is more for when you're desperate. Literally sharing blood can boost all of this, to the point where a perfect passionate match can have identical boosted powers, and an exceptionally good calming match can have a power boost beyond what's normally imagined in a perfect match. (That is, since calm quadrant romance doesn't allow power sharing, it only boosts, but it gives more powerful boosts. Passionate sharing allows for a modest boost and full power sharing.)
* Humans in long-term relationships with vampires, particularly a passionate one, will get various benefits: immunity to disease, slightly boosted physical strength, and a lifespan/aging at the same rate as the vampires (assuming the vampires live longer than humans, which again, I haven't actually decided anything on yet). Similar to vampire romances, with particularly good matches, humans can occasionally pick up a bit of their partners' power(s). So basically it's a variation on the soul bond cliché, and I am a huge romantic dork.
* I haven't figured out particular names for any of the quadrants or relationships formed within them, so if anyone wants to volunteer suggestions, I'm way open to it. I do mostly picture the quadrants set up basically the same way as the canon quadrants, except red = vampire/vampire and black = vampire/human instead of red = pity and black = hate. I'm totally open to alternate symbol ideas as well, though.
* Though matches are confirmed through blood (usually), they're probably two-thirds to do with personality and similar compatibility.
Plotty bits
* This group of vampires is pretty much all that survived after a freakish cult (lead by, you guessed it, Jack) went on a killing spree. All the other vampires, and probably their human companions as well, were killed. They're sticking together out of solidarity and for protection. There is a real possibility that the cult is still out there and will track them down at any time.
* Sollux's reality hacking was probably what ultimately allowed the vampires to escape Jack, but left Sollux himself seriously drained afterwords. The vampires are pretty desperate to find trustworthy humans as soon as they settle down; animal blood can help sustain them, but isn't nearly as nourishing as human blood. Similarly, human blood given freely is better than human blood taken, which lead to a number of raids on local blood banks. (← I totally have an idea for that, but that's about all at the moment.)
* My brain so wants this to be a long-ish action fic with a romance sub-plot or co-plot(?), including the vampires being in hiding, Jack and whoever's left of the cult trying to find them, perhaps a kidnapping or three, epic showdowns, etc etc. I don't actually have any idea how it would go, though, so input as to how to go about this, or whether I even should, would be really cool ^^;;; Alternate options include a just plain romance/social aspects plot sort of thing, and a "Jack is dealt with on their escape" with maybe some slight suspense sub-plotness but mostly the romance/social aspects main plot.
* One way or another, I'm pretty sure John is the first human in the area the vampires trusted with their secret.
Shipping
* Karkat/John is pretty much a given here, since that's how this whole AU started.
* That said, I tend to ship poly as often as not, and wouldn't rule it out for anyone here - human or vampire. I'm thinking "hinges" would probably work best in general, since that's how the vampire/vampire and human/vampire passionate quadrants are kinda set up already.
* Vriska was about this close to getting a passionate match with John, but Karkat's reaction was at least twice as strong as hers was. She ended up getting a very strong calm match with him instead, but will totally go for a passionate match if Karkat ever drops the ball (or if John somehow manages to have more than one passionate vampire match, which I'm not going to rule out as possible, but is probably not going to happen).
* I'm putting my foot down and making Kanaya's passionate human match Rose. I'm leaning towards making Vriska her passionate vampire match, but am willing to be overruled. Otherwise, they're just a really fantastic calm match.
* Basically, I lean towards canon lines here, and will probably go mostly with that if no one else has any particularly strong preferences.
* I kinda wanna make Sollux able to have two ideal passionate matches possible in either quadrant, because he is Sollux. Possibly dependent on whether he's on an upswing or a downswing. Otherwise, I'm leaning towards passionate with Feferi and a particularly powerful calm with Aradia.
I'm pretty sure that's all I have. Now taking ideas for anything else here.
