museyboxy | Vampire AU

Vampire AU

In Thedas, vampirism is a rare, powerful, and highly unusual form of blood magic that can be directly learned only from hunger demons. It differs from all other forms of blood magic in that it directly changes the user's body, making them into essentially a monster.

How to become one: Becoming a vampire is far more involved than learning simple blood magic. It's a ritual that must be conducted in the waking world, rather than the Fade. Therefore, the hunger demon needs a body. In other words, vampirism requires sacrificing someone to become a hunger abomination. The hunger abomination then feeds the mage their own blood, and drains the mage's blood in return. Once the last drop of living blood is gone from the mage's body, they collapse and the abomination takes them, feeding on them for a night and a day. The second night, the mage rises again as a vampire, and the hunger demon is freed from the bond between them. Most vampires let the abomination go, but many choose to kill their demonic sire, to cover their own tracks.

How common: The choice to become a vampire is a serious one, requiring a real, extremely risky deal with a demon. Albeit one that many end up betraying. Vampirism is most common in Tevinter, but not as much as one might think: the weaknesses of vampirism make the prospect unattractive to many magisters.

Outside of the Imperium, vampires are the subject of legend and folktales, but most folk, common and educated alike, believe them nothing more than ghost stories. The Chantry teaches nothing about them, and most templars believe them a fiction.

Abilities: Vampires can turn others, of course, in all the usual vampire ways. Vampiric abilities (speed, strength, hypnosis, etc) are immune to templar cleansing and dispels, and vampires cannot be tracked using their mage phylacteries.

Vampires have abilities similar to those in True Blood: speed, strength, the ability to sway the minds of others (glamouring/hypnosis), and heightened senses. Vampire mages can all do blood magic (even if they weren't directly turned by a demon, and never directly learned blood magic). Vampiric weaknesses are similar to those in Buffy: sunlight, though they can handle being in shadows, staking, silver, and certain holy symbols- though, ironically, not the Chantry symbol.

Vampires can walk in sunlight, but it hurts their skin and weakens their abilities. If mages, their magic is hampered, giving them the strength of the average Circle mage and nothing more. Their ability to tolerate sunlight increases the more recently they've fed. However, they will always be stronger at night.

Prompts:
1) Sire - make someone a creature of the night.
2) New Blood - maybe you wanted this, maybe it's being done to you. Welcome to vampirism.
3) Victim - some fanger's sticking a straw into you like you're a Capri Sun.
4) Hunter - did a vamp kill your family? Are you a Templar off the reservation? Idk.
5) Harem - that hypnosis thing? Yeah, you're some vampire's pet now.
6) Wild Card - roll your own. Let's get weird.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

“That’s not so bad- I hunger all the time,” she points out reasonably, attempting to hide her discomfit at the confession. “Just... not for human blood.”

So he is still Anders. In many ways, that just makes this harder. It means the man she loves still exists in front of her, and this problem can’t just be solved with a swift dagger. It means he really is sorry.

It also means that they have a fucking problem to deal with. Hawke puts a hand on her hip and cocks her head quizzically.

“You saved me. It’s almost awkward, really- all the shit talking, and... now I owe you my life.”

“It’s not the same.” Justice never did have a knack for human sarcasm. Why wouldn’t someone just say what they mean? Deception for the sake of humor is still deception. “It is no human hunger. We are changed.” There, another hint of emotion: anger. It’s still there when he follows the topic change, and while it’s not directed at Hawke, it adds a clipped note to everything he says after.

“We’ve saved you before in battle. You’ve aided us countless times in exchange. It is not the purview of allies to keep score in that manner. Unless I am mistaken?” He lets the sarcasm hang there for a beat. He’s more solemn from there.

“Your life would not have been at risk if it weren’t for us. To defend you while you were helpless was our responsibility.”

Justice's solemn, naked earnestness draws her pretty face into a small frown, brows knit in thought. They've been shitty to him- ignoring him, talking about him like a sickness. Everybody who knows regards the spirit as a buzz-killing corruption riding sidesaddle inside a good man, all the while ignoring the ally and thinking being beneath the surface.

To defend you while you were helpless. It sounds so very much like her own thoughts- the real ones, the gentle ones she keeps to herself under mires of bullshit. The reason, if she bothers to be honest with herself, why she continually plays the errand girl and knight in shining civvies for any rando who calls for help. It's her responsibility, as it was with Bethany: to defend the helpless.

Mother of hell, she never realized they have anything in common. An ally. An ally, right under her nose, that she's forgotten this whole time. No, worse than forgotten- shunned. Justice is as much 'her people' as Fenris or Varric, and apparently he's thought the same (or something like it) all along. He
thought to take care of her. She should have been taking care of him, too.

When she speaks, she sounds... honest. Maybe a little shamed. It's unprecedented.

"Thank you, Justice."

That’s… new. Or rather, it’s nostalgic. The last time anyone other than Anders had thanked Justice for anything was back before all this, when he’d possessed the body of a dead man and so held claim to all his own actions. He doesn’t go as far as to smile, but his expression softens. The frown is less stern, the furrow between his eyes smoothed.

“You are welcome, Hawke.”

His head tilts- a gesture, he’d learned, for conveying confusion.

“You sound… different. I admit that I find the sheer amount and variety of emotion you and Anders both have been expressing through all this to be overwhelming.” There’s the furrow again, a wrinkle right between the eyes. “It leads you both to foolish recklessness.”

He wasn’t worried. Spirits don’t worry. Concern for the wellbeing of a partner and an ally aren’t worry. It’s professional courtesy. It’s different. Surely.

"I hardly think spirits are ones to lecture about restraint. People don't turn into fleshy magic monsters all on their own, you know."

Spirits are known for and defined by being Extra As Fuck. It's what makes them so dangerous.

But her expression softens. It may be disturbing to see someone else using Anders's face, but there's no denying the honesty or the personality there.

"It's nothing you need to worry your glowy little head about. I'm just realizing how shitty we've been to you. Seems to be something of a talent around here."

“You speak of demons and abominations. We are neither. You know this.”

He takes longer to mull over that second part, obviously taking the time to really turn that over in his head. “You have not treated me amiss,” he finally concludes. “You have treated Anders with kindness, and we are one and the same. Therefore, you have treated me kindly as well. It has meant much to him.”

Too much, Justice thinks. This particular kind of emotion has proven nothing but a troublesome distraction from their cause. But seeing as the cause has no discernable future now, it seems a moot point to bring up.

“He regrets that this will prove the end to your acquaintance. I too find it… most regrettable.” Surprisingly enough, he actually means it.

Those last row words are enough to surprise her into honesty. “What? Really? I thought you’d disapprove of all the bullshit and blood magic. I’m very disapprovable.”

Still, it stirs something. She doesn’t want their acquaintance to end. Not yet- not with this new thing who saved her and surely needs help.

“You are, though I am sure that is not a word.” This feels strangely like banter. Also, strangely, he doesn’t hate it.

“You demean yourself by using blood magic. Yet you still support the freedom of mages. You lend yourself to other worthy causes. It makes little sense, yet it is. I cannot deny the good you have done, even with your... 'bullshit,' as you put it.”

A spirit. An actual Fade spirit expressing its slightly mixed approval of her. The significance makes her smile for the first time since Anders went missing. She spreads her arms out wide almost cockily.

“That’s me- impossible and irresistible.” Her arms and grin come down slowly.

There’s something here. Maybe more than something. In spite of every mage instinct telling her not to trust a spirit, Hawke trusts Justice. She respects him enough to pull a chair up and sit, lean down closer to his level, and grant him rare seriousness.

“I saw you fighting for control. Both of you. Justice, that can’t happen. If three players start fighting for center stage, the blood will win.”

Justice watches Hawke intently, curious about the fact that the conversation between them has gone on so long. She hasn’t asked to speak to Anders again, and Anders seems quite content to stay out of it. Justice would find this nearly pleasant if it wasn’t for the relative discomfort of the body he inhabits.

“We know.” He nods his acknowledgment, lifting his head as much as he can to keep his gaze on Hawke. “We know little of what has happened to us, but we are a clear danger. Your servant, the freed elf. We wish to know what else she has told you.”

"You mean you don't have vampire stories in Ferelden?" Hawke sighs and makes herself comfortable (ish) in the chair.

"They're supposedly immortal monsters that feed on blood. They were all normal people once, but they become creatures that haunt the night, fear the sun, and may or may not explode on holy ground." She waved a hand vaguely. "That part is sort of- you know how it is with legends. They never can agree on anything."

"Orana knew about the silver, and said that vampires become a bit... funny after they turn." Her expression darkens a little, despite her deliberate attempts to keep it light. "She did say that you - he - probably didn't mean it. That the first time is the worst."

“Anders did not intend to harm you. Neither of us wished it.”

But he is, for once, distracted. There’s something else Hawke had said that has Justice attempting to twist around in the chest and sit up a little. There’s a new urgency in his voice when he speaks again.

“You said ‘immortal.’ Do you mean that this body is now undying?”

Hawke frowned and reached over, hauling him up so he's sitting in the chest, at least. It's only fair, right? Then she settles back in the chair but leaning over, elbows on the edge of the trunk.

"I think so. Lacking any extensive personal history with vampires, aside from that little thing with my carotid artery, I can't say for sure. Why?"

There are few things that Justice personally cares about. Fewer things still that he feels emotional about. It’s not a spirit’s way to be attached to the material world, to people or places or anything else. Anders is an exception. There’s really only one other thing that Justice holds close to his heart, if he does indeed have anything that could be called a heart.

Home.

It’s hard to say just what is showing on Justice’s face as he looks up at Hawke. At first it’s something akin to confusion. But as the words sink in, it shifts. Disbelief, or at least a muted version of the emotion. But there’s nothing muted about the final expression his face settles on.

Loss.

“I… apologize.” The blue veins flicker wildly on his skin. “I cannot stay.”

Anders comes back up to the surface gasping, eyes darting wildly around in front of him. He looks at Hawke. Turns his head. Looks around the room. It’s like he’s not truly seeing any of it.

Then he laughs. Just once. A quiet sound, almost violent in how sudden it is. But it doesn’t stop there. Each new laugh bubbles up out of him until he’s shaking with it. Then he’s laughing so hard he has to shut his eyes against it, the smile turning into a grimace, the laughing devolving into sobbing breaths.

Long as Anders has known Justice, he’s never felt the full force of a spirit in mourning. His body feels too small for it.

They were having such a nice conversation. Then Anders has to go crazy.

Awesome.

Hawke watches with no small amount of alarm as they both apparently lose their minds at once, devolving into creepy thousand-yard-stare psycho cry-laughing. It's disturbing on at least five levels, not the least of which is seeing Anders's familiar face twisted into such foreign, strange emotions.

Finally, it's too much. Against her better judgment, she goes with the old standby: insensitive quips at terrible moments.

"So do we all get to go nuts, or is this a private party?"

Anders shakes his head, still struggling to breathe through the weight in his chest. It takes effort not to keep up the wordless panic, to lift his head and turn his gaze on Hawke again. It seems she'll be privy to him at his very lowest in every possible way before the week is through.

"You can't know what he... what I... a spirit in mourning, what that feels like. I was supposed to die one day. He was supposed to go back to the Fade. It was the deal we made, the whole point-" His voice breaks again, and the breath he takes to steady himself does nothing of the sort.

"It means nothing, now."

The magnitude of it hits her perfectly fine and she immediately appreciates how deeply Justice must be hurting, but this has officially pushed past the Feelings Breaking Point. The sincerity and seriousness of before burrows back down under her usual protective layers, and all at once the infinitely many dimensions of fucked-up become easier to process.

She can't help him calm down. Breathing won't help, and she's not about to risk using magic on him after what happened with the blood spell last night.

So instead: "Does this mean you'll finally let us try finding a Fade spirit can opener?"

“Or you could just kill me.”

He doesn’t exactly mean it… not like he wants to die right this moment or anything. But once the words are out, Anders latches onto the idea. Immortal doesn’t mean infallible.

“How do you kill a vampire? There have to be ways.” His voice has gone steadier, but it has also taken on a new fervor. It’s something to hold on to at least, this idea. “The sun. You mentioned the sun.”

"Sorry, I don't speak Trade," she deadpans, then says something in incredibly garbled Orlesian.

No, Anders, she is not going to discuss killing you. If he keeps this up, she might actually try convincing him that drinking blood will kill him- just to be contrary.

Anders shoots Hawke a dark look- not in any way a threat, but one that says he's past the jokes. He knows that's the way Hawke is. Usually, he even appreciates it. But not now.

"What else will you do with me then? Keep me naked and locked in a trunk until the end of days?" The anger does at least one thing for him: a distraction from Justice's pain, and from his own.

That... earns him a raised eyebrow.

"You can't get mad at my jokes then say something like that. It's not fair."

Anders's smile is a bitter one- but still a smile nonetheless. Only Hawke could get even that out of him right now.

"Just taking note of the obvious. Though if this is your long-term plan..." He sags back against the trunk, the manic energy starting to fail him. "It would be kinder to Justice to kill me, rather than keep him here. We cannot fulfill our purpose any longer. He's trapped in mortal flesh with no hope of-" A sudden rise of emotion makes him choke on the rest of that sentence.

"Please, just... consider it."

His shitty little smile satisfies her such that she can relax a little, sitting back in her chair more easily.

"I'm not keeping you in the trunk forever, dipshit." It sounds almost fond. "And if I whine enough, I bet Varric could have half of Thedas looking for a spirit-extracting spell within the month. Useful, that one."

She runs a fitful hand through her hair in between useless gesticulations.

"But before I let you go, we should talk this out. I don't fancy being a human spigot again."

“You’re letting me go?” If it wasn’t for the ‘immortality’ thing, that would be the surprise of the night. That, and the tone of her voice. He hadn’t expected her to ever speak to him without loathing or pain again after this mess.

“If you do, then… you know there’s no way I can stay in Kirkwall. I’m more of a liability to the mages in the Circle here than I am a help. And the farther I am from people…” from Hawke, specifically, “the safer you’ll all be. No risk of… yesterday, happening again.”

The only temptation is what she’d said about Varric… but it wasn’t worth the risk for such an improbable thing. He can’t rely on that.

… well, not the only temptation. Hawke herself is an incentive. But after this entire incident, Anders trusts Hawke’s safety around him even less than before. And he can't believe she'd want him around besides.

Talking to Justice calmed her down enormously. Knowing that Anders wasn't really a monster- that he didn't do it on purpose, that it was more like a demonic force compelling him? That makes it something to forgive. Something that could be forgiven.

Maybe it has something to do with hearing Justice mention the end of our acquaintance. Maybe those words made her stomach lurch, and she realized how much more that would hurt.

For whatever reason, she can't loathe him. Not really.

"No. If you leave Kirkwall, we can't keep an eye on you. I'd have to follow you- unsupervised and everything."

She's trying to make it sound like a joke, but it's deadly serious. If Anders tries to flee, all that'll happen is Hawke confronting him alone in the wilderness somewhere. Hawke would bet anything that he doesn't want that- not now.

Vampire AU

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