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.

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“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.

Anders knows he has absolutely no right to be angry with Hawke after all he’s done. But that doesn’t stop the emotion of welling up in him, unbidden, at the thought of her tracking him down, alone and foolhardy. It’s much too easy to imagine.

“Why?” he snaps, too emotionally drained to alter his tone. “That’s the best possible option. Being free here in the city would be much more of a risk, for you and for everyone else. You’ve seen what I can do.” It might be a low blow to bring that up now, but he desperately wants her to understand. “It could happen again.”

"Right," she sneers, anger bleeding through her eternal sarcasm. "Because I can definitely get attacked by a possessed vampire who sometimes becomes a bloodthirsty mind-controlling monster, and then let him leave the city unattended. You caught me. That's exactly the kind of person I can let loose into the world with nothing more than a suicidal spirit friend, self-hate, and a pair of fangs."

She may be losing her temper, but she also very much has a point. Hawke is still concerned about Anders's well-being, but she's also concerned about letting him loose into the wide world.

And yet. There's a point to be made.

"Being a vampire doesn't always go like this. The stories are full of vampires who hold on to their sanity, or who live among people for centuries without being found out. You can figure this shit out, but not if you go jumping off a cliff tomorrow."

The reminder of his handy new blood magic talent has Anders gritting his teeth, expression halfway to a grimace. He hadn’t even needed to think about it. There had been no spellcasting, no summoning of power. It had just been there. Same as the “mind-controlling monster” persona that had swept him under.

But she’s right. Maker and his Bride and all their followers be damned, but Hawke hasn’t said a single untrue thing. Except maybe that last bit, but Anders wouldn’t know.

“A blood-drinking creature living like everyone else.” He shakes his head, ignoring the fruitless little spark of hope that has set alight in his chest. “You can’t believe that.” But he can at least concede one point to her. “If I stayed, then… what? I would just go back to the clinic? You would feel comfortable with that?” His clinic, with its door straight to the Hawke estate.

She sits back in the chair, for once taking an actual second to think about words before they puke out her mouth. There'll be steam pouring from her ears any second now.

"Merrill and I covered the clinic before. Why not do it again? It's not like I'm busy or anything."

More sarcasm to disguise the admission beneath: how dedicated she and Merrill had been to keeping his mission going in his absence. Because the two of them never did clinic hours before that- not ever. Merrill didn't even like healing, but she powered through for this- for her affection for Hawke, and her respect for Anders, despite his sometimes-cruelty to her.

His surprise has Anders’s anger wavering. “You… what? When?” But he answers his own question just moments later. It had to be when Anders had been missing. It is, as it was likely intended to be, a sobering thought.

“… I would never have expected that,” he admits, just shy of actually seeming chastened. He often forgets, in the midst of his one-man battle to change the world, that there are those around him willing to help. Perhaps not to go to the same extremes as him, but who would help in some way regardless.

“Thank you. But-” he can’t believe he’s saying this. “-neither of you particularly care for healing. I suppose I would have to… take on an assistant, or two.” Maker help him, he’s actually considering it.

"Brilliant idea. May I suggest two? You might unclench a little if they're using a buddy system."

Now they're talking. She uncrosses and recrosses her legs, eyeing him as if thinking about cutting his bonds. The thank-you goes unacknowledged; she doesn't want to think or give attention to anything that even shares a family tree with her feelings for Anders.

"I'd volunteer, honestly. It wasn't all bad, and I got to see some really weird bones."

The only thing worse than Hawke being pithy about dire situations is when she’s being pity and making a point. This is the part where Anders would pinch the bridge of his nose, were his hands free.

“Better to be accountable to two people instead of one. But then, that’s two more people to trust keeping this secret.” He would rather not meet her eye, but Anders does so then, hoping she can see that he means this. “But I won’t have one of them be you. Not after tonight. I don’t even see why you would volunteer.”

Selfishly, he's glad that his... if not friendship now, then acquaintance with Hawke won't end just yet. But he won't put her at risk because of it.

"Because if I'm involved, then that's one less person to blackmail into keeping secrets."

She doesn't trust anybody in Kirkwall to keep a secret. Blackmail, threats, extortion, or even the simple trick of using somebody too desperate to risk her wrath: these things she trusts.

It's a simple message. No matter her anger at Anders, he still is one of her people, and she will not risk him.

The emotions that brings forth in Anders are complicated and very, very messy. He's grateful even as he resents her stubbornness. He wants the promise of her company even as he acknowledges he doesn't deserve it. Anders shakes his head and looks away then, not needing her to look in his eyes and see it all play out there.

"You don't owe me anything. I'll talk to Varric. He'll find someone."

"No shit," she says lightly. "Remember the part where we said you should get two? For a buddy system? Then again, your assistants will need time off, so maybe you should get three- and make me the fourth. We'll rotate in and out, and there'll always be two other people in the clinic with you."

Like posting night watches at camp. She makes it sound very easy, but she's incredibly tense. There are far too many emotions at play here, and she doesn't want to hear any argument from him even as she hates the thought of his gratitude.

It's like arguing with a stone on a cliff's edge: unyielding, and likely to be dangerous even if he did make any headway. Anders can feel the full weight of the night bearing down on him suddenly, and the thought of dragging this out even longer... it's just too much.

"Fine."

He doesn't sound a bit like it's fine, but it's the most they'll get out of him tonight and they both likely know that.

"Do what you feel you need to do."

And besides, Anders is sure that talking to Varric will change this plan. There's no way he'll risk Hawke in Anders's presence either. Not after Anders tells him exactly what happened. One way or another, Anders will keep Hawke safe from her own stubbornness.

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Vampire AU

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