How do I be un-cliche with vampires and teenagers?

DCLXVI · **Tips:** 0.00 INK by **DCLXVI** on Thu Oct 16, 2008 8:14 pm

OK, I wanted to do a scary RP.

First thing that came to mind was vampires, because they're scary. Now, I'm not talking Twilight vampires. I'm talking about the old vampires. The scary vampires. Not like normal people trying to live normal lives but they've got this thing that almost resembles a disability that manifests itself as something vampire-like. I'm not going for soap opera, or sitcom, or slice of life, I'm going for horror.

The second thing that came to mind is teenagers. They're in the prime of their life. By my standards, that means they taste good, eh? Preferred prey. Especially when they're alone, in the woods, making out.

It's impossible to get the mood right with this site's layout.

But whatever. For setting, I was going for either A) some place in the boonies that's mostly populated with vampires, and they lore normal humans there with something fun/interesting, or B) some place in the boonies that's populated with humans, and at night, the vampires come and get them. ^^

I was thinking along the lines of Something Wicked this way Comes, by Ray Bradbury. You know, the guy who wrote Fahrenheit 451. That guy.

For the plot, I had envisioned something like a Halloween thing (not because it's creepy, but because it's a fair excuse to lure a bunch of unsuspecting youts into the woods at night) set up by the vampires, to lure a bunch of unsuspecting youts out into the woods at night. I had envisioned a scavenger hunt of some sort. Break up into teams, and whoever brings back the most of the things on the list gets some sort of prize. Then, of course, it turns into some sort of "get out alive" thing.

But this all sounds really cheesy. How do I make it good?

Wakboth · **Tips:** 0.00 INK by **Wakboth** on Sat Oct 18, 2008 2:29 pm

Too be honest I think that's damn hard not to do in a cheesey, cliche way. Your best bet is to go for the pure emotional element of friends dying and madness reigning, rather than focus on teenagers talking and laughing etc. Vampires can be done in a more old style, like you say. You could go even further back in history for vampires and use the idea of a brutish, visceral killer. Much more like the modern interpretation of a werewolf.

How about this as an idea along your Halloween scavenger hunt lines. The vampires perhaps don't even have a glamour, they look ugly, rotting and ancient. But this is all in with the Halloween idea so no one notices until the bad things start happening.

Also, just a pure question to throw out there: would you ever do a more 'traditional/ancient' vampire idea, and have like a group of witch/daemon hunters on a more investigative plot. I just think that'd be cool if you like doing vampire things.

Kronos · **Tips:** 0.00 INK by **Kronos** on Sat Oct 18, 2008 5:00 pm

You don't. And you make the teenagers real teenagers and the vampires classical vampires, not love interests! **** you Twilight~

Wakboth · **Tips:** 0.00 INK by **Wakboth** on Sat Oct 18, 2008 5:22 pm

Dude, I must say I think I love you overall

The fork thing, the Hammers Slammers. This

BIG F YOU TO TWILIGHT, CURSES!!

iamsheena · **Tips:** 0.00 INK by **iamsheena** on Sun Oct 19, 2008 1:24 pm

I don't know, after the whole Twilight thing, that vampires will ever be thought of in the old way again. I mean, I haven't even read the Twilight series and I can't think of vampires in the 'good' way anymore, just from what I've heard from readers.

Well, I don't know how this idea fits into your plot possibilities, if at all, but I read these vampire books when I was in like Jr. High, I think and they captured the 'essence' of a vampire pretty well. I think they were by Caroline B Cooney (but I could be wrong) and it's about this single vampire who 'lives' in the tower type bedroom of this house and he sort of controls the people who make that room their own. I'm not talking like total mind control; he sort of feeds on the weaknesses of the individual. In every book, it's a different story, I think, but it's just the one vampire in this bedroom. For example, in one book, this girl is totally unnoticeable, wants the most popular and hottest guy in school, but she's just so plain that no one notices anything about her. So the vampire tells her that he can make her popular, make her noticeable, etc. The only way she can get this though is by ruining other people. So she ends up becoming popular but those who were once popular, become plain, boring, unpopular, and drained and people's lives are pretty much in her hand as he 'sucks the blood' from those popular children. I can't remember how it ends, but it's a pretty chilling story. The vampire is described all scary-like and everything too, so it's good.

I think that you could use the mind control type stuff in any setting; have the vampires toy with the teens mind, using their own weaknesses to get through to others, you know? Just all 'he did this to you, he deserves blah blah blah.' Yeah.

Wakboth · **Tips:** 0.00 INK by **Wakboth** on Sun Oct 19, 2008 3:36 pm

Another great way of doing vampires well is to go for the age old fear/satan thing. Do not have them shown, always a voice in the darkness. Always a supersition in the mind. The children think it's their thoughts but it's the vampires.

zoneoni · **Tips:** 0.00 INK by **zoneoni** on Tue Oct 21, 2008 9:49 am

first thing your gonna wanna do is not refer to them as vampires. find a subtle word that could mean vampires but with a more darker connotation like say maybe.

Selkings or
Cataras

Even though these words were made up, you can describe them to be as vampires and it would be understood that they are infact vampires but are called something different. it helps remove the "twilight effect" as has been mentioned before. if your aiming for something scary, it's very important to have the vampire's perspective to either be non existent or very dark and morbid, if the vampire has a consciousness then he's no longer scary. it's good to write from the perspective of the victims or witnesses. if the vampires are witnessed they should be described as a creature or monster, something with a general identity, not a person, unless their is only one vampire and he somehow leaves something behind that identifies him, like a blood signature or something. as for the layout of the board, i dont know the vampire role play that im in now, warming her pearls, is pretty good, i get the sense of a strong black purpleish color that really sets the mood when im reading, plus i do it at night with the lights off with eerie opeth music playing in the back ground, totally does it for me, lol

Wakboth · **Tips:** 0.00 INK by **Wakboth** on Tue Oct 21, 2008 6:37 pm

"Vampires are mythological or folkloric revenants who subsist by feeding on the blood of the living. In folkloric tales, the undead vampires often visited loved ones and caused mischief or deaths in the neighbourhoods they inhabited when they were alive. They wore shrouds and were often described as bloated and of ruddy or dark countenance, markedly different from today's gaunt, pale vampire which dates from the early Nineteenth Century. Although vampiric entities have been recorded in most cultures, the term vampire was not popularised until the early 18th century, after an influx of vampire superstition into Western Europe from areas where vampire legends were frequent, such as the Balkans and Eastern Europe,[1] although local variants were also known by different names, such as vrykolakas in Greece and strigoi in Romania." - Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vampire

The traditional appearance of vampire doesn't have to be used. Could be an ugly, disfigured and malovelent thing. Also the idea of not giving it an obvious consciousness is good. Though the consciousness can be done well if it shows the sociopathic or deranged nature of the mind. Possibly a consciousness that is fragmented and very erratic and chaotic, but still produces coherent events and exhudes a large amount of manipulation, being even harder to track because the creature seems to leave a very non-sensical trail, discerned from its actions which always seem to be chaotic but do lead to a certain goal of the vampire.

Another way, would perhaps be to not give it a name, refer to it as 'the creature' or something. Even as a serial killer, and have it revealed only at the end what it was. Or just let people sum it up from the clues and never know if it definitely was a vampire. Not referrign to it as a vampire stops people expecting 'typical vampire' thoughts, actions and possible counteractions.

Keep it a mystery

How do I be un-cliche with vampires and teenagers?

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How do I be un-cliche with vampires and teenagers?

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