Almost Eternal - updated 11th August
Almost Eternal April Moss has always lived in her famous mother shadow. Will she find the light she is looking for or will just end up somewhere darker? This is a plot-based story (honestly, ther...
Forum Discussion
@mercuryfoam
Right... lemme pull up a chair and bore you mindless.
Anything we humans would deem as development (body and mind/emotional development) stops completely when the curse manifests (usually around the age of 18) and they become 'frozen in time'. So, in the cases of these characters: April/Faith/Melinda all swapped bodily fluids when they were already 18/19 so their curses manifested almost straightaway; they're stuck at that level of development now and will forever look 18/19.
Lilith was 15 when she drank from Charlotte. It would have been 3 years before her curse fully manifested, which is why she only had 'tiny fangs' and no real thirst for a while. In those 3 years, she would have still been able to learn, but at a much reduced rate, that reduced exponentially the closer she got to 18. So, we'll split the difference and say her emotional age is around 17.
Then we have poor Caleb, forced to drink aged 2. Again, his curse didn't fully manifest until he was 18, which is when his thirst developed and he attacked Nathaniel. From aged 2, his capacity to learn emotionally was severely reduced by his vampirism, like Lilith. Unlike Lilith, he didn't have memories or experiences to draw from to reference and help him learn, because he was only 2, there's only so much a two year old can actively remember, if anything. Add into this, that his curse would be manifesting for 16 years, pushing out what he was trying to learn, it's safe to assume that by the time Lilith realised that Caleb needed active intervention (when he was a teen and ruining girls) that it was largely too late to do anything. Caleb is, essentially, rogue. A small boy in the body of a very dangerous, urge-driven beast.
Of course, all of the above is assuming there's not a way to manipulate a vampire brain externally, which there may be...
Bang on.
She said it herself "Eventually, I learned that my fear was what really did it for the sick monster and learned to numb myself"
Lilith certainly deserves some admiration for carrying on through all this huge pile of poop she's had to deal with, but it takes a certain type of person to be able to do that.
It's a way of turning a human which results in them being the sire's possession. It involves draining the human completely of blood and 'replacing' it with the sire's. Practiced commonly among society vampires during marriage, but deemed archaic and monsterous as it takes away the autonomy of the bride. So in this chapter, Charlotte was bound to Silas; he had complete control over her, body and mind and could bend her to his will, although we do see her manipulating him, too, and defying him as best she can. It's a patriarchal practice, yes, to create a submissive wife. But just because it's not deemed acceptable anymore, doesn't mean there's not a vamp out there somewhere who'd still practice it.
Right... lemme pull up a chair and bore you mindless.
although infant-turned vampires start off with deprived emotional capacity, they can learn emotional intelligence, just at an extremely low rate. Right?
will a freshly turned 21 y.o. vampire struggle with the final bit of emotional development, perhaps only reaching maturity during much later years of 30 or 35? Or would they still reach emotional maturity at the same rate?
Do vampires in your lore continue to grow EQ and capacity after they've been turned, so Lilith could theoretically have the EQ of a 300++ y.o. vampire
Anything we humans would deem as development (body and mind/emotional development) stops completely when the curse manifests (usually around the age of 18) and they become 'frozen in time'. So, in the cases of these characters: April/Faith/Melinda all swapped bodily fluids when they were already 18/19 so their curses manifested almost straightaway; they're stuck at that level of development now and will forever look 18/19.
Lilith was 15 when she drank from Charlotte. It would have been 3 years before her curse fully manifested, which is why she only had 'tiny fangs' and no real thirst for a while. In those 3 years, she would have still been able to learn, but at a much reduced rate, that reduced exponentially the closer she got to 18. So, we'll split the difference and say her emotional age is around 17.
Then we have poor Caleb, forced to drink aged 2. Again, his curse didn't fully manifest until he was 18, which is when his thirst developed and he attacked Nathaniel. From aged 2, his capacity to learn emotionally was severely reduced by his vampirism, like Lilith. Unlike Lilith, he didn't have memories or experiences to draw from to reference and help him learn, because he was only 2, there's only so much a two year old can actively remember, if anything. Add into this, that his curse would be manifesting for 16 years, pushing out what he was trying to learn, it's safe to assume that by the time Lilith realised that Caleb needed active intervention (when he was a teen and ruining girls) that it was largely too late to do anything. Caleb is, essentially, rogue. A small boy in the body of a very dangerous, urge-driven beast.
Of course, all of the above is assuming there's not a way to manipulate a vampire brain externally, which there may be...
Spoiler
https://i.ibb.co/tM6cfF6/09-28-20-2-37-18-PM.png
Although I have to say this is a terrible double edged sword as pointed out in your story since Caleb knows clearly how important morality is to his sister and the world, but cannot feel it nor apply it onto himself. He can develop a learned understanding of it, but it will never be as deep nor will he ever experience it himself. Hence, adopting Lilith's morality is an added layer of torment that he will think himself innately flawed and 'lacking'.
Bang on.
Is Lilith truly numb when she provided us this chapter?
Parts that I expected her to rage or cry, or become aggressive or at least passive aggressive towards Caleb are glossed over.
She said it herself "Eventually, I learned that my fear was what really did it for the sick monster and learned to numb myself"
Lilith certainly deserves some admiration for carrying on through all this huge pile of poop she's had to deal with, but it takes a certain type of person to be able to do that.
What does it mean to be bound?
It's a way of turning a human which results in them being the sire's possession. It involves draining the human completely of blood and 'replacing' it with the sire's. Practiced commonly among society vampires during marriage, but deemed archaic and monsterous as it takes away the autonomy of the bride. So in this chapter, Charlotte was bound to Silas; he had complete control over her, body and mind and could bend her to his will, although we do see her manipulating him, too, and defying him as best she can. It's a patriarchal practice, yes, to create a submissive wife. But just because it's not deemed acceptable anymore, doesn't mean there's not a vamp out there somewhere who'd still practice it.
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