#alice would be tremere

[benevolentvampire]

i just got struck by the idea for a vtm sao crossover au and im-

[thevalicemultiverse]

Particularly feral looking Vampire in Wizard hat: "You present me with a two pronged road! One leads to Hell, and the other ALSO leads to Hell!"

Presumed Vampire Hunter: "CHOOSE WISELY!"

Feral Wizard Vampire: "But meaty fool that you are, you do not realize that I can simply WALK OFF THE FUCKING ROAD!!!"

Hunter, distraught: "NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!"

[This meme was sourced from Hunter: The Parenting, a Youtube series inspired by World of Darkness lore]

Alice: ...I refuse to believe this isn't just two Malkavians fucking around. From what I understand, this is totally something my clan would do.

[victorluvsalice]

Merry Christmas SlyCooperAndCarlosFox!

@slycooperandcarlosfox As per your brief, here is the Ventrue version of your Ducktales OC Phillianne Tropy having a nice long bitch with her ghoulfriend Zan about all the stupid quests the vampires in Los Angeles are having her do. Hope you enjoy!

--

“And then, when I got back to the bar, it seemed to take everything Damsel had to give me even a grudging thanks! Like, yes, I don’t expect you to start worshiping at my feet or anything, you are pure Anarch, but it would be nice to have my hard work properly acknowledged! Especially when I saved you all from a damn plague death cult that was set up pretty damn clearly in the middle of the freaking city! Did I mention that their headquarters was literally across the street from the Tremere Primogen’s chantry?”

“You did,” Zan said, fighting back a smile as she listened to her girlfriend rant. “You had a hell of a night, didn’t you?”

“Oh, you’ve barely heard the half of it – and they wanted to put all this on Alice! A fledgling vampire without a sire! Someone who barely know what it is to be Kindred yet! I mean, I’m pretty sure she would have acquitted herself well, she’s damn capable, but – I can just about see why LaCroix was making it her problem, he’s an idiot, but Primogen Strauss? And Baron Rodriguez – sure, there were other Anarchs going around killing Brotherhood members, but they were working in teams! Why the hell was Alice expected to do all that groundwork on her own? If it was because of a nominal allegiance to the Camarilla, that’s totally unfair, she’s got no choice in being a member thanks to what happened with that Fish guy. . .I don’t know what it is with these Kindred in L.A. and their complete inability to work together on anything–” Phillianne broke off suddenly with a huff. “I’m sorry, Zan. I know you didn’t call to hear me complain.”

“No, no, it’s fine,” Zan assured her, crossing her legs as she leaned back against the couch cushions. “I’m the one who noted you sounded tired. . .and honestly, it’s only fair.”

“Fair?”

“Yeah – after all, how many times did I call you back when I was working for that absolute idiot Glomgold to complain about him and his latest schemes?”

Phillianne chuckled. “Yeah, all right, true. But still – hell of a way to end the night.”

“Hopefully tomorrow night will be better.” Zan checked the horizon through the window. “You’d better start bunking down – sunrise should be in just a few minutes.”

“Yeah, I know. . .and you should get an extra hour or two of sleep in before you go and start running Calisota,” Phillianne replied, tone firm. “I won’t have my ghoulfriend thinking she can survive on just Kindred vitae and coffee.”

“That’s still an awful pun, you know.”

“Yeah, well, I’m all the way over in Los Angeles right now, so you can’t do anything about it.” Phillianne sighed. “Damn, I miss you.”

“I miss you too,” Zan murmured, tapping her foot against the carpet. “But it won’t be too long before we see each other again.”

“Maybe – the situation here is even worse than I thought. I might be gone for at least a few more weeks. Depending on what they ask me – or Alice – to help out with next.”

“We’ve got eternity. We can make do.” She smirked. “And hey – maybe this idiot LaCroix will get himself blown up or something by an angry Anarch so you can come home early.”

“Ha – we can only hope.”

--

[hallowsweenie]

My playthrough of Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines!

I’ll be playing this on PC, with the most modern Unofficial Patch installed.

My character is a Tremere kindred named Vega, who dresses a little more matrix-y in my head than shown.

I’ll log my updates on my progress on this thread!

Update parts 1-4

Part 5

I have gone through Downtown LA and into Hollywood. I am falling increasingly more and more in love with this game.

Dialogue choices in this game are proving to be more and more genius with nuanced commentary on the time it came out through the lips of well voice-acted characters. Some examples

and if anyone should know anything about me, im a celebrity and movie NUT and i LOVE all the references to these two things!

With Romero: he wanted me to watch the zombie-infested graveyard while he was gone, but I didn't want to kill zombies. So I offered to get him a hooker instead. Guy was real grateful

A really cool part for me was when I, a vampire babe, had a sword battle to the death with a vampire hunting babe inside of a stripper peepshow joint.

Apparently I did this too noisily and got some crap from VV. It was sad. I'm really into VV but I think i fudged it with her by doing this.

A part that was well enjoyed was Grout's Mansion, as I'm a big dark Alice in Wonderland fan as well as maddening ramblings with pretty scenery. This place had the most Vibe inducing look to it and it's gonna stick with me for a long time.

THIS SECTION WITH THE MANNEQUINS WAS VERY CREEPY FOR ME! I AM AFRAID OF THESE KIND OF THINGS SINCE SILENT HILL 3!

So as a big museum fan the museum level was a hit. I got very frustrated with the cameras part in the basement but i thoroughly enjoyed the atmosphere. 9/10 would go to this museum and its exhibits irl

RAPTOR JUMPSCARE!

Where I'm currently at is trying to get this nasty fuck at the Sin Bin to reveal the whereabouts of the creators of the snuff film the Baron sent me after to go and find. He won't budge. Too scared to talk about it, and I haven't put enough points in persuasion or intimidation - and i dont have $500. I spent it on clothes

now time for detail appreciation

Let it be known the internet cafe only had a MEN'S bathroom

[dawnlotus1]

I literally love my VTM campaign sm <3 yall if this was streamed I guarantee you would love them too.

The campaign is run by @viv-weylin , and me, @elmflowers and @woodenfawn are the players!

It’s called New Orleans by Night (like others of its kind) (set in you guessed it. New Orleans).

I play a character by the name of Alice Adalhaidus. She’s a Toreador, 130 years old and quick to judge others. She owns a cabaret called “The Looking Glass” which serves humans by day/late evening and goes by the name “Wonderland” at night for Kindred. She hosts Elysiums often. She is a little obsessed with climbing the vampire social ladder and it has made her the worst version of herself. I plan on sending her through a character arc to become a better person. She is very caring towards her employees and those she considers actual friends rather than just political connections. She gives her employees over pay and vacation time almost to a suspicious degree. She would never drink her human employees blood but she has used her powers on them to keep them unaware of the vampire world. They all think of her as their extremely eccentric boss. She is predator type Bagger and she buys all her blood as she believes she is above attacking people. She’s always drinking blood out of wine bottles/chalices. She does not know how to use smartphones/modern technology. She sends carrier pigeons. I’ll get back to talking about her because I’m obsessed with my own OC yes but first I wanna introduce my fellow players.

Flowchi plays Bartholomew Buonarroti who is a Nosfaratu whose primary job is Vtuber. He’s over 500 years old, bald as hell, and currently 6’4” but getting taller whenever flowchi decides. He lives in the sewers and eats rats. Predator type farmer. He would 100% be the fan favorite if this was a show. He immediately adopts and plays the mentor for Hannah. He is mamas favorite boy and he has a bunch of annoying siblings. His VTuber sona is AlysterBytes.

Woodenfawn (aroc) plays Hannah, an extremely new vampire. Clan Tremere and predator type Pursuer. She was a 30 year old woman who had/has an almost chunnibyou like obsession with the supernatural. She was stalking a vampire by the name of Sirius, believing him to be a fellow LARP-er. When surprise! he wasn’t- she asked to be turned instead of killed. Now she’s been a vampire barely 3 days and we have dragged her into some crazy shit. She extremely space-y and often gets treated like a child due to her newness to the kindred world.

There are so many NPCs I love who I could introduce but aaaa I’ll save them for another post. Plus if Mey or the others show up to correct their character descriptions or add on that too.

However I think I gotta talk a little bit about Yvonne, she’s a vampire hunter who’s tracking down a specific vampire who has turned and enthralled her sister. This same vampire is the one who turned Alice 100 years ago and HE SUCKS WE HATE HIM. His name is Calix Cardon and I could rant about how he sucks for a while but all you need to know is that we both want to kill him. Thus despite being Vampire and Hunter, Alice and Yvonne are working together. And have. Maybe. Developed feelings for each other. Eheheh.

Yvonne is 45 yrs old and badass as hell. She’s also cringefail and cannot roll well to save her life despite having good stats. Alice is relentlessly teased by Bart and Hannah over her obvious crush on her. What if you were a vampire hunter and blue themed and I was a vampire and red themed.. and we were both girls..

Sirius is here too he’s Hannah’s sire , Tremere and also from the 1920’s tho Goth. He’s having a mental breakdown right now. Only some of that is Hannah’s fault but honestly I’ll probably make another post breaking down some of the key plot because I’ve already been rambling so long but anyway. He’s not having a good time. He kinda shoved Hannah onto Alice who is terribly far from matronly and ended up in Barts care.

Party composition feels like The Responsible uncle/stepdad and his sister The Wine Aunt whom bicker constantly take care of New to this world but Excited to be here Hannah while running from/investigating the massive forces that have seemed to hone in on their personal problems.

Some important events I could talk about :3

Alice’s beloved Cabaret nearly gets burns to the ground.

Bart gets Doxxed.

Hannah’s first frenzy may have caused problems.

Sirius was kidnapped.

We’ve made contact with some pretty powerful vampires in this city who have it out for us. Though we may be able to convince some to our side.

Gosh gosh yeah hmmm I’ll make more lore posts later methinks..

Oh also! I run a in character roleplay blog for Alice at Alice-adalhaidus tho it’s NOT UP TO DATE. We are 5 sessions ahead of what lore I’ve managed to transcribe. Oof. I’ll get back to it soon.

You've mentioned a vampire vtm campaign you're playing a few times I'm curious about it

Anon I’ve been waiting for an ask like this all my life. Anon I’m going to reblog this ask with a long ass post rambling about me and my friend’s beloved campaign. Wait right here :]]

[miss-floral-thief]

At thin blood ghouling the Prince, hopefully that doesn’t backfire lol

[yourturntositcom]

Oneshot! Tldr at the bottom! Tw: hurt comfort! Mentions of gender dysphoria and being awake at 3am because I can't write fics not at ungodly hours of the night-

Shin blinked a bit has he stared up at the ceiling, something felt off. And it wasn't that it was 3am and he was just getting out of a depressive episode. He slowly sat up and looked to the door, he bit hand as he looked around the room. "fothing a miff," he spoke have muffled, it wouldn't hurt to look around right?

Shin had only made it to the kitchen when he heard it, a quite mess of breathing. The sound was very familiar to him, but it was normally his own that he heard not someone else's. A small pitter patter of steps led him to the door it came from, Alice's, the dark oak wood looked daunting in front of him and the sound seemed to originate from there. He raised his hand to knock, "If it's a nightmare he'll wake up if it's something else he'll ask," he mumbled as he knocked on the door, a quick gasp and mild shuffling occurred. Awake.

"Alice you OK? I heard from down the hall and got concerned." he spoke a little quieter than he would of liked but none the less hearable, "Y-yeah! Co-completly fine." his voice had a slight tremer, while yes it wasn't common for him to cry or be in a elevated level of distress Shin knew he was lying, "Can I come in? You don't sound OK," he asked looking to the door, a slight shuffle came from the door. "Hehe... I don't-don't think yo-you'd want to." Alice spoke his voice a little horse, Shin only shook his head, "I asked if I can come in not if I want to." he waited for second as silence filled the air.

Click

Shin looked to see the door handle move and move the door so it was slightly a jar, he nodded and stepped inside closing the door behind himself, "Do you want to have it locked?" he asked looking up to Alice who had now taken his place on an office chair his back facing Shin, "Whatever." Shin locked it, "Do you want to ta-" Alice snapped his head around, "Ho-how can you forget-forget something?" he asked dried tears on his cheeks and his arms bare, "Well that depends on what it is," he flapped his hand around a bit as Alice turned completely around, "Yknow ho-how you forgot the first 6 years of your life." his voice was clearing but Shin's was now a sputtering mess, "A-Alice that-that isn't a thi-thing you'd want." he nodded smiling walking around in a pacing manner, messing with the tang top he was wearing. "I know. I just want to not remember being yknow born wrong."

Shin's mind finally fully caught up with the conversation, Alice was in a slight spiral. He had seen this before, granted he had seen mostly Kugie and Nao having such spirals but they were quite similar, this was completely different from them. "Alice you-" "Don't say it. You know I'm right." he cut him off pacing more, "If I was already in the right body they wouldn't call me-me Ka-" "Alice Yabusame." Shin held onto his hand causing him to freeze, "You are Alice Yabusame." Alice looked back at him, "You are Reko's older brother." Shin held onto his hand tighter a bit, "You are one of the hardest working men I've ever met," Alice slowly laced his fingers in between Shin's, "You are so strong and capable that in comparison I am less of a man than you are," Alice bit his tongue staying silent, "And the man that I fell in love with."

Shin froze slapping a hand over his mouth, "I-I d-didn't th-think tha-that'd co-come out..." he slowly looked up to Alice, his eyes were wide and his cheeks were a slight rose shade. Shin turned beet red, "Shin Tsukimi," Alice raised his free hand slightly, Shin only flinched and turned his head so the he didn't directly face him. "I am so sorry I didn't think I would say that I-" "Shin Tsukimi I am not upset. I only want to know if you meant it." Shin looked at the ground and nodded, "I have never been much of a liar." he moved his hands away and slipped them into his pockets Shin only avoided Alice's gaze, the silence between them becoming unbearable.

"I-I'll go. I fu-" Shin tried to walk away but Alice hugged onto him, he froze a bit before relaxing into Alice's touch reciprocating the action. "I feel the same. I am sorry if I made you think I didn't," he spoke calmly moving away enough so that he could see Shin's face. Shin looked at him a tad wide eyed, he looked like a gapping fish as he looked at Alice. Who only giggled, "You alright Shin Tsukimi?-" Shin held onto his cheeks, "Can I kiss you please?" he asked looking at him smiling a bit. Alice smiled back, giggling a bit, "Of course," he smiled leaning into him. Shin smiled and leaned into him, let his eyes flutter closed. And closed the distance, they smiled into the kiss before pulling away. Shin giggled a bit smiling, Alice joined him in giggling.

"Shin Tsukimi will you be my boyfriend?" he asked smiling widely, his cheeks slightly flushed. Shin smiled widely nodding quickly, "Yes! I'd love to," he giggled a bit hugging onto Alice once more. He smiled hugging him back tightly, "Can I stay here the night? It's kinda late," he pulled back scratching the back of his neck, Alice nodded. "Of course I don't mind," he smiled giving him a quick peck on the cheek, "You can come here and stay whenever you want," they both giggled, "Great!"

Tldr: Alice have complicated gender hours at 3am and Shin accidentally confesses to him when trying to comfort him. And kisses

[thevalicemultiverse]

Dormouse: I don't have any glasses for the eclipse someone relay it to me when it happens

Hare: sun, less sun, less sun, less sun, less sun, less sun, less sun, less sun, less sun, less sun, less sun, less sun, less sun, less sun, less sun, less sun, less sun, less sun, less sun, less sun, less sun, less sun, less sun, less sun, less sun, no sun :(

more sun, more sun, more sun, more sun, more sun, more sun, more sun, more sun, more sun, more sun, more sun, more sun, more sun, more sun, more sun, more sun, more sun, more sun, more sun, sun again

Dormouse: It's like I'm there

Alice: I'm going to be honest, I rather appreciate the description myself, given that I'm never actually going to see a solar eclipse again. Part of me does wonder if I'd be able to move about normally during the day during the moment of totality, but the rest of me knows it is not worth the risk.

[thevalicemultiverse]

(Meanwhile in England, a Tremere and a Hunter are having a debate on top of a moving train)

Kevin, the Tremere: YOUR BRAIN IS MADE OF BAD MEAT!

Big-D, the Hunter: NO, IT’S GOOD!!!

Kevin: YOU BLUBBERING BULBOUS BUMPKIN! YOU CANNOT BUY A BLENDER AT A 99P STORE!

Big-D: IN 1922, STEPHEN POPLAWSKI WAS THE FIRST MAN TO MOUNT AN AGITATING ELEMENT IN A SIMPLE GLASS CONTAINER.

Kevin: WOW, COOL!!!

Big-D: IT HAS BEEN 84 YEARS, KEVIN! YOUR HYPOTHESIS PRESUMES SUCH PLACIDITY THAT IT SPITS IN THE VERY FACE OF HUMAN PROGRESS!

Kevin: THE MARGINS ON A 99 PENCE BLENDER WOULD BE 29 POUNDS IN THE RED, YOU OIL BARREL!

Big-D: MARGINS! AND SUCH MARGINS SHOULD MARGINALIZE MY RIGHT TO BUY A BLENDER FOR 99P?!

Kevin: THAT’S NOT YOUR RIGHT! THAT’S NOT ANYONE’S RIGHT! GHOUL! READ HIM HIS RIGHTS!

DS Guy Graham, the ghoul, had been sipping on Kevin’s blood through a curly straw during the entire conversation:…Can’t you just crush things with a spoon?

Both: SPOON!?

(Big-D and Kevin start screaming at Guy as he goes back to slurping Kevin’s blood)

(Now back in LA as Alice continues to find the Ankaran Sarcophagus)

Alice: . . .so what you're saying is that my life could always get weirder and, arguably, stupider. That being said, Big-D may want a cheap blender, but I personally would be deeply suspicious of any blender that showed up in a 99p store. That thing either does not work at all or has eaten some fingers.

[thevalicemultiverse]

I think we should adopt the Vampire Ground Finch as the official Fledgling Mascot!

Alice: I’m not necessarily opposed, but how would that work? Are you suggesting we print up a bunch of these “Fledglings: We Get The Job Done” shirts and -- give them to vampires to hand over to anyone they might Embrace? They’d probably consider it a bit weird. . .then again, I am a known Malkavian, maybe I could get away with it on those grounds. . .

[victorluvsalice]

AU Thursday: Fallout of Darkness -- More On The Nature of Ug-Qualtoth

I know that at least one new follower, @anotherisodope, has been waiting for me to tackle this one. I’ve already spoken on everyone’s favorite Fallout eldritch being previously -- namely while setting the stage for Victor and Alice to have a very bad time down in the Dunwich Borers quarry. My idea was that Ug-Qualtoth was responsible for the existence of the World of Darkness-style vampires in this verse, having “infected” the earliest members with a portion of its essence, giving them power and immortality in exchange for a blood thirst and having to hide in the darkness.

And then, I found “Fallout Lore: Ug-Qualtoth, The Krivbeknih and The Blackhall Family” on YouTube, by Synonymous, which -- besides being a very good sum-up of Ug-Qualtoth’s “storyline” across Fallout 3 and Fallout 4 -- made a very good case for Ug-Qualtoth being a god of radiation, and closely linked to ghouls (specifically, using ferals as a kind of worshiper). I found it all fascinating, but I wanted to keep my idea of the god also being responsible for vampires. So after turning it over in my mind for a while, I came up with this:

Ug-Qualtoth is, essentially, “existence defying death and decay” -- the persistence of a creature beyond that which should have really killed it. It is closely tied to both blood and radiation, and is responsible for both World of Darkness vampires and Fallout ghouls, but in different ways:

Vampires are the result of Ug-Qualtoth observing early human civilizations and seeing two things happen very close to each other -- Caine accidentally killing his brother Abel in a rage after Abel’s offering to their God was deemed better than his, and being cast out and killed in turn; and Lilith, who had been ejected from the same community earlier for not being properly obedient toward said God or her husband, dying of starvation while desperately looking for a new home. Ug-Qualtoth was bored and decided to see what would happen if those two came back, and thus infected them with a portion of his essence, bringing them somewhat back to life. The two fled their terrified neighbors and found each other, and the pair eventually figured out how to talk to the dark power that had reanimated them via means of a blood ritual, using the blade that Caine had used to kill Abel (why yes, that IS Kremvh’s Tooth!). They got access to most of the Disciplines we know and love and the ability to pass them on to others in the Embrace in exchange for the blood thirst and the need to avoid sunlight. The two eventually went their separate ways, Caine founded Enoch, all that fun stuff. The clans and bloodlines and whatnot are the result of the essence of Ug-Qualtoth getting diluted with each generation/creation of a new clan (like the Tremere stealing it from the Salubri), meaning only certain powers and whatnot pass on “natively” with the Embrace. WoD!Ghouls and thin-bloods have the weakest connection, though if any of them could figure out how to speak to Ug-Qualtoth directly. . .

Ghouls (Fallout-style) meanwhile, are the result of Ug-Qualtoth getting trapped on Earth sometime during its dealings with the Blackhall family, just in time to be around when the bombs dropped. Its mere presence on the planet, and its link to radiation in this universe (deadly and yet fantastical), led to some people -- those ever-so-slightly more attuned to worlds and forces beyond the Earth -- getting the power to survive the bombs and the fallout and become ghouls. Ug-Qualtoth is able to more directly influence ferals, who have their higher reasoning stripped as they decay, and uses their crude “worship” as they gather around its sites of power to help sustain itself as it waits for the people it sensed with the right cosmic attunement to finally come along and free it. As for non-ferals? Well, it’s interesting -- the closer you get to where Ug-Qualtoth is buried in the Dunwich Borers quarry, the “healthier” they seem to be, as they’re closer to the source of the power that keeps them going. (AKA, I can use this to explain the reason non-enemy-fodder ghouls tend to look more and more photogenic as the series progresses!) None of them necessarily have any magical powers, but they DO have an almost supernatural toughness, and the ability to go without food and water for quite a while if necessary. I mean, yes, they can and will eat and drink, and generally get some use out of those actions, but such needs can get suspended if they’re stuck somewhere that isn’t exactly conducive to them.

You know.

Like a fridge.

. . .okay, yes, I DID just come up with this while I was writing it, but “Billy was kept alive in that damn fridge by the dark energies of the eldritch being nearby who was responsible for his ghoulification in the first place” is as good an explanation as any for that quest, right? Hell, maybe Billy has the same cosmic alignment Victor and Alice have and was the “backup plan” should they die before reaching the quarry. . .

Anyway! tl;dr -- Ug-Qualtoth is a god all about existing past that which would normally destroy you; vampires and creatures related to them are the result of direct infection by and bargains with this god; Fallout ghouls are the result of the god getting trapped on earth and some of its essence getting spread with the dropping of the bombs, being absorbed by people who then got the ability to survive the radiation and other places not conducive to life. Sound good?

[victorluvsalice]

AU Thursday: Tell Me Where To Find Shelter/Fallout of Darkness Worldbuilding

I really gotta decide on a proper name for this verse. . .anyway, a few worldbuilding thoughts about this weirdass crossover, focused around how vampires work here:

-->I’m still trying to figure out how Bloodlines would work in the world of Fallout 4, but I do know Heather was a person in Alice’s life for a little while. Alice sent her away shortly after the “locking a man in the bathroom” incident, realizing the blood bond was doing awful things to Heather’s head. She wanted to catch up with her at some point, try and forge a real friendship, but -- the ending of Bloodlines happened, and I’m thinking Alice ended up fleeing L.A. as soon as she could.

-->I stated in the past that this version of the Commonwealth has a small vampire community, living in Wildwood Cemetery because I once saw a mod that set up a player house in there. It’s about eight vampires, and made up of the various vampires you can pick for Bloodlines protagonists. I’m thinking Male Ventrue, Female Toreador, Female Nosferatu, Male Tremere, Female Brujah, Male Gangrel, and both the Female and Male Malkavians because I like thinking of them as creepy twins. XD I’m not sure when Victor encounters them, but he helps them out with a hunter problem and earns their loyalty that way. Also, the Malkavians call him “Sole Survivor” because I think it’s funny.

-->The Wildwood vampires have Plasma Fruit from Sims 4 at their disposal! With the nuclear war having killed off a lot of the vampires’ food supply, not to mention a fair number of vampires, the Tremere ended up pouring a lot of effort and blood into a ritual to warp the mutfruit that developed in the aftermath of the radiation. They succeeded, and the Tremere of the Wildwood maintains a couple of plants for their community. It doesn’t taste great to them -- nothing compares to a fresh human neck -- but it satisfies their nutritional needs, and that works for them.

-->As for other vampires in the Commonwealth:

1. I think the blood center up near Fort Hagen is being maintained by a Tremere who hasn’t quite gone wight (aka 0 Humanity) yet, but is on the edge. They’re keeping their emergency blood supply magically preserved, meaning it serves as a great food source for Alice and the Wildwood vampires after Victor ends up tangling with the Tremere investigating the place.

2. You know how Deacon implies that he’s had regular plastic surgery to maintain his anonymity in the Commonwealth? I kind of want to make his “surgeon” a friendly Tzimisce who fleshcrafts him from time to time in exchange for blood. They’ve got the usual creepy flesh decoration thing going on, but it’s all nonsentient animal parts. Everyone is still freaked out.

3. I have mentioned that I think it would be funny for Caine to be the “Mysterious Stranger” in this reality? XD I just want Alice to be able to ask him “so, the cab driver thing didn’t work out, huh?” and tell Nick that he can arrest the Stranger for “murder -- the FIRST murder, in fact!” (Nick, meanwhile, is having a mild panic attack over his “white whale” target being THE GRANDDADDY OF ALL VAMPIRES)

-->Mama Murphy’s Sight in this verse? She spent some time in her youth the unknowing ghoul of a Malkavian, who told her his blood was some sort of special drug. She gained a measure of Malk insight during her time with him -- and when he died, it lingered. She’s been using chems to activate it in a desperate attempt to find the same high drinking “Vitae” gave her. Alice is pissed when she figures this out.

-->Also, I kind of want Coursers to be as tough as they are thanks to some sort of infusion of vampire blood in their system. I haven’t fully decided where the Institute is sourcing this blood, but -- well, it would make SENSE for Beckett to have gotten tangled up in this mess, right?

-->And now, a moment with “Me and My Brain:”

Me: Urgh. . .I still have no idea how I’m going to fix Alice’s little “sunlight issue!” I kind of want to leave the job to Jack Cabot, but I don’t feel like I know enough about him and his quests to really commit to that. . .but what other options do I have?

My Brain: Psst.

Me: What do you want?

My Brain: Remember how you stumbled across Monte Cook’s World of Darkness and liked the general idea of how an incursion by some Lovecraftian being caused vampires and whatnot?

Me: Yesss. . .

My Brain: Doesn’t Fallout 4 canonically have a Lovecraftian being in it? And you stumble right into one of the spots where it was being worshiped?

Me: . . .

Me & My Brain: [evil grin]

So yes, vampires in this verse are in fact the result of Caine’s murder of Abel calling a bit of the essence of Ug-Qualtoth into the world, which “infected” Caine and caused the vampirism thing. Also Kremvh's Tooth (the sacrificial machete you find in Dunwich Borers) is the weapon Caine used to do in Abel. The bit of Ug-Qualtoth in Dunwich Borers notices Alice and her condition while she’s trying to help the hallucinating Victor, and puts it in the couple’s heads that, if they kill someone using the Tooth and Alice drinks the blood, it’ll strengthen the connection to Alice just enough for Ug to fix the “burns to death in sunlight” issue (I can travel near the stars with no issue; why can’t you?) Victor and Alice are -- uh -- anxious about taking the deal, but can’t leave until Victor at least takes the Tooth, and eventually it gets used on some pretty vile enemy, which does indeed lead to Alice being able to walk in sunlight. (Possibly the other vampires too, if Ug is feeling nice.) Alice is quite anxious about being manipulated by the essence of Ug within her, but Ug never actually does anything, content to watch its “children” in this strange world.

[victorluvsalice]

AU Thursday: Tell Me Where To Find Shelter -- Weird And Complicated Video Game Crossover AUs Strike Again

Okay, so last week I offered you all an updated rewrite on my old Fallout 4 Sole Survivor!Victor AU, Tell Me Where To Find Shelter. And at the very end of said update, I let you know that I had an idea for fitting Alice into the AU --

Specifically, my Malkavian Alice from Vampire: the Masquerade -- Bloodlines.

Look, the fact of the matter is, Fallout 4 and Bloodlines have been rather closely connected in my head from day one of my purchasing them -- hell, I got them during the same Steam sale! (Along with the BioShock series entire, which is why I had a couple of posts about Tell Me Where to Find Shelter back in 2016, then it dropped off the face of the earth -- I played Bloodlines first, and followed up with that series.) And my “Londerland Bloodlines” playthrough of Bloodlines was done concurrently with my starting up Fallout 4, so -- yeah. Me wanting to figure out how to cross the two over was probably inevitable.

I know what you’re all thinking, of course -- “how the hell do you make this sort of crossover work?” Well, I have had a few ideas:

-->This version of Malkavian Alice and her adventures in 2004 Los Angeles would be much more like the standard fledgling’s, given that the Corpse Bride characters are now born in the future. So the person she saves in the hospital is Heather (who she does manage to send away in time to save her life), and the Giovanni party goes down without dragging an undead version of Lizzie into the mix. Obviously the story and setting would have to be tweaked to fit better into Fallout’s alternate history (though given what the computers in the original game are like, maybe that’s easier than expected). She still goes Independent, and escapes from Los Angeles in the wake of LaCroix’s explosive death, making her way slowly but surely to the East Coast because she has had enough of California and everyone there.

-->She manages to get on with her unlife, watching the growing tensions with China and the Resource Wars with unease, but keeping to herself and doing her best not to let her humanity slip as she gets older. When the bombs fall, she’s sleeping the day away in a basement bunker she set up in Boston -- but the destruction from the explosion ends up collapsing part of the ceiling, burying her in rubble -- with a chunk of timber piercing her heart. She ends up in a staked torpor. . .

-->Until Victor shows up at her location at night to clear out a few raiders who are taking over the place as a base. One of the raiders yanks out the stake to use as a weapon, has three seconds to wonder why it’s got fresh blood on it -- then Alice explodes from her centuries-long hiding place and drinks him dry. Victor is too stunned at first to actually shoot her, and once Alice’s blood thirst has been quest, she immediately puts her hands up and does her best to show she means him no harm. They talk, Alice explains what happened (and goes ahead and admits she’s a vampire when Victor explains about the nuclear apocalypse -- who gives a shit about the Masquerade when the world has ended?), she offers to help with the remaining raiders to prove her good intentions, Victor accepts, and they take down the assholes together.

-->Obviously, Alice isn’t immediately “unlockable” as a companion -- she’s still got her sunlight thing, after all! She and Victor chat about it, and Victor, feeling bad, offers his assistance. Alice accepts -- she misses the sun -- and says that she’ll stay where she is for the moment (after finding a non-partially-collapsed basement to stay in) and keep raiders and monsters out while he searches for information. And so the “Here Comes The Sun” quest begins, with Victor searching for a way to counteract the sunlight curse! I’m thinking this would end up interacting with the Cabot family stuff, because I don’t think it would be hard at all to change the source of their immortality, and the artifact upon Lorenzo’s head, from something alien to something vampiric. Maybe Lorenzo’s partially possessed by the spirit of an Antediluvian, and it’s turned his blood into something close enough to vitae it can make ghouls? At any rate, Jack manages to whip something up after examining some of Alice’s blood (which, naturally, she’s kind of nervous about, but what choice does she have?), and it successfully stops her from burning up in sunlight (though she is weaker in it). A grateful Alice thanks Victor (and Jack) and agrees to travel with him to experience the Commonwealth.

-->As they go on together, they end up getting closer -- Alice likes that Victor is generally a good guy and sympathizes with the story of his lost family; Victor likes Alice’s snarky wit and strong sense of justice. As they share more details of their lives, help out the settlements, and battle monsters together, they realize they’re growing feelings for each other, and eventually get together, facing off against the Institute as a couple and parenting Synth Shaun/Chester together afterwards. (Alice jokes a lot that it took both her dying and the end of the world in general to finally get a domestic happy ending.)

-->Alice’s starting clothes would be a simple blue dress and apron with black buckled boots (the dress would naturally have a big bloody hole right over her heart when she first wakes up; she patches this after you leave her to her own devices for a bit), and she’d have the Tal’Mahe’Ra Blade (her prize from her storming of the Hallowbrook Hotel, taken from Andrei’s lair) as her standard weapon. She has a unique bite attack, being a vampire, and can still use Obfuscate (turning invisible to sneak past/sneak attack enemies) and Dementation (inflict debuffs on enemies so they’re confused and can’t shoot straight, or kill a single enemy from fear alone), though both have a cooldown so Victor can’t rely on her just spamming that to take care of every raider for him! XD Her perk would allow you to drain blood from enemy corpses (which other companions would find less disturbing than outright cannibalism, but still fairly creepy) and/or increase the healing capabilities of blood packs. I’m thinking, once romanced, she’d also have a unique variation of the “Lover’s Embrace” temporary perk, “Love Bite” -- Victor wakes up with HP not fully restored, but the XP boost is greater than “Lover’s Embrace” (+20% vs +15%).

-->Other vampiric elements of the Commonwealth would include:

A) That blood bank you can find? Those bags of blood are warm and fresh because there’s a Tremere there who has built up their power and knows some rituals for preserving the stuff. Unfortunately, they’re also very low humanity by this point, so they end up being a nasty surprise fight.

B) There’s a secret settlement of vampires that is made up of all the various fledglings you could pick from in Bloodlines, having learned to live together after the destruction of vampire society along with human when the bombs fell. The local Tremeres managed some blood sorcery that infused a mutfruit tree with human blood, so plasma fruit, a la The Sims 4, is a thing for them, and allows them to live in relative peace with their human neighbors (though they’ll happily drain anyone who attacks them). They’d probably have a quest revolving around either talking down or killing some vampire hunters who have been eying their base, and they could be persuaded to allow Jack Cabot and family to study them in exchange for vitae to help them stay in their immortal states. Also, the Malkavians openly call Victor the “Sole Survivor” and offer roundabout tips on his quests -- if he can decipher them. XD

C) This is just one that amuses me -- this universe’s Mysterious Stranger is none other than good old Caine! He’s trying to be a little more helpful to mortal and Kindred alike in the post-apocalypse, and has decided this means “showing up randomly to help people out of tight spots before vanishing again.” Alice, upon seeing him, jokes that the cabdriver thing didn’t work out, huh?

D) I’d kind of like to make stimpacks developed from vampire or ghoul blood to explain just how it is they can heal crippled limbs so fast -- the wiki didn’t provide much of an answer there! Which means anyone who uses them is at least slightly a ghoul. . .which might explain a few things about carry weight and why some enemies are so tough. (Legendaries have more vitae in their system, prompting the power-up, maybe?)

So yeah -- that’s how I’d get Bloodlines and Fallout to work together, and thus have my Malkavian!Alice and Sole Survivor!Victor be a couple in the wasteland. Because why make a crossover simple when I could make it way more complicated than it needs to be? XD Look, I just like the mental images I have of them together -- and of Alice taking out a whole army of baddies by hitting them with Voice of Bedlam to throw them into absolute chaos.

[victorluvsalice]

AU Thursday: A Discovery (Londerland Bloodlines Adjacent)

Me: [browsing the #vtmb tag]

Me: [discovers this post: Strauss Headcanons Thread Continued]

Post: Oh, btw, did you know that Tremere make gargoyles by kidnapping Nosferatu, Tzimisce, and Gangrels -- pick two! -- torturing them and wiping their minds, then meld them together in some sort of horrible Frankensteinian ritual? And that Strauss totally had to do this to make that gargoyle you fight or talk down in Hollywood?

Londerland Bloodlines Alice: . . . [unsheathing her Tal’Mahe’Ra blade] Welp, time to head back to Los Angeles to commit more murder!

(No, seriously, if she knew that was how one made a gargoyle, she would totally fucking kill Strauss. She’s pissed off enough in the canon when she learns about it and Strauss treating it as a slave, and that’s her thinking it’s magically animated actual stone or something. She holds off on killing him then because she doesn’t think she can take him on one-on-one, contenting herself with helping the gargoyle fake their death and then just never speaking to him again after reporting it. . .but if she knew that? Oh, she’d find a way.)

[thevalicemultiverse]

40-year-old man: “Why won’t you consider dating someone who’s 40 years old?” 20-year-old woman: “Why won’t you?” 40-year-old man: (head explodes)

Alice: [blinking, then looking around] Okay, as much as I would like that to be the standard response of someone managing to turn some creep’s bullshit around on them, I suspect we have a less-than-careful-about-the-Masquerade Tremere running around. . .

[victorluvsalice]

AU Thursday: Tell Me Where To Find Shelter – The Absurdly Complicated Multiverse Version

Okay, so – remember this post about me vs my brain on the name of this AU (I'm still a bit torn between the current one and "Fallout of Darkness")? In which I revealed that I'd considered an even more complicated AU situation that brought Victoria and Emily in again via Portal and BioShock? And mentioned I'd likely talk about it one Thursday in the tags?

It's one Thursday – let's go ahead and talk about it, just for funsies. Now, for any potential fanfic purposes, I have basically settled on a "Sole Survivor Victor and Fledgling Alice" FO4/VTMB crossover. But when I first started coming up with crossover stuff, one of my first thoughts actually involved the Portal series – specifically, how Cave Johnson might have reacted to the Institute. And that reminded me that the Perpetual Testing Initiative is a thing in the sequel, and that reminded me of the "tears" in BioShock Infinite, and – well, for a tiny bit there, I had a crossover that more or less spanned every game in my Steam library, starring characters from Corpse Bride and American McGee's Alice. XD Let me try to break it down for you:

-->Obviously, for Fallout 4 and Vampire: the Masquerade – Bloodlines, we have Sole Survivor!Victor and Fledgling!Alice, as per standard

-->I'd also already come up with a concept for Emily in BioShock – have her be a Wintry Houdini Splicer who, thanks to not completely overdosing on the cosmetic Plasmids, still retained her mind (if not her original skin and hair color)

-->That left Portal and Victoria, so I whipped up a backstory where Victoria ended up in Aperture Science as a test subject after her family's money finally ran out for good; she'd be part of the Perpetual Testing Initiative, with a modified portal gun that can make non-test-ready areas testable (that is, she has a gel sprayer to allow her to make surfaces portal-able)

-->Now, how do we get these all together? Well, you could figure out a way to have them all exist in the same universe (it would take some kludging, but I think it could be done), but as you probably already guessed, I went for "something makes it so they can access each other's universes." Portal already has a canonical multiverse thanks to the PTI, and BioShock has its tears, so I just had to think up ways to get Fallout 4 and Bloodlines involved. I figured something could go wrong at the Institute to get the former on-board (teleporter accident?), and the latter. . .well, the best I could come up with is that weird portal you use to get in and out of Ming-Xiao's inner sanctum interacting weirdly with one of the other methods. Though I guess a Tremere doing something inadvisable with blood magic also works. . . Basically, reality ends up getting ripped open and portals between all four worlds open up, and the characters stumble through them. Much WTFery ensues.

-->I never got very far with the potential plot for this absurdly complicated crossover, though, mostly because I never satisfactorily answered one of the big questions about the verse – where are the counterparts? That is, where's Alice, Victor, and Emily in Test Subject!Victoria's Portal verse, where's Alice, Victor, and Victoria in Splicer!Emily's BioShock verse, and do we have the same set-up with Fledgling!Alice and Sole Survivor!Victor in their verses? I came up with three potential answers, but never fully settled:

1. The Easy Version: For whatever reason, none of them met the others in their respective universes – Sole Survivor!Victor wasn't pushed into marrying Victoria and ended up with the default Nora, for example. They’re all meeting for the first time here, and finding they like each other. Makes life a little easier, but never really appealed to me.

2. The Funny Version: The others do exist in the other universes, though in varying states – Fledgling!Alice has her standard set up with Victor, Victoria, and Emily; while Victoria's verse now looks more like my RP verse "Aperture Wage Slave" (where Victor is a very disgruntled scientist at Aperture, and Alice also a test subject – Emily's probably part of that group too). This sets up some pretty amusing culture clashes between counterparts (Aperture!Victor probably thinks his company was somehow responsible for Sole Survivor!Victor's apocalypse despite not being in the same world), and I like the idea of people in various universes doing double-takes whenever two or more of the same person is together. However, I felt like the fun was dampened a little by Victoria and Emily being dead in Sole Survivor!Victor's universe. . .

3. The Angsty Version: Which is when I came up with the variation that the others did exist in all the other universes – but those who the "main characters" knew died right in front of them. For example, Fledgling!Alice arrived too late to save Victor and could only hold him as he died in her arms, while Splicer!Emily maybe saw Victoria murdered by some of her less-sane brethren during the fighting when Rapture was really going down the tubes. Naturally, this leads to the characters having some pretty distinct feelings when they see alternate, alive versions of their friends/loved ones/guy she felt really guilty about not being able to save. (And makes Sole Survivor!Victor, who would get that angst no matter what, stand out less.) Interesting story potential, but it did occasionally feel too dark.

-->Honestly, this AU was mostly about fun mental images from the main four all interacting with and trying to understand each other's worlds, with two particular ones that I kept coming back to:

1. A Super Mutant Behemoth getting loose in Bloodlines' Los Angeles, with the gang having to team up to try and take it down before it does too much damage – and LaCroix absolutely losing his shit (specifically at Strauss, because he thinks it's an escaped Tremere experiment – "WHAT DID YOU DO?!" "NOTHING THIS ISN'T OURS" "WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU DO STRAUSS")

2. Cave Johnson Destroyer Of Worlds – aka Cave realizing vampirism means immortality when he gets a look at the Bloodlines universe, getting himself Embraced (he'd go Ventrue if he could), then making plans to use his new state to take over all of the universes on display, with a particular eye toward grabbing Rapture and/or Columbia first so he can also use Plasmids and Vigors to his advantage. If this weird overcomplicated thing had a plot, it would be taking down this version of Cave before he could ruin everything. Like he does.

And that's about it, really. Like I said, the idea didn't stick around that long – I quickly realized I was setting myself up for the same overcomplicated, overthought nonsense that basically killed my BioShock AU, and dialed it back down to the current "three games, one movie" crossover. But hey, what's this tumblr for if not to tell you all the weird crossover ideas I have? XD