#and that's the beef

[thelordofshrimp]

general history of werewolf vampire beef as is typical to this genre 👀? or if no general history then friend group history even though you've for sure talked about it before

okay so there is no established widespread vampire-werewolf beef in this au which is atypical of most paranormal worlds but i simply cannot be bothered.

HOWEVER

there is beef amongst the vampires and werewolves we know (and love) for mildly different and infinitely more complicated reasons which i will happily go into

(learning from my last post and putting it under a cut)

so will, being a couple of years older than nico (funky little vampire aging slowly), went to school with reyna and thalia and that general age range, a little ahead of jason and nico and the others. they all end up in a similar peer group because they're only a few years apart, but anyone who's been to american public high school can tell you there is a world of difference between a freshman and a junior, so the two groups did not interact a ton.

now, will and his paranormal peers weren't super close to begin with, just because of the way social circles work and the fact that reyna & thalia had been in the same paranormal after-school group (like the kid version of bingo night) for AGES, while will joined later on, but that isn't the reason they don't like him.

teenage will solace went through a pretty rough rebellious phase, but his rebellion had nothing to do with loud music and strange clothes and everything to do with his identity as a vampire. (ironically enough, going through a loud-music-strange-clothes phase would have probably made thalia like him more, and her friendship might have helped will get through what was to come. oh, well)

even though the paranormal folk are generally pretty hidden from the rest of society, there are humans who are aware of them and, by extension, humans who wish they weren't around, so anti-paranormal propaganda exists in very small amounts, most of it targeted towards vampires and werewolves (because those are the scary ones for people who don't know how powerful sirens can be). this wasn't the only reason will started resenting his supernatural side, but it certainly didn't help.

most of the issues will has with vampirism as a whole can be summed up in one word: octavian. will's cousin is, by all accounts, the perfect vampire: just dramatic enough to pull off a cloak and just greasy and conniving enough to not lose his ties to Nosferatu. he's bloodthirsty and mildly disdainful of humans while never going so far as to actually say that he thinks he's better for having fangs, and the older generations of vampires, many of whom wish the humans would show a little more fear "respect," eat it all up. octavian is everything they want him to be and will, unlucky enough to be born with a shred of empathy, is disappointing by comparison.

when will turns sixteen, he politely declines his first feed from a live donor and nearly throws up in his mouth watching octavian readily take that opportunity. sure, nothing octavian does is technically wrong, by human or vampire standards, but his personality is so repulsive that everything he does seems wrong by association.

very shortly thereafter, will starts voicing opinions he's held for a few years— that drinking blood from a live donor is gross, that drinking blood in general is gross and he wouldn't do it if he didn't have to, and, eventually, that being a vampire is gross, he wishes he weren't one, and he would be just fine living in a world where everyone was human, because "monsters don't add anything to the world, all we do is take and take and take, and we'd take until there was nothing left if that didn't mean we'd starve."

these are the words of a very upset teenager who hasn't figured out who he is, who he wants to be, and what to do with everyone else's opinions of him. they come from a lot of confusion and hurt and they're not directed at anyone else he knows (except for maybe octavian), they're directed at the part of Will that he doesn't know how to handle yet.

the only problem is that those words are said within earshot of a lot of people who are not Will. he rages against himself and in the process makes a lot of people, reyna and thalia especially, believe that he dislikes them for being paranormal, too. some of the sirens and witches and "less monstrous" paranormal folk are able to shrug it off, but werewolves and vampires hold a similar place on the monster scale, and hearing someone who is supposed to understand your situation better than other people say that he wishes none of you existed hurts.

reyna and thalia and the other werewolves in their teen paranormal group distance themselves from will, who is also doing his very best to "act human" as much as he can.

as he gets older, as he gets out of the mental hell that is high school and the wilderness of teenage hormones, will calms down. he learns to acknowledge his vampirism with grudging neutrality that eventually turns into acceptance. he starts engaging with the adult chapter meetings more instead of showing up, sitting in silence as far back as possible, and then leaving as soon as official business is over. he makes friends in the group, most of whom weren't in his grade during school and therefore didn't hear the things he said. he regrets some of the words he used and knows that his opinion of himself and the paranormal world has changed, but he won't just forget that there was an expectation put on him that he still resents.

baby steps add up, and will gets a job where he willingly discloses that he's a vampire to his employer. he shows his fangs to a non-vampire, a human, in a public place (admittedly after said human had already seen his fangs by accident). he spends time with other paranormal folk outside of chapter meetings and lets himself enjoy being around people who are also different instead of wallowing in self-hatred.

none of that does anything to change how reyna & thalia see him. his friends might not know, but they remember what he said, how he said it, and who he said it to. that kind of thing isn't so easily forgiven, especially since none of them have talked to him in years. they're not particularly interested in reaching out, and he hasn't made any efforts to mend bridges, either, especially since they weren't friends to begin with.

to their credit, reyna & thalia don't bring it up around anyone who wasn't there. they haven't forgotten, but they don't see the point in dwelling on the past, since he seems like he's grown out of it for the most part. they won't pretend to like him, and they'll explain when jason asks them why, but there's no point in keeping a high school feud alive. will, for his part, understands that he is not and probably never will be their favorite person, but a part of him still isn't okay with the thought that they want him to be more like octavian. if he had talked to them all those years ago, back when he first started feeling pressured to 'be a better vampire,' they would have told him he didn't need to be.

[rubyleaf]

Honestly? My main piece of advice for writing well-rounded characters is to make them a little bit lame. No real living person is 100% cool and suave 100% of the time. Everyone's a little awkward sometimes, or gets too excited about something goofy, or has a silly fear, or laughs about stupid things. Being a bit of a loser is an incurable part of the human condition. Utilize that in your writing.

[great-and-small]

Apparently the local university’s undergraduate entomology course sends students to catch insect specimens at the same place I like to go birdwatching, which explains why I saw three enormous frat looking dudes with tiny bug nets and overheard one emphatically say “bro BRO I told you we already have enough lepidopterans”

[pocketss]

mmm soob

[a-meh]

[starspilli]

i lost the ask my bad! but here is jason for an anon

[intermundia]

this is the single worst way i've ever read to describe an erection, frank herbert

[junglejim4322]

The thing that is interesting is if you have any semblance of personality you will definitely encounter people who viscerally hate you and obsess over you for years and you will not even remember their name

[ispyspookymansion]

stream i am the prayers of the naive on ao3 dot com

[fairycosmos]

parent-child dynamics are soooo crazy. i love you i resent you i can't stand you i adore you i pity you. and still watching your hair get a little more grey every time i see you makes my stomach feel weird

[ciderbird]

academic bias is so funny because you’ll be reading about the same historical event and one person is like “Despite the troubles that befell his homeland and near constant criticism of the court King Blorbo remained strong in the face of adversity” and the other one is like “after letting his people carry the brunt of his cringefail decisions Blorbo the Shitface refused to listen to any reason and continued to be a warmongering piece of shit. Also he was ugly.”

[bugsinapocket]

I had a vision

Pls reblog :3 <33

[batcavescolony]

*Talia visiting Damian*

Talia: Damian, how are you? *glares at Dick*

Damian: I am doing well mother

Dick: *from behind him* *mouthing: why the fuck are you here?*

Talia: oh that's great! I see you have a new pet? *Mouthing back: to see MY son*

Damian: this is Haley, Grayson's dog, she's staying with me while he goes on a mission.

Dick: *flipping Talia off where Damian can't see* yep, he's so good with animals

Talia: I'm aware *throws a knife at him*

Dick: *throws it back*

[chloesimaginationthings]

The girls are fightingggg in FNAF 2 movie