#au; THERE'S A LION LADY IN THE WOODS { vampirzyca }

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Alternate Universes;

THERE’S A LION LADY IN THE WOODS  ~ 

Vampirzyca ( Vampire ). 

There’s a lion lady in the woods, eyes gold and hair orange red.  Her cabin’s hearth is never lit and no man has seen her bed.  You see, she smells of ashes and freshly torn meats.  Shes too tall and too hairy and walks like a clothed beast.  And on moonless nights she will hunt, kill, and feast.  So if you see her, be polite, or you’re dead…

An au in which Jessica is a beastly witch and vampire.  Back story is relatively flexible but she has a very fixed set of rules to her supernatural existence.  Based very loosely in Slavic, Eastern European, and South East Asian mythology and inspired by the works of Emlyn Boyle and Tumblr user @stil-lindigo.

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Vampirzyca ( Vampire ) AU Details.

Part Two: Strengths, Weaknesses, and Abilities ~

She has no idea who she was before she died and turned. She has no memories of a human life, but knows she had one, and her memory is a terrible one anyway. She does not know how old she is, nor does she care. She does not know what year it is, nor does she care. She cannot change, she cannot grow mentally or emotionally, and she almost cannot learn. She does not understand time any better than an animal would.

Actually there are a lot of ways she's closer to an animal that a human, aside from the obvious. She can non-verbally communicate with animals and open minded or psychic humans. She can smell and identify delicate pheromones and has a few of her own. Her hearing, smell, touch, taste, and vision are stronger than that of a Bengal tiger. But she cannot read or count higher than thirty, and cannot read human emotions any better than a human can read a dog. It's also rumored that she can only say words she's heard before, but that's only true in her Beast shape, and she doesn't talk much in the first place.

She has two shapes primarily and six in total. Her Lady shape ( female-coded human form ) is her most common form and is the "default" for all intents and purposes. She looks just like a human woman, except she's seven ft tall, hides a lion tail, has gold eyes almost like a cat's, and is covered in orange body hair. Her Beast shape ( monster form ) is a larger, lion-like, werewolf-esque animal with hawk's feet and goat's horns and bear's teeth and claws. Other shapes include her Cat shape, ( a dark orange Abyssinian cat with black paws and legs, gold human's eyes, and puff at the end of it's tail like a lion. ) her Man shape, ( a male-coded human form that is exactly like her Lady shape only much smaller, mustached, and with obvious gold cat's eyes. ) her Beetle shape, ( she can change into a swarm of honeybees, black beetles, and/or white and orange butterflies, usually to sleep or escape danger. ) and her Ghost shape ( she drops the illusion that her body is corporeal and becomes a shadow or cloud of black smoke ).

You heard correct: the physicality of her body is an illusion. Her actual body is the charred remains of her mummified skeleton, frozen in time, that she's laid carefully on an unlit pyre in her home. No matter where she relocates or builds her nest, the pyre is built where humans wont easily find it and her remains are laid there with love. She is always placing fresh flowers and pretty rocks around her grave and when she sleeps its in her Beetle shape; the bugs and butterflies in a clump under her ribs and sprinkled all over the straw and the bones. Lighting the pyre and burning her corpse completely to ash is the only known way to permanently kill her. She is closer to a strzyga or a upiór in this way: she had two souls in life and when she died, one soul ( the mind of whoever she was as a human ) passed on after thirty days and the other soul ( the monster she is now ) gained a physical form and a hunger for blood.

She does have to sleep at least once a week for a full thirty hours. She sleeps every Thursday which is why she's hungrier and more active on Fridays.

Actually she has a ton of arbitrary time related rules. The sun only burns her skin from dawn to noon and if she stays in it too long she could catch fire ( not die, just burn ). After that the sun is totally fine. Moonlight makes her weak slightly and the moon seems to dictate what shapes she can take on. Every night before, night of, and night after a new moon she can change into her Beast shape. Every night before, night of, or night after a full moon, or during storms, she can change into her Ghost shape. She can only use her Man shape during crescent moons, half moons, or storms and she can only use her Cat shape during quarter moons, half moons, or storms. She can take her Lady and Beetle shapes at any time. She can only take any shape at will on the solstices and the equinoxes. And she eats more in the winter and hunts more in the late fall than nearly any other time of year.

Speaking of arbitrary rules, here are some more. She hates water and iron above all else. Rain, snow, and small streams have no effect on her aside from mild discomfort. But still water, clean water, water humans have tampered with, sea water, and big lakes or rivers all repulse her, and the water feels itchy and ice cold. Except water from an iron bucket or boiling / boiled water, which just feel like boiling water and hurts like crazy. She can't drink water without pain, but can't be thirsty for anything but blood anyway. All iron burns to touch and spooks her. Silver can be between slightly irritating to painfully itchy depending on its quality. Gold tingles at best and sorta itches at worst. Fire feels less painful to her than to a human and she can pick up hot coals. Hearth fires and the morning sunlight feel way hotter, however. But fires with bones in them don't hurt at all. Religious symbols, regardless of the religion, do absolutely nothing, however the Evil Eye has a mild hypnotic effect on her. She cannot enter a building or room that someone calls home unless she's invited. She cannot sit at a table or in a chair until invited. Beautiful singing makes her sleepy, drowsy, or confused and causes dissociation or a sleep like trance.

But enough of her weaknesses, on to her powers. She can hypnotize, seduce, and control weak minds, as a traditional vampire can, using her charmed eyes or by singing. She can move both unnaturally fast and inhumanly slow every shape except Beetle. She can only fly when Ghost or Beetle shaped but she can float up to a foot off the ground in all forms. Cars stall and tech goes haywire when she's in a half mile radius. She can cause accidents, start fires, and both cure and inflict specific diseases but all only at very close range. She gets younger looking the better fed she is but that doesn't seem to be as central a motivator as hunger, leaving her looking to be in her late thirties most of the time. She cannot become pregnant by any creature but she can impregnate humans, especially in her Man shape, and mates with them at least once every ten or so years. Any children she'd sire would have an array of supernatural abilities, but would also have human life spans, meaning raising families are out of the question, with the exception of her small harem of fledglings.

She eats fresh meat, organs, body fluids, and blood, obviously. Blood and meat acquired consensually is the most delicious. Body fluids ( cum, sweat, etc. ) taste second best, fresh meat and blood from a hunt is third and dried or rotted meats are fine but not her fav. She can eat cooked organs and meat but they taste...gross. Double gross if there's any herbs or spices. The only things that don't taste like ass are honey, fungi, tree roots, and wild berries. But they have almost zero nutritional value for her. Garlic makes her violently sneeze and burns her eyes and nose like hot peppers. Hot peppers and other spicy food have no effect and just taste really bad like most other food. Her powers grow when she's well fed.

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Vampirzyca ( Vampire ) AU Details.

Part Three: Interacting with Humans and RP Notes ~

There are two kinds of humans in her book: Prey and Pets. Granted all humans fall under the umbrella category of Food, but there are some humans that, for whatever reason, capture her attention as more than her next meal. Some humans seek her out, are particularly polite or respectful, and / or just happen to be luckier than most. These are humans she engages with rather than merely haunt or hunt in silence. Prey is merely a human she drains to death or kills out in the wild. But blood given freely is much more powerful and delicious than blood taken, and many humans offer themselves in trade for protection, revenge, or even in trade for children ( she can get humans pregnant after all ( see part two ), even the ones with fertility trouble ). Those pet humans, so long as they stay loyal and polite, get long lives and die normal, peaceful deaths if she can help it. It's the only real way she can thank them for being fodder for so long, other than turning them into vampire fledglings.

Her bites cannot turn humans into vampires, ghouls, or fledglings, but drinking her blood will. She was born of superstition and frankly ableist folklore, so she was never turned and thus cannot turn others into the type of monster she is. She can only make vampire fledglings: beautiful, obedient, nymph like creatures with a lion's tail, cat's eyes, and sharp fangs. They are closer to what comes to mind when one thinks of a traditional vampire, but these are far less powerful than her and much easier to kill ( iron weapons, burning their remains, boiled water, and morning sunlight all quickly destroy them. ) They only get three shapes: Nymph shape ( see above ), Rat shape ( a white rat with red eyes and black feet ) and Moth shape ( a single large white moth or butterfly ). They can float a foot off the ground and their heads can come off and fly around independently. They can charm the weak minded with their voices, but not their eyes.

All a pet human would need to do to be a fledgling is consent to her offer of fledgling-ship, verbally, mentally and emotionally. Then they'd drink only her blood, no matter how sick it made them, until the next new moon. The pet should be dead by that time, and she would steal their bodies or heads after they'd been buried and place them in a clay urn at her home. For thirty days she would feed them fresh blood until they emerged from the pottery, reborn as a vampire with only foggy memories of what happened and who they used to be. They really only exist to make her feel less alone, and she's lost too many to even entertain the notion of making one unless shes absolutely certain it's worth the hardship. She can't really love the way we do, but she still gets very attached to them, you see. When you're a monster the only creatures you call people are other monsters. And if it wasn't for all of that she wouldn't bother with trying to blend in with humans in the first place.

On the subject of blending in, it's harder for her to achieve than you think. She really doesn't need to, no more than a hunter needs to dress up like a deer, but its near impossible to find pets without at least trying to blend in. For one, notice how I've never once mentioned her name in any of these three posts. That's intentional; she doesn't have one. Names are for mortals, for pets and for prey; she doesn't need a name any more than a cat or a wild wolf would. Animals know who they are and don't use or need names. BUT, humans are all too quick to name things and ask for names in turn. She has no name, but she does use them to get closer to humans. Her favorite names to use are Jessica, Mieczyslaw / Mieczyslawa, and every known variation of the names Kathryn and John. She just liked the sound of them ( the first two were the names of fledglings she adored but long forgot ).

Names aren't her only camouflage either. Both her Lady and Man shapes have small loin's tails that need to be hidden under skirts or long blouses. All in all she tends to wear long sleeves, high collars, long skirts, loose pants or pastoral dresses. There is never any embroidery on her clothes ( balto-slavic embroidery is meant to protect mortals from monsters ) and opts for whites, creams, red accents, and gold jewelry. But she only ever gets to wear clothes and jewelry that she collects off of her prey. Which is no issue for her smaller, only six ft tall Man shape. But her Lady shape is beefy and seven ft exactly, so most of her dresses and clothes fit just a bit too small. Also she hates gloves and HATES socks or shoes and wont wear them in any weather.

Bare feet and ill fitted clothes are a few of the many signs that she's not normal one could find if they looked too hard: she's taller than average, her hair is the reddest you've ever seen, her smile is a tad too wide, her eyes are a tad too big, her teeth are a tad too white, her palms and feet are a tad too rough, her body hair is literally everywhere, like a mountain man, and is too soft and too long, and she probably hasn't blinked. And that's all assuming you haven't noticed the literal cat eyes or lion tail. Actually her eyes are the real reason she stays out of direct sun, she doesn't want her eyes to dilate and make the cat slit obvious.

Speaking of communicating, if your character is a human she will speak as little as possible and talk to you like you're a child or an insect. To pet humans, she will begin to sound more alive, more charming, more personable. But to characters that aren't human, esp. characters that are vampires or the undead, she will speak the most authentically and honestly, and will even be capable of humor. When writing her with a human character, I will not write about what she's thinking or planning or intending to do as I would normally. You are supposed to feel like you're talking to a waiting animal and have no idea what she could do next. With non-human characters I will write her as I've always written her.

I've based most of the lore surrounding her off of the Wikipedia articles for Upiors, Strzygas, and Vampire Folklore by Region and just kind of cherry picked what I thought fit her character or sounded fun.

There is a ton of inspiration for her lion-like Beast shape and her over all design and behavior: the Vampire King from Adventure Time, that lion demon from Dungeon Meshi, the vampire in One Winter's Night, this image, this image, and basically everything @hogboblin, @godivaghoul, and @stil-lindigo ever made.

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Vampirzyca ( Vampire ) AU Details.

Part One: Background ~

Her story begins in a village. This village most likely existed in the dark ages in what is now Poland and Lithuania, but in truth, it could have been as far back as the bronze age or as recent as the 1700s and anywhere in north woods of Europe or Asia. No one knows. Least of all her.

Sadly she was doomed from birth by the humans around her rather than bitten by another vampire. She was born of fear, scorn, and self fulfilling prophecies made by those afraid of the different and the unknown and perpetuated by the very folklore that conceived her. You see, nine things happened in her life and in the thirty days after her death that cemented her fate as an undead monster. Some her fault, most pure unluckiness.

First she was born intersex and red headed and she killed her mother in her birth. Next, she was what modern men would call Autistic. She talked to herself, averted her eyes, and walked on her toes; all things deemed symptoms of curses in a time that did not usually accept or understand her. Then in her teens she ate the meat of an animal killed by a wolf or a dog more than once when she was alone and too poor to buy food. And one night in her early twenties, for reasons long lost to history, she murdered a man in his bed.

On night of the murder, in a fit of madness and fear, she ran off into the forest and stabbed her stomach with a sharp sheep bone and killed herself. She died alone with no witnesses or final rites and remained unburied for days. A cat jumped over her body as it lay in the grass at one point and her rotting body turned black earlier than a body should after days of being left in the rain. Even one of those things is capable of turning a person into a vampire once they died according to folklore, much less nine.

But it only gets worse. When she was finally found, on Midsummer's Eve, the village deemed her a curse and tried to give her a criminal's burial. For fear of her ghost, her body was to be burned on a pyre at a little used cross roads and her remains buried there, unmarked, in an iron cooking pot. This would have worked and put her soul to rest had they succeeded. But they failed to stake her heart or sever her head, and the rain returned that day and put out the pyre's flames again and again. All day the villagers frantically tried to burn her wet flesh, too frightened and impatient to wait until tomorrow. But it would not have mattered; the rain brewed into a terrible storm, sending the village people running for cover and cutting the funeral short. Her half burned remains were carried off by the flood, and were never found no matter how hard the village searched.

And they did search. For months they searched. For one by one the people and animals of the now flooded little village died or disappeared; freak accidents, miscarriages, rabies, heat stroke, unexplained tinnitus, tuberculosis, heavy drinking, sudden deafness, and some flat out gone without a trace. Those deaths could be written off as bad luck or tragic coincidence, but the longer it went on, the more violent the deaths became. People feeling ill or faint found bite wounds on themselves and died of panic, blood loss, or despair. Sleepers found dead in bed the next morning with a face frozen in terror. Bodies found slumped against walls or draped in trees, ripped open, with a heart or head or stomach or liver missing. Screams heard as another poor soul was dragged into the woods. And those with the money to leave tried to, but their carts would be found shattered, bloodied and abandoned, only miles from the boarders of town.

The elders died or vanished first, then the women, then the livestock in almost that exact order, with children going missing every full moon and a man going missing every new moon no matter what precautions they took and no matter how far from the town they tried to run. The men that were left all found their doom in madness and by that winter, there was no one and nothing left of that village at all. The forest claimed its fields and its buildings and its roads by that next summer, unnaturally fast. And the monster moved back into the remains of her old home, making the rest of those dark, wet woods her hunting grounds.

To this day, those who go looking for that long lost village may smell ashes and smoke out of no where, hear a bear trudging and bees buzzing and find neither, or see two big golden eyes watching them patiently from the tree line... Only the lucky or very very polite cross her path and walk away with their neck untorn. But for most humans, their fate is the same as those fools of the village: diseased, driven mad, or hunted as prey.

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