Flirty Vampire Talks You Through the Aftermath
“explanationville, U.S.A., population: Vincent.”
Vampire Prince Series
CHARACTER(S): Vincent Solaire, Samuel Collins
LISTENER: “Lovely”
PLACEMENT: Vampire Prince, Episode 7
RUNTIME: 39:11
WARNINGS: [references to trauma][references to non-consensual feeding/biting]
OVERVIEW
The listener experiences a nightmare that blends prior quotes from Vincent and Adam, eventually startling awake. They can hear muffled voices outside their door, one of them belonging to Vincent, the other to Sam Collins, another Vampire in the Solaire Clan. Sam states that he managed to stabilize the listener, but questions Vincent on their nature, stating that he thought the listener was an unempowered human. Vincent replies that they were, until last night, after which they developed a magical core. Sam replies that said core is very powerful, then reminds Vincent again that, while Sam is decent at using healing magic, he is no longer a Healer after having Turned, and his powers have serious limits. He notes that everyone in the Clan knew Adam was a problem, and that he was on everyone’s last nerve. He finishes by saying that Adam won’t be missed, before leaving.
Vincent enters the room to discover the listener is awake. He offers to leave so that they can get more rest, but they ask that he stay, and he obliges. Vincent explains who Sam is; a fellow Vampire in the Clan who, before being Turned, was an empowered human Freelancer who specialized in Healing. Vincent had asked that he help the listener, knowing that the magic would do a better job than a human medical facility.
Vincent confesses that he doesn’t know what to say. He doesn’t know if the listener wants to talk about Adam yet, or if they’re ready to talk about their powers, and isn’t sure how to express how sorry he is for what happened. He blames himself. He asks to sit at the chair beside the listener’s bed, and they agree. He informs them that they are in his home, in a guest room. While the Clan’s base of operations is the Wonderworld amusement park, most of them don’t actually live there. His home is in the hills outside the city of Dahlia, on the north side. He asks what the listener wants, assuring them that whatever it is, he’ll do it: talking, being quiet, or leaving. The listener asks to talk, and Vincent assures them that they can stop at any time.
The conversation starts by discussing the wards that Vincent had left in place at the listener’s apartment, with the listener explaining what Adam had told them about getting past them. Vincent mentions that Sam believes that Adam must have used some amount of regenerative magic on the listener in order for them to have survived the amount of blood loss they suffered at his hands, an unsustainable effort that ultimately would have failed him in time. Vampires have a unique and limited connection to magic; most of their magical abilities are tied up in their physical attributes: immortality, increased speed, strength, and senses, regenerative ability. Externalizing their magic is very difficult for them, even for those who were previously empowered before being Turned, like Sam was. When he was Turned, his original magical core was fully replaced by a Vampiric one, negating all his prior abilities.
The talk turns to discussing magical cores. All magical beings have them, and they produce an aura, one that can be detected by other magical beings. The aura can be muted, but never fully concealed. But in the case of the listener, Vincent has never detected anything until now. To explain it, he outlines that empowered individuals can be born to unempowered humans; this is called being Humanborn. That doesn’t affect a person’s abilities or potential in any way, but it makes their education more difficult, because they will have had no idea that magic exists until their own powers manifest at puberty, when all magical abilities appear. This isn’t what happened with the listener, though— they have never displayed any abilities and have never given off an aura. They simply didn’t have powers, until the incident with Adam. Latency is the term used to describe such a scenario. It’s incredibly rare. Historically, people who are Latent have only ever had their powers manifest as a result of some sort of trauma.
The listener is confirmed to be an Electro-Energetic, a person who specializes in the control of electric magic. Specifically, a Humanborn Latent Electro-Energetic. Vincent affirms that their powers manifested when they needed them most, and that the listener saved themselves. It was their attack on Adam that weakened his control enough for the wards around his hideout to collapse, allowing Vincent to locate them.
Vincent lists some further types of magic users: Elementals (Fire, Water, Air, and Earth), and their far rarer, but often associated, counterparts, the Energetics (Electro, Graviton, Sonal, and Magneto). He assures the listener that what they do with their newfound powers is up to them: they can learn to master them, make a job out of them, even try to ignore them completely, though he asks that for their own sake, they don’t do that option. Their powers are far too incredible to be suppressed.
Vincent again states that he isn’t sure quite what to say. He confirms that he was unempowered before he was Turned, so he never had to learn abilities in the same way the listener will need to. But he assures them that he will support them in any way that he can. He mentions that there is an academy here in Dahlia, the Dahlia Academy for Magical Novices, where they can enroll, if they choose to. He mentions there’s even night courses for Vampires like him, though he’s never taken any of them. He offers to take them there when they’re recovered, and the listener agrees.
He pulls the conversation back to the present, noting that, while the listener stated they wanted explanations, and distractions from the memories of what just happened, and he can provide that, neither of those things are going to address the trauma they’ve faced. Vincent assures the listener that he isn’t going to push them on any of this, but states plainly that he’s not equipped to help them work through this alone. He affirms that he will be there for them in whatever capacity he can, but it’s important that they don’t just throw themselves into this new chapter in their life and ignore everything they’ve just gone through. He mentions that there are people at the academy who can help, and they agree to talk that over in more detail later.
The listener asks about blood, specifically if Vampires can drink each other’s blood. Vincent confirms that they can, but that it isn’t often done, as it won’t sustain them and even in small doses it has effects similar to those of alcohol, with large amounts pushing them all the way into a feral state. The listener reveals that Adam was in such a state when the Clan found him, and that he wasn’t actually a juvinate at all, shocking Vincent. Vincent then asks if Adam explained at any point why he took the listener.
Vincent theorizes that the listener’s blood had such a profound effect on both himself and Adam because their Latency meant that all their stored up magic had built up in their veins since it couldn’t be used. Empowered human blood is particularly potent for Vampires, because the magic in their blood revitalizes the Vampire’s core in addition to the satiating effects of the blood itself. In essence, feeding on the listener was like “drinking magic itself”, hence its addictive qualities.
He mentions that it isn’t clear if the listener’s very high amounts of magic in their system will be maintained, or level off over time. Their blood might taste like any normal empowered person’s in a month, or a year, or it might stay as strong their entire life, its unknown. Vincent notes that he’s particularly ill equipped to answer that, given that his magical knowledge is restricted almost exclusively to that of Vampires. But he promises to learn with the listener, before stating that there’s one final thing that they need to discuss.
Vincent again states how sorry he is for what happened, and that he’s inexperienced in helping someone through trauma, but that he at least knows enough to know that constantly apologizing would probably just make the listener feel like they needed to reassure him, which would be wrong, because it isn’t about him at all, it’s about helping the listener. But part of that help needs to come in the form of taking ownership of the inappropriate actions he has taken so far.
He affirms that he needs to take accountability for his actions. He’s been a Vampire for twenty years now, and when it happened, he promised himself that he wasn’t going to change as a person, that that was the only way he would be able to come to terms with what had happened to him. But he has to admit to himself that he has changed. In an effort to learn how to survive as a Vampire, his original personality began to be subordinated to his efforts to feed, which pushed him farther and farther away from his own humanity as humans started to be little more than a food source. He assures the listener that, as a human, he was self-conscious, fairly quiet, didn’t date much, and certainly wasn’t a notable flirt. But as a Vampire, it became easier, and helpful, to take on those traits. It made feeding easier, and got him pleasure, and over time it became his norm. He states plainly that none of those justifications excuse what he’s done; they might explain them, but they don’t excuse them.
When he met the listener, he treated them like a plaything and diversion, and he invaded their privacy and put them at risk. He states that what he did was wrong, in many different ways, and that he’s not okay with being like this anymore. He pledges to make the necessary changes going forward. He finds apologies to be hollow; they’re just words. He feels that the best apology is changed behavior, which he commits himself to doing. He affirms that he likes the listener a lot, and wants to try getting to know them the way he should have from the start, the way he would have as a human. He wants to be there for them, and he wants to be on equal terms. He wants to help in anyway they’re comfortable with.
The listener states that they want that too, and they agree to take it slow, and to find the listener help at the academy. He states that the listener needs more rest, and they agree, but ask him to stay while they sleep. He agrees.
TRIVIA
First appearance and mention of Samuel Collins (and by extension, first use of an accent on the channel).
First mention of Latency, with the reveal that the listener is a Latent Electro-Energetic. First example of an established unempowered character (in this case, a listener character) gaining magical abilities.
This episode represents a major turning point for Vincent’s character, one which was hinted at in “Flirty Vampire Comforts You After the Bite” but is more fully explored here, by way of owning up to the inappropriate nature of his prior actions, reflecting on the changes to his personality that time as a Vampire has caused and that he now disavows, and declaring a commitment to do and be better, which he continues to show as the series progresses. It also effectively restarts his and the listener’s budding relationship, with both of them agreeing to try it anew from this fresh perspective.
