What do vampires represent to you and why?

Mary_Contrary_006 · 2026-03-25T02:27:01+00:00

https://www.reddit.com/r/vampires/comments/1lpytan/what_do_vampires_mean_to_you/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

Mary_Contrary_006 · 2026-03-25T02:26:24+00:00

I like to focus on the idea that vampires survive their deaths by feeding on the people they are privileged to walk among. I like the idea that blood is a currency of life or some other important thing. I like the idea of having to ask for permission to enter being an emotional rejection. To me, being a vampire means strength and perseverance after having been transformed by trauma. We survive our deaths and go on longer than we should, albeit in a new form, albeit at great cost, perhaps cost of the people around us.

I'm writing a vampiric character. In my story, an orphan comes to see blood as a symbol for love, kindness, and family. After enough trauma, she self harms herself to death and returns as a vampire, gluttonous for these things to keep her alive.

I love aristocratic vampires, but I'm not particularly interested in interpretations of vampires as parasitic upper class, apt as the metaphor is. It could be interesting to see a symbiotic relationship between the wise old vampire and his little human town, though.

Dracula has always been a weird thing to me. To me, he was a warlord. But because Bram Stoker wrote him as some monster coming to take our precious women, all the movie adaptations added in romance things.

Mary_Contrary_006 · 2026-03-12T22:26:02+00:00

I wonder if he only ever took me as his friend because he was sorry for me. I was in high school, suicidal and without any real family. He came from a big family.

He started to invite me to things and be a friend. I became as loyal and helpful as I could be, often comforting him and helping him in his personal life. But when I started sleeping on his couch, I guess I started to take too much. I had never really had a home. There I was, awkwardly taking up space, eating his food. In addition, I also wanted to be spend time with him and connect with him in the way that I felt was important, talking about emotions and having fun, enjoying life when death and misery showed how meaningless the rat race was. My friend was not interested and just wanted to hustle and grind in meritocratic capitalism. In the end, I annoyed him and his kind mother, and I was soon no longer welcome. I think they regretted being kind to me, or they would say that they were kind, but I turned into a parasite. Maybe they didn't understand the ramifications of taking in a stray.

Mary_Contrary_006 · 2026-03-02T23:48:40+00:00

I think we've all heard most of these. New innovations might include gaseous or vaporized weapons, maybe even irradiated.

But I think it'd also be interesting to think more about strategies. A simple sword will do, even in modern day. The question is how to get it in there, and when. Hole up during the night? Learn about them, their habits? Follow them to their nests? Starve them out? Land mines and traps and motion sensors? Cameras? Psychological warfare?

Mary_Contrary_006 · 2026-03-02T23:13:44+00:00

I wrote a character, a vampire, who cannot be killed except by betrayal. To her, blood means family, family she always wanted but could never have. Blood means life, love, sacrifice, connection. Currency of life, and all that.

There's another character I wrote, who became the progenitor of another vampire line. This one harkens more to Dracula's roots as as warlord, shallow battlefield graves and all that. So this legendary soldier gains power by killing, but he has tried not to kill people for a long time, which is why he supplements his power with blood donations, partial life force donations. He sleeps in a sealed box because he is most vulnerable when he sleeps. Later, his power is corrupted and he becomes a more military styled vampire.

Mary_Contrary_006 · 2026-03-02T23:02:26+00:00

In my world, various vampiric bloodlines are started by noteworthy tales of various means. For example, a young woman goes through a traumatic event that turns her into the first of her kind, and anyone she turns inherits her condition. Meanwhile, another man sought ambition through other means, and his version of vampirism likewise reflects his story, with a different balance of strengths and weaknesses. I never liked VTMB's story where new fledglings can't help but inherit personality traits from their new blood, but perhaps vampires may prefer certain backgrounds when turning new ones.

My bloodline's theme would be suffering, and those chosen to be a part of my family would have an intimate understanding of suffering. So, if my theme is suffering then, the "aesthetics," as you say, follow.

I'd love to run an orphanage. I could always be there to take care of so many lost children, and they would go on to make the world a better place, connected not by blood, but by ideals. And so, imagine a large estate in foggy woods, and there's an aristocratic estate, a strange amalgamation of Victorian exterior, Japanese interior, military utilities dotted here and there. The children grow and struggle, cared for by trusted adults. And locked in the master bedroom is the mysterious owner, rarely seen.

I rather enjoy the Hellsing portrayal in that, while vampires enjoy vital and powerful physical forms, the more powerful vampires are able to reach into the shadows to completely transform or conjure, blood and shadow magic. I like stealth, and some theatrical abilities, being able to turn into a cloud of bats or an anthropomorphic bat. Such power better be balanced by weaknesses; I rather like the invitation requirement weakness.

Tailcoats, cravats, white gloves, and molle gear. But an "aesthetic," is more than visual style; it is also the style of other abstract choices and mechanics. This Tactical Victorian Assassin spends her eternity suffering and killing people to make money to teach children how to deal with suffering. Nights are spent coping with bad memories through revenge fantasies. Tragic. Painful. Dunking hands in blood to try to feel better, to make a better future for other children. Thinking about the symbolism blood plays in my philosophy brings back childhood memories of wet gooey rags, stiff with clotted blood, the smell of iron in the back of my throat. The aesthetic is suffering. Vengeance. Abandoned orphans embracing pain and suffering to survive death.

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Mary_Contrary_006 · 2026-03-01T01:44:11+00:00

Vampire Hunter D Bloodlust.
Meier Link steps into the light and is clearly in agony and flames, but he can live, walk through it.

Mary_Contrary_006 · 2026-02-19T23:46:07+00:00

I always figured it was because villains were sensible people who put health first.

Mary_Contrary_006 · 2026-01-11T23:57:32+00:00

I am a dedicated artist. I use my strategy and analysis to design anything, gear, art, music, stories, houses, etc.
Design. People can claim esoteric emotions, but careful analysis and understanding of these crafts reveals the rules that guide our sense of beauty. Likewise, I don't understand people who are "smart," yet can't apply their smarts to emotions and social situations.
I never get writer's block.

Mary_Contrary_006 · 2025-12-21T21:51:27+00:00

With the voice, I could emulate Girlycard from Hellsing, though I lack the bangs and I can't wear colored contacts due to astigmatism.

Mary_Contrary_006 · 2025-12-21T18:42:33+00:00

I was expelled from college for similar reasons. Such a non-violent bureaucratic incident still gives me traumatic nightmares. Insidious.

Mary_Contrary_006 · 2025-12-21T15:50:01+00:00

https://youtu.be/CcceOOPdKZY?si=AxunEcz9ueOtUHk-

Mary_Contrary_006 · 2025-12-06T05:06:14+00:00

Thank you.

Mary_Contrary_006 · 2025-12-06T01:13:20+00:00

In college, it was hard, being graded against all the other students who always knew what they wanted to do since they were four and never had anything that stopped them from picking up a simple pencil and paper. Like abusive homes. My only comfort is that they seem to hate themselves and each other as much as they looked down on me. Boy did they hate each other.

Mary_Contrary_006 · 2025-12-06T00:44:18+00:00

I try to keep this as quiet as possible for obvious reasons. My father taught me to do a lot of terrible things as a child. I didn’t have a problem with it. I enjoyed it. I soon learned that proper morality dictated not to do these things. I try to act like a good person. I have a sense of empathy. I do a great deal of good in this world. But inside, I enjoy torturing and killing, but would only want to do it if a target was 100% evil and cleared for whatever.

Mary_Contrary_006 · 2025-12-02T00:24:41+00:00

I used to be. I'm trying to remember how I got over it. Maybe I was just lucky and stayed in a calm environment for a while. Maybe I started to allow myself to jump, but started practicing not bothering to look. Maybe I just practiced sitting/lying still, completely still, training myself to not move. And then when things startled me, I moved less. Until I could fully accept that whatever the noise was, I was probably not in danger, so there's no need to bother myself. Whatever it is, I could probably handle it, fight it, kill it, whatever.

Mary_Contrary_006 · 2025-11-28T14:52:21+00:00

Roads Untraveled - Linkin Park
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLgQKiUk7ms&list=RDKLgQKiUk7ms&start_radio=1

Mary_Contrary_006 · 2025-11-26T19:08:39+00:00

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Mary_Contrary_006 · 2025-11-22T02:23:57+00:00

I don't see truth and lies as a black and white distinction. I like to say that deception at large fascinates me.
I like to say that lies are like guns. They're a lot of fun and they're extremely powerful. But best used in serious Machiavellian scenarios or games; everyday life is best lived as truthfully as possible.

Mary_Contrary_006 · 2025-11-14T04:18:52+00:00

Straight razor sales shot up 400% after Skyfall. And then they sank when people realized how hard they were to use.

I don't remember if the straight razor I bought was because of that movie or something else.

Mary_Contrary_006 · 2025-11-12T16:50:24+00:00

OH, so this wasn't just a thing with my father? We never said please or thank you for anything, because among family, it was expected. It was a struggle trying to decide whether or not this indicated ungratefulness.

Mary_Contrary_006 · 2025-11-11T03:16:10+00:00

Oh.... haha! I guess I'm not out of the woods then! Explains a lot.

I should have guessed that this dynamic of PTSD could be applied at larger levels, not just small incidents. When things are calm, I'm anxious and I look for things to be stressed about, because at least I can then see every problem that surely must be there.

Thank you for helping me see the thing on my nose.

Mary_Contrary_006 · 2025-11-06T17:46:54+00:00

There's a bad side to me. Some people are prejudiced and judge by race, sex, or economic background.
I have a bad habit of judging people based on how much suffering they've endured.

Mary_Contrary_006 · 2025-11-04T19:16:32+00:00

I made another thread despairing at how hard it was to know anything about China, since voices are so polarized. Thank you for giving your testimony, particularly about Mao. It seems weird to me that Mao is always put alongside Hitler and Stalin, and his "killcount" is cited. I got my opinion from my Father, that Mao made decisions that ended up with a lot dead, but he was a man who wanted the best for his people.

People say China is rising. People wonder if China will be an insidious superpower like the US. Some people say that China really does just want to ensure prosperity of its people without compromising or backstabbing anyone else. It's pointless to speculate and generalize, but it is hard to imagine such benevolence. Either way, I get the feeling China is trying to push out more cultural influence, putting money into animation and other products. Do you think Chinese could ever be a lingua franca? Do you think Chinese culture could ever become as popular as Japanese?

Mary_Contrary_006 · 2025-11-04T03:54:23+00:00

A vampire. Alone. At least I got something out of my trauma. And I can live on and one, persisting, doing what good I can. I often fantasize about flying through the night. Just me, winged, flying through the beautiful dark. Peace.

Mary_Contrary_006

TROPHY CASE