Fun Vampire Fact; the reason that Vampires traditionally cannot see their reflections in a mirror is because mirrors used to be backed with a reflective layer of silver — which, as the metal of purity, would not ‘interact’ with Vampires, who are the Devil’s work.
However, modern mirrors have used aluminum as their reflective backing for many years now — and aluminum is not a ‘picky’ metal at all. So Vampires are able to see their reflections in modern mirrors.
All I can think about is a vampire used to not seeing their reflection in mirrors for centuries, and one day they are just walking along and unknowingly pass a mirror backed with aluminum and THEY NEARLY SHIT THEMSELVES.
Caffeine is a natural blood thinner so it could have some interesting effects for them. Not sure what though.
They’d probably also jitter quite a bit, depending on whether or not they absorb things more readily through their food (which one would think they would due to needing to absorb the things they need from blood) which could make the risk of addiction fairly substantial.
So yea, I think it would, though how that plays out is up to you and your worldbuilding 🙂
Unwanted butting-in from medical human and caffeine addict: caffeine isn’t so much a blood thinner, but it does act to boost metabolism and acts to release adrenaline (small doses). Obviously the specific effect will vary based on your vamp mythos and what you’ve decided vampirism means in your story, but I can see this used in an interesting way or two…
For instance, if your ‘verse uses cold vamps (ie room-temperature or slightly above), caffeine and a few other substances could act to help them raise their body temperature to “pass” with a human date (other things being alcohol for the vasodilatory properties, cinnamon for metabolic boost, taurine/guanine, plus the strategic application of hot packs). NICUs will give underdeveloped premies caffeine drips to aid development and raise core temp, so this isn’t completely left-field.
It also increases heart rate (particularly in “overdose”), which, if you have still-beating-heart-just-super-slow-heart-rate vamps, they might use caffeine to take their heart rate from “almost a stone” to “a very very very slow, but marginally realistic, human heart rate”. Again, passing for human on a date…
Just remember, caffeine is also a diuretic, and they may need to use the bathroom. And a male/bepenised vamp in the bathroom pissing blood into a urinal just tickles me pink.
Other thoughts: if vampires eat blood, and digest blood, then their poop will look very dark and tarry, and stink like the ending of worlds, and their puke will look like coffee grounds. Just a word to the wise.
Note to Scripty-Followers: @thebibliosphere‘s blog is SO VERY MUCH NSFW. I love her, but do not say I did not warn. Gods alone, so very NSFW…
I will have you know I only posted twice about sex related things yesterday. (Multiple reblogs of the same post don’t count, I was helping people with their vampire erotica problems, I should be sainted for my restraint)
and “caffeine isn’t so much a blood thinner”, my doctors lied to me, bitches gonna get stitches. Thank you for that about the heart rate and the body temp, I’ll be using that.
Hello! I am actually… really passionate about this and I’ve thought about doing it for myself, too! For now I settle with fanart of me w/ fangs…
[^Portrait of moi by the amazingly talented @vaciel, it’s a WIP, I hope they finish it someday][Ya can’t see them but I would have the canine fangs, too, you can only see the
lateral incisor fangs here
(that’s the tooth between the
front tooth and the canine)]
I actually don’t know the specifics, it depends on the fangsmith, but we have a few
fangsmiths
brought into Halloween Adventure here in NYC leading up to Halloween every year to make fangs, so you might get in touch with that store. They would probably need to be done in person so that the fangsmith can take a cast of your teeth so that their fangs will fit perfectly (my little story about the custom fangs, well, Lestat sneakily gets the cast by making the molds himself w/ Brian, during an evening of experimentation with Alginate ^____^ ) I’m pretty sure the fangsmiths all make their fangs removable.
One fangsmith, who I think is one of the Halloween Adventure ones, is Father Sebastiaan, and he has a gallery and prices. He has a list of pointers about his fangs that are probably true for other fangsmiths:
“Fangs color match your teeth.
They will last 2-3 years with good care, longer if you are careful.
Not wise to sleep or eat with them.
OK for smoking, drinking coffee, tea, alcohol, absinthe and sex.
Made from high quality dental acrylics.
18 years of fang making experience.
Good for singing.
Feel like your real teeth when being worn.”
This is one of the customers in his gallery:
^IWTV-style fangs, I think, bc this dude vampire has the lateral incisors done, too ❤
Hit the jump for a little more, anyone w/ more info is welcome to share or tag someone who does!
I’ve also seen my fair share of custom fangs made by dentists who are willing to do cosmetic work, like the plastic surgeons who are willing to make your ears pointy for superficial reasons. Much more expensive, I would assume. Here’s a picture of a fan at a booksigning for PL in ‘14 who I think had permanent fangs and hers were… in my opinion… too big. She reminded me a little more of a sabretooth tiger than a vampiress but hey! It worked for her.
[X] Sorry for the low-res, it was hard to get any snaps of her! Her fangs were concealed when her mouth was closed, but her lip was pushed out to make room, I guess, and I think she had a little difficulty talking. Hers seemed very durable.
Vampires are feared everywhere, but the Balkan region has been especially haunted. Garlic has been regarded as an effective prophylactic against vampires. We wanted to explore this alleged effect experimentally. Owing to the lack of vampires, we used leeches instead. In strictly standardized research surroundings, the leeches were to attach themselves to either a hand smeared with garlic or to a clean hand. The garlic-smeared hand was preferred in two out of three cases (95% confidence interval 50.4% to 80.4%). When they preferred the garlic the leeches used only 14.9 seconds to attach themselves, compared with 44.9 seconds when going to the non-garlic hand (p < 0.05). The traditional belief that garlic has prophylactic properties is probably wrong. The reverse may in fact be true. This study indicates that garlic possibly attracts vampires. Therefore to avoid a Balkan-like development in Norway, restrictions on the use of garlic should be considered.
“Oh no,” the vampire said, tying the dinner napkin around his neck, “you smothered yourself in garlic?” Licking his lips as he pulls out salt and pepper shaker. “Whatever shall I do.”
I-want-my-IWTV 