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e_k_bravemanNote from after finishing the post: this turned out way longer and more rambly than I intended, but that's just how my brain works. Posting it because as a child of Web 2.0 I love to overshare! Dunno how much sense it makes to the casual reader. It is mostly for me, after all. Do feel free to share any thoughts you may have!
Anyway, it's not the story I reference on my neocities' character page, because I realized I'm not sure where I'm going with that one and it needs to bake in my brain a bit longer. Honestly, the one I've shifted to working on needs that as well (hence the post) but my vision for it is a bit clearer at least. The goal here is to make it even more clear!
The current iteration goes something like this: a vampire witch named Yulianna kidnaps a man named Roland, because his blood brings her back to life temporarily, which is something that's never happened before (blood just powers her magic). His family, the Todtentals, comes to get him, but he's not happy about it because he was trying to run away from them in the first place. At first they want to carry out some extrajudicial justice, but realize she's a powerful alchemist and decide she's more useful to them alive. They use Roland as a bit of bait to sweeten the deal. Speaking of him, the whole magic blood thing is related to the family's attempts to create the Philosopher's Stone. His mom, Nora, died in the attempt, but not to worry! She got revived as a zombie by his dad and is being kept in the basement. :) She astral projects sometimes, but no one can see her. Anyway, Yulianna calls up her friend Rika, who is also a witch and her powers are powered by people's fears, to come assist her. They're both biding their time and trying to find an 'out' for Yulianna, because these guys suck and she doesn't actually want to work with them. They're also lowkey seducing Roland through toxic threesome shenanigans, as one does. Eventually, they figure out Nora's deal, and basically every other family member's hangups and decide to use this information against them. There's a handful of side characters and plot threads I haven't gotten into (which I could potentially cut anyway, even if I don't really want to) but that's the gist of it!
Okay, so far this has a lot of gothic lit influence not because I intentionally based it off any particular gothic lit (I've never actually read any) but because I've osmosed its trappings through common tropes. And that's fine, I guess, but I don't necessarily want to write E.K.'s Take on the Gothic Novel, YKWIM? Nothing against the genre, but I think it would be a bit silly to do that when I haven't properly engaged with it in the first place. So, how the fuck did I end up here anyway?
Well, see, the whole thing started as an origfic whump plot bunny in the tradition of that one niche tumblr community that posts flash fiction where the characters are essentially defined by their roles in a whump dynamic (Whumpee, Whumper, Caretaker, etc.). Originally, it was some sort of hero team offering up one of their members to a villain they've fought before, so they can get said villain to help them take down a bigger villain. The lesser villain decides that this is too far and offers to get the sacrificial lamb / whumpee out of there in exchange for his loyalty. Cue a toxic relationship and taking down the 'hero' team. Also the villain is a woman and the whumpee is a man, because I wanted to write F/m.
As I tried expanding on this concept, I found that I couldn't really come up with any way to fill in the blanks on the character dynamics & backstories that didn't feel... hacky. To be fair, this kinda makes sense when you consider that this type of origfic relies on the readers having a common understanding of genre tropes (as in, the tropes of mass market genre fiction) so that they can be up to speed on the vibes of the story without the writer having to write actual backstory. It's fanfic based on common tropes rather than an actual story. And as a result trying to add backstory to it is like trying to upscale a crusty JPEG, which is to say it doesn't actually work!
So, instead I broke down the plot points I want to keep into their most basic forms --- toxic F/m dynamic, FMC already obsessed with MMC, MMC is seen as disposable by people who were supposed to protect him, he decides FMC is the lesser evil --- and tried to think of ways that led them to ending up here. Where does the F/m dynamic come from? The FMC is a powerful (sexy) vampire and the MMC has little to no magical powers. Why is she obsessed? The little power he does have is both a) unique and b) precious to her specifically, hence it bringing her back to life. Why is the MMC seen as disposable and by whom? Well, easiest answer is his family, who expected him to be more useful to them personally and also some of them blame him (unfairly) for their mom dying. How is FMC the lesser evil? Well, by virtue of not having inflicted childhood trauma upon him. Easy. Oh, and add the fear witch because it adds to the sexiness for me personally. The actual process of getting there had way more twists and turns but I'm already rambling, so I'm leaving those details out.
But okay, then I kept adding more details so that the setting is a bit more fleshed out, but in a way that makes, like sense. So, the family has power both in an absolute and in a social sense, in order to justify how they ended up with a strange failed experiment child and how they're able to both get him away from a powerful vampire AND still use him as bait. And what do powerful families have? Fuckoff big mansions, where they have their hidden family dramas, of course! But also, having the mom die as part of the tragic backstory is cliche and kinda problematic, so why not have her be resurrected but this is kept secret from everyone by the patriarch of the family? Now the sexism is at least an intentional part of the story lol.
So, though this convoluted process I ended up stumbling into the setting of a gothic novel! You've got everything: vampires, a woman haunting a big mansion, family secrets, abuse, sexism, etc. etc. But like I said, this isn't actually what I want to write! But I also feel like I can't just pretend I haven't stumbled into this genre, because if I, a dumbass who hasn't actually engaged w gothic fiction, have noticed, then others surely will too! And then I'm gonna look like an idiot wasting the potential of a story in order to write kinky FFm sex (which... I lowkey am, I'm sorry).
But okay, in the middle of writing this I started getting some ideas. What if, instead of being obviously evil, the Todtentals have seemingly noble motivations? What if they're in, like, the pharmaceutical industry or something, supposedly to help people? I can still have them be former vampire hunters but with some ancestor down the line having realized that vampires pray on the sick & destitute so he tried to find a way to help people. Hell, maybe they ended up being more like field medics than proper hunters. But along the way, they became obsessed with overcoming death (as many people in this universe do) as a preventative measure against vampires and zombies and so on. That is to say, they thought that if no one died in the first place, they wouldn't have vampires and such. Ergo, investing into various methods of life extension, but in a fit of desperation, trying shadier stuff like alchemy and the philosopher's stone. The abusive family stuff isn't contradictory to this at all; as we know, good intentions aren't enough to overcome systemic issues and the construct of the family is one such issue. The patriarch (as all patriarchs before him) uses his power over the family in order to further his own goals. The nobility of the goals isn't the point here; it's that he's taking advantage of a power dynamic with no regard for how it affects those subordinate to him, thus creating toxicity within the family.
Even the sexism can stay! Rather than hostile sexism, it can be benevolent sexism. The patriarch can still be a traditionalist, but rather than a raging bitter reactionary, he is a man so convinced in his own righteousness he can't see what's in front of him. And his pride doesn't allow him to admit that his wife's death and resurrection were a result of him valuing himself and his own experience above that of his family members.
I think that may still be gothic, but now it's closer to the original concept (heroes betraying a comrade for the greater good, supposedly), which I personally think makes it a bit fresher.
All of this is background, though. The main thing is a toxic FFm dynamic. But, you know, the family trauma precipitates that. Toxic family => toxic adult relationships, that's how it works!
Anyway, it's not the story I reference on my neocities' character page, because I realized I'm not sure where I'm going with that one and it needs to bake in my brain a bit longer. Honestly, the one I've shifted to working on needs that as well (hence the post) but my vision for it is a bit clearer at least. The goal here is to make it even more clear!
The current iteration goes something like this: a vampire witch named Yulianna kidnaps a man named Roland, because his blood brings her back to life temporarily, which is something that's never happened before (blood just powers her magic). His family, the Todtentals, comes to get him, but he's not happy about it because he was trying to run away from them in the first place. At first they want to carry out some extrajudicial justice, but realize she's a powerful alchemist and decide she's more useful to them alive. They use Roland as a bit of bait to sweeten the deal. Speaking of him, the whole magic blood thing is related to the family's attempts to create the Philosopher's Stone. His mom, Nora, died in the attempt, but not to worry! She got revived as a zombie by his dad and is being kept in the basement. :) She astral projects sometimes, but no one can see her. Anyway, Yulianna calls up her friend Rika, who is also a witch and her powers are powered by people's fears, to come assist her. They're both biding their time and trying to find an 'out' for Yulianna, because these guys suck and she doesn't actually want to work with them. They're also lowkey seducing Roland through toxic threesome shenanigans, as one does. Eventually, they figure out Nora's deal, and basically every other family member's hangups and decide to use this information against them. There's a handful of side characters and plot threads I haven't gotten into (which I could potentially cut anyway, even if I don't really want to) but that's the gist of it!
Okay, so far this has a lot of gothic lit influence not because I intentionally based it off any particular gothic lit (I've never actually read any) but because I've osmosed its trappings through common tropes. And that's fine, I guess, but I don't necessarily want to write E.K.'s Take on the Gothic Novel, YKWIM? Nothing against the genre, but I think it would be a bit silly to do that when I haven't properly engaged with it in the first place. So, how the fuck did I end up here anyway?
Well, see, the whole thing started as an origfic whump plot bunny in the tradition of that one niche tumblr community that posts flash fiction where the characters are essentially defined by their roles in a whump dynamic (Whumpee, Whumper, Caretaker, etc.). Originally, it was some sort of hero team offering up one of their members to a villain they've fought before, so they can get said villain to help them take down a bigger villain. The lesser villain decides that this is too far and offers to get the sacrificial lamb / whumpee out of there in exchange for his loyalty. Cue a toxic relationship and taking down the 'hero' team. Also the villain is a woman and the whumpee is a man, because I wanted to write F/m.
As I tried expanding on this concept, I found that I couldn't really come up with any way to fill in the blanks on the character dynamics & backstories that didn't feel... hacky. To be fair, this kinda makes sense when you consider that this type of origfic relies on the readers having a common understanding of genre tropes (as in, the tropes of mass market genre fiction) so that they can be up to speed on the vibes of the story without the writer having to write actual backstory. It's fanfic based on common tropes rather than an actual story. And as a result trying to add backstory to it is like trying to upscale a crusty JPEG, which is to say it doesn't actually work!
So, instead I broke down the plot points I want to keep into their most basic forms --- toxic F/m dynamic, FMC already obsessed with MMC, MMC is seen as disposable by people who were supposed to protect him, he decides FMC is the lesser evil --- and tried to think of ways that led them to ending up here. Where does the F/m dynamic come from? The FMC is a powerful (sexy) vampire and the MMC has little to no magical powers. Why is she obsessed? The little power he does have is both a) unique and b) precious to her specifically, hence it bringing her back to life. Why is the MMC seen as disposable and by whom? Well, easiest answer is his family, who expected him to be more useful to them personally and also some of them blame him (unfairly) for their mom dying. How is FMC the lesser evil? Well, by virtue of not having inflicted childhood trauma upon him. Easy. Oh, and add the fear witch because it adds to the sexiness for me personally. The actual process of getting there had way more twists and turns but I'm already rambling, so I'm leaving those details out.
But okay, then I kept adding more details so that the setting is a bit more fleshed out, but in a way that makes, like sense. So, the family has power both in an absolute and in a social sense, in order to justify how they ended up with a strange failed experiment child and how they're able to both get him away from a powerful vampire AND still use him as bait. And what do powerful families have? Fuckoff big mansions, where they have their hidden family dramas, of course! But also, having the mom die as part of the tragic backstory is cliche and kinda problematic, so why not have her be resurrected but this is kept secret from everyone by the patriarch of the family? Now the sexism is at least an intentional part of the story lol.
So, though this convoluted process I ended up stumbling into the setting of a gothic novel! You've got everything: vampires, a woman haunting a big mansion, family secrets, abuse, sexism, etc. etc. But like I said, this isn't actually what I want to write! But I also feel like I can't just pretend I haven't stumbled into this genre, because if I, a dumbass who hasn't actually engaged w gothic fiction, have noticed, then others surely will too! And then I'm gonna look like an idiot wasting the potential of a story in order to write kinky FFm sex (which... I lowkey am, I'm sorry).
But okay, in the middle of writing this I started getting some ideas. What if, instead of being obviously evil, the Todtentals have seemingly noble motivations? What if they're in, like, the pharmaceutical industry or something, supposedly to help people? I can still have them be former vampire hunters but with some ancestor down the line having realized that vampires pray on the sick & destitute so he tried to find a way to help people. Hell, maybe they ended up being more like field medics than proper hunters. But along the way, they became obsessed with overcoming death (as many people in this universe do) as a preventative measure against vampires and zombies and so on. That is to say, they thought that if no one died in the first place, they wouldn't have vampires and such. Ergo, investing into various methods of life extension, but in a fit of desperation, trying shadier stuff like alchemy and the philosopher's stone. The abusive family stuff isn't contradictory to this at all; as we know, good intentions aren't enough to overcome systemic issues and the construct of the family is one such issue. The patriarch (as all patriarchs before him) uses his power over the family in order to further his own goals. The nobility of the goals isn't the point here; it's that he's taking advantage of a power dynamic with no regard for how it affects those subordinate to him, thus creating toxicity within the family.
Even the sexism can stay! Rather than hostile sexism, it can be benevolent sexism. The patriarch can still be a traditionalist, but rather than a raging bitter reactionary, he is a man so convinced in his own righteousness he can't see what's in front of him. And his pride doesn't allow him to admit that his wife's death and resurrection were a result of him valuing himself and his own experience above that of his family members.
I think that may still be gothic, but now it's closer to the original concept (heroes betraying a comrade for the greater good, supposedly), which I personally think makes it a bit fresher.
All of this is background, though. The main thing is a toxic FFm dynamic. But, you know, the family trauma precipitates that. Toxic family => toxic adult relationships, that's how it works!
