BDE Info Post 2: Survivor Details: Electric Boogaloo

[spring-lost.livejournal.com]

Hey, guys! It's us again, with the promised extra 'canon' details for the surviving parties on Vamped Fandom. We'll leave you all the space to flesh things out for your individual characters, on a smaller or a greater scale, by ways of the brainstorming post coming up. These, however, are the guidelines the world spins by, the axis of the island, the compost in the garden, the... well, you all get it by now.

FOOD!

Obviously, food won't be easy to come by for our erstwhile survivors. The roof of the dorms building has been turned into a hydroponic garden some time ago, bringing fresh fruit and vegetables to the masses. Meat is somewhat scarce, but considering that the teal deer population has had more of a run of the town since the humans retreated to the dorms, venison is still a somewhat common commodity. Rabbits and fish still populate the island as well, and hunters can take them down during the daylight hours, as well as pick herbs and plants out in the woods.

Finally, of course, there's the rain. The island might suffer under the heavy burden of a vampire population, but that hasn't killed its spirits. Every once in a while, an oddity can appear, be it an invasion of edible animals, or cheesecake raining from the skies. The humans have done their best to pool these resources, and they remain quite a treat.

COMMUNICATIONS!

The lines to and from Fandom are snipped. Everything winds up with Zoe: incoming broadcasts, and outgoing, which are blocked by the vampires to cause a full radio silence for the survivors. Meanwhile, the vampires keep pumping out the propaganda, and it wouldn't be strange for the families of survivors to get very little but a form 'Your son/daughter/father/best friend/flamingo has graduated and moved on into another universe!' if they really pushed. Above all, the vampires are interested in getting people in, and whether this is by propaganda or drawing in suspicious relatives and friends doesn't really matter to them.

All access to portals and the magic of the causeway are also squarely in Zoe's control at the school, out of reach and out of knowledge of the survivors. They don't even know there's a way out - keeping everyone nice and snuggly in the same place unless the vampire up top says so.

Details about the radio will be released at a later time, but naturally the survivors aren't going to broadcast anything on a frequency the vampires could pick up on - or vice-versa. The island is also, naturally, blocked off from all access to the internet.

POWERS!

Magic in Fandom is dampened. That means that any spells that could cause the vampires direct harm or speed people (or messages) off the island don't work. They have been quite methodically and thoroughly blocked off by vampire Willow. Minor magic is still usable, but nothing that would be really effective.

If you have psionic powers/mutant powers/ etc. Willow's magic might affect them (read: it can if you want it to, for the purposes of hamstringing our powerhouses who might otherwise end the plot before it even begins). It will make sure you can't teleport/shimmer/etc off the island, or send a message out, but things like flying, telekinesis, super-strength, etc, will still work.

If you are a vampire, and had powers before you got vamped, you still have them, and Willow's spell doesn't affect them. (You still can't leave the island without Zoe's permission, though.) The two exceptions to keeping powers are anything that would give you an invulnerability to staking or to sunlight - those are important enough parts of the vampire demon that they'll override anything that came with the human.

GEOGRAPHY!

Most of Fandom Town is still standing. Institutions like JGoB and the Perk still remain in building form, although obviously no one has sold coffee nor cake for quite some time now. However, the island never went through the move that brought it into Maryland and added half a neighbourhood to its coastline, so reference the old map for further details.

The old houses are all largely uninhabitable, however, and definitely not safe going. Most human Fandomites would be better off reserving any social outings for the park in broad daylight. The causeway doesn't allow exit anymore, and is watched over by the vampires since it's the most popular way to arrive in Fandom. There's a reason why everyone is holed up in the dorms.

ARRIVAL!

The survivors will have set up a kind of special newbie rescue program of their own. They run regular sweeps of the island to make sure that no newbies wind up swiped by a vampire before their time. Basically, any individual Fandomite willing and able to go out and take a peek will probably have been on newbie duty at some point, working individually or in teams. You're all encouraged to set these up yourselves where it makes sense IG!

ASSORTED QUESTIONS! Not quite as cheery.

- When during the plot are the crossovers going to happen?

This depends. Some Fandomites will find the switch happening on Friday. Others on Saturday, when they've been briefed and can take some info out into the AUverse. More on this later, as it is volunteer-based.

- Can an AU character have arrived before or after the character arrived in mainstream Fandom canon?

Absolutely! It's a different timeline, and enrollment cycles might have worked out very differently...

- My character is a loner who doesn't stick to the established groups. Would it be feasible to have them wander around or start their own groups?

Sure. However, considering how dangerous the island is, especially during the night, the likelihood of loners surviving 'out in the wild' is weetiny - for both humans and vampires. Zoe didn't train any slobs, and unless you have significant firepower, it's doubtful your character would have survived more than a few days after deserting their group.

- So where does all this activity go, anyway?

Shortly before the start of the BDE, we'll open up a community. All AU journals will get invites; any and all AU posts, including room posts and other posts you'd put in your private journal in Fandom proper will fit in here. Really private posts, such as the NWS variety, or anything else you'd rather keep to your journal, can be posted in the AU character journal and then linked in the daily OCD posts. There'll also be general daily OCD posts for those of you who'd like things to be a little more structured.

A brainstorming post will be coming up this weekend, as well as a sign-up for our research team/finale team/dead folk (note that research is mainsteam, fighty finale AU, but both will play a role in our denouement). Remember that you can still change your sign-up on the AU sign-up post until tomorrow night!

Questions, comments and/or pie (I prefer raspberry. mmm, raspberry)?

Original Info Post | Survivor Details (this post) | Vampire Guide | Brainstorming!

Comments

Question/solution..

[mparkerceo.livejournal.com]

It occurred to me (because being in Parker's brain makes me think of these things) that it would be really important for the survivors not to get pregnant. The second a teenage girl is pregnant, the whole community gets worried and into protecting mom & kid; and of course, it would never be just one.

Since I doubt there's been an airlift of condoms to the Island, how likely/unlikely do you think it was that some magic user, at some point, came up with a birth control spell and taught it to the survivors? Something simple enough that they don't all have to practice incredibly safe sex all the time?

Re: Question/solution..

[fh_jackass]

The island could rain condoms once in a while!

Re: Question/solution..

[trigons_child]

Vampires everywhere and people fighting to survive, and you think they'll be wasting time having sex?!

...

Yeah, you're right.

Re: Question/solution..

[wantstocheer.livejournal.com]

Someone was talking about birth control being magical in Loki's class last week when he asked them about when they bought condoms. I don't remember who though.

Re: Question/solution.. - answer

[thatsamilkshake]

There's condoms! The survivors would have raided the clinic long ago and there's years' worth of condoms stored up in there.

Though condom rain every so often could have happened too!

No birth control spells though, unless the person already had the power to control that for themselves.

Re: Question/solution..

[glacial_queen]

Karla has a contraceptive tea she can brew for folks. It'll probably be rationed, but herbs are easy to find/grow/call in from her stash.

[rocksthescarf.livejournal.com]

I have...a blue slushee. You can have that instead of pie.

Mmm blue flavor.

[wantstocheer.livejournal.com]

What about medical supplies?

I want to be able to use Claire's blood's healing properties in auverse to help people. Would there be needles, syringes, etc?

[thatsamilkshake]

There would, because the survivors have stuff they raided from the clinic! Not like, X-Ray machines, but anything they could put in boxes/bags and cart away.

[mparkerceo.livejournal.com]

Do we have electrical power, or not? Could the survivors have scavenged generators from old buildings, and be keeping them in the basement, or so you think the vamps have control of the power grid, and they're basically camping in the dorms?

[bitchprince]

The dorms would have a generator, but it would be the only power they have, and ergo under rationing. The dorms have been squirreled together into a makeshift fortress, after all!

[not_in_the_book]

Regarding powers!

One of the things I'd like to do with Lulu is have her limited to her first-level spells (and fairly weak versions of those -- say, what Rikku could cast) -- this means Thunder, Blizzard, Water, and Fire. Which brings up the concern of the Fire spell, since, y'know, anything that can catch vampires on fire from a distance, no matter how weak, would probably be considered overpowered on the island, under the dampening spell.

But I've got a potential solution for that, that I think would work, and I wanted to check to see if it would be allowed: while Relly and I have been saying that, in-game, the FFX spells just summon forth x amount of the particular element, there's no evidence in the source for the spells actually causing monsters -- or even people -- on fire. Ergo, could we argue that under the dampening spell, things like Lulu's fire spell would cause damage to the vampires -- enough to make them hurt, and maybe force them away (at least, weaker ones?), but not enough to actually catch them on fire? Thus avoiding any lasting harm.

Having access to this would also give the survivors another magical healer (if, again, a very weak one) and someone who can charge up and jump-start things like batteries and generators; her Thunder spell has been used in canon to jump-start a mechanical crane. It wouldn't be easy and would take a lot out of her, especially if she tried to do a lot in a small period of time -- but I think it would work, given the restrictions?

[findingelena.livejournal.com]

From the wrong account: I've actually been thinking about this. What if it was fire, but just a super watered-down version? I mean, if you took a lighter and lit a vampire's sleeve on fire, that'd distract them (FIRE BAD) while they put it out, and possibly cause a little singe/burn mark if they didn't put it out quickly, but it's not like carrying a lighter is going to save you from a vampire. It'd be helpful, but not likely to kill any of them, or do much more than annoy them.

[thatsamilkshake]

What Rikku said, more or less!

General power levels for all magic users are severely reduced. No spells that could be used offensively can be used offensively, and all spells would be very weak, period. If you used to be able to power up a house with your magic, now you can make your flashlight turn back on for another ten minutes or so when the battery dies.

In general, the idea is to get people with magic powers to not be able to use them for anything but small stuff that would have flown under the vampires' radar. So to use a specific example, Lulu could use Fire, but she wouldn't have enough power to do more than light the tinder for a campfire with it.

[findingelena.livejournal.com]

On a similar note to Tris's question -- Elena's Limit Break is a flame wall. "Limit Break" means she can't do it at-will -- she can only cast it if she's taken a crazy-high amount of physical damage, the kind where she'd be a few minutes away from bleeding to death anyway. It's sort of like a panic button, in that sense. She gets to cast it once, and then it's gone.

If I handwave that, because of Willow's dampening spell, it's a particularly weak flame wall, can she keep it? It seems like it's perfectly situated to have saved her life once or twice -- it didn't kill any of the vampires, but even a weak wall of flame is going to force them back, which gives her enough time to flee. And again, it's not something she can cast regularly, or even all that often, which helps it not be overpowered. (I hope?)

[bitchprince]

Elena would be able to keep her flame wall if it functioned mainly as a shock tactic, as offensive spells are Right Out; as an involuntary distraction, kept at the level you specified, it would totally work.

[findingelena.livejournal.com]

Also: dropped characters are okay for the dead, but ineligible for vamping, right? I had a sudden cracky vision of a teensy vamped Tinker Bell, because I have issues, but she's long gone.

[thatsamilkshake]

Correct. But she could have been vamped and already dusted! That counts as dead. Someone could have staked her with a toothpick!

[lovemykilt]

So, quick question about a particular building: Our Lady of Fandom. Is this, like, raided/destroyed/what-have-you? If not, or if it's still standing to any extent, it could work as a temporary safe house in the town, given Buffy-verse vampires' aversion to crosses and such.

Though, again, it's entirely believable that it would have already been stripped by survivors and/or burned down by vampires. So I figured it'd be good to ask.

[thatsamilkshake]

Buffyverse vampires can (and have in canon) enter churches; it just makes them twitchy. So it wouldn't make a very good safehouse, since it's not a residence and thus wouldn't keep the vamps out that way either. It might be a fairly well defensible place to head for during a fight, though, given the amount of holy objects around.

But (oops) to answer the main question: still exists! And is largely abandoned because the vamps don't want to hole up there.

[irulan-atreides.livejournal.com]

I've a question regarding food supply. Is there anyway Irulan could get a supply of Spice? She's not as addicted to it but withdrawal could mean death. And I mean for Irulan to arrive here in 2007 (16 yrs old) but couldn't leave to return home.

[thatsamilkshake]

Only if she brought it in with her, I'm afraid. There's nothing coming into Fandom that doesn't belong to the vampires or arrive in the pockets of new survivors.

Question!

[guardianborn.livejournal.com]

So someone has been being enabley, and it leaves me with this question:

Were Rose to be a survivor and have killed vampires, she'd canonically end up seeing ghosts of dead people. Especially those she couldn't save (and they have the fun potential of driving her insane) - which would, you know, be a lot of people on the island.

So were this to happen in the AU, could I go ahead and chat with muns of dead people to be able to have her be seeing them and being driven (more) insane or should I app this?

Re: Question!

[thatsamilkshake]

Would she actually be interacting with them (in which case they'd need AU journals etc.) ? Or just modding the appearance in her own narrative?

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

Yes, I know, I'm slow but here goes.

It's canon that the Roswell aliens can manipulate and change stuff on a molecular level. For example, Isabel's changed a bottle of mustard to ketchup and Michael's changed a cactus plant to a rose bush.

I'd like to have her keep that ability. However to keep it from being the answer to everything, I'm going with the backstory that in the beginning she did change a lot of stuff to what they needed. Except after a while she burned herself out and it took a long time for her to recover the ability.

Now she limits herself to just what's absolutely needed. i.e. gas for the generator and the occasional cigarette for those who really need a hit.

Plus I've got this whole water into wine mini-plot in my head.

Can you see any problem with this?

[thatsamilkshake]

Yup, that sounds fine to us!

[icecoldfrost]

Another powers question, sorry! But how does mutant-telepathy affect vampires for this?

Two of Emma's favorite tricks include firing off someone's pain receptors all at once with her telepathy or planing illusions in someone's head. The first is far easier for her than the second, but they're both things she'd use if she got cornered by vampires.

I'm just flat-out assuming that hostile brain-takeovers are out due to demon-undead-brain-weird, of course.

[thatsamilkshake]

Easy (if sad) answer: Buffy vampires are immune to telepathy.

[willbedone.livejournal.com]

What about Caritas?

[needsaparrot]

Still standing, but no Sanctuary Spell, since that was a thing that had to be renewed.

The current owner says Vamp!Willow could totally have it for her lair, though!

[absolutesnark]

I just thought of a few things regarding Piper's powers. She normally has the power to freeze things. Could it be possible that, since her powers are dampened, that they could slow vampires down a little? Not make them frozen or lose their strength. But maybe it could make vampires have normal speed for a few moments, enough time to help give people a chance to run from them?

If not, that's totally cool. Thought I'd ask, though.

[bitchprince]

As long as it's kept within those limits, it's totally fine with us!