socoolbrewster | Your Vampire and You: a User's Manual

...To start off, this is a combination of reboot canon, original 1985 canon, general vampire mythology, and personal tweaks. It contains pretty much anything and everything you could ever need to know about Ed's particular brand of vampirism, but if you have any questions, if there's something I haven't covered, don't hesitate to ask; chances are I've got headcanon for it somewhere and just didn't get around to throwing it here.

General Mechanics:
Unlike your standard mythology, he's not quite "dead"; blood pumps and circulates, neurons fire, you can't sustain an existence without its basic operations, after all, even if you're essentially an animated corpse kept alive by a Christianity-fearing virus). He's got a pulse, consequently, and a heartbeat, and he even breathes, only they're all depressed enough to be generally accepted by the medical community as "incompatible with life" -- they're enough to maintain the body, keep it running and operating, but if the average person tried to live that way they'd long since be dead because it's just not practically sufficient.

I Vant to Suck Your Blood:
Newly made vamps -- fledglings, like Ed for example -- tend to be particularly bloodthirsty and are hungry almost constantly for the first month or so while their human bodies shed what's left of their human lives and adjust to the rigors of a vampiric existence. Right out of the box they're little more than animals, fueled by want-take-have more than any kind of rational thought process, but within a few days, with enough rest, they usually adjust well enough. Some take longer than others (a quirk that usually depends on the individual themselves, the kind of person they were, as well as proper feeding during this transitional period), and there are a scant few that never fully regain anything resembling reason, but by and large they do adjust. They tend to have very short shelf lives if left to their own devices because they don't have the un-life experience to know where their limits are, or how to adequately control their urges as needed; comparatively few make it through the first months, but those that do tend to stick around for a while. Feeding is ordinarily required twice daily, or only once a day if they drain a human completely, however newborns need to feed twice that (although they may feel compelled to feed as many as seven or eight times a day). Synthetic blood holds significantly less nutritional value for them, although animal blood is an adequate substitute.

I Think I'm Turning Vampanese:
The turning process, for its part, is fairly similar to the usual mythology; the Sire drains the prospective Childe, or nearly, anyway, and when the victim dies he or she is inevitably reborn a vampire, forever connected to the one who turned him or her until they're effectively released from the bond. One bite won't do it unless it's a complete draining, but repeated exposures will, only the process is much more gradual; see what happened to Doris, for example -- she wasn't a true vampire, she still retained much of her humanity when the audience saw her last, but when Charley tried to break her out she turned to dust in daylight all the same.

There's also a certain amount of choice that goes into the process; the bitten can become either sane and aware, fully independent and autonomous, like Jerry, Ed, and Amy, or they can become drones or thralls, useful as cannon fodder or foot soldiers but not much else, like...pretty much everyone else in the nest during the Final Battle. Which they will be depends largely on the individual themselves, but the process is much like the sorting hat at Hogwarts; all the information is there for the Sire to see, all they do is push in one direction or the other, so to speak.

Stuck In the Middle WIth You
Upon being turned, a bond is created between Sire and Childe, a connection that ties the two together in a process akin to the imprinting that ducks go through; it operates something like one of those leashes you can buy for your kid, oddly enough. For the first few weeks the newly turned often follow around their makers like lost puppies, not so much because they are physically compelled to as emotionally they just don't know what to do with themselves. This is usually when they learn the most basic skills, get a hold on their new abilities and get settled in to their new lives. As time passes and the fledglings gain independence and maturity, this bond lessens in intensity, until finally, some years down the line, it's dissolved completely. Should it be severed prematurely, the effect can be very traumatic, to either party, particularly if it occurs early on, when the bond is still fresh.

Bitch Got Bite:
Vampire blood on its own also has some special properties, namely that it acts as a paralytic; a few drops and the victim will find themselves effectively boneless, zero muscular control to speak of. It wears off within a few minutes, and it won't kill, but even so. Even their saliva has a certain amount of this quality, although on a much smaller scale; anyone bitten by a vampire seldom feels inclined to fight back much once it's in-progress.

Form Follows Function:
According to the Fright Night mythology, there are several varieties of vampires rather than only one. Jerry comes from a particularly long-lived breed given to nesting under the earth, building entire tribes of Children rather than living out solitary existences. General abilities are the same as in most mythologies; increased strength, hearing, and sense of smell, as well as heightened reflexes and accelerated healing.

They also have three "forms"; one where they look human, aside from the pale skin, one where their eyes turn black, their fangs sprout, and they grow claws, and the final demonic form, with a mouth full of shark teeth and features twisted to match. They have some talent for transmogrification, namely turning into smoke or a wolf, but Ed has yet to master either, or in fact be TAUGHT either, although he's aware they CAN do wolf.

The wolf form is only slightly bigger than your average wolf, and in fact in most cases can't be distinguished from a regular one. Speech is impossible, although thought processes don't change. Only he changes form, clothes don't go with him.

Death Tolling (Barge only):
Standard for a vampire; recovery time is slightly more than half that of your standard, garden-variety human. The only "weirdness" is that he spends the first 24 hours as a human himself before reverting back to vampire (in his canon death actually causes a reversion back to human, so this kind of takes that into account).

Weaknesses:
All the old standards apply; immediate death can be caused by a stake to the heart, beheading, or sunlight. They're also vulnerable to crosses (although not as much as you'd think, it mostly depends on the strength of faith of the one brandishing it), and holy water or holy items. They also can't be seen in mirrors or on video. Fire won't kill them, but it hurts like a bitch and tends to make them panic ("a vampire on fire is a vampire who's not thinking", courtesy of Peter Vincent.}

Limits:
The weaknesses mentioned above are still in full force, obviously, but he'll also have checks on strength and durability to keep him manageable; movie canon states his is a particularly difficult breed to kill, they tend to be the Energizer Bunny of vampires (he's already had his head nearly severed and continued on like it weren't no thang, for example, and Jerry was squished by a car for miles and still managed to tear the damn thing apart and shake it off, so there's precedent). Consequently, he'll need to be pretty well de-powered to compensate. Strength's on par with your average, athletic adult male (so stronger than his build would indicate but not INHUMANLY so), heal time's tripled, and things like spider climbing and crazy gymnastics are off-limits without a Warden request.

As far as turning into a wolf goes, until he practices extensively he won't be able to manage it for more than twenty minutes at a time, and even that will be a significant drain. And he won't turn into a full-grown wolf, he'll turn into something comparable to his own age. ...Yes, that means he turns into a cub. He won't be amused.