Werewolves

May. 14th, 2010 11:53 pm
ravenswept: (Default)
Cause I feel like exploring them more.

Transference
Nearly wrote "Trans-fur-ence"; go me for holding back! Anywho, the passing of werewolf...curse, for lack of anything better, is from the traditional biting. It takes more that just a bite though, usually some drool or blood needs to seep into the wound as well. How this spreads exactly isn't known, but it does only occur during full moons, so being bitten by a werewolf at any other time won't turn you. Just hope the bite is non-fatal.

Transformation
This is painful as hell. You feel the bones slowly changing shape, growing, muscles forming to adher to a more canine form, you're pretty miserible for the next minutes. For the most part a werewolf is just a huge wolf; no anthromorphism yet. When one learns to actually control the transformation, things get a tad easier; you can speed the change to happen quickly, which is even more painful but it doesn't linger, and after decades you learn to deal with the pain by this point. You can also, once control is learned, take on the more traditional "wolf-man" form, running on two legs and needing a full body waxing. More subtle things involve changing just your eyes or nose, to gain the affects of the canine form without needing to go full wolf; the first time Red tries the nose thing, she gets the effect she wants, but doesn't realize she actually tranformed her nose to that of a dog.

Full Moon
The full moon is the bane of a werewolf. It's the only time a transformation is uncontrolled (though it can be sped up), and general aggressiveness is exteremly high during these times as well. Why it only happens as night is a nagging question, but the current theory is that during the day the dominant energies from the sun cancel the effects from the moon. Why then will they still transform if the night is cloudy, or not in view of the moon is just the curse fucking with you, I guess.

New Moon
New moons don't do shit. It doesn't reverse anything, it doesn't return the normal mindset of the one turned, it's just a phase of the moon where no light is reflected.

As A Wolf
As a "normal" werewolf, you're roughly the size of a Honda Valkyrie motorcycle (things be huge). You only tranform during the full moon. Not much of your personality is still there, and you run on basic instincts; sometimes underlying feelings can surface, but don't count on it. Once returned to human form, you may have what feels like a massive hangover, but given enough time to sober up, you will remember anything and everything you did as a wolf. Good luck in confession with that.

As A Human
After being bitten, most humans experience a massive change in personality. Aggressiveness, amorality, and apathy come to the forefront in large doses. This is especially true the closer to the full moon you are. Not common, but also not rare, is being turned and retaining your original persona. The aforementioned traits still become dominant as the full moon apporches, but at least you can feel bad about it and try to refrain from lashing out. Most become very carefree with their lives, doing what they want and living in the fast lane, being a law unto themselves because they know they'll be at the top of the pile come the next full moon. Waking up naked is always embarrassing.

Extra Abilities
It takes decades to even begin to try, but after being a werewolf for so long, you can start to control the tranformations. You will be defeated time and time again, but eventually one can learn to change forms even when it's not a full moon, and even beyond that only change the part of your body that you specifically want, be it nose for better smelling, eyes for different vision, or muscles for running. There is no inate way to tell a werewolf apart from a crowd, or how close you are to someone who is one, so you can only going on what you know the basic traits in personality to be, as well as knowing what kind of timeline you need.

Science Says "Wha?"
Werewolves are near immortal. They can die, quite easily, but unless they are specifically killed, they can live for some time. The best guess is that during the transformation, the generation and regeneration of cells from human to wolf to human somehow "recharges" them, or is like shedding the old skin for the refreshed underneigh. How the body generates the energy and mass to grow the muscle and fur is still a mind screw, though after transforming you will experience a massive hunger. Assuming you didn't eat as a wolf, in which case just hope it wasn't a biped. The specifics of the personality change are unknown as well, because why would that change just by being bitten?

Weaknesses
Bullets, of any kind, will kill a werewolf; they will not, however, change back into human form after death, that's just stupid. Silver as well won't do jack; gold, however, is a bitch, and most werewolves find they are now allergic to the metal after being turned. Huh... There are no symbols or signs that can ward off a werewolf, but I don't think there ever were.


There's probably a lot more I'm forgetting, but these seem like they're the broad strokes. I keep feeling like I need them do more, or be able to do more, but then I remember they're goddamn werewolves and what else do I need from them? Memory and identity come in to play as well, as human memory can only go back so far, and Red wonders if she is anything like what she was back before being turned.

I also don't know how, or if, I will work in the Little Red Riding Hood tale itself into the narrative. It seems like something that would be mentioned in most stories, but if mine is a re-telling of the original fairy tale itself why would it be self referrenced? Eh, then again, this is centuries later, those Grimm plagiarists might've been able to come out with a decent story in that time. Not that Red's gonna see a dime. Fucking writers.
ravenswept: (Default)
This story is giving more trouble than I want it to.

A small problem I've come across with most stories I've tried to write over the years is that I create interesting characters. That itself is not so much the problem, but that that's where the most of the creative juices seem to flow to. So the wad gets blown way before the actual meat of the matter comes to haaaannd holy shit that got dirty quick didn't it?

And interesting character can make for an interesting story, but you can't place an intersting character in a boring story or you're just stupid. Unless they're supposed to be bored. But even then you can't keep them bored or else your reader will be bored and they at least can walk away from the boriness.

Little Red Riding Wolf is born of a want to write a good werewolf story, and already having a kickass pun title, that no is not a porno.

Here's what I got so far:

Little Red Riding Hood, AKA Ashley Holtram: I had never understood why Red and the Wolf were always seperate characters in all the stories of them I've read. Usually it's just an easy dicatomy that no one wants to think harder about, and then there's when it does make for a porno. Regardless, I liked the idea of Red coming from colonial days, perhaps even pre-New World travelling, and surviving to modern day. She is unhappy about being a werewolf, and all that comes with being one, but makes due and is trying to hunt down the one who turned her, her own grandmother. I don't think it'd really do anything, "kill the sourse" not being a cure" in this world, but it'd make her feel better. She's amassed some form of wealth, you don't live centuries and not money manage, and it helps being on the run from other hunters and continually following her grandmother.

Grandmother, AKA The Big Bad Wolf: Orginially, the idea was to have Red and the Wolf be one and the same, but I realized that didn't quite work, because the Wolf is the one who attacks her. And in the story, it's the Wolf dressed up in Grandma's nightgown. Well, okay then, it's just a title, shift it over to Grandma. And thus Grandma became the villian of the story. Well, didn't become she always was, but she gets the Big Bad moniker. Something about the wolf bite triggered an extreme aggressiveness in her, it normally does, which is why she bit Red in the first place, trying to kill her, and lives her life pretty care free and in the fast lane, doing whatever she wants because she has no real worries. I haven't decided if I want her de-age at all, to increase the threat level, or keep her old and just stronger than your normal geriatric.

The Huntsman: I haven't decided if I have a place for him or not, mainly because I can't have a mortal human chase a werewolf for centuries without some major magic influence, which I'm not sure I want, or without ripping of Gargoyles and their Huntsmen in some form.

Werewolves: In journals that Red keeps, because she fears losing her memories of so many years, she tries over the years to accurately describe what is exactly means to be and transform into a werewolf. She fails, so some degree, because there are so many things she knows shouldn't be but are. Why is the transformation involuntary at the full moon? Not sure. Why only at night, when the moon is visible during the day? Her theory is it has something to do with the more dominate sun. Why is she still alive after several hundred years? She thinks it has something to do with the transformation itself, and the cell regeneration from human to wolf and back somehow is keeping the cells from really aging. Which is stupid, cells shouldn't work like that. But she can only tell frustratingly that she knows how things work but not why. Red also is different from her Grandmother, in that she's not as overly agressive as Grandma turned out to be after being bitten. Part of her being the villian is that slightly more blood-thirstyness that Red doesn't share, expect during a full moon. Werewolves can, eventually, learn to transform even when it's not a full moon, or even nighttime, but it doesn't very quickly, they have to actually practice and learn to do so, and didn't occur to Red to even try until decades later.

Vampire: Eeeh, I'm loath to include them in this, mainly because I'd like to avoid any comparision to Twilight to any degree, but I have an idea for them that I don't want to let waste away. They work in the same pseudo-science-magiciky way as werewolves, knowing the actual science but failing to explain why they still are, but no real single character yet.

And, unfortunately, that's most of what I have. The flip side of being able to come up with the characters is I usually can give them detailed backstories, but these are only to add to their characterization and not much to the story I'd like to actually tell with them. Grr, arg.

The obvious story is Red going after her Grandmother for revenge and to stop her from doing her evilly things. Regrettibly, I haven't thought of some over-arcing goal for Grandma that would need stopping, and while not needed I don't feel a story of simple revenge would do me any good. I'd like to skip a need for a love story, or at the very least have one that's not simply, "Ooh, I'm dangerous stay away", "I can't, I love you", "I love you too, that's why we can't be" jesus, I just puked a little.

It's a serious "in progress" work, but I have hopes for it. Maybe if I just picked a damn point to start from it'd be better than trying to figure out where that point will go.
ravenswept: (Default)
This was an idea I've been letting stew for a few weeks. In high school, one of my creative writing teacher's few good ideas was to have us write new versions of fairy tales. My messed up story became The Three Little Pimps (yeah, it was a good as it sounds), but I liked the idea.

I never understood why every version of Red Riding Hood had the Big Bad Wolf as the bad guy. Well, yeah, I do, but that's not what I'm going for. They were always two separate characters. So I had the idea to combine them. So yeah. Werewolves.

I thought it took the old story and twisted it a bit. And I can't remember ever seeing the idea done before, so I'm trying to work the kinks out.

There's a possibility for vampires but at the moment: a) I'm trying not to steer too close to Twilight territory, and b) I'm not sure how they'd work yet, into the story. I have a vague idea of how vampires would exist in that world, and it goes counter to most "they're undead" narratives, but how to get (one of) them and Riding Hood together is still up in air.

As for the subject title...I ran the story title past a good friend, who's been my idea filter for years, and her first comment back was the title reminded her of a porno. And then the imagery got into my head. It burned. But for the moment I can't think of anything better, so for now it stays.

DEAR GOD THERE IT IS AGAIN AAAAAHHHHH.

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