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k_a_webbBased in the prompt symbiosis from
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ysabetwordsmith.“We're evil to them,” Issac growled, curling his hands around a glass of whiskey that he wasn't drinking. “Just because we need blood to survive we're evil.” He tightened his hands. “They don't think that leeches or ticks are evil just because they need blood to survive.”
“The simple answer is to make them need us just as much as we need them,” Nick answered calmly. “What do we have that they want?”
“Nothing.”
“Think again.”
Issac glared at him. “If you have some smart idea then just tell me, Nick. I'm really not in the mood for guessing games.”
“Money, Issac. The one thing that humans need more than anything else is money and I don't know about you, but I have a lot of money that I don't really have a use for. Loaning money from us will be easier than going to a bank so I expect we'll have a lot of customers. When they can't pay the money back we give them another choice. They, or one of their relatives, can become a blood donors until they pay back all the money that's been borrowed.”
“That's not going to work for long. As soon as they work out that we're loaning money to get blood they'll stop coming to us.”
“I think you'll be surprised at the lengths some humans would go to so that they can have enough money to buy everything they think they need. If we make it a good experience for our donors they may even stay after the debt has been paid off.” He slid a piece of paper over to Issac. “There's a hotel up for sale and I thought we could set it up as a home for both vampires and their donors.”
Issac glanced at the piece of paper before looking back at Nick. “Do you really think it would work?”
“I wouldn't have suggested it if I didn't.”
“Is this the sort of thing you did in your village?”
Nick nodded, remembering the mess he'd made of things there. “We have to make some strict rules to stop vampires from killing humans, even accidentally. If word of a death gets out then we won't be able to keep even one donor house up and running.” He smiled. “I hope that it's something that we can make work all around the country and then the rest of the world.”
“You've always thought big.” Issac stared at the paper. “A hotel in a small south coast town could be the beginning of a new phase of vampire life.” He looked up at Nick again, smiling. “I think you might have found the answer to all of our problems.”
“We start slowly Issac,” Nick warned, knowing what his friend was like. “Start with buying the hotel, doing it up and the loans.”
“You're in charge.”
Nick laughed. “We both know that you're going to end up taking over at some point, so let's not pretend now. All I want is a safe place to live and get blood. You're the real leader.”
© K A Jones 2011
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
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Yay!
Date: 2011-08-13 06:47 pm (UTC)>>“They don't think that leeches or ticks are evil just because they need blood to survive.”<<
My observations are that people despise leeches and ticks -- plus mosquitoes and other biting pests -- for precisely that reason. For some folks it's casual, but for others it does go clear to evil. Don't forget that flies are associated with the Devil, and some flies bite for blood.
I'm not sure whether to change this, because it's plausible for a vampire to think that if he's not real close to human society; but it was kind of jarring because it didn't match my experiences.
>>The one thing that humans need more than anything else is money <<
Technically, security and basic needs (food, shelter, clothing, etc.). Cover those and most people will do anything you want. Money is just a means to those ends. Since vampires are formidable and long-lived, they're exceptionally well situated to meet those underlying needs -- but it may take them and the humans a while to figure out that level of the relationship. *ponder* Which is probably what will make vampires stop wanting to kill their donors, and make humans choose to stay in the donor house when they don't owe money.
>>When they can't pay the money back we give them another choice.<<
You might find it useful to research predatory vs. symbiotic lending methods. It'll have a huge impact on the results. Payday loan companies suck people in by deliberately loaning money to people who can't pay it back -- but even their customers hate them for it. Conversely, buy-here-pay-here car lots can be a route to rebuilding credit; the good ones aim for people who were poor credit risks but are getting back on their feet. They still have plenty of defaults but deal is good and fair. For the donor house to work, the vampires need to figure out a manageable flow of defaults. Tricky, but they're well set up for it, given centuries of experience.
The banks will go apeshit if they find out, though, so will any nearby organized crime. Much fun with plot tension if you like either legal battles or combat scenes (which might appeal to different readers) in addition to interpersonal dynamics. One assumes the vampires have easy access to lawyers, which will help.
On the whole, I like this series and would enjoy seeing more of it.
Re: Yay!
Date: 2011-08-13 08:41 pm (UTC)I have a totally different point of view, which was why I went with that. It's not the creatures fault that it has to drink blood to survive and I can't really hate anything that does the thing it's biologically designed to do. Maybe I'm just weird. :)
Without money it's pretty hard to get any of those things. That was the theory I was going by more than anything. Plus I think that I've seen a lot of people who will spend money they don't have so they can get things that they don't really need or even want sometimes, simply so they can keep up with their peers or their next door neighbours. I think it's more selfish humans that they're thinking of than humans in general, but after you've lived for that long I think it's probably quite easy to see the whole race as one thing.
If I enter a different species into our world then I kind of automatically think of it as a different world and there's a whole long history behind this one, including Nick's village which happened in the seventies. It's probably something I should write about in more detail at some point - maybe that should be my first piece of bonus material. However the one thing I didn't think of was organised crime, but to be honest I'm not sure how much organised crime there is on the south coast of Britain. :)
Re: Yay!
Date: 2011-08-13 09:27 pm (UTC)Not so much weird as atypical. I still hate biting pests, but I don't consider them evil; I know they have a role in the ecology. But that's enough to make other folks look at me funny sometimes. When portraying an uncommon perspective, it's important to understand how that will jar against the common perspective(s) -- because it's often going to impact the story. These vampires are trying to engineer a paradigm shift. People are going to argue about that, and almost none of them will be looking at the real underlying factors. So the leech metaphor is likely to be quite useful over time as characters encounter challenges along the way and try to figure out what will work and why.
>>Without money it's pretty hard to get any of those things.<<
It is -- in a modern cash economy. Cash is only a few thousand years old, and even then, barter was common until the last century or two. How old are your vampires? They aren't modern Americans; they've seen more. They'll be bringing that to the table. And even more than humans, they'll be painfully aware that you can't eat money.
*chuckle* Oh, how I would love to see a Lakota have the green frog skin talk with these vampires. And everyone living on the rez is pretty much guaranteed to be poor ... and they have a whole different economic model in which the more you give away, the richer you are perceived to be.
>>Plus I think that I've seen a lot of people who will spend money they don't have so they can get things that they don't really need or even want sometimes<<
This much is absolutely true. If you speak in terms of money, you'll attract a different crowd than if you speak in terms of security; and that's something else people will figure out as they go along. I'm not even sure which would be more useful to the vampires; could be personal taste for them.
>>If I enter a different species into our world then I kind of automatically think of it as a different world and there's a whole long history behind this one, including Nick's village which happened in the seventies. <<
Yes, that changes everything. Few writers account for such. If you do the background work, it will make a huge difference, and put your work far above the average. You'd wind up with very solid sociological horror. That was part of what piqued my interest in the first place.
>>after you've lived for that long I think it's probably quite easy to see the whole race as one thing.<<
That actually is a valid trend. As people age, they tend to take a longer and wider view. Vampires naturally think in deeper time than humans, but elderly humans think in deeper time than young ones typically do.
>>It's probably something I should write about in more detail at some point - maybe that should be my first piece of bonus material.<<
That would be very helpful.
Re: Yay!
Date: 2011-08-13 09:27 pm (UTC)>>However the one thing I didn't think of was organised crime, but to be honest I'm not sure how much organised crime there is on the south coast of Britain.<<
Something else to research, then. They might not hit this immediately, but they will if they expand. Organized crime is everywhere, but its density and activity and control varies tremendously. Some places, it's just a little local card shark and his bullyboys. Others, it's the yakuza with global reach and opium-funded budget: not a trivial enemy even for a government.
A quick search turned up this reference:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gangs_in_the_United_Kingdom
All About Money Crips ... 0_o
Looks like the organized crime in England runs to drug smuggling more than loansharking at present, though where there are drugs there is always money-handling.
Where the vampires will hit friction is where their activities undercut someone else's. If they tap off desperate broke people, whoever lends to those folks will notice. Sheesh, if they even take desperate people off the street, that will get noticed eventually. Those are good drug customers. If they're not, say, turning tricks for drug money or running drugs to pay the bills, that will impact someone.
I'd estimate they can get away with one hotel until it's mostly full before the first dumptruck of fertilizer hits the rotating blades. But the first expansion to a new hotel is likely to cause conflict because people will realize they're not looking at a one-shot deal anymore.
You've got time to work out the implications.
Re: Yay!
Date: 2011-08-21 02:05 am (UTC)You'd be surprised! ;-p
Not that I know of anything factually, but there is plenty of TV and other fiction out there that would point to a LOT of organised crime in the southern counties of the UK!
no subject
Date: 2011-08-13 08:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-08-21 02:07 am (UTC)moncler EhWaEc lancel
Date: 2012-11-01 09:46 am (UTC)