Hopie thought before answering and then said, "I don't know how many of us had Mr Skuja for media studies but last year, he showed us some British ads from the AIDS campaign of the 1980s called, 'Don't Die of Ignorance".  I think the slogan is kinda relevant here because, as we found out last night, what you don't know can kill you. Perhaps you can explain why not just you but the powers that be think keeping vampires, chupacabras, brujas and the like secret is helping society as a whole?"

Edward smiles at Tori.  "We were just discussing the value of keeping the existence of vampires a secret."

He looks at Hopie with a more serious expression on his face.  "You won't like this answer but you'd better learn to accept it. Most people walking this Earth think that vampires are figments of the imagination. They don't want to know vampires are real.  When that reality is forced in their face, it threatens their sanity."

Edward takes his seat and then continues.

"On a more practical matter, the police force and city government are well aware vampires are real.  They don't broadcast it to the population. How would the town survive if they did.  I'm sure you've all heard that Sunnydale has a Gangs on PCP problem.  That's their official explanation for vampires.  If you plan to broadcast the truth about vampires, you will be diagnosed as insane and sent to a mental hospital.  Or worse.  An overzealous Sunnydale policeman may shoot you and claim you're a gang member on PCP."

Edward takes a sip of his tea before continuing.

"And on that note, guns don't work very well on vampires which is why calling the police to save you from vampires is a terrible idea.  A Sunnydale police officer will shoot a vampire and not slow it down much at all.  Then they will try to shot it again and likely hit the human they're supposed to save.  The Sunnydale police have worse marksmanship than an Imperial Stormtrooper."

Brittany takes a bite of her salad as she looks over at Tori.

"Tori, you didn't tell anybody about what we saw last night, right?  Most of us kept quiet, but some people thought telling the rest of the world about vampires was a good idea." Brittany said as she glances over in Liam's direction.

She turns her attention back to Tori.  "Are you going to sign up to run for class president today?"

Hopie nods to Edward.  "Yes, that makes sense and it explains why Liam can get away with telling his buddies.  Because they live in a fantasy world apparently.  Until last night, I though Dungeons and Dragons had something to do with BDSM but apparently not, they spend all their time facing vampires and worse in tabletop games.  If a flying saucer landed in Sunnydale and only Liam saw it, nobody would believe him (no offence Liam).  But how about the next question.  We know stakes through the heart can kill them, what else?"

"First I'll answer Billy's question about how many vampires in the area:  A lot.  Sunnydale is quite plentiful with vampires. Hundreds of them. As for how to destroy them; the wooden stake to the heart is the most efficient way to destroy a vampire.  The next best method is exposing them to sunlight.  Most vampires are wise enough not to move about in the day, but if you fight one in a building during daylight hours, pushing them out a door or window into the sunlight is a most efficient strategy."

Edward pauses for a moment as he helps himself to a piece of the cheese pizza. Let the information he just gave sink in before he continues with the how to destroy vampires list.

"Makes sense from legends and what we saw.  What is it about the sunlight that hurts them, though?  Has anyone tried irradiating them with high intensity UV rays?"  Billy asked.  "I mean, higher than black lights but preferably lower intensity than would normally sever atomic bonds anyways."  If these "watchers" really studied vampires, he hoped that they'd at least done some scientific research on... to?... them.

In reply to Edward Hudson (msg # 41):

“Oh.  You should probably lead with that.  Why didn’t you just say it was a secret club?  I wouldn’t have told my friends.  I do need to tell my mom I joined a club though.  Otherwise, she would worry.”

Liam did a short wave to Tori as she entered.

He listened to the sad state of the political system in Sunnydale.  The cops knew?!?  When Mr. Hudson mentioned the poor aim of the cops he laughed.  “Ha!  Stormtroopers.”

Brittany piped up and ripped on him for talking to his friends.  Liam just nodded to her and said, “Thank you” like she had complimented him somehow.

He turned to Esperanza.  “Aliens wouldn’t land here.  We aren’t advanced enough to warrant a first contact.  What is BDSM?”

The librarians statement of how many vampires surprised him.  “Hundreds?!?  And they can walk around during the day?  They don’t sleep in coffins when the sun is up?”  Those rule books really missed that little detail.

Billy’s question made a lot of sense.  Liam nodded in agreement and hoped Mr. Hudson answered it.
This message was last edited by the player at 18:13, Tue 24 May 2022.

"No sabeo why it's called that Liam, but it's a kind of hard core pornography my Uncle Raul likes." says Hopie.  "As for vampires... well we know stakes through the heart work and sunlight (but it that ultraviolet or does it have to be the actual light of the sun? And presumably not polarised otherwise moonlight would kill them).  What else? Garlic (and if so again, is it garlic or some chemical in garlic)? Crosses? Fire? Beheading? Holy water? The curses of Jesuits? Obsidian knives?  Have I missed any, Liam?  Mr Hudson, Sir?

“Supposedly they can’t enter consecrated ground, cross running water or enter a home unless invited in.  But I don’t know what is story and what is real.”  Liam added to Esperanza’s list.

"Calm down everyone, I'll try to answer all your questions." Edward said.

He was now pleased everyone was in agreement that secrecy involving the existence of vampires was a good thing.

"Billy, to the best of my knowledge no one has tried to attack a vampire with artificially generated UV rays. So I can't tell you for certain if it would work or not.  I would think it should in theory.  The tricky part would be finding someone smart enough to build such a weapon and testing the theory."

"Yes Liam, vampires can move about in the daytime as long as they avoid sunlight.  They don't sleep in coffins. They can cross running water, and they can walk on consecrated ground.
The invitation to a home rule is true though.  A vampire can't enter a private home unless invited. But that only applies to private homes.  They can enter public places without such an invitation."

"Hopie to give you the quick list on how to destroy vampires; wooden stake to the heart, sunlight, decapitation, crosses, holy water, and fire. I'll elaborate on those methods in a moment. Forget about obsidian knives or curses of Jesuits.  They don't work.  Nor do guns as I said earlier. Stabbing and slashing is also ineffective unless it's a wooden stake to the heart or a decapitation attack.  They are also not vulnerable to silver.  And vampires don't breathe, so don't waste your time trying to suffocate or drown one."
This message was last edited by the player at 15:12, Sat 04 June 2022.

Brittany puts down her fork and joins in on the how to destroy vampires discussion.

"So Mr. Hudson, you said wooden stake to the heart. I'm presuming any sharp piece of wood will do right? Such as a wooden spear?  Or if you smash a wooden chair over a vampire's head and one of the chair legs now ends in a jagged point, you could use that?   

Liam was shocked at Brittany’s aggression.  “What about a pencil?  We carry those.  Oh!  Do they reflect in a mirror?”

"Yes Brittany, although a crafted wooden stake is preferred, any piece of sharp wood of adequate size will do." Edwards says before turning his attention Liam.

"A pencil rarely works work Liam because it's not large enough. In theory, you can destroy a vampire with a pencil but it would have to be a very weak undead.  Vampires cast no reflection in a mirror, however they can be photographed or recorded on a video device."

Hopie makes an expression something like a smile's weaker sibling, "So, arrows, bolts or... how about wooden bullets.  Do you think that's feasible, Billy?  Super Soakers loaded with holy water?  Napalm?  Claymore mines?  Billy's powerful UV device, axes, garottes.  Does the head have to be cut off or could it be pulled off if one is strong enough."  Her voice is gentle, almost academic as she speaks and the expression on her voice lacks the traditional excitement that usually accompanies such a list of methods of killing.

Edward turns his attention to Hopie.

"You can pull a vampire's head off, but it is far less efficient than using a large edged weapon to take the head off. A decapitation move is difficult to execute, but when it hits it usually does the job in one stroke except to the older more powerful vampires.  Trying to break a vampire's neck on the other hand is slow and tedious.  The vampire neck is resistant to breaking. While you're trying to break his neck he'll still be punching you and trying to bite you. If taking a vampire's head off is your pleasure, decapitation beats neck breaking six days a week and twice on Sunday."

Edward notes the lack of emotion in Hopie's voice as they discussed how to destroy vampires.  He'll have to keep an eye on that. Can't have her getting addicted to the hunt.  Or worse let losing the distinction between vampires and humans.

Hopie makes a note of that, axes are better than main force unless you're the Hulk.  "So, are vampires apex predators or is there something above them in the food chain?"

Brittany hurries to finish chewing a cherry tomato when a question forms in her head.

"So the vampires we faced last night we're totally evil.  Are all vampires evil? Are are some good?  A lot of my friends in San Diego have read that Twilight book and dream about a sexy vampire boy stepping into their lives."

Brittany sticks her finger towards her mouth and makes a gagging sound.  "No thanks.  I tried to read that book and couldn't get past three chapters.  Waste of money."




OCC: Remember it's 2007.  Two Twilight books published.  No movies yet.
This message was last edited by the player at 14:18, Wed 25 May 2022.

Liam looked horrified at the thought of ripping someone’s head of.  “Ummm… this secret club is about protecting people right?  Like Knight Templars only we will be fighting vampires.  Maybe we can be the Knights of Pelor?  We could be KoPs!  Since the real ones don’t sound so useful in this instance.” 

Billy is in full-on engineering mode at the moment, considering how to weaponize UV.  "I think I'll have to try putting it into my car, first, so it'll have good power supply without working on the miniaturization before the theory is thoroughly tested."  He muttered to himself.  He pulled out his note pad from earlier and did some more doodling as talk continued.

He shook his head at the wooden bullets idea.  "Since wood breaks down too hard during the initial explosion and following friction, they wouldn't do well on their own.  I'm guessing coating them with metal would negate their properties or Mr. Hudson would have recommended steel-coated wooden swords and spears for fighting them."

His eyes lit up at the supersoakers idea.  "The high-power watergun could work.  We'd probably need to make them out of metal to allow the pressure to give us a range that matters.  That would also require a better pumping mechanism and a large supply of holy water, but wouldn't require anything too amazing on the technological side."

He considered a few of the other options.  "Napalm's fire, so it'd work but I wouldn't recommend we play with it.  Poor man's napalm made of styrofoam and gas could work in a pinch, though.  It's sticky and fiery but less explody.  I'd expect claymore swords would work better than claymore mines - the mines are designed to kill with concussion and shrapnel, not body-part-severing force, which seems to be what's needed, though if they were close enough to be caught in the fiery portion of the explosion I'd expect it to do well... just doesn't seem a safe enough bet to try to wield those regularly."

"Vampires are all evil.  They have no soul.  When you destroy one, you're destroying a soulless monster.  Have no doubt about it." Edward says to Brittany.

Well, there were a couple with souls, but they don't need to know that.  It will confuse the issue. Edward thinks to himself.

"As to your question Hopie, it depends on who you ask.  Vampires are a breed of demon.  And most demons consider vampires low on the food chain since they are a mixture of demon and human.  But yet vampires are immortal, most demons are not. Vampires consider themselves the top of the food chain."

"Billy is correct about not playing with napalm.  Or fire in general I'd say.  Fire can destroy a vampire, but it takes them a while to burn to death.  It's inefficient.  And while they're burning, they might decide to grab you so you can burn with them.  And when using fire, you run the risk of setting a building or a forest on fire.  And when the fire department and then the police show up you could get arrested as arsonists.  With fire, the risks out weight the benefits."

Brittany reaches down her top and pulls out her cross necklace.

"Do the sight of crosses repel vampires Mr. Hudson?  You listed crosses at a way to destroy them, but you didn't say the sight of a cross drives them away."

Hopie nodded, fingering her own cross and looking to see how Mr Hudson will answer.

"Also, what do you mean by all evil?"  Billy inquired.  "In at least one branch of one religion, they make a differentiation between total depravity and absolute depravity.  You can compare it to a cup of water - one drop of poison and it's all poisoned... but it's not entirely poison.  Are all vampires entirely absolutely evil, or is there gradation?

 "I understand you're saying that they all have to go insofar as we're able.  But for planning and counter-planning purposes - should we expect each and all to kill puppies, burn down houses, and pollute the oceans given half a chance?  Are they all that kind of evil, but being restrained by someone to hide at least somewhat from humanity?  Are they mostly just being driven by base desires?  Or is their individual gradition"

Edward turned to Hopie and Brittany.

"Yes, the sight of a cross will repel a vampire.  Those small crosses you're wearing won't repel one from a distance, but if one grabs you by the neck and prepares to bite you, the sight of the cross will drive him away.  Touching a cross causes a vampire's flesh to burn. One cross isn't enough to destroy one though.  You would need a lot of them.  I'm told that many years ago a Slayer filled a coffin sized box with crosses, tossed a vampire into it, then  she sat on the lid while a turned to ash."

Then he looked at Billy and tried to answer as best he could.

"Vampires are evil Billy because they have no souls.  If you're asking are some more evil than others, that would depend on your point of view.  A new vampire fresh out of the grave would desire blood and little more. The first human he sees would likely be his first meal.  An older more powerful vampire may have plans for world domination.  And a human who was a serial killer in their mortal life would be little different personality wise as a vampire."

Edward moves closer to Billy, making eye contact.  "Let me put it to you like this; you have a little sister don't you?  If you ever became a vampire yourself, you would drink your little sister's blood with a song in your heart and a gleam in your eye."

Billy gave a bitter half-chuckle at the idea of him ever becoming a vampire.  "In spite of the indirect answer, I'm hearing base desires category.  Fair enough.  They won't do mustache-twirling evil things just for the sake of 'teh evuls' but would do absolutely anything to accomplish their goals - sick and twisted as those will undoubtedly be in a corpse-riding demon.  Killing puppies might happen, but if it does it's for a reason other than puppies existing - a shot to provoke or distract someone, or tied to the vampire's previous human existence."