Trashy Vampire Romance Novel
is an interactive 18+ webcomic by FRACTAL run on Questden.
As described by its author:
"Trashy Vampire Romance Novel is about withstanding heartbreak, surviving in a world that doesn’t like you very much, running from the vampire cops, winning swordfights, and getting laid.
Pascal Cosovei is 247 years old. He knows the words to every Rihanna song on the radio but doesn’t know that Transylvania is no longer a sovereign nation. Ricardo Castro is 30. He can lift a car with one arm but he can’t talk to men.
They’re both going to live forever and neither of them know what to do about it. TVRN is a story about them figuring that out together, mostly by accident.
It’s also about them finding their place in a world full of people who are kind of like them, and kind of really not - other vampires are either valuable allies, or they’re kind of dicks who want to get drunk and beat the shit out of you in a parking lot."
Trashy Vampire Romance Novel contains examples of:
- And I Must Scream: If a vampire were to fall into any natural body of water (like a river or the ocean), they would be stuck there indefinitely, in agony.
- Aristocrats Are Evil: Most European nobles are vampires; the ones that have been mentioned are the houses of Bathory, Habsburg, Medici, Romanov. The European vampires enforce a strict hierarchy, with wards being considered the property of their sire (the vampire who created them).
- Auto Erotica: Chapter two features plenty of this.
- Black-and-Gray Morality: Though some are worse than others, none of the main characters can be considered good people, as they are vampires and regularly commit murder.Pascal: I am evil! I am vampire! This comes with the entire package! Of course I am evil!
- Bloody Horror: Duel scenes tend to include large amounts of blood and over-the-top violence.
- Cannot Cross Running Water: Vampires can technically cross running water, but being near any natural body of water makes them extremely uncomfortable – for good reasons, as falling in would be a Fate Worse than Death.
- Cast Full of Gay
- Coming and Going: Vampires experience a surge of sexual arousal after feeding.
- Dreaming of Things to Come: Pascal's nightmare in chapter two.
- Duels Decide Everything: Dueling is a cornerstone of vampire society. Different communities have different sets of rules, but all agree that the outcome of a duel is sacred and cannot be contested.
- Everyone Has Standards
- While turning people without their consent is par for the course, it's forbidden to turn a child or someone on the verge of death, as the resulting vampire would suffer horribly.
- Vampires have no qualms about seducing and killing humans, but most find it disgusting to actually have sex with an human you intend to kill.
- Flashback Nightmare: In chapter two, Ricardo and Pascal share a nightmare that includes snapshots of Pascal's past.
- Frozen Fashion Sense: Rex dresses like a 50s Greaser. Constantin Bathory's and Cecil Babenburg's wardrobes are a few centuries out of date.
- Happily Married: Minoru and Bunji.
- Healing Factor: Most wounds are no big deal to vampires. Severed arm? Just stick it back on and it'll heal fine.
- Holy Burns Evil: Religious symbols only burn vampires who believe in them.
- Masquerade: Vampire society takes great care to conceal its existence, to avoid frightening the human "livestock". Vampires who don't respect this are harshly punished, such as Elizabeth Bathory.
- Losing Your Head: Being decapitated is merely an inconvenience to vampires, as the head can be reattached or regrown.
- Missing Reflection: Vampires don't have a reflection, though they show up in photographs.
- Named Weapons: Witchblades have names, as they're special weapons with a mind of their own.
- Religious Vampire: Lamb.
- Signature Laugh: Pascal's "ehehe".
- Stronger with Age: Vampires become physically stronger as they age.
- Supernatural Elite: The 'Cradle', a group of European noble houses, are the highest vampire authority.
- Superpower Lottery: All vampires have one of three types of special abilities, called 'affinities': power, psychic, shifting.
- The Pawns Go First: It is said that Constantin Bathory does this when challenged to a duel.
- Vampire Hunter: Since vampires are stronger than any other creature, hunters pose little threat to them and have been mostly exterminated. Lamb's family were vampire hunters.
- Vampire Monarch: The most powerful and respected vampire is Vlad Dracula, the voivode of Transylvania.
- Vampire Procreation Limit: To turn someone into a vampire, their blood needs to be completely drained and consumed, without spilling even a drop.
- Vampire Vannabe: Kel only turns women who hunt her down and ask for it.
- Voluntary Shapeshifting: Shapeshifting is one of the affinities vampires can have. Notable examples are Ricardo, Minoru, Rack.
- Weakened by the Light: While exposing themselves to sunlight hurts young vampires, it's only seriously dangerous to very old vampires.
- Weapon Wields You: As witchblades are capable of thought and can direct their wielder, even an unskilled vampire can become a decent duelist if they own a witchblade.
- Who Needs Their Whole Body?: In a duel, vampires will happily continue fighting after losing limbs or breaking most of their bones.
