Wapsi Square Forum

My2Cents wrote:But I wonder what they would think if threatened with being stuffed in a hermetically sealed in a box and dumped in a abyssal (deep water) disposal area? At least Shelly had light and could move.

How about being dumped into primordial lava and have to wait for geologic forces to disinter you? (Click and go Backwards)

I'm getting a Dennis Franz/ Andy Sipowicz Vibe off 'Da Chief'. This would make a great TV series, like
"Forever Knight".
Go out and VOTE, people.

shadowinthelight wrote:

Opus the Poet wrote:Actually I don't think she was acting as J, J, & E. She's trying to explain something to the chief that he's not letting her say. Something important from what I can determine...

My thought from the first bloody reveal "But he was dead when I got here! Would you pass up a free meal?".

Based on that:

Vampires who enter a dwelling uninvited start bleeding out their eyeballs.

However - if the dwelling's occupant is already dead, that rule gets thrown out the door.

jwhouk wrote:

shadowinthelight wrote:

Opus the Poet wrote:Actually I don't think she was acting as J, J, & E. She's trying to explain something to the chief that he's not letting her say. Something important from what I can determine...

My thought from the first bloody reveal "But he was dead when I got here! Would you pass up a free meal?".

Based on that:

Vampires who enter a dwelling uninvited start bleeding out their eyeballs.

However - if the dwelling's occupant is already dead, that rule gets thrown out the door.

Next of kin? Or is "Probable Cause" considered "Permission to Enter" for vampire cops?

pcj70 wrote:I for one hope the "crime" has to be one of violence, it feels right - other wise i will keep having nightmares of Johnny Hooker and Henry "Shaw" Gondorff (from "The Sting" 1973) eaten by vampires.

And now I've got the most horrible image in my head of my favorite movie being ruined by vampire cops. Not cool.

Oh, wait - it's gotta be something about dead people.

The "uninvited" rule doesn't apply if there are dead people inside the dwelling. THAT is how they use Vampires as FBI agents; if they enter a building, and their eyeballs don't start bleeding, they know a murder (or death) happened there.

So, if Mythics and Legendaries are more widely known than we thought, could the perp have been trying to get vamp'd himself, and got eaten for his efforts?

So, when does the boss get to the "you're a loose cannon" schpeel? I mean, that is almost required with these "renegade cop" scenarios.

The threshold of a dwelling is a big deal in many of the old religions. Maybe of interest is a particular Titaness, one who sided with Zeus during the Titanomachy and who honored her and didn't take away any of her domains in heaven, sea, or earth. Her name is Hecate or Hekate and she is also associated with witches and magic for starters. She liked garlic, which was an offering she accepted, and might be why vampires traditionally don't like it--- they were afraid the bearer was under her protection.She was associated with limnal zones like doorways (thresholds) and nothing bad could come through without her "permission". She has gotten an undeserved bad reputation because evil beings fear her so therefore she must be a bigger evil.

The threshold of a house from what I have read is like a magic circle. If the circle is broken things can get in or out. One of the ways to break a threshold is to commit evil acts within the home, in effect eliminating the difference between the sacred and profane. A home is traditionally a sanctuary from the evils outside. If defiled, it becomes like a haunted house with no threshold keeping bad things out like in Steven King's Salem's Lot. Just my $0.02.

jwhouk wrote:Based on that:

Vampires who enter a dwelling uninvited start bleeding out their eyeballs.

However - if the dwelling's occupant is already dead, that rule gets thrown out the door.

By a strict definition, if the only occupant dies, it isn't a dwelling any more. No person dwells within it. In this case, the rule is still valid, but is no longer relevant to that particular building.

I recall this point being used in one episode of Angel. He was unable to enter a home, up until the moment that two (invited-in) vampires killed the home's sole occupant... at which point the invisible glass barrier at the door vanished.

There are all sorts of corner cases and gray areas. Can vampires enter hotel rooms without suffering from bleeding eyes? How about rarely-occupied vacation cabins? Rented Yosemite tent-cabins (with or without hantavirus-bearing mice)? is there a zone of protection around the part of an alleyway where a homeless person sleeps every night, or around a cluster of leantos in a homeless encampment in the woods? Are entire cities in India off-limits to vampires due to the large number of homeless who dwell in the streets?

I guess it all boils down to the question of "What is a dwelling?" Might not be good to dwell on that question for too long.

Dave wrote:I guess it all boils down to the question of "What is a dwelling?" Might not be good to dwell on that question for too long.

Pay the jar, Dave.

Ah, Pepto-Bismol. Breakfast of champions.

And now I've got the most horrible image in my head of my favorite movie being ruined by vampire cops. Not cool.

Sorry, Julie, it's one of my favorites to! It just what pop in to my head!

Dave wrote:

jwhouk wrote:Based on that:

Vampires who enter a dwelling uninvited start bleeding out their eyeballs.

However - if the dwelling's occupant is already dead, that rule gets thrown out the door.

By a strict definition, if the only occupant dies, it isn't a dwelling any more. No person dwells within it. In this case, the rule is still valid, but is no longer relevant to that particular building.

I recall this point being used in one episode of Angel. He was unable to enter a home, up until the moment that two (invited-in) vampires killed the home's sole occupant... at which point the invisible glass barrier at the door vanished.

There are all sorts of corner cases and gray areas. Can vampires enter hotel rooms without suffering from bleeding eyes? How about rarely-occupied vacation cabins? Rented Yosemite tent-cabins (with or without hantavirus-bearing mice)? is there a zone of protection around the part of an alleyway where a homeless person sleeps every night, or around a cluster of leantos in a homeless encampment in the woods? Are entire cities in India off-limits to vampires due to the large number of homeless who dwell in the streets?

I guess it all boils down to the question of "What is a dwelling?" Might not be good to dwell on that question for too long.

The Dresden Files books established that hotel rooms do not count, there is not enough of a connection between the occupant and the location. Apartments barely count depending on the length of the current occupation, as occupancy tends to be more transient than with a house. The older the home and the longer it has been occupied, the more good feelings have been shared there, the stronger the sense of emotional attachment tied to the place, the stronger the magical barrier.

Dave11 wrote:

Dave wrote:I guess it all boils down to the question of "What is a dwelling?" Might not be good to dwell on that question for too long.

Pay the jar, Dave.

Well, I'm not sure that it's really a pun... just wordplay. It's from the same root-word and has the same base-meaning... "to remain".

However, in the interest of interstellar amity, I'll gladly pay up.

(deposits a dwell meter into the Pun Jar).

ziggy78eog wrote:So, when does the boss get to the "you're a loose cannon" schpeel? I mean, that is almost required with these "renegade cop" scenarios.

If this part of Wapsi Square is being formatted as a "renegade cop" drama, you could handle this particular trope in a subtle way if you wanted to. Rather than have the Chief actually spiel it out in words, you could incorporate it into the show structure itself... by referencing the trope in the theme music at the start of the show.

This thing about being invited doesn't seem quite fair because the vampire can lie about what they are and get invited in. To be right, it would seem someone would have to knowingly invite a vampire in for it to work. If the person doesn't know the creature is a vampire, then did he/she truly invite them in? They invited what they thought they were, not what they actually are. If the barrier is there to keep out evil, then it would seem the dweller would have to know they are evil, yet still allow them to enter becoming a party to the evil, thus equalizing the inside and the outside psychic energy. Come to think of it, I guess a pressure differential would be a good analogy. If a human goes from normal pressure zone to one of a great pressure difference, they might start bleeding from the ears (and eyeballs) too.

Dave wrote: (deposits a dwell meter into the Pun Jar).

That should throw off your timing... (depositing a xenon strobe timing light to go with the dwell meter).

Al

Bathorys Daughter wrote:This thing about being invited doesn't seem quite fair because the vampire can lie about what they are and get invited in. To be right, it would seem someone would have to knowingly invite a vampire in for it to work. If the person doesn't know the creature is a vampire, then did he/she truly invite them in? They invited what they thought they were, not what they actually are. If the barrier is there to keep out evil, then it would seem the dweller would have to know they are evil, yet still allow them to enter becoming a party to the evil, thus equalizing the inside and the outside psychic energy. Come to think of it, I guess a pressure differential would be a good analogy. If a human goes from normal pressure zone to one of a great pressure difference, they might start bleeding from the ears (and eyeballs) too.

"Spock, I've found that evil usually triumphs unless good is very, very careful."
- Leonard McCoy (TOS: "The Omega Glory")

ziggy78eog wrote:So, when does the boss get to the "you're a loose cannon" schpeel? I mean, that is almost required with these "renegade cop" scenarios.

Does he need to? After all, Wapsi Square has a very loose canon of mythologies.

Drops a 32 pound loose cannonball into the pun jar.

Bathorys Daughter wrote:If the barrier is there to keep out evil, then it would seem the dweller would have to know they are evil, yet still allow them to enter becoming a party to the evil, thus equalizing the inside and the outside psychic energy. Come to think of it, I guess a pressure differential would be a good analogy. If a human goes from normal pressure zone to one of a great pressure difference, they might start bleeding from the ears (and eyeballs) too.

Ah! Yes, that's a nice analogy.

"If the vampires aren't your friends
then they'll surely get the bends.
You'll watch safely as they scream,
'cause they're just not on your team!"

(a classic childhood rhyme, from a parallel universe in which I'm rather glad I didn't have to spend time during my own childhood)