trusthell | SHRIEKING SKULLS WILL SHOCK YOUR SOUL AND SEAL YOUR DOOM TONIGHT

SHRIEKING SKULLS WILL SHOCK YOUR SOUL AND SEAL YOUR DOOM TONIGHT

[After 10:00 p.m., the library's... definitely a little different. The tables have lit candles on them, and there are... kind of janky cardboard cutouts set on some of the shelves. An attempt was made, at least, even if there could've been more boxes destroyed in the attempt...

But regardless. There's candles set around a place for some snacks if anyone wants to bring them, and there's also a blanket set on one of the tables. Because clearly, that's where the storyteller's supposed to sit...? Maybe you wanna do it. Maybe you just want to stand or sit or something.

Either way, let's get fucking spooky up in here.]

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Old Maxwell really did like humans, so hi family couldn't say they were all that surprised when the moment he slowed down to try and rule, he found himself fancying some human woman - a gypsy lady traveling through the land named Tatiyana! He tried to woo her, but she had heard the rumors about what an old-man monster he was, and rebuffed the old man. Oh no, she travelled past him, leaving hm in the dust. Poor guy, right? And so, to try and make himself more beautiful to impress her, Maxwell von Zarovich took his late mother's advice and started drinking more often! Only problem was... he'd only ever eaten his enemies, and he wouldn't munch on his own people. So the only option was to bring his new kingdom back to war.

And so the fighting began, and while everything was peaceful for most've the humans, Maxwell tried again and again to try and impress that minx Tatiyana, and got rebuffed again and again. So the king went on more and more battlefields, killed more and more of his neighbor's troops, and eventually it's said that he looked just as good as the day he started all this nonsense a over a hundred years ago. But it wouldn't last! He was so old, so beat up, he now needed to feed daily and deed more and more and more to keep up his dashing good looks. But now he was a different man, he finally managed to win over that Tatiyana chick.

Or well, so he thought.

Turns out, a minx is a minx, and for all he'd been doing to make things great for his people, and for all he'd been doing to impress her, Tatiyana had actually been shacking up with a preacher man named Rickter, and Rickter hated Maxwell von Zarovich. He tried again and again to rile up the people of the old country, but everyone still loved their king, the one who made sure that they were well fed and lived nice lives. Whatever stories he could tell of battlefields long away from them or whatever oceans of blood that offended his god he could make up, no one would take the bait. Well, no one up until the minx did, anyway. And so the two of them decided that everyone else was dumb, and ol' Maxwell had to be dealt with.

So one night, just before sunrise, after Maxwell and Tatiyana had been all shacked up she let Rickter into the castle just in time to see Maxwell sleeping off into the morning. Seeing the guy there on the bed, the two of them decided the yknew what they had to do. And they threw a wood stake right into the chest of their king! Blood flew everywhere, and in a moment, losing his life before him, he turned back into that old, gnarled thing that he really was when he didn't keep it constant. And you know what else? For how much he had been trying to keep beautiful and for how much he'd been fighting to try and keep his people happy?

Maxwell wasn't about to lose his life.

In a blind rage, he killed both of them, and without even knowing what was going on, he bit their necks and filled up on their blood. Not even sure if he was dreaming or alive, he ran through the castle was the sun was rising, ripping apart man and vampire alike, leaving his servants and family a pile of corpses! And then finally, dying still from being stabbed in the first place, the blood flowing out too fast for him to replace it, the sad king Maxwell von Zarovich, betrayed and alone and probably crazy with the pain, ran out into the sun!

The legends say that so hungry was he for blood and so strong was his will that he slew a whole town's worth before the sun burned him up. And once he was ashes, the children of those hundred kings that he defeated all rose up and said they were going to take charge again. Within ten years, everything that tool Maxwell a hundred years to make was gone, and the humans would only remember the monster, not the man.

[ And she blows out her candle.

GOOD STORY, RIGHT? ]

Man, that's one of those old Gothic things, right? Yeah, I kinda enjoy kicking it old school every once in a while. I mean, it's better when there's blood and gore than just ex-wives in the attic or something.

Mmmhm! That's something like what I heard as a little girl.

[ She might have forgotten some details, embellished others ... but it's actually refreshing to tell one from her long, long off childhood. ]

Yeah, those are usually pretty alright. I feel like a lot of times they're a little too low violence, but that one was pretty good.

Well, they can also offer a life lesson or two. [ Brushing her hair lightly now, she smiles as she gets off the main storytelling seat ]

A lot of old vampire stories are like that.