That was one of my goals with the sister. Sadly, she won't get to be redeemed. If she ever truly needed to be redeemed, which, despite all the shit she did, you could argue she didn't ever need to be redeemed. One could argue that she never exactly did anything unjustified.

Shakespeare's characters have done worse for less.

Ah man, you know what I just realized?
If Elizabeth's gonna pretend to be married to Rowland half the time, you know what she's gonna need?
A wedding ring.

Well I mean if what she did wasn't unjustified than she doesn't really need redeemed. Actually sounds like her boyfriend might though.

Dude Shakespeare was a great writer of his time. Don't get me wrong, of that I know. But that dude had some real issues.

Oh fuck. You're right. Man that is not going to go over well at all.

It's complicated. And I like it like that. Someone could probably make an argument that no one needs to be redeemed, or that almost everyone does.

Perhaps. My classes seem to treat Shakespeare more as a legend and less as a person. You'd think people would be trying to dissect his personal life more.

I got really excited for it and started looking for rings. For all the girls, actually. Now I'm hoping to soon make full costume sketches of them and design what they wear.

That is very true. Either way it sounds very interesting.

You would think that more people would be interested in his life. I mean he was a person other than his writings.

Oh? Am I going to get to see them?

Thanks. Been working on it for a while.

I hear that there's relatively little known about his personal life. And people usually prefer to talk about his environment than who he was as a person.

Of course. I'll figure it out.

Honestly the fact they would rather speak about his environment and not who he was says a lot in my mind.

Awesome!

I can show you the rings I'm finding. It's actually really fun to think about, because you gotta think about the time period, their economic status, the girl's taste, and, super interestingly, what their 'husband' would pick out for them. It's about the girl's taste, interpreted through their 'husband's' eyes.

There's also this great thing called posy rings, which was a thing in the middle ages. Posy is supposed to be prose, as in poetry, so it's all these engagement and wedding rings with little love poems engraved inside.

So these are what I imagine Elizabeth's 'wedding' ring looks like.



This would be Nadya's - the inscription says 'In thy sight is my delight', which I figure works for something Bela would give her.


And Eleanora's.... oh, that was a good time.
So of course she'd want more elaborate rings. And she'd really want color, as many ladies did then.



And then it makes it all the cuter and kinda sadder when Jonathan gets her this very simple but very sincere ring

It says 'In love abide till death divide'
(I hereby nominate Jonathan Mercer as the designated cinnamon roll of this story)

So this was a really fun study in jewelry trends of the 14-17th centuries and how these couples really relate to each other.

Their all so pretty! I've never heard of Posey rings before so that is actually really cool to find out. Though I'm not really a ring person, but Jonathan's is my favorite. Its romantic and a little bit cheesy in a cute way. No wonder I love him. (I second that nomination.)

He's such a sweet sentimental guy I love him.

But yeah, I've also been going over the fashion periods and trying to figure how each would be dressed. It's a good time.

I love him too, kind of hate that he's with who he's with but what ya gonna do.

I can't tell if that's sarcasm or not.

I mean, 'what ya gonna do' I am their god, I could do whatever if I wanted. But I don't.

That wasn't sarcasm. I'm seriously having a good time. I just had an assignment for one of my classes that involved this kind of specific research so it's been fresh on my mind lately. Been incorporating it into a lot.

Haha ah yes but I am not there for I can not.

Oh well good then. As long as you're enjoying it. I'm not the best at looking up clothes from different eras.

It's pretty important to me, being a costume designer and all. Research comes with the job. There's something so satisfying to me about finding all these perfect visuals for characters, those things that you kinda picture in your head but can't quite put to words, and finding it and being like 'that's it'. Now I'm doing it with the towns and homes they might live in too.

Okay sorry that I've so quiet lately. I'm working on this one now though. I thought maybe we should talk about the changing? Like I'm guessing that it is going to hurt really bad and he is going to pass out as he's already weak.

But would he still feel the pain as he is out? Will it heal him despite the fact his cells are now dead to make him stronger? Will the bloodlust kick in right away?

That's a tough question. Because you shouldn't really feel anything when you're passed out, right? But I can't really see him not feeling it. I'm thinking he does get healed as it goes, the changing process probably annihilates everything that's not supposed to be there.
I'm thinking the bloodlust is immediate. But there's so much else going on - the pain, the shock and confusion - that he might not act on it immediately.

Right that's were I'm having trouble with it. Maybe he doesn't pass out as much as go into shock? I mean I would think the last part to do would be the heart. So he would have to go through the pain before dying.

Alright sounds good to me.

Hmm good point. Maybe in this case it takes a few moments. Just enough for him to sort of calm down?

Shock sounds like a good idea. It'll be a good way to allow for the pain without him being fully conscious.
What do you mean about the last part being the heart? You'd think that'd be one of the first, because of the poison going into the bloodstream and rapidly to the heart.

'Calm down' quote unquote. Nothing is going to be calm.

Haha good we got that figured out then!

Well, while that's true, heres my thoughts. The poison is in the bloodstream yes, but that is how it travels right? Once the heart stops pumping blood the poison would be unable to spread to the rest of the body without the blood pumping. So wouldn't it go after the heart last?

Haha well calm down enough to stop thinking "how dear she turn me and betray me!" And think "give me blood!!!"

Hm. That's a little tricky, because the poison is in the neck, and if it's in the jugular, the jugular brings blood back to the heart, so really the heart would be the first stop for the poison, then from there it gets distributed everywhere else. But seeing how vampire transformations aren't instantaneous, it's probably a slow death for the heart. It manages to distribute the poison for at least several moments before it dies, and considering the speed of the heart, a few moments is all it should take for full distribution. I've also known of depictions of transformations where the heart beats faster at first before dying.

perhaps I'm overthinking this. They're vampires. What am I bringing so much science in for.

That's up to you, how long that thought process takes.

Hmm that's a good point. Well maybe it could cause depictions that makes the make the heart beat faster and go through the bloodstream quicker. Which actually sounds much more painful.

So how long can a new blood go without blood?