Moonlightaholics

I'm new enough to the Moonlight fandom that I'm still learning the technical in and outs of the Moonlight universe, and I have a question I was hoping someone could help me with.

Do they ever mention the general amount of time it takes for a person to turn into a vampire?

I have a fan fic idea that would involve a turning, and the length of time it takes is important to the plot. But, I can't seem to find a solid standard in the Moonlight episodes I've seen so far. In "Dr. Feelgood" the Doctor seems to turn fairly quickly. He couldn't have been laying out in the open long, unless of course, his Sire dragged his body off the road somewhere, which is possible. They don't make that very clear.

But, in Mick's flashbacks of his turning, it appeared to be night time when Coraline bit him, but it's clearly morning when Mick wakes up as a vampire, since the sun is shining. That seems to suggest it took an hour or two at the very least, depending upon how close to dawn it was when she turned him.

I'm still in the middle of watching the episodes, so I haven't yet seen the episode where Josef turns Mick back into a vampire, (I've been semi-spoiled by fan fic, lol) but I don't know if that would be the standard to go by, since he was "technically" a vampire already, the traits were just suppressed by the cure.

Any help would be appreciated!

Thanks in advance!

-Laughter

Moonlight's description of the Vampire draining the new turn, then feeding the Fledgling vampire blood makes it sound quite rapid. If you watch the scene between Josef and Mick (the most sensual 5 minutes of network TV) Mick's return to the undead is within minutes.

From what we saw of Mick's Wedding Night he woke up in a room where the sun streamed thru curtains. Bad planning I believe considering Coraline's gameplan.

-Was he "asleep" until the sun burned him because she did not feed him sufficiently? What are the other opinions out here????

The process is way different from the process described in Angel of Vengeance.....

Lucy wrote:Moonlight's description of the Vampire draining the new turn, then feeding the Fledgling vampire blood makes it sound quite rapid. If you watch the scene between Josef and Mick (the most sensual 5 minutes of network TV) Mick's return to the undead is within minutes.

From what we saw of Mick's Wedding Night he woke up in a room where the sun streamed thru curtains. Bad planning I believe considering Coraline's gameplan.

-Was he "asleep" until the sun burned him because she did not feed him sufficiently? What are the other opinions out here????

The process is way different from the process described in Angel of Vengeance.....

Thank you for the reply!

I agree, the process itself - the draining and feeding - sounds quick, I'm just not sure about the "turning" portion of it, since if vampirism is a virus, as they seemed to imply with Coraline in "Sleeping Beauty," it would take a little while for the virus to take hold. And, since Mick had already been a vampire when Josef "re-turned" him, that might have happened faster than it would have otherwise.

Great point about Coraline leaving the windows open...that really wasn't good planning! Though, Mick didn't seem to be in direct sunlight where he was laying on the bed, so he might have been alright. It's seems like it's only direct sunlight that makes him wince.

I just wish they were a little clearer where turning is concerned, lol! I sat down and wrote the fic I mentioned in my above post, and then went, "Wait...is my timeline right?"

LaughtersMelody wrote:

Lucy wrote:Moonlight's description of the Vampire draining the new turn, then feeding the Fledgling vampire blood makes it sound quite rapid. If you watch the scene between Josef and Mick (the most sensual 5 minutes of network TV) Mick's return to the undead is within minutes.

From what we saw of Mick's Wedding Night he woke up in a room where the sun streamed thru curtains. Bad planning I believe considering Coraline's gameplan.

-Was he "asleep" until the sun burned him because she did not feed him sufficiently? What are the other opinions out here????

The process is way different from the process described in Angel of Vengeance.....

Thank you for the reply!

I agree, the process itself - the draining and feeding - sounds quick, I'm just not sure about the "turning" portion of it, since if vampirism is a virus, as they seemed to imply with Coraline in "Sleeping Beauty," it would take a little while for the virus to take hold. And, since Mick had already been a vampire when Josef "re-turned" him, that might have happened faster than it would have otherwise.

Great point about Coraline leaving the windows open...that really wasn't good planning! Though, Mick didn't seem to be in direct sunlight where he was laying on the bed, so he might have been alright. It's seems like it's only direct sunlight that makes him wince.

I just wish they were a little clearer where turning is concerned, lol! I sat down and wrote the fic I mentioned in my above post, and then went, "Wait...is my timeline right?"

Each of us decide how "canon" we are with out fanfic.....between my sister and I we have all sorts of "discussions" over a point of order

Lucy wrote:Each of us decide how "canon" we are with out fanfic.....between my sister and I we have all sorts of "discussions" over a point of order

Lol! True! Eh, canon...who needs it.

Oh, LaughtersMelody, you came bringhing presents!! Hurraayy!!

There very well might be other factors that we don't understand at play. For example, maybe violence plays a part. In Mick's turning, I think he fought as hard as he could against it. He was probably filled with adrenaline. That could slow the process.

On the other hand, in Mick's re-turning he stayed calm (and I agree with that it's incredibly sensual). In Dr. Feelgood, we don't really know how much time has passed since it's still night.

It was never clearly stated how long it would take so it feels appropriate to play with it in fanfic. Go for it!

And here's how powerful fanfic is...I was thinking, didn't Josef say something about how long he tried to revive Sarah? Well, canonically, no, he didn't. Lilly's brilliant fic, "Somewhere In Between" http://moonlightaholics.com/viewtopic.php?f=68&t=282, imagines him not being completely panicked for some 16 minutes after the turning attempt. And I had that in my head as "canon."

But the truth is, we're just not told. Mick's re-turning was anomalous, as others have said, with him knowing what to expect, and being at peace with the transition. His first turning? Always has seemed sloppy, to me. Messy, with blood everywhere. And the timing is very unclear. Did they party all night, and only get to their hotel room shortly before dawn? Did Mick lie in some sort of post-turning stupor for some hours? (He does say he "woke up" a monster...but he never said whether that was hours later, or minutes.) In Dr. Feelgood, clearly Stovsky walked away, thinking that he was leaving a dead body behind, but it seems unlikely that the doctor's body was lying in the street for long. Emma Monaghan, also an accidental turn with a negligent sire, must have awoken quickly and gotten into hiding, in order not to have been noticed on board ship. We just didn't get enough turnings depicted to provide much of a baseline.

Yet, I think the implication is, it happens fairly fast.

However--and this is the good thing, since there's not hard and fast canon to rely on, whatever seems to work in your fic, and that you can "sell" to your reader, is just fine.

And I'll say this, as well...in other vampire narratives, it's anywhere from immediate to three days. Sometimes vampires appear to be ordinarily (and terminally) dead long enough to go through a normal funeral process, before rising again. Or, more recently, they go through an agonizing "death" of their mortal body, in a transformation process which may take anywhere from 1-3 days.

Definitive answer? It varies.

Lucky

One of the other interesting things about Moonlight and the turning process is that fanfic writers have lots of leeway on the concept of how the sire's blood affects the new vamp. Some say that giving the new turn too much blood can make them wildly strong and feral, essentially an insta-Rogue. Some say that the mutual drinking of blood between sire and fledgling cements the bond between them, and is necessary for a new vamp to thrive in their new state. And there are lots of other ideas on the subject, as well. It makes for some really interesting stories, and that's all to the good, in my opinion.

I agree with Lucky that Moonlight vampire rules are loose enough that, as long as you create your scenario well and "sell" it to the reader in a way they can accept, you are pretty free to tell the story as you wish. Willing suspension of disbelief is a wonderful thing. If you create "rules" in your story(ies) and then stick to them so that your scenarios are consistent, your readers will happily accept your version of "vampire truth".

Hi Laughter'sMelody, welcome to the board. (BTW, Love the handle)

At the risk of sounding repetetive, you've got latitude here. As you can probably tell from my signature, keeping canon for stories is how I roll.

For the turnings there was no specified time line, but it appears to have happened during the overnight. The re-turning of Mick seemed to go rather quickly, including any adjustment for time standing still during that scene.

Can't wait to read your stories.

One thought on the re-turning going fairly quickly--if Mick didn't expect it to go quite swiftly, it wouldn't have been an effective solution for saving Beth. His time to get to her was limited, or at least it was as far as he knew, so he had to have figured on a quick transition. Otherwise, he'd have maybe (but not so heroicially!) prevailed upon Josef and perhaps Guillermo to go save her. Josef also expected the re-turning to go quickly, otherwise he'd have said, "And if I re-turn you, if it even works, you'll be out cold for hours..." or something to that effect.

Lucky

Good point. If you consider that along with the secret nature of the cure, it seems like an overall vampire expectation of "not too long" on the turning front.

Of course, actual results may vary.

As Josef knows, to his everlasting sorrow.

nutmegger911 wrote:Good point. If you consider that along with the secret nature of the cure, it seems like an overall vampire expectation of "not too long" on the turning front.

Of course, actual results may vary.

And inscribed on the underside of the box Coraline carried says: You "return" time may vary.

Lucy wrote:

nutmegger911 wrote:Good point. If you consider that along with the secret nature of the cure, it seems like an overall vampire expectation of "not too long" on the turning front.

Of course, actual results may vary.

And inscribed on the underside of the box Coraline carried says: You "return" time may vary.

Who knew--in that case "YMMV" meant "your mortality may vary"!