At first reluctant to kill, the vampire is finally forced into murder by circumstance or need - and killing becomes easier as the years pass. Realizing that she herself is untrustworthy, she ceases to trust others. Realizing that she is different, she walls herself away from the mortal world. Realizing that her existence depends on secrecy and control, she becomes a manipulative user of the first order. And things only degenerate as the years turn to decades and then centuries, and the vampire kills over and over, and sees the people she loved age and die. Human life, so short and cheap in comparison to hers, becomes of less and less value until the mortal "herd" around her means no more to her than a swarm of annoying insects. Vampire elders are among the most jaded, unfeeling, paranoid - in short, monstrous - beings the world has ever known. Maybe they are not demons exactly - but at that point, who can tell the difference?
—Vampire: The Masquerade, about Humanity and how vampires lose it over time.
"I want you to give them back, Flambeau, and I want you to give up this life. There is still youth and honour and humour in you; don't fancy they will last in that trade. Men may keep a sort of level of good, but no man has ever been able to keep on one level of evil. That road goes down and down. The kind man drinks and turns cruel; the frank man kills and lies about it. Many a man I've known started like you to be an honest outlaw, a merry robber of the rich, and ended stamped into slime. Maurice Blum started out as an anarchist of principle, a father of the poor; he ended a greasy spy and tale-bearer that both sides used and despised. Harry Burke started his free money movement sincerely enough; now he's sponging on a half-starved sister for endless brandies and sodas. Lord Amber went into wild society in a sort of chivalry; now he's paying blackmail to the lowest vultures in London. Captain Barillon was the great gentleman-apache before your time; he died in a madhouse, screaming with fear of the "narks" and receivers that had betrayed him and hunted him down. I know the woods look very free behind you, Flambeau; I know that in a flash you could melt into them like a monkey. But some day you will be an old grey monkey, Flambeau. You will sit up in your free forest cold at heart and close to death, and the tree-tops will be very bare. Your downward steps have begun. You used to boast of doing nothing mean, but you are doing something mean tonight. You are leaving suspicion on an honest boy with a good deal against him already; you are separating him from the woman he loves and who loves him. But you will do meaner things than that before you die."
— Father Brown, The Flying Stars
"Say goodbye to the light, the darkness grows. I'm in league with the shadow. I can feel the good in me is dying slow."
"The path of hate is a dangerous track.
You take one step, and it's hard to turn back.
It pulls you along, and though it seems wrong, it feels right.
Don't you see? This path you're on leaves a permanent mark.
It feels good at first, then it slowly turns dark.
With each passing day, you're further astray from the light.
Suddenly you lose your way and lose the thread,
Lose your cool then lose your head.
Every loss is harder to excuse.
Then you'll see, you'll lose your faith and lose your soul,
'Til you'll lose complete control,
And realize there's nothing left to lose."
You take one step, and it's hard to turn back.
It pulls you along, and though it seems wrong, it feels right.
Don't you see? This path you're on leaves a permanent mark.
It feels good at first, then it slowly turns dark.
With each passing day, you're further astray from the light.
Suddenly you lose your way and lose the thread,
Lose your cool then lose your head.
Every loss is harder to excuse.
Then you'll see, you'll lose your faith and lose your soul,
'Til you'll lose complete control,
And realize there's nothing left to lose."
— Varian, Tangled: The Series
You start to wonder if there aren’t just two kinds of people: cattle and monsters. The cattle don’t deserve to live. The monsters deserve to die.
You stop caring about the victims, maybe not caring when someone gets in the line of fire, or even using them as bait. You take a certain pleasure in torturing the people you suspect of complicity, or killing the innocent families of the monsters. The werewolf comes home to his parents, and finds them dead in the lounge, hanging from the light fitting with a note: you’re next. The vampire owns an art gallery: all the staff die in the blaze. The magician has kids...
If you’re not there yet, it’s best not to think about it, about what you might become. You’re fighting the monsters. You’re doing the right thing. Yeah. Stick to that.
—Hunter: The Vigil: Slasher
Holden: I would have stopped him before it went too far.
Naomi: Every shitty thing we do makes the next one that much easier, doesn't it?
Naomi: Every shitty thing we do makes the next one that much easier, doesn't it?
"In all our lives, there will be moments where there are only bad options to choose from. The easiest path is to make excuses. To say the least evil option is good. The more you say it, the more you believe it, and before you know it... you don't see it as evil anymore. You stop looking for other options."
The problem with the Dark Prince is that he's subtler than most think ... Just takes a bit of pride to crack open the door... that small voice that whispers in your ear and asks you "wouldn't you like more?" or "couldn't you do better?" From there, it's a thousand tiny compromises. Drip. Drip. Drip. Until one day you're gone, and there's something else standing in your place. It'll look like you but you'd weep to see it, all the same.
