Poppy's real name: Penelope Alexandra Lyon (PAL)
Branch's real name: Brandon Alder Day (BAD)
Poppy comes from a LONG line of hunters. Peppy himself has killed many of Branch's relatives. Vampires aren't the only mythical or magical creatures that exist & their vampire teeth hide in their gums above their incisors (like in Supernatural I think), which makes it harder to identify them.
In this universe it's like Van Helsing (2004) where brides give birth to many baby vampires that leave their birthing sac after the usual nine months.
Peppy led a raid around 20 years ago on one of Branch's fathers castles killing his father, his brides & most of his siblings. Rosiepuff grabbed as many sacs as she could before she escaped, but after the usual nine months unfortunately not many survived. Over the years, those that survived Rosiepuff and all but Branch were killed by Peppy & the other hunters.
Naturally gray from being born a vampire Branch hides among the forest in his bunker to only visit the villages when necessary. Many view him as an outcast & he's just glad it's because of his coloring and not the truth: that he's a vampire. Other times he takes it on himself to spare as many families as possible by killing as few humans as possible by instead learning and investing in survival skills to try to subdue his bloodless animals with animal blood. Most of the time when he does kill though he does controlled drinking & leaving them at hospitals.
Mourning the death of his family he uses the maps and directions given to him by Grandma Rosiepuff before she was killed by hunters; he sometimes travels to visit his family's old lands, strongholds, castles and such in search of other vampires and siblings. Finding only vampires that took over his family's grounds, he bargains for his history and memorabilia then returns back to his bunker. The bunker is regularly expanded to keep up with the size of his increasing collection. As time passes though he loses interest as he is no longer interested in wasting his time and resources to gain back his family's items . . . plus he keeps almost running into hunters looking for him.
With the addition of the internet, wi-fi, smartphones and such to his bunker he has improved its security. But on the other hand his forest has had an increased invasion of government officials attempting to kick him off his land as according to them he is living illegally in a national park. Rolling his eyes he scares them off with the usual hiss & showing them his claws and vampire fangs.
Lost & somewhat directionless, he uses the information on the cards in wallets of people his siblings and grandma killed to get different jobs searching but never finding a job or career he's interested in long enough to really rise up through the ranks. Sometimes he finds a job he likes and not aging is great, but it makes it hard to stay many years as he always looks the same. Besides, hunters eventually start snooping around because for some reason as soon as one mystical person shows up for some reason others join them & start creating a nest. He's grateful for the hunters keeping the other dangerous mysticals in check but they make it harder for him to move from job to job using the same IDs. A couple of times he's had to go dark until he could scrounge up another identity, chucking the old ones in the garbage or off bridges.
Over the years he blocks off some parts of the bunker that were built to accommodate many children, hidden away the height marks with coverings & stored childhood memorabilia of handprints and other craft ideas with their names and such that Rosiepuff had them do to keep them busy while she went out to hunt.
When the memories become too much though he breaks out the music. He's tried therapy . . . but how do you explain the vampire/hunter history & the things he's seen done to his siblings and grandma all because of the fact that they were born vampires? The fact that he can't trust anyone as he's afraid that they're a hunter & that his family line will end with him stops him from getting close to anyone on the job or the motels he uses. What if he gets killed by one of them? The sacrifices made for his survival & all the work he's done would have been pointless.
Poppy on the other hand has grown up knowing everything about the mysticals . . . but most importantly how to kill the dangerous ones. Going to a dedicated private school since she could walk, she's been trained since day one on everything she'll need to know for when she kills her first mystical to graduate.
The first couple of years they spend half their day in the classroom learning the basics every child learns at an advanced pace with the extras of language, cultures, geography, history of the mysticals and hunters, etc. The rest of the day is spent circulating between gymnastics, acrobatics, horsemanship, jiu jitsu, etc.
At ten the training increased & included more physical hand-to-hand training, knife throwing, survival skills, coding and hacking, tracking and other spy stuff, medical care, driving skills, firearm safety and usage, etc. Not everyone succeeds and some fail, but with dwindling numbers among hunting families and interest waning no one ever really leaves. Some have tried & failed at leaving but being brought back is too much of an embarrassment to risk. Plus, with not much going on but keeping track of the graduating class's kill numbers and stories, the attempt at leaving will circulate the school forever . . . at least until you graduate.
Weekend trips into the city nearby are allowed during the weekend among the older students with the Snack Pack filling up Poppy's minivan. The trips are many at the beginning and end of the school year, but decrease in the middle with the increase of homework and assignments.
Vacations are normal & friendships are created and destroyed over the year as class ranks change so all but the most genuine friendships mean nothing as the times for the breaks roll around. The friendships that do last have their participants taking part in joining each other at their family's estates and such (ironically, some are past mysticals houses and such, so yes that does include Branch's family. The underground areas are broken into and then refurbished into hunters' lairs. The sigils and family crests are torn down and/or destroyed then covered). The rest of the students vacation alone, sometimes inviting locals in an attempt to kill rumors about their homes that become more ridiculous over time.
As Poppy & the rest of the Snack Pack's friendships have only gotten stronger since first meeting each other, they meet up at each other's houses and such on every vacation they can. After practicing in the morning they hang out in the afternoon, sometimes with the locals to keep updated on the drama of the real world they missed while at school.
Sometimes the graduates seek out other means of making a living outside of being a hunter, but after the first live mystical kill, the numbers of every graduating class remains low. The schools often compete and brag about their graduates and their kills.
