It's complicated? There's this entire backstory where they tried to change Danny and it went really badly; he went serial-killer-porno-torture-crazy and tha'ts not good when you need to keep a low profile and also, messy even to them kind of icky and unnecessary and scary.
Lil and Kris were the only ones that resisted, so thrall was kind of halfway point to keep them until they could convince them and not have it go that way. Adam and Megan just didn't really know what they were doing the first time around and Lil and Kris kept coming out of it long enough to be horrified by what was happening; Adam's actually being really subtle here, but before, it was completely overwhelming, like being completely drugged out of your mind, and when Lil and Kris would come out of it (again, Adam and Megan? Not good at it yet) they were terrified of having to be that way.
And Kris figured out that physical pain could--somewhat--negate thrall and realized what had happened to him (the food thing, the sleep thing, the not dying thing, the being-controlled like that thing) and got better and better at knowing when thrall was wearing off. The entire third time when he got away he'd planned for when eh realized getting out of the basement would be really hard. He was trying to kill himself, but also get rid of the most recent blood Adam gave him and figured destroying his own digestive system would do it. Then he ran and realized a.) he'd heal from it and pretty much anything, b.) he couldn't sleep without Adam or drugs, literally, and you can get tolerant of drugs surprisingly fast when you have to use them constantly even if he could get them c.) not wanting to eat didn't mean his body didn't still need it until he changed leading to d.) he couldn't die. But he could go crazy.
Since Kris left, Lil came back and they all learned how to do this thrall thing well, so Kris won't even know he's being manipulated anymore and this is normal and okay and not horrifying and scary. And for now, it's useful. Lil and Kris can go in sunlight normally, they're very safe as blood donors, and they can pass for human more or less to anyone who doesn't know what to look for.
...more than you wanted to know? Adam and the others killed the ones that changed them and kind of want to kill Fuller, so they weren't really taught anything. They're making it up as they go along.
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Lil and Kris were the only ones that resisted, so thrall was kind of halfway point to keep them until they could convince them and not have it go that way. Adam and Megan just didn't really know what they were doing the first time around and Lil and Kris kept coming out of it long enough to be horrified by what was happening; Adam's actually being really subtle here, but before, it was completely overwhelming, like being completely drugged out of your mind, and when Lil and Kris would come out of it (again, Adam and Megan? Not good at it yet) they were terrified of having to be that way.
And Kris figured out that physical pain could--somewhat--negate thrall and realized what had happened to him (the food thing, the sleep thing, the not dying thing, the being-controlled like that thing) and got better and better at knowing when thrall was wearing off. The entire third time when he got away he'd planned for when eh realized getting out of the basement would be really hard. He was trying to kill himself, but also get rid of the most recent blood Adam gave him and figured destroying his own digestive system would do it. Then he ran and realized a.) he'd heal from it and pretty much anything, b.) he couldn't sleep without Adam or drugs, literally, and you can get tolerant of drugs surprisingly fast when you have to use them constantly even if he could get them c.) not wanting to eat didn't mean his body didn't still need it until he changed leading to d.) he couldn't die. But he could go crazy.
Since Kris left, Lil came back and they all learned how to do this thrall thing well, so Kris won't even know he's being manipulated anymore and this is normal and okay and not horrifying and scary. And for now, it's useful. Lil and Kris can go in sunlight normally, they're very safe as blood donors, and they can pass for human more or less to anyone who doesn't know what to look for.
...more than you wanted to know? Adam and the others killed the ones that changed them and kind of want to kill Fuller, so they weren't really taught anything. They're making it up as they go along.