#avaleara

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Yah know sometimes I worry my Avaleara is too much of a Mary Sue but then I remember a couple things.

1. So is D damnit. The man’s like batman on crack ok.

2. The more I put actual thought into Avaleara instead of just slapping on cool powers and the more I develop other characters in her world, the less Mary Sue she seems.

Like ok I was thinking about how convenient it was that Avaleara can somehow magically heal D when he gets poisoned. It’s one of those things I handwaved years ago and never thought about and I was worried it was gonna mess me up.

Except I thought about it and figured out how to get it to make sense in like 5 min.

So Avaleara was heavily poisoned during her torture right? Well instead of making it that “her healing powers kicked in and now she has awesome poison immunity” I can make it “Her kidneys/liver were shot from overexposure to poison and so now she has cybernetic organs that can filter out more powerful toxins”

And it fixes her being Mary Sueish about forging D’s Prosthetics. Of course she’d know how to make prosthetics, this is a woman who once wanted to be a healer and she’s increadibly paranoid. There’s no way she didn’t figure out how to make her own damn cybernetics. And she probably learned how to make prosthetic limbs before cybernetic organs because one is a hell of a lot more complicated than the other. 

So I’m trying to relax and not get too caught up. I mean I haven’t even made it to the first draft stages yet, I’m mostly just brainstorming right now. I need to not let my insecurity trip me up. I’m making progress for the first time in years and I don’t want to lose momentum yet again. 

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Vampire Hunter D Ficlet

Just a little ficlet with D thinking thoughts. Mostly me trying to get into his head when he’s on La’ Shevare in my au. (Explanation Link)  Some of the details may change, I’m trying to figure out the logic of La’ Shevare being a moon orbiting a planet, and hey the atmosphere probs wouldn’t be that color with oxygen so how the hell can D breath IDK but i’ll figure that out waaay later in the worldbuilding process.  Anyway enjoy my Saturday night ramble-

D sat idly, the book in his hand forgotten as he looked out over the balcony lost in thought. 25 years he’d spent on Le’ Shevare so far, and yet the sky was still strange to him. The gas giant the moon orbited hung in the night sky far larger than Earth's moon, making the colors of the night all wrong. Night never came pitch black dotted with stars, but wreathed in shades of pinks and purples, as though caught at Earth’s dusk. Only the brightest stars could shine in Le’ Shevare’s strange twilight night. There was little to miss about Earth and it’s violent frontier, and he’d be returning soon enough, once he’d learned enough to defeat Him. It was useless to feel homesick and D wasn’t a man who let himself feel such things- it would destroy him if he did. Nevertheless he felt something he couldn’t deny- a longing for the familiar, if lonely night of Earth. He even found himself missing the frequent battles against vicious creatures bent on devouring him.

Idleness didn’t suit him well, it made him restless. He’d only survived so long by being constantly on edge and the frontier suited him well because of it. He’d long ago given up the illusion he could have a peaceful life, the kind where he could sit for hours and read. Yet there was little else to do on Le’ Shevare when he wasn’t sparing with Avaleara. There was no denying he needed the study though. Le’ Shevare was a country whose recent history spanned several million years and it would take far more than 25 short years to catch up on the cultural norms. As such, D found himself in the place of an outsider. Normally that wouldn’t bother him- it was his entire existence. But here he was surrounded by a population whose average citizen was as powerful as one of the greater nobility, to say nothing of the power of those who actually trained. Even more disturbing was the fact that he was cut off from Earth, in an entirely different universe, reliant on them to get home, effectively stranded on a small moon whose surface was a fraction of the frontier. If he made a mistake and pissed someone off, there would be nowhere to run and too many to fight. He wasn’t afraid of death, but he had a mission to complete before he died, so he would tread carefully. So far the people had been kind, welcoming, and forgiving of his nature, but D hadn’t survived this long relying on the kindness of strangers. If he wanted to survive this world long enough to learn from a woman who could make Him retreat, he’d need to play by their rules.

Of course that’s easier said than done in a world that smashed together so many different species and cultures. Coming from a world where Two species couldn’t coexist, D was lost in a way he hadn’t been in millenia. A traitorous part of him thought he could learn to love it here, could be happy here amongst these people who seemed so accepting. There were even humans and “Demons” from another Earth here, who seemed to have made a home here, a welcome and included part of the population despite being so obviously different. D could barely stand to be around Takashi, a half breed who nevertheless seemed perfectly at ease in his skin, as though the two halves of him had never been at war.D concealed his discomfort around him, since Takashi seemed to be the only one who could come close to understanding how different this world was to any Earth, and who answered D’s questions with seemingly endless patience.

So many things in this world seemed idyllic, and D found himself fighting himself. Against his will he was becoming comfortable, a deadly mistake in his world. He fought to remind himself this was only a temporary stop, and that nothing could be as good as it seemed. It would only be a matter of time before the ugly truth surfaced, and if he had gotten comfortable, it would kill him.

So D sat outside in an unfamiliar night, trying to forget or reason away Takashi’s patience, welcoming strangers, and, above all, the smile Avaleara only seemed to give him.

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Snippit

“Is there any song you won’t fuck D to?” Takashi’s voice was muffled by his hands, but the resigned despair was still clear.

Avaleara thought for a moment before beginning in a singsong voice, “It’s a small world after all.”

Takashi collapsed on himself in helpless giggles. When he caught his breath enough to speak, “ You realize you’ve given me an idea for the best prank, right?”

“Hmm, I didn’t realize your life’s ambition was to die painfully by my husband’s hand.” 

“Not by yours?”

“I’m self aware enough to know I’d be laughing too hard to kill you first.”

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Snippit

Yech waited for the name to sink in. Mention of his employer usually prompted begging, offers of money, pleasure, anything to convince him to “forget” he’d seen them, instead of dragging them off to the boss’s torture champers. Yet this woman was still lounging, legs crossed on top of the table, head reclined in her hands. She was the picture of ease, something that shouldn’t have been possible at the mention of Kalo the mad.

Avaleara smiled wide. The scar on her lips split apart at the motion, blood beginning to seep down over her exposed fangs. With her mouth open Yech could see the scar continued, the sick purple splitting her black gums. A shiver ran down his spine as the scar on her lips lined up, making him realize she’d been making the same expression. Not a smile after all, but a snarl. Slowly she brought her boots to the floor, standing slowly. Yech couldn’t help but tremble as she stood in front of him.

She came close enough for Yech to smell her blood as she whispered, “Tell your little boss he’s lived off the backs of the innocent long enough, I’m coming to collect the debt he owes them. Tell him I’m going to make him beg for the relief of death, and I will deny him as many times as he denied others. And I’m going to enjoy every scream I wring from his wretched lips.”

She reached up to caress his cheek, her touch so gentle it took him a moment to feel the sting and realize that she had carved a deep gouge into it.

Avaleara stepped away, turning her back on him as she picked up her drink. Yech remained frozen in place as she walked toward the bar’s exit. She didn’t look back as she paused, “Oh, and little one? After I’m done with your master, I’ll be coming for your blood debt.” 

Yech stared as the door swung shut behind her, left standing in a puddle of his own piss.

Yeah, I don’t know who Yech or Kalo are. Random characters from a random scenario. Just a drabble I felt like writing.

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Avaleara Pt 1: Appearance

Avaleara is too long to do explain in one text post, so I’ll do a series. This is probably the shortest one honestly.

Ok first of all her appearance might get edited, because I have a hard time picturing her. I wish I was a good enough artist to do concept art, but right now I’m basic.  Also I got the idea in my head that because she’s an alien it's bad if she looks “too human” or “too pretty”, which is kind of a problem since her husband is (half)human and I’d like her to be at least somewhat attractive to him. I think I’m just gonna ignore the little voice (tumblr) that tells me she’s too human, but she might undergo some changes while i figure everything out. Plus she’s a mix of several different species, and I haven’t finish worldbuilding on them and their appearance. 

Height/Hair/Horns 

Avaleara’s height varies depending on whether you’re measuring to the top of her head or the tip of her horns. She’s about 6’1’’ to the top of her head, but her horns angle up another few inches to make her 6’7’’. I’ve only found one good reference for her horns, but it was a togruta anakin fanart so I can’t decide if forward facing horns look stupid or not without lekku, but I like the idea that she can and has gored people with her horns before. They are thick and sturdy, tapered to very sharp points. Usually she keeps decorative caps on them to blunt them as is custom. Pitch black for the most part, they do have electric blue markings (in an undecided pattern) that are bioluminescent. Her hair begins between the horns in a severely angled widows peak. She switches her hair frequently, but most often it’s long and braided. I may decide that the hair under her horns is shaved, but I can’t picture it right so I don’t even know if hair would grow there.

Face

Avaleara’s face is something I have a lot of problems with since I don’t have a way to figure out how to mesh my idea’s together. I might attempt another drawing of her, but the last one just looked like a cat person with horns, which… sorta what I was going for but it looked too childish and weird so I scrapped it. (although that might have been my lack of drawing skills)

Her face is almost human in shape, except too long and too sharp to be right. Her cheekbones are as sharp as maleficent’s from the live action.I’m not sure if she has scales lining them or not. Her eyes look like a lizard’s eye, mostly blue, veined gold and black. The pupil is lizard in shape but dilates like a cat’s would.The black markings around her eyes naturally do the deep cat eye makeup thing, complete with lines that go down the start of her nose. She has blue bioluminescent markings on her face (and other parts of her body) as well, also of an undetermined pattern. Her skin is tanish purpleish. Around 5500 years old she got a nasty scar on her face, starting above her lip and cuting down into her neck. It never healed right because of “magic poison” so it splits open when she opens her mouth too wide. It wouldn’t if she put ointment on like she’s supposed to, but this is a woman who often forgets to eat, and she doesn’t care enough.

Body type

Her body is very humanoid because I never finished making her face alien so i couldn’t decide. Though I do sometimes think it would be cool if she had like, talon things protruding from her elbow. From a human perspective her limbs look too long and she doesn’t have a feminine hourglass figure. She’s built like a heavy boxer (cuz she is one), all thick powerful muscle covered in the fat necessary to deal with blows (at least according to this tumblr post). She has wings like maleficent colored in dark shades of blue and purple. Because they are magic, they “retract” into what looks like a tattoo on her shoulder blades/upper arms. All of her body including her wings are covered in lots of small scars. While she was heavily tortured, the bastard didn’t want to damage her beauty too much, so he didn’t leave many large scars.

 Mostly this is possible because revant healing magic/tech can do pretty much anything. In order to leave a scar you pretty much have to use a special “magic poison” that needs a better name. It kinda alters dna so that you can’t heal the tissue right. If you remove it fast enough (like cut off the poison flesh) you can still heal it, but its within hours.

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OC Centric VHD Project

I was considering my project last night and how i want to format it. Also this was supposed to be me musing about D’s part of the project, but Avaleara butted in so he’s two paragraphs down.

Read More Cuz I’m incapable of not rambling.

Like I know there is a novella length (at least) story that is Avaleara pre-torture. I don’t know how structured its gonna be because a lot of it is about establishing the world she lives in, who she was, and her family, which means there isn’t a real linear plot. But I might be able to give it a decent plot if I sit down and try. This part of the project is what I’m working on the most right now since the worldbuilding is needed for all the rest of this massive beast.

After that there is a sort of snippit story about her torture and recovery. Possibly including The Incident, but that might be a seperate short story.

 The incident right now is Avaleara becomes friends with Loki, so close he names her godmother of his children Nari and Vali. Until Odin turns them into wolves and has them kill each other, driving Loki mad and causing him to lash out at Avaleara since he can’t lash out at Odin without risking his surviving children. This was back when I was a huge Loki stan years ago and was inspired by the myths. I’d like to figure out how to rework it, but something like this would be unheard of in the Revant system. I’d cut it out entirely but its kind of central to why Avaleara is so messed up when she meets D. Yeah she has PTSD from the torture but that just gave her a drive to survive, out of spite if nothing else. She eventually reached an almost healthy place, until this incident, which left her crippled with guilt and self loathing. How could she be alive if those sweet boys weren’t? What good was all her training if she couldn’t save them? Any progress she made was destroyed.

After that series of short stories, or however I format them, D finally makes an appearance. It should be a novel length project to take Avaleara and D from (very) wary strangers to a solid, healthy (for them) marriage. I mean I’ve got to deal with both character’s PTSD, which is going to be really difficult with D because I doubt he would even acknowledge or want to work on his. A lot of his symptoms are what keep him alive on his hell world and he needs to go back. Honestly he really doesn’t have the Post part of the PTSD, not until after Drac is dead and that isn’t in this novel. 

I also struggle with characterizing D. I read the books out of order as I got my hands on em, so I’m a little mixed up. Plus I spend so much time thinking about him after he’s had thousands of years of peace to heal, and he’s... not exactly a different person but almost. And then there is all the crack scenarios I come up with for fun muddying the waters even more. I definitely need to reread the books and take careful notes so that I know what is canon. Mostly cuz breaking the rules is better when you know what they are. I know there are some things I’m gonna throw out, or warp. I just need to get a solid feel for the character before I do. And I need to figure out a decent backstory for him. I used to have one years ago but its been so long I forgot the details and never wrote it down. At this point what I remember would significantly change future parts of the story and I don’t think I want it to, so it needs scrapped.

Mostly I think the romance novel part of this is mostly going to focus on Avaleara’s issues, mostly because she’s falling apart not so slowly. But it will definitely plant the seeds for dealing with D’s issues. Also some of his are obviously gonna need worked on before he would even do the whole relationship thing. The one thing they both got going for them is they are both really good with blunt honesty. If you actually get them to fucking talk they aren’t gonna lie about shit and demur. Also one will not hesitate to call the other out on bullshit. 

At one point Avaleara strait up tells D she won’t train him anymore unless he stops viewing his death as an acceptable outcome as long as Dracula dies. She’s teaching him to live, not die. It works because she’s been on the receiving end of that ultimatum. Alternatively D calls her out for pushing away her family. While there are real reasons she pushes them away (mental illness related ones) it doesn't mean she shouldn’t try to accept the help and support they desperately want to give her. It’s nothing she hasn’t heard before, but coming from a man who is the way he is because he’s had no one it packs a much more significant punch.

Eventually they fall in love and have kids. Avaleara’s pregnancy makes D terrified because if Dracula found out there is no doubt he’d do something to the kids. Either view them as a failure (most likely) and kill them, or view them as a success and make their lives a living hell. Neither of which is an option.

Here's the thing about Revant pregnancies- because magic is such an extreme force its highly advised not to use it while pregnant because it can affect development. That’s not a problem for the average person because most aren’t that powerful. 12 months (or thereabout haven't’ set it in stone) isn’t that long to go without, even though it builds up. Its actually really beneficial, because then you use that buildup to heal your body and give yourself the energy to manage newborns. (Also might figure out some sort of transfer ritual but that is still brainstormy) The more powerful the person the more powerful the buildup.So Someone who has spent their life training and increasing their power out of a sense of paranoia is going to have a lot of buildup. Someone like… Avaleara. By the end of her pregnancy she has the buildup to go off like fucking nuke. And Does. On Dracula.

The plan was she’d take out any of Drac’s forces while D dealt with Dracula as was his right, but they got there and Avaleara realized his regenerative powers made him a lot like dealing with [Placeholder], a species renowned for regeneration and only killable through a psychic attack that traced every single cell in every location no matter where in the universe, completely destroying them on a subatomic level. Leave even one cell alive and they’ll come back from it. I haven’t exactly worked out why this psychological attack is different from the ones D can do. Like I have an idea I don’t know how to express it- Something along the lines of one is an illusion that can kill, the other is more like physically reaching into someone's mind and tearing out everything they are piece by piece and destroying them atom by atom, a simultaneous physical and psychological attack. One D can do. The other… he might be able to learn but hadn’t so Avaleara had to do it. She still feels… not guilty but not happy, that she robbed D of the chance to kill his greatest enemy, but at that point D wasn’t willing to let Dracula kill any more of his children so he didn’t care how he died just that he did.

I headcanon that D was forced to reproduce. (not sure if rape or just genetic material) All three children were failures and dracula killed them. D… doesn’t think about them for a looong time until after he has kids with Avaleara. He names them Mirana-Peace, Sorin- Sun, and Anca- grace and tattoos their names on his back with his living children. (For maximum pain those are just the ones that were born and/or lived a few years, but Dracula never revealed the ones that didn’t make it to term. that was one “mercy” he granted his son. D assumes they existed but has no idea how many were terminated)

I’m not sure whether Dracula’s death is going to be the end of the romance novel, a separate short story, or the beginning of the story dealing with the frontier. I’m also not sure how long I want that story to be. It has the potential to be a novel, since I’m talking dismantle the last vestiges of vampire rule and usher humanity into a golden age kinda thing. 

But D and Avaleara’s role in that is rather small. They track down and kill or relocate the last vampires, use data from Drac’s computers to locate shit Humans couldn’t/shouldn’t deal with and destroy it, and that’s pretty much it. Mostly its’ a few particular humans expanding on existing movements now that barriers have been removed. There are a handful that work with D to understand vampiric technology (the weather controllers and transportation in particular) and save it until people are willing to use it. Maybe find away to reverse the genetic fear of vampires. But it is a largely human effort to build a human society worth living in. The handful of decent vampires agree to relocate to the stars knowing that the stigma will never allow them to live peaceful live. Most plan to try to return in a few centuries/millennia if the stigma dies down and they can do so peacefully. (I haven’t decided what to do about dhampirs and mutants. I suppose some will stay and try and carve out a life while others will take the offer to relocate.)

The main reason I want to bother with writing that story instead of just saying that it happened, is I want to explore D’s reason for leaving Earth behind permanently. I mean part of it is definitely that he has a family on Le Shevare, but its still a hell of a decision to leave behind your home planet. I want to explore him realizing there really is nothing for him here, no reason to stay, no memories that aren’t painful. He could choose to stay and rebuild, split his time between worlds, show his children their heritage, and maybe having a dhampir be a significant part of the reconstruction would help end millennia of distrust. But he ultimately decides he’s done. He’s given Earth enough. He won’t live through more distrust and hatred, evil glares and death threats. He’s going home. His greatest enemy is dead and for once in his life he has a future. Vampire Hunter D is retiring to enjoy it.

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That Vampire Hunter D thing I’ll eventually write coherently

So now that I’ve FINALLY found the Vampire Hunter D Fandom I’m working up the courage to share some of my headcanons (my stupid anxiety makes it irrationally hard) The problem is a lot of my headcanons require at least basic knowledge of the fantasy world that I started when I was 14?Ish? And the Ocs I created. Like I decided to yank D out of his post-apocalyptic hell world and put him into this peaceful world populated by non-assholes, or in some cases, slightly less homicidal assholes… ok the number of assholes is much less than on the frontier, and even the homicidal ones usually need a good reason to be homicidal. None of this “I’m gonna experiment on thousands of individuals and put my son through a living hell for shits and giggles” - LOOKING AT YOU DRAC, LOOKING AT YOU!  

Anyway it’s really long and rambly so READ MORE-

Anyway I’m gonna make a series of posts explaining the basics, who’s who, How D got there, basic worldbuilding, that kinda thing. I’ll go through and link ‘em as I finish them. And I’ll make a masterpost because there are a few tags on my blog about the world and D’s family.

Now, since this world was started when I was 14 there are some things that are a little...odd. Names that Stuck and I can’t change because I’ve been calling it that for over 5 years, plot lines that involve characters from a different franchise but i haven’t figured out how to replace. Seriously I have GOT to figure out how to replace Fucking LOKI. FFS I haven’t liked that character for 2 years WHY is he STUCK THERE

I’m currently worldbuilding and planning a few novel’s based on Avaleara’s life, but the first 2 would be before she met D so I don’t think anyone would be interested. I’m gonna write certain scenes though, like Avaleara and D’s first kiss, the emotionally overwrought scenes that bring them together, stuff like that. But hey, if you like really overthought worldbuilding and sprawling sci fi/fantasy worlds, lord knows i could talk about Rev’haros for hours, so feel free to hit me up.

Story

D’s Part of the story line starts when Avaleara was punted through the barrier between universes by her uncle’s failed experiment and ended up on the frontier. By sheer happenstance, she landed right in front of D, who pretty much ignored her because she wasn’t trying to kill him and he needed to get to a job. Avaleara decided “Hey, there’s a fifty fifty shot he’s heading towards civilization, Im’ma follow at a respectful distance” Now, while Avaleara is decidedly Alien in appearance (aprx 6 ft tall, really dark purple skin, has horns, bio-luminescent markings, ALIEN) she has interacted with humans before, has even been to an Earth before, (Multiverse ftw) she has a pretty solid glamour already prepared, so while D knows what she looks like cuz he saw her, she can blend in on the frontier.

Except yah’ know, she doesn’t speak the language cuz the only Earth languages she knows are Japanese or English from circa 2000. Her trying to figure out the frontier dialect is like someone who speaks old English plopped down in the middle of modern day- She can sorta kinda figure out the gist but dear god is it difficult and makes her headache. On top of that since she comes into town a few hours after a Dhampir, well people don’t want shit to do with her, so she keeps vaguely wandering after D. I haven’t figured out the turning point yet, but eventually D interacts with this strange woman trailing aimlessly after him even as he cuts through an incredibly deadly forest and other such frontier horror ‘scapes that should have gotten her killed but didn’t. Because it’s D, he has a better grasp on “ancient” Japanese (Also I headcanon that his mother was of Japanese descent because Tony Thornburg) So they can communicate better.

Eventually they sorta travel together (Again I need to flesh this out) for a few years. About a decade of sorta traveling together (though niether of them will admit it, and certainly won’t admit that they enjoy eachother’s company) Dracula decides to be an asshole. For Hand Wavy reasons he comes up with a test for D and Left hand, that involves poisoning D. (IDK i’m kinda toying with the idea that Dracula had another success that was better than D, and decided to get rid of him, buuuut that would mean another character and i think it really goes against canon so idk if i’m gonna go that route)

The thing about Avaleara is that she is really possessive (part dragon) and fiercely protective of those she’s attached to. So Drac didn’t count on being hit with 900 pounds of sheer protective RAGE. Seriously Avaleara is the kind of person who, if she has something to protect, she will get back up no matter what she gets hit with. Spear through the heart? Bitch please she has two and you just handed her a weapon. Cut off an Arm? Regenerative powers and a history of being tortured so she doesn’t even flinch at the pain? Fire? She’s been burned alive before and it awakened her latent dragon genes. Water? She was born with an innate gift for controlling it. (so i kinda gave her every power I ever thought was cool, oops. HI MARY SUE)

She doesn’t kick Drac’s ass, but she does seriously wound him which is enough to startle him and, since he’s already accomplished poisoning D, he retreats, firing off a psychological attack as he goes. At that point Avaleara has one of two options. Use the last of her strength to fight off the attack, or draw the poison from D into herself (I had a reason for this but it's in a notebook buried in a box somewhere. God I hate moving) Another thing about Avaleara- if it's a choice between saving her life and saving someone else's, she will save someone else's. Every. Time.

So She saves D’s life, but falls into a coma fighting both the poison and Drac’s attack. At this point, her father, Maruketsukai (there’s one of those names I can’t change) appears, because her family had been keeping an eye on her but hadn’t pulled her back home cuz reasons. D does not trust the guy that appeared in midair. D owes Avaleara a debt because she saved his life. D also wants to know how the fuck she managed to wound the Sacred Ancestor. D is a stubborn bastard who will recklessly enter a portal to another universe because he owes someone a debt. He will also stand guard at their bedside for 5 years while they are in a coma because they saved his life.

(I think this is still in character- I mean he wouldn’t do it for just anyone, but shit this person fought Dracula and lived. For Him. yeah he’s gonna stick around and make sure they’re safe before he fucks off.)

His protectiveness earns him the undying loyalty of Avaleara’s family. Like, he’s obviously straight up ready to cut his way out of the room if they so much as breathe wrong in her direction. Ordinarily death threats aren’t the way to endear yourself to your in laws but Maruketsukai and Nikara are… not ordinary.

During the 5 years that Avaleara is in a coma, D learns a lot about her world, her family, and her past. Like the fact that she’s second in line for the throne, and that a previous lover had betrayed, kidnapped, and tortured her and that she had extreme PTSD and massive trust issues because of it. That’s why they had left her on the frontier, because for the first time in two thousand years, Avaleara had sorta trusted someone, or at least, didn’t seem overly paranoid about them, and they wanted to see what would happen.

D spends a lot of time with Takashi and Mizuki, because they speak Japanese. Takashi is the son of Sesshoumaru and Kagome. (Yes from the anime Inuyasha. I did mention this started when I was 14 right?) That’s why he speaks Japanese. Also He drags Avaleara and Mizuki to Earth occasionally which is why Avaleara has a human glamor. Its interesting for D to meet another half breed who is so blase about it, but Takashi grew up in  La’ Shevare, where genetic modification for the express purpose of interspecies breeding has been a thing for several million years. Pretty much no one is a pure blood. But since he’s also the nephew of Inuyasha and has listened to his father express his regret over how he treated his brother, he at least partially understands where D is coming from. Sorta. Academically. Ok not really but he tries. And totally has a talk shit get hit policy when it comes to D. Like call Takashi a half breed, make fun of his heritage, whatever, so long as you don’t make fun of his parents, he don’t give a fuck. Call D a half breed, make fun of D’s heritage, prepare for at least 3 broken bones. Probably more. Seriously. He’s 45 years older than Avaleara, held her in his arms as a baby, grew up with her and fell in love with her sister. She’s Family.  He was helpless when the man she loved broke her and twisted her into someone else, was helpless during her recovery because she wouldn’t let anyone in to help her. The moment D popped up, planting himself between Avaleara and any perceived threat, was the moment he became Pack. And you Do Not Fuck With a Dog Demon’s Pack.

Eventually Avaleara wakes up, except thanks to the psycological attack, and her previous ptsd related issues, Avaleara first thinks D is a hallucination. It takes awhile for it to set in and stick that he’s not. D sticks around, convincing her that he’s real and she’s not going insane, and just being really patient when she freaks out and thinks she’s seeing things, because hey, it was his asshole dad who did this to her so he kinda feels responsible. Plus he’d still really like to know how she wounded him.

It boils down to - Avaleara has spent the last 2 thousand years studying a variety of fighting techniques from all over the Rev’ Haros System, a system whose recent history spans back a few million years. D may know all the fancy vampire tricks, but 10,000 years is a drop in the bucket, a single lifespan of a person from Rev’ Haros. The whole system is so much more advanced than even the vampires at their peak, just because they’ve had the time to develop so far. The average person could go toe to toe with greater nobility if they had to, nevermind the people who are actually trained. Not to mention their fighting styles are so different, so alien to anything on Earth, that Dracula was at a significant disadvantage from that alone.

Avaleara happily agrees to train D in some of these styles. He doesn’t plan on sticking around long enough to learn them all. But he does, and she happily teaches him everything she knows until he is literally the only person who has a prayer of killing her. Shes very proud. Their sparring matches are epic and terrifying.

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Avaleara stared out from the balcony, but she wasn’t taking in the beautiful sight of her country sprawled out before her. She was stuck too deeply in her thoughts, lost amid memories she’d rather forget. Try as she might she couldn’t regain the facade of calm she’d tried so hard to cultivate. She couldn’t even force her breathing under control, the measured breathing meditation her teacher had taught her long ago were beyond her now. Instead her breath came in ragged gasps pulled past lips into a chest that felt like the weight of all her failures were trying to crush her. 

 She could feel herself coming apart at the seams, her mind unraveling at the edges. She’d briefly, oh so briefly, had steady ground to center herself on, D’s constant and unwavering presence helping to ground her and trust the reality around her for the first time in millennia. But one night, one damned night, had taken that away, had almost taken D away. She’d almost killed him. He’d come to help her, tried to wake her from the nightmare she was trapped in.

She’d shoved her poison tipped hand through his stomach.

The stone cracked beneath her hands, but she didn’t notice as her mind pulled her into a vivid memory. The scent of his blood hit her and she met his eyes, widened in shock, quickly becoming glazed with pain as he choked on the blood that spilled over his lips. 

“Avaleara,” Something in her shivered at the sound of her name. It wasn’t right, D hadn’t been able to speak, he’d lost consciousness too quickly.

“Avaleara,” It was his voice though, strong and firm as it couldn’t possibly be with him dying in front of her...

“Avaleara!” Her whole body shuddered as her mind finally released her from the memory. The stone ledge of the balcony was crumbled to dust, blood dripping from between her clenched fists. She wrapped her arms around herself, tears streaming down her face as she gasped in air desperately. She must have stopped breathing, as she had that night.

“Avaleara,” D’s voice was soft now, but it still lanced through her. She curled further in on herself as a wave of self loathing hit her. She’d sworn she wouldn’t let him see how that night affected her,, she swore she would protect him from the worst parts of herself. ‘Yet another failure’ she thought bitterly.

The click of his boots sounded as he approached, a clear warning so she wouldn’t be startled. He Wrapped his arms around her, pulling her into a hug she didn’t have the strength to fight anymore. She’d missed this, missed the way they’d become so comfortable with each other. She hated herself for the way she couldn’t help bury her face into his neck, taking comfort in his alien scent.

D held her tightly, one hand gripping her back, the other tangled in the hair at the nape of her neck, as though he were desperate to keep her in his arms. She brought her arms up to clasp his back, to pull him closer. If she was going to fail, she might as well fail spectacularly.

She shifted her head slightly to rest against his chest, and his heartbeat filled her ears, slow, yet steady. Bile rose in her throat as she listened. How close had she come to silencing that heartbeat. She choked it down and said, “You should stay away from me. I’m not safe.”

“I’ll take that risk.” D answered with no hesitation, “I’ve spent thousands of years terrified of myself, damning myself to a lonely and isolated existence. I can’t stand the thought of letting that happen to you.” His grip tightened around her, and he buried his face in her hair. “Don’t shut me out. Don’t become like me.”

“I could kill you, I almost did, D, that would destroy me.”

“You’re already destroying yourself.”

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I’m thinking about giving D a cyborg arm, cuz yah know he wasn’t already enough like my headcanons of Bucky Barnes post hydra. 

Little Explanation- I split up D and Left Hand. It’s not that I hate Lefty’s character exactly, its just that I think Avaleara would loathe him. Mostly because I’ve based his character on movie Lefty, where he’s a comedic asshole, and tends to dig into D in a decidedly cruel manor- his defining moment for me is when he basically mocks D over being upset at the idea of Meier and Charlotte creating another Dhampir. If anyone else made a comment like that in Avaleara’s earshot she’d kill them. She’s made it clear Lefty only survives as long as the amount of times he’s saved D remains more than the amount of times he’s hurt D. 

I’m probably being unfair to him, mostly in the books he seems a lot nicer to D, or at least I’m having trouble remembering a specific example where he was as cruel as he was in the movie, but the fact is I re-watch the movie a lot more often than I can stomach rereading the books with all Kikuchi’s bullshit, so its definitely more of an influence. 

I also can’t deny part of my motivation for splitting them up is finding the idea of an attached third wheel a little creepy. Still, the right personality could have made it work but there’s no way a (movie based) Lefty would survive being around Avaleara that long. 

I’m not sure what exactly Lefty is- I got the feeling Kikuchi is hinting that he’s more than the average “Countenanced Carbuncle” but I can’t seem to remember what exactly made me think that so I’m gonna let it go and figure he’s like Mashira in the third book and won’t have a problem body hoping.

I’ve set it up like this- Dracula decides D is too dependent on Lefty and develops a poison that targets him. The idea is that either D is strong enough to survive Lefty’s death and the subsequent loss of all Lefty’s fantastic abilities, or he dies with Lefty and becomes one more disappointing failed experiment. Unfortunately for Dracula he doesn’t count on Avalera and her rather convenient ability to draw poison into herself and neutralize it, saving both D and Lefty (...yeah ok Avaleara is a bit of a Mary Sue but SO IS D DAMNIT!)

It’s now obvious that Lefty and D being bound together would be a significant problem and so Lefty is gifted with his very own body manufactured just for him. At this point I stop giving a shit about him and vaguely figure he’s off somewhere enjoying the pleasures of life such as food and sex. I know eventually I’m going to have to develop something because Lefty is a very significant part of D’s life but right now, I just.. don’t care enough about Lefty and have Soooo much more to develop. 

Anyway the loss of Lefty is part of the reason D stays long enough to fall for Avaleara, since he basically needs to learn how to survive without relying on someone he used All. The. Time. (noooot gonna lie sometimes I find it annoying how much of D’s awesome abilities seem to stem from his connection to Lefty)

For years I’ve just gone with the idea Lefty got his own body and D’s hand is now completely normal. But last night I got an idea about how cool it would be if he had a cyborg or prosthetic arm, like the poison did enough damage that his left arm couldn’t be saved below the elbow. Mostly I was thinking of him decked out for some  “diplomatic” function. The kind where Avaleara lines her scars with gold and bears them like a challenge - Look what I’ve survived do you think you’re strong enough to beat me after all I’ve endured. D’s standing at her side wearing an intricately detailed gold prosthetic, a marvelous work of art that combines cutting edge magic and technology. They make a terrifying couple dancing effortlessly amongst their enemies, blatantly drawing attention to their weaknesses because even with them they’re still powerful enough to be untouchable.

It’s an idea still in the baby stages but I think I like it enough it’s gonna stick. 

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50 OTP Asks: Avaleara and D

[Part One] [Part Two] [Part Three] [Part Four]

41. Who cries during sad movies? 

Avaleara. It has to be a pretty good movie, but if it’s moving enough she will start crying. 

42. Who is the neat freak? D is the neat freak. He doesn’t have much, just what he needs. The blanket he used is folded neatly on the back of the couch when he’s done, the books he’s using for research are stacked neatly on the desk. He’s one of those everything has a place and everything in its place kinda people when he has the luxury.

In comparison Avaleara is a whirlwind of chaos. There’s a mountain of books and she might use one of them. She got all the spices out and she won’t use half of them. When she’s working on something her desk gets cluttered to hell and back, or her tools are scattered all over the floor and there’s engine grease on her face. She’ll clean it up when she’s done, and it’ll be neat as a pin then, but while she’s working her space is as chaotic as she is.

D ends up cleaning up after her a looot. Mostly cuz he drags her off to bed when she’s exhausted then comes back later to tidy everything the way she would so she can start fresh. It’s one of those quiet gestures he makes cuz he’s a sweetheart.

43. Who wins the stuffed animals at the carnival for the other one?

D. He’s a total softy. He’s only done it once or twice for Avaleara though. Usually he does it for whatever kid has latched onto his coattails this time. 

44. Who is active/ Who is lazy?

They are both extremely active people. While they might spend the odd “lazy” afternoon talking, reading, or playing chess, most of their free time they are sparing, or hiking, or some other physical activity. 

45. Who is more likely to get drunk?

Avaleara. Her body filters out poison at an extreme rate because of the fucker that poisoned her all the time, so it takes a lot of something hellishly strong to get her drunk, but if she sets her mind to it she can. She won’t often, but every once in awhile she just wants to cut loose. D can’t stand being intoxicated.

46. Who has the longer food order?

Avaleara, though to be fair D’s is very short and often more what you’d consider a side. Avaleara will order a meal, and restaurants on her world tend to make you be very specific because there’s so many different dietary needs. 

47. Who has the more complex coffee order?

Avaleara. When D orders it’s black. Avaleara will drink whatever has a lot of caffeine, but if she’s taking the time to go out and order it’s usually similar to a latte. 

48. Who loses stuff?

Avaleara, though it's more like put somewhere weird when running late or too tired. D knows where she puts it and points it out quick. 

49. Who is the driver/ Who is the passenger?

Avaleara is more the “driver” though in this case it’s a spaceship not a car. D can, but Avaleara really loves it. 

50. Who is the hopeless romantic?

Neither and both. By average standards they aren’t a romantic couple. Avaleara has real triggers around most standard romantic gestures and her experience with Xahros makes her leary of romance because he used it so artfully to fool her. D just… isn’t. He’s seen too much, done too much. The frontier tends to burn that shit out of you fast.

That said, they are completely, utterly devoted to each other. Avaleara calls D her Soul, and D calls Avaleara his Heart, and they mean it very sincerely. They go out of their way to make sure the other know exactly how much they are loved, and the gestures they use may not always make sense to anyone else, but they don’t have to. There’s a Doctor Who quote that sums it up well, they might not believe in love- “But if I believe in one thing… Just one thing… I believe in her!”

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50 OTP Asks: Avaleara and D

[Part One] [Part Two] [Part Four] [Part Five]

21. Who has an obsession (over anything)?

D once had an obsession with killing Dracula, but that ended when Dracula died. Likewise with Avaleara and Xahros. It seems kinda paltry to call anything else they are really interested in an obsession in comparison. 

22. Who goes all out for Valentine’s Day?

Neither of them really go all out for a scripted holiday. They might get each other a nice gift and have a candle light dinner if they have time, but that’s a fairly common date night for them, they don’t necessarily wait for a special holiday, especially since Avaleara’s schedule can get crazy at the drop of a hat. 

23. Who asks who out on the first date?

Eh, them getting together was a mutual decision after years of slowly falling in love, but an actual date? Avaleara would have been the one to suggest going out together once they were settled enough in the relationship to go public. (Not that many people realized it was romantic though, especially in the beginning D wasn’t much for PDA) 

24. Who is the talker/ Who is the listener? 

Avaleara can talk for hours about anything. D is a really good listener. Although Avaleara is a good listener on the rare occasions D is the one talking for awhile.  

25. Who wears the other ones clothes?

Avaleara. Avaleara is a dirty rotten clothes theif and D loves it. 

26. Who likes to eat healthy/ Who loves junk food?

As stated earlier, D has an odd relationship with food. He mostly eats healthy, home cooked meals, mostly because anything overly processed and chemically doesn’t taste good enough to make him eat it.

Avaleara eats healthy food in general, because it takes a lot of calories to fuel her and most natural food is the best source of good calories. Her diet is really really heavy on proteins. However, she does let herself eat junk sometimes - the odd movie night, out with friends, that kind of thing. She enjoys it, it just leaves her too hungry or too lethargic to be a regular thing.

27. Who takes a long shower/ Who sings in the shower?

D is very utilitarian. I’m not sure if the water thing was like the sun thing and only bothered those of vampiric blood on Earth, but either way, he’s in and out in a couple minutes.

Avaleara depends on her schedule. She can be really quick if she needs to, but she loooooves long hot showers. Water was an element she had a natural affinity for so she finds it really soothing. She meditates a lot in the shower, or just spends a while letting it soothe sore muscles. (there’s a water recycle set up so she’s not wasting it) If she’s in the mood she’ll sing (it happens a lot)

28. Who is the book worm?

Both of them are voracious readers, of both fiction and nonfiction. 

29. Who is the better cook?

Avaleara. She comes from a culture where food is a huge thing, lots of communal meals where everyone pitches in something. Even if she didn’t enjoy it she’d be passable, but she genuinely loves cooking and has spent a LOT of time in various kitchens charming delicious family recipes out of people. Everyone loves when Avaleara has time to cook, although you better be prepared for a lot of flavor cuz Avaleara goes hard on the spices.

D on the other hand- well not needing to eat doesn’t lend itself well to learning to cook. It's only a slight exaggeration to say he can burn water.

“One time, Avaleara, that happened one time.”

“One time and it took half my kitchen with it. You chose to defy the witch’s curse and the gods punished you for your hubris”

“Wh- What curse? There is no curse!”

“Darlin’ you can perform advanced chemistry in your sleep but can’t make Fettuccine Alfredo without blowing up half my kitchen, if that ain’t some weird ass curse I don’t know what is.”

30. Who likes long walks on the beach?

They both do. They take a lot of walks in general when they have the time. If they are staying somewhere with a beach they’ll spend hours walking back and forth talking or just enjoying each other’s company and the scenery.

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50 OTP Asks: Avaleara and D

[Part One] [Part Two] [Part Three] [Part Five]

31. Who is more affectionate?

...Ehhhh… They are both really affectionate, they just display it in very different ways. Most people would consider Avaleara the more affectionate one, because she’s the one always draping herself over D, turning toward him, reaching out to him. An unfamiliar observer would think D was really really cold and wonder how Avaleara can put up with him.

But the truth is D is really affectionate, it's just displayed more… practically? Its him digging up that book she’d need for researching that topic she mentioned off hand, or making sure there’s a plate of food/glass of water where she’s working so she’ll eat absentmindedly, or just using their empathetic link to send a “burst” of love, calm, encouragement- whatever she needs when she needs it.

Avaleara is overt and noticeable gestures. D is quiet moments and a steady presence at her side. 32. Who likes to have really long (deep) conversation?

Both. Long philosophical discussions, scientific discussions, morality, interplanetary affairs, history, their pasts- this is actually the foundation of their relationship. These long conversations over the decades made them come together and fall in love, particularly the long convo’s about their past and similarly horrifying experiences. They’ve continued to have them all throughout their lives together. Anyone observing a convo tends to back away slowly because of how head-spiningly complex they get. 

33. Who would wear “not guilty” t-shirt/ Who would wear “sin” t-shirt?

Neither. 

34. Who would wear “if lost return to…” t-shirt/ Who would wear “I am…” t-shirt?

Hm. Avaleara would wear the If lost Return To, but only if she could convince D to wear the I am shirt, which isn’t that likely. Although it's possible someone could cajole him into doing it once or twice for a funny picture. 

35. Who goes overboard on the holidays?

Avaleara! There are a few cultural holidays she LOVE LOVE LOVES. (I haven’t finished developing them, but I know they exist) One would be along the lines of Halloween I.E.- A holiday in which people dress up in costumes and children collect gifts from strangers, and I might make it have some sort of harvest festival leanings. Another would be along the lines of Secular Christmas or Yule - A festive occasion in the middle of winter centering around charity and family. And some sort of spring festival celebrating planting season. Both harvest and planting season festivals would arise a lot from how the community comes together to help with the increased workload during those times.

Anyway Avaleara is pretty excited about all of them and tends to go big with celebrating. Intricate costumes, generous gifts, and dancing till she drops at the festivals. D kind of floats in the background, quietly helping set up or serve food, though he can be encouraged to dance if any kid asks/Avaleara gives him big enough puppy eyes.

36. Who is the social media addict?

Ehhhh neither really but sorta Avaleara… they both have accounts they update as public figures but they are pretty impersonal. However. They both have personal accounts they use to keep up with family that lives in different cities, and Avaleara is the Queen of Weird Ass Spam. Goofy selfies, weird ass videos, awful jokes, That Annoying Viral Song spammed in your inbox in fifty separate emails- you name it, she’s done it. A lot. It's like her stress relief when she only has five min between this task and that.  

37. Height difference or age difference?

Age- D is… did I decide on 3 of 4 thousand years older than Avaleara? I think I went with 3. 

38. Who likes to star gaze?

They both do. D enjoys a night time where nothing is trying to kill him, and it's fascinating looking at a night sky that is so different than Earth’s. Avaleara used to love it as a kid, and rediscovered that love when she started pointing out the constellations and explaining the myths behind them. It was one of the first things that they began having long talks about, comparing the constellations and myths of their worlds. 

39. Who buys cereal for the prize inside?

Avaleara. It wouldn’t happen often, but she’s totally a little kid when it counts. 

40. Who is the fun parent/ Who is the responsible parent?

Avaleara is the fun parent, D is the responsible one. It's really difficult sometimes when D’s trying to lecture them about something then Avaleara does the same thing. A running joke is every time D starts lecturing them about “Don’t fight your siblings!” Avaleara comes into sight sparring with one of her siblings.

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50 OTP Asks: Avaleara and D

[Part One] [Part Three] [Part Four][Part Five]

11. Who likes horror movies/ Who likes romance movies?

Neither of them are really fond of either genre. D’s life was a horror movie so he finds horror movies boring and irritating. Avaleara doesn’t have strong feelings about them and might watch a decent one if she’s bored, but she doesn’t seek them out. Both of them find most romance movies annoying cuz they rely on scripted romantic gestures rather than meaningful gestures that matter to the individual characters. (I will say that Avaleara’s world’s equivalent of both types lacks harmful racist and misogynistic tropes found in the earth variety, which they would both loathe for those reasons)   

12. Who is smol/ Who is tol?

Both Tol. Avaleara has a few inches on D cuz of her horns, and teases him about it sometimes, but they can look each other in the eye.   

13. Who is considered the scaredy cat?

HAHAHA, it's Avaleara and D. They ain’t scared of shit, shits scared of them.   

14. Who kills the spiders?

Both of them.   

15. Who is scared of the dark?

HAHA, Neither.   

16. Who is scared of thunderstorms?

One is part “valkyrie” and can summon storms and lightning. The other married her. Neither.   

17. Who works/ Who stays at home?

Avaleara is the head of her country's military/international relations office (Because the entire star system had been peaceful for generations both of those branches merged together, with the military acting more as a disaster relief and aid force) As such, she has a lot of responsibilities and is a bit of a workaholic.D is retired in theory since there are no vampires to kill. However, D’s personality isn’t well suited to sitting around doing nothing, so he finds things to occupy his time despite not really having an official position. It helps that his telepathic bond with Avaleara gives him the authority to help with diplomatic relations since his word is effectively hers. D did take on a significant amount of responsibility during the years leading up to and during the war. In addition to helping Avaleara, D can often be found babysitting a gaggle of children.

18. Who is a cat person/Who is a dog person?

This is where it gets a bit complicated. Avaleara is a mix of tropes, one of which is “demon/yokai” inspired by the anime Inuyasha, except she would be a cat yokai. Or yah know the bastardized “i’ve been running with this for 10 years now its not what it was in the begining” version of a cat demon. But at the end of the day, though I mix a couple other things in (“valkyrie”, “dragon”) “Cat Demon” would be her… genetic base I guess you could say. Which is a long rambling way to say that Avaleara is, quite literally, a Cat-Person. And D’s the guy who loves her so that makes him a cat person as well. EXCEPT! I also have the oc son of Sesshomaru and Kagome (from InuYasha) running around. Takashi is half dog demon, and probably the closest person to Avaleara and D. He can often be found curled up in one of their laps in dog form. So Clearly they are also both dog people as well. Then there’s the actual question about animals! Avaleara is more fond of her world's equivalent of cats for obvious reasons, but is an all around animal lover, though she doesn’t have any living with her because she’s always worried that she’ll have a PTSD episode and accidentally hurt them. Though she does have a “horse” that is “hers” and lives in the compound’s stable. D is meh on animals. Everything on the frontier is out to kill you so he has a wary respect for them, especially the ones on Ava’s world which are somehow stronger and larger than the mutants bred by vampires. While most of them he encounters are domesticated he’s not really keen on keeping ones as a pet.   

19. Who loves to call the other one cute names?

Avaleara sometimes uses pet names, most often Darlin’. D very rarely uses pet names, but he will occasionally call Avaleara his heart. Most of the time he calls her ‘leara, a nickname only he’s allowed to use.

20. Who is dominant/ Who is submissive?

Both, it depends on the mood. They both have very dominant take charge attitudes, but both of them revel in the fact that they can trust the other completely.

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50 OTP Asks: Avaleara and D

Ok, so I might be breaking a rule here, but I answered all the questions and figured I’d share the answers. Its broken into several posts so any one didn’t get too long.

[Part Two] [Part Three] [Part Four] [Part Five]

1. Who is the early bird/ Who is the night owl?

Avaleara’s sleep schedule is fucked up beyond repair. She went so long ignoring her need to sleep (because of nightmares) that she’s used to functioning completely exhausted and can always find something to do to avoid sleep. It's not uncommon to find D picking her up and dragging her off to bed, or otherwise convincing her to sleep. D sleeps when he can, but prefers to sleep during the day, so I guess he’d be the night owl. 

  2. Who is the big spoon/ Who is the little spoon?

They are both the same height so they tend to switch. Because they’ve both survived this long due to paranoia, they often take turns sleeping with the other watching over. In this case little spoon is the one sleeping, and big spoon is curled protectively around them while keeping watch. 

  3. Who hogs the cover/ Who loves to cuddle?

Avaleara is a cover hog. Both “dragons” and “valkyries” are natural nesters and Avaleara has both in her gene pool, so she tends to build up the bed with all the pillows and blankets. D is used to sleeping without covers so he doesn’t mind, and it's not like he’s gonna get cold since Avaleara gives off a massive amount of body heat. 

They both love to cuddle, though for the longest time D had issues instigating. He’s so used to keeping himself apart, both for his safety and everyone else's, that it's hard for him to let someone close even when he really wants to. But he’s learning and it gets easier with time. Avaleara has similar issues because someone she trusted so much turned around and tortured her. It’s hard for her to let her guard down but she trusts D and has his permission to cuddle, so she’s constantly draping herself all over him. 4. Who wakes the other one up with kisses?

Neither. Unless it’s a serious emergency they guard each other’s sleep fiercely since they both have a lot of trouble getting enough sleep. Also considering they both have PTSD they tend to wake up fighting. Long before they got together D tried to wake Avaleara from a nightmare since it was bad enough he heard her screaming from the other room. By the time Avaleara was fully conscious D was almost dead since she’d thrown him across the room and all but cut him in half with poison claws. Years later they now have a telepathic/empathic link that means that won’t happen, but the thought of it still terrifies Avaleara so D tries not to wake her if he can avoid it. In the rare case that it's unavoidable it's usually half telepathy and half gentle talking that wakes the other up, and it can take a few minutes because they go so slowly to avoid inevitable injury. 

5. Who usually has nightmares?

Both of them. Avaleara’s are mostly flashbacks to the decades of torture she endured. She doesn’t sleep without D, because somewhere along the line D’s scent became psychologically ingrained in her as safe, and D managed to figure out how to ease her out of a nightmare, but it took a long, long, time for that to happen. Also because she’s woken up a couple times choking on a piece of her own tongue she managed to bite off, and is kinda freaked out at the prospect of dying over something so stupid. On top of that, she’s constantly worried about hurting someone, especially since the one time she almost killed D.

D has nightmares about the frontier. Memories of kids he’s had to kill cuz they were turned into bloodthirsty monsters, people he liked killed in horrific ways, his thousands of siblings slaughtered by his father, just. All the nightmares. After he has kids, he dreams of them being tortured by his father. D doesn’t react to nightmares since he’s so used to them, and he learned long ago to keep quiet and still during them. He will hold Avaleara close after a particularly nasty one, and his kids aren’t strangers to getting seemingly random “skype calls”.

6. Who would have really deep emotional thoughts at the middle of the night/ Who would have them in the middle of the day? 

Both of them would think these things during the night. D is definitely a night owl and sleeps during the day, even on a world where sunlight doesn’t hurt him. Avaleara tends to keep really really busy during the day, so it's not until she slows down at night that thoughts catch up to her.

7. Who sweats the small stuff?

Neither of them. Although Avaleara can get a little finicky when she’s organizing a diplomatic event, needing every little detail down to the napkins to be perfect, that has a lot more to do with the complexities of hosting an interplanetary diplomatic party and managing not to accidentally insult (or worse poison) someone.   

8. Who sleeps in their underwear (or naked)/ Who sleeps in their pajamas?

D sleeps his pajamas, although any person who hasn’t survived off paranoia for millennia would consider it a only a step below tactical body armor. (loose fitting enough that movement isn’t restrictive, tough enough material to provide some protection) If he feels really comfortable he’ll sleep shirtless though. Avaleara does sleep naked a lot, but she’s also known for stealing D’s shirts and boxers and sleeping in those.

9. Who makes the coffee (or tea)?

D. The man can’t cook to save his life, but he makes a mean cuppa. His tea is usually semi medicinal, and the one he makes most often would be a sleepy time tea to help Avaleara relax. Avaleara may live of her world’s version of coffee, but she rarely actually makes it. She uses it as an excuse to stop in for a few minutes and catch up with local baristas, and chat with her people. If she’s too focused on her work D will stop in with a cup from her favorite place to keep her going.   

10. Who likes sweet/ Who likes sour?

Avaleara kinda has a sweet tooth, liking pastries and her world’s version of chocolate, but she’s not a huge fan of overly sugary things. She’ll occasionally eat something sour, but it's definitely not a favorite flavor. D’s relationship with food is weird since he didn’t really need to eat, but he’s learning to enjoy things. He doesn’t have a sweet tooth though, about the sweetest thing he’ll eat is fruit and dark chocolate.

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29, for the 50 OTP things ask game

29. Who is the better cook-

Avaleara. She comes from a culture where food is a huge thing, lots of communal meals where everyone pitches in something. Even if she didn’t enjoy it she’d be passable, but she genuinely loves cooking and has spent a LOT of time in various kitchens charming delicious family recipes out of people. Everyone loves when Avaleara has time to cook, although you better be prepared for a lot of flavor cuz Avaleara goes hard on the spices.

D on the other hand- well not needing to eat doesn’t lend itself well to learning to cook. Its only a slight exaggeration to say he can burn water. 

“One time, Avaleara, that happened one time.” 

“One time and it took half my kitchen with it. You chose to defy the witch’s curse and the gods punished you for your hubris”

 “Wh- What curse? There is no curse!” 

“Darlin’ you can perform advanced chemistry in your sleep but can’t make Fettuccine Alfredo without blowing up half my kitchen, if that ain’t some weird ass curse I don’t know what is.

(No, D’s inability to cook isn’t a result of me needing something he was bad at, I don’t know what you’re talking about…)

[winterscribe]

Vampire Hunter D Fanfic

I was inspired by THIS : http://kokoko-sir.tumblr.com/post/162672980752. awesome piece of @kokoko-sir ‘s art and asked permission to post this little ficlet. (Forgot to add the link and mobile wont let me edit in a hyperlink) Of course it turned into a bit of a beast (3044 words wtf?) but I couldn’t help it, somebody needed to comfort that poor child, even if I had to use time travel shenanigans so my OC Avaleara (his wife) could do it. Also I might come back through in a few days for some minor edits, but for now I’ve been staring at it too long to catch any typos. I hope you all enjoy!

I’m putting under a read more cuz DAMN this got three times as long as I thought it would.

D ran as fast as he could, scrambling up desperately every time he tripped. Tears slipped out as a stray branch split his lip, stinging the cut around his eye he’d already gotten from the angry villagers. He forced himself to keep going despite the pain from his beating and the burning in his lungs. Humans couldn’t follow as fast, but if he stopped to rest too soon or too long they would eventually catch up.

An hour passed before he finally collapsed in a trembling heap, every inch of him aching. The broken ribs from a farmer’s boot had healed a bit, but while they weren’t broken anymore, they were still badly bruised. There were other cuts and bruises all over him, and they likely wouldn’t heal much further without him drinking anything. Hand used up too much energy stitching together his bones to worry about such minor annoyances. Still they throbbed and ached as D curled up into a ball on the forest floor, trying not to let anymore tears fall. Not only were they a useless sign of weakness but they hurt right now. Besides that they wouldn’t change that the farmer hadn’t seen a lost child but a monster to be killed, and had called backup to help do the deed.

D staggered to his feet. He had to keep moving. Even if he’d managed to go far enough the humans wouldn’t catch up for days, there were other things out here. While he was trained enough to handle minor beasts, the frontier was full of monsters that were dangerous enough to annoy even Father. D wouldn’t stand a chance if he ran into one of those. That, and he needed to get out of this forest so he could use the stars to navigate home.

“Hey kid, you should call your d-” D idly smashed Hand to shut him up.

“I’m fine.” No, he wasn’t but dad had dropped him on his own, claiming it was a test. D wasn’t sure exactly what was being tested, but he’s pretty sure calling for help would mean failing. In which case calling for help didn’t mean things wouldn’t go from bad to worse. Besides… if he could make it seem like he got his wounds in the forest, father wouldn’t go back to the village. Father wouldn’t stop at the bastards that attacked a lost child, he’d wipe out every single person, most of whom had no idea D had even been there. D didn’t want that much innocent blood on his hands.

D’s tired feet tripped over a protruding root. This time as he fell, there was the strangest sensation, a tingling warmth, then a flash of light blinded him for an instant before he caught himself. When he could see again, it wasn’t the dark, root and leaf covered forest floor under his hands, but a sunlit paved path. Quickly he scrambled up and tried not to show his shock. The- mutant? Monster? Being? - in front of him was a massive wall of muscle, towering to a height that rivaled Father’s. It's arms covered in scars, and the two short swords at its hip would make it seem intimidating even without the thick horns and inhuman face.

D looked up and up and hoped like hell it couldn’t smell fear.   

POV Switch

Avaleara stared down at the tiny child in front of her. She’d seen a lot of shit in her life, but even she was a little thrown by a tiny version of her husband suddenly taking his place. One that was clearly injured - a fact that had rage filling her almost as quickly as panic. She tamped down on both quickly and firmly, briefly checked the telepathic bond she shared with D  (it hadn’t snapped so much as a thick fuzzy veil was between them. Odd and uncomfortable, but suggested he was aliveish) and decided that figuring out whatever bullshit fuckery this was needed to wait. Right now there is a child in front of her, hurt and trying to hide his fear. While she’d processed this in a few seconds, if she took much longer he’d notice.

Crouching down so she wouldn’t tower over the poor kid, Avaleara spoke as softly as her rough voice would allow, “Hello Little One.” D’s flinch was almost imperceptible, but it broke Avaleara’s heart as much as the bloody scrapes on his face. “I won’t hurt you.” The ancient Romanian was strange on her tongue. Adult D didn’t use it often since it brought back too many childhood memories, but it was the only language she shared with child D. Any other frontier languages she knew were evolved thousands of years beyond what little D would understand. Yet it didn’t reassure him as she’d hoped, just made him stand even straighter.

“I assume you’re another part of father’s test.” No child’s voice should be that flat. Even worse was the fear little D hadn’t quite learned to completely hide. Dracula could burn in hell for eternity and it wouldn’t be enough.

“No, I’m not part of any test.” Gah, her voice was far too rough to soothe any Earth child, but she couldn’t help that. Quickly considering what to tell him, Avaleara realized that with any version of D, straightforward honesty was best. Even as a child he’d be too intelligent to swallow any lie she came up with. “I’m not sure what exactly is going on. All I know right now is that I was just speaking with the older you, then suddenly here you are as a child.”

D’s little face showed his skepticism. It would be endearing if it didn’t show how young he’d learned mistrust. Avaleara wanted to rip Dracula apart all over again, but she controlled her rage so it wouldn’t frighten D more.

“I’m not going to hurt you.” She told him again, firmly. When he didn’t respond, she sighed. “Do you mind if I look at those cuts? Are you hurt anywhere else?”

“I’m fine. It’ll heal soon enough.” There was no doubt in his voice. D had already been injured enough to know. D couldn’t be more than 6 or 7, yet he had already been injured enough to know for sure how long it would take. Not for the first time, Avaleara was tempted to resurrect Dracula just to kill him again more slowly.  

“I’d still like to make sure. Please?”

“Ok.” D’s voice was quiet and resigned, but at least he let her help him. It had taken years for Adult D to trust her enough for that.

Avaleara reached out and gently pulled D’s hair back. The cut was healing quickly, but there was enough dirt mixed in that Avaleara wanted to wash it. She wasn’t sure how great his healing was this young, but the fact that such a little cut hadn’t healed already meant it was definitely slower. No sense risking infection if D wasn’t powerful enough to prevent it yet. D stared at her as she took out a rag and pulled water from the air to make it damp. He flinched when she reached for him, staring at the rag. “It’s ok.” Hopefully he wouldn’t make her explain, by the time she finished the science talk, the cut would have healed completely, possibly sealing the bits of rock and dirt inside.

Luckily Little D seemed more determined to be brave than suspicious. He shifted closer and gave her a look that was clearly get on with it. Avaleara resisted the urge to smile at the adorableness, and reached out again.

D’s eyes widened slightly at the warmth as Avaleara gently wiped the cuts around his eye, exposing the bruising underneath. Yet again she repressed the sheer rage that welled up.  She focused on the familiar action of cleaning a child’s face to help keep her calm. Keeping her movements gentle and slow, she moved onto D’s split lip. By the gods all she wanted to do was cradle him in her arms. None of their children had looked so human, but all the same she couldn’t look at this D and not see them. She ached to comfort him the way she would any of them, but D was already so used to cruelty she doubted he’d react well.

Finished with his face, Avaleara rocked back on her heels and rinsed the rag as she contemplated how to convince him to let her check his other injuries. She could see at least another few scrapes on his arms, and his breathing was shallow. At first she’d thought that was fear, but it might not be and she was familiar enough with chest injuries to be concerned.

“Who are you?” At least confusion replaced the fear in his voice as D calmed, though he still watched her warily.

“My name is Avaleara and I’m someone who cares about you. I’ll keep you safe while we figure out what’s going on. I promise.” She held out her small finger in the human tradition Takashi had taught her as children. D hesitated before copying her and she wrapped her finger around his. Careful not to split her scar and make it bleed, Avaleara grinned as wide as she could.

POV Switch

D had no idea what to make of the strange being crouched before him. While he still hadn’t completely ruled out it being part of father’s test, they were strangely gentle. Nothing associated with Father was gentle. The usual method of dealing with D’s injuries was throwing a blood pack or a body at him to drain. D even had a few hazy memories of Father’s wrist pressed to his mouth, but in those he was too far gone in pain to ever be sure it wasn’t just a dream. Never had anyone gently wiped away the blood, calm and tender despite obvious flickers of anger. Even their anger was strange. Father raged when he was damaged by anyone else, but it was half at D for not being strong enough and half rage that someone dared to challenge father’s edict that D not be harmed. Except here D got the impression this Avaleara was more angry at whoever hurt him, for him.

"You never answered me little one. Are you hurt anywhere else?"

D's ribs still ached, his hands had been shredded by many falls, his arm was still bleeding sluggishly where bone had pierced his skin, and everywhere else ached from his long run. But could he trust Avaleara not to hurt him further for admitting it? His caretakers sometimes lulled him into admitting weakness then punished him for it, would this be different?

Avaleara sighed again, "I can tell you're hurt in at least a few other places. I don't want to push you, but I'm worried. Please let me help you. I promise, I'll keep you safe. I'm hoping no bones need set, but if they do I'll be as quick and gentle as possible.”

"I took care of his bones. He'll heal fine enough on his own." Hand finally spoke up. "He just needs rest." For D's ears alone Hand added, "And some human blood, but I don't thi- ack"

"D may heal fine enough on his own but he shouldn't have to damnit." Avaleara was glaring at his hand, irritation but no surprise on their face. They looked back at D, "I'd still like to look after your other wounds. But I don't want to make you uncomfortable. If you agree with Left Hand I'll back off." Looking around, they added, "We should get indoors first, or at least get out of the middle of the road. There's a rest house a short ways ahead we should get too."

D had been too preoccupied with the immediate threat to look around, but he took the chance now. Nothing was familiar. From the sky tinted a shade of purplish blue, the trees with strange colored leaves and even stranger fruits hanging off the branches, to the grass a shade of green so dark it was almost black, everything was different. Even the paved road beneath their feet was different- while the bricks were an innocuous beige, the grout between them was a color gradient starting in the left distance a brilliant blue fading through to pink towards the right distance. What strange noble had built this place and how did he end up here?

He looked back at Avaleara, who hadn't moved while he looked around. "It's a lot to take in. I'll explain it as best as I can once we get somewhere more private. I don't like the idea of advertising Adult D has been replaced by Child D, even temporarily. There's too many enemies that would take advantage. Is it ok if we get moving?"

D nodded. Avaleara stood. They hesitated for a second before asking, “ Are you ok to walk?” D’s legs screamed that he wasn’t, but he nodded again anyway. They raised an eyebrow and sighed, but didn’t challenge him, just turned and started walking slowly. Obviously they could have gone much faster with such long legs, but their steps were measured and slow. D stubbornly stomped ahead, ignoring both the increasing pain in his legs and the long sigh from behind him. His irritation at being coddled gave him just enough courage to throw back, “So what are you anyway?”

“I’m an alien.” D stopped in his tracks and spun around. Their lopsided grin looked horrifying with the scar stretching across it. They held their hands behind their back and leaned back with a mischievous glint in their eyes.

“Stop Teasing me and Answer.”  D tried to inflect his voice with as much authority as he could, which was quite a lot. He’s the son of the Vampire King and not to be trifled with.

“I’m not teasing you. Well, only a little cuz the reaction is always priceless, but I really am an alien. Or technically you’re the alien since we’re on my homeworld, Le’ Shevare. Also since it seems to matter so much to Earthlings- I’m a female.”

D stared. They- she- sorta made sense, but it was hard to wrap his head around. First Avaleara claimed that she’d been talking to his older self before he was swapped in, now she claims he’s on another planet. Except it was plausible- while the nobility hadn’t found alien life on any of the planets they’d reached so far, certainly it was only a matter of time. If he really was switched out with his older self then it was also plausible he’d been visiting one of these colonies. Also, not only would it be plausible that technology capable of switching him would exist in the future, but also that a future enemy of his could get ahold of that technology and use it to revert him to a less powerful state. It could even make sense to turn him into a child. It would seem like the perfect opportunity to ransom him off, not realizing Dracula would kill them for the insult regardless of whether or not it could harm D in the process.

D turned around and started walking forward again as he continued thinking. He still didn’t know if he could trust Avaleara.But at the moment he had no other ideas on where to go, and if Avaleara’s story was true, even calling for his father wasn’t an option. That thought was terrifying. No matter how brutal father’s punishments got they were still a known quantity. Father wouldn’t kill him as long as he continued to be a success. Here he was completely cut off in the unknown. Of course it was still entirely possible that this was an elaborate test and Father was watching right now.

D lost his train of thought as he tripped on his own feet. Strong hands wrapped around him and kept him from hitting the ground again. His face heated up as embarrassment washed through him. Just because it had been almost two days since he’d slept was no reason to be stumbling around like this. Father had made him go much longer, and would be angry at his laziness. Tears burned at his eyes again and he rubbed them away fiercely.

“Its alright little one. I’ve got you.” Avaleara’s voice was rough as gravel and her Romanian was flavored with a strange accent. It shouldn’t have been reassuring, he shouldn’t trust her at all. He should hate how clearly she was trying to be gentle, but instead he liked it. It was a weakness brought on by exhaustion, clearly. Tears spilled over and his shoulders began to shake as he lost control. Gentle hands turned him around and he was pulled close into a strong embrace. It should have scared him how powerful the arms wrapped around him were, but instead he felt safe. It was so different to any other time his father held him. Dracula was kind on a whim, violent on another. D was used to knowing that the strong arms embracing him would eventually hurt him. This time should be no different, yet it felt so different. He buried his face into the crook of Avaleara’s neck and let go, damn the consequences. He cried and cried until he was completely drained of what little energy he had left, all the while that deep rough voice crooned softly in his ear. Avaleara gently rocked him from side to side, and as D ran out of tears he began drifting off to sleep. He stirred briefly as she picked him up, but was quickly lulled back to sleep by hand carding through his hair. He didn’t stir again until he was placed on soft furs, but again gentle hands sent him right back to sleep.

POV Switch-

Avaleara looked down at the child sleeping softly. She was still worried about her D, and needed to figure out what was going on and how to fix it. But for now she’d watch over this Little D, and give him all the love she could. When he returned she doubted he’d remember anything, but maybe, somewhere in his subconscious, a memory of gentleness could rest and help him through the long years until they met again.