#to give you more context about bastiens little life he had plans of rising through the ranks and becoming a respected and rich bishop | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

magnolia-sunrise · 6 months

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okay whatever, medieval vampire AU ramblings, if you care

copying from the tags of my previous post but, to give you more context about Bastiens little life - he had dreamt up plans of rising through the ranks and becoming a respected high ranking member of the clergy. given his whole situation in his mind its the coziest and smartest path of life where nobody would ever question him not taking a wife or look under his robes. instead, his naive plans quickly shatter as he ends up assigned to a fuck off village in what would be today's southern France. where the people first of all dont really care for the whole religion or paying taxes thing and dont appreciate the rumours about him spending time around Florentines that arrive with him (largely thanks to the mayor's loud mouth son, Matteo :) ). and so he spends his days tending to the chickens he keeps so hes able to feed himself and even sell some eggs sometimes, he takes care of a small vineyard, just enough to make and drink his own supply of wine.

where he had some ideals of the church and faith, the abject poverty and the isolated misery of a life he lives doesn't really keep his spirits high. he has no one who would listen to his preaching, no one to lead, he drinks himself to sleep almost every night. he has failed himself and his faith.

when a knight - one of the fucking Kingsguard, somehow finds their way to his home first he's sure the crown somehow got wise to the village not paying their taxes for as long as he lived there. instead this knight almost collapses into his doorway- strangely only after he invites them in- and now seeing the state they're in, theres a whole other problem in Bastien's mind. in this setting he is very far from being a doctor or knowing first thing about medicine, best he can do is pray for their soul and their peaceful passing aka "rip i guess"

iirc the myths of vampires weren't very widespread in Europe yet in late 14th century and so i imagine Bastien wouldnt really pick up on a lot of the "tells" at first. especially since they arrive half dead, feverish, hardly saying anything - it's difficult to make a clear judgement, and also try not to offend one of the King's personal guards.

for Wolfgang the past weeks have been a torment in ways they never imagined.

they were born into a family of some status, modest but in favor with the crown, which many nobles and knights, out of pure jealousy, are sure had influence on how quickly they rose through the ranks and received knighthood. they were proud of their skill with a sword and their efficiency in violence, in winning battles and land or their king. they were successful and respected and beautiful. their body a tool of war and death, but delivered only with purpose and principle, selfless.

when they got turned - this purpose, this pride in their intimate knowledge of how to most efficiently kill a man, is turned against them. without understanding anything that's happening to them, these horrible, scorching urges -- willing them to just kill for their own pleasure, to devour, to keep themself fed and think of no one els, it's horrible.

even with everything else aside - narrowly escaping execution, being stripped of land and title and exiled - losing control of themself, of their body, this is the worst part of it all. that first night when their horse carries them back to the castle and in blood red haze they bite the first person going down the halls - the prince - -- their young sweet prince, who so admired them, who they taught swordfighting when he was younger -- they failed the crown and themself.

they try to feed on rats and small animals in the woods and on peasant's chickens and they get rightfully chased out and hunted down and impaled with pitchforks. they crawl into a hole to die only for their body to heal itself, and the hunger to make itself known again. it is a battle they don't know how to win.

stumbling into Bastien's home one summer night is the single light in all this darkness. for whatever reason beyond their comprehension he invites them inside, into his warmth, he lets them stay and heal and doesn't ask too many questions. when they recover, the two of them quickly find how lonely and starved they had both been for genuine human company. they both also become very aware of the many stolen glances and accidental touches, especially as they spend more and more evenings enjoying bad wine and talking.

that hunger is always there, always waiting for an opportunity, for a weakness in their armor. sooner or later they will have to face it again, or risk losing control completely.

(--- there is a bunch of stuff im leaving out that doent pertain just to these two, that we have been chatting about together with @vividmercurial and smashing our OC dolls together. he supplied the prince and the mysterious stranger who ends up being Wolf's downfall and in turn perhaps Wolfgang with the help of their drunkard priest, will help the mysterious stranger regain his soul. )

with these sketches out in the world my next goal is to figure out a little comic as a culmination of the tension between Bastien and Wolfgang, the whole core of why even have a vampire AU in the first place ;^)) the story and the imagery is so vivid in my mind and the settings and tropes are of course extremely self indulgent and very straight forward in ways that are really funny and interesting to contrast with their canon universe for me. so i definitely see myself returning to some ideas from this even after the halloween month ends hehe

#medieval au #if you read all this and you read between two fires and youre like wait a second this relationship dynamic seems a bit familiar #WELL yeah #its real good

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