FluffyTheOcelot

For Carmen:

she's just never really been focused on the idea of relationships and all they entail, and never really "got" it. She grew up wanting to be the best thief, then her main goal became taking down VILE. relationships were never really in her mental picture. VILE probably gave her a quick crash course on sex ed (babies, periods, STDs, contraceptives, etc), maybe some different orientations (mostly just the more well-known ones), but for the most part probably discouraging any actual relationships. Which (speaking from experience, lol) she was just kinda like "okay, done, its not that hard". both as a combo of her demisexuality and also just. not having anyone around that would be in her age range for potential relationships (at least till she enrolled, but she was still ~16 surrounded by 18+ other students)

So she's never actually given it much thought. I think she's aware that she finds people attractive/can identify when someone is "conventionally" attractive, but isn't really thinking about it in a relationship sense, at least at an initial look/meeting. Carmen is also a person that would be worried about bringing someone into danger by dating her, too. So if she is thinking about relationships, she's thinking that it would have to be someone she could trust A LOT, and probably someone that's already filled in on the Lore tm

as for gender-wise, my friend and I have joked around with non-binary/genderfluid Carmen so much at this point its just kinda solidified in my mind. Like, yeah, really in the show we really only see her presenting fairly femme, but also I like to think she's comfortable presenting herself however and that's just what she defaults to because she likes the look of it. Heck, maybe after the series ends she starts poking around the gender end of the closet and is like "huh. interesting." and starts playing around with some different styles, maybe adding on some pronouns. She's stealing all the pronouns. They're hers now. She/her, they/them probably for the most part, but who knows! Maybe she tries he/him here and there. Also how cute would it be if her friends made them a bunch of bracelets with different pronouns on em for however she felt in the moment <33

Julia:

I feel like for the most part it's a general consensus she's at least sapphic. I mean, the train scene in S1 alone almost confirmed that; I cannot be convinced that she WASN'T flirting with Carmen at first. Like she was fully shooting her shot in that scene and I do NOT blame her lmao.

(sidenote I lowkey don't like when people portray Julia as this blushing innocent mess. She was giving Carmen bedroom eyes lmao idk who the heck they're talking about but surely it's not the same Julia XD) If anyone's fumbling and fighting gay panic in the relationship (or at least, not managing it very well), it's Carmen, lol.)

She's a grown adult, well into at least her 20's at this point. I imagine she's known who she is for a while, and is probably at the point where she doesn't hide it. At this point in most situations she's like "if someone acts weird about it then that's their problem, not mine." She's got bigger issues at hand, including but not limited to flirting with the superthief she's supposed to be arresting XD

As for Julia's gender stuff, she's just kinda There lmao. I love masc Julia sm. I saw @raptorladylover6969 draw some top surgery Jules and I am inclined to agree lol. Seems a hell of a lot more convenient, anyway. Ik a she/they when I see one. Also she has at least two degrees and was teaching at a university, which implies either a graduate degree OR even going for/having a PhD. No "Ms." Argent, its Doctor, thanks very much. (Ultimate life hack for gender neutral title: get a doctorate lmao. it's what i'm going for, anyway XD)

Ivy:

I think this is another one that's kinda a general consensus that Ivy's at least sapphic. I could totally see her having a crush on Carmen, at least at first. Whether or not it's still there later depends on the story, I reckon! In canon, I could definitely see it still being there by the end of the series.

either way, it's also fun while developing character dynamics. Even tho Carmen, Julia, and Ivy are all sapphic, they all had different experiences with it and figuring it out.

Zack:

I think it almost felt like the writers were attempting the "boy sees pretty girl and tries and fails to flirt" thing with Zack. Like, we saw him attempt it with the Driver in S2, and I wanna say there was at least one more instance of it but can't remember off the top of my head. Either way, the trope kinda icks me out a little bit so I was like "nahhh we're at least going to make it a bit more interesting. He just simply has no game with anyone." lol sorry Zack <3

also very funny bc I feel like with aro/ace (or even demi) Carmen they'd make the joke of "if we had a sitcom it'd be called 'All or Nothing'" LMAO. Zack and Carmen being silly together my beloved <3

Player:

Player seems like he would have the misfortune of relatives always asking if he has a girlfriend yet and he's just like "nahhhhhh i'm good"

He's perfectly content sitting back and watching his friends thrive, and I don't see anyone on Team Red making him a third wheel, at least not intentionally and not for long if they do. It also definitely helps that he and Carmen have being ace/aro-spec in common, too, so they both "get it" so to speak, even if Carmen does wind up in a relationship someday. heck, maybe that could even lead to momentary upset feelings that they gotta work out, then come out with an even stronger friendship by the end of it.

There's also the funny option of him being a little turd and saying something like "ew PDA" at Carmen and Julia like. standing next to each other. Just rage-baiting Carmen, mostly, as is his sworn duty as a pseudo little brother. But also, he knows Carmen, and how her mind works and everything she's been through, and just wants her happy <3. At the end of the day they're still best friends and nothing changes that. Full Stop.

His friends love him, and he loves them.

Heck, more than likely he was the one that pointed out the ace/aro umbrella to Carmen and sent her on that self-discovery rabbit hole.

Last Wolf

I don't wanna spoil too much stuff, but let's just say that Henry's beef with Carmen in Last Wolf is more than just because she's a werewolf. Though if he didn't want his house broken into, maybe he should've considered not hoarding a bunch of lycan artifacts and such.

Despite that, Carlotta would have no issue with Julia, and by extension, Carmen and Julia's relationship. If anything, just concern for both of them that he'd hurt them over it.

Hates getting her fur wet in wolf mode. Dexter and Carmen have no such issue, and in fact love the rain and swimming.

She was also a thief in Last Wolf. Though, mostly through little tricks and street scams. Occasionally she'd go for bigger prizes if she needs to, which is how she meets Dexter! She also tended to get into trouble when she would come across any piece of lycan culture somewhere it shouldn't be. wink wink nudge nudge.

Thief's Guide

Before the apocalypse, she was a veterinarian! (this is important for the story, and also I like throwing in a vet character when I can ;) )

uhhh some lore and Carmen backstory stuff happens that i dont quite want to reveal publicly yet, BUT just know that for the last fifteen-ish years or so, she's been helping run an orphanage while acting as a town's healer/vet.

She's also done a little bit of traveling to nearby towns to help (and to find more supplies), but tends to stay put most of the time for two reasons: 1) hiding from acme; and 2) waiting for someone (or two, but she's pretty sure one's dead.)

kinda like i mentioned before in the general headcanons, Team Red very much is now her bonus kids. Even more so now, considering that they're actually kids, and in such a messed up world. Heck, Zack and Ivy grew up in an ACME orphanage, Player lost his parents not long before meeting Carmen, and Julia's parents are...uh..okay we don't need to unpack that right now but let's just say Jules has been pretty independent for a while. They're kind of in need of an actual adult that's a decent parental figure.

New Teeth

She's a bit less fleshed out in New Teeth, but I do know a few things:

she's a witch! Dexter's the lycan parent, Carlotta's the witch one :)

I haven't quite settled on how witch culture/families/covens work just yet, but I imagine falling in love with a lycan and producing a forbidden child with him put a strain on her relationship with her family at best, and at worst, might've even gotten her kicked out/exiled.

she knows Carmen is out there somewhere, and has not stopped looking. Though, magic helps, it can only do so much when you don't know anything about someone or have any of their possessions (I imagine that stuff Carmen doesn't remember doesn't work, as she wouldn't count it as 'hers' if she doesn't know it exists). Luckily, news of a lycan-witch hybrid tends to spread quickly, so surely it's only a matter of time.

or alternatively to the magic solution: maybe getting in big trouble like this results in magic abilities being significantly weakened, taken away, or "closed" (like, still there inherently but magic is blocking them from use). She still would have all her knowledge and could help and teach others, though! And hey, maybe someone with more power than a normal witch could help unlock her magic again ;)

Carmen is weird. 

This is not a new discovery; the lycan-witch didn’t exactly have the most typical upbringing, even by supernatural standards. Julia also suspected more often than not that Carmen’s “quirks” could also be attributed to neurodivergency, whether Carmen herself knew it or not. 

Now, all that considered, this particular behavior was new. 

Or it had at the very least heightened over time. 

And really, Julia was probably overanalyzing things. The behavior change could just be due to the two becoming closer friends and Carmen becoming more comfortable. 

As long as they’d known each other, Carmen had always been friendly, helping Julia navigate her newfound vampirism with tips and a bit of magic to help her hide it in normal life. She’d also gotten the New-Fang an assortment of little trinkets: rocks, figurines, pins, even a couple of plushies after she’d found out Julia liked them. 

In the back of her mind, a rather self-deprecating part of her told her that it was all out of pity, or maybe even fear. Julia tried her best to ignore that voice most days, but she also had a habit of getting trapped in her own head. 

Julia had observed Carmen interacting with her other friends, trying to compare the new behaviors. 

Carmen didn’t tend to initiate physical touch in non-life-threatening situations, save for the occasional high five or fist bump. She seemed perfectly content to sit on the other end of the couch, the floor, or another chair, as long as everyone was in one room. 

But lately, and Julia noticed this was only when it was just the two of them (and Player, of course, considering he lives with Carmen as her familiar), Carmen did the exact opposite. 

Not that Julia was complaining, but it seemed like the “accidental” touches had increased tenfold. She found their knuckles grazing each other’s as they walked side-by-side at least once whenever they were together. If Julia was on one end of the couch, Carmen was on the other, stretching out so their legs just barely touched in the middle. Alternatively, if they were watching something together, Carmen sat closer, letting their knees touch. On a few particularly chilly evenings she’d even brought out a blanket to share. 

Carmen wasn’t the best cook, but Julia had been teaching her a bit. Many times during the process, however, the lycan-witch would slide past her, playfully hip or shoulder-checking her as she went. 

Then there was that time Julia was showing her something on a laptop, and Carmen leaned over her shoulder to watch. Julia knows for a fact Carmen is very particular about her face being touched or people being near her face. 

Once, they’d just gotten back from hunting, which Julia still felt weird calling it, and were waiting on Carmen’s food she’d ordered. Carmen had switched on some music in the background, and they’d just talked and joked around for a few songs. Then Carmen stood, offering a hand. Julia had tilted her head, and Carmen tugged at her gently. 

Dance with me? She’d asked. 

And Julia had taken her hand, and they’d swayed to the beat, making up the moves as they went, getting more ridiculous and extravagant with each step. By the end of the song, they’d both been laughing so hard they could hardly breathe, doubled over with almost silent laughter and gasps for air. They likely would have kept dancing had they not been interrupted by the doorbell. 

Then again…

On one of those aforementioned chilly nights, Julia was tired from the day and just rested her head against Carmen’s shoulder. She’d heard Carmen’s breath hitch and heart start racing, and Julia internally panicked. 

That messed up part of her brain started up again, telling her that her friend must have some deep-rooted fear of her. 

After all, who would put their complete trust in a vampire? 

.

.

.

<So are we ever going to address the giant mammoth in the room?> Player meowed. 

Carmen barely looked up, too preoccupied with trying to translate her newest old spellbook. “I have no idea what mammoth you’re referring to.” 

Player jumped onto the back of the couch, looking at her with an unimpressed ear-flick. 

<So you’re not trying to court Julia the lycan way?> 

Crud. 

That’s exactly what she was doing. And Player knows. She sighed through her nose, leaning her head on the back of the couch and glancing over at the cat. 

“Is it that obvious?” 

<To anyone that knows enough about lycan behavior? Yeah. But to Julia?> Player waved a paw, contemplating. <Seems like a no.> 

Carmen groaned, flopping backwards to sprawl over the couch like a dramatic Victorian lady. “Ugh.” 

<Why not just ask her outright to go on a date?> 

There were a handful of reasons for that: first and foremost being that Julia is working for the organization that wants to track Carmen down (and, for the record, would be working to do the same to Julia if they knew of her curse).The second being that Julia just had a horrible, crazy thing happen to her and Carmen doesn’t want to throw another complicated thing into the mess. Third, and she resented this reason in particular, Carmen is scared to do so. 

Her familiar could probably guess most of those, including the last one, but Carmen chose to deflect anyways. “When have you ever known me to do something outright?” 

Player couldn’t argue with that, but still. <There has to be a better way to flirt,> he said. 

“Nope, this is all I’ve got.” 

<Isn’t this the definition of insanity?> He asked, crossing the couch to jump to his cat tree. 

“Not if it eventually works!” 

And it hadn’t been getting the same result, which means that it is not insanity, thanks very much. She was pretty sure she was making progress!

Now it was Player’s turn to groan and flop dramatically, halfheartedly banging his forehead against the wall repeatedly. 

Without looking away from the ceiling, Carmen called, “You’re going to hurt yourself.” 

The would-be “blood donor” started to panic, but Carmen tossed some of that amnesia-powder-magic-stuff into their face as they turned to run. They looked confused for a moment, forgetting the last fifteen minutes, and Carmen gently steered them back in the direction they were going, telling them to go home. 

Once they were out of earshot, Carmen returned her attention to the New-Fang. 

“Hey, that try wasn’t half bad!” 

Julia groaned, burying her face in her hands and sliding down against the wall of the alley. 

Carmen sat next to her, eyes reflecting silver in the dim light. “You almost had it. Don’t beat yourself up over it.” 

That was the problem, though. Every time Julia got close to feeding on someone she froze. She couldn’t do it. Part of her was glad she couldn’t; that nobody was getting hurt. 

The other part was hungry. 

She tried to ignore it. 

It didn’t work. 

Carmen had gotten almost scarily good at reading her over the last few weeks of knowing each other, and could apparently sense when Julia’s thoughts went in that direction. 

“Look, I know this can’t be easy. Your entire world was flipped upside down last month, but none of it was your fault. Besides,” Carmen bumped their shoulders together, getting Julia to look at her. “It proves that you’re still ‘you’. I won’t pretend to know everything you’re going through, but I do know that if you don’t get fresh blood soon, it’s only going to get worse.” 

She was right, Julia knew that. She could feel it getting worse. Eventually she was going to have to bite the bullet (ha) and figure this out. She can’t survive on Carmen’s stolen blood bags and animal blood from the butcher forever. And she already felt bad for the couple times Carmen had had to offer her own blood. 

Carmen had explained that those solutions would stave off the hunger, but were only temporary fixes. They didn’t have enough of the correct proteins, or something, she couldn’t remember. Fresh, human (or close to it) blood is best. 

But Julia was done for the night. She wanted to go home and burrow under all the covers in her bed and sleep for a week. Or more. 

“..’m tired,” she mumbled, leaning her head on Carmen’s shoulder. 

“Yeah, that’s the hunger talking,” Carmen nudged her, standing and offering a hand to help her up. “C’mon, I think we’ve got enough time for one more try before the sun comes up.”

If it were anyone else, Julia would’ve told them to piss off, but one look at Carmen’s reassuring smile and the softness of her eyes had her dig into any remaining energy and take the outstretched hand. 

Tempting as it was to simply lie down and wait for the sun to come up and end the issue once and for all, that’d probably make Carmen sad, and the thought of causing that kicked puppy face was enough to get her legs moving. 

. 

. 

. 

“I have an idea,” Carmen said, pulling Julia into an alley with the bar they found still in view across the street. 

Julia watched as Carmen shifted her hands to paws, using sharp claws to scratch lines and markings into the pavement. It must not have been a pleasant feeling, given that the Lycan kept pulling a face and shaking her hands out periodically.

“There,” Carmen finished with a circle and some symbols Julia was starting to recognize as Wolfspeak in the center, stepping away to admire her work. 

“When we find someone, we’ll lure them here, and this,” She tapped her foot near the center, careful not to touch it and start whatever spell she’d drawn. “Will help keep things quiet.” 

Julia must’ve made a panicked face, because Carmen quickly clarified, “It’s a cone of silence, basically. No sound should escape the outside lines I drew.” 

Julia nodded, understanding, but was still wary of the whole thing. 

How could she not be?

Being dragged into an alley in the middle of the night had been how she wound up in this situation! Who was she to inflict that on someone else? 

A surprisingly soft touch on her hands and a soft voice snapped her out of her spiral. 

“Remember, if it goes sideways—which, I have a good feeling it won’t this time—it’ll be okay. I’ve got healing stuff, memory-wiping magic, all that,” Carmen tilted her head, dipping a bit to get Julia to look her in the eye. “You’re not gonna lose control. And if you do, I’m right here.” 

Carmen gently squeezed her hands. “Okay?” 

Julia’s eyes flicked up to meet Carmen’s. 

She squeezed back. 

“..Okay.” 

The lycan-witch smiled, and Julia hoped Carmen couldn’t hear her heart skip a beat. 

They turned their attention back to the bar, watching patrons slowly exit, stumbling down the steps, hailing Ubers and trying to find the most sober among them. At first, Julia had been unsettled by the fact Carmen had searched for a bar, as this seemed pretty messed up to go after people that were already impaired. 

But Carmen had simply grinned, canines glinting in the moonlight, and explained it wasn’t necessarily the drunks they were after. 

Carmen whispered, “Jules,” and pointed her attention to the curb, where it looked like a group of friends, probably waiting on a ride, was approached by a man they didn’t seem to know. 

Julia’s hearing had gotten an upgrade since the Incident, but Carmen’s was far better. Julia only caught bits and pieces, and could guess what was going on based on the girls’ body language. Carmen, on the other hand, looked absolutely disgusted, but had a look of determination behind her eyes. 

Now Julia understood. 

They weren’t after hammered bar patrons. 

Alright. One more chance. 

Without saying a word, they nodded at each other. 

Carmen approached the group, placing herself between the other girls and whoever that was, effectively shutting the guy up. 

He stalked off, miffed, but noticed Julia on the other side of the street, leaning against the wall of the building, looking disinterested at her phone. 

The girls’ ride arrived, they thanked Carmen, and drove off. 

She crossed the street, casually stepping over the spell line into the alley where the guy was currently trying to stand over Julia, and stomped a paw into the center to activate it. 

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