Nyx!! 🦇🏹🩸

Fics:

strange fascination (infatuation?) - Bloodloathing, human Scott/starter vampire Legs. Part of a bigger AU I’m working on

papaveraceae; p. rhoeas - Bloodloathing Hanahaki AU (happy ending!)

trick-or-treat? - Bloodloathing Modern AU, set on Halloween night

Shelby and Drift are the easiest for me - they’re Scott’s secret friends from outside the castle! He likely met them while looking for somewhere quiet to hang out so that he doesn’t get mobbed and caught, so went into a quiet bookshop he found.

Said bookshop is owned by Shelby! It’s a cute little place that she opened herself with her dad before he died. It’s very fantastical and whimsical and pretty, though she doesn’t get the most business compared to some of the bigger bookshops. A lot of her stock is likely supernatural creature and general fantasy focused stuff, probably a fair few children’s books too. Maybe she also runs a cryptid club and sells handmade accessories like bracelets, bookmarks, etc, and serves tea and cakes/biscuits to anyone who chooses to sit in.

Drift’s canonical job fits into this already - she’s a detective! Possibly her and Shelby met when she was investigating some sort of suspicious death or disappearance in the area (maybe that of Shelby’s own father) and they clicked and have been friends ever since. She probably spends a lot time at Shelby’s bookshop as it’s quiet and lets her both focus on her work and hang out with her friend.

I also want to make Apo a knight, possibly from the same kingdom Legs is from. I really like the idea of him being her mentor, a squire he trained up shortly before he left for the Goldsmith castle. She now works as a knight for that kingdoms royal family, with a huge crush on a certain Princess of theirs (it’s Cherri of course it’s Cherri). When they learn that Legundo is leaving to another kingdom to be the personal guard of their Prince, they’re upset and kinda mad at Scott despite never meeting him because he’s the reason Legs left.

Bit of a simpler one, but Ren would run a tavern/bar of some kind. He’s full of interesting stories and anecdotes and while he’s a little odd (he claims he has a cursed tongue but anyone sane would know that magic isn’t real (it is)), people generally love him - especially his tales and the food and drink he serves. It’s quite a busy place, clean and nicely decorated but not too expensive, and in a central location. He shares a name with Princess Cherri’s father from the other kingdom I’ve mentioned and looks strangely similar, but there’s no relation whatsoever.

One of his regulars is Martyn. He has many claims about where he comes from, one being that he’s royalty from another kingdom, a Prince disowned by his father, but nobody knows how true this is. Another is that he was training to be a knight (same place as Apo and Legs) but was kicked out and he travelled to the same kingdom that Scott’s family rules over. Regardless of the truth though, he’s a good friend of Ren’s and often hangs out at the tavern.

Sausage also visits the bar often. I’m leaning towards him being an author who runs one of the bigger bookshops in town, maybe one that Shelby both looks up to and sees as a rival. I did also have the idea of him being a royal advisor but I’m not sure that fits him as well. Either way, he’s another friend of Ren and Martyn’s and brings a lot of life to the tavern whenever he’s there, probably attracting a lot of attention due to being fairly well known.

And some additional bloodloathing for those who made it to the end:

Scott keeps Shelby and Drift updated on his frustrations with castle life. They all take bets on how long each new knight he gets will last, Drift winning most of them despite being the least interested. When Legs comes along, they all predict that he’ll last a few months, the highest guess being Shelby’s at 5 months.

That mark is surpassed and he shows no sign of giving up though, and as time goes on they notice Scott’s opinion of him start to shift. The way he talks about him changes and they realise they’ve become friends, and Shelby picks up on Scott having more-than-friendship feelings. Drift doesn’t believe it at first, but over time it seems more realistic to her. They start taking bets in secret on if he’ll confess, Drift thinking he might but that it wouldn’t go anywhere if he does, and Shelby thinking he definitely will and having the fantastical hope that they’ll get together.

When eventually it comes out to them that they’re together, Scott insists they have to keep it a secret. His seriousness tells them how important that is instantly, but they’re both really happy for him, Shelby being especially excited about it (and she wins the bet).