#vampire garofano

Happy Hump Day, everyone! I present you all with a half-assed idea that does involve a fair bit of humping and was semi-inspired by this post... 😏

Okay, hear me out now: do you all remember how during one of the events (it might have been Rain Burst or Floral Unfurl; can't remember which... 😅) that we got treated to this tall, dark, and dripping with sin version of Garofano??

Like, are you kidding me?? I'm barking and howling like mad for her over here! 🤤

So let me begin by explaining Garo's history in this AU (SFW Section):

This will mostly be a Garo-centered fic, but I might have The Garden involved in some vague fashion. The ladies within it could be a part of some coven, where Coquelic acts as the leading figure of it as their sire.

Garofano was likely changed when she was far older in life than some of the others, so she wouldn't have the same amount of reckless impulsivity other newborns might. That probably allowed her to move up through The Garden's ranks over the centuries to become a part of Coquelic's inner circle.

Of course, when it comes to vampire covens, there's the usual violent rivalry to go along with them.

Let's say that during a struggle of power, a spellcaster from a rival coven attempted to cast a magical attack against Coquelic—hoping to destroy The Garden by killing its head—but since Garofano's loyalty to her Mentor knows no bounds, she was the one who intercepted the attack instead.

Coquelic is saved, but the toll Garofano takes for her intervention becomes very obvious over several weeks and then months as an obvious corruption of dark magic—tinged with her violet aura—begins to spread across her body.

Canonically, Garofano is one of the more modestly-dressed members of The Garden, which one can argue might be due to her age and mature nature, but for the sake of this AU, I will say that she begins covering herself up more out of necessity. Her corrupted skin is something that unnerves some members of The Garden, especially the ones outside Coquelic's inner circle.

With the growing unease her condition causes, Garofano proposes an arrangement to Coquelic: rather than risk causing a further schism between the regular ranks of The Garden and its powerful inner circle, Garofano will exile herself.

Coquelic is, of course, reluctant to agree to this. Besides being very powerful herself, Garofano is one of the women she trusts most. For Garofano's loyalty to her over the centuries, however, Coquelic offers a compromise: Garofano will be granted her self-imposed exile, but she will be forever bound to guard the very edges of Coquelic's vast territory with no other aid than what Garofano can provide for herself.

Garofano sees the declaration for what it is. Coquelic cannot be seen as weak in front of her underlings—no matter how much she cares for one of them. However, the arrangement is far kinder than Garofano could have hoped for. While she is otherwise alone out there, no one would dare risk entering Coquelic's domain without first risking her wrath, so she is still under her sire's protection in that sense.

So Garofano removes herself from The Garden's vast manor and takes upon her duty as an eternal guard, vigilantly watching the edges of Coquelic's territory.

Over the decades, she builds herself a modest cabin out there, an oasis of sorts when she isn't otherwise occupied with dispatching would-be attackers or planting fields of carnations to mark the perimeter she's been ordered to defend—an obvious sign for outsiders to keep their distance.

How you—the Reader—fits in (still SFW territory):

You are a vampire hunter.

...but you are also an outcast of your own guild. 😅

You were originally brought in as an orphan, one who had been abandoned after your family succumbed to the winter cold. What followed after that had been years of arduous training as a means to earn your keep.

You actually build a successful reputation for yourself by the time you're an adult and going on harder-ranked missions, but although you've always been told of the eternal animosity between your fellow hunters and the monsters you all hunt, you begin to question things following one reconnaissance mission gone wrong...

It should have been easy. All you had to do was follow the orders of your superior—a hunter several decades your senior—who led you both to a small town called Désir, where you would be tasked with killing the vampire who had seemingly enthralled all of its inhabitants.

But as you gathered clues regarding the vampire in question, you find several more regarding the inhabitants of Désir—namely that many of them were elderly or slowly dying due to terminal illness. You further found that the inhabitants were there by choice and that the vampire who founded the town had offered them all a peaceful and dignified end to their suffering, but only if they were ready to take the final step.

You had never heard of a vampire who was so... humane in their approach to taking lives. You tried to bring this information up to your superior, but he sneered at you, wondering if you perhaps had also fallen under the vampire's thrall. Regardless, he was determined to take the vampire down with or without your help, but things became complicated quickly when a child had rushed in to defend the vampire in question, pleading for him to not hurt the nice lady, but the older hunter couldn't be deterred and swung his sword down towards the boy.

Your body was in motion before you knew what you were doing, but it didn't change the fact that your superior was dead and your target was still very much alive.

Needless to say, the leaders of your guild were furious. Rather than simply exile you, given your prowess as a hunter, you were given an otherwise impossible task: go into the territory of one of the most notorious vampire covens in existence and kill as many of them as you can.

It's nothing less than a suicide mission, but it's one that cannot be refused before the eyes of your guild lest you be killed by their hands instead.

And that's more or less how Garofano meets you when you wander into her sire's territory, defeated and questioning everything you've ever known about your purpose in life.

She defeats you summarily but lets you go with your life the first time.

But the thing is, you keep coming back. Where else were you going to go after all? Your guild will never accept you among their ranks again and all other guilds know to turn you away. Garofano's probably the only consistent presence you have through those long, lonely weeks. Yet, each time, she lets you go... until she doesn't.

Garofano, an exile herself—albeit of her own circumstance—probably recognizes a kin spirit when she sees one, and she's been just as lonely too...

So begins an unlikely relationship between a vampire and her hunter.

I should probably mention that by the time I start the fic, you two are already in an established relationship, but I'm gonna go off on a tangent here because we're slowly getting into NSFW territory. That, and I want to explain my concept of corrupted vampire Garo a bit more.