#vcleo

Vampires SMP Works In Progress.

I'm excited, and a little tired...

I said before that vsmp will have finished for a year before I'm done with the whole cast...

cleo in vsmp was epic

any other characters i should do? im struggling to decide :]

speed paint, traditions sketch + coloured under the cut!

the entire town finds out the beacons don't do anything when Abolish accidentally wanders through the town borders and then goes back to report it's all a hoax

this happens BEFORE Avid dies so everyone is still alive at this point and the current vampires are: Scott, Owen, Shelby, Pyro, Drift, Avid, Sausage, Apo, Cleo

Pyro, Owen, Scott, and Avid (deemed the biggest vampire threats) are held at silver and stake point (Abolish, who else?) to ensure they will change

Legs volunteers to take Owen, Scott swears on his word (Abolish scares him), Avid follows with Scott, and Pyro refuses so Abolish basically cuffs him and they get back to Abolish's timeline, where Pyro is kept in Abolish's house until he basically loses all steam and starts doing therapy with Abolish to help with their trauma

Legs and Owen are a traveling doctor duo because Owen is slowly healing and doesn't want anyone to hurt like he did, and Legs is accepting that he doesn't deserve to die because there are shades of gray in everyone

they confess/get together after about 3 months of traveling together

it's roughly the late 90s (Legs got to Oakhurst circa 1970s in his timeline, making the war he fought WWII and it being 20 years since Oakhurst is its own completely separate timeline) so Owen is getting used to it NOT being Great Britain in the 14-1500s and instead the US almost 500 years later (so far he thinks it's severely consumeristic and slightly unnecessary in certain capacities but he enjoys it somewhat)

both struggle (it's been over 20 years since Legs has been in the US and modern medicine has changed significantly) but eventually do enough to keep them afloat and moving

NY group have the same timeline as Legs and Owen, but they end up spending the first 20 years all in Europe and some of Asia learning about different things and just enjoying being able to live forever

by about 2006 Avid and Scott have been dating for 9 years and since neither of them really understood engagement they only got engaged about 6 months before we see the snippet of them in 2006

Shelby and Drift are tentatively flirting (it's painful for Scott and Avid to watch even though they DID THE EXACT SAME THING) but by 2010 will be dating

Pyro finally comes to visit NY in around 2009 and is more reformed because of therapy and meds but is still staying with Abolish and just decided to see how everyone was this trip

Apo went back to her timeline, lived a happy life with Cherri (Odysseus and Penelope fr) until about the early 1600s (roughly 40 years after Apo returns, both are in their 20s-30s when they come back) when they commit a Romeo and Juliet, yuri style

Abolish has a weird accident at the agency (someone else's fault, not his) and he still becomes the weird immortal, half-vamp thing (and does a LOT of paperwork)

he likes this new reformed Pyro (Firelocke enjoyers come get yo juice) and they bond a lot while Abolish helps him

Sausage publishes his book, makes a lot of money, and dies at 44 of unknown causes

Martyn and Ren never get together (so they say) but by about 1809 (Martyn's timeline) they are both very old and die within a week of each other

they never lifted Ren's curse but Martyn found it endearing, so he doesn't care

Cleo and Pearl stay in Oakhurst. eventually Pearl gets turned and they become residents/keepers of Oakhurst in their own timeline, which ensures the end of the 200 year massacre curse

anyways back to Bloodletting

by about 2010 (they haven't been to NY yet, it's too painful atm), Legs is in his 70s, Owen looks 25, and they get weird looks on the subways

Legs agrees to be turned after a minor moral dilemma because he's (privately) worried that leaving Owen (like Louis) will cause him to relapse and commit another massacre

Owen absolutely loves getting to turn Legs, although right before he has a panic attack because it reminds him of Louis

after Legs first gets turned, he goes back to roughly his 20s - 30s war-Legs era and Owen is so head over heels

legs - has seen and done horrific things and will do anything to be better than he was. he believes anyone can be saved, and yet has and will never forgive himself. he is willing to jeopardise his own humanity for people he barely knows, both because he recognises his own position of power and reason, and simply because he believes it is the right thing to do. lose the arm, save the body; it’s a prayer, a philosophy, a directive - put it all on the line to save the whole. his life is just a small piece of the puzzle, really, their faith in him is misplaced, they don’t know what he’s done. they don’t understand, but he does (he has to believe he does). lose the leg, save the life.

avid - is scared, grieving, and DESPERATE. he doesn’t know what is happening to him. he doesn’t know what happened to his elle either, just that she is dead by his own hands. he has been fighting the supernatural since he was a child, and now he has seen it, truly seen it up close and in the flesh, and everything he thought he knew is wrong. the sickness is getting worse. shelby seems cheerful enough, and scott is outright joyful in it. and if it doesnt work out, the doctor is making a cure (he’s getting close, don’t worry that it’s not finished yet-), and he can just take it and be human again and whatever was happening to him will be gone! right?

pyro - has never been good enough for anyone. not their classmates, not their own parents. and now, not even his sire, the one who dragged him into this new existence kicking and screaming. they were just trying to help. they just want to prove themself. back home, he would simply let the bullying happen, never tried to fight back. what irony, that the same peers who considered them incapable of anything of note were so willing to accept him a murderer? now, his priority is to keep his sire appeased - and yet, the moment scott turns away they’re asking questions about the cure, all while terrified he’ll overhear. he’s the most monstrous looking of them all. they’re not unhappy as a vampire, in fact they seem to revel in it sometimes, but they don’t want to be trapped in this place, either. maybe if they can get home they’ll be able to finally prove their worth. or maybe if they don’t see him for what they truly are, well… all that appeasing, the people-pleasing, the decades of being walked over and constantly dismissed… maybe the fortold massacre won’t take place in oakhurst. maybe it shouldn’t.

The thought circulates, a singular loop of one final act, one final thing. Cleo promised him that, at least.

I was never going to be a graceful thing, he thinks, and isn't that that the truth? He was never going to come back. The tree that's rotted from the roots. There was too much corruption in his actions, in his head.

I was never going to be a graceful thing, he thinks, and it's not just about this form he has right now, it's not just the bloodstained outfit or the missing parts of him, it's about the bloodstained hands and the missing parts of him.

Legs feels cold, feels the wet and cold and cold drain into his bones. Feels his skin, tight and stretched and scarred. Broken open in angry gashes, blood he didn't know he still had coagulating in the dents. Cold. It's not a cold he ever felt as a human - though he's so quickly forgetting - but something more, something in his soul that is emanating a chill he can't stop.

Everything is so different, and yet it all feels horrifyingly familiar.

Cleo's form is the only solid thing, their dress blending with the trees and shadows ahead of him.

She was always like him. Seemed to feel what he felt and think like he did and never waver in the ways it mattered - which does make them different from him, because he never could stop wavering, stop hesitating - but she knew. She knew, somehow, and despite it all, they were here with him.

One last horrible thing, they had promised.

And then death, he finished in his head. Swore to himself. He would do it.

Cleo seemed to see it in him, somehow - not through his eyes, not even she would meet his eyes - but they seemed to understand what he was thinking. Nodded, silent, like she would fulfill the promise.

Finally. Not honorable, maybe, but at least all he did would be even. At least the good might finally balance out the bad.

One last horrible thing, and he has to be the one to do it. It's always been him, hasn't it?

Cleo's plan and his execution - in more ways than one - and one last horrible thing.

It's Abolish turn first, and he meets Legs' eyes. The one that's gone and the one that's red now, not green like it used to be. Abolish, who is the only one who will.

Abolish with a will as strong and sharp as the silver he carries, Abolish who holds out his arm, steady, and Legs has always needed that. Steady hands to his shaking, steady morals and goals and person. Steady, steady.

Abolish who doesn't close his eyes against the pain when Legs lifts his pale wrist to a mouth full of fangs he doesn't want - one last horrible thing.

He pulls away quick, fast because if it was his fault that - if it was his fault, Legs would never get to die in peace. There would be no one last horrible thing, only a continuation of all the horrible things he had already done.

He can feel it. The blood dripping from his mouth, the way it tastes different now that he's aware of it. There's a tie in his heart now, or what's left of it - not that he had much of one to begin with.

Abolish, his fledgling. His, now, and the only thing he regrets is that he will leave the man without a sire. Legs can feel that own gap in his chest where O- no, no, not his name. Where he left. Where he chose to die rather than face the monster he created.

No, actually, he won't feel it, won't feel any regret or anything at all, because none of these people will be vampires for long, so it won't matter.

One last horrible thing, and it's Martyn next. Martyn, whose green eyes are not like his were at all, who doesn't remind Legs of himself in any way - but he's reassuring Ren, all the same.

Just a blink, Specs. So quick you won't even feel it.

And Legs is lifting his arm and Martyn won't even look at him, keeps his eyes locked on the man beside him - don't look at me, don't look at me, please look please see -

One last horrible thing, and then the wrist is limp and Martyn is falling. Dropping so quickly, his body crumpling, bright gold hair on the ground with the grey of dead grass and it looks so wrong and oh no no no-

One last horrible thing, no, he didn't mean to. Didn't mean to, he- it was a mistake, an accident, he didn't mean to, please, it was an accident, he didn't, he didn't- he didn't do that, he-

Cleo. Hand on his shoulder voice in his ear. Not your fault.

Yes, my fault, yes, accident but my fault, my bite my fledgling my fault my fault.

Legs doesn't see much, doesn't open his eyes because the phantom of his own heart beating is louder than everything else and it all is too much.

It slows eventually, but by that time there's yelling.

Legs doesn't see, won't see but he hears blade hit meat, wet and solid and wrong and so familiar that Legs wants to sob. Wrenches his eyes open so he's not back on that battlefield in that tent. Finally sees instead of hears Ren's body fall by Martyn's and isn't that poetry after all?

Hears Apo's gasp and muffled sobbing, sees Scott look down at his claws - blood, more blood on hands, more blood, my fault my fault - sees the way they all seem to avoid his eyes.

One last horrible thing to save them all and in the end only saved one. One last horrible thing but it's every last horrible thing.

And in the end he only saved one.

I was never going to be a graceful thing, he thinks as he climbs. Fate is not a clean thing and neither am I.

The grass is grey and the rocks beneath him are dark and the sun sinks lower in the sky. The only one who understood him, behind him, silent. One last horrible thing, he whispers as the sun sets, and he turns to look at the one who has been his- his friend.

There are no tears in her eyes, but he never expected there to be.

They have both shed enough tears for eternity.

I don't know how I'm supposed to do this, and it's words breathed into air, soft and shaky. It's not a question but he answers anyways.

Just. He pauses, because there is no words for this kind of mercy. This kind of love.

Not that he ever deserved it.

Just be good, he settles on.

For you, they whisper.

His skin burns, but that could be just because of him.

It's pain, but nothing he hasn't forced upon himself already.

And then - the final release of a bittersweet death.