#archvampire

[atomicwrongs]

When worldbuilding for a fantasy game I really really like making new categories of 'extremely powerful reality-defying entity' instead of labelling everything as gods. Not only is it fun from a world perspective, but defining things with categories and sorting them into neat piles and having sets and lists of things is soooo awesomesauce (<- said neurotypically)

[arachnixe]

Execution

(Part 9 of Night’s Longing - Previous: Past Hungers, Past Mistakes)

Carmen seems more withdrawn than before after sharing that story, as though even she was caught by surprise that those memories still have some power over her. A little fun in bed helps distract her for a moment, but I get the feeling she also uses it to distract me from the topic.

I try to get her to open up to me, permit herself to show even an ounce of vulnerability, but she smoothly redirects my efforts with flirtations until we’re fucking again because I simply cannot ever resist her.

At the very least I can offer her my company and my support, even when it’s four in the afternoon and I notice that Carmen’s snuck out of bed to brood in silence. I make her coffee just the way she likes, bringing it to her and sitting in the same room as her.

I wonder, and not for the first time, how much heartbreak someone her age has experienced. I guess it never gets any easier.

The story she told sticks with me for more reasons. She described a collection of vampiric abilities I have heard of but never before witnessed in the possession of any single vampire. I have heard tales, of course, of the “archvampires” slain by my ancestors, the greatest of which commanded a similarly fantastic array of powers. Until recently, I believed them to be exaggerations for the sake of inflating the reputations of those old, revered hunters. Yet Carmen’s abilities are perfectly in line with even the tallest tales.

It terrifies me the first time I watch Carmen pass by her curtains—frankly inadequate ones, letting slip a thin slice of sunlight through the gap during the pre-sundown hours—and I watch, stunned, as the light momentarily passes over her with hardly a sizzle.

“Not sunscreen,” she tells me, laughing, when I confront her with my first, admittedly silly, guess. “It is not the same ultraviolet radiation which gives humans a sunburn that also purges our kind from the world. It is specifically daylight. We are ontologically of night itself at the most fundamental level. A vampire is dispelled by the sun in precisely the same way that night is.”

I can only reply with stammering, half-formed words stumbling over each other, but she takes pity on my confusion and offers me a little more explanation.

“Resistance is not altogether impossible, though I remain a creature of night. You could say I have kissed the moon and may hide in its shadow.” She gestures as if groping for words that don’t come easily to her, at least in English. “In an occult sense, I mean to say.”

It’s clear that I’m not satisfied by such a metaphorical answer, and Carmen sighs. “It works something like your Boltman blessings. Here. One visible element of the work of many years.” She lifts her shirt to direct my attention to a particular cluster of lines tattooed below her ribs. “Before I ever became a vampire, I was something of a mystic. I have always loathed my own weakness, thus I work to diminish what flaws I cannot eliminate.”

Something about Carmen’s body language reads as vulnerable as she confesses this one small detail of her early life, and she seems relieved that I choose to pull her into a hug rather than pry further.

“Sorry.” My words are muffled with my face pressed into her. My heart isn’t done pounding with that initial panic of seeing the sunlight touch her. “I just need a second.”

Her gentle touch on my back is reassuring. “You do not need to worry about me.”

“I do a lot of things I don’t need to. Don’t try to talk me out of this one.”

“As you wish, darling.” She wraps her arms around me too. “I only mean to say that I have offered to help you overcome the circumstances of your birth, which would be an empty promise indeed from someone unable to exert similar influence even on herself. I ask you not to doubt my strength.”

I groan. “Fuck, I hate it when you talk like my dad. Worrying about you isn’t a slight, Carmen! It doesn’t mean I think you’re less cool and smart and powerful! It doesn’t mean I doubt your ability to help and protect me! It means I care about you!”

I feel a tremor in Carmen’s body, at first seeming much like sobbing, but after a moment I realize it’s laughter.

“Even now,” she says quietly, to herself, and I can’t guess what she means, but I only hold her tighter.

We stay like this together for a while longer.

---

The notification sound sends my heart bouncing around my ribcage. I check my phone, and it’s Liz. No greeting, no preamble, just a time and an address.

“Do you need a ride?” Carmen asks without needing any explanation at all.

I nod dumbly, momentarily paralyzed by the unexpected shattering of this peaceful time together before the phantom voice of my father roars in my brain to move.

I move. My gear is propped in the corner, waiting for me, and I make myself ready for battle faster than I ever have in my life.

We scream across the city in her convertible, once again hitting all the green lights—and now I’m wondering which of her tattoos controls the flow of traffic—on our way to where my target is supposed to be. The sunset casts the city in shades of gold which Carmen only requires a pair of shades to endure.

She could probably take on someone like Ylio without breaking a sweat, couldn’t she? Based on what she’s told me of herself and the stories passed down about how far beyond ordinary vampires the archvampires were, it would be no trouble for her even if Ylio brought friends to back them up.

I look to my left at her handsome face and remember how she immediately offered this very ride. How she offered to save me from the doom of my bloodline. Of course she would be willing to help. She might even insist on it.

But asking someone to kill their own is not an easy thing, is it? It’s a terrible burden to place on someone, especially when this is not her fight at all. It’s mine, for the sake of me and my sisters. Bearing the guilt of this assassination should be my burden alone.

I can’t let her come with me.

“Carmen, I don’t want your help with this.”

“As you wish.”

After bracing myself for an argument, I’m caught off guard. “Huh. Just like that?”

“Darling, I understand more than most the importance of vengeance against one’s own killer.” After a moment’s silence, she adds, “I also admit to some curiosity. How does a modern Boltman fight, I wonder? I will enjoy observing from a distance.”

A modern Boltman. In this context, hunting a vampire, I suppose that’s just what I am. It’s a role bolted through my flesh into my bones, and right now, as I wear the uniform of what I am, how can I pretend that I am anything more than Hanna Boltman, Vampire Hunter?

Deep breaths, Hanna. I can endure this the same way I always have. I just need to hold my feelings at arm’s length and let the body do as it was trained to do.

Exiting the car a few blocks early, I leave Carmen to find a place to park and a vantage from which to watch. With wary steps, I approach my destination.

I expect someone as pompous as Ylio to feed at one of the ritzy and exclusive vampire clubs. Sanguine Dreams, for example, feels like their speed; it’s a place that requires reservations in advance, and if you’ve got the connections and ability to pay for the VIP lounge, I hear they bring your food and entertainment to you live, and the presentation is supposed to be something really special. Now that I think about it, I’d bet Carmen could get in. That could make for a nice date night.

This side of town, though? It’s far removed from all Clan Sarthe fronts and infrastructure I’m aware of, and the address turns out to be an old, dilapidated building, four stories tall and from the turn of the last century. I can’t guess what it was once for. Banking? A factory? Moonshine during Prohibition? The windows are boarded up, the roof looks partially collapsed, and even the brick wall looks dark and rotting. The words “no entry” are spray painted on the side of the building.

What, does Ylio go after squatters? How unexpectedly pathetic.

It’s still early. I’m in luck that Carmen’s solar resistance means that we didn’t have to wait till full sundown to head this way. I have just enough time to scout the area, lay my trap, and find a place to hide.

The parking lot is overgrown with weeds, crumbling chunks of concrete filled by a late addition of gravel to smooth it out. Light glints off shards of glass and other assorted garbage among the detritus. Not an ideal place for a fight, all things considered. Keeping my footing here could be a challenge, but I might be able to hide something small in the cracks, cover it with gravel.

And there, adjacent to the parking lot, is another old building. Not quite so large, not quite so condemned, it should make a good place to hide. The alleyway between it and the next building down is just narrow enough for my purposes. I sprint, vault onto a friendly dumpster, leap toward the opposite building to kick off the wall and catch the lip of this building’s roof.

The roof is flat, with enough of a raised ridge around it for me to lay flat and conceal myself from anyone below me. The drop back down is only two stories, which is perfectly doable without a roll—and after seeing all the broken glass down there, I count myself lucky for that.

I prep my crossbow and settle in to wait.

It’s hard to ignore the itch in the back of my mind telling me something is off. My target isn’t just prideful; according to Liz they’re influential. They have allies. This is the sort of place haunted by weak, orphaned vampires, those without connection to their own community.

In a place much like this, back when I was a teenager, my father supervised my first few solo hunts. I remember at the time feeling shocked at how easy those kills were. Back then I didn’t even see vampires as people.

“That’s it?” I asked. “One shot to the heart, and it’s over?”

“Frail, weak, easy pickings for even a novice,” he said. “That’s the fate of anyone, hunter or bloodsucker, who lacks the support of others.”

It was one of many lessons he drilled into me repeatedly over the years.

“Without me, you wouldn’t know how to operate that crossbow. You wouldn’t have practiced your aim. You wouldn’t know where to shoot.” He severed my victim’s head to make absolutely sure they were finished. “Without my mother, I would not have known to teach you those lessons. Without the generations of Boltmans who came before us, without our clan’s hard-won discoveries and the lore of our allies, you and I would be as helpless as babes.

“Each of us is born owing a debt to our clan. Some few of us have the ability and work ethic to pay that debt in full before we die. If you manage to pass the trials, inherit my sword, and continue our family legacy, and if you or one of your descendants manages to rid this world of its vampiric scourge, then perhaps I will have done enough to pay mine off.”

I was 14 years old. “That’s a lot of pressure, dad.”

“It is the appropriate amount of pressure, Hanna. Our bloodline, like few others, is a holy one. It is blessed. We have been gifted the profound privilege to devote our lives in service to others.” He clapped me on the shoulder in a gesture that seemed like camaraderie, the sort of gesture that was as close as he ever got to expressing fatherly affection.

“Yes, sir. We are elevated above others for a reason, and it is our burden to bear that responsibility.”

“Exactly. Remember, none of us matter as individuals; all that matters is how we contribute.” Through repetition, he burned these lessons into my heart. “I do not matter, though I can make myself useful by killing monsters and sculpting you into the family’s next great weapon. You do not matter except through your obedience to me and how well you prove your dedication.”

“Yes, sir. I will make you proud.”

“See that you do. As my only heir, the worth of my life depends on the worth of yours.”

In a way, I’m glad I learned selflessness from my father. Family comes first— remembering that lesson dispels whatever unease creeps up my chest. Killing Ylio is not just a matter of revenge for my own sake; doing so eliminates a threat to my sisters. I cannot fail.

Twilight dims. Voices drift upward from the empty lot. Two figures round the corner of the broken-down building to chat in the ruins of the parking lot. One leans against the wall, looking relaxed, while the other scans in every direction, acting as lookout for threats.

I hear a soft crunch of footsteps far too close to me. I turn and see the silhouette of a third against the sky, standing on the opposite side of the roof from me. Did they leap up here just now? They’re keeping watch too, I realize, but whoever this is, they haven’t noticed me yet, their attention focused on the street below.

Shit, this is a complication I hadn’t planned for. The other person’s head turns in my direction, and I have no time to think before I fire my crossbow to stake the unexpected intruder in the heart. They collapse in near silence, the sound masked effectively by the city’s background noise of car traffic and distant sirens.

I check the body to be sure. Fangs. For the first time in years, I’ve killed a vampire again. Not even my target, just a witness, killed out of panic. Shit. Who were they? No identification, no Sarthe markings—or markings of any other clan I recognize—only a winged ouroboros tattoo on their back.

Did you have a family? Is there someone out there who will stay up wondering why you never came home? Or are you all alone in this world like those first poor, nameless victims of mine were?

I knew I might have to kill more than just Ylio. Liz said they have allies. I knew I might have to do this.

There will be time later to mourn the cost. Already I hear more voices approaching, and I think I recognize the imperious sound of my target’s among them. I reload my crossbow and wait for the right moment to spring the trap.

The three new figures approach the two. I hold my breath, straining to catch their words.

Ylio speaks first. “Look all around, the moon shines bright.”

“We and the dead make swift our flight,” replies the one leaning against the building with an air of ease.

The one on guard seems to relax after this exchange, and the two groups approach one another. Such a tight cluster of them, nearly ideal, but something makes me hesitate. That itch at the back of my mind returns. This isn’t what I expected to find. Something else is going on here.

“What news from Sarthe?”

Ylio makes a dismissive gesture. “The pieces move into place. No new risks. What obstacles remain are on track to be dealt with.”

The wail of a siren masks the reply, and by the time I pick out more words, Ylio is speaking again. “…your recovery efforts?”

“Our associates overseas have delivered his left hand to the courier. We anticipate delivery in a matter of weeks.”

“Should we be expecting you?”

“No. Best to avoid showing our faces. You’ll meet the courier directly.”

“I will set expectations accordingly.”

Shit, one of Ylio’s companions has broken away from the group, and the longer I wait, the more risk I take. It’s now or never. I twist my hand into the trigger sign and leap from my perch as artificial daylight blooms into life inside the parking lot.

Lucky break for me, the wary one was standing right at the center of the blast, and as the brief flash of light fades, all that remains of them is ash. With a twang, the one who stepped away from the blast is staked through the heart. I drop the crossbow and draw my sword.

Three badly charred vampires remain, staring me down with bloody murder in their eyes. It’s the dead of night, and their burns are healing right before my eyes, but right now I have a brief window of weakness to capitalize on. God, they’re still fast, though, dodging every swing of my blade as if I were moving in slow motion.

The one to my left lunges for me, fangs bared, and I nearly fail to raise my silvered bracer in time to defend myself. He screams in pain as the metal brands his skin, giving me an opening to strike that I have to abandon in order to dive away from the swipe of Ylio’s clawed hand.

I roll and leap to my feet, drawing a set of knives to fling in one smooth arc toward my attackers. Ylio bats one out of the air with contemptuous ease, but in a stroke of luck, one pierces the throat of the other vampire, dropping her to the ground as she hisses and claws in vain at the ensorcelled metal. She’s down, at least.

Ylio keeps coming for me, and they’re only getting faster and deadlier as their burns heal. The one who chomped my bracer is back in the fight too, and he’s furious. At the very least his blind outrage is making him a poor collaborator for Ylio, and the two interfere with one another enough for me to keep dancing out of their reach.

Still, all I can do with my sword is buy myself a little breathing room, one swing at a time. I utterly fail to land a single strike.

Then my luck takes a turn for the worse. I slip on loose gravel and tumble backward, and in a blink my assailant has pounced on me.

“You wretched little shit, I’ll make you—“

“Idiot.” I shut him up by ripping my talisman off its chain and shoving it in his mouth. You don’t stop to threaten someone in the middle of a fight, as I quickly demonstrate. When I speak the invocation, he bursts into flames. I kick the burning body at my last remaining opponent, making space to leap back to my feet.

“I know that voice. Elizabeth’s dog.”

Shit. “N-no…?” Good work, Hanna. That ought to throw them off the trail.

“You are.” Somehow they see through my cunning lie. “At last I begin to fit the pieces together. She has been hiding a vampire hunter in our midst this whole time.”

Ugh. I have one last trick up my sleeve, and I won’t be able to make it work unless they get in close. Worst case scenario, Ylio flees, knowing that I am a vampire hunter, and spreads the story of what happened here. No evidence of past heroics could save me from the condemnation that would follow. But more important than me is what would become of my sisters if they were believed to knowingly smuggle a hunter into a Sarthe stronghold.

“As if she knew.” I put as much scorn as I can muster into my voice. “You asked how a low-class vampire like her got a bloodbag of her own? I chose her for her gullibility. The status I could bring her was too good a deal to scrutinize very closely.”

I hope they buy it. Better for my sisters to be seen as fools than traitors.

“How I almost pity her.” Ylio shakes their head, accepting my story. Few things are easier than convincing someone that a person they despise is an idiot. “Ah, but instead I will enjoy using this secret to destroy her reputation.”

“You’ll have to kill me first. Without taking me as proof, nobody will believe the bloodbag you killed just got up and started murdering people back.” I grin and brandish my sword with a flourish. “But as you can see, I’m pretty hard to put down for good.”

“Cocky. But I have stalled for time long enough, and as you can see, I am back at full strength. Now, for the last time, I bid you goodbye, dog.”

Ylio moves in a blur almost too fast to track. In an instant, they are upon me, claws at my neck. My sword falls from my hand. The vampire’s deadly strike is slowed down only for the briefest moment by the gorget I wear.

However, I am ready for them, and that brief moment is all I need. I squeeze the trigger secreted in my palm and spray a fine mist of holy water—really a specially prepared emulsion of salt water and oils enhanced with theurgy—and the fine cloud halts the attack, forcing Ylio to recoil immediately.

Skin sizzles. They choke and gasp, inhaling more into their lungs, inspiring a paroxysm of coughing and hacking up blood. I run my sword through their chest, and the fight is over.

Numbly, moving on autopilot, I behead all four bodies, just the way I was taught, though only the one with the knife through her neck is still twitching and clinging to life.

Six vampires total, dead by my hand. None of them carry any identification on them, though all bear the same mark of the winged ouroboros. Except for one, I’ll never even know their names. Maybe in another life, we could have been friends.

Six more faces that will haunt me for the rest of my life. I drop to my knees and give myself permission to grieve.

Though my hands are stained with death, at least my family is safe.

[theflyingpimphat]

10 bad romance tropes

Ah yes, how to best celebrate the holiday of love by grinching it up. Now, what exactly does someone who doesn’t read or watch romance and mostly gets annoyed by the romantic subplots has to say on this matter? Well, unfortunately, romance is present almost everywhere in the form of said subplots and since I am pretty disinterested in the romance itself, maybe the focus on the other things that come with it like the characters’ personality or development might provide some insights past the heart eyes.

First, a few disclaimers:

-This is highly opinionated. It is not directed against you. If you genuinely like these tropes and enjoy exploring them in the safe environment of media, that is perfectly fine, as regardless of how strong my opinions on these tropes are, policing harmless interests is worse.

-To illustrate the tropes, I’ll use the names “Alice” and “Bob” as examples. However, the tropes also apply to Alice and Beate, Alan and Bob, or Ay:liss and Bo'orrb. It also applies if you switch the names around.

Rest under the cut to save you the scrolling if you're not interested.

Romanticised abuse

Bob stalks Alice, discourages her from going out with her friends and sometimes locks her in his basement, but it's all because of how much he luuuurves her and is concerned with ther safety! Sooo romantic!

Why is this bad?

-There is romance, and there is abuse. At worst case, someone who had gone through the abuse that is being romanticized will be put off by the story, or someone young and inexperienced could take the wrong lessons from it and either pursue relationships with shitheads that will abuse them or land in an abusive relationship and not see it for what it is.

What would be better?

-Depict the abuse as abuse. Yes, sometimes people will explain away their abuse as love, but there is a difference between a character's opinion and the message the story itself conveys.

2. Massive power imbalance

Alice is a billionaire, has bought up half the city, is a martial arts professional, an expert gunfighter, has five PhDs and on top of that, she's an archvampire who can rip a man apart with no effort. Bob is an ordinary man who dropped out of school, gets winded when he has to go up the stairs of more than two floors and is her janitor.

Why is this bad?

-Mind you, such relationships can be written well, but if the power imbalance is large, you will always wonder if the weaker party actually consents to the stronger party's actions or only agrees to them out of fear for the repercussions a denial might result in.

What would be better?

-Balance it out or make the consent between the two parties clear by letting them talk about it regularly.

3. Relationship is mainly detrimental for one of the characters

Alice is a bumbling idiot who constantly lands herself in trouble and needs Bob to save and protect her. Alternatively, Bob is a deadbeat who loads off all the housework to Alice and she barely has time for herself because of it.

Why is this bad?

-Ask yourself: would the character be happier if they had a blow-up doll with their significant other's face printed on it instead of their actual partner? If yes, maybe their relationship sucks.

What would be better?

-Make the characters mutually benefit from each other. And no, "but they really luuurve each other" or "the seggs is sooo amazing" doesn't count.

4. No common interests, just romance

Alice loves Bob. Bob loves Alice. That's all you can say about them.

Why is this bad?

-A relationship like that would be just smooching and maybe screwing. It would have no other substance. You would ask yourself: but why do they love each other?

What would be better?

-Let them have common interests, hobbies they do together, just any activities that aren't tied to showing how powerful, loving or fuckable the character is.

5. Enemies to lovers

Alice and Bob repeatedly attempted to kill each other at the start and there was a mutual hate between them, but their attempts to kill each other got them both so horny that they are getting married next week.

There, I said it. Bring out the torches and pitchforks, but I just find this trope terrible. From my own experience, every "friend" with whom I have started out on poor terms turned out to be a massive backstabber, so I won't buy such a romance as genuine.

Why is this bad?

-Who is to say they are lovers now and not just pretending, so they can strike when the other is most vulnerable? And how solid is their relationship, how big is the chance that one will betray the other at the next best opportunity?

What would be better?

-Build them up as rivals on friendly terms, or make their animosity non-personal.

6. Love at first sight, too-fast progress

Alice and Bob met in the morning and want to marry on afternoon. Both swear the other one is the love of their life.

Why is this bad?

-It shoehorns the characters into a relationship without building it up properly. This is especially egregious in movies, where all events have to happen in the span of a single day.

What would be better?

-Give them time together to develop their relationship properly. Alternatively, have them already be in a relationship and let them work through some tension.

7. "I can fix him"

Bob drinks, screams at and insults his employees, has driven his mother to suicide and is overally a piece of shit. Alice still pursues a relationship with him because she thinks that with her love and care, she can transform Bob into a nice, caring man.

Why is this bad?

-A terrible personality needs much more than the love of a partner to change, and even then, change is not guaranteed. And certainly, a relationship isn't worth one's mistreatment or mental exhaustion.

What would be better?

-Get the fucker into therapy instead.

8. Relationship built on looks

Bob is tall and has the physique of a Greek god. Alice has hair like gold and humongous boobs. Those are the main reasons they're together.

Why is this bad?

-While a perfectly fine reason for a one-night-stand or a temporary fling, looks alone won't let them stay together; it will be certainly over when they age at the latest, earlier if one of them gets disfigured by disease or an accident.

What would be better?

-Maybe they approached each other because they liked the other's appearance, but once that is done, they will have to start sharing interests and match their personality traits.

9. Predatory relationship

Alice can't stop thinking about Bob. Specifically, how much she wants to rip the flesh off his bones, crack open his bones to suck out the marrow and to lick his blood off her hands afterwards.

Why is this bad?

-It's creepy as fuck. Even if this is used as an example of how one character has to fight their urges and control themselves out of the luuurve they feel for their significant other, constantly reading or seeing how much they want to kill/eat/rape their partner is pretty offputting. Maybe they would be better off with a lubed-up sandwich they can fuck instead.

What would be better?

-Avoid it, or at least tone it down.

10. Love interest with no personality

Bob has a tense relationship with his family, loves his two dogs, enjoys building plane models and reading books about foreign cultures in his free time. His personality is slightly reserved towards strangers but he is very friendly and reliable to those he is familiar with.

Alice loves Bob. Her personality is her loving Bob.

Why is this bad?

-One of the characters gets written as a glorified sex toy and is nothing but an accessory of the other.

What would be better?

-Give both parties a personality and use those to deduct their relationship's dynamic.

Bonus: Babies ever after

I'm sorry, but having a smelly, slobbery, squalling shit factory to look after is the least romantic or sexy thing. Put that stuff at the end of the exploration of their relationship. Or have it pick up once again when the progeny starts resembling a person rather than a demon that feeds on attention.

[inscrutable-shadow]

i've decided that bea is so incredibly gay for avrae and doesn't know what to do with it

like yeah, she's been alive somewhere near six thousand years and that's plenty of time to figure out you're a lesbian but like there's been so much work to do it really just went on the backburner

probably demiromantic too so like maybe there hasn't been an attraction in so long she forgot

and avrae's just like surely this woman isn't flirting with me

(vampires are so aggressively territorial they can't stand to be around each other for very long, like they don't even really make friends with each other, more of a "i can tolerate you slightly more than the others" type thing)

so like yeah they've known each other basically since avrae was turned but it's always been this very hands-off, formal/political style

"the high council would like to request" and this that and the other

so despite the fact that av feels like bea's always been there for her and she's incredibly loyal to bea (bea keeps the high council from riding av's ass to take an archvampire position, which she doesn't want even though she's powerful enough for it, so basically safeguarding her freedom and right to live a quiet-ish life) she doesn't think bea sees their relationship as anything more than transactional (cause why would she, we're vampires, it's not like we're capable of liking each other)

and all i'm saying is there are bambi lesbians in the future

guess i should get off my ass and actually start posting an umbral arena so people know what i'm talking about

apologies to people who followed me cause i promised no romance i assure you i am still aroace i just have little gays in my brain ok

i wasn't gonna tag people cause this was supposed to be a short vent post but it got long so uhhh @albatris and @robinbugwhump cause i feel like we might potentially also be vampire mutuals now

[nighttbound]

I have no vampire cohesive lore or worldbuilding to generalize but it's kinda neat to wonder if because Nel is an original/rose that way without any sire on his own, that maybe makes him more powerful. The type of vampire that turns progeny but was not turned himself. Not that he ever will turn another. Archvampire? You get what I'm saying

[spankystokes]

Archvampire Aamon is being awakened from his long-lasting eternal sleep by count Dracula. Count Dracula counts on you (no pun intended) to bring Aamon to life as a soft vinyl toy incarnation with the sole mission to wreak havoc in your homes at night, enter your sweet dreams and turn them into demonic nightmares. Artist Florin Petrovici is looking to bring his archvampire Aamon soft vinyl figure to life with your help as it's up on Kickstarter HERE right now... he will stand 8" tall, have 6 points of articulation and lots of details for you to admire at dusk. Head on over now to help make this project a reality! https://ift.tt/3khwbt4

[hyoubuscanonsoulmate]

Headcanons for the Esper Villain Power Couple Who Deeply In Love With Each Other ♥️💗💗.

(Self Ship Headcanons for Hyoubu x Azusa/Me).

1. When Azusa was adjusting to PANDRA, she became very interested in joining in Hyoubu with his work and being an important figure in his life. Due to this, Azusa was often seen with Hyoubu during assignments and even working alongside Hyoubu got her to be third in command of PANDRA overtime. They proved to be the most powerful PANDRA duo, with their duo name known as Anmpire (combination of the word Angel and Vampire). Not only PANDRA they are said to be highly dangerous and feared by many but even in the rest of the criminal underworld.

2. A POWER COUPLE ♥️💕. Being partners in crime (literally), they’re also often see fighting against their enemies together. They have a rather synchronized fighting style and combined with their esper abilities, they make a very powerful duo. Not only their are physically strong as a team, but also work well as a team mentally. Even when they aren’t working, you can often see Azusa accompanying Hyoubu.

3. Hyoubu was the one who gave Azusa the idea to fight with a parasol in case of enemy ECMs (a device used to nullify psychic powers) and even bought one for her. Azusa’s parasol also has a hidden blade.

4. When not committing crimes, they’re often seen at bookstores/libraries, reading to each other, or fencing. Azusa is a diverse and incredible fencer who even taught Hyoubu some things about fencing.

5. Speaking of fencing, that’s Hyoubu and Azusa’s go to activity for them.

6. Despite Azusa being twice Hyoubu’s height, Hyoubu is the big spoon over Azusa.

7. Hyoubu and Azusa are very overprotective of each other and worry about each other A LOT. Azusa and Hyoubu have tendencies to ‘snap’ when they either one of them are injured by an outside factor.

8. While Azusa taught Hyoubu how to fence, Hyoubu taught Azusa how to play chess.

9. Azusa calling Hyoubu ‘Angel’ 💗💗💗💗. It was the very first pet name Azusa ever gave Hyoubu.

10. Hyoubu was the one who gave Azusa her current outfit mainly due to the injuries Azusa had received in the past.

11. For 68 chapters, Azusa temporarily wore a black gakuran to remember Hyoubu since he was killed off for that period of time. Azusa didn’t handle Hyoubu’s death very lightly and even held a funeral on the Catastrophe (PANDRA’s cruise ship headquarters). When Hyoubu returned, Azusa was undyingly happy to hear her Angel (Hyoubu) was alive 🥺🥺🥺❤️❤️❤️❤️.

12. They shower each other in gifts that remind them of each other such as Hyoubu giving her wife an African Wild Dog plush since she can turn into one💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗.

13. Azusa has gotten so much merchandise of her husband (Hyoubu has his own keychains for goodness sake) ranging from Hyoubu keychains to an incredibly soft life sized plush of Hyoubu. If Hyoubu’s face is on it, your dang sure she’s going to get her hands on it before the rest of PANDRA. She even has made an Ita bag and a “Hyoubu shrine” in their room.

14. Both simultaneously proposed to each other. ♥️💗💗💕💗💖❤️❤️💖💗💕.

15. Hyoubu was the first person in Azusa’s life to learn that Azusa is bisexual after Azusa came out to him. ♥️

16. Hyoubu has a series of pet names/nicknames for Azusa such as Vampie, Darling, Wifey, My Love, Darling Vampire, My Lovely Wife, Archvampire.

17. If you’re an enemy of both Hyoubu and Azusa, say goodbye to your kneecaps.

18. Hyoubu and Azusa listening to music together and Hyoubu being very interested in his wife’s taste in music (Azusa/I enjoy metal; rock, jazz, and classical).

19. Speaking of music, Azusa loves listening to Hyoubu sing and whenever Azusa is upset, he will sing to her.

[peanutdracolich]

Peanut Dracolich watches (Hammer) Horror: Dracula Has Risen From the Grave

The fourth Hammer Horror Dracula film, the third with the magnificent Christopher Lee as Dracula, and the 2nd in which he speaks. The film was at its heart a Hammer Horror Dracula story, possessing the trappings of the Romanian wilderness, the small town plagued by Dracula, and so forth. In fact the film in many ways echoed the original Dracula story. There’s Dracula, the morally loose first victim, the morally upstanding second victim dragged in by his spell, her lover who must vanquish the vampire to keep his girl from being seduced away by Dracula’s dark powers.

What sets the film apart is the sexual charge. Vampires are full of sexual metaphors, but this film makes it overt (though not explicit). It all lies just beneath the surface where only a true innocent would miss it. Maybe it’s the era of film (I’ve not watched many 60s 70s vampire films) and the sexual liberation that American cinema has backslid from, but it really brings out those sexual metaphors.

This sexual charge is not really bad, it’s not gratuitous boobs for the sake of boobs, and it is not overt enough to just be erotica. Still it actually surprisingly avoids the female vampire, instead preferring displaying the addictive and yet abusive and sexually predatory nature of vampirism and makes me want to look for metaphors about unsavory relationships and think about the basic metaphor implicit in the young suitor saving his beloved from moral degeneration of being a ‘loose’ woman. I’d say that might be more an alchemical reaction that the film alone cannot be blamed for, but its choice of an atheist hero sets the stage for it even better.

And of course you have Christopher Lee offering another excellent performance as Dracula, and bringing an unrivaled charisma for the role (I find Bella Lugosi’s Dracula lacking by comparison, and even as a youth the film made me want to read the book because it had to be better). The other actors while not having Lee’s sheer Presence give enjoyable performances and the film while not being scary (it’s a vampire film it’s not supposed to be scary unless you’re scared of a foreign count coming and taking your woman because you’re a wimp and then abusing her) has its fearsome moments. Over all the film was quite enjoyable, and definitely superior to the others in the series (save perhaps the original, though to give a true assessment I’d have to watch them close to each other).

Good/Bad/Ugly and play by play below.

The Good:

Christopher Lee: I have never seen an actor more fit for the role of Dracula than Christopher Lee. I can honestly believe that he could stare you in the eye and hypnotize you, and has the dark charisma to compel a man of god to his bidding. Christopher Lee was going to make the movie on his own and he does.

The Sexual Charge: I found it quite effective for creating an impact and getting me thinking about vampires as sexual metaphors.

The Atheist Hero... and Renfield Priest: The film just had a good choice of roles. While they are basically analogous to roles in the original book (this is most true for Zena and Maria as Dracula’s victims and the loose woman with many suitors and the faithful woman torn from her love). Still while the actresses are charming, able to make small actions expressive without need for directly telling us feeling, I’m not really talking about the acting. From a story view I liked the atheist vampire slayer and the lapsed priest forced to serve the Dark Count.

The Bad:

Cliche: The story is, admittedly, rife with cliche and easily dismissed as just another Dracula story. Sexual charge alone doesn’t really make it horribly unique, but the film was well done and of its period and type an excellent one. Still it’s full of the cliche of its genre and does not edge outside in any particular aspect.

The Ugly:

Dracula’s Death: While the scene is actually beautiful and enjoyable, he comes off looking sort of suddenly so much less at the end which is sort of disappointing.

The Play by Play:

We begin with a lava lamp. It is supposed to be a creepy backdrop for the opening credits, but it's generic horror music (as expected from Hammer Horror) and a lava lamp.

 We find a church and the rope for the church bell is covered in elderberry juice! Oh no. Berry juice. Our whistling finder of said juice goes to see who has been pressing berries in the bell and begins to scream, not telling the priest what he has found for he is far too shocked. I joke around but while we know there's something up there (and this is the 60s they can't be too grotesque in showing a body, we don't know what for a good time and when we do see it's a woman, upside down, blood flowing from her throat where a vampire's teeth had killed her.

 We get some exposition from the new comer, a priest of the church visiting the valley that was the domain of Dracula till his death one year ago.

 He finds the church with no priest saying mass, the priest drinking in the tavern instead, and the church boy a mute.

 The man come to check on the town is pissed at the town for not attending church, and disbelieves that there is still evil in the castle that can reach into the House of God. Or at least he does before the villagers, when dealing with just the priest he is far more accepting (though still seems disbelieving that it's anything more than superstition) and he intends to prove there is no evil still there.

 The mood is suitably creepy. The film is not going for shock and terror, but a sort of creep and dread (as is the nature of older horror films). The music is well not ineffective, but not anything great and a little too obvious. It puts me in mind of a group traveling in a Ravenloft adventure of D&D... which isn't itself a bad thing... And the local priest just collapsed on the journey. Somehow despite leaving at dawn they arrive near dark and the superior priest goes the final way alone for his companion refuses to continue.

 There is dread here. Something will happen to this priest as he prays before the dark castle of the archvampire. A storm begins, the lightning as fake as the mountains, and the local priest tumbles down from where he watches a far ways off; hitting the ice which encased Dracula in the last film, and cracking it unconscious from a head wound. Blood trickles down to Dracula, and the superior priest returns to look for the local one, disgusted that he has been drinking and seemingly assuming he wandered off drunk.

 We know better. And we now know that while a mirror will not reflect a vampire a pool of water will.

 Lee does nothing more than stand and glower but he remains an imposing figure, the intensity of his look almost something supernatural. This is Lee's unique power.

 The superior from the Catholic church returns to the town believing he has done his duty, and asks after the priest, and prepares to leave. The townsfolk claim the priest returned and left, and we see the priest is now Dracula's creature, and Dracula cannot enter his castle with that golden cross sealing it. He must have his revenge.

 The film shows us the priest and his... well she seems to be his wife, but eventually it assures us she is not and in fact implies she's more likely his brother's widow... and it is his niece's birthday and she is having a young man over. One training to be a shirtless doctor, got to get some beefcake in.

 Oh and we also see Dracula and his new minion digging up the corpse of the woman from the opening. She's rather rotted and it's sort of fan disservice. Still the scene is good, chilling, and for the time a bit revolting.

 Still we see the local tavern. It is far more boisterous than that in Dracula's village. The waitress is jealous that our doctor to be (now in a suit) is going out with someone else. Apparently she likes all the guy flirting with her and has 'more boyfriends than she can count' and takes that with pride. We also see our heroine, the lovely Maria. She's got a very nice looking face, lovely blonde hair, a fetching heroine.

 We learn something horrible about our protagonist, Paul, something that truly shocks and amazes Maria's mother and uncle, he is an Atheist. The priest has limits to how far he values honesty, and blasphemy crosses them. I wonder if Paul will still be an atheist by the end of the film.

 I also wonder how long until our saucy barmaid becomes a bride of Dracula.

 Paul gets drunk, Zena (the saucy barmaid) takes him to bed, kisses him, and starts to undress him when Maria comes... even after she decides to cup a feel of his crotch. She is rather disappointed that Maria drives her away. I mean he'd sort of invited while merely nearing black out drunk, but he was past remembering that and at the 'why are you in my room' stage of black out drunk.

 Still our waitress leaves the tavern and begins the walk home alone in the dark, a walk that leads her pass Dracula's carriage. When it begins to follow her she reasonably starts to run, when it speeds up she runs into the woods (also reasonably). The woods are wide spaced and it doesn't help but it's reasonable. And she does manage to lose it, diving through a row of bushes. This simply leads her to walking up to Dracula where she is paralyzed with shock and his gaze. She does not resist his embrace.

 She returns to the tavern before morning, dressed in her shift and a light cloak, and hiding her bite. She is cranky though more afraid that her bit will be seen. She hides it with a scarf before day proper. Dracula's priestly creature tries to rent a room, and the tavern keeper tries to say they have none... but Zena (having recognized him from the night before) speaks up despite (creepy) priests being bad for business. And Paul tells Dracula's pet priest that the Monsignor has a niece. Zena and the priest is interesting to watch. She is torn, she fears him, knows that he was part of her attack the night before. He makes her neck itch. Yet she cannot bring herself to reveal it, and in fact worked to ensure he would be there. It's an effective way to show how she is drawn to him, or more him through his master, even as she fears him and feels revulsion and an unclean self-disgust at the entire thing.

 A leg would have gone up were a cat not on them, an intense showing of Dracula. And I am reminded that more perhaps than even Lugosi's Dracula, vampires from the 80s till Twilight tried to invoke Lee's tall, dark, and intensely charismatic count.

 Zena is jealous of Maria once again when Dracula reveals that he wants her. 'What do you want her for, you've got me'. It's a parasitic, twisted relationship, but the sexuality of the vampire-victim dynamic is highly visible in this film. I mean it's been part of Vampires as long as they've shown up in the English language, but vampirism as a destructive, abusive relationship is rather displayed here without it being too 'treats you like an idiot and explains it' about it.

 Zena grabs Maria and hands her over to Dracula. Paul finds out that Maria came looking for him and everyone assumes she's with him... not staring into Christopher Lee's hypnotic (though in this film overly bloodshot) eyes. Only Paul's arrival scares off Dracula enough that she escapes... for a time.

 "You have failed me" So much menace in his voice. Christopher Lee reminds me of nothing so much as Darth Vader (on a good day of Vader's) here. And then the understated "You must be punished" just sends chills. Zena pleads for mercy, asking why he needs Maria when he has her, he has her! It's a good scene, and one which is intense.

 Zena is turned completely, but the priest is tasked with killing Dracula's new creation by shoving her into the fire that heats the bakery's stove. It's an effective scene. The film is an effective film. It's the best of the Hammer Horror films other than probably Horror of Dracula that I've seen.

 Maria is ashamed to go home in a state where her mother might see what has happened to her and how distraught she is at it. She hides her assault from her family for the shame of it all.

 No one seems to notice that the priest is acting drugged. I mean given the period and his position as a priest, and the lack of our knowledge of what's actually happening it's understandable.

 Still we get more of Maria's family assuming she was just sleeping around with her boyfriend that they disapprove of, and not that she was the victim of sexual assault. And hints that she may have actually been bitten, just not on the neck itself. Dracula arrives and you see Maria's fearousal, and despite initial fear after looking into his (no longer bloodshot) eyes she yields to him, a face of rapture as he does not quite kiss her, though she years for it, and then... he bites. It's the vampire's bite as sex in its pretty purest form. Highly charged with eroticism, elements of seduction mixing with assault, it's intense and functional.

 Maria's uncle, the Monsignor, finds the bite on her throat and he knows what it is; he failed at Dracula's castle and in so doing has somehow drawn Dracula's wrath upon him.

 As is the cliché in the Dracula tale they close Maria's window for her, but do not watch her and she of course opens it to invite Dracula in, baring her throat to him and a bit of her chest, waiting in eager rapture... only to be saved from Dracula when her uncle bursts into the room with a crucifix leading to her mute and disappointed seeming relaxation. Also Lee's eyes are super bloodshot again. The chase is good.

 It plays with the normal symbols of the vampire story quite entertainingly in that Paul is an atheist. I mean usually the vampire is... he is the foreigner, the man who has no moral standing in the social order, who is corrupting the young women of the land with his dark ways and sexual nature. The traditional story as crafted by Stoker uses the loose woman with many suitors (Lucy, Zena) and then the chaste and holy one (Wilhelmina, Maria). And in the latter though Dracula gets a foothold upon her soul, and leaves her soiled, in the end she breaks off the affair and becomes a good, proper, chaste, and virtuous woman more devoted to her husband for the ordeal. She is more devout for it, more reliant upon being righteous and walking with God and faithful to her husband. Here we see a movement away from that religious aspect of virtue, a little death of God as the moral arbiter. The Priest is Renfield, and the Atheist is a servant of truth and virtue without God.

 Oh and I skipped a (good quality) bit, but Paul is now standing in for God to force the priest back onto the path of righteousness. Paul stakes Dracula in an anti-climax, but is told that he must pray. Dracula pulls the stake from his chest for without Christian faith it cannot kill him (so that's time to back some of the prior. Fire though is a weapon that can still harm him... and Maria is coming for Dracula, coming to be his bride. Dracula casually, disdainfully even, defeats Paul, and declares his revenge complete as he leads Maria away.

 Paul takes a horse and rides to Dracula's village and we get... more good scenes.

 The music builds well as Dracula makes Maria unseal his castle, throwing her like an abusive boyfriend and ordering her to remove the blasted cross.

 Paul arrives, and his call to her combined with the recent abuse snaps her from the spell momentarily and he wrestles with Dracula, causing the vampire and him to tumble over the railing, Dracula being impaled upon the same cross he could not remove. Finally the Renfield Priest uses pray and the vampire is defeated. The scene is both anti-climatic and effective and Maria is freed.

[mrbiggsproductions]

What is an Archvampire? A secret little pile of miseries.

I can’t believe an anime adaptation of an old school side scroller is making me cry about the main antagonist...

[arachnixe]

Execution

(Part 9 of Night’s Longing - Previous: Past Hungers, Past Mistakes)

Carmen seems more withdrawn than before after sharing that story, as though even she was caught by surprise that those memories still have some power over her. A little fun in bed helps distract her for a moment, but I get the feeling she also uses it to distract me from the topic.

I try to get her to open up to me, permit herself to show even an ounce of vulnerability, but she smoothly redirects my efforts with flirtations until we’re fucking again because I simply cannot ever resist her.

At the very least I can offer her my company and my support, even when it’s 4 in the afternoon and I notice that Carmen’s snuck out of bed to brood in silence. I make her coffee just the way she likes, bringing it to her and sitting in the same room as her.

I wonder, and not for the first time, how much heartbreak someone her age has experienced. I guess it never gets any easier.

The story she told sticks with me for more reasons. She described a collection of vampiric abilities I have heard of but never before witnessed in the possession of any single vampire. I have heard tales, of course, of the “archvampires” slain by my ancestors, the greatest of which commanded a similarly fantastic array of powers. Until recently, I believed them to be exaggerations for the sake of inflating the reputations of those old, revered hunters. Yet Carmen’s abilities are perfectly in line with even the tallest tales.

It terrifies me the first time I watch Carmen pass by her curtains—frankly inadequate ones, letting slip a thin slice of sunlight through the gap during the pre-sundown hours—and I watch, stunned, as the light momentarily passes over her with hardly a sizzle.

“Not sunscreen,” she tells me, laughing, when I confront her with my first, admittedly silly, guess. “It is not the same ultraviolet radiation which gives humans a sunburn that also purges our kind from the world. It is specifically daylight. We are ontologically of night itself at the most fundamental level. A vampire is dispelled by the sun in precisely the same way that night is.”

I can only reply with stammering, half-formed words stumbling over each other, but she takes pity on my confusion and offers me a little more explanation.

“Resistance is not altogether impossible, though I remain a creature of night. You could say I have kissed the moon and may hide in its shadow.” She gestures as if groping for words that don’t come easily to her, at least in English. “In an occult sense, I mean to say.”

It’s clear that I’m not satisfied by such a metaphorical answer, and Carmen sighs. “It works something like your Boltman blessings. Here. One visible element of the work of many years.” She lifts her shirt to direct my attention to a particular cluster of lines tattooed below her ribs. “Before I ever became a vampire, I was something of a mystic. I have always loathed my own weakness, thus I work to diminish what flaws I cannot eliminate.”

Something about Carmen’s body language reads as vulnerable as she confesses this one small detail of her early life, and she seems relieved that I choose to pull her into a hug rather than pry further.

“Sorry.” My words are muffled with my face pressed into her. My heart isn’t done pounding with that initial panic of seeing the sunlight touch her. “I just need a second.”

Her gentle touch on my back is reassuring. “You do not need to worry about me.”

“I do a lot of things I don’t need to. Don’t try to talk me out of this one.”

“As you wish, darling.” She wraps her arms around me too. “I only mean to say that I have offered to help you overcome the circumstances of your birth, which would be an empty promise indeed from someone unable to exert similar influence even on herself. I ask you not to doubt my strength.”

I groan. “Fuck, I hate it when you talk like my dad. Worrying about you isn’t a slight, Carmen! It doesn’t mean I think you’re less cool and smart and powerful! It doesn’t mean I doubt your ability to help and protect me! It means I care about you!”

I feel a tremor in Carmen’s body, at first seeming much like sobbing, but after a moment I realize it’s laughter.

“Even now,” she says quietly, to herself, and I can’t guess what she means, but I only hold her tighter.

We stay like this together for a while longer.

---

The notification sound sends my heart bouncing around my ribcage. I check my phone, and it’s Liz. No greeting, no preamble, just a time and an address.

“Do you need a ride?” Carmen asks without needing any explanation at all.

I nod dumbly, momentarily paralyzed by the unexpected shattering of this peaceful time together before the phantom voice of my father roars in my brain to move.

I move. My gear is propped in the corner, waiting for me, and I make myself ready for battle faster than I ever have in my life.

We scream across the city in her convertible, once again hitting all the green lights—and now I’m wondering which of her tattoos controls the flow of traffic—on our way to where my target is supposed to be. The sunset casts the city in shades of gold which Carmen only requires a pair of shades to endure.

She could probably take on someone like Ylio without breaking a sweat, couldn’t she? Based on what she’s told me of herself and the stories passed down about how far beyond ordinary vampires the archvampires were, it would be no trouble for her even if Ylio brought friends to back them up.

I look to my left at her handsome face and remember how she immediately offered this very ride. How she offered to save me from the doom of my bloodline. Of course she would be willing to help. She might even insist on it.

But asking someone to kill their own is not an easy thing, is it? It’s a terrible burden to place on someone, especially when this is not her fight at all. It’s mine, for the sake of me and my sisters. Bearing the guilt of this assassination should be my burden alone.

I can’t let her come with me.

“Carmen, I don’t want your help with this.”

“As you wish.”

After bracing myself for an argument, I’m caught off guard. “Huh. Just like that?”

“Darling, I understand more than most the importance of vengeance against one’s own killer.” After a moment’s silence, she adds, “I also admit to some curiosity. How does a modern Boltman fight, I wonder? I will enjoy observing from a distance.”

A modern Boltman. In this context, hunting a vampire, I suppose that’s just what I am. It’s a role bolted through my flesh into my bones, and right now, as I wear the uniform of what I am, how can I pretend that I am anything more than Hanna Boltman, Vampire Hunter?

Deep breaths, Hanna. I can endure this the same way I always have. I just need to hold my feelings at arm’s length and let the body do as it was trained to do.

Exiting the car a few blocks early, I leave Carmen to find a place to park and a vantage from which to watch. With wary steps, I approach my destination.

I expect someone as pompous as Ylio to feed at one of the ritzy and exclusive vampire clubs. Sanguine Dreams, for example, feels like their speed; it’s a place that requires reservations in advance, and if you’ve got the connections and ability to pay for the VIP lounge, I hear they bring your food and entertainment to you live, and the presentation is supposed to be something really special. Now that I think about it, I’d bet Carmen could get in. That could make for a nice date night.

This side of town, though? It’s far removed from all Clan Sarthe fronts and infrastructure I’m aware of, and the address turns out to be an old, dilapidated building, four stories tall and from the turn of the last century. I can’t guess what it was once for. Banking? A factory? Moonshine during Prohibition? The windows are boarded up, the roof looks partially collapsed, and even the brick wall looks dark and rotting. The words “no entry” are spray painted on the side of the building.

What, does Ylio go after squatters? How unexpectedly pathetic.

It’s still early. I’m in luck that Carmen’s solar resistance means that we didn’t have to wait till full sundown to head this way. I have just enough time to scout the area, lay my trap, and find a place to hide.

The parking lot is overgrown with weeds, crumbling chunks of concrete filled by a late addition of gravel to smooth it out. Light glints off shards of glass and other assorted garbage among the detritus. Not an ideal place for a fight, all things considered. Keeping my footing here could be a challenge, but I might be able to hide something small in the cracks, cover it with gravel.

And there, adjacent to the parking lot, is another old building. Not quite so large, not quite so condemned, it should make a good place to hide. The alleyway between it and the next building down is just narrow enough for my purposes. I sprint, vault onto a friendly dumpster, leap toward the opposite building to kick off the wall and catch the lip of this building’s roof.

The roof is flat, with enough of a raised ridge around it for me to lay flat and conceal myself from anyone below me. The drop back down is only two stories, which is perfectly doable without a roll—and after seeing all the broken glass down there, I count myself lucky for that.

I prep my crossbow and settle in to wait.

It’s hard to ignore the itch in the back of my mind telling me something is off. My target isn’t just prideful; according to Liz they’re influential. They have allies. This is the sort of place haunted by weak, orphaned vampires, those without connection to their own community.

In a place much like this, back when I was a teenager, my father supervised my first few solo hunts. I remember at the time feeling shocked at how easy those kills were. Back then I didn’t even see vampires as people.

“That’s it?” I asked. “One shot to the heart, and it’s over?”

“Frail, weak, easy pickings for even a novice,” he said. “That’s the fate of anyone, hunter or bloodsucker, who lacks the support of others.”

It was one of many lessons he drilled into me repeatedly over the years.

“Without me, you wouldn’t know how to operate that crossbow. You wouldn’t have practiced your aim. You wouldn’t know where to shoot.” He severed my victim’s head to make absolutely sure they were finished. “Without my mother, I would not have known to teach you those lessons. Without the generations of Boltmans who came before us, without our clan’s hard-won discoveries and the lore of our allies, you and I would be as helpless as babes.

“Each of us is born owing a debt to our clan. Some few of us have the ability and work ethic to pay that debt in full before we die. If you manage to pass the trials, inherit my sword, and continue our family legacy, and if you or one of your descendants manages to rid this world of its vampiric scourge, then perhaps I will have done enough to pay mine off.”

I was 14 years old. “That’s a lot of pressure, dad.”

“It is the appropriate amount of pressure, Hanna. Our bloodline, like few others, is a holy one. It is blessed. We have been gifted the profound privilege to devote our lives in service to others.” He clapped me on the shoulder in a gesture that seemed like camaraderie, the sort of gesture that was as close as he ever got to expressing fatherly affection.

“Yes, sir. We are elevated above others for a reason, and it is our burden to bear that responsibility.”

“Exactly. Remember, none of us matter as individuals; all that matters is how we contribute.” Through repetition, he burned these lessons into my heart. “I do not matter, though I can make myself useful by killing monsters and sculpting you into the family’s next great weapon. You do not matter except through your obedience to me and how well you prove your dedication.”

“Yes, sir. I will make you proud.”

“See that you do. As my only heir, the worth of my life depends on the worth of yours.”

In a way, I’m glad I learned selflessness from my father. Family comes first— remembering that lesson dispels whatever unease creeps up my chest. Killing Ylio is not just a matter of revenge for my own sake; doing so eliminates a threat to my sisters. I cannot fail.

Twilight dims. Voices drift upward from the empty lot. Two figures round the corner of the broken-down building to chat in the ruins of the parking lot. One leans against the wall, looking relaxed, while the other scans in every direction, acting as lookout for threats.

I hear a soft crunch of footsteps far too close to me. I turn and see the silhouette of a third against the sky, standing on the opposite side of the roof from me. Did they leap up here just now? They’re keeping watch too, I realize, but whoever this is, they haven’t noticed me yet, their attention focused on the street below.

Shit, this is a complication I hadn’t planned for. The other person’s head turns in my direction, and I have no time to think before I fire my crossbow to stake the unexpected intruder in the heart. They collapse in near silence, the sound masked effectively by the city’s background noise of car traffic and distant sirens.

I check the body to be sure. Fangs. For the first time in years, I’ve killed a vampire again. Not even my target, just a witness, killed out of panic. Shit. Who were they? No identification, no Sarthe markings—or markings of any other clan I recognize—only a winged ouroboros tattoo on their back.

Did you have a family? Is there someone out there who will stay up wondering why you never came home? Or are you all alone in this world like those first poor, nameless victims of mine were?

I knew I might have to kill more than just Ylio. Liz said they have allies. I knew I might have to do this.

There will be time later to mourn the cost. Already I hear more voices approaching, and I think I recognize the imperious sound of my target’s among them. I reload my crossbow and wait for the right moment to spring the trap.

The three new figures approach the two. I hold my breath, straining to catch their words.

Ylio speaks first. “Look all around, the moon shines bright.”

“We and the dead make swift our flight,” replies the one leaning against the building with an air of ease.

The one on guard seems to relax after this exchange, and the two groups approach one another. Such a tight cluster of them, nearly ideal, but something makes me hesitate. That itch at the back of my mind returns. This isn’t what I expected to find. Something else is going on here.

“What news from Sarthe?”

Ylio makes a dismissive gesture. “The pieces move into place. No new risks. What obstacles remain are on track to be dealt with.”

The wail of a siren masks the reply, and by the time I pick out more words, Ylio is speaking again. “…your recovery efforts?”

“Our associates overseas have delivered his left hand to the courier. We anticipate delivery in a matter of weeks.”

“Should we be expecting you?”

“No. Best to avoid showing our faces. You’ll meet the courier directly.”

“I will set expectations accordingly.”

Shit, one of Ylio’s companions has broken away from the group, and the longer I wait, the more risk I take. It’s now or never. I twist my hand into the trigger sign and leap from my perch as artificial daylight blooms into life inside the parking lot.

Lucky break for me, the wary one was standing right at the center of the blast, and as the brief flash of light fades, all that remains of them is ash. With a twang, the one who stepped away from the blast is staked through the heart. I drop the crossbow and draw my sword.

Three badly charred vampires remain, staring me down with bloody murder in their eyes. It’s the dead of night, and their burns are healing right before my eyes, but right now I have a brief window of weakness to capitalize on. God, they’re still fast, though, dodging every swing of my blade as if I were moving in slow motion.

The one to my left lunges for me, fangs bared, and I nearly fail to raise my silvered bracer in time to defend myself. He screams in pain as the metal brands his skin, giving me an opening to strike that I have to abandon in order to dive away from the swipe of Ylio’s clawed hand.

I roll and leap to my feet, drawing a set of knives to fling in one smooth arc toward my attackers. Ylio bats one out of the air with contemptuous ease, but in a stroke of luck, one pierces the throat of the other vampire, dropping her to the ground as she hisses and claws in vain at the ensorcelled metal. She’s down, at least.

Ylio keeps coming for me, and they’re only getting faster and deadlier as their burns heal. The one who chomped my bracer is back in the fight too, and he’s furious. At the very least his blind outrage is making him a poor collaborator for Ylio, and the two interfere with one another enough for me to keep dancing out of their reach.

Still, all I can do with my sword is buy myself a little breathing room, one swing at a time. I utterly fail to land a single strike.

Then my luck takes a turn for the worse. I slip on loose gravel and tumble backward, and in a blink my assailant has pounced on me.

“You wretched little shit, I’ll make you—“

“Idiot.” I shut him up by ripping my talisman off its chain and shoving it in his mouth. You don’t stop to threaten someone in the middle of a fight, as I quickly demonstrate. When I speak the invocation, he bursts into flames. I kick the burning body at my last remaining opponent, making space to leap back to my feet.

“I know that voice. Elizabeth’s dog.”

Shit. “N-no…?” Good work, Hanna. That ought to throw them off the trail.

“You are.” Somehow they see through my cunning lie. “At last I begin to fit the pieces together. She has been hiding a vampire hunter in our midst this whole time.”

Ugh. I have one last trick up my sleeve, and I won’t be able to make it work unless they get in close. Worst case scenario, Ylio flees, knowing that I am a vampire hunter, and spreads the story of what happened here. No evidence of past heroics could save me from the condemnation that would follow. But more important than me is what would become of my sisters if they were believed to knowingly smuggle a hunter into a Sarthe stronghold.

“As if she knew.” I put as much scorn as I can muster into my voice. “You asked how a low-class vampire like her got a bloodbag of her own? I chose her for her gullibility. The status I could bring her was too good a deal to scrutinize very closely.”

I hope they buy it. Better for my sisters to be seen as fools than traitors.

“How I almost pity her.” Ylio shakes their head, accepting my story. Few things are easier than convincing someone that a person they despise is an idiot. “Ah, but instead I will enjoy using this secret to destroy her reputation.”

“You’ll have to kill me first. Without taking me as proof, nobody will believe the bloodbag you killed just got up and started murdering people back.” I grin and brandish my sword with a flourish. “But as you can see, I’m pretty hard to put down for good.”

“Cocky. But I have stalled for time long enough, and as you can see, I am back at full strength. Now, for the last time, I bid you goodbye, dog.”

Ylio moves in a blur almost too fast to track. In an instant, they are upon me, claws at my neck. My sword falls from my hand. The vampire’s deadly strike is slowed down only for the briefest moment by the gorget I wear.

However, I am ready for them, and that brief moment is all I need. I squeeze the trigger secreted in my palm and spray a fine mist of holy water—really a specially prepared emulsion of salt water and oils enhanced with theurgy—and the fine cloud halts the attack, forcing Ylio to recoil immediately.

Skin sizzles. They choke and gasp, inhaling more into their lungs, inspiring a paroxysm of coughing and hacking up blood. I run my sword through their chest, and the fight is over.

Numbly, moving on autopilot, I behead all four bodies, just the way I was taught, though only the one with the knife through her neck is still twitching and clinging to life.

Six vampires total, dead by my hand. None of them carry any identification on them, though all bear the same mark of the winged ouroboros. Except for one, I’ll never even know their names. Maybe in another life, we could have been friends.

Six more faces that will haunt me for the rest of my life. I drop to my knees and give myself permission to grieve.

Though my hands are stained with death, at least my family is safe.

[inscrutable-shadow]

Vampire asks: 14! Do you have any general vampirism headcanons (or canon in your fiction?)

This seems like as good a time as any to talk about contracts (and the Shadow in general) in the Ieiunusverse!

"Contract" is a general term for supernatural abilities gained as a result of vampirism. These abilities are granted by the Shadow, a dark "being" similar to a hivemind that not much is known about other than its craving for blood. When a person is bitten with intent to turn, a metaphysical poison is injected that taints the fledgling vampire's soul and makes it unable to pass on to any sort of positive afterlife. The fledgling is then given a choice: have their soul wander formlessly in the void for eternity now, or live as a vampire as long as possible before that happens. Most choose to live.

It truly is a curse: upon acceptance of the contract, the Shadow winds through the vampire's body and forcibly binds the soul to it via soulstitching, which converts the temporary corruption into permanent soul damage. The stitching is a constant source of pain over the vampire's lifetime, a reminder of their lack of humanity. Contracts aren't all bad though: in exchange for the blood the vampire uses to sustain themselves and the Shadow, they are granted the chance to choose their eternal appearance, enhanced strength, speed, stamina, and senses, and access to shadow magic. Different vampire bloodlines have a tendency to form stronger or weaker contracts. House Tenebrae, Avrae's bloodline, is an old house with powerful contracts that produces more archvampires, while House Noctae, Beatrice's house, tends to form much weaker contracts due to their history of, uh, I guess vampire veganism? They don't like to hunt and instead prefer farmed blood or synthetic substitutes.

This was a long answer so I'm gonna cut it off but there's a lot more unique lore for Ieiunusverse! I'm just kind of taking "scifi vampires" as a concept and running with it plus taking reference from all sorts of vampire media (you'll even find an Ikeman Vampire reference in an upcoming fic haha). Thanks for the ask!

[the-stick-seller]

She gives you a quick kiss and flashes her new violet eyes at you.

L: And you to, I think.

(Your new classes are now Archvampire and Supreme succubat)

restart

I grip my sword tighter and strike at the training dummy, the way Father taught me.

[probablybard]

oh hell yeah now that sounds rly good actually, im glad someone who knows how hexblade works hooked me up with this.

i’ve also been working on a homebrew warlock patron called the Archvampire that’s more fitting for bladelocks, bc it’s got a rly powerful ability that’s similar to a paladin’s smite, but most of it’s abilities give it more HP, so it’s a lot tankier than other warlocks

thoughts on hexblade pact of blade vs eldritch knight?

tbh i dont know enough about the hexblade, tho i know its pretty much made for bladelocks. tbh, it depends on ur game tho, same as any class. i rly like eldritch knights because they can be rly tanky while still casting magic. bladelocks suffer from the fact that they can only wear light armor, so unless they are Big Dex Build, they’re gonna have a rly low AC which can be bad since theyre kinda designed to be a melee spellcaster. additionally, dex build basically limits u to a 1d8 rapier, whereas an eldritch knight can use str based weapons AND heavier armor.

tbf tho, i’m not the warlock expert. i like them a lot but im not well versed w them. i’m the bard bitch lmao

[hyoubuscanonsoulmate]

Azusa’s Vampirism Headcanons

TW: Blood Mention

I created some Headcanons surrouding Azusa’s interest in vampire, her bat form, and her blood drinking tendencies!

1. Despite her reputation as a bloodsucker, Azusa only ever drinks blood from one source, Kyousuke Hyoubu. She only feels comfortable drinking Hyoubu’s blood and believes it’s the best tasting blood.

2. Speaking of blood tasting, Azusa is (somehow) able to tell the difference between Hyoubu’s blood and other people’s blood in terms of taste. She appears to not like drinking other’s blood claiming it’s not as good as Hyoubu’s. She also tends to reject drinking blood from other people, even when she’s overly thirsty.

3. When Azusa is in her vampire bat or half vampire bat form, she’ll take any opportunity to hang from a tree whenever she can find one.

4. Azusa is obsessed with all things vampires. She enjoys reading books about vampires, can turn into a vampire bat, wears clothing that reminds of her vampires, drinks blood, etc. Her obsession with vampires have given her many nicknames such as Vampire, Batty, Wannabe Vampire (which she hates being called), Archvampire, Darling Vampire, and much more.

5. Hyoubu giving Azusa a many bat plushies and Azusa doing the same for Hyoubu.

6. Azusa’s wardrobe consisting of outfits that remind her of vampires.

7. Azusa being a huge fan of vampirecore, an aesthetic revolving around vampires.

[hyoubuscanonsoulmate]

Gushing About Hyoubu Because My Brain Said Hyoubu Thoughts.

A collection of Hyoubu gushes:

1. So I had a dream where I was at a fancy tropical island and guess who was there to greet me? My husband, my angel, Kyousuke Hyoubu 💗♥️🥺. Not only that but when he saw me, Hyoubu said “I had a feeling you would come my love.” He said it with biggest grin on his face. Hyoubu also happened to be very flirty towards as well which made me flustered as heck.

When I woke up from the dream, my brain automatically went “Where’s Hyoubu? Why am I in my bedroom?!” Even my brain knows I should be on a tropical island with my lover ♥️💗.

2. I bought a diary so I can write about Hyoubu in it and guess what? Zodiac signs ship us. So in the diary, they have these cute zodiac sign illustrations and details. Well under the Aries section, it said that Aries are a very attracting sign to the Leo. Guess what? Hyoubu is an Aries and I’m a Leo. Also did I mention that I’ve seen so many highly compatible pictures where Leo and Aries are very drawn to each other and make a perfect couple ��🥺? Even Zodiac signs know me and Hyoubu are meant for each other.

3. So last night, Hyoubu bought me a cute African Wild Dog plushie and it arrived at my house today. I love the plushie so much and it reminds me of my s/i so much (since my s/I can turn into one). So here is my wild doggo plushie. I’ve officially named the AWD dog plush, Archvampire, which is one of the nicknames Hyoubu gives me since he knows I’m fascinated with vampires/vampirecore. I also found a bow to put around Archvampire too.

4. Hyoubu’s birthday is coming up April 15th and I’m super duper excited. I plan on singing Happy Birthday to him and going on a date with Hyoubu to Red Lobster. Also I already bought him his gift and I plan on making him a homemade birthday card/drawing for him. I’m so excited to be honest 💗💗💗♥️♥️♥️♥️❤️🥺🥺🥺.

Also his gift is the same AWD plush so we will both have matching plushies.

[hyoubuscanonsoulmate]

Zettai Karen Children S/I - Azusa Hyoubu

Current ref sheet for my Zettai Karen Children S/I, Azusa aka Hyoubu’s Wife 🧛🏻‍♀️🦊. She now wears a kimono/yukata like outfit though I still kind of wanted to keep the vampire theme to it. She’s paired with Kyousuke Hyoubu!

Profile Under The Cut.

Azusa is an executive of P.A.N.D.R.A who serves as third in command. She’s also a Level 6 esper with umbrakinesis, hypnosis, metamorphosis, and teleportation.

During her first few appearances, she often took the form of a red fox who was often seen with Hyoubu until she revealed her true form.

Biographical Information

Name: Azusa Hyoubu (ZKC)

Nicknames:

Vampire (by Yō Fujiura)

Wannabe Vampire (by Kōichi Minamoto)

Darling Vampire (by Kyousuke Hyoubu)

Darling Wife (by Kyousuke Hyoubu)

Vampie (by Kyousuke Hyoubu)

Darling (by Kyousuke Hyoubu)

Archvampire (by Kyousuke Hyoubu)

Esper With Vampirism Tendencies

Kitsune (by some PANDRA members)

Foxy (by Kyousuke Hyoubu)

Alias:

Vampiric Esper

Sovereign of Darkness

The Silent Vampire

Sanguine Kitsune

Personal Information

Status: Alive

Age:

• 37 (Elementary Arc)

• 39 (Middle School Arc)

• 41 (High School Arc; Currently)

Birthday: July 30th, 1978

Gender: Female

Height: 5’4”/164 cm

Race:

• Level 6 Esper (ZKC)

Nationality:

• Japanese American

Hometown:

????, Japan

Occupation:

- P.A.N.D.R.A Executive (ZKC)

- Third of Command of P.A.N.D.R.A (ZKC)

- Leader of the The House of Bloodletting Foxes (formerly)

Appearance

Azusa is a short woman with a dark complexion, lean yet slightly muscular build, long dark brown hair with the bottom piece tied together by a red bow, and red eyes. Over her right eye, she appears to have a large scar. She often wears a half face mask and neck bandages to cover scars.

Despite appearing around her early 40s, she’s often mistaken to be a woman in her early 20s (ZKC).

Hair Color: Dark Brown

Eye Color: Red

Personality

Azusa is a woman with a suave, extroverted, enthusiastic, and confident personality. On the surface, she appears to be rather businesslike; smug; and polite character who is often seen smiling no matter what situation she’s in and sometimes does a greeting bow towards friend or foe.

She appears to have a soft spot for books and board games, with chess being her favorite one to play. She also seems to have rather sophisticated yet expensive taste in many things as she’s seen collecting very old typewriters, eating at formal dining restaurants, and buying rather refined clothing.

Azusa is also known to be rather sharp-witted, being very intelligent and capable of completing tasks in a practical manner.

Despite those things, being a member of P.A.N.D.R.A; Azusa is described to be rather dangerous. She is very sinister, bloodthirsty, and can be quite sadistic at times which she shows towards her foes as she isn’t afraid to shed blood with a wide grin on her face. Like Hyoubu, she tends to mask her saddened or angered emotions with a smile or confident smirk.

During battle, Azusa tends to tease or taunt her opponents and seems to boast a lot of self-confidence when fighting or when completing tasks to a point of arrogance. She’s also rather remorseless towards her enemies showing no qualms in hurting or killing those who stand in her or Hyoubu’s way.

She’s also quite cunning and tends to use rather ruthless methods to achieve her tasks. Azusa is also a very ambitious individual. She also appears to hold a strong grudge and disgust for humans due to her treatment by them in the past.

Despite these things, Azusa is kind and polite towards P.A.N.D.R.A, especially towards Hyoubu who she loves to bits and is very loving as well as caring towards him. She is also described to a loving and caring parental figure towards her kids and the Esper children who were taken in by P.A.N.D.R.A. Due to being rescued by Hyoubu around her early 20s, Azusa has sworn absolute loyalty to him.

Though usually confident, Azusa has also shown sadness and even fear/concern from time to time.

Aside from books, Azusa happens to take a strong interest in vampires and has a tendency to use her illusion ability to surround herself in bats, is obsessed with bats, drinks blood (though only from Hyoubu), can transform like a vampire, reads anything about vampires, and wears clothing that reminds her of vampires. Some find this endearing or strange. Her obsession with vampires and her ability has lead her to being called a ‘Vampire’ by Yō Fujiura and ‘Wannabe Vampire’ by Kōichi Minamoto. She also seems to take a strong interest in fox and kitsune lore.

Despite being able to speak, she rarely ever does towards anyone except Hyoubu, expressing that she only feels comfortable speaking towards him. Towards others, she often speaks through body expression/gestures, sign language, writing, and facial expressions.

In the past, before meeting Hyoubu and before becoming more open towards P.A.N.D.R.A; Azusa was described to be a lot more pessimistic. Thanks to help of Hyoubu and P.A.N.D.R.A, Azusa has opened up.

Likes:

✓ Books

 ✓ Reading

 ✓ Raspberry Lemonade

✓ Chess

 ✓ Knives

 ✓ Board Games

✓ Red Apples

✓ Bats

 ✓ Cello Rock

 ✓ Jazz Fusion

 ✓ Knife Throwing

 ✓ Blood

✓ Vampires

 ✓ Metal Music

✓ Writing

✓ Typewriters

 ✓ Fencing

 ✓ Vampires

 ✓ Sushi

 ✓ Foxes

 ✓ Kitsune

Dislikes:

✗ Most Candies

✗ Esper Discrimination

 ✗ Fried Food

✗ The Cold

✗ Daytime

✗ Snow

✗ Her Scars

 ✗ People Calling Her ’Wannabe Vampire’

 ✗ Math

 ✗ Non Espers/Humans

✗ Dogs

✗ Fox Hunting

Hobbies: Reading, Playing Board Games/Chess, Listening To Music, Writing, Researching Vampire Stuff, Doing Fencing, and Collecting Knives.

Background

At a young age, Azusa and her parents were victims of esper trafficking in Japan where she would eventually be bought in the Black Market by an unknown organization of normals who often used espers for their own personal gain and often treated espers inhumanely, often making espers their assassins and usually made their espers wear Limiters to suppress their powers. Azusa was valued by the organization due to her abilities and being a Level 6 esper which are the second highest level espers. However, she was treated poorly and only saw her as a tool of destruction. When they didn’t need her on certain missions, she often sported Limiters. Azusa disliked being treated by normals as nothing more than a mere tool.

On her 20th birthday, Azusa and her group of friends turns their back against the normal comprised organization and uses her abilities against them, killing many of the normal members in the process. She tells the espers within the organization that she is the Leader of The House of Bloodletting Foxes and their goal is rescue espers from humans, even if it meant killing humans in the process.

After Azusa’s escape, she and her group would eventually go into hiding while saving espers from humans where she and her friends would be caught up in an esper/normal conflict where she was nearly killed by normals and lost all of the Bloodletting Dogs members in the process until she was saved by Hyoubu and PANDRA, an organization comprising of only espers who offer her a home for only espers and dream of creating a world where espers will live with rights as well as freely. Hearing about Hyoubu’s offer and having nowhere else to go, she joins the organization and over time, grows very close to them and isn’t treated as a tool like the previous organization.

Future Azusa Predictions (ZKC Only)

1. Azusa is said to have sided with the espers who are fighting against humans, being responsible for countless deaths in the process. Even though not every esper is seen fighting against the humans, many of them are seen with Azusa.

2. Azusa supposedly watches over a small group of espers and supplies them with dangerous weapons.

3. While Azusa’s title known as the Sovereign of Darkness is not as well known as The Queen of Catastrophe (the now 20 year old Kaoru Akashi who supposedly had defected from Babel in the future and leads PANDRA due to Hyoubu’s worsening health conditions), her name is still feared upon by many for the blood shed she has caused.

4. By the war, Azusa has reached her mid forties (around 44-45 years old).

5. During the war’s initial stages, Azusa’s original parasol is destroyed and is seen with a new parasol instead.

6. It’s unknown whether Azusa survived or died in the war.

7. Due to her masks being destroyed, Azusa wears bandages over her eye. She also sports a different outfit.

8. Azusa kills Bullet Silver during an air raid.

Powers & Abilities 

* Umbrakinesis: Azusa is able to manipulate darkness/shadows. So far, she’s capable of animating  shadows, solidifying darkness/shadows into things; objects; and beings, create a kitsune-like monster out of shadows, infuse  darkness onto anything she touches, turn her body into darkness, create a darkness shield to temporarily protect herself; others; and objects in psychic darkness from telepathy/psychokinesis/ and psychometry, and manipulate matter with darkness and her shadow.

* Hypnosis: Azusa is shown to create and manipulate deceiving illusions that effect the five senses. Her illusions dissolve into swarms of bats when deactivated or attacked. It’s also shown that her illusions can be durable as they can take hits for a certain period of time before wearing off.

* Metamorphosis: Azusa can turn into a fox. It’s also shown she has a half fox form as well.

* Teleportation: Azusa is able to teleport herself, matter, and objects by using shadows/darkness as a catalyst.

* Parasol

Relationships

ZKC:

Kyousuke Hyoubu (Husband)

Yugiri (Adopted Daughter)

Rougarou Hyoubu (Daughter)

Unknown Parents (Status Unknown)

Fujiko Tsubomi (Half Sister-In-Law)

• Kyousuke Hyoubu | Love Interest | Good Terms

Azusa’s most dynamic relationship is with Kyousuke Hyoubu.

Both of them being a dynamic duo who love each other to bits. Being Hyoubu’s wife and a high ranking PANDRA executive, she’s very close; loving; and loyal towards him and tends to listen to his orders without question. She absolutely loves Hyoubu to bits and tends to worry about him a lot, especially when Hyoubu is injured, to the point if Hyoubu were to get hurt by an enemy; she’ll lash out at the person without mercy.

Both of them show to have a loving relationship as they often enjoy each other’s company, love to spend time together, work extremely well together, and are especially dedicated to each other.

Other than being a loving and dedicated couple, they are known to be a powerful partner in crime duo. Both work well when doing crimes and on the battlefield, where they’re shown to have synchronized fighting style.

Out of all the characters in Zettai Karen Children, Azusa has expressed that she only feels comfortable speaking towards Hyoubu. Due to being saved by Hyoubu from being killed, she has sworn absolute loyalty to him and is thankful for Hyoubu for saving her from her dark past. She also expresses a softer side towards Hyoubu.

Other

Voice Actress/Seiyuu: Atsuko Tanaka

Ship: Hyouzusa (Kyousuke Hyoubu x Azusa Hyoubu)

Theme Song: Evil by Mercyful Fate

Trivia

1. Azusa favorite foods are blood and sushi.

2. Azusa spends most of her time reading or playing chess with Hyoubu.

3. Azusa’s zodiac sign is Leo.

4. Azusa wears a mask to cover a scar over her right eye.

5. Azusa is skilled at writing and fencing while she isn’t very good at art and math.

6. Azusa owns an old fashioned typewriter with glass keys.

7. Azusa owns seven typewriters.

8. Azusa only feels comfortable taking her mask off around Hyoubu.

9. Azusa has a tendency to drink blood very often. (ZKC Only)

10. Even though one of her favorite foods is blood, she only likes to drink Hyoubu’s blood.

11. Azusa shares the same birthday as Kaoru Akashi.