#gherman the first hunter

[evangelifloss]

I had a dream bloodborne 2 was announced except it was a brightly lit farming simulator and you had to protect your ranch from beasts

[twiggybeing]

Laurence is the hardest and worst boss in Bloodborne.

Geheman: easy

Moon: easy

Orphan: easy

But fucking Laurence?

Laurence: hard

[paulito8000]

Mein face wenn the yharnamites call das jägersausfahrhackschnittklingenbeil „hunter‘s axe“

Mein face wenn der Moment the yharnamites call den sägengezahnaufreißwundspeerstecher a „saw spear“

mein face when yharnamites call der Transformierengezähntwolftiermannfleischaufreißer a "saw cleaver" mein face when yharnamites call das Kurzschwerthineinsteinbrecher a "kirkhammer" mein face when yharnamites call der schickestockprügelhineingezähntpeitsche a "threaded cane"

[fen--harel]

Woken up with something of a nightmare, have you?

[xxxmathildaxxx]

my taste in men fluctuates between Ebenezer Scrooge and Gherman the first hunter

[subzeroparade]

Hello im darundik on ao3 and have been so slowly working through your works and am currently on The Feast We Promised and I am so IN LVOE with how you interpret canon events into practical terms. Like I always assumed that Maria entered the healing church after the cainhurst massacre, bc she hides her relationship to them, but of course this idea of cainhurst being allowed and THEN disappearing makes sense. And also the whole thing of gherman being a designer first and foremost and being the hardest hitter, the fact that there’s a difference between academics and prospectors — LOVE THIS. The moment where you said “Maria joined the church as a botanist” — of course. Of fuxking course. The term “hunter” now means “just a person who wacks beasts” but it doesn’t necessary only mean that — as evidenced by the choir members in-game, who definitely don’t hunt, but ar hunter-type enemies. I’m just. Tearing my hair out. I love this so much. I’m reading SO slowly but enjoying it SO much.

Thank you so much, the engagement with my work means a lot :') Especially Feast, because so much went into it.

Please have this Maria sketch I have been noodling for part of the day as thanks.

[modeus-the-misanthrope]

Monsterfucker Tournament, Round 1 of the Feminine Division. The matchup as decided by a random number generator is.....

Flora, the Moon Presence: An eldritch Great One capable of creating a dream realm that the player of Bloodborne spends the vast majority of their (non-dlc) adventures roaming. She seeks to have a child as all Great One's do and desires to have all other Great One's slaughtered. It is unknown how, but all Great One's in game use humans as surrogates for their children. She seemingly has overridden Gherman, the First Hunter's willpower and is capable of doing the same to the player character. Forcing them to serve her.

Chimera Falin: A human cleric who was consumed by a dragon while in and adventuring party with her brother, best friend, and several other hired members. After being revived she was fused with the remains of the Red Dragon that consumed her, and several harpies. She dutifully serves Thistle while also retaining a moderate amount of her personality. She is capable of still using magic while in this form alongside her draconic strength, making her very powerful and dangerous. She seemingly still retains the intact male anatomy of the Red Dragon she has been fused with, but identifies as a woman before and after her chimerafication.

[katyspersonal]

Hello there ! Do you have any headcanon about Lady Maria ? Like maybe her relationship with other characters than Gherman and Adeline ?

Thank you for an ask! I've posted some headcanons about her past ( x )and her habits and alike ( x ) but it was a considerable time ago! Also I have a delayed ask from my friend @heraldofcrow regarding Maria's family because the sheer amount of people I needed to cover and contexts I needed to explain crashed me shdfhsd (I will post it when I am ready Crow </3 )

I will cover more or less solid ideas here though because some headcanons I am still just bouncing around!

Maria and other Old Hunters

Like it says here, she and Henryk were the ones helping Byrgenwerth, descending from the families with close ties to ancient cultures and having a lot of knowledge under their belts (as well as personal interest)! Both of them are not very talkative outside of "important" stuff. However, every time they do speak with each other it is very agreeable, fulfilling and positive experience! They share a lot in common and understand each other's struggles and fears effortlessly!

Djura was a person she respected a lot, especially for being the fellow denier of magic using, unlike the rest of Old Hunters that enjoyed arcane weapons, Moon-granted powers, bells, etc etc. That's why Powder Kegs were "heretical"! They both only relied on their skills, only he also was a great engineer! She considered straight up joining Oto Workshop (remains of which later became Powder Kegs) but did not like what their fixation on fire was unfortunately bringing in her. She has the secret pyromancy power, you know x)

^ The fact that concept art features a Charred Hunter similar to Djura with a rapier and one of Powder Kegs weapons imitates a Cainhurst weapon makes me consider the idea that Maria and Djura knew each other even before the Hunters stuff! I will examine this idea later, but them being old friends is an appealing idea! In either case, for her Djura was like that one "cool mutual" who instantly gives you self-esteem boost if they like your post! xD Djura was yet to undergo his character arc at the point Maria's resolve as a hunter cracked after Fishing Hamlet though, so his (former) feverish hatred to the beasts made her trust him less. She already got burnt when Gehrman somewhat harshly didn't understand her faltering and didn't want to risk getting judgement from Djura, the second person she admired, too.

Gratia is a cousin that Maria never learned of, as Gratia was discarded since birth (born same kind of Pthumerian-Human hubrid as Snatchers)! It was rather lucky to still meet within Old Hunters as adults. Maria felt quite comfortable with her, coincidentally getting sense of 'older sister' figure from her that she missed after parting with Annalise! Even though Gratia and Annalise are nothing alike of course x) But a much more stronger, more bold and confident, and more tall woman is something that allowed Maria to connect with her softer side, especially when Gratia would straight up pick her up in a (too tight) embrace when she congratulated her with something, or expressed vocal wish to "protect" her!

Matias (Blood Minister from intro cutscene) used to double as a bar man at the times when alcohol was still relevant in Yharnam, so she interacted with him outside of the hunt enough! She needed a glass sometimes, okay? xD He is a curious person though and prefers to get under facades and see what people are really made of, so he abused being sober while she was drunk to ask her about her feelings on various topics and people, or pry on her secrets. She was so stoic and reclusive, he just wanted to know who was the person under the Hunter role! Very crooked of him, but at least he didn't use drunk secrets of others for evil, he is Just Like This lol. He eventually felt guilty for being so shady though. As one of the first Old Hunters who started to experience the potential drawbacks of the hunt and blood (losing legs capacity, blindness, having to amputate fingers etc), he also was one the first to get in a wheelchair. Maria was so nice and helpful to him despite him becoming "useless", he should have been nice too, this old nosy bastard.

Maria and the Healing Church

Laurence... Alright, heeeere we fucking go again with my beloved image that is a pillar for many of my headcanons:

Maria and Laurence are not blood-related (at least as far as great-grand parents go, I didn't develop centuries of family tree!), but saw each other since younger age! They were not close though, as Laurence travelled and studied abroad in his kid and teen years! Whenever he visited, it was also not more than simple exchange of news at the dinner in a group of people. Maria and her squad (Annalise, Crow and King) knew him as arrogant asshole with inflated ego, but he returned in Maria's life in Byrgenwerth era, as admittedly more charismatic and pleasant person than before.

They managed to patch up years of awkwardness and distance and became friends, especially since he got along with Gehrman quite well! ...but then he decided that HE was special, and HE could tame the holy blood when Loran and Pthumeru Ihyll failed 🙄 Maria was more by the side of Caryll, Rom and Willem on the big bad academical infighting! She argued with Laurence a lot. When he convinced Adeline that letting him surgically alter her body to produce holy blood was a good idea, Maria straight up could not handle it maturely. It is a long one to go into but Laurence already tugged some unexplainable sense of fear and hesitation in Maria. She felt like his influence somehow was everywhere (not she alone, actually) and she never could stand up against him properly, but "losing" Adeline was the very peak of the sense of helplessness. She wished she reacted more maturely and her weakness only proven Adeline that Laurence was more reasonable trustworthy (owch.....), but in either case, since then a HELL of passive aggression and coldness followed between Laurence and Maria.

....and then, they somewhat broke the ice in Research Hall arc, after Maria abandoned the hunt and could at least entrust in evolution through Eyes and Stars. They both figured they took bad turns in life and there was no point in lamenting the past, they still needed to save what could be saved. They finally had pleasant, albeit very bitter-sweet interactions after years of mutual vitriol. However, I am considering a very dark idea of Laurence seeing that Maria was bordering suic1dal moods and not only letting it happen, but even "encouraging" it in secret, as he wanted her out of the way before commanding Cainhurst massacre. No, he knew that he had her will broken and she would just let him do it, he was not scared. But he... didn't want it. He figured it was a better way to go for her as someone who still believed she could atone for her sins, rather than living to reach complete state of helplessness. He "allowed" her one last "choice" in her life.

Fucked up concept, fucked up concept, I know.

With Brador relationship was a bit strained, but they were more of friends than Maria and Laurence. At least, she was not feeling so inexplicably cornered by him with all her might as a warrior, nor Brador was trying to scare her into being hush. He believed she was smart enough to not get herself or her friends into more trouble, albeit always felt bad for her kind, honorable nature. He knew he was an opposite of her, completely drenched and even reveling in disgraceful crimes he was doing to help "smarter people" advance. But, Maria pleaded with Brador to get a word out from her to Laurence, to pay attention at the weird actions of Doctor Micolash at the Research Hall and why patients kept suffering and diving into 'Sea', and Brador listened to her. It is quite a confession from Brador to go against Laurence for someone, and Maria knows this. They'd have very deep friendship under better circumstances, I think.

Vasylissa (White Church Hunter) is another character Maria saw often! Technically, Maria replaced her as an overseer and caretaker of Research Hall in the end. Even before that, Maria appreciated this person and was always relieved to find her in Grand Cathedral praying instead of Laurence. Vasylissa at least remembered to "fear the blood" much better than everyone else in the Healing Church. Very arcane-leaning, very should-have-stayed-in-Byrgenwerth person that helped Maria to feel less alone. They exchanged everything they knew as well as had many heart-to-hearts, and Vasylissa considered themselves to be good friends.. She was one of the people who cried and blamed herself when Maria was gone. I also like to play with an idea that Maria would like to approach her romantically, but noticed someone else had eyes on her - that Black Church female Hunter who guards her! So she decided to step back.

Ludwig was also a person with whom Laurence and Healing Church stuff didn't sour the things with! Heck, the guy loved what Laurence represented more than himself, and mostly was just fixated on the hunt (and his 'Guidance', but that was a secret!)! They are both knightly and full of honour, naive and kind but ruthless in battle! I even wrote a post of headcanons of them as a pairing once ( x ), but everything said in that post still applies minus the dating bit :') They were good friends that vented and could comfort each other, they disagreed on the same Healing Church's antics, they had friendly sparrings, they kept each other in mind upon separation and stocked up things to share with each other when they'd meet next..

I think when Maria went from 'magic bad humanity good' to 'maybe there IS some hope for humanity in pursuit for Stars and Moon 🤔', Ludwig showed Holy Moonlight to her. He was a little reluctant and jealous considering it, but could not see Maria so doubtful and lost. If sharing something so intimate could've helped her to finally make sense of her conflicts, then so be it. Only.. it made things worse, because Maria saw that the violence and murder was in the plans of even the Great One that was advertised by Laurence and the others as the way to help humanity!

Maria and Cainhurst

This is the part where I unfortunately have to restrain myself, because there is so much to unpack that, like I said, I still have a separate ask to work on this!

But, Maria had sort of a friend group since childhood with Annalise (half-sister from her cheating father), Eidinghardt (Bloody Crow of Cainhurst) and Elias (King)! Her relationship with Crow were the closest of the group, as the two were like siblings! They were fighting a lot but not in a toxic way, more like the typical siblings banters! Maria additionally pinched Crow's cheek or invited him for a nice fist fight when they were kids and Crow constantly made Elias cry, or was rude towards Annalise! He was an asshole, and she was an anti-bully ranger x) Yet, whenever it subdued, they were playing together a lot and getting into trouble together. Crow was very jealous when Maria decided to leave Cainhurst, like... I would not surprised of the 'straight up clinged to her leg and dragged after her across the floor' situation fdshhfd For people that fought a lot he felt only she truly understood him, and he never quite recovered from realisation that Maria might not really felt the same, even if she did love him too.

Elias was very gentle person when he was growing up, and could only really turn to Maria to hide from judgement for "shaming" his noble family. She was there for him during both of his most hardcore conflicts with Annalise (who was and is extremely hard to earn forgiveness from), and believed in him when he decided to become a warrior too. Annalise, like I said, Maria found a comfort in, lacking a mother figure and instead seeking a woman to turn to in older sisters figures. But also, Annalise gave her chills sometimes! She never dared to lie to her or break a promise to her- and she did see what happens on example of Elias. At the same time, Annalise was so reliable, someone Maria could share her problem with and just know that Annalise will help...

____________________________

This is all for now! Obviously this is not all characters to cover; there are still Logarius, Izzy, Caryll (one more cousin, but known one), Micolash and Rom, and relatives in Cainhurst! I just wanted to answer the ask now but I am still cooking some headcanons because I figured I can't rush it and right ideas find me at their own pace :pensive: Still, thank you for letting me talk about it in detail!!

[none-house-left-grief]

no please share your Bloodbourne AU with us….im glad im not the only one thinking about this

Hey sorry I'm only getting to this now! I never get asks for this blog so I don't bother checking often.

I don't have any particularly detailed thoughts, and a lot of things just don't fully add up unless you ignore some lore on both ends but here's re a few ideas I've had (they're all just very very obvious connections tbh they're not super interesting I think):

Obviously the religion of the Ninth is the Healing Church

The Cathedral Ward, specifically Oedon Chapel, would be the Ninth/Drearburh equivalent

It gets a bit complicated when we get to talking about the Lyctors, Resurrection Beasts, and BoS, however

I think the best option for BoS to be would be the hunters (Wake being the much sexier and much much less creepy version of Gherman (would that make Pyrrha Lady Maria?) as the leader/founder)

The Byrgenwerth Scholars could be the Lyctors (or necromancers more broadly)

The Lyctors would be the known bosses and scholars we know of (Maria, Micolash, Rom, etc.) although they could also include hunters like Gascoigne

The RBs would be the bosses that are not human (Amygdala, Blood Starved Beast, (potentially Vicar Amelia idk how I feel about including her tbh)

Here's the tricky part:

John and Alecto could be Willem and Laurence, but I see Jod as Laurence in this (because he would use the blood (which in this case it would be the necromantic equivalent ig??) to "help" people but Alecto would not vibe with it)

However Willem was essentially the founding figure of Byrgenwerth, which, if we didn't do a 1:1 comparison could also work

Laurence could also be Anastasia the First, being the respective founders of their churches

Another issue is that I don't know what to make of the necro/cav duos. Admittedly, this is what makes the AU fall apart for me a little, although I'm sure there's a way to make it work

The easiest thing to do would be to make them Hunters, but then the BoS thing would have to be different

We could pull a Soul Eater and have the cavs be the Hunter weapons because the healing church also has hunters, but that doesn't quite fit for me

Unless

The Cainhurst Vilebloods could be the BoS equivallent, going against the church founded under Laurence/John

This lets the hunters be necromancers and their cavaliers, provided they hunt in pairs

This also lets Pyrrha be Maria and have some ties to BoE through Wake

Some characters might not have direct connections tho

Nona is hard to account for on account of the whole Nona thing

Characters like Patches don't seem to fit with tlt either

The House system would have to be potentially scrapped, although they could be allied/paired off based off of branches from the Scholars

Magic is also a challenge, as the closest thing are the Arcane Hunter Tools and Blood which isn't the same as necromancy (especially not TLT necromancy with the intricacies of the River, thanergy and thallergy, etc.)

Lyctorhood would also be a challenge, although it could be as simple as "the soul/body/blood is absorbed when 'ascended'" or something

The whole "Bloodborne is full of references to the horrors of womanhood and pregnancy and femininity and blood" thing also doesn't fit quite as neatly with tlt because it has a more anti-imperialist bend to it and gender-fuckery happens, but it's not quite like in Bloodborne

For this reason, the whole Pthumerian part of the lore doesn't fit in any way that's easily apparent to me, although I'm open to ideas on all of this, particularly I would love to find a way to fit Queen Yharnam into all this without just making her Wake because they're both the only ones who are prego.

Anyway yeah that's about it lmao hope it's as interesting as you thought it would be

[iotnonii]

Is anyone a fan of bloodborne and also Ginjnaninjaowo's Prism series?? Please I'm fighting for my life trying to make Maria into a magical girl Notes on First Rough Draft:

I realized I didn't know how the hell magical girls worked. I only ever watched madoka and it's a lot like a very intricate clock to me, as in I can see somewhat how it works, but the actual components are foreign to me. In trying to be as extra as a magical girl, the whole thing feels incohesive. The thing is, Maria has to have a strong color palette since she's one of the old hunters and I don't know how to even begin balancing said palette if black and white don't count. I'm also at a disadvantage since most of bloodborne is covered in red and black and the clocktower is an intentional washed out grey. I couldn't find a shape that was simple enough to read as "prism shape" to me. This was somewhat fun but what the hell reads as "Clock" here other than her weapons? So definitely more references are needed.

Notes on Second Rough Draft:

I just looked up pirate magical girl since I'm very attached to the cravat and I just wanted to figure out how someone would keep that while doing magical girl stuff. As someone who is a firm lover of butch women, this felt like sacrilege- almost like I just drew Gherman's fantasy. There are colors though! And she has her funny lil hat that I love. The trim is bit weird but I was afraid of overusing the clock ticks. Still feels miles ahead of the other design though so I'll take it!

please, if you have any questions or suggestions- dm me or throw something in my ask box. Thank you ;-;

[not-kaiva]

its fun how all four umbilicus in bloodborne can, with some thinking, fit within the four horsemen of the apocalypse. the area or person you pick up the umbilicus is your hunter witnessing a major flaw of humanity. given the themes of this game. a sin, or something, caused by this ongoing misery throughout the land. if you will.

mergo - war - not his wet nurse, but the very concept of mergo himself - he's a everything that's comes along as the aftermath of war. he's the impact. he's the aftershock, if you will. - "The thought of that stuffed rabbit lying in that crater, rain and weather matting its fur, unloved, forgotten, totally alone, lost forever, it fills me with a profound hopelessness…." - amnesia the bunker but consider this emotion evoked by the empty stroller in the middle of a desolate nightmare, and knowing that mergo is dead - he's a child victim of war and also the formless representation of every victim. you hear his cries and see his mother mourn all because of this senseless violence, the neverending war between the schools and all the civilians and innocents and especially the children caught in it. he's heard all over the game, all in places where the scars of war are so evident.

the workshop/the doll's physical form - famine - the doll here represents gherman's hunger for maria ("curious mania") and how the doll would never fill that desire - he wanted maria like an otaku wants a waifu statue. it's like....content is over, let's make our own content! and distorting the truth in a way that's unrealistic. he wanted to possess maria, to have her likenesses. - the doll was never animated by the moon presence to be maria 2.0, because gherman doesn't actually want maria. he wants the coffee shop au fanfic of maria. he wanted a subservient maria to give him ownership over her in a way that he never got from a teacher-student relationship. but the moon presence making the doll (hunter's dream) based off of what she understood gherman's wish was makes sense. she took his desire to have maria take care of and dote on him, but had to change maria in a way that strips off that spice and attitude to make the doting possible. and he didn't want that. he has to live forever facing a facsimile of what he wanted. - it's like fandom people going "i wish this character would do xyz, treat me like this way, do this to me" and understanding the real character would never ever do xyz. but when someone made a fanfic of sweet highschool sweetheart au of that character, you realize all of a sudden it's ooc. it's not the character you fell in love with. - for that matter the whole hunter's dream is this. gherman wants his workshop to be The place that all future hunters come and learn from. he was the first hunter, training hunters, and now you have all these other shops. the church workshop. byrgenworth has a hunter's workshop technically. in this competition gherman wants to be The Hunter again. The Mentor. and the moon presence gave him the dream where he can teach every hunter forever. :) isn't that great? - but it's just like the doll, he's trapped in the dream. when you show up he doesn't even give a fuck about teaching you. just go kill some beasts, it's what hunters do. whatever. he has to live forever with a constant stream of new students, but none of them will replace the One student he wants. - it's the classic interpretation of the horseman of famine. you eat and eat and eat and you're still skin and bones. no amount of food will make you satisfied, and no amount of wish-granting will truly give gherman what he desires. he will only ever get exactly what he wished for.

arianna - death - no matter what you do, she will die - she's pretty hard to keep alive if you don't have prior knowledge. send her to the wrong safe haven, accept her blood too many times, don't send her anywhere, invite the wrong people back to the chapel... - and even if you do keep her alive, just by killing the infant Great One in the final stage will kill her. sure, you "get something out of it" but that's not the point. she's innocent, totally uninvolved in all this chaos. she's done nothing wrong (as far as the morals of blood vs eyes go) and yet she dies in the end. death is inevitable and the hunter is its witness.

fake iosefka - pestilence - she's taken over the clinic, a place of healing, and instead is spreading the beast plague - she's also an example of the sort of sickness and rot invading the schools, since iirc her umbilicus is stolen from the school of insight? - in addition to the moral rot of stealing just for her own personal gain she also very much experiments on those you send to the clinic. which is definitely a rotted thing to do. i know she's not the actual iosefka, and as such fake iosefka is not beholden to healer's oaths. the fact remains that she knocked out the real doctor in order to pretend to treat people and take advantage of their fear and vulnerability to experiment. to deliberately change them and spread the plague. - she's a leech in a doctor's coat. she's everything about horrible people during a pandemic and the panic within. she's what can happen when someone embraces a plague and tries to use it to advance her own status. she's the flaws of humanity you see when pestilence rides into town.

[girlwithteeth]

I am playing bloodborne again because it is the beat game fromsoft ever made and I love the story telling so much!!!

Gherman is the first hunter. The nobles of castle cainhurst would have been educated. The scholars of a particular school found undead abominations and the corpses of gods in an archeological site. One of Gherman’s acolytes, a girl of noble heritage, threw themselves down a well, unable to reconcile the perceived nobility of combat with the horror of the slaughter demanded of her. The healing church is a cult granted legitimacy and power through the wanting of their saint’s blood. The noble of cainhurst found something underground and want to bear child from blood. Their own blood is tainted. There is a god that exists only in voice and blood. There is (to my knowledge) only one enemy that does not cry out as they die and that is a fungus ridden old man, leader of the college of note, who was old and dying at the time the healing church was being established. Gherman was said to possess a mania unseen by his student(s?). There is a doll that looks like the noble girl that killed herself. There is a plane separate from reality which can tether and sustain a person for only one night, but a night unending, until the deed is done and the hunt is finished. There is a doll there that has the face and voice of that noble girl. The doll can hear the echoes of the blood you have spilled. She pours them into you, the sounds of your victims slaughter give you strength. After a while, she can hear the song those echoes sound in your veins. She finds them soothing. There is a special hell for people just like you. And wouldn’t you know it? That noble girl is there. Head of the damned healing church, who monopolized that special blood, who monopolized the hunting of beasts that sprang from it. Who killed all of the nobles of cainhurst, those people with blood that is quite similar to those of their blood saints, but forbidden. You find her at the head of some faux-orphanage come house of healing. Everyone has been experimented on, more inhuman than the blood drunk hunters and beasts outside their walls. What was the point? Who would kill themselves for the shame of killing and live again just to do such a thing? Is it even really the same woman? Or another doll with her face, her voice, only more convincing? Shapes and sounds. Body, blood, and voice. A hunter should hunt. What are the ‘musts’ of the rich? The preachers? The poor? To get. To lead. To drink the blood of the saints and bleed in turn. What is a saint that lives to be milked of their life for profit? What is a hunter that would rush to kill more readily than a wolf? What leads a religion when no priests have known their prophet? What is money on the night of the hunt? Will you to reach a point where you can no longer abide to live by the direction of others? Is this night truly worse than what came before, or were you simply numb to hear of suffering as history? Every night is an apocalypse for someone. Every day the world ends ten thousand times.

[zinogirl]

Gherman, The First Hunter

absolute masterpiece of music

[superiorsturgeon]

I think we as a society should do more of this. Catch me seductively spilling a glass of Barbera aged to the Gherman the First Hunter boss theme down my half-opened top!

I just found out the most hilariously amazing thing.

[dzvagabond]

In the Beginning

Here's a lore fic for Aiden, my Hunter from Blood//borne. It's set pretty in the beginning of the game with some canon changes to the game's story. It was written on: 09/28/22. Some context before reading: Aiden was adopted by Gascoigne and his family at a young age, before his girls, Elisa and Sarah, were born. [As always, Read More added for length]

Yharnam was a lot different from what Aiden had remembered. After waking in the Hunter's Dream and encountering Gherman again for what felt like the first time in years, being back in his home felt… off. The creatures had overtaken the usually quiet calm place and the hunters who usually patrolled were nowhere to be found. It was off-putting to the young hunter. Gascoigne, his mentor, his father, was normally the one in Central Yharnam and yet… He wasn't anywhere. 

'Maybe Gascoigne succumbed to the plague…?' He shook the thought from his mind, figuring he might have started patrolling closer to the chapel in the Cathedral Ward considering how many creatures were in the square.

After searching for what felt like hours, encountering various arseholes who're going mad due to isolation and hysteria, and a lovely gentleman named Gilbert; Aiden decided to try to head over to the flat he called his home all those years ago. 

'Maybe the girls would still be there with Viola. I hope they're safe from all of this madness.' 

Going through what felt like hordes of diseased, mad villagers, he made it to the flat albeit covered in blood. The smell of incense hit his nose, making him feel proud that they remembered the precaution after all this time. 

He walked up to the barred, lit window and softly knocked on the stained glass. A soft, nervous voice perked up at the sound of his knocking."H-hello..? Daddy?"

"Elisa, is that you?"

A soft gasp of what sounded like excitement came from the young girls' voice. "Aiden! You're okay!"

"Of course I'm alright, dear. Is Sarah and your mum with you?"

There was a slight hesitation from Elisa that immediately worried Aiden. He hoped nothing happened to either of them. 

"Mum… Mum went missing a few nights ago looking for Daddy. She forgot her music box again. B-but, Sarah is here with me, she's just asleep upstairs at the moment. Do you want me to go get her Aiden?" 

The hunter let out a sigh of relief. At least the children, his sisters, we're safe. Viola however… He would have to keep an eye out for her. Maybe she found his mentor and they decided to hole up somewhere for the time being. 

"No love, that's fine. Let her rest. I'm going to try to find mum and dad, alright? I promise I'll be back as soon as I can."

"Please be safe brother, we don't want to lose you to this dreadfulness. Take mum's music box with you. Maybe if she or daddy hears it, they'll come straight to you."

Aiden smiled inwardly to himself as the small music box was pushed through a small gap in between the bars of the window. He gently picked it up and put it in the satchel at his side. "I promise I'll be safe and I'll take good care of mum's trinket. You two stay hidden and I'll see you soon." 

The two said their quick goodbyes and the hunter started making his way towards the Tomb of Oedon, where he knew there was a safe house close; not knowing the horrors that awaited him. 

__________________________________________

Aiden felt sick, felt guilty, felt immense pain in his chest as the realization of his actions had caught up to him. He didn't want to do it, but there was no other choice. Gascoigne was too far gone, had killed Viola in his blood-crazed stupor and didn't even recognize him, his own son. 

The hunter wanted to fall to his knees and cry out, yell out, beat out his frustration. But there were more pressing matters at hand. He had to get Elisa and Sarah to the Oedon Chapel. That's where Eileen said it was safe. There was an old hermit overseeing the place with incense where the girls could be safe until they could leave this wretched place. 

Aiden didn't have the heart to tell them what had happened once he arrived at the house. He kept Viola's broach hidden from them lest the two tried to do something drastic. Instead, he told them he couldn't find the two but they had to leave quickly. There was a sanctuary where they could stay together with other survivors from the village. 

The guilt would just have to eat away at the man, no matter what the cost. He couldn't lose them too.