#or if this is going to stay in the back burner indefinitely like dragon r

[darkartistyt]

layherzen au backstory (details subject to change)

pretty much the whole backstory of folsense is rewritten. the town came under attack by vampires (vampires are real in this au), and a great number of people died as a result. some were killed by the vampires themselves, others after being turned

sophia was attacked by a vampire, and while anton was close enough to hear her screams and rush over to try to help, he was too late to save her from dying. he tried to attack the vampire and ended up getting bitten pretty badly, so much so that the other people who tried to help worried that he would die. he barely managed to hang on by a thread

knowing that he would likely be murdered on sight if he were to leave the castle, he stayed safe at home and simply watched as the town quickly became smaller and smaller, either from people dying or from people fleeing. eventually, any vampires who didn't chase the townsfolk down moved on, leaving him alone

most of the events of pb remains the same until luke and hersh meet anton for the first time. he doesn't hide the fact that he's a vampire; both of them at one point notice his fangs. because vampires are real in this au, it doesn't come as that unbelievable to hershel, and he grows wary of anton's intentions behind letting them stay the night

things continue canon compliantly until right before the fight scene due to the obvious: katia isn't there. this of course means that the fight is not prompted, so anton instead simply continues his scare act, threatening one last time to kill and eat them both. hershel starts protecting luke, saying that he wont let anton hurt him, which takes the vampire by surprise. hes never had someone refuse to leave before. not to mention there's something about hershel's determination that anton finds respectable at the very least. still, he keeps up the act and leaves for a moment, giving them one last chance to flee, although part of him knows they are not going to take it

while hershel does still wish to figure out the truth behind the elysian box, there's also something about anton that he cant help but feel drawn towards. on one hand, he's definitely afraid of him; the man kidnapped him (poorly, but still) and threatened to kill him and luke! even if he was bluffing, his attempts to frighten them both still worked. on the other hand, hershel cannot help but want to know more about the man, and he cannot figure out why. perhaps it was simply his connection to the elysian box. perhaps it was the mystery surrounding his being a vampire. or perhaps it was more personal than that. after all, even from first seeing him, hershel had thought he was quite pretty, something which his voice and demeanour only added onto. and though it scared him, waking up tied up with anton leaning over him calling him "feisty", seeming more than ready to sink his fangs into him... but that cant be right, can it? if all this means what he thinks it means, surely those would have been aspects of himself he would have discovered by now. he's nearly fourty, for crying out loud, and never in his life had he felt this way that quickly, nor towards another man, nor in that kind of context! there must be something weird going on that hes just not fully aware of yet

and to say anton wasnt feeling confliction of his own would be to lie. part of him still wants to drive the two away as he had done to countless other trespassers, and yet there was something special about hershel. the man was determined, brave, protective; he didnt run away or try to fight when anton revealed he was a vampire, even maintaining his politeness; and admittedly, the loneliness had been taking its tole on him for quite some time. decades, in fact. he wants to believe that was the only reason why an ever growing side of him wishes to keep hershel around, but something in the back of his mind practically demanded that there were other factors at play here, that he isn't just desperate and instead actually admires hershel at least a little

it is at around this point that id want the front-story to begin if i were to ever turn this into something. my ideas for the general themes are as follows:

the beginning includes a lot of self discovery, mainly on hershels end. hes realising shit about himself that he feels like he should have figured out years ago and, if anything, is a bit ashamed of, especially once anton bites and turns him out of desperation to get him to stay

luke wants to help hershel, but he practically demands he leave just in case. luke eventually complies and rushes out of the castle. he goes to find chelmey and tell him what happened. idk what id do with that but it is a conflict that exists

yeah this part is basically just a rewrite of that one fic i wrote

while hershel and anton stick together, things go from awkward to normal and great and awesome to... "codependent in a spicy way" is the most appropriate way i can put it. its very much a thing where if youre uncomfortable with the very specific elements of their fucked up relationship youre not gonna like what i have to say about them. thats part of where my hesitance lies. i wont go into detail, you get the hint (i hope...)

its a fairly slow burn tho, so slowly in fact that neither of them realise how bad things are getting even when theyre in the thick of it. gives me the chance to play around more with unreliable narration

chances are, this is just going to be an au that i keep rotating in my brain instead of sculpting into something for others to enjoy, but i wanted to get my thoughts down in case it was interesting to people. itll definitely be more mature than what i usually make, but part of me does want to write a longfic. whatever i decide to do will depend on future me's comfort levels