Hemlock Grows in Oakhurst

A VSMP Starter Vampire Swap AU I will eventually make a PFP for this I swear-

[hemlock-grows-in-oakhurst]

It Begins...

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Welcome to Hemlock Grows in Oakhurst, a Vampires SMP Starter Vampire Swap AU!

I have many friends and mutuals that have been asking me to make this blog, so here we go-

BEFORE GOING FORWARD: Behind the Artist/Blog Rules

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General Information:

In this alternate universe, we have swapped the canon starter vampires for two completely different members of the cast. The story forms based on this change!

I am going to be very open with who the starter vampires are, they are just not mentioned in this specific post.

Asks are welcome and appreciated as it gives me things to draw/talk about.

I am unsure if this will be written out into an entire written fanfiction unless I decide to fully commit to it, but I do love making art/small comics so that'll be a major part of this blog.

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Important Tags

#hemlock grows in oakhurst -> The full tag for the AU

#hemlock au or #vsmp hemlock au -> The shortened version of the AU name so it's easier to type

#hemlock au art -> The tag used to show posts that have art related to the AU in them

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Lucid's Feelings on Shipping:

There are only 2 canon relationships in Hemlock Grows in Oakhurst:

Hellfire and Lovebitten.

Both are mentioned by Apo and Owen at some point as being current or was a thing in the past.

Other than those two, everything else will be written platonically. I do not have a shipping focus when writing Hemlock AU, nor is there any plan to unless it somehow naturally happens between the characters. (I do have character duos in Hemlock I would personally ship but they are still not being written romantically if it does not make sense for them to be. I'm a writer first, shipper wayyy later.)

The main ship I could see happening in Hemlock AU is Silveraxe. Even then, I don't think anything serious could happen without time passing outside of Oakhurst itself which means they would both have to survive the AU.

I understand that people have their ships they gravitate to and like to ship characters. It's a part of fandom and I don't have any issues with it. I also understand that shipping can be a big selling point for someone to get into something. If you want to know how the characters interact, please don't send me asks to know if a ship is canon. Just ask me how they interact or request a doodle of them as it's much more fun for both parties.

I am okay with people shipping in Hemlock AU. I understand that dynamics in the AU will be read as both romantic and platonic and so I don't mind if people want to ship characters together.

My main request is to please be mindful of both my blog rules and the content creator boundaries when talking about shipping.

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Important Posts

Character Designs

Starter Vampire Reveal

Vampire Edits/Sire and Fledgling

The First Turn

The Second Turn

The First Sighting

The Agreement

The Third Turn

Unexpected Visitor

"What Happened?"

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Ask Related Archives

Lore Related Asks

Character Dynamic Related Asks

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Art Related Archives

Posts with Art

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This post will be edited as the AU develops on the blog itself, so stay tuned!

[hemlock-grows-in-oakhurst]

You mentioned that Owens disease was mostly cured, would you mind telling more?

Like does he experience have chronic pain or other side effects? How did he get cured?

I’m curious about if it effects how he interacts with people? In canon Owen despised the townsfolk for putcasting him and it bled through to his general opinoin on humans. What about in this AU?

Btw I love your artsyle! if its not to much to ask perhaps a lovebitten drawing?

SORRY THIS IS SO LATE-

I tried to do a Lovebitten drawing for it as requested but it never really looked the way I wanted it to so I unfortunately had to give up. I really didn't want to leave your question completely unanswered though despite my lack of motivation at the moment.

Small Note to Answer the First Bit: I'm mostly keeping the disease itself under a blanket description. I don't want to go too far into saying it's a specific disease and then having it be inaccurately shown.

As for the other questions:

Yes! He does get chronic pain and general skin irritation, which is why he wraps his arms when going out and about. The scars can get itchy and he's learned over the years to be able to make the side effects a little easier. Since they weren't living in Oakhurst, Louis and Owen were able to get actual medical assistance in larger cities and Louis did everything he could to help Owen get the medical help to make his condition more bearable.

Owen mostly tolerates people instead of flat out hating them. In contrast to canon, he was able to spend a good amount of time with Louis and was mostly able to accept his appearance as something that wasn't hideous. Sure, he doesn't like people and people still look at him weird because of his scars, but Louis continually made that easier for him by reminding him that he found him lovely. He's grown less self-conscious overtime and even gained some interest in medicine due to wanting to know how he could possibly make himself completely cured, alongside trying to understand why took Louis from him.

Now that Louis is gone, it is mostly up to him how he decides to perceive people around him, but he's willing to give them a chance for him. Let's hope no one gives him a reason to go down a path of hatred again.

[hemlock-grows-in-oakhurst]

Hey so. Are you like. Alive.

/pos

AH!

Yeah I’m alive I’m so sorry 😭😭

Life hit me like a truck and then I haven’t unfortunately had the motivation to work on the AU that much. Got a pile of projects and IRL mostly

I’m unsure when another post will be made with an update? We’ll have to see

[hemlock-grows-in-oakhurst]

Hellooo! I haven’t in fact asked you much or checked out the au since I’ve been busy looking after this clingy little one but may I see abolish in your art style cause he just looks whimsey :3

Awwww that's such a cute little kitty! Thank you for blessing my eyes.

Here's an Abolish for you! ❤️

[hemlock-grows-in-oakhurst]

Realized I've never drawn Shelby as a stage 1 bat and decided to fix that! Also starring her sire ✨

[hemlock-grows-in-oakhurst]

Hiya!! I’m back after a Millennia-

I just wanted to request a Legundo doodle, no matter the level, I js adore him in your art style!! :D

Also, I love the concept of him having a red tinted monocle in his stage 2 form, absolutely amazing :3

A doodle of Legs for you! Sorry it's so late ❤️

[hemlock-grows-in-oakhurst]

Oh gosh, i could imagine.

I have been hosting my own fan vsmp server with some friends on weekends and it is a time. And also definetly a time commitment *Expecially as the sessions ended up starting from midnight my time as that was the time that fit most people...*

I Hope you all had fun! I know i am having plenty of fun with my friends, despite the sleep deprivation

Oh 100% it's a time commitment and definitely had some technical difficulties, but we had an absolute blast! So much so that we are planning to do more than one just so other people can get a chance to try out playing vampires.

[hemlock-grows-in-oakhurst]

Hiya!!!

This is your monthly check-in ask!!

How are ya doing? You haven’t posted for a while, so I thought I should see if you’re doing alright :3

AH!

I am doing well, I am so sorry I haven't been able to post. 😭😭

I've been helping with/moderating for a fanmade VSMP and we just had our finale this weekend for both groups that were running so I have been extremely busy. Especially since we also plan to do multiple rounds. (We do not record and streaming is limited to just the discord, so I cannot give a link for people to see what happened)

Thank you so much for checking in though! I promise I'm alive and functional. IRL + the SMP has taken up all of my time 💕

[hemlock-grows-in-oakhurst]

Yoo! Back with the small fanart decided to draw the characters we’ve seen once or twice aka Avid and Drift!

Hope you like it also has my YT in the hair, enjoy your fanart hope to see more of this AU :3

OH MY GOODNESS! THEY LOOK SO CUTE!

Aww this turned out so good! Thank you so much ❤️❤️

I hope to get some updates out on the AU soon, I've been so busy this past month and have got some requests to draw still. Hopefully should have those out soon!

[hemlock-grows-in-oakhurst]

Yoo hiya again just wanted to ask if you’d like some fanart for your au I do free art of characters in different outfits, I often draw for small fandoms or characters eg bloodstone smp, Artimators smp and and comics.

If you’d like some just respond :3

I am fine with most types of fanart! It means a lot when people like my work enough to want to do art or other fanworks of it ❤️

[hemlock-grows-in-oakhurst]

Could stage 2 Legundo use the fact that one of his eyes are fake to still blend in in town by closing his real eye whenever someone else is around?

He doesn't close his eye, but he does actually do something interesting and a little extra. He has a backup monocle which has glass that is tinted red so it doesn't look too off to less observant eyes.

When he hits stage 3, he does have a new eye.

[hemlock-grows-in-oakhurst]

Yooo! Love the au so far just wanted to ask a quick question about my boy Abolish, for a long time I think that abolish has a silver earring which can be seen on his character does this effect him or where you unaware of this also will anything like abolish getting a flower from pyro like he did in cannon happen or we scratching that scene right out the back door?

Love your au and art keep up the good work and love to know if there is going to be a place you upload a comic/novel when you perhaps finish the project /vvnf (very very not forced)

Abolish's earring is 100% made of silver in my eyes. When he finally decides he's had enough and goes up a vampire stage, he will not be able to wear it anymore. It's enough silver on his ear to irritate him as well but not enough to cause burns/rashes.

I thought a LOT about the silver burns thing, don't worry lmao

As for the flower with Pyro? Unfortunately it did not end up happening.

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And thank you so much! 💕💕

Hemlock will probably mostly be a Tumblr thing unless I go insane and actually fully write it out (or if my friend goes insane/gets bored and ends up putting all of my insane thoughts down into an actual fanfiction while I draw more comics)

If Hemlock AU is posted anywhere but on this blog OR within circles I am actually a part of, it is not me.

[hemlock-grows-in-oakhurst]

You’re so real for not centering avid in your au. He’s such a fan favorite, let someone else have the spotlight

Yeahh I tend to work around a POV that I do understand.

It's nothing against v!Avid as a character, every character in Vampires has qualities I like and qualities I don't like. I just don't know enough about his lore/am pretty neutral on his character as a whole. I much prefer focusing in on characters and dynamics I am more comfortable with and understand the most.

I also cannot deny that v!Avid fans kind of scare me sometimes- And a lot of his stuff I've seen in the VSMP fanbase involves shipping which I'm not writing here.

[hemlock-grows-in-oakhurst]

SHEBYYYY NOOOOO

At least Pyro didn't get her this time?

Scott also asked for permission! It was willing and they discussed it for a few days before it happened.

[hemlock-grows-in-oakhurst]

May I pls ask for a bit of avid? Maybe he’s having trouble w/ his infection or is bothering Owen+abolish? Haven’t see him much, and he’s my fav ;D

also how dose his infection work? And can I get maybe a tiny peak of what full demon avid would look like if it dose happen? ;)

I don't have as much on Avid as I should (He's not really one of the characters with a ton of focus nor does he really change that much from canon)

He's mostly doing similar things to canon though. Feeling like he's going crazy because no one believes in vampires like he does, starting things with the people he believes might be vampires/people who he just doesn't mix well with, creating the clinic, etc.

He's still friends with Drift and Shelby mostly but also has a good friendship with Ren. After vampires are fully revealed and no one can really deny it anymore, some of the town members do become more protective of him as well as he does become more confidently reckless.

I'd say the main difference is that he feels guilty for Scott being turned into a vampire. Scott of course is just messing with his head to make him feel guilty (Scott doesn't regret it at all) but Avid does blame himself a little for why Scott ended up agreeing to being turned.

He's also got a lot of recent confusion, guilt, and anger surrounding Shelby's turn because he doesn't understand why she did it.

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As for his "infection" related things (I'm not sure if that's the term I would use for it), it is in play, but it is not very explored. I don't think it will be seen or happen in the story however, as I don't know the full details of how it works and I don't tend to write things that I don't fully have an understanding of.

I can at least say that it's happening to him slower.

[hemlock-grows-in-oakhurst]

how does the town feel about Shelby’s turn?

Conflicted. Town is extremely conflicted and divided on the topic.

Some of them want to know why she agreed. Some already accept that they know the answer to why they did it.

Some just have decided to treat her like the rest of the vampires. They haven't been shown a vampire that didn't turn sour towards humans after becoming one.

[hemlock-grows-in-oakhurst]

soo...how's shelby getting along with all the other vampires? Im specifically wondering how she fits into the hierarchy now

All of the castle vampires really like Shelby! She makes it very difficult to dislike her.

Cleo helps teach her about how to be a vampire with Scott. Scott and Shelby still have their dynamic consistent from before the turn.

Pyro and Shelby still 100% have sibling energy.

Shelby respects Legundo and doesn't get in his way so he respects them. Shelby is also polite and offers to help him if he needs it.

Hierarchy-wise? She's very well liked so despite being very new, they'll rise up pretty quick.

As for Abolish? Our non-castle vampire?

Well he's definitely concerned but not surprised she decided to become a vampire. He was sort of expecting it.