For the OC pairings tag! Please tell me about Morgan & Matthew, Robert & Abby & Ethan, and Oren & Ada! :D
Thank you so much :D Excited to talk about them all, so I hope this won’t get too long.
Morgan and Matthew Morgan and Matthew are from The Mechanics of Magic. To summarise, Morgan led the mission to kill Matthew and the rest of the royal family of Ardveld, and he now leads the country while Matthew lives in hiding.
For two people who have had such a big impact on each other’s lives, they have barely met. Matthew was 17 when Morgan arrived with his entourage on their state visit. He remembers being introduced to Morgan - the 21 year old younger brother the leader of the neighbouring country of Vailberg – but Matthew was never the type to care much about playing the good little crown prince. He ditched the formal dinner and so was safely in the palace gardens with two of his friends when the more sinister motives of Morgan’s visit were revealed. The man who Morgan had sent into the gardens to find them was killed during Oliver’s awakening as one of Matthew’s champions, but not before Matthew’s childhood best friend Xander was killed. He still has flashbacks of the scene. As far as Matthew knows, he has been presumed dead for the past 23 years. His fear of Morgan fuels a constant anxiety for his own son, as well as guilt that he has moved past any desire for revenge or to claim his birthright. All he wants now is to know that his family are safe and to live a quiet life.
Morgan has waited every day for Matthew to come for revenge. He knows he survived the attack – Morgan was the one to find Xander’s body and to pass it off as that of the prince.
Ardveld’s royal family had been trying to destabilise Vailberg for some time, stirring up unrest that had culminated in an assassination attempt on Vailberg’s leader, Morgan’s older sister. He’d been young and consumed with ideas of vengeance and glory – the reality of Ardveld’s takeover was quite different. Stumbling across Xander’s body after fleeing the chaos and death of the banqueting hall brought home what he had done, and he couldn’t face having to send out people to hunt Matthew down. No more deaths – damn the consequences.
Every year, a celebration of Ardveld’s takeover is held in the same dining room. Morgan has had all the furnishings replaced, but it doesn’t stop the flashbacks and panic attacks. In some ways he’s glad for them as a just punishment. How can he deserve sympathy when he was the cause? He looks in the mirror and sees a monster, one whose only purpose now is to do his duty and take good care of the country he bought with blood in service to his sister. Duty above all, Morgan is a fair and considerate leader and Ardveld has thrived with him in charge. He is well loved by his staff, though comes across as incredibly private and serious, with no close friends. In Vailberg his reputation is that of a power-hungry killer, who drenched Ardveld’s palace with so much blood it had to be stripped clean. There are whispers that he plans to usurp his nephew and claim his sister’s throne when she passes.
Perhaps he will get some peace if Matthew ever comes to claim his place.
Robert & Abby & Ethan This trio are minor characters in Burning the Darkness. Robert is a vampire, turned in the early 90s by his boyfriend at the time. It was quite a rushed decision because Robert was dying of illness, and the couple went their separate ways not long after. He always wears a beany hat due to a bad haircut a decade ago that still hasn’t fully grown out. The reality of traditional vampire life was difficult for Robert, and so he joined up with the volunteer network in order to feed consensually from humans rather than hunting, and that was how he met Abby and Ethan.
Abby and Ethan are a couple who came to the network as human volunteers, introduced by Ada who runs it. They got close to Robert through a shared love of nerdy interests and are now basically a triad, with him crashing at their place more often than not. Ethan is very into music and likes to mock Robert’s old-fashioned taste. Abby doesn’t have much contact with her family since coming out and is deeply appreciative of the found family she has gained through the network. They’re the ones to ask if you’re looking for a D&D group!
Oren & Ada Ada runs the volunteer network, a group of humans and vampires working together to help vampires feed consensually and to advocate for human rights in the courts. The network has been demonised by the current court leader, with vampires who join it being ostracized and having their rights to turn others removed.
She would never show it, but Ada’s feelings towards Oren were initially cold. He had been turned by the son of the court leader, Julian, meaning he must share some of his values and have known was he was getting into before becoming a vampire. Ada would never turn anyone away from the network, but she didn't have much sympathy for him until he revealed that he had been turned illegally against his will. At that point she encourages him to seek justice and watches out for him whenever she can.
Oren has great respect for Ada, that only continues to grow over time. She is someone who keeps a cool head in a crisis and does what is right over a knee-jerk emotional reaction. He owes her his life in more than one way, and her approach to the vampires helps him to see that he isn’t the monster he thought he was.