Now the main focus of my "Nothing Bad Happens, They All Leave, and Bloodletting is Happy" AU (which will just be called "the AU" from this point on cause it's a mouthful and a half) is both Firelocke and Bloodletting. Bloodletting is focusing on trying to fix themselves because they realize they can't be together without trying to fix the other, so they have to be fixed first (did that make sense? they have to be good by themself before the other person). Firelocke is focusing on Abolish realizing he's in love with this Pyro who is so vulnerable and slightly sad but also sometimes like a little kid with how much he loves the world and Pyro learning how to deal with his trauma in a healthier way and then realizing Abolish makes him feel safe and might be the one person who really understands everything about him.
However, THIS SPECIFIC POST is about the headcanons for Legs only (and slightly Owen but mostly just Legs) in this AU. There will be more that are for Abolish and Owen and Pyro themselves, but here's Legs first:
Sometimes he does that thing that one of the gummies did in TADC episode two? If you don't know what I mean it's like these little gummy alligators and one of them lays across the other's lap to see out the window and the one being laid on just rests his chin in the ridges on the first one's back and it's super adorable.
Anyways Legs does that but almost exclusively with Abolish (in Oakhurst. he doesn't do it as much outside because he's not working himself to the bone) because he just gets tired so he rests his chin on Abolish's shoulder and relaxes for just a second (Abolish thinks it's adorable and also that he should get some sleep).
He actually really hates the feeling/knowing he has a clean coat on? Something to do with it being a certain day at the end of the month when their coats would get bleached to wash out the blood but the bleach was never strong enough to cover the smell and it made him sick to his stomach…. cough cough TRAUMA cough cough
Emotional Support Knife™ was given to him by the youngest soldier he saw on the front lines. (Faked enlistment. He was only 16.) He told Legs (rather enthusiastically, Legs always thought morbidly) that he thought something would happen to him and asked if he'd "keep it safe for me, wouldya, Doc? 'Least while I'm on the field? I'll come back an' get it real soon."
That boy (his name was George Davis. he died 15 hours after Legs wished him luck.) passed away and Legs was stuck with the knife as both a good luck charm and a guilt reminder that he could not save him. He failed to save so many more than he could have. (He could have reported George. He could have. And yet he didn't.)
Anyways ESK™ was used during any fighting in Oakhurst because it was both silver and a good luck charm. Legs managed to stab Scott with it but never got the knife back and when he found out Scott dropped it in the river, he went home.
Now Legs has not cried since before the war, but this drives him over the edge. He sinks onto his bed and he sobs.
Legs can smell really well. (What a transition, Z. Absolutely phenomenal. Aww ya know, thanks, I try.)
Like insanely good nose. Everyone in Oakhurst has a decently unique smell, but he only really tries to figure out the smell if he's close to that person. Cleo, for example, smells like wet dirt and flowers. The flowers change, but so far Legs has pinpointed lilies, sunflowers, and orchids. Abolish smells strongly of metal. Not blood, or anything. Just… metal. Faintly of gun oil when Legs rests his chin on the younger man's shoulder. Avid constantly has a heavy stench of fear and a sliver of infection that makes Legs' nose curl. As a vampire, Avid smells like smoke and blood. Owen has an incredibly distinct scent that Legs hasn't smelled before: orange (just very strong citrus) and ginger. Owen's smell is how Legs knows when the vampire is invisible around him, because he has never smelled it anywhere else. He's also the only one Legs can pick out of a lineup blind. (I have an angsty HC about this as well but I'll leave this one to be happy.)
He actually can smell so well he had problems with it during the war because of how much blood, gunpowder, and disinfectant there was in the air.
After he and Owen leave Oakhurst, (it dumps them in the 90s timeline) Legs is really interested in swapping out his glass eye for a cooler looking one, but when he does it to surprise Owen, the vamp shrieks and makes him take it out. Needless to say, Legs keeps his normal green one.
He loves it when Owen sleeps. Not in a creepy way, but specifically because Owen doesn't need to sleep, so when he does fall asleep he either really trusts who he's with, or is exhausted. Plus Legs just thinks he's adorable. In bat form, Owen sleeps in Legs' pocket.
In this AU, Legs and Owen are traveling doctors who use (only slightly) aged methods to treat their patients (although certain patients seem to disappear off the grid with no recorded death… but that's just a coincidence I'm sure).
