#priest!ethan

[m4gp13]

catholic!Ethan Van Helsing au where Ethan is pretty much the only person in the church who knows how to fight monsters and demons so when a monster situation arises the church decides to make him basically an honorary priest, granting him the power and authority of the title without the moral drawbacks that would make it harder for him to do his job, which is to kill monsters.

He takes his job and his faith fairly seriously, which is all well and good except for the fact that he needs some occult experts to help with his jobs and these experts are witch!Alabaster and demon!Luke, who is being bound to Ethan's service through some kind of magic (he's like an early Journey to the West Sun Wukong). Alabaster is helping because he wants to compile a complete bestiary and he might as well bag a hot priest in the process. Luke is here because he has no choice but he is enjoying being an annoying little bitch. Ethan keeps a bottle of holy water handy for spraying Luke like a naughty cat whenever he does something too demony. Luke and Al are both menaces who took one look at Ethan in his sexy monster-hunting priest gear and decided they were gonna make him break his vow of chastity, which they are unaware that he didn't take. Ethan decides to let the misunderstanding play out because they seem to have a lot of fun trying to tempt him away from his devotion and it just wouldn't hit the same if they knew he wasn't making out with them because he couldn't be bothered.

Also it's important to me that you know that for The Aesthetic and in keeping with the Van Helsing part of the au this is indeed set in the late 19th century because the vibes are simply immaculate.

[silkhy-john]

WIP for your perusal:

Things in the work. Things afoot. Things a-movin'.

Won’t tag who Ethan is talking to but you already (sort of) know who Ethan is talking to like… come on.

And yes, this may or may not be something for next month. For a very special day next month…

[m4gp13]

in the octabrythanbaster monster au, in a shocking turn of events, literally no one is having a good time except for Alabaster, who is having the best time ever. He's an autistic monster nerd who joined the team for his hyperfixation passion project and it is paying dividends.

Ethan is struggling to keep the team on track and to reconcile so many different parts of himself (the part that wants to kill monsters, the part that wants to be a good priest, the part that maybe kind of likes these heathens he's hanging around with etc) while babysitting everyone, Bryce is struggling with the world's worst coping mechanism for abaondment and poor emotional regulation, and Octavian is trying his damnest to keep back an imminent identity crisis by just pretending it isn't happening and being mean to everyone.

But Alabaster? He is living his best life. He's getting so much information for his little manuals. He's following everyone like an excited child and asking them questions for his project. He keeps asking for Octavian to try drinking Bryce's blood to see if werewolf blood affects vampires differently than human blood, he's pestering Bryce with questions about how his biology has changed since he turned and how different it is when he's actively wolfing out compared to when he isn't, and he just will not stop asking Ethan about details from previous monster hunts that Ethan didn't see or can't remember because he was too busy trying not to die. And god forbid Ethan wants a quick breather to go on a brief solo job to dispatch a minor annoyance, because as soon as Al hears that there might be monsters involved, he is cementing himself to Ethan's side and following him along.

He probably also begs everyone to keep the bodies or bring back samples of monsters they kill, which no one likes because it's such a hassle and an inconvenience, and Bryce's kills are always half-eaten anyways (Al doesn't mind, he wants to analyse werewolf bite marks and feeding habits).

[m4gp13]

post-canon au where Ethan survived the battle and got amnesty from the gods for switching sides (and because Percy vouched for him). He takes his newfound freedom to immediately cut himself off from the Greek and Roman gods by becoming a Catholic priest, occasionally killing whatever monsters track him down, but doing a decent job at keeping to himself.

Alabaster is still exiled and he probably could go to Ethan's church for sanctuary, but he's furious at him for betraying the army so he has been pointedly avoiding him to his own detriment.

They've been doing great at keeping themselves away from the rest of the divine world until A Situation arises (idk yet, maybe some demons get the idea to work with some greek monsters). Ethan gets asked by his superiors to deal with it because he is literally the only priest they have who knows how to deal with monsters as well as demons. Alabaster also gets asked to help, but by the gods. Different pantheons/religions aren't supposed to be getting involved in each other's business but Al has been exiled from his pantheon's business so he's free to do whatever (maybe the gods say they'll lift his exile or give him something out of the deal).

Anyway, the point is post-divorce grown-up ethabaster being forced into a buddy cop monster/demon-hunting duo. If you look behind you, you'll see that the doors are locked. Welcome to my TED talk-

[m4gp13]

catholic priest monster hunter Ethan au where Kronos (still workshopping) is the bishop of his diocese and the one who suggested to the church that Ethan should be granted the authority of a priest and go hunt monsters. But it was mostly a ploy so that he could have the church monster hunter under his jurisdiction so that he can subtly point Ethan towards doing his dirty work because he's secretly been working with a demon. This was entirely inspired by me listening to that one sam smith song. The demon I keep picturing in my head is just Drolta from Castlevania Nocturne (psspsspss kai c'mere).

When Ethan finds out it obviously causes some big moral issues because Kronos excuses his behaviour as performing a necessary evil for the greater good, and Ethan is technically doing the same thing by working with Luke to protect more people from monsters. Except Kronos' idea of 'the greater good' is extremely warped

The difference between them is that Ethan's demon actually likes him, whereas Kronos' demon knows he's spiralling and wants a front-row seat to his eventual but inevitable breakdown.

[m4gp13]

all this priest!Ethan talk has been making me think of a van helsing adjacent au where Ethan is a priest in late 19th century Europe who gets asked by the church to go kill monsters with the power of Jesus H Christ and also this giant knife (and. maybe a whip. and a rosary that's also a garrote. also I want to mention in Cemtary Boys there's a character who owns a dagger that has a cross attached to the top of the handle with a little chain like the end of rosary and the mc called it gaudy but ngl it's been rotating in my brain ever since).

Maybe Al is there too as some kind of occult weirdo who Ethan needs to tolerate for a job, maybe Luke is there as a demon or some shit

[m4gp13]

monster hunting priest!Ethan au where he starts off being very annoyed that he's stuck with demon!Luke as basically a coworker because, as a monster hunting priest, he's not too keen on demons. Maybe Al is there too as a vampire or a witch or something and Ethan hates him as well. He puts up with them for work but he doesn't make it a secret that he thinks they're the scum of the earth and belong in hell. Anyway, Ethan's whole character arc is learning that they're not, in fact, the worst thing that has ever happened to the planet earth and they have redeeming qualities. However, Ethan is still Ethan so this just transitions to "Everyone, even demons and monsters, are worthy of God's love and forgiveness except me."

[m4gp13]

I really think a lot of my issues would be fine if I had priest!Ethan who takes the same attitude towards hunting monsters and demons that Sister Michael takes to . . . general life ig