#vprshipping

[betweenlands]

okay one leglocke/silentfaith post for solars. as treat.

there was a lot of pre-ep7 talk about abolish as a sort of "attack dog" in the sense that dr. legs was perhaps the only thing holding him back from committing unfathomable amounts of violence. ep7, however, seems to have proven that abolish veylocke is very much aware of his own capacity for violence and mostly capable of restraining himself without the input of others.

we therefore propose that, if vLegs and vAbolish are to be seen through this particular lens, it must be reviewed in light of their corresponding backstory notes -- dr. legs as someone whose worst atrocities were done while he was "following orders", abolish as someone calculating and intentional about which allies he picks and what information he shares.

they did gravitate towards each other, yes, and they have operated in the style of alliance legundo prefers with the style of trust and silent information shared between close allies. when this backfires on legundo, it often does so for one of two reasons; either his chosen ally is unaware of this preference and views his distance as disloyalty, or his chosen ally is fully aware of this preference and is able to play on it to bring him further in line with their goals than with his own.

abolish veylocke showed a sympathetic face to the doctor, someone who could be won over. he has been a constant presence by the man's side, behind him in many an important argument as a silent and implied supporter. none of that was not false, but it was not the entire truth. he puts his trust in dr. legs, a great deal of it, but he does not listen to him -- because legundo would not want to give him orders, and because legundo believes that abolish knows what he is doing. there is trust, but there is not a chain of command in the sense of abolish veylocke looking to dr. legs for guidance.

all of this is to say that, if one is to read for an attack dog, perhaps the good doctor isn't the one holding the leash.

[betweenlands]

i think out of all the third starting vampire aus we've personally kicked around, the "clown and branzy are there" one is our favorite, weirdly enough. loosely inspired by another au that we're not remembering the name of, but like... not really the same.

it goes like this: Clownpierce and Branzycraft are monster hunters. or, well, Clown is a monster hunter. Branzy is a bad luck magnet with a knack for ticking off powerful vampires (and similar entities) that just so happen to have bounties on their heads, and Clown's got the skill to render those threats more of a work bonus. which is good, because monster hunting pays so much better than the assassinations Clown specialized in before, he's no longer as much of a wanted man, and people generally do not immediately assume he's up to no good as frequently. basically, as long as Clown can keep this wet cat of a man around -- which is admittedly difficult sometimes, he's a wimp and is constantly getting in over his head by getting himself kidnapped or into other improbably dangerous scenarios -- the guy serves as his one-way ticket to a stable income and a cushy life.

...is what Clown thinks is going on.

see, Branzy's been running this little racket for a while now, and it never gets less effective. you act the victim, you flash the nearest monster hunter your biggest most pathetic doe eyes, they practically fall over themselves to kill whoever you said was threatening you. he's been eliminating old rivals for centuries now with this one little trick, all the while leaving zero blood on his own hands. it's not his fault other vampires are straight-up suckers that will throw all their sense away to attack someone random standing out in the woods. they were gonna get themselves killed sooner or later -- better that Branzy get to check another box off his list and skim a little off his current bodyguard's paycheck in exchange for just a little intel. and as for the monster hunter? Clown doesn't have to know why vampires really don't like Branzy in particular. he's the muscle, not the brains.

so! the pair are in Oakhurst together, tracking rumors of a vampire in the area, same as always. the "not being able to leave" thing really puts a damper on the whole operation but Branzy figures he can probably just contrive enough excuses to have Clown kill everyone else so they can leave together trick Scott Goldsmith, that old cad, into turning enough people directly and unwillingly that they can just kill him off and then burn out all the beacons curing those vampires and waltz away, both figuratively and literally Scott free.

Clown gets his paycheck from the locals, Branzy gets another dead rival, everybody wins. really, it's the perfect plan.

(y'know, minus the fact that a lot of people have to die, but they'll get better -- and if they don't, eehhh, whatever. the reason Clown's not in the business of assassinations anymore is they don't pay as well. Branzy's pretty sure he could flash enough cash to change that.)

[betweenlands]

wrt cleogundo specifically the arc we'd look at for a fic is like. probably set sometime around ep2 and goes along the lines of:

cleo and legs NOT getting along. specifically cleo is especially annoyed by legundo and thinks he's very insincere and full of himself

however. cleo overhears legundo talking about how overworked like half his hospital staff are and their IWW Sensor pings. these guys need a union STAT

cleo makes one thing very clear to legundo up front. she does not like him. they are not friends. this is a matter of professional pride and duty on her part in the same way legundo SHOULD (they glare at him) be willing to treat any patient, even someone he hates. they will not be friends by the end of this. he should not expect that. cleo is doing this because it is the right thing to do. that's it. she is his ally in pushing for worker's rights but she is NOT his friend.

extended dialogue scene where we get way too into the fine details of starting a union in the early to mid 20th century, bolstered by as much research as we can get our hands on

("and that's it on picket lines?" "no. that's how you start one." "...and then what?" "the cops show up to beat the shit out of you. IF you're lucky. if you're unlucky they've called the pinkertons.")

legundo already did not mind cleo but this has turned her in his eyes from someone he was trying to align with as "the only really sane people in town" to "actually vital resource and incredibly articulate person, extremely good leader" and he is really struggling to remind himself that cleo wants nothing to do with him after this, he cannot let himself get attached to this -- them being able to talk tactics across a table and share stories is temporary. they said she would not suddenly be his friend after this. he has to remember that.

cleo is begrudgingly impressed by legundo's willingness to shut up and listen to them/defer to someone else's expertise. most educated types think they know better than her and start ignoring or talking over them but legs has stayed consistently focused and seems to really be hearing them out. and that's... nice. it's rewarding to be able to do something like this and feel hopeful that it'll work. maybe legs is someone she could see herself standing with. maybe even sharing a pint or something -- no. they can't. they're not getting either their or his hopes up. they're not friends after this. she can't expect him to actually respect her outside of this, and he'll probably go back to being condescending -- this is a fluke. they're not friends. they're not going to BE friends.

cleo might be the smartest person in town, actually. he'll keep his "useless compliments" to himself but it does hurt. knowing that after this they go back to little more than vaguely estranged coworkers again. and they -- he can't tell them this, that would be completely out of hand, but. the way their hair shines in the light and the way they look when they're talking animatedly about something makes it impossible to stop paying attention, even if he'd wanted to. they're a magnetic force. no wonder she's a union leader, hell, legundo thinks he might just follow cleo back into war if she happened to ask. but...

legundo isn't half bad, actually. little smug sometimes but he seems pretty responsible and dependable for some ivory-tower white collar -- they want to insult him but they can't think of anything mild enough. he's standoffish but it seems like a lot of that was just a front. and he -- they can't tell him this but the way he looks when he's actually listening to something is kind of endearing, if more people like legs would listen to cleo then she'd have a hell of an easier job. he's actually pretty easy to talk to past the initial bad first impression. not half bad looking either. cleo thinks he might just be the type of guy they'd actually let buy them a drink, if they met in a bar. but...

...uh oh. shit. this is not just "they could have been friends" anymore. what now.

it's fine. just play it cool. they just have to make sure the other person never knows they've caught feelings. surely that'll pass anyway right? right????

(bonus points: abolish tagged along for this -- cleo insisted to legs that you should unionize even if you've personally got a good job, before it's too late, and abolish thought that was good enough advice for him to shadow this meeting and maybe pick something up -- and the tension in the room is driving him up the fucking wall but honestly let them sort it out on their own. this is relatively low-stakes and kind of funny as hell. he's here for the actual union tactics part, sure, but he's not going to remind them he's here unless they get REALLY distracted)

[betweenlands]

proposing a ship we will be calling scowevid, aka "avid and his two beautiful old vampire boyfriends who he intends to make far worse before inevitably killing them in cold blood"

[betweenlands]

okay so hear us out. Vampires NPMD AU, as follows:

Avid as Grace Chastity + Scott as Max Jägerman

Legundo as Peter Spankoffski, Cleo as Stephanie Lauter

Pyro as Richie Lipschitz, Shelby as Ruth Fleming

Drift as Detective Shapiro, Sausage/M as Mayor Solomon Lauter

the Lords in Black are still in flux; ideally we'd like them to be various malevolent entities from other people's past/other series lore. as of the current moment we have down:

Olm as Wiggly/Wiggog Y'Wrath

Decem (all of them, they have to share) as Pokey/Pokotho

(Martyn's) Watchers as Blinky/Bliklotep

Xornoth as Nibbly/Nibblenephim

Undecided for Tinky/T'Noy Karaxis, but possibly the Red Sun if nobody else has more relevant entities to cite (wasn't there something in Bloodlines?)

...and that's the casting! it's not a full-cast AU or anything but we do think it'd be very interesting as far as crossover AUs go. let Avid hit that long note in Dirty Dudes please

[betweenlands]

how do we get in touch with the silentfaith mafia btw we have some other peak situations to sell them on but it requires a crossover first

[betweenlands]

i think scott and avid should kiss abt it in vampires smp

real and correct for saying this

[betweenlands]

theyre engineering alternate vLegundo ships in a lab specifically to drive us insane