Sleepy Hollow au where Alex is a brujo but doesn't quite know it (or admit to himself) and his family moves to New England for his parents' work. He's not thrilled since he's going from a very mixed race society (Mexico still owns Texas) to a very conservative one.
At least, he thinks it's conservative, but then he thinks they're bat shit crazy due to their superstitions.
Autumn descends, and t night, wolves sing loudly in the woods. Then it's not just the wolves, but the dogs in the village. Alex hears a horseman riding down the streets and over the nearby bridge. He's used to a noisy neighborhood, but this is something else. The whole town swears they don't hear anything, but they outright threaten him to stay inside at night. Shudder the windows and blow out any flames.
It's Alex, so he doesn't. The horseman comes around like clockwork, probably a delivery person of some kind, bringing the papers from New York or Philadelphia, or doing the late night work of some other business. Goodness knows the silversmith stays up at all hours, so he's probably the one paying the obnoxious rider...
Alex sees the dog first. A smallish hound that sees him right back. It bays up at the moon, and through the shadows, a large horse's silhouette joins the dog's. Alex knows a male rider when he sees one, but the headless horseman legend might not be a legend after all.
The rider and dog run off, but Alex finds them night after night. He even manages to get way too close and learns that the dog is dead - cloudy blue eyes, half its jaw missing, and somehow still walking and running with a compound fracture sticking out of its legs.
It's when the horseman lifts the dog to carry it that Alex sees the glint of a ring on his pinkie.
Another night, push comes to shove, and Alex wrestles that ring off the zombie's hand and flees. All he has to go on is a gold signet ring, the curvaceous H stamped on it, and the almost worn away engraving inside:
act ii, sc iii XXXVI - XLIX
He has no idea what it means. He's assume it's a Bible verse except his sister has been making trips to the nearby cities to see the plays. She collects the scripts and tells him it's a citation from a play. But which one?
Alex runs out of time trying to figure it out, because the next night, an incessant knocking rattles the house door in its frame before being knocked down entirely.
To both Alex's and June's surprise, the horseman holds out his hand. Alex sets the ring on his dead palm, and he...leaves. For having no brain, the body is oddly sentient.
"Did you see his clothes?" June asks.
"What? No, I'm busy looking for his eyes."
"It's a stage costume. He's wearing a stage costume. It's too colorful."
Long story short, June and Alex search through records to find an actor who died with an H last name. Instead they find Arthur, an actor with a son named Henry. They died in the same week.
"Which one is it?"
"Henry. It must be Henry," June insisted.
"A father would wear his son's ring," Alex reasoned. "He's looking for something every night."
Either way, Alex must find out how they died, and why one of them is riding. The real question, is who is the horseman searching for every night? The search is getting more and more invasive. The townspeople aren't able to turn a blind eye anymore, and things are getting violent.
This is an au created and run by FanGirlStephie (me) inspired by Henry Stickmin, created by Puffballsunited.
Same rules as my Blind!Henry Au applies here (except the deity is not a part of this au and this is not a fanfic series). https://ask-blindhenry-au.tumblr.com/
Nearly every character in this HS Au is a monster of some kind. There are a few humans in this world, but they are not too common.
Henry:
Henry used to be human, until he died trying to break into a bank. His body exploded and he died, but for some reason he came back to life. He could not find his other eye though. But now he can somehow see timelines and different paths.
Normally zombies are created from viruses and killed on sight, but Henry is different somehow. He cannot die now from most things. There are a few ways he can still die though.
Charles:
Charles is a werewolf. He is young but a very experienced pilot in the government. He is basically a puppy and gets excited and distracted easily. Werewolves have a bestial form that they turn into during the full moon. They are animalistic and only can be calmed down by having members of their pack around.
Ellie:
Ellie is a red harpy. She is fierce and has a criminal history. She uses her powers and abilities to steal valuable treasures. Her harpy nature gives her a bit of an anger issue, but she tries to stay cool. Her hands are talons and are very sharp and deadly.
Reginald:
Reginald is a genie. He used to be a human thief ages ago. But when he stole from a powerful and magical sultan, he was punished by being turned into a genie and trapped in a lamp. Later, Right steals his lamp in a heist and now Reginald is a part of the Toppat Clan.
Right:
Right is a vampire. He used to be a human monster hunter. Until he was hunting a vampire who bit him and nearly killed him. He killed the vampire and got away, but got turned. Since he was now a monster himself, he joined a gang for better protection from all the monster hunters he’s made enemies off.
Galeforce:
Galeforce is an old werewolf. He sees Charles as a puppy he needs to take care of and teach. He helps Charles with all of the werewolf stuff. He also helps him through his bestial form. Since Galeforce is older, he doesn’t go into his bestial form very often anymore. But high levels of adrenaline on the full moon could do it.
Rupert:
Rupert is a manticore. He has lion paws and calls his hair his “mane”. Manicores are known to be strong, vicious, and aggressive. So right out of highschool, Rupert went into the police force to help curb these parts of him. He feels with discipline, he can do a lot of good. He quickly surpassed police work and entered and rose through the ranks of the military.
Dave:
Dave is a changling. Changlings are faes, but are in human families. So Dave doesn’t know anything about his powers or how to turn them on and off. The only way to know if a changling is a changling is by their eyes. Their eyes will be either purple or pink, which are the colors of fae. Fae also always have magical sparkles following them. Dave has no idea how to turn these aspects of himself off. Even though he doesn’t know a lot, he still wants to do good and help out.
