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highly new, slightly improved open post

assorted morons

optional prompts/ideas

☆ caught in the rain meme
☆ little steps meme
☆ affectionate physical contact meme
☆ picture prompt also acceptable but link them so it's tidy
☆ AU ideas: soulmates AU, reincarnation AU, Bad End AU, canon divergent/roleswap AU, dorky college AU, crossover AU, super indulgent high fantasy AU
☆ melodrama is ultimate tier
★ SHIPPING AND FUCC:
☆ non-fluffy relationship types I'm down for: codependent, master/servant power imbalance type ships, "we're bad for each other but worse for anyone else," other things I am failing to think of tbh
☆ things I am not into: noncon (includes "dubcon"), incest, tsundere shit if your tsundere is just verbally abusive, gratuitous torture porn, you'll probably have to ask me about harder kinks and they will vary by character
☆ I don't have a kink list so pitch me an idea if u thirsty
☆ if you would prefer a locked post I can also make that happen

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The night was dark and tinted red from a full, bloody moon that sailed among the clouds, throwing the world in sharp illumination of light and shadow. It was the kind of night that Jonathan hoped was not an omen, that he would not be too late in his goal to prevent blood being spilled. He had scented it almost too late, the lingering smell of a mortal that stood out like a beacon in this wilderness of monsters like him, and immediately he'd known what that would mean.

Every vampire in a several kilometer radius would have the same goal in mind, to find the poor soul or souls out here and feed on them. Hunting instincts taking over and driving them into a frenzy that would not be stopped until they succeeded or were slain. He only hoped that he could ensure the latter.

His footsteps were fast, faster than human as he moved across the landscape in leaps of smoke and shadow, and the sound of combat reached his ears. Praying he wasn't too late, Jonathan leapt the last of the distance and landed silently on a rooftop overlooking a narrow alleyway of the long since abandoned district. He only had a moment to sight several other monstrous forms fighting each other and a huddled figure before he threw himself down into the middle of the fray. One of the creatures was trying to escape the fighting and go for the true target, and his sword removed its head effortlessly. Another earned a shell to the chest, one of the precious bullets he'd salvaged that burst into phosphorous flames and consumed the creature from within.

Which left the biggest one and two smaller others trying to take it down. Or one, he amended as a hand as big as his torso came down to crush the head of a smaller vampire. Cursing softly, Jonathan put himself between the human and the fight, holding back in the hopes that they'd do enough damage to each other to make it easier for him. He rarely saw the big ones and usually steered clear of them, the mutation that effected all of them gifting them with warped forms of bulk and muscle, slow but with power that he'd seen take pieces out of buildings.

There was a cut off screech and Jonathan shifted his stance, watching coldly as the hulking monster tore the throat out of the smaller vampire and dropped the twitching corpse. More or less the outcome he'd expected, but he hoped that there had been enough damage to give him an advantage.

Seeing only one obstacle left, the monstrous vampire roared a challenge and charged for Jonathan. He waited, bracing himself until the last moment then slipped down and around, his sword slicing a graceful line through the air and biting deep into the back of the creature's leg. It wouldn't move as fast for a little while it healed, and he took the opportunity to find several more sensitive points with his blade. More than he expected really, and Jonathan suddenly realised why it wasn't fighting back.

The person, the human, he'd wanted to save was right there, in easy reach and the beast was clearly intent on taking that chance as a meaty hand reached towards the boy. Jonathan shouted a wordless warning and flung himself between them, seemingly appearing out of the air as the hand closed around him instead and he was lifted bodily into the air.

"Run! Get out of here!"

In hindsight, going out this late by himself was a bad idea. Sure, Emil has been through training, and sure, he's equipped with the finest anti-vampire weapons money can buy, but there's something to be said for field experience, of which he has remarkably little for someone who signed up to be a city watch guard almost a year ago. In the daylight he doesn't have a single problem, but then of course he wouldn't— it's too much bravado and other guards on shift calling him little rich boy coward and similar that spur him into action.

This turns out to be a terrible idea, when one particularly mutated vampire somehow summons a handful more seemingly out of thin air. Emil is small, tiny even, and every one of these monsters towers over him as he hurriedly tries to make a run for it. No dice, because before long he's on the ground, hastily scrambling away while the biggest one turns up.

That's nice, that they're going to fight amongst themselves for a moment, but it definitely means Emil is going to die horribly in just a few minutes instead of immediately. He's all but embraced death, clutching his pistol in front of him while he watches the scene before him. That some other man, apparently a vampire from his movements but not a horrible monster, has shown up almost doesn't occur to him until the man is lifted clean off the ground in front of him.

Oh.

Ah— "Wh—"

Emil blinks, the terror that's gripped him slipping just for a moment, allowing him to view the scene in perfect clarity; this guy... is saving his life? This vampire is saving his life and being probably crushed to death for his troubles, and that isn't going to sit well with him. He's on his feet more quickly than he expected of himself, hand shoved into a square pouch at his belt to retrieve two miniature explosives as he dashes forward.

So much for getting out of there. Combat is terrible but blowing things up he can do, and the sticks are lit by a match from another pouch in one smooth movement. In another fluid move he uses one of the fallen vampires as a stepping stone, up, and grabbing— quite literally hanging off the big creature for only the moment it takes him to shove the explosives into its roaring mouth.

"Roll!" he shouts, and grabs clumsily for the sharp-dressed vampire as he throws himself back toward the ground. This absolute suicide move with the explosives leaves the big one distracted enough to loosen its grip, so please, do not just hang there and explode with it— "Come on!!"

He's fairly certain that this is the end of the line for him; Jonathan has survived this long by knowing when to pick his battles but he cannot simply leave someone in danger. Although it seems that the gesture itself is in vain, as he has no doubts that once the monster has crushed the life from him or torn out his throat, it will make short work of the human.

It's jaws part to reveal fangs as long as his fingers and Jonathan braces himself for the pain and vaguely hopes that the other man has recovered his senses enough to run while he can. Which is why neither him nor the towering beast holding him are expecting a lithe figure to leap up with surprising grace to lodge twin sticks of what can only be explosives in the open maw.

It feels like both vampires are too stunned to move, both having unconsciously written the man off as 'scared prey' only, but Jonathan recovers first. He kicks off the other creature's chest and falls away, rolling awkwardly as he hits and diving to try and cover the still living man from the resulting explosion.

Emil hits the ground hard after his jump, so even odds that was all a miraculous mishap and he'll never pull off something that impressive again. Once he's on the ground again he can't seem to move, which isn't great, all things considered— something is going to explode pretty close to them in a moment, but being lightly burned is better than being torn apart, he thinks. He keeps a countdown going in his head for when the fuses on his explosives will run out, five four three two—

And then the other vampire rolls quite literally onto him to- to shield him? Do vampires do this? Emil startles and grabs at one of his arms automatically; he doesn't have nearly enough raw physical strength to toss a vampire off, but for a brief moment he thinks this isn't helping but rather pinning him down to rip into his throat with the big creature out of the way. It only lasts a moment, and the creature explodes in a mess of steaming flesh and smoke a second later. Emil's grip goes from fearful to, well, grossed out, down here where he can still look up and witness such a monster exploding up close.

Ew.

Well, give him a second.

"Um... thank you?"

He can feel the heat of the blast against his back and Jonathan's jaw clenches at the pain of it, the burns eating eagerly at his flesh and leaving it scorched and cracked unnaturally, a mark of what he was. Yet he would still heal fast enough given time to rest, so he didn't begrudge shielding the young man.

Nor could he really fault him the panicked reaction he'd had when Jonathan had thrown himself over him. If anything he was grateful it hadn't let to an equally panicked staking or gunshot, which would have been equally understandable if far less appreciated.

He pulls away with some caution to look back and make sure that the monster was dead, then he rose and offered a hand to the young man, absently swatting a few embers from his clothing.

"You're welcome. Although I should ask what you think you're doing out here alone at this time. We can smell you for a mile."

Don't get him wrong— panicked gunshots were his second instinct. But it's crisis averted for now, even though he's still on the ground, dirty, and his heart is beating double time after all the excitement. When he pushes himself up to sitting he first stops to fix his hair, then reaches up to take the offered hand.

He frowns. Hmm.

"I'm not doing anything particularly well, I suppose. I'm- I usually have a whole team with me! It usually goes better than this!"

He's defensive in a pathetic kind of way, knowing how bad an idea this was now that he's nearly died at least six times in ten minutes. Then he realizes he's trying to defend his ability to fight and kill vampires to a vampire and his expression twists briefly into embarrassment, then sheepishness. He looks down and busies himself brushing off his jacket.

"Well— well, I've already given up, so..."

So he's not going to go for the surprise stake. There is that much.

The fact that the young man - alone, vulnerable in the vampire-infested night, facing a possible unknown threat - stopped to fix his hair before getting to his feet oddly threw Jonathan slightly off-balance. It struck him as almost too relaxed or trusting for the situation, and he blinked in clear confusion as he helped the other man to his feet.

"I imagine it does, since you're still breathing," he says, still slightly dumbfounded. "Much worse and that wouldn't be the case for either of us. And I imagine that having a team and the sun on your side makes matters much easier."

There feels as though there is far too much of not knowing what to say right now and so Jonathan clears his throat and attempts, as best as he can, to try and focus on something else. Like getting this poor young man back to wherever he came from so that he didn't end up as a meal.

"My name is Dr Jonathan Reid, by the way," he offers. "Now... How far away is your camp? I should at least be able to get you close if you know the way."

"Doctor...?" He repeats it with some uncertainty, some surprise— no one told him that vampires still needed doctors, but then again, no one told him that vampires were ever supposed to survive an encounter with something stronger or smarter than them. It's a strange point to get stuck on for a moment but he does, glancing at the carnage littering the street around them; those vampires were... well, monsters!

Is there a whole society of well-dressed, polite vampires he doesn't know about, that have doctors and normal things? He had genuinely no idea.

"It's kind of a hike? I'm really not supposed to be out here." Hah... look, he's learned that lesson. He coughs lightly and looks away to reorient himself toward the direction he came from. Give him a moment, he'll get it.

"—I'm Emil. ...I think it's this way."

"Ah, I suppose it would be that I was previously a doctor," Jonathan clarifies. "Before I... became what I am now. Some of us retain memory of who we were before we turned, although it makes most no less dangerous than the beasts that attacked you."

If anything it could often be the other way around. Yes, some of the larger creatures could cause more damage and be more difficult to stop, but those like himself, that called themselves Ekons, they were harder to identify and could more easily slip past defenses of those that didn't know what to look for. Their strengths were in the skill at blending in and biding their time.

All the more reason as well that Jonathan feels it best if he accompanies Emil to somewhere he'll be safer. Smelling as he does, he'll bring predators coming for miles and he doesn't doubt there'll be more fighting before the night's end.

"At the very least we have to get you somewhere safe," he says. "I've a hideout of sorts not far from here that would work if you think it too far to return home now. You can lay low until the sun rises and then return more easily then. Or we could try heading back now, but I must insist that I come with you."

Oh, that explains... soooo much. Sort of. Emil's expression betrays how lost he is for a few seconds— is there or is there not a secret vampire society that's just normal people, but they drink blood and have superpowers? He shouldn't wonder— the people in charge of combat training are pretty emphatic about never wondering about things like vampires having thoughts and feelings, but he's wondering!

So— say he assumes there is, in fact, a secret vampire society out there just waiting to eat him. Emil comes to much the same conclusion Jonathan does in the moment: anyone on the street could be waiting to kill him at a moment's notice. Nothing about this makes going with Jonathan anywhere any safer, all things considered... but the man did save his life.

That's probably enough. Emil is not gifted in discernment, as it were. He frowns in the direction he ought to go, mentally judging the distance and how it's the middle of the night... alright.

"Alright, alright, I'll go to your 'hideout.' There better not be anything in there that tries to kill me!"

Jonathan tracks the line of Emil's gaze, mentally noting the direction should he need to take the young man that way later, and nods at the eventual decision. He would have accompanied him regardless, but he's noticeably relieved not to be walking an undetermined distance with only so many hours until sun rise.

"If I'd wanted to kill you, I could have done it before taking you anywhere," he points out with a soft laugh. "But no, I have no intention of luring you back to my lair and doing unspeakable things to you. All I offer is safety and a place for you to rest until morning." He glances sidelong at Emil. "And the hope that you won't stake me while I sleep."

Then he offers his hand to the younger man. "The path isn't entirely on foot, do you trust me to carry you?"

Hmm, phrasing? Emil has to stop and wonder, with Jonathan talking so casually about killing him if he wanted to, if this is the worst or only second-worst decision he's made tonight. It might just rank, depending on whether or not he lives until sunrise. He did, however, recently shove a monster full of explosives, so perhaps that memory will inspire all other vampires not to mess with him! Yeah!

He can dream. He blinks, making another face. Then, "I want you to know, absolutely none of that made me feel better."

Which doesn't make this conversation a good lead-in to Jonathan carrying him around, but somehow it feels very ridiculous to draw the line at carrying but not vampire hideout, so Emil feigns looking very put-upon and takes that offered hand.

"I already told you, I'm not going to stake anybody." Well, he said 'I've given up,' but details. "Let's go."

"I'll remember that for next time," Jonathan remarks, taking Emil's hand and then tugging him in close to scoop him up with ease that's entirely born from his inhuman nature. His gaze flicks up to a nearby rooftop and, before Emil has much of a chance to protest, the world lurches in the blink of an eye as Jonathan disappears and reappears on the roof, only to immediately start racing in great leaping bounds and bursts of inhuman speed across a path of crumbling buildings and empty streets.

The pace slows somewhat and then Jonathan puts in one last burst of speed for a leap that's a good deal further than the others he's made, long enough that even his stomach lurches in anticipation of falling before his foot catches a ledge just barely and he pushes up and into a room overlooking a sheer drop, the rest of the building collapsed away.

Then he carefully sets Emil down and gives him a moment to catch his breath if he needs it.

"Apologies, I know it's not easy to get used to the first time."

When Jonathan had said "carry you," Emil hadn't expected, well, any of this. It's only the surprise and the suddenness of it that keep him from shouting— first the disappearing act (augh), then the jumping, then the near death experience— the things he'd be shouting about change too quickly for him to keep up, and he's quite mortified by the time they actually do stop and he's put back on his feet. He wobbles, and reaches for Jonathan's sleeve to keep his balance for a moment.

"What—" Damn, no, give him another minute. He didn't do any physical exertion at all but he still feels like he's run a marathon for how fast his heart is beating. Just hold on, his eloquent commentary is coming. "What the hell."

...Or just that. He needs somewhere to sit before he just collapses on the floor and gives up until morning.

He puts a hand out to steady Emil, expecting the trip to have been particularly rough for him, and gently nudges him towards an armchair that's seen far better days. Much like the rest of the room they're in. Exposure to the elements has left the paint peeling from the walls and ceiling and the wooden floorboards have rotted and broken in places, leaving behind gaps that peer down into the rest of the building.

There's still some time until the sun rises so he gives Emil a chance to get his bearings, leaning against the ruined wall to keep an eye on his, for lack of a better word, guest and the city below.

"I'm sorry for the disorientation. It's best to stay somewhere hard for anyone without my abilities to reach, but experiencing them isn't a particularly easy experience. Take your time, we're safe here."

Oh, alright, a chair. It definitely looks old and gross at best, but Emil sinks bonelessly into it with a grateful sigh. In a moment, the room will stop spinning, and he'll be ready to have a conversation.

He stares at a crack in the floor for a little bit, squinting into the darkness below. The more time he takes to calm down, the more surreal this all seems— sitting here, in some vampire's secret lair, with said vampire just watching him like this is all normal-!

"Oh— okay," he says, glancing up. Truthfully, he only caught about half of that, but he got the gist. It's another few moments before the prolonged silence starts to feel awkward, at least for Emil— a pervasive 'so now what?' flooding the dilapidated room.

"Soooo," perfect, keep this up, that's great, "Do you usually pick people up and take them, uh, here? ...Home?" Is home the right word? He can't be sure.

The question earns a smile, a flash of surprisingly human teeth in the dim light cast by the moon. "No. I don't see many humans out of a night here and suffice to say that most of my kind and I do not see eye-to-eye."

It occurs to Jonathan, far too late it seems, that a human is going to need a few necessities that he does not. Food is hopefully not required for a short period, but water is slightly more important, although he doesn't know where in the ruined city anyone would find some. Needless to say, none of the current residents care for it.

"Do you have any supplies with you?" he asks, curious and hoping that while the decision to try and survey the area might be rash, Emil wasn't so unprepared as to leave without something to sustain himself.

"There's bedding in the other room, but I haven't any water or food I'm afraid. Some of the plumbing may still work in the buildings..." He frowns, slightly concerned now about Emil's comfort and survival.

"Perhaps I should try to get you back to your home instead. You'd be safer there."

Emil blinks at him for a moment, like it didn't occur to him at all to bring supplies going out on his own— which is always a great sign in a tiny vampire slayer. Then he holds up a finger- wait, wait- and pats at all of his pockets, eventually producing what appears to be a smallish, but adequate canteen. He shakes it, and water sloshes around inside.

"I've got this." But food? He din't expect to be out more than a few hours, so no food. Hopefully he isn't here long enough to need food either... It's a distracting train of thought that gets away from him slightly, such that he almost doesn't catch Jonathan speaking to him again, so soon after the last time.

But no, he hears him this time— there's something a little odd about a vampire, like... fussing over him like this. No, it's definitely odd, but it's a little odd that he's not dead yet in the first place, so Emil won't complain. He does, however, make a face at the suggestion that he get taken back home, holding up his hands to refuse that immediately.

"I'm not doing that- that jump thing of yours again. I'll be sick everywhere! I'm sorry, but you'll have to deal with me until morning."

Jonathan isn't particularly fond of the idea of Emil being ill either, so he imagines that they'll both need to simply try and survive as best they can for the moment. Which has been his life since the epidemic swept the world as they knew it decades ago, but it doesn't seem as fitting for someone who not only has somewhat more complex needs but is also likely to draw attention for miles around.

"Very well," he agrees dubiously. "But you'll have to return home come morning, and stay here until close to then. I'd rather not try fighting another one of those giants."

Most of his injuries are healing well enough, although with his limited diet, it takes slightly longer for him than it might otherwise. But the occasional tug of pain from a still closing wound or bite mark does make Jonathan suddenly consider if his guest managed to survive the fighting - particular what he hadn't seen before arriving - unharmed or not.

Moving past Emil, Jonathan ducks into the small room off from the open space they'd landed in and digs around for the limited supplies he's managed to scrounge up in the city.

"I do have bandages if you need them and a bed if you're tired," his voice floats out from the darkened space. "There's still a few hours until morning."

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