Elysia was turned not because she wanted to but because she felt like she had to. For a while, she is disgusted with herself, driving herself crazy not wanting to eat other people. After a while, she tries to eat her own blood to quench her thirst but it doesn't work and she just ends up hurting herself more, making herself even more miserable. When she takes her first bit of blood, she feels like she's become the monster that killed Haniel.

But it takes a monster to take back a monsters action. To bring Haniel back to life.

Elysia doesnt know what to do with herself if she's not constantly experimenting and researching. She constantly wants to give up but continues because the guilt keeps her going. For 200 years!!!

At some point, when elysia is ripping apart a coven to fuel her experiments, she finds a human, a kid, who was being used as a bloodbag. When she finds them she panics, and ends up turning them to save their life and takes them back to the castle with her. Crayon!!

When Crayon is first turned, elysia is Not Happy. She pities them, sure, and lets them stay in her home (on account of. her being the one to save them and turn them), but to her they're just another burden on her shoulders. After all, crayon is not what elysia should be focusing on, she only has one thing she needs to do with her time and feels horrible for deviating from it. She does not want a fledgling. and is guilty that she created another monster like herself. She does feel drawn to Crayon becuase its her fledgling, but at the same time, chooses to ignore it because she wants nothing to do with that. Giving it a roof over its head should be good enough.

And Crayon is not an easy fledgling. Because its so Very Scared. Even though elysia meant the best, its been turned into the thing it most feared and doesn't know how to deal with it. In the beginning its a lot a bark, very little bite. (more like freeze and dissociate if things got too bad). It was very injured when it turned (like canon explosion) and so its turning wasnt quite successful (elysia probably blames herself for this) Because of this, it can't quite fly as a bat, only really glide, which does make launching itself around the castle's walls fun. it is also still missing its left arm and eye which makes its depth perception Bad. It crashes a lot. It is still a vampire though, and can absolutely defend itself from humans. It's been Practicing.

Eventually things get less tense and crayon gets more comfortable. It stops fighting against the change. It lets go of the remaints of its humanity (the bodies in the basement dont bother it anymore.) Crayon knows its Changed, that the old crayon would hate what its become now. and thats. scary. but it cant find itself to regret it. Near the start it does a little performative evilism, because it thinks it will make elysia proud (she doesn't really. care that much) but then over time it cares less and it becomes. little less fake.

Meanwhile, crayon has the opposite effect on elysia. She learns that maybe its actually Bad if she's like that (angry and full of self-loathing) around her fledgling who is very dependant on her. Elysia is trying but not perfect. she loses her temper easily which makes her seem more scary. She also lover time lost a lot of emotions she used to feel (like being happy and joyful and silly.) Elysia's kind of lack of positive emotions can make her seem very scary like she always has a firm expression on her face. But after a while, being around crayon helps her open up a bit more to the rest of their. very small coven. She starts to have more of a good time, rediscovers a bit of the joy her life. She's not alone any more, she still has a lot of negative feelings, those can't really just go away, but as she sees crayon getting worse it also takes a toll on her.

Elysia is doing elysia things, ripping apart the coven that peril and rue were part of. Peril and mostly rue gets injuried in the resulting fight, to the point where they could die, but manage to escape, fleeing into the forests. The forests that are beside elysia's castle.

So things are really dire. They're both in their bat forms, too injured to turn back.

Until crayon, on one of it's frequent walks through the forest, manages to find them. crayon who Does Not Know they're vampires and instead just thinks they're two very injured bats.

Crayon is a little nervous about how elysia will react so ends up hiding the two in its room (kid bringing back a feral animal and hiding it in their room from their parent) Usually, elysia would be able to sense two unfamliar vampires in her home, but she's already preoccupied by the vampires shes put in her basement. so she doesn't notice for a little bit!!!

Rue, whilst very anxious at first, has lots of fun playing with crayon, whilst peril just kind of sits in a corner and watches. Rue and peril are pretty quiet and usually communicate more silently anyway, so not talking isn't much of an issue for them. BUT PERIL VERY MUCH WANTS TO LEAVE AND GET OUT OF THERE. however she hadn't healed enough to fly yet, and knew transforming back would only cause further problems.

Compost floated in on them at some point, knew they weren't just normal bats, but doesn't tell elysia. Thank you compost.

It's peaceful at least, even if they are constantly on edge. Crayon rambles to them so it wasn't hard to put together the pieces about whos castle they're in. Peril is very well aware that it is in fact Not Safe to stay in the home of the vampire who killed their admittedly very evil sire!!! like it was actually nothing!! and who probably wants them both dead too!!

YEAH SO peril and rue decide its best to leave. It goes wrong.

Crayon catches them on the way out. and is like, you cant leave yet silly bats! you cant fly! and picks them up right as elysia walks in.

Unlike crayon. Elysia Immediately senses them and is like. crayon. drop them now. those are Not Bats.

SO THEY GET CAUGHT. Elysia is very scary about it and kind of wants to rip their throats out. she doesn't though as that would stain her carpet. and also crayon is there.

Peril knows she's not winning a fight against elysia. not whilst shes this injuried. She also knows she absolutely Cannot Tell Elysia who she is. (Second in command of the coven she has in her basement) (bat queen parallels) So she lies!! shes very good at that. and makes up a story about them just being some random vampires.

Crayon feels betrayed that they lied but listens to peril's story anyway. Crayon and rue arent That Young, but they are around the same age which works in rue's favour. (Elysia thinking peril turned rue and is like. why the fuck would you do that (she didnt btw. hm wait maybe rue isnt quite a full vampire... simialr to how she was kind of experimented on the the toh universe. she looks kind of fucked up demon avid core. shes got the glyphs and stuff.))

Anyway. Peril and rue so would have just got the hell out of there after that. but transforming back aggravated their injuries (espeically perils) and as soon as elysia agrees Not throw them in her evil basement. She passes out. stains the carpet anyway. For a moment, elysia considers killing them anyway and being done with it, but there's this random fledgling panicking over her and it's kind of a lot. crayon ybrought them here they can deal with it

SO PERIL AND RUE GET TO STAY!! for a bit, whilst they recover. Despite the fact peril is still lying about who she is and elysia is still trying to hunt down the high ranking vampire that escaped her massacre. they both sort of warm up to eachother afterwhile and come to an understanding. Crayon and Rue get on well enough, although rue is pretty tense around elysia. and probably scowls back at her whenever elysia like. looks at peril funny.

Eventually peril and elysia have a little heart to heart together (shoutout to elysia's horrible blood wine cellar. its the only way peril is expressing. anything. and elysia for that matter) they both think they're horrible irredeemable people and talk about it. :heart:

So thats lovely. That is, until the memories from one of the blood bottles processes for elysia, and she finds out who peril is. SHE IS NOT HAPPY!!! She'd shown so much hospitality, so much kindness, letting these two vampires into her home and in return they'd lied to her. she thinks everything peril said the day before was just a trick to gather elysia's weaknesses.

Eyes glowing, she storms through the castle to find peril. she bumps into crayon on the way and just kind of. shoves them aside. and opens the door to find peril and lunges at her and they fall through a window AND THEY FIGHT!!!!

This isn't like last time, when peril talked her out of it because she was half dead. elysia may be older but peril can also hold her own too. She's very much trained in combat this is what she was trained for.

Crayon can feel elysia's burning anger through their bond. and it makes them angry and it makes them scared. elysia can distantly feel crayons distress but pushes it aside. shes too busy for her fledgeling right now.

Rue meanwhile. does. what she does in canon! exactly what peril would Not want her to do. and tries to jump into the fight, going right for elysia. And gets horribly injured; NOT DEAD1!!!

This snaps both elysia and peril out the fight. peril immediately goes to her sister whilst elysia stands there stunned, looking down at her hands, watching peril knelt beside rue's body, before turning and walking away.

She goes to haniels room. Crayon hasn't really been allowed in there before. But elysia's very uncontrolled misery is spilling across the bond and so its really easy to figure out she's there. It probably tries to help rue first but peril instantly turns on it. probably just like fucking hisses at them or something, goes to attack it when it gets too close. So it goes to find elysia instead.

Crayon is angry. Crayon is realy really angry. and yells at her (deserved). Elysia looks at her hands shaking in blood then at haniels body and is like im so sorry you woudnt have wanted this i just wasted 200 years of my life then she looks at crayon and STARTS BREAKING DOWN AGAIN

At some point, she turns into a bat, she doesn't notice when it happens, only when she feels crayon picking her up and putting her on its lap. They sit there for a while. I imagine elysia when she finally gets a hold of herself being like "crayon-" and crayons like "shut up im still mad at you" but hugs her anyway. Elysia tells crayon a bit about herself and Haniel and why she's been doing what she has been doing. She lets go..

PERIL AND RUE MEANWHILE. Peril has no reason to ever step foot in that castle again. she's out of there. she picks up rue and walks into the forest before elysia can come back and finish the job. I don't think peril actually would have told elysia the truth of who she was, at least not yet. BUT SHE THOUGHT ABOUT IT the day before, she thought about what it could be like if they stayed instead. She was planning to leave soon anyway (half considering leaving rue behind because she thought she'd be happier there)

Peril and Rue. Especially peril. Are just. Even more untrusting of the world now. THEIR TIME AT THE CASTLE DID HEAL THEM BOTH SLIGHTLY (their old coven really sucked) but. man. i dont know how perils trust issues could get any worse, but they did. So they both decide to disappear off into the woods and live as bats. They don't really settle in one place, they're too restless. Eventually, rue starts to stray closer and closer to people as time goes on, and Peril. Peril can't bring herself to stop her, not when rue has spent her whole life Trapped. Peril lets rue show her the world instead.

As strained as elysia and peril's relationship was, she did give elysia insight into why some vampires are Like That. because PERIL DID DO HORRIBLE THINGS but she was not there because she wanted to be. both her and rue were at that coven their whole lives and had no out. And so, post peril fight, she starts to reflect on it, instead of her normal technique of ignoring it and not thinking about the people she was hurting.

Compost noticed Haniel's body a while ago and had been planting flowers in a field in preparation, just in case Elysia was waiting to find somewhere perfect for her. When Elysia is ready to bury Haniel she tells compost about her and he walks her to the flower field. Compost helps elysia plant haniel's favourite flower there and shows her how to look after it.

It's only post haniel funeral that she starts looking out for peril and rue again. She's not actively searching for them, knowing it would probably make things worse. But she keeps an eye out.. AND AT SOME POINT she sees peril and rue again and tries to apologise. I need to figure out what peril's been up too, to know how she'd react to this. but i think the image of straybirds + elysia and crayon dinner together would be really funny. the first one is so tense and awkward and a fight nearly breaks out. i dont think it's destined for this universe but elysia-peril friendship is something i need.

Elysia still struggles with self image but she tries to stop actively destroying herself and making herself feel horrible. She also knows what Dying and Disappearing would do to crayon (not good things) And now she's not focused on haniels corpse, she has more time to focus on crayon and realise. Just how dependant it is on her. She opens up more to her coven, actually getting to know them now she has more time.

Compost stumbles across elysia's mansion after wandering the world alone for so long, and he's just kinda hit the point where he's bored. He can't blend in as a human as he struggles to stay in his human form due to never being in it, and when he's a ghost, people just get scared off. So when he finds elysia's mansion, at first he thinks it's abandoned and just decides to crash there, maybe make it his home. She tries to attack him, to scare him off, but he's a ghost and can't be killed.

Elysia tries to get rid of him, no words just actions, whilst compost yaps away, asking questions and just causing elysia to give up and just let him crash there.

When crayon enters the equation, he tries his best to push crayon and elysia together. He wants chatter in the house because the only company he's had so far has been elysia and she's not much of a talker (even if she was beginning to open up veeeeeeery slightly towards him and actually talking back). So he was excited when crayon appeared, even if the others were being really angsty and depressed over the whole situation. Since he's not a vampire himself, he struggles to understand their whole deal with "being turned and vampiric bonds".

Crayon's relationship with compost is a lot like canon in that, it acts very loud and acts like hes the most annoying person in the world and then follows him around and really wants to be included in his antics.

Elysia gets a lot more frustrated and irritated by compost as she has more of a short fuse and I think maybe she lashes out a bit more. She's just kinda miserable. They don't really get along at the start, maybe compost wants to get on but elysia is so determined to be alone.

Eventually, compost claims a little run down greenhouse out the back of elysias mansion, which he fixes up and grows flowers, veg and herbs in. He doesn't know why but he feels calm and happy when doing so. The reason why is that his sister loved to garden and would show compost how to grow things, and her love for it rubbed onto him. Eventually, compost slowly regain the memories and sadness yippeee!

Compost's sister got turned into a vampire by the evil coven, she was killed and her blood was in the basement and when elysia gets around too drinking it, and sees memories of compost from when they were both alive.

(MARSHELL IS ALSO IN THE COVEN!!! SORT OF !! he's very very old, much older than elysia, and spents most of his time sleeping in the crypt, wakes up every like 100 years.)

Vampire Berry gets kidnapped and turned by a big turned vampire family (turned vampire famiies are just vampires turned by other members of their family and then they join the big family. its very unconsensual it does not want to be a vampire At all.)

Berry's coven is very wealthy and during its time there it had to wear very regal attire, big puffy dresses which it did not like and a lot of their autonomy got taken away. Colour symbolism is also very important to Berry (both in canon and in this au). It had to wear a lot of blue as it was the family colour and berry hated it as it made them feel so out of control and distant from themself.

Getting turned was not fun at all for Berry it spent at least a month recovering and just throwing up and refusing to eat. When it finally recovers they are immediately forced to turn someone to mark them in the family. Berry ends up turning Ruby, a friend of its and it feels so gross and disgusted in itself afterwards. Berry is forced to turn a few more people as well. By this point Berry is very very distant and hollow, unable to get a good grasp on reality.

Eventually it escapes (unsure on the details currently) and finds a cave that it sleeps in for the next few hundred years. When it wakes, Berry is very disorientated and VERY hungry. It still feels distant from itself but being away from their coven has helped. Through a chaotic killing spree driven by hunger it gets the blood it needs and goes though a lot of emotions about fending for itself and actually being a vampire.

Berry doesnt really feel disgusted from drinking blood anymore, it feels fine almost natural to it which really scares it and makes them scared of itself and makes them question the humanity they had before.

It eventually finds the castle Elysia and her coven are residing and just decides to make a nest in their house. By this point Berry has reached a massive depressive slump and does not really care what happens to it. They know other vampires reside in the house but it doesnt care if it dies or gets hurt.

Crayon is more territorial than it is in canon and is not thrilled to find berry in it's home. Peril and rue were one thing, they were Invited. Crayon and Berry get into a fight and elysia has to stop it. Eventually they bond, but not a Great First Meeting.

Compost floats into this situation hearing banging upstairs and has fun watching for a bit (chanting for crayon) until he decides, "hmmmm...I should prolly go get elysia now cause this may end badly..."

Elysia drinks the blood from the people she's experimented on and failed on. It's really Bad and also doesn't fill her up at all or do her anything good. She does it anyway. Wouldn't want it to go to waste. She keeps her wine cellar full of vampire blood bottles VERY WELL STOCKED!!! goes down there and chugs it when shes in a mood of self hatred. Crayon tried to drink some without elysias knowledge once and immediately spat it out. tasted Real Bad.

ELYSIA HAS A GOOD WARDROBE! From her appearance, you couldn't tell she takes horrible care of herself. Keeping up a decent appearance even if she can't see it herself, is definitely one of the things keeping her more sane. She feels a bit better knowing she's wearing something she feels good in

Being a bat is vulnerable for crayon so they like being a bat near elysia. Crayon bats when it's scared. Elsyia doesn't bat much as it makes her feel too vulnerable.

Near the start, (not when it was really scared but when it wanted elysia's attention but didn't know how to get it or approach her) it liked to bat and then hide in her pocket or follow her around. Elysia check your pockets before you go in your basement please :heart: She'd know crayon was there, especially when their bond was strongest near the start. But most of the time she wouldn't acknowledge it to avoid scaring them away. Sometimes she'd give them head scratches. When following her around, crayon would think it was being So Sneaky. Until elysia acknowledges it. One of the first times she did that it panicked and fell out of its hiding place in the ceiling and accidently transformed back.

Elysia doesn't really sleep. Crayon isn't going to tell her to stop and rest, because she'd just ignore it, however, it has since learnt hanging out on her as a bat will, not get her to rest, but at least get her to stop for a moment. It also does this in its vampire form just falls asleep on her.

Elysia keeps a mirror in her room as a constant reminder of who she's become, she can't see herself anymore because she's just not herself anymore. The humans living in the town nearby are very scared of elysia and avoid her at costs, and she hates it. She doesn't want to be hated by her own kind, except humans aren't her kind anymore and it really gets to her. She wants to think she's human but she's just not.

Crayon has had Horrible Experinces in the past with vampires. However, the vampire hanging in the rafters of its brain is not listening to that and is instead telling it that it should love elysia and she will keep it safe. whilst the other half who has faced Horrible Horrendous abuse from vampires DOES NOT believe or want it to be true. it doesnt want to be anywhere Near a vampire but at the same time wants to be really close to Elysia.

Anyway so fighting against against this is Not Fun. it makes it feel like its losing even more Control of itself. Loss of autonomy has always been A Big Thing for crayon (in canon and in this au) and so. all this contributes to crayon's very mixed feelings about its sire. it cannot make up its mind if it loves her or is actually Really Really Scared. One moment it will be calm. the next it will be hiding under a table and trying to bite her. To get over this problem, in the beginning it tended to follow her around a lot and then hide when they thought she noticed.

Through magical vampire bond, they can can vaguely sense where eachother are and also vaguelly push certain feelings or impressions through. WHICH IS really easy to do accidentally, leading to fun situations such as elysia making crayon feel all of her horrible self loathing and anger and guilt (yet another thing contributing to crayons feelings about its loss over itself. feeling emotions that aren't even their own).