OC Spotlight May: Vaska // nsfw-ish

(before i start rambling, you can see more vaska sketches here!)

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vaska has no memory of his parents. as far as he knows he might as well have sprung from the gutter itself, crawled out from between the cobblestones of the alleyways he called home. he grew up a stray of the streets of a medieval east european town, where vaska had to be sly, selfish, and occasionally devious to survive. he learned to fight, to run, to rob, to steal--and he was quite good at it.

he ended up too cocky for his own well-being, thinking himself too quick, too smart, too charming, too strong, and was ultimately undone by his own recklessness. the few loyal friends he had were soon outnumbered by the enemies he made, and long story short he had his throat slit by a rivalling gang when he was around 20. his killers didn't take the proper precautions, though. they all knew of strigoi, the dangerous undead, shapeshifters who drink the blood of the living. and yet they just left vaska's corpse in a ditch, leaving a local knacker to find him and toss him in a shallow grave, with nothing to hold his vengeful spirit down.

one night, weeks later, his killers saw a familiar figure staggering down the streets, and when they recognized vaska their faces grew almost as pale as his. he was ashen, covered with grave dirt, clothes tattered, blood all over his neck and chest. he had claws instead of nails, long fangs in his mouth, and the milky white eyes of a dead man.

once vaska had killed his murderers, draining them of their blood, he was left to wander aimlessly, a living manifestation of hunger. it seemed like any sense of satiation would always be fleeting, no matter how much blood he drank; soon his fangs would itch again, eager to dig into living flesh. for decades, the only thing he knew was hunger, and with his inability to sate it came restlessness, frustration, and anger. the dull memories of his life and the person he had once been faded away as he descended into becoming something much worse than a common thug.

his body changed along with his mind; he learned how to shift forms, climb walls and ceilings like a spider, be as quiet as mist. and he didn't use his new skills for good. in lack of anything better to do, the world became vaska's playground. he was slyer than ever, creepy as fuck, and didn't give a shit about morality. he had cared about things and people, once, but now his main concern was his next meal, and inbetween hunting and feeding on mortal things he was like a cat playing with the mice it catches. sometimes he didn't even know why he did what he did (restlessness? resentment? anger? hunger? boredom?) but it rarely ended well for the mouse. 

that is not to say that he turned into a shell of a person, a ghost haunting humans for no reason at all; he still had a curiosity to him, and all the time in the world to explore the things that caught his interest. so when he heard a rumour about an illegitimate princess locked away in a tower in italy, he decided to investigate. if nothing else, princess blood has to be delicious, right? 

turns out the princess is a prince, and he's not even human. amato's backstory is kubi's to tell rather than mine, but basically amato is a fae changeling whose human parents were so unnerved by his otherworldly aura (something about his bottomless black eyes chilled them to the bone) that they hid him where nobody could find him. he grew up alone, knowing nothing of the world outside.

and so vaska finds him. vaska can tell right away that amato is a fae and he's Very Intrigued.™ he's never tasted fae blood and it sings to him from amato's veins. they strike an unlikely friendship, and he secretly visits him night after night, always leaving before dawn, leaving amato to spend his days impatiently waiting for his visitor.

one night, amato accidentally cuts his finger on vaska's claw, and seeing vaska's hungry reaction he lets him lick up the drops of red spilling out. it tastes like godly nectar, making the blood of normal mortals seem like murky well water in comparison. 

the next night, amato lets vaska drink from his neck. vaska could have killed him then, or whenever he wanted to, but there was something about amato that stayed his hand. at first he thought that it was merely the fact that if he killed him he would never be able to taste his blood again, and he didn't want to give that up (truth be told, he does become somewhat addicted to amato's blood). later on he would realize that there's more to it. the sweet amato made vaska remember that there's more to life (or, well, undeath) than just hunger. he made him remember how to care, if only for a single person.

either way, vaska isn't the only hungry one. amato is starved for physical contact and finds himself fantasizing about very sinful things. in his eagerness to explore he asks vaska to touch him, one thing leads to another, and vaska happily sates all of amato's carnal needs, asking only for his blood in return. not that it's a mere business agreement; vaska finds himself horny again for the first time since he died, and amato finds his own pleasure in getting bitten, too. It's a win-win situation.

they inevitably leave the lonely tower, and amato finally gets to experience the world beyond it. he returns to the forests where he truly belongs, and they go to the fae court together. but the faeries are creeped out by vaska, treating him like a lesser being, and it doesn't help that vaska's manners leave something to be desired, especially when he, y'know... casually threatens to eat people alive. stuff like that. amato is reunited with his actual mom, the queen, but he doesn't feel at home in the fae court; he feels at home with vaska, wherever they may be at any given time, and so they leave again--together.

they end up essentially inseparable. vaska grows very protective (and possessive) of amato, and amato returns the favour, especially this one time when vaska is too injured to hunt and amato lures unknowing human prey within his reach. amato is not as violent as vaska, but he's nowhere near as innocent as he looks. they're an unlikely pair of supernatural beings, both of them playing by a very different rulebook than humans; they're very cute together, sure, but they also make you remember why humans have horror stories about both strigoi and faeries. it rarely ends well for the humans.

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and there we go! another (long) story about another vampire who finds himself in love with a beauty in a gilt cage. we like these kinds of tropes, ok? i especially have a weak spot for the contrast between scruffy, rugged, scary vampires/werewolves/basically any monster on the one hand, and beautiful, delicate-looking, and ethereal fae/elves/humans on the other...

comment below with any and all questions you may have about vaska, whether sfw or nsfw! i'd love to tell you everything you want to know lol. 

ALSO, kubi has written a lovely nsfw erotic ficlet about amato and vaska! you can read it HERE.

// art + vaska © me; amato + the fae queen (flora) © kubi.