OC Spotlight April: Luca (aka Stubs) // nsfw-ish

this turned into a very long character spotlight, because i'm currently very into this character and have a looot to say about him. buckle up.

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luca (aka stubs) is honestly quite an asshole, to everyone except the select few people he truly cares about. he's often unemphatic, manipulative, cruel, selfish, and sadistic. he's Very Dominant, a predator and a bully who views most living beings as food, toys, or things that better not stand in his way. but on the other hand he's also a very loving husband and a great dad. he's a loveable douchebag, the type of person you love to hate, or hate to love - especially after seeing the way he acts around his husband and kids. he's insanely loyal, protective, and caring - there's nothing he wouldn't do for his family.

stubs is a pricolici, a creature of east european folklore, with both vampiric and wolflike characteristics. in stubs' case, he was born a werewolf, and acquired vampiric traits after his death. at birth (back in the 1300s) he had the tell-tale little tail of a pricolici, but his mother (poor and alone) managed to hide it from the other villagers, and protected her child for as long as she could. she died when luca was just a few years old, though, and he was left to fend for himself. 

people soon discovered the truth about his nature and he became even more of a pariah. at best, they avoided him, fearing and hating him even when he was just a child. they'd throw rocks at him, chase him off, send their dogs after him. some people tried to kill him, went hunting for him as if he was a wild animal, saying they shouldn't allow that creature to grow up. he had to dig through trash and steal to feed himself, he had no home, no shelter from the snow and the storms, and nobody who cared for him. he was a very miserable little pup, but somehow he survived.

and with time, he grew bigger. and bigger. and bigger. the scrawny little pup turned into a brawny teenager, and his fear and sorrow turned into bitterness and simmering anger. he learnt how to hunt, and would sometimes prey on the villagers' livestock and pets, out of a combination of hunger and spite. needless to say, that didn't make them hate him less.

one day some village teens were spewing bile at the wolf lurking at the outskirts of town, throwing things at him and taunting him, daring each other to go closer and closer. but this time, something in him snapped. a switch flipped, all his resentment boiled over, and instead of skulking away - he attacked.

and that's when he discovered how easy it is to take a life. his fangs ripped into their flesh, their bones cracked between his jaws, the taste of blood flooded his tongue. he made them fall apart like straw dolls, helpless to defend themselves from the monster that the little pup had become. luca realised that he had grown more powerful than them. it was such a rush, a triumph. he loved it. he shouldn't fear them. they should fear him.

for the next couple of decades he became a living nightmare to the village, a horrible monster haunting the dark woods and ragged mountains surrounding it. few ever dared to venture outside the village, and those who did - hunters, traders, travellers, reckless teenagers - often never returned. the village itself wasn't safe, either; sometimes they'd wake up from a terrified scream, a call to arms, the frightened bleating of their sheep, or find a half-eaten body, knowing the wolf had attacked again.

and luca just kept growing, becoming a werewolf of massive proportions. many witch hunters heard the rumours of the black wolf and came to try to kill him, but they all met a bloody death. it was only when a dozen of experienced monster hunters banded together under an expert from the Vatican that they finally managed to trap and execute him, cutting off his head and burying him in the ground.

but it takes more than that to hold back a heart as black as his. the village saw peace for a few decades, the terror he had caused evaporated, life went back to normal - but parents would still tell stories of the werewolf to their kids, warning them to venture too far from home.

it was hatred and malice that brought him back. there was no need of a ritual, no summoning; his soul seeped back into his restless bones and he clawed himself out of his grave, little by little. his eyes burned white now, silver shimmered across his black fur, and the only thing he could think of was getting his revenge on those who had murdered him. 

he spared no-one, because no-one deserved his mercy; no-one had ever been on his side. he killed them, devoured them, drank their blood and grew more powerful with every life he claimed. their weapons cut him, but his flesh knitted itself back together within a few hours at most. he gave them no time to send for help; when outsiders finally arrived, all that remained of the town was piles of smoking ashes.

for the following centuries luca roamed the world, sating his hunger in any way he pleased. he's had a variety of adventures, most notably an encounter with a pair of witches that were part of a cult dedicated to vanu, a pride demon. with the use of dark arts they actually managed to capture luca and kept him in what was essentially a monster zoo. after a pair of unlikely allies helped set him free, luca has hunted members of the cult down, one by one - and that's actually how he met rin.

rin's cruel stepfather was one of the leaders of the cult; luca, seeing an unprecedented opportunity to gather intel on the cult and its members, goes undercover and becomes one of the stepfather's bodyguards, patiently working his way into the inner circle. the stepfather is jealously keeping rin from the outside world, but it doesn't stop luca from being drawn to his employer's gorgeous protégé. the attraction is mutual; rin welcomes him into his bed, and when he learns about luca's true nature he's thrilled rather than horrified. it starts with hunger, then lust, and finally love, of a kind luca has never experienced before, not in all his centuries of existence.

rin starts wearing collars to hide the bite marks on his neck, the two of them hardly spending a night apart. luca can be a bully in bed, too, but in the healthy, consensual bdsm way, where the power ultimately lies with rin, because luca would never do anything that rin wouldn't allow. eventually, rin asks luca to give him the power to set himself free, too. luca bites into his lover's neck, drinks him empty, and feeds him of his own blood until rin is born anew. needless to say, rin's stepfather doesn't survive much longer after that. 

from then on, it's the two of them against the world. they travel to places rin had only dreamed of, they have a bunch of pups, and face further dangers in the form of hunters, luca's old enemies, and other monsters. but no matter what happens they're together, and they're free.

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don't say i didn't warn you that it was gonna be a long text! comment below if you have any questions about this murderous asshole :V

// art + luca © me; rin © kubi.