Augustus von Langenstein

Sad and lonely and probably quite traumatized, but determined to not deal with his issues, thankyouverymuch.

Gus can be a bit petty at times, somewhat pedandic and generally terribly human. He's got his daily, boring routine, he spends too long in the bathroom getting his hair into shape, and nothing comes between him and his morning newspaper. Nothing. He reads too much poetry but sucks at writing his own, and he can sing and dance but would rather climb Mount Everest in his underwear than actually admit it. Adores household chores and paperwork and thinks doing taxes is fun. He likes his blankets soft and warm and fluffy and his pillows plentiful, and his living room looks like Old People - very classy old people, though, which is why Jaime Peterson (who shares that living room) doesn't mind too terribly. 

On the other hand, he's much smarter than people usually give him credit for (he's practically a tactical genius, and he's very good with numbers and half-decent at technology), can be very funny if he wants to be, and is also honestly nice - quiet, patient, very generous, unselfish and gentle and a little shy... and unfailingly loyal, no matter the risks. Would die for his loved ones, and it's honestly just coincidence (and vampire mojo) that he's still alive. Ish.

He's rarely taken seriously by anyone but his own best friends - far easier to dismiss the androgynous dandy vampire than actually consider the fact that he has feelings and a history, because that would imply treating him with human decency when it's so much easier to poke fun at him. Gus just holds his tongue and keeps on smiling politely - he also doesn't want to consider his feelings and history, because that would imply actually dealing with his mountain of serious issues, and he's terrified of that.

Scared of just about any- and everything. Vampire society as a whole, responsibility, his own vampire powers, blood, social interactions, narrow spaces, sudden loud noises, people in general... 

He tends to bottle up his issues and ignores them fastidiously: he deals with his fear of blood by starving himself and then resorting to preserved blood rations (which still triggers his phobia badly, but it's not quite as unmanageable as outright biting people) instead of biting people - blood rations he's pretty damn allergic to. He lives his life by day to suppress most of his vampire powers, despite the fact that this also tones down his healing factor, which he sorely needs, and fucks with his sleep rhythm something fierce. 

It all makes for a pretty bad vampire - he's actually managed to get sick before, he's sorely outclassed by his 5'4 human bestfriend in the strength department, and his so carefully cultivated natural grace frequently falls apart and dumps him down a flight of stairs. He gets better eventually, once Jaime befriends him and he actually has a healthy social life again... and even more so once Jaime manages to convince him that psychology and therapy have come a long way since the 1800's and being a vampire is no reason to wallow in his misfortune forever and he actually gets help. 

Gus was born to an aristocratic family in a small town in the general vicinity of Vienna, Austria, in 1750. He was named Augustus Friedrich Theodor von Langenstein. 

He was his parents' first child, born after many long years trying to conceive. His parents were already relatively old, and everything indicated that Gus would stay their only child.

His parents loved him dearly, placed all their hopes and expectations on him... and gave him the, uh, best child-rearing that 18th century aristocratic society had to offer.

That was not a good thing. 

Too-strict governesses, too-strict teachers, too-distant parents, not nearly enough physical contact and too much punishment, much of it corporeal - Gus was always a bit shy and insecure and never dealt well with punishment, and being beaten sure didn't help with any of it.

And then there were the social functions. The balls and banquets. Court. Marriage prospects. Gus hated the confines of society with a burning passion, and he's also very, very asexual and A) certainly didn't want to marry anyone and B) definitely and absolutely didn't want to have sex with anyone. The scrutiny and judgement of society scared him, masses of people had always overwhelmed his senses. He was scared and alone and lost in an ocean of strangers.

He barely got along by virtue of being very well-spoken and very pretty, almost doll-like, with a smile as sweet as a sunny day in spring - but he was a curiosity, easy on the eyes yet never taken seriously. Beneath the charmingly sweet veneer, Gus had a well-hidden but fiery temperament; passion, stubbornness, a keen eye for observations, intelligence, wit. Such a vibrant personality that must never see the light of day. One day, it would've broken him.

Enter Wilhelm, the son of an aristocratic family from a different town just a few miles off. Gus met him when they were both young children, and one way or another, Wilhelm saved his life.

Will was Gus' exact opposite - brash, careless, utterly uninterested in other people's opinions. Visually, too: stocky, broad, solid and fair-haired compared to Gus' tall, delicate frame and brown hair and eyes. 

Will met Gus at a social function when Gus was six and Will was seven years old. They very quickly became unlikely but very close friends and spent every minute they could in each other's company. Usually outdoors - Will was (uncommonly for that era) a very good swimmer; when they were a few years older, he and Gus often took their horses into the forest to a small, little-known lake, where Will would swim endless rounds while Gus (barely able to keep himself afloat by flailing gracelessly, and he never really got any better at it either) idly padded around where the water was shallow enough to stand. 

Out there, far away from other people and their expectations, Gus was happy. That little lake in the middle of the forest became his sanctuary - Will always by his side, a strong, cheerful shoulder to lean on, with the uncanny ability to make all problems seem very small and very far away. Gus was never sexually or romantically attracted to Will, but he still loved him dearly.

At home, Gus discovered a penchant for Latin literature and for music - against his parents' wishes, he took up the violin instead of the harpsichord... but they were more than willing to leave him that little joy. 

Whilhelm eventually figured out that he was very much attracted to his dear friend, which was, of course, totally unacceptable. He took those feelings and buried them.

Gus never knew.

Gus also managed to avoid the threat of marriage for a very, very long time - but the concept still came to bite him in the ass many years later: when Wilhelm turned 18, he married a young lady from a politically advantageous family.

She... uh, wasn't terribly fond of that.

She tolerated him - he was nice, he was sweet, and in his own way, he really did love her... but he wanted to make them work as a relationship; a marriage for love, not just for convenience. He simply wasn't her type. She couldn't tell him.

Eventually, when he was 21 and Gus was 20, he left on family business for several months.

His wife was lonely and miserable, so Gus stepped in and spent time with her occasionally, feeling sorry for her - long conversations about poetry and literature, dinners not spent alone for once, nothing more. They got along surprisingly well... but alas, she fell in love with the stable boy, slept with him, and became pregnant.

A few months later her husband returned, and it was very clear that he was not the father. 

Even worse: Somehow, no rumors of her pregnancy had spread. There were, however, rumors of a relationship between her and Gus - after all, they spent an awful lot of time together, and Gus had to be interested in some woman, right?

Will put two and two together, and concluded that his wife and his best friend had... well, fucked. So he went out and got horribly drunk and convinced himself that clearly Gus had some quasi-supernatural powers of seduction, had ensared both Will and his wife, and neither of them were at fault - it was all Gus.

And then he went and publicly challenged Gus to a duel. With swords. Yes, seriously. 

Normally, Gus would never have accepted, but his father forced him to; anything else, in his opinion, would damage the family's honor irreperably. Gus (and he is, to this day, deeply ashamed of it) was too scared to refuse - honestly scared his father would simply throw him out and leave him to fend for himself. Besides, Gus was a vastly better sword-fighter than Will, and it was a duel to first blood, not to the death... so in theory, one of them simply had to end up with a minor scratch. No big deal.

The duel came, and Will (full of regret but far too stubborn to back out) fell over a loose cobblestone like a dumbass and accidentally stabbed Gus in the shoulder, took one look at his beloved friend, down on the ground, rapidly losing consciousness and slowly bleeding out, and ran away.

They stitched Gus up and carried him home, and he survived - barely. 

And then, Gus' parents both died in a freak coach accident a few days later, before Gus was even able to leave his bed again, and Gus' first thought (to his horror) upon hearing it was "couldn't they have done that a few weeks earlier?"

In any case, Gus saw his chance to find Wilhelm (who had, on top of all else, found out about his wife and the stable boy, fled to his Vienna townhouse, and refused to come out after his entire social life had crumbled to ashes) and patch up their friendship. What's a small, nearly-lethal stab wound among friends, right? He traveled after him to Vienna - it wasn't far, but it took a heavy toll on his still-recovering health.

He then decided to walk the few blocks from his house to Wilhelm's, trying to give him as little warning as possible, to keep him from running away again. It took longer than expected, the sun set, it grew dark.

Suddenly, a flash of blond hair. Very light blond, straight and silky, certainly not Wilhelm. Very short and very fast and coming straight at him. Bumping into him, throwing him against a wall in a dark, dingy alley. Shoulder-first, hurt like hell. Grabbing him by the cravat and pulling him down.

Then, sharp fangs piercing his neck, and everything goes dark.

The next time he woke up, Gus was a vampire. Next to him sat the short young man who had attacked him, with a very sheepish look on his youthful little face, and a mountain of apologies - he introduced himself as "Elliot de Maudeville", a vampire almost as old as history itself.

Elliot had gotten careless and had been tricked and wounded by vampire hunters in Hungary, weeks before - he'd fled to Vienna, hoping to lose them in the crowds, but he was weakened and... well, not scared, necessarily, but certainly very concerned. He'd needed blood to go on, and Gus was the first person he'd found alone and secluded. Elliot had never meant to turn Gus into a vampire, and didn't quite understand why Gus had reacted so strongly to the bite. 

Gus kicked him in the crotch and ran.

(Years later they figured out that the culprit had been Gus' stab wound - massive blood loss meant a stronger reaction to vampire bites, and so Elliot had to either kill or turn him after drinking an amount of blood that would've left any healthy person mildly dizzy at worst)

So he ran away from Elliot again and again - and Elliot dutifully came after him and dragged him out of whatever dark mountainous Austrian forest he’d run into that time; more often than not in a terrible state: ill, injured, unconscious, delirious, always absolutely terrified…

After a year or so, Gus finally gave up and stayed, although he steadfastly refused to drink more blood than absolutely necessary (and, most frequently, drank far less than that) and lived his life strictly by day in order to disable his vampire powers, all the while making up interesting stories for the letters he sent back home to his domestic staff. 

At some point - around 1792 - they politely let him know that him being a vampire was a well-known but well-kept secret among the staff and that they’d very much like to see him again. 

Gus, who’d been dragged through the better part of Europe up to that point, living, among others, in Britain, France and Italy was absolutely delighted, because he really did like Vienna… and so he went home, together with a rather disgruntled Elliot, and stayed there for a few years before heading off - you can only stay in one place for so long when you’re not aging. Didn’t keep him from coming back home every now and then, though. 

After that, his life was reasonably quiet - apart from some fleeing that had to be done during the Napoleonic Wars - and consisted mostly of him and Elliot (and just him, every now and then) travelling around Europe. 

Unfortunately, Elliot was quite in love with the idea of a German republic, which means that he insisted on staying in Germany after the first World War and keeping an eye on the Weimar republic… which came back to bite him when he realized far too late where exactly that was heading after 1933 - he even made a bet with Gus about what would happen to German politics. 

Elliot said that the Germans would get their shit together, while Gus insisted that humans, especially large amounts of humans, are completely irrational and self-destructive by nature and bet on there being a ginormous political disaster. 
And then, in '35, Gus fled to England.

Elliot stayed.

And got captured by the Nazis and experimented on to determine the cause (and potential use in creating supernatural super-soldiers) of vampirism - together with a bunch of particularly nasty vampires, no less.

Fleeing to England, as it turns out, wasn’t the wisest decision of all times, either - Gus’ London apartment got bombed during the London Blitz, unfortunately with Gus inside. He was stuck underneath the rubble for several days. Vampire or not, that almost killed him for good and it permanently damaged his healing abilities.

Generally, Gus didn’t deal well with the horrors of war, but he steadfastly stayed in London, no matter how much it burned around him. 

After all, he had arranged with Elliot to meet up in July ‘45 (or the first July after the war was over, should there be one) in London, at the Nelson Column on Trafalgar Square. 

Elliot, of course, never showed up, leaving Gus more heartbroken than he’d ever expected.

In September 1945, he returned to Germany, to search for Elliot personally - and also because he’d almost gotten himself arrested for suspicious behaviour twice in the span of ten days; apparently sitting around in front of Nelson all day every day for two months is not what normal people are supposed to do.

Gus spent the entire post-war period in archives, desperately trying to find any hint about what happened to Elliot - but searching for top-secret information about things that don’t even exist officially using only publicly accessible sources is beyond hopeless… so he took to holing himself up somewhere and hoping to starve instead. 

Unfortunately, he didn’t even manage to do that, because he kept stumbling over a young, adventurous African-American GI who was somewhat disillusioned by military service and wanted to satisfy his heroic ambitions somehow - fighting against what any normal person would call “Zombies” (although possibly not back then) and Gus insisted on calling “Undead” or “Revenants”, but which, in any case, were a result of all the corpses from WW2 having an unfortunate tendency to end up on magical hotspots… with some particularly nasty necromancers not helping the matter.

During the late 1950's, the problem had become too prevalent (and dangerous) to keep secret, so the supernatural was officially recognized by the government (along with many other countries), which made things both more difficult and far easier for everybody involved when, suddenly, everything magical was regulated by laws.

For Gus, it only meant that he didn’t have to hide what he was at first (and the introduction of blood rations for vampires - something he was intensely grateful for, although he happens to be allergic to some of the stuff they put in there to make it unusable for medical purposes, which was a bit of a damper), but then the government realized that they needed more of a magical infrastructure, including law enforcement… and suddenly all eyes were on a certain American with a mild superhero complex and his pretty vampire companion… 

That American ended up becoming the first leader of the MaSCIU (Magical and Supernatural Crime Investigation Unit), with Gus as the head tactician coordinating the more personnel-intensive counter-attacks against the Undead. 

Over the years, however, the number of Revenant attacks drastically decreased and the position of ‘head tactician’ became superfluous, reducing Gus to the resident paper-shuffler, and with the retirement of the first generation of MaSCIU employees and officers, his role in the founding of the organization was quickly forgotten - after all, the resident effeminate dandy vampire is much easier to make fun of than to admire. 

Gus didn’t mind, for the most part - although he did draw the line at having to do field work in the 70′s and showed that he still had an impressive amount of strings to pull, should the need arise.

By the 2010′s, however, the last few of those strings have died or retired, meaning that he really doesn’t have a way out when the amount of magical crimes drastically increases and he suddenly has to do field work again… and so he ends up having to solve a very tricky case together with young Jaime. He takes quite a shine to her, and they end up as some kind of weird platonic mini-family. He can’t say he minds that part of it, at least. 

• The least menacing person you can possibly imagine. Polite and cultured, and about as non-confrontational as it gets.
• Genuinely enjoys household chores and paperwork; gives him a sense of control he's usually sorely lacking.
• Used to be active in various Usenet groups when that was still a thing, usually having heated discussions about poetry, but didn't really have the energy to keep up with that whole newfangled internet thing. Still decently competent at technology.
• Usually found smiling politely while internally screaming about whatever's going horribly wrong this time around.

• Post-Victory Collapse: Either from stress or exhaustion. Happens a lot.
• Fragile Speedster: Very agile, very fragile. 
• Afraid Of Their Own Strength: Not so afraid of what he can do with it, but he's absolutely terrified of being corrupted by his vampire powers and turn into exactly the kind of person he loathes more than anything else. He takes the trope to some very self-destructive extremes.
• Weak but Skilled: ... which is completely under-utilised, given that most of his swordfights involve zombies not exactly skilled in fighting anyway.
• Fainting: At that point, he’s more surprised by someone (Jaime) being there to catch him than by fainting in the first place. Because, let’s see: He’s a half-starved, sleep-deprived vampire with a debilitating fear of blood and a tendency to end up as cannon fodder, and a really low tolerance for stress. Whose healing abilities are severely damaged. Yay.
• Silk Hiding Steel: Perfect manners and a tendency towards diplomacy to the point of being impractical are some of Gus’ defining features. Behind that, there’s a razor-sharp intellect, an occasionally fairly dark sense of humor (he is from Vienna, after all) and the capacity to come up with rather devious plans. He’s also bloody good with a sword.
• Afraid Of Blood: As I mentioned. The consequences aren’t pretty.
• Ironic Fear: A vampire afraid of blood and vampires. Not as amusing as it sounds. 
• Vampire Detective: Oh yes. He’s not too fond of his job, but can’t exactly quit; in part because nobody else would be unwise enough to hire him - and he needs a reason to get out of bed in the morning (or evening or... well, ever), which is something he learned the hard way.
• Friendly Neighborhood Vampire: Utterly, utterly harmless and well-meaning. 
• I Hate You, Vampire Dad: Was turned without his consent (and completely by accident), and absolutely hated his sire’s guts for quite a while. They eventually managed to strike up a sort of odd friendship, and now that the guy’s gone and presumably dead, Gus would do almost anything to have him back. 
• Non-Idle Rich: Really doesn’t need the money; just needs a reason to get up in the morning.
• Secretly Wealthy: Well, at least considerably more wealthy than he usually lets on. 
• Blue Blood: Uhm, yes. And for somebody who hates aristocrats this much, he sure went through an awful lot of effort to keep his title, too. 
• Deadpan Snarker: Usually keeps any snide comments to himself out of politeness, but if he isn’t snarking out loud, he’s certainly thinking it - to the utter surprise of his more casual acquaintances. 
• Sharp Dressed Man: His outfits may get surprisingly creative at times (lots of purple and a surprising amount of turtlenecks, for instance), but damn him if his clothes aren’t always perfectly tailored and well-maintained. Applies to everything he owns, including bathrobes, pajamas and sweatpants, which Jaime is borderline offended by. 
• Royal Rapier: Well, Smallsword, really. Has quite a fondness for pretty and stabby weapons rooted in his youth, where a smallsword was basically a necessary fashion accessory. Him being very, very good at actually using the thing is just a bonus. 
• Disorganized Outline Speech: Usually quite good at giving speeches, but rather easily distracted. Also prone to this when he’s absolutely terrified (which is... pretty much always?) and being bad at hiding it. Occasionally he does this on purpose for Jaime’s personal amusement.
• Cowardly Lion: Sees cowardice as his defining feature. On the other hand, Jaime once summarized his life as “getting into possibly lethal trouble to save other people’s asses since 1750″.
• Immortality Hurts: Technically applies to any vampire, but Gus is particularly unlucky in that regard, especially as his boss just looooooves to use him as cannon fodder and even Astrid, the resident scientist, usually asks Gus to help her test out anything that could be potentially dangerous and painful. Gus definitely feels pain - as a human would. And, in fact, he’s always had a fairly low pain tolerance. Ouch.
• Healing Factor: Again, technically applies to all vampires. Gus is actually somewhat of an exception, though, because his healing factor was permanently damaged by means of bomb blasts and buildings. For normal vampires, healing is uncomfortable. For Gus, it’s usually more painful than the actual injury. And may take a few days. Also, the healing factor filters out pretty much any body- or mind-altering substance. Like medicine, painkillers and alcohol. Being a vampire sucks. 
• Fear Is The Appropriate Response: Gus is fully aware that he’s essentially a very small fish in a world full of sharks - and Jaime’s even worse off. So, yes. 
• Long-Haired Pretty Boy: Until he gets a haircut. Then he’s just a Pretty Boy. Also, yes, he eventually gets a haircut.
• Break The Cutie: About 260 years worth of it.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Somewhat flighty dandy with enough quirks for an entire army and some really unfortunate phobias. Also a rather brilliant strategist, and generally surprisingly sharp and observant. Oh, and he’s fantastic with a sword and actually not a bad shot, either.
• Determinator: Gus basically runs on pure willpower 24/7. This is, unfortunately, totally unnecessary, but try telling him that...
• Nervous Wreck: Read through this list again. Um. Yep. And given his backstory, he has all the reasons. Plus, he usually does a half-decent job not letting it show.
• The Not-Love Interest: Could easily be a love interest for Jaime, but their friendship, though incredibly close, is absolutely platonic. 
• Follow In My Footsteps: Gus’ dad and granddad spent their lives turning their family from an old but largely insignificant noble family into something with a ton of money and a fairly large presence at court. Gus was an only child. Gus’ dad did NOT want his life’s work to awkwardly fizzle out. Therefore, Gus was damn well going to get married, father as much kids as possible and carry on the family legacy. 
• Fantasy Forbidding Parents: See above. Gus' life was meticulously planned out, and there was no way they’d allow him to do his own thing.
• Tough Love: How Gus’ parents had been raised, and how Gus’ parents (and the staff) attempted to raise Gus. That did NOT work out. AT ALL.
• Corporal Punishment: Overlapping with the above. 
• Curtains Match The Window: Not anymore, but they used to: brown hair, brown eyes.
  
• Beneath The Mask: ... hides a lot of snark, self-loathing and sheer bloody panic.
• Running Away to Cry: At some point, Jaime finds out that he regularly flees to his room and bawls his eyes out because... well, life in general. 
• Broken Tears: Occasionally.
• The Insomniac: Fucked-up internal clock (because vampirism) and awful nightmares are a bad combination.
• Pro-Human Transhuman: Hates hates HATES vampires, because they tend to be elitist douchenozzles of exactly the same kind that made his human life a living hell. Way more fond of humans, because at least some of them are decent people. Plus, they don’t have to actively hurt other humans to survive, which, in Gus’ opinion, automatically grants them moral superiority.
• Arbitrarily Large Bank Account: Not quite bottomless, but close enough. Some of it was inherited, some of it was gained via vampire connections, most of it was the result of clever investments - something he learned from the guy who turned him, as a personal favor. He also has a job, but that mostly just pays for some of the taxes.
• Affluent Ascetic: ...On the other hand, Gus is really notoriously stingy - he lives in the same apartment complex as all of his co-workers (he does owns the building, not that anybody's still aware of that, but that was him being helpful. Long story, that), at first he doesn't even own a car, and after he gets his license (again...?) he goes for something along the lines of a 1970's/80's BMW. Reasonably classy? Sure. Extravagant? Nah. Still has some shades of Simple, Yet Opulent, though: most of the things he owns are of very high quality - then again, that's mostly because he wants somethin that'll last and be worth fixing if it breaks. Much of his wardrobe hails from the 60's to early 2000's, and he regularly uses fountain pens from the 1950's. Jaime eventually convinced him - accidentally - to get a color TV, at least - one of those "unnecessary luxuries" he'd never have gotten for himself. That said, he's plenty generous to other people, and seems to have made it his mission to enable Jaime to live out her aesthetic to the fullest.
• Vampires Are Rich: Not all of them, but this one is.