Here there be whump

So we've got a time travel au now, but how about a body swap au? (Which somehow makes even less sense than time travel imo but shhhh don't worry about it)

I'm imagining captive Kane waking up in Jim's body, SO confused. He sees himself in the mirror and puts together what has happened. Despite the strange circumstances, he's relieved to be free of pain for the first time in so long but as he thinks about it he realizes, "if I'm here... then that must mean that Jim is...... oh no."

And Jim wakes up on a cold, hard floor, in a world of pain, and since he has no point of reference it takes him a moment to realize where he is and whose body he's in. And by that point the hunters would arrive to have their fun and Jim has to try to convince them that he's human. he swears. He's not supposed to be here!!

Would Kane try to find a way to save Jim? But how can he without contacting the hunters who tortured him? He'd be terrified.. He can't go home either, because he's not currently a vampire and would get eaten alive in vampire territory.

I have Kane and Jim AU brainrot rn (whumperstorm)

THIS IS GREAT. i have imagined "what if bodyswap au" before, but i've always imagined it in arc 3, present day. i've never even CONSIDERED a bodyswap during arc 2. this is genius.

oh, poor jim, the unluckiest man in the world.

kane would absolutely do everything in his power to save jim. the first problem would be finding him. kane doesn't know where the compound is. is prob able to find liz's phone number written down somewhere and call her for help. when liz first hears what kane has to say, she initially thinks jim is just having some kind of bizarre mental breakdown, but it becomes quickly apparent this is not the case. liz is horrified. immediately starts working on getting jim out of there, which is fairly easy for her to do. kane doesn’t even have to go. liz picks him up. kane is completely horrified to learn liz is a hunter, also. liz seeing kane in jim’s body recoil from her in fear makes her... really sad. she knows it’s kane, who she HATES WITH BURNING PASSION, but he just looks like jim.

jim is so incredibly confused and scared. he wakes up in an incredible amount of pain, and trying to explain himself just gets him hurt more. not to mention the fact that he’s unused to a vampire body, especially a starving vampire body. the sensation of total starvation is unlike anything he’s ever felt before. vampires also have much better senses than humans: the lights are too bright, the sounds are too loud, and he can smell everything. especially blood. jim isn’t used to having to restrain himself. gives into instinct and lunges at the first human he sees, and is punished severely with time in the sun for it, the worst pain he’s ever felt by a longshot.

liz manages to rescue him up pretty soon after this, and jim can’t even see or speak or move he’s so burnt. he can’t even really feed. liz pries his mouth open and drips as much of her own blood as she can into there. jim is clinging to her for dear life. liz is crying while assuring him “everything’s going to be okay, i’m here, i’ve got you.”

kane’s got... problems adjusting to being in a human body as well, despite how relieved he is to not be in pain- aside from the dull pain that never leaves his neck. he sees worse (can’t even see in the dark!), hears worse, and can barely smell anything. he’s still terrified of sunlight even though it won’t hurt him anymore. and humans have to eat so OFTEN. two or three times a day AND have to drink water. and so many options to pick from!!! he’s just glad he gets to eat again after years of starvation.

jim recovers within 2 days, being fed blood and all. once he’s brought back home, kane feeds him too. jim & liz keep kane. can’t exactly let him go running off in jim’s body, and kane’s too afraid to leave the house anyway. once jim is healed, the being-unused-to-body thing only gets worse. he’s so strong and so fast. keeps breaking things and running into walls. after that first day, he absolutely refuses to feed on liz. kane readily offers himself for feeding, teaches jim how to do it properly. this is the weirdest thing in the world to jim. feeding on kane in his own body.

a very interesting au indeed!