Cover art
by Anna Sassi on Imgur.
by Anna Sassi on Imgur."Mother," The blonde witch to his right began, "If we string him up here, all that fresh man-blood will go to waste."
The redhead's hook stopped an inch shy of his hand. She looked towards her mother, whose head was tilted in consideration.
"Let us take him to the dungeon," The blonde witch suggested. Ethan didn't like the way her bloody lips split into a hungry smile as she went on, "Not a drop of that warm, wet, bright red blood will go to waste."
The redhead's hook stopped an inch shy of his hand. She looked towards her mother, whose head was tilted in consideration.
"Let us take him to the dungeon," The blonde witch suggested. Ethan didn't like the way her bloody lips split into a hungry smile as she went on, "Not a drop of that warm, wet, bright red blood will go to waste."
Blood and Winter is a Resident Evil fanfic where the story deviates from canon in the form of Ethan's imprisonment in Castle Dimitrescu during the events of Resident Evil Village being far longer. During his forced stay, he finds comfort in the unlikeliest of people and his mission to save his daughter suddenly becomes far more complicated.
It can be read here on Archive of Our Own and here on FanFiction.Net.
This fanfic contains examples of:
- Doorstopper: Blood and Winter is absolute whopper of an RE fanfic at over 500k words long as of October 2023.
- Guilt-Induced Nightmare: While stuck in his cell, Ethan commonly has nightmares of Chris Redfield's murder of Mia and feels great guilt about not being able to have stopped it.
- Insult of Endearment: The mocking nicknames of 'Puppy' and 'Tapeworm' gradually lose their edge and become terms of affection for Ethan and Bela respectively.
- Lima Syndrome: Bela quickly becomes attached to Ethan, going out of her way to treat his wounds, cook him amazing food, and patrol the dungeon in the late hours of the night to prevent her sisters from attacking him further.
- A Match Made in Stockholm: Ethan himself is aware of this trope and initially refuses to fall victim to it. But his resistance gradually wears off over time as he and Bela bond more and more, to the point he finds it difficult to even be angry at her for assisting in his imprisonment.
- Really 700 Years Old: Despite holding the appearance of attractive young women, the daughters are actually centuries old.
- Shipper on Deck: While initially bemused at the prospect, the Duke and Daniela were quick to subtly support the budding romance between Ethan and Bela.
- Shout-Out:
- The author had admitted that Bela's 'puppy' nickname for Ethan was a reference to Lenore's nickname for Hector from Castlevania (2017). Ironically, Lenore and Hector's relationship has an amusing amount of similarity to Ethan and Bela's relationship, both of their respective relationships starting with a man being held captive by a lady vampire and slowly developing romantic feelings for her.
- When Bela visits Karl Heisenburg and addresses him as "Mr. Heisenburg", Karl asks her not to call him that, remarking that it makes him sound like a meth cook. Bela doesn't get the reference.
- Snark-to-Snark Combat: Might as well be Ethan and Bela's main method of communicating with how much they enjoy throwing light-hearted barbs at each other.
- Through His Stomach: Serving him exotic, mouth-watering meals personally cooked by Bela herself certainly wasn't what cooled Ethan's anger towards Bela for keeping him locked up in a dungeon, but he'd likely have a hard time admitting that it didn't help considering how much he loved those meals.
- Well, Excuse Me, Princess!: Considering their first meeting involved Bela slashing Ethan's leg with a sickle and dragging him to her terrifying mother, the two's initial relationship was understandably very poor at first. It stayed that way for a bit before their animosity and insults become downright affectionate over time.
- Wistful Amnesia: The daughters have very few memories of their past lives and are generally happy to keep it that way, with the exception of Bela, who is the only one of the three to hold fragments of happier memories before her transformation that she feels conflicted about keeping under lock and key. Ethan learns that one of the most effective means of dragging Bela's repressed humanity out is to appeal to her past and encourage her to cling onto those half-forgotten memories.
