#touchofhc

[veronicatheslayer]

Is red your favorite color?

Alongside black, yes.

[blancheharlow]

~TOS Challenge 1~

What is your character’s full name and Date of Birth?

Blanche Louise Harlow. June 19th, 1999.

What is your character’s involvement with the supernatural?

Blanche is a medium—her gift has her see ghosts completely and she can hear and talk with them. She also has the ghost of her Great Grandma Blanche following her around.

If your character is another species or otherwise involved with the supernatural, who knows?

Nora. Because she can see Granny and other ghosts.

Who do they know is involved in the supernatural or a species other than human?

No one at the moment!

If your character could be another species, which would they pick and why?

She’s stay a human, but without the whole medium thing. She doesn’t like it and it makes her uncomfortable—Blanche gets so distracted so easily.

What is your character’s place of work/education?

The high school. She doesn’t have a part time job as of yet.

Did your character grow up in Ashkent Creek? If not, where are they from?

The Harlow family moved to Ashkent Creek from Boston, MA when she was 5. Since then she’s lived in the big house by the shore.

How does your character feel about Ashkent Creek?

Indifferent really. Too many ghosts around and it gets really awkward and hard to ignore when they realize she can see them.

Does your character have any distinguishing marks, piercings, tattoos, scars etc?

She will eventually have an anti-possession tattoo on her left side.

How does your character usually dress?

Blanche wears leggings more than she wears jeans with long shirts and has a collection of scarves and shoes. You’ll also see her in dresses and tights and things like that—mostly because her grandma really does like to prod and tell her what she should be wearing.

In the summer you’ll see her in shorts and stuff, but never anything that shows too much skin. Her granny has made her a little too self-conscious for that.

What are some of your character’s hobbies? What kind of places in Ashkent Creek do they like to go during their downtime?

Blanche likes to read. She reads primarily mysteries and crime novels (sorry Regan), but will also binge some of those corny YA romance novels if she’s really feeling it. Her granny drives her up the wall when she’s trying to read, trying to gossip and stuff like that.

She also really likes doing math. Blanche is good at it and really likes doing math problems. She mostly likes it because she’s good at it, but it’s also a good way to distract herself from some of the ghost she sees. It’s easier to tune them (and her grandma) out.

Honestly, she’ll go anywhere in Ashkent Creek where it’s quiet. She likes quiet and she likes not being around spirits.

[empathy-notsympathy]

[meta]Why doesn't Marley like friends?

// *clears throat*

Imagine, if you will, walking into a room full of people. Now, you don’t actually know any of these people-- at least, not very well. Maybe you’ve heard passing mention of their names, or even said hi to them a few times, because that was the polite thing to do. 

So, you’re in this room, with all these people, and none of them are really looking at you, but you’re looking at them, because you can feel everything they’re feeling. The nervousness of that guy to the left who keeps smiling and touching his tie too much; the boredom of the girl who’s been stirring her drink for about five minutes now without taking a sip; the angry jealousy of the wife who’s just stirring in the corner as she watches her womanizer husband flirt with all the other women-- but none of them are yours. In fact, you can barely pick your own emotions out of the heap that’s suddenly been piled on you.

Finally, you decide to go talk to someone, because maybe focusing on one person will help you clear your mind. You pick out an interesting fellow in the corner and approach.

Now, keep in mind, you know nothing about this person. You’ve never met before, you don’t have any sort of emotional connection or bond to them whatsoever. But you approach, and suddenly, just from a few minutes of observation, you can tell almost everything about him and his mannerisms. You know that he rarely brushes his teeth because of the yellow lining the top of his gums, which he flashes way too often with fake smiles. And, oh yeah, the dishonest fake smiles, that most people would barely even notice, stand out like a sore thumb to you. He has the feint tan line of a wedding ring, not prominent enough to be recent, so he’s either been divorced or widowed. Either way, it’s an interesting fact to his apparent charming demeanor. You know he’s lying about almost everything he says because of the way his mouth twitches, and he always rubs his chin when he’s trying to think of what lie to tell next.

You excuse yourself and move on. Perhaps there’s someone less deceitful to talk to.

But there really isn’t. Social standards have conditioned most people to act and talk a certain way. Everyone tells little white lies in order to keep from making someone uncomfortable, or saying something mean. No one tells how they’re truly feeling, and even as they smile, you know they’re full of shit. You know the woman with the punch bowl thinks that guy who’s talking to her is the biggest asshole in the universe, even though she’s smiling as she pours him a cup. You know he would take the opportunity to bed her with or without her consent, and you know he wouldn’t feel a drop of remorse about it. So you leave, once again dissatisfied with everything humanity has to offer.

When you do finally manage to make a bond, you realize that now, no matter where they are, you can always feel the other person’s emotions. At first, it’s alarming. You liked going home and being alone and not having to deal with anyone’s but your own. But suddenly, that’s not a possibility anymore. There’s not much of yourself left, and sometimes you find yourself resenting the other person. But after a while, you come to enjoy it, the feel of their constant presence.

When they leave you, you can still feel them. For weeks after. They’re halfway across the country and you still cry when they do, punch the wall when they’re angry, and the first time their happy, you can’t tell if you’re happy too, or if they’re forcing it on you. When the connection finally severs, you feel empty.

You finally decide that people are no longer worth the outcome, that it just takes too much effort to connect to someone-- and you fear, a little bit, that if you do form that bond again, that it’ll get taken away and you’ll feel that horrible, tearing, lonely sensation again-- when you already know almost everything about them. 

And that, folks, is why Marley doesn’t like making friends.

[veronicatheslayer]

[Meta] Do they enjoy any parties? If so what kind? Do they organise the party or just turn up? How do they act? What if they didn’t want to go but were dragged along by a friend?

Meta: Veronica and parties is really interesting because of the ball event (which was legit my favourite thing lemme tell you) but basically because of that she has a sort of irrational phobia about balls. 

So whilst previously she would organise these big extravagant parties, now she just doesn’t and she also tries to avoid them but if it was something she had to go to, she would go but she would go armed to the teeth. If she was at a party then she would be polite and her normal self, but she’d under the surface be tense and very highly strung. 

If they didn’t want to go then I can see Bridget or Cece or Marley dragging them along sure.

[roryhagan-blog]

What are five things about your character that no one (or not many people) knows?

There was going to be an obvious omission of Rory being a Gancanagh as most fae aren’t quick to put their cards down on the table + the threat of wardens anyway, but I’m gonna expand a bit more on this because he’s got his own reasons. Rory’s grown up always knowing what he is, and although he’s not ashamed of his species, he’s more than a little leery of divulging it/revealing information about it. Growing up, he wished his father hadn’t ruined his relationship with his mother - he was always jealous of his friends when he was a young’un due to their normal family units, and as such has always dreamed about having a genuine family with someone. A genuine family, which means fae-only due to their immunity to his pheromones and that he can’t accidentally feed off them. Anyway, Gancanagh aren’t that well known even amongst fae, so Rory uses this to his ‘advantage’ - he doesn’t properly talk about what he is with his partners due to a fear that someone he truly loves will reject him because of his feeding habits. This is a major fuck-up on his part, but he sees the thought of bringing up a sort of polyamory dynamic with a girlfriend as a death sentence. Anyway, usually it ends up in flames because Rory sucks at hiding his cheating heart and once the damage is already done, he can’t really explain himself away.

The cold iron scar on his left shoulder is not from a warden attack. In fact, he’s never even met a warden. He usually dismisses it for human benefit with a story that when he was a kid, he was biking down a hill which ended with a nasty clash with some barbwire that got tangled up badly with his arm. Fae would know this isn’t true, but the truth is that Rory was a cocky little brat and a bit of a hooligan (I’m gonna write up a headcanon post on this later on) when he was younger, which was concerning to his father who worried it might attract the attention of a warden later in his son’s life. The solution Seamus Hagan came up with was to purposefully cut Rory with cold iron to show Just What Happens when a warden finds you and that no amount of charm will get you out of it. For the most part, it worked.

He got a girl pregnant in high school. She got an abortion, which Rory talked her into with the help of his abilities. There was no way he wanted anything to do with becoming a father at that age, but he considers it the worst thing he’s ever done due to him manipulating her decision through his abilities.

He’s uncomfortable around blood; he’s fine with a little, but around pooling levels of it he starts getting spots in his vision. He never liked it much as a kid, but it worsened after being cut by cold iron and how much it got everywhere then.

After the 18 different jobs he was fired from across the whole east coast, he’s spent some time in the past sleeping in his car and having to rely on soup kitchens for food. As such, his door’s always open for anyone that needs a place to stay.

[veronicatheslayer]

Challenge: Veronica In Ashford River

VERSION: I play Ashkent Creek Dimension Veronica, so this information is about Ashford River Dimension Veronica.

NAME/NICKNAMES: Veronica Babineaux / Veri (by close friends and family)

SPECIES: Human (Slayer)

HOMETOWN: Born and bred in Ashford River.

TOWN STANDING/JOB: She doesn’t really have a traditional job, this is because she doesn’t need too have one. She is rich enough to get by without a job because of her parents. However she roughly splits her time between being an heiress and being a slayer.

Veronica runs lots of charitable events, mainly around the church which they helped to build. But she is also known to throw big extravagant parties which she invites the whole town to!

They are also a Slayer, but not a very good one. Other than that they are an heiress but they don’t really turn up to many functions (mainly because their parents don’t want them around because Veronica is pretty embarrassing as a slayer), they challenge lots of vampires to duels and sometimes they win them, but against an experienced opponent they mostly lose.

SUPERNATURAL INVOLVEMENT: They are a real expert in Vampire and Slayer lore. They know almost everything in terms of what vampires can do, the types of vampires, the ways to kill them, their strengths and their weaknesses. They spend a lot of time studying this because they think it will help them to be a better slayer.

They have some rough knowledge of the supernatural outside of that of Slayers and Vamps, but it is rudimentary and lacking.

PERSONALITY: In contrast to Ashkent Creek Dimension Veronica, Ashford River Dimension Veronica is not calm under pressure, this is because she isn’t as capable a slayer as she is in Ashkent Creek. In Ashkent Creek, Veronica is calm because she is so capable, in Ashford River despite her enthusiasm, she panics in duels if she thinks it is going poorly.

FAMILY: 

Father: Antoine Babineaux - deceased in the Ashkent Creek Universe, but has been brought across to the Ashkent Creek Universe from the Ashford River Universe.

Mother: Patricia Babineaux - deceased in the Ashkent Creek Universe, but has been brought across to the Ashkent Creek Universe from the Ashford River Universe.

Brother: Adrien Babineaux - deceased in Ashcroft River Universe, a half sibling of Esme and Veronica in the Ashkent Creek Universe. Antoine is the father, he does not know his mother.

Sister: Esme Babineaux - deceased in Ashcroft River Universe, also a half sibling of Adrien and Veronica in the Ashcroft River Universe. Patricia is her mother, she does not know her father.

BACKSTORY SUMMARY: 

In the Ashford River universe, Adrien was born as a full member of the Babineaux family, whilst Esme was a little indiscretion that Patricia Babineaux indulged in. They kept the child, yet Esme always felt out of place. Unwanted. Unloved. Though she was legitimized and ‘accepted’ into the family, she never felt wanted and with her brother Adrien they came up with a plan to rid themselves of their parents and split their wealth evenly. 

Veronica was born before the plan could be put into action, yet she was not the slayer that she is in Ashkent Creek’s universe. She lacked the innate talent that she should have been born with, and no matter how hard she tried, she could never quite get a hang of slaying. Her parents however didn’t seem to care too much, sure she was a little embarrassing but Adrien and Esme were in line to inherit the title of the Babineaux family before her and they were proper slayers. Veronica could go about her life however she wanted. Her parents mostly ignored her.

That was until Esme and Adrien tried to put their plan into action, except something went wrong and the two siblings were killed instead of their parents. Leaving Veronica as Patricia and Antoine’s only child and the heiress to the family fortune. She was a source of shame and embarrassment to her parents and for the most part they tried to shut her away from the slayer world, she wasn’t very good at it and they didn’t want to risk her life.

They let her do her own thing, which for Veronica who was heavily religious, was building a church and donating great amounts of money to them. She named it the Church of Iron, a reference to the body builders who helped her build it. Currently, Veronica’s parents are trying to marry her off to any eligible slayer, something which she is trying to avoid.

DIFFERENCE HIGHLIGHTS:

Veronica is highly religious (Roman Catholic) and as a result doesn’t actively seek relationships with girls, in fact she for the most part has accepted the attraction for what it is but does not act on it.

She has little interest in getting married, despite her parents pleas, and devotes her time to the church.

In Ashford River, Veronica is a pretty poor slayer. In terms of natural abilities she is a normal, healthy slayer. She has good knowledge of Vampire’s and how to kill them. However in practice she is nowhere near as skilled as her Ashkent Creek counterpart. 

Both of Veronica’s dead parents have been replaced by the AR versions of her parents. They’re going to be very confused when they discover that Adrien and Esme are still alive in this universe, not to mention that Veronica is a very skilled slayer in the Ashkent Universe.

In Ashkent Creek, Veronica has a gym (the church of Iron), in Ashford River, in the exact spot where her gym is, there is a literal church that Veronica raised funds for / donated and helped to build.

[mor-beck-more-problems]

How does Penelope feel about age differences in relationships? Would she have any type of romantic or sexual relationship with someone significantly younger? Older?

Penelope has no particularly strong feelings about age differences in relationships. I do, however, think that she would be more likely to get into a ~relationship with someone older rather than younger than her. Penelope is a very nurturing person and with someone younger, it’s much easier to fall into a protective-friendly/familial kind of dynamic than something that would lead to romance. And she also looks at most people somewhere in their 20′s and thinks, ‘you’re my daughter’s age.’ So there’s that too.

[misterkavanagh-blog]

Challenge - Reilly In Ashford River

VERSION: Ashford River Reilly (I play Ashkent Creek Reilly)

NAME/NICKNAMES: Originally Reilly Kavanagh, changed his name to Reilly O’Reilly

SPECIES: Medium though he isn’t really aware of it, he sort of just accepted seeing ghosts but he doesn’t realise that other people can’t see them and that being a medium is special

HOMETOWN: much like Regan in Ashford River, Reilly is from Ashford River originally.

TOWN STANDING/JOB: Reilly left the town of Ashford River shortly after Regan and her mother killed their father to activate Regan’s Banshee tendencies.

SUPERNATURAL INVOLVEMENT: Reilly is well aware of the fae side of the supernatural and he has learnt about some other parts of the supernatural through experience. 

PERSONALITY:

Ashkent Creek Reilly’s personality traits are ; Usually responsible, bookish, sarcastic, pedantic, firm in his convictions, extremely stubborn, assertive, feels pressured 

Ashford River Reilly’s personality traits are similar but not the same. For starters he isn’t nearly as responsible as he was, this is because he didn’t have to raise Regan and Alvin. As a result he doesn’t always feel responsible for others. He also doesn’t have the same familial pressure as before.

He is still bookish, sarcastic, pedantic, extremely stubborn and firm in his convictions

Additionally, he is quite defensive of some of his theories about fairies that many of his colleagues see as ridiculous.

FAMILY: 

Regan Kavanagh - Younger Sister - they have a tense, yet loving relationship. He blames his mother for his father’s death and he can’t understand how Regan puts up with her. 

Liam Kavanagh - Older Brother (he is deceased in the AC universe) - within the AR universe, Liam and Reilly are very close. They’re good friends and see each other at least once a month.

Alvin Kavanagh - Younger Brother - Alvin and Reilly have a similar relationship to Reilly’s relationship with Regan. Tense, yet with some love involved.

Mona Kavanagh - Mother (she is deceased in the AC universe) - Reilly won’t talk to his mother. He even changed his name to not share one with her.

Sean Kavanagh - Father (deceased - he is not deceased in the AC universe) - they weren’t close, but Reilly deeply misses his father.

BACKSTORY SUMMARY: 

He grew up with a relatively normal life (as normal as Ashford River can be), though his parents gave certain preferential treatment to Regan, but this never really bothered him. Similarly to Ashkent Creek Reilly, he was happy to plod along as an invisible child.

For the most part, his life went on normally, until his mother killed his father in front of Regan. This caused a rift in his family, with Liam and Reilly drawing away from the family, leaving Regan and Alvin under the care and influence of Mona.

Liam left and as soon as he was old enough, Reilly followed suit as soon as he was old enough, he worked hard enough to get a scholarship at a good university and because he didn’t have to return home to look after Alvin and Regan, he went on to become a very unsuccessful archaeologist and used his knowledge of the supernatural to follow down some old legends.

So far he has not made any real major finds. But he feels like he is always this close from finding something big something that would really make his career.

Unfortunately, his university didn’t agree and he has recently been fired and forced to move home to Ashford River where he works as a history teacher.

CURRENT CONFLICTS:

The familial conflict - he doesn’t get along with a lot of his family and this does bother him to some extent.

Career - his career has been largely unsuccessful, he has had some of his theories pan out to some extent, but it is a minor sort of thing. He has made one or two finds, but nothing big.

Mediumship - Reilly hasn’t discovered what he is, but he has found out that he can see ghosts. 

DIFFERENCE HIGHLIGHTS:

Reilly didn’t raise Alvin and Regan.

Reilly and Liam are very close and see each other frequently.

Reilly is an Archaeologist and a history professor, rather than a history teacher. 

[coverthekeyholes-blog]

What are five things about your character that no one (or not many people) knows?

She used to shoplift as a teenager until she got bored of it and started more extreme things to get her adrenaline kick

She’s veeeeeeery slowly coming to appreciate (non-sexual) BDSM play, a secret precisely one other person is in on. On an extended note, she’s come to the realisation that she would very much like to experiment with actual sexual things with that person, but given mutual shyness and inexperience, the pace they are moving at is glacial (which she’s not always happy with, but sure as hell isn’t going to complain about) Yes, she is still a virgin in the traditional sense.

She once made an alchemy lab catch fire and explode for the sake of a distraction

She had a pretty big falling out with her parents this year over “coming out” to them as a Mara and giving them a demonstration, and she’s not sure she regrets it other than on an intellectual level of knowing it was wrong. Though allegedly she’s made peace with her adoption status a long time ago, she’s come to wonder more and more what her birth parents are like

Her psychological state has been in a subtle but steady downward slide for a few months now, not helped by her experience with the apple seeds, the fall-out with her parents, or losing her job to interdimensional shenanigans

[openbook-izel]

Survival of the Kindest - An OOC Guide to the Life of Izel Evans

Because Izel is a character who I used to play full time and have kept on as a Periph to keep up certain character relationships as well as provide someone to talk to at MLC, but no longer has a bio, I thought I’d provide a quick summary of her existence/purpose and what she’s up to now.

So first, here’s her original bio. In short: (Bolded is very easy to find out, ie she posts about it alot or its on the “about” page at MLC or it was in the news)

Middle child of 5, 25 years old, her dad’s mara, her mum’s human with a lot of non human family members. Her mum’s parents moved from Peru in the 60′s and opened MLC, which she now runs more or less by herself. 

Went to university in Augusta with her sister, discovered she had a real knack for violence after assaulting her sister’s abusive ex, which wasn’t something she’s particularly proud of. Dropped out and returned to Ashkent, and has been working at MLC since. 

Is a talented aura reader in her own right.

Has ADHD (hyperactive-impulsive) and Tourettes. 

Personality: Open, kind, emotionally driven, loyal to a fault, impatient, occasionally rash, chatty, observant

What’s happened since then? Well, her brother was dissected (which was in the news), and her not-boyfriend was beheaded, she became a murderer, one of her best friends lost her soul, and she befriended Reza just in time for Heath to start messing with him. And that’s just in short. 

Izel did real well last year. :P 

So let’s do this: (bold is still easy to find out)

First, I’mma briefly touch on Nate Blackthorne. He’s p much irrelevant now because he’s dead, so here’s what you need to know: terrified grieving human, became slightly less terrified and much less grieving zombie, him and Izel were wicked wicked close, (oh god they were so cute) but then when he was personally finally ready to admit his romantic feelings, he got decapitated by the headless horseman on Halloween. Oops? 

He was the romantic subplot, I guess, but Izel’s big plot was actually the murder of her brother. He used to be a periph, if you want to check out his blog it’s here. 

In bullet point form:

Avon Edinburgh was a terrifying Latin Professor whose hobby was taxonomy of the supernatural. She once came to Izel’s bookstore, Izel didn’t trust her aura to show her the supernatural books, which made Avon suspicious of her.

She then hired a soulless vampire PI/assassin to look into Izel and when Izel found out she started growing paranoid and felt helpless, so grew increasingly nervous while simultaneously putting herself in increasingly dangerous situations to prove she isn’t as helpless as she feels. Through this PI Avon finds out that Izel’s youngest brother, Andris, is Mara. Read the whole summary of the grisly plot here

She confirmed this with a Scribe, which Izel found out about later and was and is pretty angry about. (I’m my own PR problem. This was never intentional.)

Avon then kidnaps Andris in September, keeping him prisoner for a week, running experiments on him before finally dissecting him. (torture, gore, medical blood, needles tw)

After cashing in every single favour she can, Izel finally turns to Regan to ask for help, and Regan has a vision of Andris’ death, bringing them to Avon’s secret lab, where the only remains of his to be found are his eyes and digestive system stored in preservatives, and a few microscope slide of his skin that Regan steals (sorta). Avon is nowhere to be found. 

Exactly three weeks after they find these remains, Nate was killed. Any recovery Izel made was instantly ruined, and in a weekend of sheer self destruction, she had Avon tracked down and murdered her. She was fully ready to go to jail when one of her other closest friends convinced her not to.

This friend later lost her soul, killed people, and has now fled the country with her soul returned. Izel doesn’t know where she is, but Izel hasn’t stopped loving her.

Recovery is... a work in progress. She’s still grieving, and still bitter, and still working out how she feels about herself post murder. It’s made her more awkward than ever, and her difficulty with feeling like she can’t be fully open with anyone anymore. She’s working on it, though, and why the couple close friends she still has in town are all the more important.

She’s also been the victim of several weird bird attacks since she killed Avon, that have been everything from annoying to deadly. 

And nowadays she’s just running MLC, trying not to come off as too traumatised, being her almost usual friendly self to most people, and trying to be bubbly and helpful. And watching the news very carefully to find out if the police will ever find Avon’s body.

And trying to keep Heath from killing Reza. Or her. That’s... not working fantastically. 

As for backgrounds with other characters?

Pretty much mostly amicable. Nick was the cop assigned to Andris’ case, bought her a tree when they found out he was dead. Izel’s good friends with Brett. Beyond Heath, Regan is the character in this rp that Izel likes least. Beyond being patronising, condescending and just plain rude, she also kept the slides Avon made of Andris to see whether Izel was telling the truth about her brother not being human. Izel also happens to be the only living person who knows about Regan’s sister figure, Marley, being in cohoots with Avon. So yes, she really hates Regan. Eloise was way too invested Andris’ case and Izel called her out on it. Now they’re semi amicable. 

But apart from that, she’s slowly sliding back into something similar to her old self. Kind, good at listening, still impulsive, still too generous with her heat. Just a tiny bit bitter too.

[mor-beck-more-problems]

Does Penelope actually care for Ana now that she's a vampire, or is she nice to her out of guilt?

// Short answer: Yes. It’s both.

Long answer: Penelope’s interest in Ana has been founded on guilt since the beginning. When they first met, Penelope tried to stake Ana, thinking she was a vampire. Even though Ana insisted it wasn’t her fault, Penelope still felt ashamed of having nearly broken her ‘no humans’ rule. After being too scared to even talk to Ana for awhile, all her eventual friendly gestures were coming from a guilty ‘I will never be able to make up for almost killing you’ place. At the time of Ana’s death, she was perhaps just barely getting to know and appreciate her as a person rather than a kind stranger she owed her protection to.

Because of the way they met and the role Penelope played in contributing to Ana’s death, the guilt and obligation she feels towards Ana remains and is intensified. It is the primary reason she didn’t consider killing her before she woke up.

Since Ana being turned, Penelope has spent much more time with her. More importantly, she’s become very openly honest with her. This is partially because she thinks she needs it, and partially because it’s still very easy for her to disregard a vampire’s feelings, even one she knows. Regardless of the origins of this behavior, however, this trait in their relationship dynamic has become a healthy centerpiece in their development with each other. Their general ‘no bullshit’ approach has led to them to engage in frank discussions about Ana’s questions re: Penelope’s role in her coming back to life, their secret fight club meetings, and Penelope confiding in Ana openly when she feels that she has no one else to go to. The connection they’re developing is a very personal one. And let’s be honest, who gets someone a house with a pool just out of guilt?