#Immortals from the 1900's

[headspace-hotel]

What i've been learning thru my research is that Lawn Culture and laws against "weeds" in America are deeply connected to anxieties about "undesirable" people.

I read this essay called "Controlling the Weed Nuisance in Turn-of-the-century American Cities" by Zachary J. S. Falck and it discusses how the late 1800's and early 1900's created ideal habitats for weeds with urban expansion, railroads, the colonization of more territory, and the like.

Around this time, laws requiring the destruction of "weeds" were passed in many American cities. These weedy plants were viewed as "filth" and literally disease-causing—in the 1880's in St. Louis, a newspaper reported that weeds infected school children with typhoid, diphtheria, and scarlet fever.

Weeds were also seen as "conducive to immorality" by promoting the presence of "tramps and idlers." People thought wild growing plants would "shelter" threatening criminals. Weeds were heavily associated with poverty and immortality. Panic about them spiked strongly after malaria and typhoid outbreaks.

To make things even wilder, one of the main weeds the legal turmoil and public anxiety centered upon was actually the sunflower. Milkweed was also a major "undesirable" weed and a major target of laws mandating the destruction of weeds.

The major explosion in weed-control law being put forth and enforced happened around 1905-1910. And I formed a hypothesis—I had this abrupt remembrance of something I studied in a history class in college. I thought to myself, I bet this coincides with a major wave of immigration to the USA.

Bingo. 1907 was the peak of European immigration. We must keep in mind that these people were not "white" in the exact way that is recognized today. From what I remember from my history classes, Eastern European people were very much feared as criminals and potential communists. Wikipedia elaborates that the Immigration Act of 1924 was meant to restrict Jewish, Slavic, and Italian people from entering the country, and that the major wave of immigration among them began in the 1890s. Almost perfectly coinciding with the "weed nuisance" panic. (The Immigration Act of 1917 also banned intellectually disabled people, gay people, anarchists, and people from Asia, except for Chinese people...who were only excluded because they were already banned since 1880.)

From this evidence, I would guess that our aesthetics and views about "weeds" emerged from the convergence of two things:

First, we were obliterating native ecosystems by colonizing them and violently displacing their caretakers, then running roughshod over them with poorly informed agricultural and horticultural techniques, as well as constructing lots of cities and railroads, creating the ideal circumstances for weeds.

Second, lots of immigrants were entering the country, and xenophobia and racism lent itself to fears of "criminals" "tramps" and other "undesirable" people, leading to a desire to forcefully impose order and push out the "Other." I am not inventing a connection—undesirable people and undesirable weeds were frequently compared in these times.

And this was at the very beginnings of the eugenics movement, wherein supposedly "inferior" and poor or racialized people were described in a manner much the same as "weeds," particularly supposedly "breeding" much faster than other people.

There is another connection that the essay doesn't bring up, but that is very clear to me. Weeds are in fact plants of the poor and of immigrants, because they are often medicinal and food plants for people on the margins, hanging out around human habitation like semi-domesticated cats around granaries in the ancient Near East.

My Appalachian ancestors ate pokeweed, Phytolacca americana. The plant is toxic, but poor people in the South would gather the plant's young leaves and boil them three times to get the poison out, then eat them as "poke salad." Pokeweed is a weed that grows readily on roadsides and in vacant lots.

In some parts of the world, it is grown as an ornamental plant for its huge, tropical-looking leaves and magenta stems. But my mom hates the stuff. "Cut that down," she says, "it makes us look like rednecks."

[moneeb0930]

‘Pimp’ and ‘Lyss’: The Immortal Young Brothers by Claude Johnson (Black Fives Foundation)

They were brothers on and off the court. William Pennington Young, sometimes known as “Pimp” to his friends, and his older brother Ulysses S. Young, known simply as “Lyss” to his pals, were an unstoppable sibling pair of African American basketball stars that played during the 1910s and early 1920s.

They also made significant pioneering contributions off the court, long after their playing days ended.

Ulysses was born in Virginia in 1894. A year later, after his hard working parents migrated tot he North in pursuit of a better life, younger brother William was born in Orange, New Jersey.

A few years later, in 1900, their parents rented a room of their home to a young couple from Virginia, the Ricks family, who had a newborn son named James. Over the years the Young brothers embraced little James as if he were their own kin, and as the older boys got involved in sports, so did their protégé.

Something in that combined household created serious athletic skills.

Lyss and William attended nearby Orange High School, where they starred in football, basketball, and baseball. In 1910, while still in high school, the pair began playing semi-pro basketball for the Imperial Athletic Club, a local squad that competed against such teams as the Newark Strollers, the Montclair Athletic Club, and the Jersey City Colored YMCA. The two immediately received attention in the black sports press, including the popular and nationally circulated New York Age.

Their attraction to basketball got young James hooked on the sport too, and he soon developed his own talent. One huge advantage was having the opportunity to learn from- and train with the Young brothers.

The little basketball apprentice, James Ricks, would grow up to become James “Pappy” Ricks, who would become a founding member of the New York Renaissance Big Five professional basketball team and eventually reach the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.

After high school, the Young brothers attended Lincoln University in West Chester, Pennsylvania, which was not only America’s oldest historically black university but also was the closest to home for them. In college they both were once again three-sport stars. Though the brothers excelled in each sport, their first claim to fame was through football.

Playing quarterback, William was named as a Negro All-American during his senior year. Ulysses, playing end, was named to the Milton Roberts All Time Black College Football Squad for the 1910s Decade.

After graduating from Lincoln (“Pimp” was class valedictorian in 1917), the Youngs were recruited to play professional basketball in Pittsburgh by prominent African American sports promoter Cumberland Posey. Posey, historian Rob Ruck wrote in Sandlot Seasons, his landmark book that explores the city’s unique athletic heritage, “was,as much as any one man could be, the architect of sport in black Pittsburgh.”

The pioneering promoter had been cultivating Pittsburgh’s black basketball talent through his operation of several different squads in the city, most prominently the Monticello Athletic Association, since the early 1910s. But with America’s imminent entry into World War I and the resulting lack of resources, Posey decided to consolidate his best talent into one powerfully built team.

The result was the Loendi Big Five, a legendary combo that was sponsored and got its name from the Loendi Social & Literary Club, an exclusive African American social club in the the city’s predominantly black Hill District.

1921.

Adding the collegiate superstars from Lincoln not only helped Posey promote his new team but also sparked the Loendi Big Five’s domination of black basketball, with a dynasty that included four straight Colored Basketball World Championships from 1919 through 1923.

[tangledbea]

I know Tangled is just set in Ye Olde Times, and doesn’t really have a set time period, but isn’t Gothels outfit specifically designed to be of an older style than the rest of the cast to reflect how she has lived for centuries. I think Gothels outfit was medieval inspired, so that means that the series takes place several centuries past the medieval period? And depending on the part of the medieval period Gothel lived in, and whether the settings present time period is in the 1500s or the 1800s, Gothel could be anywhere from 500 years old to over 1000 years old. I know the series isn’t really set in either of those times, I just put the 1500s down because since I’m pretty sure Frederic and Arianas outfits were inspired by clothing from that period of time, and since it’s the earliest possible non medieval time, and the 1800s is probably the latest possible old timey time.

You are correct.

The specific time frames I've mapped out in the past are:

In Tangled: Before Ever After, there is a Victrola in the castle. The Victrola wasn’t around until 1901.

Hot air balloons ("Under Raps") were invented in 1783.

Mozart (mentioned in "I’ve Got a Dream") reached the height of his living popularity in the 1780′s.

Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 (Eugene is whistling it in Tangled: Before Ever After) was first performed in 1824.

The Tudor fashion of clothes, which is what Arianna and Frederic’s outfits are based on, was popular in the 1500′s.

Powdered wigs and coiffure, such as Lady Caine wore when she was masquerading as the Duchess of Quintonia, and later, Rapunzel wore to hide her hair, were popular in the 1700′s.

Wooden hoops, such as the one Rapunzel wore under her coronation dress, were popular in the 1800′s.

Eugene’s coronation suit has 1800′s flare, while Cassandra’s handmaiden outfit recalls the same Tudor fashion mentioned above.

     And these are just a few of the many, many examples of ways in which the time period wobbles across the centuries.

     So, as you can see, the time periods are all over the place, stretching from the 1450′s all the way up to the early 1900′s. I believe Edmund was given the same treatment as Gothel, with a Medieval style of armor, and although he is clearly not functionally immortal, as she was, it was meant to reflect that the Dark Kingdom is out of time with the rest of the contemporary world.

[spacedustpan]

I'm dying I need beautiful Space Exploration Reincarnation and Immortal AU Sparrington

Jack sees him from across the dock after landing and nearly trips and drops his bag.

James is overseeing preparation of his vessel for his next voyage. He's talking to crew and looking over projections for cargo and supplies.

Jack is stunned for a moment. It's been almost a century since he last saw one of the people whose memory he cherishes. It had last been Gibbs and the decade he'd spent with him, to avoid questions of aging, had been a balm for the soul.

Now here is James. The sad silly lovestruck Commodore. He'd last seen him in a paper in the 1900's, but when he followed up on the vessel he'd been manning he found they were taken down in war. A shame he hadn't gotten to say hello.

It's 2364 and here he is again in the mountains of a completely different planet.

Look I'm not a writer but I just think it'd be sweet. Especially with looking back on other people in his life he cherished like Elizabeth and Will and Barbossa and Annamaria and then other people still that he cherished without really knowing it at the time.

---

Also wanted to add on here:

I can't really decide if I want this to be a Star Trek type setting or a Treasure Planet type setting.

When I originally thought of it it was more of a modern and Star Trek type... but now I'm not sure.

But hey! It can be up to you!

here's some Treasure Planet Concept Art if you're on that side of the fence:

[sixpillarsofgenesis]

Timeline for Lies of P

Disclaimer: This is a fan-made timeline of Lies of P for my fanwork Blue Butterfly Record with the assumpting that the game itself takes place in the middle of the Belle Epoque, with the events of the game happening shortly after the release of Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, published for the public on September 1st, 1900. This will cover 40 years before the game itself by my estimation, and some major events loosely before the events of the game.

1493: Phillipus 'Giangio' Paracelsus and his twin brother are born.

1514: Paracelsus achieves immortality via research into the homunculi - his brother, believing him dead, takes his place.

1674: A descendant of Antonio Corea is found to be a Listener, and is converted into the Gold Coin Fruit Tree after being brought to what would eventually be Krat.

1853: Giuseppe Geppetto is born.

1854: Valentinus Monad is born.

1857: Camille is born.

1860's

1861: The Casati Act is passed, requiring mandatory education.

1867: The Path of the Pilgrim is made.

1869: Fearing the advancement of war between the Papal States and Italian troops, the Alchemists left for safer territory and landed in Moonlight Town.

1869: Simon Manus is born.

1870's

March 1870: The Alchemists discovered Kroud and Ergo underneath Moonlight Town after an Alchemist (later revealed to be a Listener) heard the Ergo.

July 1870: After reports of Ergo's power are discovered, the Alchemists found the City of Krat and began to build.

September 1870: Rome becomes the Capital of Italy.

1871: Lorenzini Venigni is born.

1872: Hotel Krat is purchased by Antonia.

1873: Geppetto moves to Krat and invents the first 'Puppets'

1874: Sophia Monad is born.

January 1877: Romeo "Lampwick" Marino is born.

December 1878: Carlo Geppetto is born on New Year's Eve. During childbirth, Camille C. dies giving birth to her son.

1880's

1880: Venigni makes Pulcinella under his parent's supervision.

1881: Free education is established in France.

1881: France introduces Electricity in the Universal Exhibition of 1881

1881: Carlo is turned over to St. Frangelico's Church for daycare, and handed to a maid puppet in the likeness of Camille after.

July 1881: Storia di un burattino begins publication, and Carlo is read the story by Camille every week.

1881: Camille's ego awakens, and she saves Carlo from falling from a great height. She is taken by the alchemists, leaving Carlo to be placed back in Geppetto's care.

1882: By popular demand, Storia di un burattino is revived for serialization.

1882: Secular education is made mandatory in France.

1883: The Venigni parents are killed by Arlecchino.

1883: The Adventures of Pinnochio are published - a signed first-edition book is given to Carlo.

1884: After a dispute with the Monad Charity House, Carlo is enrolled as a boarding student with tuition to be paid on the first of every month.

1887: Fearing the potential dangers of Paracelsus' influence, Geppetto attempts to murder him.

1890's

1890: Paracelsus returns to Krat under the assumed name of Giangio.

November 2nd, 1892: The Blue Butterfly Record is played for the first time.

December 1892: Romeo graduates late due to a postponed exam due to a broken arm, but remains at the Monad Charity House to stay with Carlo.

January 1893: Romeo's Father Francesco, owner of the Red Lobster Inn, is the first known death of the Petrification Disease. After his death, his most senior employee Maria takes charge.

January 1893: The Tuition Incident takes place.

May 1893: Carlo resolves the Tuition Incident, and successfully graduates as the first person to complete all three Specialties (Stalker, Workshop Technician, Alchemist) with a distinction in Ergocraft. Geppetto does not show up for his graduation.

August 1893: The Petrification Disease Quarantine Zone is established.

1894: The Rose Estate Incident happens; Sophia Monad goes missing, and Romeo, Carlo, and Gemini are all declared dead, among others.

1895: Geppetto finds out Simon Manus is responsible for Carlo's death and breaks from the Alchemists

1896: The first attempt to craft the P-Organ, the Nameless Puppet, fails.

1896: 'Giangio' delivers the Arm of God to the Alchemists anonymously.

1896: The first Nameless Puppet fails.

1897: The Black Rabbit Brotherhood starts

1898: Cecile steals the Arm of God and hides it deep in the Malum District. This resulted in the first mass outbreak since the Rose Estate Incident.

1899: Pino is made, fails, and is set aside while a new power source is looked for.

1990's

1990: The Puppet Frenzy begins, two weeks before the Grand Exhibition is scheduled to start.

September 1st, 1990: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is published, and Pino is awakened.

(Canon) September 1st-3rd, 1990: Lies of P takes place.

(Blue Butterfly Record) September 1st-18th: Lies of P takes place, Real Boy Ending, Max Humanity [redacted]

November 2nd, 1900: Sophia expends the last of her Ergo to create the Blue Butterfly Record.

November 1st, 1901: The Real Boy Carlo Geppetto discovers the Blue Butterfly Record.

December 31st, 1901: Carlo Geppetto celebrates his 23rd birthday, and plays the Blue Butterfly Record before leaving Krat for good.

January 1st, 1902: All of Sophia Monad's Ergo is expended to send Carlo Geppetto (in all his forms) back in time to November 2nd, 1982, starting the events of the Blue Butterfly Record.

[madlad-sadgal]

I've seen similar stuff being addressed about how Nimona had to see a whole city being built to protect itself from her specifically, but I still want to address something, which is about the development of technology.

Think about it. Nimona is, at least, 1000 years old, and may be older. The first true contact she has with humans goes wrong, and there starts the building of the wall, the Institute, yada yada yada. But the thing is, she is inside the walls with the rest of the people, and through 1000 years, she has had to try to blend in and adapt to all new things.

She watched the people slowly discover electricity, phones, cars, guns, video games, movies, flying cars! And she was able to adapt to all that!

People who grew up in like the 1950-60's have trouble adjusting to today's technology, and yet she is the equivalent of someone who was born in the early 1900's and lived to see everything grow to today.

And not only that, but most things were aimed against her as well! Advertisements for cereal or board games were about slaying her (Slaying your hunger (With Kwispy Dwagon) and slaying monsters to earn points (The game we see the kids play in the advertisement at the end)).

Even the movies! In the zombie movie she and Bal are watching, they're talking about them being "immortal and invincible creatures" and are scared of them so they attack! Everything, from the board games to the weapons are advertised against her! The city was built to protect itself against her! Everything was built because of the fear she caused!

So yeah, just another reason to feel bad for this sad gremlin child we all love.

[deconstructthesoup]

Holy shit, you guys liked my Hatchetfield/Fantasy High idea... still coming up with a good name for it. Just using "High School is Killin' Me" would be good, but that might get confusing in the tags.

That being said, oh boy do I have more, so... let's dive in.

Ragh: He's essentially Max Jagerman if he'd actually had the chance to get that redemption arc (instead of, y'know, dying and becoming a vengeful ghost). Back in his freshman year, he was that jerk, and when he met Fabian, it could've easily resulted in two equally hardheaded guys becoming each other's absolute nightmare, but after Fabian initially got rejected from the team despite being the best at tryouts---and after Fabian slipped Ragh the answers to a test in order to get into his good graces---Ragh stuck up for him and got him on the team. It took a while for them to really become friends, mostly due to the fact that they both needed to grow past the toxic masculinity, but they got there eventually, with Fabian being the first person that Ragh came out to. And, yeah, their relationship was initially "friends with benefits" until they got their shit together. (I don't know what Lydia's deal is yet---she might just have a chronic illness, but it could also have LiB connections.)

Tracker: Her story's fairly similar to in canon---religious family who kicked her out once she started questioning everything, moved in with her cool uncle as a result---only instead of dropping out of high school, she transferred from Sycamore to Hatchetfield High. This worked out pretty well, seeing as Jawbone had just started his guidance counselor position after getting clean and putting that psychology degree to good use. Tracker's adjusting all right to her new life---she goes to concerts at the Slaughtered Pig, she's getting really into witchy stuff, and she's bonded with the principal's daughter over having to go to the school your parent works at... and she's also somehow developed a gigantic crush on the local church girl, which she initially tells herself is completely hopeless. But at night, she dreams of a haunted forest, a full moon, and a woman with white hair whose face she can never quite make out. And one day, she and Kristen find a book in Jawbone's study...

Jawbone: He's kind of the Miss Holloway equivalent, because honestly? There's really no other character who fits the vibe. Instead of being an immortal 80's singer who became a witch, however, he's a seemingly normal guy who grew up in Hatchetfield and has left quite a bit off times, but always finds his way back, and he's staying this time. Part of the reason he always leaves is, of course, the pressure of being queer in a small town, but he also has always had unusual abilities that he can't explain, and he used to either ignore his powers through the use of drugs or show them off as party tricks that would eventually get out of hand. But after years of misspent youth, he decided to get his life together, kind of like Emma did... and when he came back to Hatchetfield, he found a copy of the Black Book and learned the truth. Jawbone's now a protector of the town, helping people in his own way---and sometimes, that means having to let people in on the truth about Hatchetfield.

Ayda: She's well known for being the principal's daughter, a total nerd, and a bit of a recluse through no fault of her own, but there is much more to Ayda than meets the eye. See, Arthur Aguefort, way back in the 1900s, made a deal with Tinky after he lost his wife---that if he never lost Ayda in that same way, he'd serve the Lord in Black for eternity. Tinky agreed, Arthur managed to find a loophole and get outta there with an indefinite lifespan and a seemingly immortal daughter, but Tinky wasn't too happy about losing a future resident of the Bastard Box, so he turned the gift he'd given Ayda on his head. Instead of living forever, Ayda is capable of dying, but every time she dies, she is born again, with no memory of who she was or the powers she has---the original Ayda could control flame, and so can every version of her. So Arthur has to watch his daughter die again and again, find herself again and again, struggle again and again... yeah, there's a reason he became principal of Hatchetfield High instead of the mayor. By this point, he's decided that if he can't help Ayda, the best thing he can do is get to know her well while he can. (She's gonna have a happy ending, don't worry---I'm not that cruel)

Aelwyn: On the surface, she and Adaine have the same relationship as they initially did in canon---constantly bickering, constantly competing, you know the drill---but underneath all that, Aelwyn cares deeply for her sister, and has tried very hard over the years help keep Adaine's powers hidden from their parents. It's really due to not wanting to upset their parents that Aelwyn doesn't try as hard as she should, and why she's fairly distant from her sister most of the time. Their relationship is sorta a Lex-and-Hannah situation... if Lex was a straight-A popular party girl instead of a grungy, rebellious high school dropout. Aelwyn does eventually find herself and grow closer to Adaine, but it takes a while for that to happen.

Zelda: She's still a super-shy and awkward dork who loves pretty much every alt-music genre known to man and has some mild anger issues. In all honesty, not a lot changes about her, aside from her being human and not a satyr---she has a crazy family, she's got a crush on Gorgug that eventually turns into a very sweet relationship, and she eventually becomes friends with The Seven... though, I'm gonna need to finish that season before I can give you guys any more information on the rest of them. However, I will say that the Penelope and Sam situation is gonna tie into the Honey Festival.

Other miscellaneous ideas/characters: Sandra Lynn is a park ranger in Witchwood Forest, Garthy O'Brien runs one of the only queer nightclubs in Hatchetfield, Basrar still runs his ice cream parlor, Gilear is still a mess

And... yep, that's it for now. I'll talk about some of the antagonists later, and then maybe I'll get around to The Seven.

[badass-queer-couples-battle]

Do you mind if I ask your top 5 (or top 7) favorite BL and your top 3 (or top 5) favorite GL? And why do you love them? It can be from any media : books, manga, anime, manhwa, tv series or movies.....

Hard question again! I'm going to do 7 for GL and 7 for BL, again under the cut!

In no particular order:

GL:

Revolutionary Girl Utena - is including it on this list cheating since it's not primarily GL? I don't care, it's too good to not recommend. A teenage tomboy fencer gets 'engaged' to a mysterious girl by winning a duel, many more duels happen alongside symbolism, feminist messages and a really mature handling of topics like depression and abuse. REALLY dark though, but worth it! Deserves its place as one of the classic anime.

Bloom into you - incredible handling of internalised homophobia, first love, high school relationships both in the platonic and romantic sense and golden child syndrome. A heartwarming but occasionally heartwrenching story that felt very real. Bonus points for the author actually being a sapphic woman.

The Handmaiden - sapphic thriller from Korea set in the early 1900's! Dark but incredibly engaging, surprisingly happy and hopeful despite how much the girls have to suffer to get their happily ever after. The book it's based on, The Fingersmith, was also great!

GAP - Thailand's first GL series and got so popular there are now multiple other projects coming this & next year! The protagonist is a uni graduate hired in her idol's company only to discover the lady is both meaner and hotter than she thought. Lesbian crisis and full-on romcom shenanigans follow, though the series also comments on traditional family values in Thailand acting as an excuse for homophobia (the idol, Sam, is in an arranged engagement to a man as ordered by her grandma). Don't worry though, the show is mostly very fun and light & ends very very happily for the ladies.

Whisper Me a Love Song - look, as a former band kid I can't not mention the band lesbians manga. It's a highschool romance full of miscommunication and funny/cute shenanigans with occasional sadness to balance it all out. Very relaxing. It's getting an anime adaptation next year so looking forward to that!

Riddle Story of Devil - as an action series fan this was pretty incredible. A school full of assasins, everyone is sapphic and they're all badasses? High school me was obsessed and I still am. The manga is much better though, the anime is both way less gay and develops the characters much less due to the story being compressed into 12 episodes.

Legend of Yunqian - short fantasy drama from a small Chinese studio, it's about a regular young lady going back in time via a magic fan and falling for a magical warrior woman. Lovely and available on Youtube for free!

Honorary mentions: Flip Flappers (anime), Clear and muddy loss of love (novel), She likes to cook and she likes to eat (manga & TV series)

BL:

Heaven Official's Blessing - come on, it's incredible. Dark fantasy with immortal love that breaks even the most powerful curses, a complex and deeply human protagonist, a lot of emotional moments and incredible use of flashbacks to slowly reveal his backstory to the readers- what's not to love? Just a warning, when I say it's dark fantasy I'm not kidding. The series has funny and light moments but when shit gets real, it gets REAL.

No.6 - just like RGU isn't technically GL, this isn't technically BL but I am gonna talk about anyway, it's incredible. It's a dystopian sci-fi story about Shion, a teenager who discovers a government conspiracy and works to stop it alongside his new friend/love interest Nezumi. It treats the gay relationship super casually, there's no sexuality angst or anything, it was super refreshing! Read the novels though, the anime compressed the story a lot.

The Untamed/Mo Dao Zu Shi - love the intrigue, love the main romance, love the fantasy elements! My first Chinese series and one I hold dear for introducing me to the wuxia (Chinese fantasy) genre. Any version of the story is great but I'd recommend to start with the series and then read the books.

Kinnporsche - it's deeply insane and I love it for that. Everyone is gay, everyone commits crimes (they're in the mafia, so. Yeah) and it makes for a really entertaining show even if its darker elements aren't always super well handled.

Not me the series - Motorcycle gang of young anarchists against corruption! Very radical and critical of capitalism and the police system, engaging and fast paced. The director/showrunner is a trans activist/filmmaker so it's not like she doesn't know what she's talking about. It's very universal so I'd recommend it even to people who normally don't watch BL. One minus point for minor queerbaiting with 2 side characters, nothing major but it did bother me a bit + felt unnecessary in a series full of queer characters.

Cherry magic - queer office romance + mind reading! If that combination sounds interesting please do check it out, it was super cute. Bonus for very realistically human protags and an explicitly aroace side character.

Semantic error - opposites attract-type romance between an introverted, collected STEM prodigy and an extroverted art student partnered together for a project. The protagonist is autistic and written pretty well so I latched onto the show immediately, bonus points for side queer representation (bi character who's a super cool and pretty lady, love her).

Honorary mentions: Word of Honor (series), Yuri on ice (anime, only homoerotic sports anime to make the gay explicit, iconic), Nobleman Ryu's wedding (series, short but v heartwarming!)

[harpieisthecarpie]

What's pathologic about? It sounds cool and I might want to get into it

okay hell yeah now is my time to shine! thank you for the ask you're giving me the excuse to ramble about my new hyperfixation to not-just-a-brick-wall (tho sorry to all my orv followers and friends for having to deal with my patho bs).

(IF YOU ARE A PATHOLOGIC GUY READING THIS: BE MY FRIEND, DM ME, I NEED PATHO FRIENDS)

Take my words with a grain of salt because I'm playing through Pathologic 2 and reading Pathologic Classic HD's transcripts right now, so I don't have the full perspective, but I should be able to explain the essentials in a way that will (hopefully) intrigue you.

Essentially, at the very bare bones, Pathologic is a psychological survival horror game where you play as one of three healers stuck in an isolated town in the Russian Steppe (in the early 1900's iirc), struggling to keep its citizens alive even as your own fragile life is in the balance. Of course, there is a LOT more, but that is the most basic of the basics.

Each of the healers has a vastly different experience with the town and relationship with its inhabitants that colors their perspective and solution to the plague, though I will try to avoid going into spoilers here. The various factions in the Town-On-Gorkhon will treat each healer differently, actively hostile to one while being pleasantly manipulative to another.

The Bachelor, also known as Daniil Dankovsky, is a pathologist and bachelor of medicine who is part of Thanatica, an institution in the City determined to defeat Death itself. He comes to the town at the behest of Isidor Burakh in order to learn from him and Simon Kain, a man the locals claim to be immortal. Daniil's precious Thanatica is under threat of being destroyed unless he can provide substantial results. Rather unfortunate that the two men were both found to be brutally murdered right before he arrives...

Daniil is an outsider to the Town and is treated as such, often being manipulated by the most powerful and belittled by the rest because of his lack of knowledge about the Town and its traditions. This leads him to becoming alienated from many of them and their culture. He can also be a massive asshole depending on how you want to play him (though each healer can) and my favorite characteristic is his habit of sprinkling Latin phrases into his speech without translating them.

The Haruspex, Artemy Burakh, is a local of the Town who was sent away by his father, Isidor Burakh, to become a surgeon. He never completed his degree, entering into the front lines instead, but he still knows how to cut people open (and fix them up). He returns to the Town after receiving a mysterious letter from his father beckoning him home. When he arrives, he is immediately jumped by three men.

Why? They were hunting down Isidor Burakh's murderer, whom people believe is Artemy himself. Patricide is a harsh charge, and Artemy soon finds himself known as the Butcher. This sends his reputation plummeting and makes his life just that much harder. Guy has shit luck, what can I say.

A fascinating element of this route is Artemy's relationship with the Kin, the native people of the Steppe, whom he is related to on his father's side. Isidor was a menkhu, a spiritual leader and healer in Kin society who is the only one allowed to cut into human flesh. Menkhu are the ones that "know the lines", essentially meaning that they see the connections between all things.Now that Isidor is dead, that honor and duty fall upon Artemy.

There's a lot of lore surrounding the Kin but I'll stop here because I will go forever if I don't.

Clara is the Changeling. At the beginning of the game, she wakes up in a grave. She can heal the dangerously ill with her hands, but if they're not on the edge of death it just kills them instead. She also has an evil twin who she has to chase after and keep from committing atrocities every day. Clara is going through some shit, okay?

I love her but I don't know nearly as much about her as I do the other two. She's an elusive little gal who speaks like she knows more than you because she does.

There is also the whole meta framing of the game as a play. Before you pick a character in Pathologic Classic, there's a whole scene on a stage where they argue about who has a better solution to the plague. Every night during the game there is a performance about the coming day's strife. There are characters called Executors, bird masks, and Tragedians, blank masks, that often speak to the player rather than the player character. Artemy "knows the lines" (THE LINES OF THE PLAY THE LINES OF THE PL-).

It gets more meta as the game goes on but that's spoilers.

I'm not going over the basic mechanics right now because I am TIRED but I'll get to them in the morning so stay tuned for that.

Pathologic Classic HD is the original with all three routes. Pathologic 2 is a sequel/remaster/reexamination of the first game that goes over the same twelve days but with a few changes. I've heard it's a bit more accessible than Classic HD, but so far only the Haruspex route is out. You do not need to play Classic before you play Patho 2. They are both usually discounted very cheap on Steam!

PLEASE, PLAY THE GAME IF THIS HAS INTERESTED YOU AT ALL.

PATHOLOGIC CLASSIC HD

PATHOLOGIC 2

(If you want to get into the game but don't want to play, there are lots of analyses and a few playthroughs on Youtube. I'll link some in a reblog of this!)

[ntls-24722]

do you. do you see the vision.

it's less freaky than what i would've liked, but one freaky fact is that this fusion... has more "pelvises" than it does "ribcages?"

ofc, they're not actual pelvises and ribcages since comet/the fusion doesn't have actual bones, but - and some quick SOS/comet lore - The Oort Cloud's original mission wasn't to just create an organism from scratch that could multiply remnant, their mission was to recreate a specific creature that could - a giant spider dubbed Atmata, discovered in the early 1900's. Atmata was originally a human woman killed years ago, but was transformed into a giant freaky flesh spider by being combined with Agony and the spiders that begun to call her corpse Home. She developed the ability in order to be able to sustain her enourmous size by multiplying her caloric intake without changing the amount of food she ate. She just figured out how to duplication glitch food and super rich dude named Vincent Collier lol observed the phenomenon and as an ameteur student of Remnant he was like "oh, learning how to do that might be helpful to advance my research instead of killing a gazillion people." So he hired a giant team of scientists, killed Atmata for an autopsy, and the secret to doing so (alongside a bunch of stuff that Remnant can do like make you immortal or turn you into a god if you mix it with this spooky black Agony tar) was figured out.

Problem. Atmata is now dead, and the process was only able to be carried out by living organisms. Cloning was attempted, but you need living cells to get the DNA for that. Fuck. So for literally over a hundred years they tried and miserably failed to recreate Atmata and her abilities - it was only after a partnership with Fazbear entertainment for funding is when they tweaked the design to be Music Man themed and to use it to prey upon the audience that Fazbear Entertainment provided (I mean, fazbear ent's known for their machines killing people and getting away with it, this is a real opportunity considering The Oort's product needed to eat humans for this).

That last minute tweak is why Comet is a Music Man yet so different from Music Man ( peculiarities like his size and lack of legs), and why I count his abdomen to be a pelvis, since as he's supposed to mirror Atmata, it really is a modified pelvis. Therefore the fusion has... 2 "ribcages" but 3 "pelvises." Sorry for the massive ramble just to get to here.

This is old, but she hasn't gotten redesigned, so it's still how she looks. BOO ATMATA (body horror) JUMPSCARE 👻

[the-nosy-neighbor]

Old Gods Explained

As I was working on the next installment related to Julie, I realized that I may have skipped a giant step.

The concept I had in mind, which I may not have really explained, is the idea that we know religion is involved in WH, and while there have been hints at Christianity being involved, the idea of old gods is really interesting.  The concept is: Wally/Home have assembled old, neglected gods to renew themselves through the belief to be found in a tv audience. If you have read it, Long, Dark Teatime of the Soul, by Douglas Adams uses this idea (in relationship to Norse gods).  The internet says that lots of people have used this idea based on Terry Pratchett’s work.  I love Pratchett but didn’t really have a good time with Small Gods.  I think the beginning is difficult for me.  Here, their story is one about old gods not being gone, just forgotten.  These gods are fueled by belief in a lot of ways, so they are immortals, but not really immortals with god-like powers, if they aren’t sufficiently fed by belief. 

I was imagining the neighborhood as this kind of set up.  Wally is our main/head god (or Home, as I personally think Wally is an avatar for Home, in the mythological sense (“the material appearance or incarnation of a powerful deity, or spirit on Earth”)).  Note to self:  consider a god clone for Home.  Many of the characters do not remember where they originated or have vague memories of their start.  (For example, Poppy lived in a tree in the woods, and Odin was “born” from a tree.)  What if Home has pulled together forgotten deities and put them in this neighborhood, in order to pull belief from the kids, powering them up?  I want to say that Long, Dark or Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy has an instance of a god that has transitioned from godhood to tv/film stardom.  Time to re-read.  Maybe even American Gods?  American Gods might focus on this heavily. 

Anyway, Wally/Home has pulled these old gods to a new location in order to build a celestial allstars team, gaining the attention and belief of people to push them to renewed vigor.  Because of this idea, I do think that it is highly possible that the gods are from different religious traditions.  I am not sure what the reasoning of the choices would be, but perhaps considering the options, a theme will emerge.  I have an early theory that Eddie is not a god; he is the only human in this setting, chosen so that he can make deliveries to the realm in which the TV show exists.  We haven’t gotten into Ronald Dorelaine too much as of yet, but this theory would make him a powerful being (and Home/Wally his avatar? Jim Henson appears to have thought of Rowlf as his stand-in/avatar, though most of us would choose Kermit).  But Wally does have the cross on his cufflink, so maybe it is the Christian god that he represents?  Religiosity would have been falling at the time this premiered. 

In general, it seems that religion began to fall off in the US in the 1900’s.  I don’t trust all the graphs that I briefly researched, because it serves some group’s needs to overstate rates of Christianity in the US, but these generally vibe with what I’ve read.

In this graph, we can see Protestantism taking a dive around the second World War.  Catholicisms has seen an increase, around the same time, slight increase in other, but there is a sharp increase in no religion starting around 1950 (from my studies, this is a reflection partially of a reaction to WWII, which really tested people’s concept of religion and the goodness of humans in general). 

This one is similar, but shows a bit further in the timeline, and none is continuing to outpace religion’s growth by far.

It does make sense in the timing that if gods were powered by belief, that right around this time is when they might start to worry. 

Now, we could probably write a book (and the podcasters for "Straight, White American Jesus" probably did, or at least will have some good episodes on it) on the rise of televangelism and its relationship to flagging religious belief in America. There is a history to the rise of televangelism in the US and it shows that televangelism really started taking off in the 60's and 70's (related to the big tent evangelist revivals of the previous few decades.)

Early depictions of Wally do tend to have an evangelist feel.

big hair, neckerchief, brown slacks

I couldn't find any good examples quickly, but see The Righteous Gemstones for examples, or maybe Jim Jones. The neckline is on point, but he'd be more in line with those other preachers in a blazer.

Fashion I pulled for another post, but this is of the time period.

Next time: More on televangelism in the 70's, finding out what elements of Wally we might find in these men.

OR

If I finish Frank's godhood, maybe that first.

[fictionkinfessions]

Anyways double confession here is me ranting like crazy about the amount of shit I remember, whether through it being a part of my original lore my creator made or through my own formed memories

(TW: Rape, (pseudo)incest, injury/limb loss, abuse, abuse of autistic people for the way they act/period-typical ableism, grooming, period-typical homophobia)

ANYWAYS. I am a TMA oc, that's my first statement.

Im technically immortal/ageless, and my creator started my story largely in 1900s. I met Jonah at a party my parents had forced me to, and due to being drunk and incredibly lonely due to the fact I was a a hotdog magician and had not really been capable of getting into any of kind of relationship. We ended up becoming very close to each other and he gave me a way to properly go no-contact with my parents which was a big feat.

I'd also lost one of my childhood lovers to the Church, as they'd found out and killed him so yyayyy.. /s

Jonah was to say the least a terrible fucking person, and had raped me before as well as just generally being physically abusive, though I was no better and equally as bad. He also often would restrain me during meltdowns I would have from overstimulation, which was shitty smh,,, terrible terrible man

At some point we were really stupid and ended up getting hunted by,, well Hunters, and we made it out relatively okay besides my right arm being ripped off (FUCK MY CREATOR FOR FORCING ME TO BE LEFT HANDED IT WAS THE 1900s BITCH)

ANYWAYS Uh

Another thing in my source was that Avatars were technically entirely separate from Humans in a way, and when you begin to become an Avatar you are considered a "child" by Avatar standards, and can be in a way "imprinted" on by Older Avatars making you effectively their child in a way. I stuck around with Jonah despite the way he treated me even up to him being Elias, and I would often bring Jon messages from Elias(Jonah) whenever he needed me to. I was pretty much seen as Elias's "Helper" in a way.

Whenever Jon had begun becoming an Avatar, I guess the best way to describe my reaction was maternal?? I felt really bad he was being left to flounder, and accidentally 'imprinted' on him in a way. I did the same to Martin a long while later when he was starting to isolate himself due to Peter, and then later went ahead and told both of them. Except I also often flirted with both of them and sometimes very explicitly, so add that and the fact that by all technicalities, at least in Avatar terms, they were my children.. yeah it was a bit strange.

Despite this I did end up in a weird form of relationship with those two so. Yay?

Anyways I love how my entire source is just horrifically "Problematic" (in the eyes of certain ppll….) and I also get to bully the fuck out of The Archivist for making me Oh and I'm FUCKING FRENCH IN MY SOURCE

Good lord sorry for dumping all that here LORDY I forgot how bad it was

(TMA OC Fictive)

[thatfoxnamedfinley]

Manga I’m currently reading that I’m really into:

GANGSTA

Rereading this right now.

We begin in the slums and mainly follow the story of two men who are tied together & bound by trauma. Polar opposites but full of equal amounts of deep love & hate for one another; they can’t live without each other. There are elements of PTSD that are explored very well in different ways; the trauma of physical abuse by a parent. The trauma of drug addiction. The trauma of being a prostitute & trying to find a way out. Even the trauma of how hard it is to learn to accept love & affection from others after being hurt. There are powers in this too; people called Twilights, who are shunned and seen as disgusting, wear dog tags with their power ranking on them so they can be recognized by the public. Mafia elements.

This series will always be in my heart; this was the series that got me into reading manga several years ago.

Favorite Character: Nic (olas Brown)

WITCH HAT ATELIER

A world of magic and beautiful art; a secret exposed by a young girl who may or not have been targeted as a child to perform forbidden magic. Complex characters and EXCELLENT world building. One of the more creative magic systems I’ve ever seen implemented. Very mysterious and a lot of things are not as they appear. Story seamlessly moves between light & dark storytelling methods. Not too far in this right now but I am very intrigued; it’s a story that benefits from taking your time and reading slowly. 

Favorite Character: Olruggio

BLUE LOCK

A sports manga about football (soccer). Lots of hype moments with great characters that have big personalities. Only other sports manga besides Haikyuu I’ve ever been able to get into. The main difference is that Blue Lock highlights the ego and personal stats over teamwork and “the power of friendship”. Haven’t really seen a sports manga like this; where it’s encouraged to be selfish and make plays as an individual rather than as a team. Premise revolves around how Japan is looking for a team to lead them to victory (with a focus on predatory strikers, the position that attacks from the front lines and shoots) following the loss at the 2018 World Cup.

Favorite Character: Barou

GOLDEN KAMUY

Really took me by surprise at the blend of laugh-out-loud comedy, interesting premise and character driven story. Gold rush in the early 1900′s after the Russo-Japanese War. Our main character is trying to fulfill a promise he made to a long dead friend while trying to maintain his humanity as he bears the name that made him infamous in battle; Sugimoto the Immortal. Scars cover his entire body, evident of his will to survive. He is a very endearing character and the story really has an excellent flow. Villains feel dangerous and there’s a large cast of characters. The MC’s struggle to hold onto what makes him human while the circumstances around him force him to be anything but is fascinating to watch.

Favorite Character: Sugimoto / Asirpa / Ogata

So what are you reading?

[throped]

Never Glory - Information Chapter

Ok, I've made a Tom Riddle x Reader story and it's also on Wattpad so yeah. This is the information chapter! I'll put the chapters here and the link to the story on wattpad:

I just wanted to clarify some things in this chapter so it's important you read this if you're reading the next chapters.

Your basically yourself (Y/N) but nobody is going to call you that for the solid first part of the book since your going to go by an alias which is Daena L/N. Your real name is Y/N, just Y/N, no last name which is going to play a significant part in the plot later on. But you will have a made up one for the sake of it so it's gonna be L/N, I wanted you people to have the liberty of choosing.

For the first few parts, your name is Daena L/N.

So, you're basically just a human who has lived extremely long. You've been hexed as punishment by Salazar Slytherin back right after Hogwarts was created which was in like the 10th century (don't worry, the story is gonna start in the 1900's). Well, the hex was that you'd be immortal-ish. Only someone you really love would be able to kill you. Believe me when I say that you tried, tried quite hard to find someone. But you just couldn't, it was just impossible for you to do so and you were so fed up with your immortality.

And after trying, you gave up. There wasn't much hope anyway so what was the point. You had accepted your fate as being immortal and would let it be. Your icy cold walls that surrounded your heart just wouldn't let anyone get in and it was quite a shame really. And plus, why would a lover kill you?

(BTW PEOPLE, you're not gonna be an old woman, you stay the same and reset your age back to when you were 13 when you got hexed every 40 years. It's just how the curse works, alright?) 

So due to your age and everything always being reset, you were allowed to go to Hogwarts as many times as you liked. As a result of that, you went once a few centuries after Hogwarts was built and you didn't like it so much. You obviously had to make up new wizarding certificates and everything to attend Hogwarts and you just didn't want to strain that sort of thing just to go every 40 years or so. So you just resulted in becoming a normal witch, just working as an auror and going about in your day to day life. Then, you change your identify just to repeat it once again every 40 years.

But one day, as you sleeping in your bed, you had visions about murder. A guy, who seemingly wanted to take over the world and get rid of mggleborns once and for all. 

You had to admit though, that you may of had these dreams at the start of the year 1900. But you simply ignored them, thinking it was you're insanity getting to you. The vision was about Grindelwald of course and by each day they got worser and worser. That meant that Grindelwald was rising to power, obtaining the elder wand. You kept on ignoring them but after he was defeated the visions suddenly stopped. You then knew what the visions were trying to do. 

"They were trying to warn me back then. I suppose it's doing the same now. After 38 years...." 

The visions you had now were much worse. Of blood. Killings. Death. Even torture. You felt like a complete lunatic. 

It's all basically just a timeline of the Harry Potter series from the 1900's into the current century. The only twist is that you will fall in love and know things you shouldn't.

________________________________________________________________________________

Chapter 1 continues on from what I ended with! Also, your in Slytherin. Don't worry, this is just me explaining some stuff so people aren't lost in the story so my writing will be a lot more sophisticated in the chapters coming.

[the-darkness-does-not-bargain]

oh i like the concept of ava being around for longer

feel like she definitely deliberately gives conflicting stories of how she ended up as immortal all the time

betcha they probably have like a book to consult on their arguments and how they ended and/or were resolved, but you bet their ass they manage to have the same/similar arguments time and time again just for the heck if it, especially since they’ll tamper w it or put stuff like “and lilith said my opinion on star wars, and media in general is the bestest ever and no one could top it (😏), and that’s the resolution to the great prequels vs sequels debate of the 1900s” “i would die before i ever said that, i’ll kill you for that pun, and i do fucking top.” “Funny, that’s not what you were asking me to do last ni- *unintelligble scribbling turned into line of pen unmistakebly being dragged off of paper*” (they’re both tops w each other and 90% of the time, vv competitive about who gets to top)

there’s probably a bunch of random housing advertisements & like, bank loan advertisements or something, ava collects em as part of the bit but also because wants to make it clear that regardless of her reasons, lilith can leave anytime she chooses to do so, if she wants to, partially because of knowing lilith’s baggage around expectations & shit bc of her family, partially bc of her own issues around feeling like a burden

i feel like lilith’s probably a bit of an animal expert in this au, because at first she just wanted to know shit about bats to make sure she wasn’t like, accidentally flipping off other bats in bat language, and also the best animals to feed from, taking in location & how easy it’d be to hunt em, how much blood they’d yield, etc, but she found stuff really interesting and she branched off from there

picturing beatrice stumbling into ava & lilith’s lives through shenanigans

beatrice either being the cursed prince from beauty and the beast (beatrice turned away the sorceress who cursed her because she didn’t want to risk anything that might make her seem like a lesbian bc of her parents (or she placed “the mission” over the woman) so she doesn’t let the young wonan stay the night, nd the sorceress cursed her and was like “until you find a true love you will stay like this” (while beatrice x ava x lilith is probably a thing, the specific true love that will break the curse is self love), and she meets ava & lila because turns out ava & lilith have been using beatrice’s castle as a vacation place, and partially bc of size of the castle and time (beatrice usually visits friends when ava & lilith go to the castle) they never managed to cross paths or even learn about the other/s’ existence til now, and now they’re spiderman_pointing_meme.jpg

or beatrice being a werewolf, and if she’s a werewolf she ends up in ava & lila’s apartment bc beatrice accidentally stumbled into the wrong apartment and ava saw no harm in letting her stay for a bit and/or ava mistook her for a wolf friend if theirs or something

regardless lilith & beatrice do not get on at first (maybe bc of a long petty feud between vampire & supernaturak wolf & wolf related entities) so just picture grumpy lil hissing bat!lilith when she encounters beatrice initiallly lmao

Mostly, she does it for a laugh, but part of it is because her own memories of the event are spotty either due to sheer temporal distance or possibly repression. But there's something to be said for making the story of her life whatever she wants it to be, and who is left to contradict her? Maybe she tells Lilith somewhere along the way, or maybe she doesn't. And Lilith knows about secrets, so she respects and goes along with whatever version Ava tells.

Probably after the first century or two of living together, they start to notice the patterns in their arguments and write them down, and they will absolutely pull out these enormous, ancient as dirt books and find the exact page they need to gloat about this or that rhetorical victory.

I refer to a set of previous tags on who tops and how. They have a fist fight before sex and the winner tops. Ava can't die and Lilith heals pretty fast. Eventually, this evolves into playing dice or card games (but not Uno, since the Incident of 1998) or even doing household chores when neither are motivated to clean.

If the two of them were stomping about Roman Gaul, then they both know how to ride horses. Lilith definitely rides a horse better than she drives a car, and during the intervening years of being a bitty bat girl, she learns all about the different species of bats and how to talk to them. Sometimes a wild bat makes its way into their house, and Lilith will argue with it about breaking and entering.

Ava does ensure that Lilith always has the space and resources to leave if she really wants to. And maybe Lilith does disappear sometimes, for like a month or two, but she always comes back, and Ava is always waiting with a smile. Ava knows about loneliness and connection perhaps better than anyone on the planet, so she understands when Lilith needs to be alone and exactly how to welcome her back.

I love werewolf!Bea. When Beatrice comes into the ancient gay weirdness that is this relationship? Chaos, at first. Centuries of well-worm routines thrown out the window. Ava welcomes it, but Lilith is much more a creature of habit than she, and it's a difficult adjustment to say the least. Lots of fights. Lilith in bat form hissing and spitting while flapping above wolf!Bea growling and threatening to bite her right out of the air. Ava becomes an animal wrangler in a way she never imagined being.

Personally, I'm a big fan of the Mercy Thompson series and its lore regarding werewolves, because they don't age but time is their enemy because it can slowly drive them crazy. And if Bea is aware of this and then meets these two shockingly old immortals still behaving relatively normally, it might give her hope for her own chances. And Bea would be a helpful blood source for Lilith in emergencies when Lilith isn't able to hunt for whatever reason, since wolves are strong and heal quickly. Their own relationship starts like that and grows from there until Bea is seamlessly integrated into the throuple like she was always there.

[corpseblud]

❝ i have done things so far for reasons that seems right in their violent immortality  ❞

        𝑐𝘩𝑎𝑟𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑒𝑟⧸𝑓𝑖𝑙𝑒 : alessa valek   ››  hybrid   ››  nina dobrev .

❛❛   aesthetic .  ❜❜   ―   ◜   ❏  . ―  she is more  graveyard  than  girl ; such a cruel and ugly thing to do to an innocent girl , a growing bud flowering into a pretty lycoris radiata , she was biting flesh before apples , an angel living in the garden of evil , singing  pretty  melodies  in  unmade  beds . ⸻  tw :  abuse tw , murder tw , death tw , still-born tw .

🇦​🇵​🇵​🇱​🇮​🇨​🇦​🇹​🇮​🇴​🇳  ››

⸻   ◜   ❏  . ⸻   ( nina dobrev / 30/34 / she, her ) ⸻ it’s been a while since we’ve seen alessa valak in the shadow world. the hybrid ( shadowhunter-vampire ) resides in new york. rumor has it that they might have a connection to the clave as a shadowhunter council member, but only time will tell where their loyalties really lie. until then, only one thing is certain : the descent into hell will be easy for the arcane ⸻  .  

🇧​🇦​🇸​🇮​🇨​🇸  ››

full name :  alessa valak .

age : 30 / 34 .

date of birth :  december 25th .

occupation : council member / shadowhunter .

species : shadowhunter / vampire : hybrid .

language(s) spoken : universal .

hair color : brown .

eye color : brown .

notable scars : a couple of scars that are faint and stayed permanently due to her father's experiments .

🇮​🇳​🇹​🇪​🇷​🇮​🇴​🇷 ​ ››

positive : strong-willed  ,  intuitive .

negative : secretive  ,  head-strong .

moral alignment : chaotic good .

deadly sin : lust + wrath .

element : fire .

emotional stability : stable on a good day .

alcohol use : socially .

prone to violence? : yes .

drives / motivations : keeping those she cares for safe / hide what she is.

affiliation/loyalty : the clave .

🇧​🇮​🇴  ››

―  the Valak family , as such an old family , have a great deal of wealth and history through out the shadowhunter world. the date is unknown when the family came to be , but they are recorded to have originated in Idris. Silas Valak was a fierce Shadowhunter warrior and well feared as he had no empathy for the downwolders or mundanes .

―   throughout history, the valaks were known for their snobbish attitudes and disdain towards Downworlders and mundanes. Over time, however, they have become more tolerant and accepting of Downworlders .

― by the 1900's, Vladimir Valak had a son with his wife, Kara. When Kara was kidnapped and killed , it was widely believed that their son died with her , but the child was saved and raised among mundanes. Because of this, the line of Valak lived on without the Clave's knowledge and vladimir believed his line would end with him until he discovered his son , viktor , to be alive by the time the boy turned 21 .

―  somewhat forced to live among Nephilim , viktor , was soon trained to be a shadowhunter and given the pressure of continuing on the valak bloodline . viktor , of course , played his part. Dutiful shadowhunter , respected among many , loyal without a fault , married the woman his father had arranged for ... all while harboring a dark secret. viktor had been experimenting with the shadow world from the moment he captured his first monster at 15 .

― with the valak wealth and estate , viktor had his own fundings to secretly experiment further where he also began studying magic and had learned to perform spells. When finding out his wife was pregnant , he started to sedate her without her knowledge and experimenting on her. Unfortunately for her , she would go through 6 still-born because of viktor. To prevent her from seeing what she gave birth to , viktor would always cast an illusion spell on her and midwives .

―  frustrated with each results , he managed to do something different. through a dark ritual , summoning of a demon and the lives of 7 shadowhunters , 7 vampires , and 7 newborns , alessa was born . A beautiful healthy baby girl , whom he became obsessed with . Many thinking that viktor simply had become over protective of . she was faster and stronger than other children and had to teach her many thing and experiment on her more before he could let his creation out in the world.

― unfortunately for viktor , alessa was never daddy's little girl . as if instinctual alessa was always afraid of her father and hiding behind her mother. something he did not like at all . Forcing his own child and secretly punishing her whenever they were left alone , by the time alessa was 8 viktor no longer waited for alessa to sleep or sedated her to experiment on her.

― alessa would later lose her mother by her own hands when they went on a family trip. Discovering the fact that her father had been putting blood on her drinks and food to prevent her from going hungry , satisfying her vampire side. Purposely leaving the two of them and coming back to a crying alessa and blood all over the cabin floor . Staging it as a vampire attack .

― for years her father would test her limit , how long it would take her to heal . Thinking himself to be a god for making a hybrid never seen or heard of. Immortalizing the valak bloodline but making sure he would make a name for himself.

― alessa knew she had to be careful , training and even as far as holding a lot back. by the time alessa turned 16 , she finally snapped. Killing him , draining him dry , after torturing him for a couple of days. wanting him to go through what she went through but knew it would never be enough . That summer , many believed viktor disappeared when alessa took a dangerous mission in his name and was sent to live with her grandfather in new york .

― Continuing her life alessa made sure at least be happy with him. Worked hard and made a name for herself without the use of her name. Considering the fact of what she is , alessa knew that not all downworlders were monsters. Most had lives and family like any other. Still, she was merciless when needed to be. working hard and having a firm head on her shoulder , alessa became a council member representing shadowhunters to discuss unity and to work together .

― and yet she still harbors a couple of secrets of her own . One main one that might get her killed is that fact that she's both shadowhunter and vampire. something unnatural and should have never been born.