#Velma Von Venkman

[edwardsparkleblood]

Wizard101 really said we're going to put all the best designed characters in the Arcanum and we're not going to do anything with them as individuals.

[katsafaria]

I am absolutely BEGGING KI for more shadow magic content. It was useful for like (1) arc and now it’s abandoned. Idc if it fits the meta or not. I crave the content. Also Velma von Venkman is pretty.

[oldestenemy]

“Initiate!” Velma Von Venkman’s voice is always a bright note in this place—at least compared to Ione and Fitzhume, who the wizard hears more often. “I know you’re preparing for Mirage—but since you’re waiting on Quismah to locate the spiral door—can I have a word?”

That’s the other thing they like about Velma.

She asks for their time.

She doesn’t demand it like Ione or Baba Yaga—or like Ambrose used to.

“Of course,” She was right anyways—they couldn’t do much until Quismah sent word that she had found where in the sprawling deserts the spiral door for Mirage had been lost. “what do you need?”

Velma smiles, and maybe they imagine it but there might be a hint of sadness in it. “Look at you, always ready to throw yourself at a task—but it wasn’t really something I needed, it’s more—come with me, I don’t think this is really Panopticon chatter.”

So they follow her into the Hall of Shadow.

“Alright, so I know I didn’t ask in the beginning—I usually try not to pry into people’s pasts—most of the scholars are very private people—okay maybe not most—doesn’t matter, would you mind taking your hood down for me?” Maybe it’s the way she talks, maybe it’s the fact that she doesn’t appear to be more than a decade older than they are at most, but out of the people they’ve met here—Velma is the one who puts them on guard the least.

It doesn’t stop them from jolting a little at the question.

Because it means she’s recognized the scarring. In some form or another.

They suppose there was never going to be any hiding it from a scholar of Shadow. The wizard lowers their hood, and the thin veil of darkness that conceals all but their eyes vanishes with it. Sometimes they wonder if getting used to it was a mistake. They feel almost exposed without the cover.

They do not have a lot of time to dwell on the feeling—thankfully—because Velma is fiddling with the high collar of her shirt, eventually undoing enough of it to reveal scarring in a similar coloration—though not welled so deep—in the shape of a jester’s collar. Or an echo of one. Not quite so well defined, jagged on the edges but still clearly there. “I thought I recognized those—I just haven’t been able to quite pin down how you ended up with them,” She says, “I came back with this after the first time I brought the Trickster into existence, and when I spoke to Sofia Darkside—you know her don’t you?—she theorized it was because I was the first person to pull that type of Shadow creature under magical control. But the tears—”

“—it’s overuse.” The wizard answers before her ramble goes any further. There’s no point in keeping it secret, unlike everyone else here Velma is unafraid of Shadow. She is dedicated to poking and prodding and learning its secrets. “The first time was after I killed Morganthe—I absorbed so much of the power pouring from her that it was trying to escape my body any way it could. It came out like the night sky made liquid, like—” why bother describing it.

The wizard takes a breath.

Reaches inward for the coil of emotions they keep a tight handle on. Rage, grief, guilt, pride, desperation and fear. Loosens the locks. Just enough that their eyes burn. Cold and dark and starry.

They run two fingers under an eye, holding their hand out to Velma. “I can call it up, I couldn’t on Khrysalis, but later—I was trapped, I was angry and desperate—it’s pure Shadow magic, I can use it to bend reality around me like you would with any of its spells. I’ve made battle placements, door sigils, altered spell cards—” Embedded Shadow creatures into duel circles, burnt themself into a husk…

Velma pulls open to a blank page of her spellbook, and holds it out to them, “Would you mind?”

They run the ink-dark fingertips down the page, tracing the sigil for Shadow because it seems appropriate. When Velma sets the book down on her desk and comes back she’s peering at their eyes in curiosity—not even bothering to hide the way she is buzzing with it.

“It comes with a price.”

“All Shadow does,” Velma replies, still inspecting the drying starlight.

“This is different,” the wizard insists “you can use it and use it and use it without backlash until you either engage and finish a duel, or use a proper spell that induces backlash itself.” They tell her in more detail than they’ve told anyone—even Cyrus—about Nidavellir and Darkmoor and the ways this usage of magic ended when pushed too far.

To her credit, Velma listens with wide eyed interest. Only stopping them here and there to clarify how something felt, or how it looked. When they’re done, she rests back against the edge of her desk, the thin arm of her monocle tucked between her teeth like it’s helping her think. Eventually, she does ask the question they’ve been expecting. “And these are your only scars from Shadow?”

Nobody knows about the one hooked under their sternum.

Jagged and puckered, knotted tissue poorly healed.

The wizard nods. And lies. “They’re the only ones. I think they get deeper whenever I try to dip into that well.” That part is true, they think whenever they let the tears come fully, run down their face again like all the times before—it paints an ever deeper well into the soft plane of their face. Another reason for trying not to take things too far anymore, though certainly not the primary one.

The idea of what happened in Nidavellir being repeatable haunts them.

They do not want to chance a creature like what they became released on a wider scale.

They’ve got too much to lose.

[stormbreaker101]

I made the Arcanum in Ponytown :D

Some artistic liberties were taken, especially with Qyburn

[apple-talk]

actually you know what. the rest of the aethyr 4 scholars as well pls. jaki velma maulwurf. friendies

REEHEHEHEHEH i love them all so much. the friends of all time. the arcanum members that deserve rights. (in order: velma, jaki, maulwurf)

[polaris101]

My Wizard101 Pride Month Headcanons: pt 2 (the arcanum)

these are all based on vibes

Tarrak Hadfield - he/him, pansexual

Jaki Whisperwind - they/them, lesbian

Ione Virga - they/them, lesbian

Ignus Ferric - he/him, leather gay

Baba Yaga - she/her, questioning???

Zander - any pronouns? definitely not straight

Qismah Shasa - she/they, bisexual?

Velma von Venkman - she/they, lesbian

Qyburn Stellargaze - he/they, pansexual

these last 3 are all being smushed together cause again i am limited to only 10 pics on mobile

1) Maulwurf von Trap - i’m sorry but he gives me homophobic/transphobic conservative vibes 💀 i feel like if you were to ask him what his pronouns are he’d go, “NOR/MAL” or he’d scream at you and call you a slur in the process

2) Librarian Fitzhume - GAY TWINK. (he may be gay but that doesn’t stop him from being homophobic, sometimes its a joke. sometimes he’s serious.)

3) Sparck - non-binary, asexual, gay.

[frozenfirecats]

[ravenwoodalum]

One in a Million - The Wizard101 Character Tourney

We start on Thursday, noon EST. 24h polls, with round one split into left and right -- matches specified below for readability.

Fill your brackets out, start preparing your contestant propaganda, and I'll see you on Thursday!

Round One Matches are as follows:

SIDE ONE

Bartleby vs Ozzy

Duck Savage VS Wilma Deering (sorry folks, this is just how the seeding resulted)

Arthur Wethersfield vs Queen Aryanah Silvertusk

Ione Virga VS Skeletaur

King Artorius VS Chester Droors

Khan VS Dr. Jackall

The Professor VS Velma von Venkman

Eloise Merryweather Vs Tatyanna

Baba Yaga VS Zigi Stardust

The Kraken VS Tarrak Hadfield

Sparck Virga VS Stallion Quartermane

Shadoe VS Bearyshnakov

Selena Gomez VS Myrella Windspar

Baldur Goldpaws VS Professor Hargrove (Battle of the Bears)

Tosh VS Zander

Sylvia Drake VS Gobbler King

SIDE TWO

Grandmother Raven VS Nana

Emperor Yoshihito VS Dog Tracy

Diego the Duelmaster VS Qyburn Stellargaze

Elik Silverfist VS Mandar the Barbarian

Belladonna Crisp VS Burdie

Gwendolyn VS Solomon Crane

Sultana Sharzad VS Meowiarty

Prospector Zeke VS Monstrologist Burke

Dyvim Whitehart VS Fernanda Maregellan

Ghost Dog VS The Smiths

Nick Jonas VS Librarian Fitzhume

Beans VS The Bantam

Pork VS Renee Wooften

Greta VS Zoot

Moo Bu VS Buck Gordon

Grandfather Spider/Old Cob VS Istar

[w101cracktheories]

We have Bootleg Sherlock Holmes, Bootleg Batman, and Bootleg Star Trek, obviously KI plans in adding Bootleg Scooby Doo and friends for the fourth arc.

[themangledsans0508]

Velma Von Venkman

That's it that's the post

[ryleestormgem]

Velma Von Venkman

[katsafaria]

Velma von Venkman by u/heygramz on Reddit (@heygramz) on twitter

[oldestenemy]

“You certainly took your time.” The words don’t actually come out hostile, the longer he’d spent here waiting doing the mouse’s job in his stead—keeping watch over the Spiral door—the more it had felt like a welcome change. A moment to breathe.

The wizard had needed a friend.

Duncan had needed an escape.

“Thank you,” he adds, almost worried despite his tone that he’d be misunderstood. “I hope it was worth it.”

“I should be thanking you, Spellbinder. I doubt they would have come looking for company otherwise, and you were right, they were very much in need of it.” Dyvim Whitehart is excruciatingly difficult not to like, Duncan was realizing. There was an easy warmth to him, something in every word that spoke to his own character. It feels like he’s offering up trust that hasn’t really been earned.

Maybe it has, even by association.

Or maybe Duncan just isn’t used to people smiling at him anymore.

“You can call me Duncan, I have a name.” Unlike them. Let them have something. Something that isn’t… Something that hadn’t been spit at them in anger at least…

Probably.

~*~

“I have to say I’m thoroughly impressed, the fact that you were able to not only channel but control and direct Shadow without any training is quite the feat.” Velma Von Venkman makes him feel like a bug in a jar—but she’s also one of the only people in the Spiral who seems to look at Shadow magic like a legitimate field of study instead of something to be feared. “I take it based on the scarring you’ve sustained that you’ve experienced an overload similar to the wizard?”

The—

—shit.

Duncan Grimwater is not used to people noticing the faint tear tract scars on his face. They aren’t anywhere near as deep or as discolored as the wizard’s, but he can still remember the frigid cold of liquid shadow drying on his face, the sensation of drowning, the tears that seemed to cut him open as they ran.

“Y-yes? Sort of.” It hadn’t really been an overload, “It was the first time I tried to use Shadow magic, I drew a spell circle I’d seen the wizard make and activated a treasure card outside of battle.”

Venkman looks positively ecstatic.

It’s nice.

It’s certainly helping some of the lingering bitterness to be treated like a prodigy. And maybe he was? The wizard too had seemed genuinely surprised by his grasp of Shadow. He didn’t know how they’d learned, how long it had taken them, what it had cost.

He doesn’t see the wizard for weeks after they leave to return the eye of history. He doesn’t go looking, he sent them Dyvim in the beginning, he’s not—they’re not friends—he’s not going to check in. He’s going to focus on what they got him dragged into and learn everything he can from the scholars. Qismah sends him into the desert wastelands on the outskirts of Mirage in search of ancient bones for new spells, Venkman tells stories about growing up on Darkmoor and teaches him how to wield Shadow without the rage he’d come to view as necessary.

The strange little librarian tails him around when he wanders.

Like he isn’t trusted.

Duncan can’t blame him.

Ione Virga doesn’t interact with him much, save for once about a month after his arrival, when she calls him into her office to—begrudgingly—inform him that Qismah has decided he is ready to undertake the Trial of the Understudy.

The Void Elemental feels as though it is hungry.

But it falls to the knowledge he’s gained here.

And he is starting to feel like this place is more than just a temporary safe haven. The first threads of what he’ll do are forming. But there isn’t news to push him to the decision, it isn’t time yet.

~*~

“Understudy Grimwater,” Duncan has learned not to jump at the sound of Ione’s voice. But the sudden sharpness of it has yet to wear off, it still makes him feel like he’s supposed to snap to attention. “Preparations are being made for travel to Empyrea, find and alert the Wizard of this—they will need to make contact with a captain who has experience traversing the Aethyr storm.”

“Right.” Is what he says. Because he doesn’t think questioning the Storm scholar is a particularly wise idea. Even if what he wants to say is more along the lines of why me and can’t you send a contact sphere?

He’s back in his apartment rooms when he realizes. Halfway through digging out the reagents he needs to bypass the wizard’s damned teleport blocking. Shining scales and a golden pearl and…Nightshade, always nightshade, he’d tried other botanical reagents before but nothing else ever worked. He’s got a fistful of the dark purple flowers and he freezes as it dawns on him.

This wasn’t just some nonsense task.

It wasn’t that Ione couldn’t contact the wizard another way.

Because why would you send someone you suspect of being a spy for the other side. For the schism, for the bad guys. Unless you don’t suspect them anymore? Unless it was a show of trust?

…or a test.

~*~

The wizard is in in the solarium outside their Celestial Observatory, pressing hot metal into the forge there in an attempt to get it bent back into shape. If there was one thing they had to hand to the ancient Celestians—it was their innovation in crafting. A forge that heated reagents and not flesh was a spectacular aid, the starlight that poured off it making a barrier between the hot steel and their hands.

Like in the Myth tower, they feel the incoming teleport before it goes off. It shouldn’t go off, they’ve had the blocking ward tucked back in their pocket for months now, since Mirage. But that hadn’t stopped it with Dyvim and they doubt it will stop now, so they step back away from the forge, tapping the Astral sigil on the side as they do so that it begins to cool.

Just in time for Duncan to appear in a flash of Storm-tinged Death.

“How do you keep doing that?” They’d worked out almost immediately that he’d been the one to send Dyvim to them. None of the other Necromancers carried the ever present ozone tang of Storm magic in their spellwork. Maybe Triton Avenue had rubbed off on him, or maybe his friendship with the Gryphonbane siblings had once given him an interest in Divination. Regardless it stuck to everything he did. A calling card that made him known. “Nobody should be able to break my teleportation ward.”

“No time for that, the scholars have made a breakthrough.”

Their stomach drops, not in fear but in shock. Mellori, they have a lead on Mellori, they have a way to fix this. “Right—” and they push past him out of the solarium, headed for the main observatory with no mind paid to the fact that he follows. “—right okay.”

Preparation is a haze, they genuinely forget Duncan is there until they come back to the main floor of the tower and find him staring at the Shadow Point where it sits on the wall. They ought to bring it. Just in case. Better to have options on hand to tip things in their favor. Options that don’t leave them further scarred anyways…

“You can go back, let them know I’m on my way.” The sword is cold as they pull it from the wall, always colder than they feel it should be, always faintly thrumming. A pulse of Shadow reminiscent of the quiet hrum they’d associated with Spider and its creation.

“I’m coming with you.”

The wizard’s gaze snaps back to Duncan, taking him in properly for the first time since he’d arrived. He’s already set to go. “You…what changed your mind?”

“Nothing.” He replies, “I knew I would be doing this eventually—I—can you just say thank you and we can get moving? We don’t need to do this.”

He’s right.

They don’t.

“Thank you. Lets go.”

read the whole series here <3

[totallycorrect101quotes]

Velma: Learning Shadow magic is not some simple task such as riding a bicycle, cracking an egg, or committing premeditated murder.

Wizard: Uh, what was that last one?

Velma: Cracking an egg?

Wizard: ...Right.

[meursaulty]

so i'm pretty sure the general consensus around here is that the poor wizard needs some permanent friends, and of course there are the obvious choices (empyrea gang, student npcs, khrysalis crew, etc.)

but if may i nominate someone from the deep cuts of npcs: velma von venkman 👁

arcanum scholar - bc let's be real... school is a top way to make friends

fellow shadow user - she's actually excluded from empyrea planning because of that. her and the wizard bonding over people not trusting them bc of their shadow magic? let's gooooo

a homie in general - tries to take the heat off the wizard for freeing grandfather spider even though they just met

has appeared in so few quests that she's basically free real estate for characterization lol