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marleybone-dreaming · 2 years

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So I finally remembered to share these!! Sorry about all the smudges and dark spots, I don't like to do digital art very much, especially not for something that's not a main special interest atm (current super hyperfixation is on speech synthesis characters like Microsoft Samverse and Chipspeech)

These are the design pages for two of my characters - Genevieve Ironforge, my wizard (I have a death wiz named Marissa Nightshade whom I'll also eventually do a page for), and Genevieve's fiancé Bentley W.P. Kensington. (Probably no relation to whomever Kensington Park was named for.)

Genevieve actually has two versions- the version I use for original stories and the version tied to the Wizard101 universe. They're quite similar except that the original stories Genevieve has ties to my other OCs rather than to the Wizard101 characters, and her backstory in my universe isn't quite as hectic and exciting. Plus Bentley is only a Wizard101 OC so he's not in the picture in my original stories.

Genevieve

Her first outfit is a slight variation of what I've got her wearing in the game. The second outfit is one I made up based off of an outfit I own IRL.

She's 25 years old and originally from the US, but was born to Irish parents so she has an Irish accent.

She's always been a tinkerer and loved making inventions ever since she was in her early teens. When she was 17, she accidentally got sent from Earth to the Spiral by one of these inventions malfunctioning and causing basically a glitch in space-time.

She started working odd jobs around the Spiral trying to get money so she could rebuild the machine and attempt to recreate what she did that sent her there in the first place to get back home, including a city guard, assistant to Mr. Lincoln, a seamstress in Mooshu, a brief stint as a mercenary- she quickly realized this wasn't for her, as her physical combat skills just weren't that good- and finally a post worker in Marleybone. Living in Marleybone was a dream come true to Genevieve, who'd spent much of her teen years poring over Sherlock Holmes books and Jules Verne novels and longing to, just for a little while, experience what it was like to walk the cobblestone streets under the gas lamps' hazy glow alongside beautiful ladies in long dresses and dapper men in top hats.

Most of the Marleybonians seemed fascinated by this human girl- she wasn't there with Ravenwood, furthering her magical studies, and she was considerably older than most of the human teens who'd come from there. Likewise, Genevieve had been amazed by meeting these anthro animals upon first landing in the Spiral in Wizard City, but they were everywhere in Marleybone. She felt a bit like a fish out of water, being one of the only "people" who had skin instead of fur, but she still liked being there all the same.

It was at this job that she met Arthur Wethersfield, who had come back to Marleybone briefly to visit family. They talked for a long time and he told her about magic, which she found very interesting. She asked if even she could learn it, to which he said she absolutely could but that he wasn't totally sure if Ravenwood would accept her due to her age. He asked about her upon his return to Wizard City, where Headmaster Ambrose said that unfortunately she was out of the age range for enrollment, but that according to what he'd told him she seemed like Storm magic would be a great fit for her and that Halston Balestrom might be willing to tutor her privately. When Professor Wethersfield asked, Professor Balestrom said he'd be happy to teach Genevieve Divination, and that it's better to start late than never.

The next thing Genevieve knew, she was staying in an apartment on Triton Avenue in Wizard City, and every weekend she'd go up to the Storm school to receive her private lessons with Professor Balestrom. When she wasn't doing her Storm lessons, she was working at the Storm Mill, doing maintenance on the machines.

Genevieve, as it turned out, was a natural at Divination. She worked hard to master her spells and even asked Professor Balestrom for advice with rebuilding the machine that sent her to the Spiral in the first place once she'd been taking lessons from him for a while.

She still chatted with Professor Wethersfield, though he wasn't tutoring her, and sometimes they'd meet up at his house for tea. During one of their conversations, he mentioned that he knew someone back in Marleybone who was looking for a Storm wizard to help him out with golem designing and building and offered to mention her name to him. She said she'd love to do it.

The friend in Marleybone agreed to bring her in and see what she was capable of, and before long she was back in Marleybone, helping build and design robots.

She then had an epiphany: Here in Marleybone, she was living her dream out. She was studying science, building robots, and fully living in the 19th century- things that would have been obscenely difficult and, in the case of the latter, even impossible back home in present day America. So even though she missed her family a lot, she dropped the quest to go back to Earth- and instead put it on the back burner, to maybe figure out how to visit later on.

And her dream got even sweeter when she was told to pick up a few scientific journals from a bookstore in Regent's Square and met the most dashing gentleman. It was strange, feeling... attracted to one of these anthro dogs. She knew what furries were back on Earth, but hadn't fancied herself as one until she lay eyes on Bentley. Soon enough the two were courting and practically inseparable. After they'd dated for a few years he proposed to her- to which she, of course, said yes. Now she especially wants to visit Earth again, so she can introduce her fiancé to her parents! She and Bentley are both worried about what her parents would think about her marrying a man of a race/species that doesn't even exist on Earth, but there's only one way to find out what they'd say.

Bentley

First I'll transcribe what his page says in case you can't read my bad handwriting.

Name: Bentley W.P. Kensington. Age: 28. Species + breed: (Anthro) dog, poodle. Build: Tall and curvy. Resides in: Apartment in Chelsea Court. Occupation: Bookstore owner and violin player (at balls and for theater performances). Positive attributes: Generous, patient, observant, tolerant, kind, meticulous, neat. Negative attributes: Self-doubting, high-maintenance, jumpy and paranoid, extremely conflict averse, nitpicky.

For the most part, Bentley had a very average life. Being the only pup his parents had, his fairly well-to-do paternal grandparents absolutely spoiled him, none more so than his grandfather. The man made sure he never went without, and helped his parents send him to grade school. Though he couldn't afford to put him through university, he did get Bentley the music classes he'd longed to take. With a lot of hard work, he became adept at the violin. Though now at 18 he didn't really know what he was going to do now that he'd gone to school and knew music.

He spent a year just living in his grandfather's house, making money by having rich people hire him to play music at their parties. But one day his grandfather unexpectedly became ill and passed away. His father had already died in an industrial accident the year before, and having lost both of them took a heavy toll on the young man. But Bentley's grandfather had left him, in his will, the bookstore that had made the family so much money.

After a period of mourning, he got to work managing his grandfather's bookstore- and it turned out, he actually loved it! He didn't like all the record keeping very much, but he certainly liked stocking the books and finding as many interesting titles to sell as he could, and restoring old ones that people brought in to sell. Things went on like this for a few years- and when Kensington Books became the sole seller in Marleybone for a long-awaited series from a best-selling author, business exploded. For a year there would be lines outside his store almost daily!

With all this money, he bought fancy clothes and poured lots into keeping the bookstore looking absolutely beautiful. From planting flowering ivy to grow up the bricks, to importing expensive Wysterian furniture for patrons to sit and read in, and even adding a cafe that sold tea, coffee and pastries- he wanted to make his store look unlike any other in Marleybone! He'd always taken pride in his appearance and surroundings, but now he could take it to another level. The inheritance from his grandfather had helped tremendously in beautifying the bookstore as well, of course.

He didn't stop playing the violin now that he had a steady job, however- it was still his passion, and he would still play at rich people's parties. But now these rich people recommended him to theatre directors and the organizers of the annual Policemen's Ball, so they soon approached him and asked him to play for them! Bentley was ecstatic, and agreed to do it.

Balancing his passion for music with running the bookstore was difficult, but he managed to do it.

His life would be turned upside down, though, when a white-haired human lady came in and asked for a few copies of scientific journals.

It was love at first sight, and both of them knew the other one felt the same from the look in their eyes.

They began discussing literature, comparing Earth literature to Spiral literature, and soon made plans to meet up for tea.

These meetings happened more and more, until Bentley had Genevieve at his house every day. It was finally time, they decided, to officially start courting and become a couple.

Though they seemed quite an unlikely couple- not just because of Bentley being an anthro dog and Genevieve being a human, but because of him being so artistic and shy, and her being so logical and fearless... but they were practically made for each other. Their strengths and weaknesses complemented so well, and it was absolutely no surprise to any of their friends when Bentley proposed to her after they'd been in a relationship for about 3 years.

Most other Marleybonians were shocked by the knowledge that a dog would be in a relationship with a human. They faced some prejudice, but for the most part everyone was fairly accepting of their relationship. A couple of humans had settled down in Marleybone, and so it seemed just a matter of time until one of them fell in love with a Marleybonian. It was mostly others being confused by how he could have been attracted to a human- though the Marleybonians were very polite to Genevieve (with exceptions, as sadly everywhere has bullies, even Marleybone) they didn't really consider humans in general to be an attractive species, lacking fur, tails or snouts and having weird wrinkly ears on the sides of their heads instead of smooth ears at the top.

Phew that was a lot of typing, it's really late now and I need to go to bed but hopefully that's everything

#really long post #original character #w101 #wizard101 #wizzy fandom #marleybone #wizard101 marleybone #genevieve ironforge #bentley wp kensington #oc backstory #oc lore

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