#puppet!alistair

[rats-and-clovers]

nothing to see here

just two friendly fellas taking a nightly stroll around an abandoned pizzeria..

[trans-ruffboi]

reaver Alistair is correct to me not just for the Calenhad dragon blood but also bc that guy is just emotionally repressed enough that he probably needs the fucked up dragon blood magic outlet every once in a while

[asilentparadox]

silly possession doodle scraps.

lyrics are from Puppet Boy by Devo.

—-

when one refuses to finish a task.

he will use force if necessary.

[joleneghoul]

The fact its the hof who gets anders sir pounce a lot is like....i need a cigarette.

[shanastoryteller]

The boy with the demon blood is always watching him.

His gaze had been alternatingly reverent and despondent before Lucifer’s rise. After, it’s cold, appraising, and only when Dean isn’t looking. It reminds Castiel of the few times that Michael has set his eyes on him and it makes the place on the back of his back itch where his wings would be. Lucifer’s vessel should not remind him of Michael. It’s not right.

They’re sitting in a diner, a cup of coffee in front of him that he has no intention of drinking, Dean is in the bathroom, and Sam is staring at him again, lip pulled back just enough that Castiel can’t tell if it’s a grimace or a snarl. He is not well versed in humanity, but he wishes for this to stop. It’s distracting. “What is your problem?”

“You,” Sam says bluntly, which Castiel had not expected. “I don’t trust you.”

“Because your judgement in this area is without reproach,” he says, surprising himself. It’s just that Dean is predictable. Understandable. Sam is not. It’s frustrating.

That look on his face is almost a smile. “Exactly. I trusted you in the beginning. You’re an angel, a being of good, who brought my brother back to life. Why wouldn’t I?” He shakes his head, a faint look of disgust on his face that Castiel is used to seeing there.

He thought Sam’s self recrimination was wholly centered on his role in releasing Lucifer. He does not know what to do with the realization that some of it is directed towards him. “I am still all those things.”

“No,” Sam says. “You’re the good soldier who left my brother to rot. I tried to save him and couldn’t. I nearly destroyed myself doing it. You could have saved him and didn’t. You could have prevented all of this if you’d pulled him out before he broke the first seal. But you didn’t, and then you left him there for another ten years, letting Alistair sink his claws into him.” He leans forward. “My brother was only useful to you broken. I’m not going to forget that again.”

Anger rushes through him. Dean is often frustrating. Sam is infuriating. “I was following orders.”

He realizes too late that he’s only confirming Sam’s assertions. To his credit, he doesn’t appear at all satisfied with the admission. “That’s why you and Dean get along, you know. Two good little soldiers in a pod that rebelled too late and are suffering the consequences.”

Sam has not spoken of Dean like this, has not been anything but accommodating and sorrowful to his elder brother since killing Lilith. His description of their actions sounds too much like Lucifer for Castiel’s comfort. They’re nothing like him. It is Sam who is the devil’s foil. “What are you, then?”

“An idiot,” he says. “You and Ruby are the same, manipulating us both to start this stupid apocalypse. I know you let me out of the panic room, Castiel.”

He goes very still. There are several defenses available to him, but all only confirm Sam’s assertion that he’s a good little soldier that rebelled too late, that he was as Ruby. Perhaps this is where so much of Dean’s frustrations around his brother come from. He is not right, but it is difficult to find the words to prove him wrong.

“If you were going to try and deny it, that would have been the time to do it,” he says dryly. “If you hadn’t, the apocalypse would have been averted. I can’t kill Lilith if I’m dead and even if one of you had done it, it still wouldn’t matter. Lucifer can’t puppet a corpse. Over before it begins.”

Castiel means to choose his next words carefully. Instead, he says, “You have not told Dean.”

Sam shrugs, looking at the window, his eyes tightening in pain. “He needs something – someone – to hold onto right now. It can’t be me, so it’s you. But I’m watching you, Cas. Manipulate my brother again, and I’m not going to care how useful you are in averting the apocalypse or what it’ll do to Dean to lose faith again.”

“Why can it not be you?”

He looks over at him, startled. It’s nice to be able to be the one to put him off balance for once. “What?”

“Why can Dean not hold on to you?” he repeats. Despite every attempt from heaven and hell to prevent just that, it seems to him that Dean is holding onto his brother more tightly than ever.

Sam’s expression shuts down, but not before Castiel sees the tidal wave of grief there. “You didn’t know him before hell. You don’t know what you took from him by leaving him there.”

He’s back on uncertain territory. It’s the only kind he ever seems to be in with Sam. “Is he very different?”

Dean does not appear overly different from an outside perspective. His personality and priorities seem roughly the same as they were reported to be before hell. Traumatized, perhaps, but it’s not as if Dean is any stranger to that.

Sam laughs and Castiel flinches before he can think not to. “Our father’s words haunted him, you know. That he had to either save me or kill me. In some ways, selling his soul for me was a relief. Not only was it a complete rejection of that order, but it meant that if I did have to be killed one day, he wouldn’t be the one to do it. Not that he ever would, because people have tried to manipulate him into it before. Me included. So I guess you can take some sort of pride in it, being the one who succeeded.”

Castiel regrets starting this conversation. He thinks that Dean cannot possibly still be in the bathroom and wishes he would return. “You are not dead.”

“If you’d left me in the panic room,” Sam says. “I would be.”

That is likely true.

“It was perfect,” Sam says bitterly. “Me, strung out on withdrawal, alone and isolated and hallucinating and dying. Dean with all of his worst nightmares confirmed. Except he’s faced that before and it still didn’t end with me dead. He needed a push. He needed a way to save me or kill me that wouldn’t be his fault, his hands, that he could drink and hide from. And leaving me to detox alone in that room did that, gave him an out that he told himself he could live with.” He tilts his head, mocking and sharp, and Castiel would very much like to stop seeing Michael in Sam Winchester’s face. “But you never wanted me to actually detox. Not with Lilith still alive when I’d need years of training to be strong enough to kill her without it. You didn’t want me clean. You wanted me twisted so far around that I’d be easy to control.”

Zachariah had wanted that. Castiel hadn’t known. He was just following orders.

Dean might accept that explanation. Sam never will. He believes blindly following orders to be a weakness. It’s difficult to argue against it when he’s right. If Castiel had not followed orders he did not understand, they would not be here. But following orders is all he’s ever done.

“I should have known better,” Sam says. “That’s on me. Dean played his part too, but he’s got enough to deal with right now.”

“You intend to let him continue blaming you,” Castiel says. Dean’s mistrust and anger hurts him. It’s easy to see. Here he has the information to rid himself of it, at least partly, but he’s keeping it to himself.

His mouth twitches into something that’s almost a smile. “It’s me or him. He went to hell for forty years for me. I can spare him this.”

Castiel tries to imagine Dean’s reaction if he uncovers how close he came to Sam’s permanent death, how it was something he chose and could have prevented and did not because of actions and assurances that Castiel gave him.

Sam is an abomination. He is, also, human, and no amount of demon blood down his throat is going to change that.  

“Before hell, Dean might have forced me to detox, but not alone,” Sam says softly. “He never would have left me to die alone.”

He searches for something safe to say, something to extricate himself from this conversation. What he settles on is, “You and Dean’s relationship confuses me.”

Sam laughs again. Castiel doesn’t flinch this time. “He pushes me to leave and then blames me when I do,” he says, exhaustion leaking into his words. Sam often looks tired. Castiel has never wasted time wondering precisely why. Perhaps he should have. “It never occurs to him that if he just stopped pushing, I’d stop leaving.”

A self fulfilling prophecy. The apocalypse was supposed to be like that, except that in the end heaven and hell had needed quite a lot of work to get it started. Destiny isn’t as easy as Castiel had been told it would be. “Why are you telling me this?”

It’s that cold, assessing glance again. Comparatively, it’s almost comforting now. It’s better than the grief. It must be exhausting, mourning a man who’s right in front of him. “So you know to watch yourself, Cas. I’m looking properly now. And I see you for exactly who you are.”

It’s not an idle threat, not from Lucifer’s vessel, not from the man who killed Lilith, but there’s a shiver down his spine that’s not quite fear. He’s a low ranking angel, all things considered. Like a god on earth, but celestially insignificant. He is to take orders, to follow his father’s will and his brothers’ guidance and never stray from this well trodden path.

No one has ever seen him before.

[shem-fatale]

Dragon Age Inquisition: "Canon" Choices Survey Results!

Tell us about your personal "canon" Inquisitor who will make an appearance in The Veilguard? What were their choices? Answers to this short survey were collected via a tumblr post between June 11th and June 22nd 2024. I have since found out which of the choices mentioned will and will not affect DA:TV but I will include all questions anyway. Text version and tags under the cut!

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

1. Who is your "canon" Inquisitor and are/were they in a relationship with another DAI character? Female Adaar/Blackwall - 1% Female Lavellan/Blackwall - 1% Male Lavellan/Josephine- 1% Male Lavellan/The Iron Bull- 1% Male Trevelyan/Cassandra - 1%

Female Lavellan/Josephine - 2% Female Trevelyan/Josephine- 2% Male Lavellan - no romance - 2%

Female Adaar/The Iron Bull - 3% Male Adaar/Dorian - 3%

Female Trevelyan/Blackwall - 4%

Female Adaar/Josephine - 6% Male Trevelyan/Dorian - 6%

Female Lavellan/Cullen - 7%

Male Lavellan/Dorian - 12%

Female Trevelyan/Cullen - 13%

Female Lavellan/Solas - 33% Added headcanon comment from @spiders-scribbles: Male Adaar/The Iron Bull "Kas is played with the female model cause I hate how bulky the male Qunari body is and also trans reasons" <3 And another one from @doves-wing: Female Cadash/Josephine "i think they have an open relationship and so my quizzy has dated iron bull though that relationship ends before trespasser. she is still with josie though." <3 2. What combat class and specialisation apply to your "canon" Inquisitor?

Warrior/Two-Handed/Templar - 0% Warrior/Weapon and Shield/Templar - 0%

Rogue/Daggers/Artificer - 1% Warrior/Two-Handed/Champion - 1% Warrior/Weapon and Shield/Reaver - 1%

Warrior/Two-Handed/Reaver - 3% Rogue/Archer/Tempest - 3% Warrior/Weapon and Shield/Champion - 3%

Mage/Necromancer - 4%

Rogue/Archer/Artificer - 5% Rogue/Archer/Assassin - 5% Rogue/Daggers/Tempest - 5%

Rogue/Daggers/Assassin - 8%

Mage/Rift Mage - 30%

Mage/Knight-Enchanter - 32% 3. Did the Inquisition form an alliance with the Mages or with the Templars?

Mages - 86%

Templars - 14% 4. Who was left behind in the Fade?

Alistair - 5%

Loghain - 9%

Hawke - 29%

Stroud - 57% 5. Did the Inquisition give the Wardens a second chance?

Yes - 89%

No - 11% 6. Who rules Orlais?

Gaspard - 1%

Celene - 10%

Gaspard as Briala's puppet - 14%

Truce between all parties - 32%

Celene and Briala - 43% 7. Who drank from the Well of Sorrows?

Morrigan - 48%

The Inquisitor - 52% 8. Who becomes Divine Victoria at the end of DA:I?

Vivienne - 7%

Cassandra - 18%

Leliana - 75% 9. What happened to the Inquisition at the end of Trespasser?

The Inquisition continues in the service of Divine Victoria - 17%

The Inquisition was disbanded - 83%

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

A big thank you to:

@themightynej

@rotaryshakes

@slothsoep

@ladyotakukiut

@ellie-shy

@spaaace-ace

@infinitediversities

@missrosequeen

@re-venge

@tokyopewpew

@ennayeliah

@alesdaer

@what-ever-this-is-man

@maintitle

@doves-wing

@filbert-weevil

@robinthewarden

@flashyxtemplar

@0rzammar

@bonniemikaelson

@darthbootchie

@gugle1980

@hawkgirlriot

@huneybumble7

@onelessvenatori

@stillpanicking

@stuckyonbucky

@wildefiction

@animusrisunovatur

@anulindale

@azinareens

@cullens-babe

@energeticbasilisk

@fadejumper

@humonster

@joyfulpolicehologram

@krampus236

@maleficarmage

@mortalitasdeeznuts

@soft4sana

@themagnusbane

@thereiswarathand

@touchofweave

@tyralily

@witch-light

@witchybullshit

@littleballofanxiety

@precious-gem-of-a-cat @onlypartiallystars

@spiders-scribbles @titanwolfackerman @nervousparsnip @sowrongbutsowrite @argonian-at-heart @too-caught-up-in-moves @yjannu @lilywasx and also to everyone who didn't want to be tagged, plus everyone who spelled their user names wrong! I figured out some of the typos but some of you left me some crazy riddles hehe. <3

[oldandcrusty]

Religious imperialism: the RPG

This is the third installment in my series on institutional change in the Dragon Age series. If you'd like, feel free to read my Origins and DA2 posts.

When it comes to institutional change, there are a lot of angles I could tackle in Dragon Age: Inquisition. A frequent theme I see discussed is the way the inquisition absorbs the inquisitor. I already have given my two cents on that, and I don't think it fits what this series is about - the institutional change narrative the games weave.

For this post, I'm focusing on the institutional power the Inquisition rapidly garners. I might make more posts focusing on other elements - like the Red Jennies and Iron Bull's arc with the Qun. I might even do some Cullen Hating Hours, who knows!

Corypheus: the Uniter

The first Inquisition had a massive impact on religious and governmental institutions, because gave rise to the Seekers and Templars. The Divine thus became the head of a theocratic institution with an abundance of resources and a large military.

After the mage rebellion, Divine Justina wanted to revive an Inquisition in the event that the Conclave went awry. This would give her the ability to raise an army separate from existing religious and government forces, which she no longer had absolute control over.

We will never know what an Inquisition without Corypheus' presence would have yielded. Its purpose would have been to unite people, but I suspect its unifying would have looked more like subjugation through violence, coercion, and political intrigue.

In truth, it was Corypheus who united people. He, the Big Bad, made people from all races, nations, religions, and backgrounds want to support the Inquisition, as the Inquisition held the one individual who could defeat Corypheus. And, with such a simple message (help us and we'll literally save the world), it made it relatively easy for the Inquisition to gain widespread support, claim resources, and gain power.

This echoes real world examples of the use of declarations of emergency. Such decrees give governments greater powers to make swift decisions, at the risk of eroding human rights and democracy. It is meant to be used in exceptional cases, such as in wartime or during deadly outbreaks. However, it is commonly abused by governments to centralise decision making. It is an effective way to create dictatorships, for example when the Nazi party used this exact tactic in 1933 to take away democratic processes.

Post-Corypheus

Although the Inquisition starts off with a goal to curtail a very real emergency, it remains long after this problem is solved. What also remains is its sweeping powers. All those flags you raised in the Inquisition's name are land, buildings, and resources the Inquisition still owns. Furthermore, the new Divine is a member of your inner Circle, and whoever is ruling Orlais is doing so because you allow them to. You have immense power over Orlais, Fereldan, and the Chantry.

In Trespasser, Teagan points out that this is similar to what the Wardens did to Ferelden. Some fans have said that Teagan would never say this because of the fifth Blight. But he is a pragmatic person who saw the Warden and Alistair as allies and not puppets of Orlais. Of course he would be friendly with and trust them, and be wary of the Inquisition.

That being said, more so than in previous games, you can have a real impact on the injustices the world faces. For example, if you make Leliana the Divine, she will allow all races to have positions of power in Chantry and give mages freedom. Yay! Right?

These protections are top-down in implementation and ordered by a theocratic military force with highly centralised power. Regardless of who you pick to be Divine, your Inquisition would have made the Chantry stronger and more authoritarian.

There is some dialogue discussing this concept of top-down versus bottom-up - examples include Solas lambasting Sera for not formalising the Red Jennies, and Vivienne telling Blackwall that his attempts to help people are meaningless and change can only occur from the top. However, when looking at the entire narrative of the game, it frequently portrays change as having to be top-down.

The Inquisition turns Southern Thedas into a place where diversity wins (if you're Andrastian), and people can live in peace (on land owned by the Inquisition). Your inquisitor's choices, background, and beliefs do not alter this. If you disband the Inquisition, at least that weakens it, but it morphs into a more shadowy force. It is still plucking the strings of nations and the Chantry.

I personally wish that the game did not frame the Inquisition as positively as it did. There are not many opportunities to reckon with the impact of a religious imperialist force occupying land, taking resources, and choosing who gets to sit on thrones. Perhaps this is my perspective as a person in from Global South coming out, but that is why the game is actually quite disturbing to me, in an eerie cult-like way. Like is no one else seeing what's happening? Why is no one screaming with me? (Note that I have hundreds of hours on it, I do really enjoy it!)

Anyway, by the end of the game, the institutions of Southern Thedas are in an interesting position. I am excited to see what happens next! There is real potential to explore the other side of institutional change - the bottom-up, grassroots, radical incrementalist way. Surely they won't burn all that potential down in Veilguard just to factory reset the franchise! :D

Oh.

[rats-and-clovers]

some very messy Puppet!Alistair sketches because that wodden boy deserves all the attention >w>

[xbomboi]

how Ever After High characters treat ice in drinks

raven: asks for no ice when she remembers to, otherwise chews on the ice cubes

apple: barely even takes a sip of her drink at all

briar: asks for no ice

maddie: asks for no drink in her ice

ashlynn: doesn’t gaf

cerise: chews on the ice cubes

faybelle: duplicates the ice cubes with magic

darling: does the same shit apple does

dexter: asks for no ice; they give it to him anyway

daring: looks at his reflection in the glass

cedar: are you stupid? she’s a puppet.

duchess: doesn’t order a drink but regrets it later

sparrow: chews on the ice cubes

blondie: it has to be just right.

cupid: drinks the ice cubes after they melt

hunter: asks for Extra ice

lizzie: off with the ice!

kitty: nobody knows. she doesn’t eat out.

alistair: plays with the ice cubes with his straw

bunny: idfk but instead of a fruit her weird ass puts a carrot on the rim of the glass

chase: drinks exclusively from water bottles

courtly jester: probably drinks dangerous chemicals.

humphrey: asks for no ice but orders Two drinks

hopper: asks for no ice because he sits in his drink. weirdo…

holly: too busy being a chatterbox to order

poppy: orders for her and holly; they both get ice

ginger: is probably making the drinks tbh

melody: doesn’t gaf

meeshell: terrified of ice in her drink

justine: drinks the ice cubes after they melt

ramona: eats the ice cubes First.

jillian: doesn’t gaf

nina: gets ice and shrinks down to stand on it while sipping from the straw

farrah: has whatever ashlynn gets

crystal: take a guess. no take an actual fucking guess as to what Crystal “Winter” does.

[asilentparadox]

In vc earlier discussing random ideas.

Friend mention what if his hatbox was left behind somehow use it to communicate onto the former necromancer he affiliated with. Gives him tips how to unbanish etc so he can get that pitiful revenge..

TW: I want to write messed up stuff with blood and to usually help with entitys like that he would deeply sacrifice alot of his own blood vein wise in order for the magick to work.

if not make sense hard type out everything from vocals and had not sleep for day or two. Take lazy concept sketches.

[lesbianwyllravengard]

Also whyyy does Alistair have to leave why does oghr*n stay for Awakening but Alistair is just a cameo. "oh I gotta go I don't have time to help you" because you're busy doing what?? 'Ruling' Ferelden? Don't make me laugh, puppet king. Stay and help me fight darkspawn brother. or else.

[him224]

Hello! today i redesigned alastor from hazbin hotel i'll put some design notes and fun facts below

DESIGN NOTES: his name is alistair with my redesign because it is objectively a better name gave him a more anthro look it was hard figuiring out how to use a deer head for him but i got it eventually im awesome tried to stick away from the reds; i get it it was chosen because of the ring, but its just not a thing i wanted to do for my design tried to use more natural colors because obviously, an actual deer, but i also just dont use green very often and i quite like green suits tried to make his look more like something you'd see from the 30's in new orleans his grippers are out more jewelry because why not id also want him to own a pocket watch but i didnt feel like drawing it this took forever more pictures of him below;

LORE BITS: his entire body is a taxidermied deer, so no organs or muscles or blood or anything of the sort, he is full of cotton, wool, and iron wiring- because of this he moves statically and slowly even with his polite and elegant manerisms his shadow does most of the work for him and he just chills his voice comes from his microphone, he simply opens his jaw as he speaks to be polite he has a neon version specifically for a good day or to freak people out, i mostly just did this for fun because i like neon alastor in the show id imagine he would be best portrayed with real life puppet animation, mostly refrencing coraline bright colors;

it was fun taking this concept and imagining it as if it were in a world i created, let it be known i am not the biggest fan of hazbin hotel or helluva boss but i appreciate the attention its brought to indie animation and the people it inspires

[eatdawalls]

I love rimworld, especially the anomaly dlc.

Regarding shamblers, those are dead individuals (animals, people, monsters etc.) Who came back due to archotechnology (ultra sci-fi tech in rimworld for those who dont play). What I love about it is the way these "zombies" are reanimated, usually in movies or games its a virus, magic or a ancient curse. But here, it is the remnants of an ancient nanotechnology that implants itself in the corpses and forcibly regenerate their bodies, and moves them around like a puppet.

It mixes the ideas of various genres I am already in love with.

Sci-fi, with the ancient technology that surpasses ours by far, we cannot understand it by any means, we just know it works.

Body horror, the way the technology forces your (dead) body to move and regenerate lost limbs and organs, using you as a puppet for reasons unknown.

Cosmic horror (spoilers for anomaly dlc) , The way we the players soon learn more about this technology and the ways to use it, we delve deeper and deeper into the terrible truth. That there is an "abstract" being with such power to even bend reality, behind all of the nonesense we explore in the dlc, and we soon realize that the shamblers are just the start of something much more horrifying.

[thecityofdoors]

dao gift mechanic is soo funny. alistair is one finger puppet away from being your best friend

[windupaidoneus]

a common thread among my ocs really is like... science &/or magic of questionable ethical nature coupled with a troubled relationship with life & death. sylvestre has learnt to transfer lifeforce between individuals to reverse teppei's forced aging just in time to keep him alive & wasn't opposed to trying & bringing an enemy of his who genuinely traumatised him back to life. shamir is a somniari who walks the fade to save percy & alistair both in hlta. absinthe's skills are specialised in regeneration & again, lifeforce, as well as all the magic & science shit he's learnt over the past millennium to try & find a stable solution to the shade vs replicant issue, & he brings some replicants back to life + houses a few shades within his body for some time before finding them suitable vessels, & ofc gives weiss a new vessel. hildegarde studied tempering with the use of all magic & science he had on hand then started researching necromancy as well, his grief was so strong it nearly killed him & later on technically brought someone back to life. devola, for seemingly no reason, worked to revive a machine they knew nothing at all about, & has the ability to do so in the first place. ahava is a zombie controlled by a fungus who feels immense guilt over puppeting a body that isn't theirs yet isn't willing to abandon this chance at life no matter how much they hate themself for it, & they say it's to honour the previous host's memory but in truth it's just as much that they fear death & want to try living too, even if it's all so alien & horrifying for now. i think you can gleam some things about me as a person from these quite frankly

[wickedsrest-rp]

Alistair McKenzie He / they

"Everything has a price. It just depends on what you're willing to pay."

SPECIES: Spellcaster OCCUPATION: Owner of the Sugar Pot AGE: 50 Years Old (Looks to be about 44) PLAYED BY: Cal FC: Cillian Murphy

BIOGRAPHY:

Hailing from the Scottish Highlands, Alistair McKenzie was born into a family of necromancers as the middle child of seven. While his siblings were skilled in their magic, Alistair excelled beyond the rest. Whereas his siblings passed their parents’ tests, Alistair not only rose to the occasion but surpassed it. It was evident from a young age that he would become something great. However, Alistair spent his time learning all he could to be a healer instead of someone who resurrected the dead and puppetted them down the streets. He had no desire to have an army of living dead like the rest of his family seemed to desire. The McKenzie family wasn’t so much famous as it was infamous. They were known far and wide for their necromantic spellcasting, and those who knew of it despised it. And those who practiced it craved the knowledge that they held so closely. 

As Alistair grew older, he became increasingly distant from the rest of his family as he read more about the Law of Equivalent Exchange and how to apply it to Necromancy. He began to explore the world of healing using Necromancy. Since the idea of controlling the undead or having large groups of dead at his beck and call never appealed to him, he decided to use the most of what hand he’d been dealt and decided to become a healer, keeping the cost of healing hidden from those he helped. The older he became, the more he began to want to help people instead of hurting, which was the cost of healing as a necromancer. So at thirty, he moved away from under his family’s shadow and immigrated to the United States, New York, to be more specific, to become a pharmacist. It was at college that he met an individual by the name of Mikael. Mikael and Alistair became fast friends, which eventually led to falling for one another. After graduating with their respective degrees, they got married, and when they got married, his brother, Callum McKenzie, the eldest of his siblings, decided to get even. 

Callum took Mikael and hid him away, and Alistair fought tooth and nail to find where Callum had hidden Mikael, only to arrive right as his brother inflicted a mortal wound upon his spouse. In a blind panic, Alistair rushed to Mikael’s side, trying desperately to heal him, using himself as the sacrifice in a pinch. It failed. Not only did it fail, but it was costly. Alistair lost his sight, and love for his family, and Mikael that night. It hardened him, turned him from who was once outgoing and helpful into a hardened, angry man. Mikael had seen the worst of Alistair and loved him anyway, and now they were gone. They vowed that they would never let someone get that close to them again. 

Enter Melody Sommers, a spellcaster much like Alistair. Melody had gone to college with Alistair and offered him a place in Wicked’s Rest to get back onto his feet as he adjusted to the world without his sight as well as without Mikael. She started a business with him, offered him a place to live for a while, and even helped him find his first guide dog. He had become close with her son, Tommy, as a result. The three of them were like a little family, and Alistair allowed himself to open up and become his true self around them, even though he’d sworn he never would. 

He opened a healing room in the back of the tea shop, Alistair began to establish a name for himself as the healer of Wicked’s Rest, where people who found themselves gravely injured and in a pinch could be healed, no questions asked. What people didn’t know was how he was getting these bodies. A group that called themselves the Good Neighbors had been established when he first moved into Wicked’s Rest that needed spellcasters and hunters among their ranks, and Alistair was more than happy to help on the condition that he could use some of the captured supernatural creatures for his healing. The leader agreed, and that was how Alistair was able to set up such a successful business and have a seemingly unlimited number of sacrifices at his beck and call. 

Things came crashing down around him the day that he was forced to choose between keeping his healing fodder and doing the right thing, and Alistair chose to do the right thing because doing so would keep him alive, not out of the goodness of his heart. Just before he was about to help take down this group, tragedy struck. Forced to choose between Melody and Tommy, the ultimate sacrifice was made to keep Tommy alive at the cost of Melody’s life. Knowing he had to now stay alive for Tommy, Alistair cast a resurrection spell on himself preemptively. Everything seemed to have worked until he was killed by a fellow necromancer who was part of the Good Neighbors, Alexander Nowack. When the resurrection spell was cast post-mortem, Alistair woke up in his murderer’s body instead of his own. Now Alistair has to navigate his life in the body of the man that killed him, all while raising Tommy and teaching him spellcasting while the world he knows continues to fall apart around him.

PERSONALITY:

Sarcastic · Charismatic · Self-reliant · Greedy · Pompous · Critical · Solitary

OTHER INFO:

Alistair has a black lab named Brutus, his seeing-eye dog, who goes with them everywhere. Brutus is always in his harness, relaxing in his dog bed in the corner of Alistair’s shop.

Hailing from Scotland, Alistair has a slight Scottish accent that gets heavier when they’re emotional.

Alistair is known for requiring “special” payment for his healing. Instead of money, he takes something valuable to the person, whether a wedding ring, a beloved stuffed animal, or their pet rabbit.

Those who have met Alistair in their previous body may find it strange that they suddenly have a completely new look. When that happens, Alistair is quick to lie and call themselves by a completely different name to keep people from wondering what happened.