Look It's An Infopost
Aug. 27th, 2020 02:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thebeastofhoustonI haven't done one of these in a hot minute, but I have TWO newbies y'all need to know stuff about, so let's get to it.
Arabella Baylor
Arabella hails from the Hidden Legacy series by Ilona Andrews. In her world, in the mid-1800s, the course of human history changed with the invention of the Osiris Serum. Exposure to the Osiris Serum gives you magical powers, if it doesn't kill you or turn you into a magic-warped monster (and then kill you), and these powers can be passed down through family lines. After a period of "Let's give the Osiris Serum to anyone who wants to try their luck!" led to who-could-have-predicted-it societal chaos, use of the Osiris Serum was for the most part banned, and magical society organized itself into a form of civilization. The geopolitical situation looks very different from our world: part of the United States has split off into a separate country under Native American control; the US recently participated in a war to prevent magical powerhouse Mexico from taking over Belize; and the major aggressor and perpetrator of genocide in WW2 was the Russian Imperium.
There is a standardized ranking system for people with magic, with three broad 'families' of magical talents (Arcane, Elemental, and Mental) with dozens of specific magical talents falling within each one, and a power level ranking system going from Minor up to Prime. Families with at least two Primes born within three generations can apply for recognition as a 'House,' which brings with it special legal status and opens up a whole new world of society and business contacts (but also opens you up to inter-House warfare, which is a whole other cutthroat kettle of fish). Many families with powerful magic practice arranged marriage in order to strengthen their magic, either in hopes of producing Primes and becoming a House, or to maintain and increase their power if they are already a House. Arabella is one of the three Primes (the other two are her sisters Nevada and Catalina, who have different powers) of the newly formed House Baylor.
Arabella is sixteen years old and described as short and curvy. Say, 5'3". She is biracial via one Black grandparent and four* white grandparents, and is described as having curly, cornsilk-blonde hair, blue eyes, and tan skin. She is noted as having a terrible temper, loves to argue, and is so deeply stubborn that when someone uses will-based magic on her she passes out before yielding. She is notably terrible at math, and not to be trusted in the kitchen because she will forget what she's doing and wander off.
Arabella has worked for her family's private investigation firm part time since she was twelve, and between that and her family's mixed bag of magical talents, she has an oddball variety of skills: she speaks at least decent Spanish, she's a trained observer who notices details without consciously realizing she's doing it, she's very familiar with firearms (including proper procedure for calling shots as spotter for an army sniper) and vehicle maintenance.
*...it's a long story
The Beast of Cologne
Arabella is a Metamorphosis Prime, meaning that she changes her shape and retains her ability to reason while transformed. This is considered to fall within the Arcane branch of magic, which is unusual because the rest of her family has mostly Mental magic, and is the result of her paternal grandmother doing some illegal magical fuckery to deal with infertility issues (see above re: long story). Specifically, Arabella transforms into a monster known as "The Beast of Cologne," so called because the only previous manifestation did not retain her mind when transformed and, uh, sort of broke the German city of Cologne. No one has broken out a giant measuring tape, but the Beast is estimated to be somewhere in the range of fifty to seventy feet tall, and is described thusly: "Stocky, huge, covered with long strands of jet-black fur, with muscled arms armed with talons, and a blunt head, shielded by a bone carapace. Two thick horns shielded the sides of its head, curving forward as if someone had taken two enormous rams horns and turned them sideways. Thick meat-eater's fangs filled its mouth. Its two round eyes glowed with yellow."
Soooooo yeah. The transformation is near-instantaneous--in one particularly dramatic incident, Arabella jumps out of a helicopter and is the Beast before she hits the ground. Arabella cannot speak in this form, but is still mentally herself, although she displays some animalistic instincts such as using her fangs to chew another monster's head off to make good and sure it's dead. Since the Beast won't really, you know, fit on the island, do not expect it to make very many appearances. However, Arabella can access certain facets of the Beast's magic individually--the only one we know about so far is superstrength, but she says there are more.
The specific nature of Arabella's magic is a secret, because there is a distinct possibility of the government trying to put her in a lab somewhere. Her records are sealed beyond the fact that she is a Prime (Prime status SHOULD protect her from being put in a lab somewhere, but no one's risking it). That won't stop her from hinting at it, joking about it, or using it if the situation calls for it, though.
Booker | Sébastien le Livre
Booker is coming to us from The Old Guard, which is the title of both a comic book series and a movie. He's from the movie (available on Netflix if you haven't watched it yet; it stars Charlize Theron with an axe, just saying), but I've pulled some backstory from the comic. In short, Booker is one of a small group of soldiers from throughout history who, for reasons unbeknownst to them, cannot die. It doesn't matter what happens to them: stab them, shoot them, blow them up, they heal it and keep on going. The oldest of his band, Andromache the Scythian, was born somewhere around 4800 BCE, and she is still alive. One of them, Quynh, was sunk in the ocean in an iron coffin by witch hunters five hundred years ago, and she is still alive, constantly drowning. Eventually, however, for no apparent reason and on no apparent timeline, their time comes around, their wounds stop healing, and they die--this happened to an immortal named Lykon at some unspecified point in the past.
The remaining members of the group are Yusuf al-Kaysani (Joe) and Nicolo di Genova (Nicky), who met and killed each other (many times) on opposite sides of the First Crusade, and subsequently fell in love and have been together for more than 900 years, and Nile Freeman, a US Marine killed in Afghanistan in the course of the movie and thus the newest immortal.
Prior to Nile's joining the group, Booker was the youngest, having become immortal in 1812 during Napoleon's invasion of Russia, when he was hanged for desertion. Because, y'know, not wanting to freeze and starve to death at the same time is bad, if you are La Grande Armée. He was 42 at the time of his first death, which means, if you do the math, that he is currently 250 years old on the nose!
Booker is...not really doing a great job of adjusting to immortality. He is still mourning his wife and three sons, at least one of whom died cursing his name, and he seeks death to the point that he recently sold his friends out to a pharma bro in hopes that, in figuring out what makes them immortal, he could figure out how to make them die. In punishment for this, he got a hundred years inthe naughty corner exile, which has just begun.
Booker is an alcoholic. He always has his flask on him, and in the movie, he is frequently seen drinking. He is super, super depressed. He was already depressed, and now his friends won't talk to him for a hundred years and it's his fault, so...yeah. Also, he may or may not* be dreaming about a lady drowning in an iron coffin over and over (...and over...) again. So, yeah, he's not in a good place!
*Canon is unclear! The immortals dream about each other until they meet, and obviously Booker has not met Quynh because she's been in the ocean since before he was born. But in the comics, he never dreamed about her (and neither did Lykon or Nile), while in the movie, he never says one way or another, he just stares dully into space the whole time she's being discussed (because Nile DOES dream about her).
Who: Yennefer of Vengerburg
What: The Witcher (Netflix)
About: The purple-eyed goth sorceress of Ebony Dark'ness Dementia Raven Way's dreams. Interests include wine, orgies, being hot, and never being happy with what she's got. Comes from after she peaced out of her advisor gig in Aedirn but before she met Geralt or that annoying bard of his.
Who: Z
What: The real world (boo)
About: CST time zone availability, ready for 2020 to be over. Probably forgot to mention something important.
Questions? Comments? Pie?
Arabella Baylor
Arabella hails from the Hidden Legacy series by Ilona Andrews. In her world, in the mid-1800s, the course of human history changed with the invention of the Osiris Serum. Exposure to the Osiris Serum gives you magical powers, if it doesn't kill you or turn you into a magic-warped monster (and then kill you), and these powers can be passed down through family lines. After a period of "Let's give the Osiris Serum to anyone who wants to try their luck!" led to who-could-have-predicted-it societal chaos, use of the Osiris Serum was for the most part banned, and magical society organized itself into a form of civilization. The geopolitical situation looks very different from our world: part of the United States has split off into a separate country under Native American control; the US recently participated in a war to prevent magical powerhouse Mexico from taking over Belize; and the major aggressor and perpetrator of genocide in WW2 was the Russian Imperium.
There is a standardized ranking system for people with magic, with three broad 'families' of magical talents (Arcane, Elemental, and Mental) with dozens of specific magical talents falling within each one, and a power level ranking system going from Minor up to Prime. Families with at least two Primes born within three generations can apply for recognition as a 'House,' which brings with it special legal status and opens up a whole new world of society and business contacts (but also opens you up to inter-House warfare, which is a whole other cutthroat kettle of fish). Many families with powerful magic practice arranged marriage in order to strengthen their magic, either in hopes of producing Primes and becoming a House, or to maintain and increase their power if they are already a House. Arabella is one of the three Primes (the other two are her sisters Nevada and Catalina, who have different powers) of the newly formed House Baylor.
Arabella is sixteen years old and described as short and curvy. Say, 5'3". She is biracial via one Black grandparent and four* white grandparents, and is described as having curly, cornsilk-blonde hair, blue eyes, and tan skin. She is noted as having a terrible temper, loves to argue, and is so deeply stubborn that when someone uses will-based magic on her she passes out before yielding. She is notably terrible at math, and not to be trusted in the kitchen because she will forget what she's doing and wander off.
Arabella has worked for her family's private investigation firm part time since she was twelve, and between that and her family's mixed bag of magical talents, she has an oddball variety of skills: she speaks at least decent Spanish, she's a trained observer who notices details without consciously realizing she's doing it, she's very familiar with firearms (including proper procedure for calling shots as spotter for an army sniper) and vehicle maintenance.
*...it's a long story
The Beast of Cologne
Arabella is a Metamorphosis Prime, meaning that she changes her shape and retains her ability to reason while transformed. This is considered to fall within the Arcane branch of magic, which is unusual because the rest of her family has mostly Mental magic, and is the result of her paternal grandmother doing some illegal magical fuckery to deal with infertility issues (see above re: long story). Specifically, Arabella transforms into a monster known as "The Beast of Cologne," so called because the only previous manifestation did not retain her mind when transformed and, uh, sort of broke the German city of Cologne. No one has broken out a giant measuring tape, but the Beast is estimated to be somewhere in the range of fifty to seventy feet tall, and is described thusly: "Stocky, huge, covered with long strands of jet-black fur, with muscled arms armed with talons, and a blunt head, shielded by a bone carapace. Two thick horns shielded the sides of its head, curving forward as if someone had taken two enormous rams horns and turned them sideways. Thick meat-eater's fangs filled its mouth. Its two round eyes glowed with yellow."
Soooooo yeah. The transformation is near-instantaneous--in one particularly dramatic incident, Arabella jumps out of a helicopter and is the Beast before she hits the ground. Arabella cannot speak in this form, but is still mentally herself, although she displays some animalistic instincts such as using her fangs to chew another monster's head off to make good and sure it's dead. Since the Beast won't really, you know, fit on the island, do not expect it to make very many appearances. However, Arabella can access certain facets of the Beast's magic individually--the only one we know about so far is superstrength, but she says there are more.
The specific nature of Arabella's magic is a secret, because there is a distinct possibility of the government trying to put her in a lab somewhere. Her records are sealed beyond the fact that she is a Prime (Prime status SHOULD protect her from being put in a lab somewhere, but no one's risking it). That won't stop her from hinting at it, joking about it, or using it if the situation calls for it, though.
Booker | Sébastien le Livre
Booker is coming to us from The Old Guard, which is the title of both a comic book series and a movie. He's from the movie (available on Netflix if you haven't watched it yet; it stars Charlize Theron with an axe, just saying), but I've pulled some backstory from the comic. In short, Booker is one of a small group of soldiers from throughout history who, for reasons unbeknownst to them, cannot die. It doesn't matter what happens to them: stab them, shoot them, blow them up, they heal it and keep on going. The oldest of his band, Andromache the Scythian, was born somewhere around 4800 BCE, and she is still alive. One of them, Quynh, was sunk in the ocean in an iron coffin by witch hunters five hundred years ago, and she is still alive, constantly drowning. Eventually, however, for no apparent reason and on no apparent timeline, their time comes around, their wounds stop healing, and they die--this happened to an immortal named Lykon at some unspecified point in the past.
The remaining members of the group are Yusuf al-Kaysani (Joe) and Nicolo di Genova (Nicky), who met and killed each other (many times) on opposite sides of the First Crusade, and subsequently fell in love and have been together for more than 900 years, and Nile Freeman, a US Marine killed in Afghanistan in the course of the movie and thus the newest immortal.
Prior to Nile's joining the group, Booker was the youngest, having become immortal in 1812 during Napoleon's invasion of Russia, when he was hanged for desertion. Because, y'know, not wanting to freeze and starve to death at the same time is bad, if you are La Grande Armée. He was 42 at the time of his first death, which means, if you do the math, that he is currently 250 years old on the nose!
Booker is...not really doing a great job of adjusting to immortality. He is still mourning his wife and three sons, at least one of whom died cursing his name, and he seeks death to the point that he recently sold his friends out to a pharma bro in hopes that, in figuring out what makes them immortal, he could figure out how to make them die. In punishment for this, he got a hundred years in
Booker is an alcoholic. He always has his flask on him, and in the movie, he is frequently seen drinking. He is super, super depressed. He was already depressed, and now his friends won't talk to him for a hundred years and it's his fault, so...yeah. Also, he may or may not* be dreaming about a lady drowning in an iron coffin over and over (...and over...) again. So, yeah, he's not in a good place!
*Canon is unclear! The immortals dream about each other until they meet, and obviously Booker has not met Quynh because she's been in the ocean since before he was born. But in the comics, he never dreamed about her (and neither did Lykon or Nile), while in the movie, he never says one way or another, he just stares dully into space the whole time she's being discussed (because Nile DOES dream about her).
Who: Yennefer of Vengerburg
What: The Witcher (Netflix)
About: The purple-eyed goth sorceress of Ebony Dark'ness Dementia Raven Way's dreams. Interests include wine, orgies, being hot, and never being happy with what she's got. Comes from after she peaced out of her advisor gig in Aedirn but before she met Geralt or that annoying bard of his.
Who: Z
What: The real world (boo)
About: CST time zone availability, ready for 2020 to be over. Probably forgot to mention something important.
Questions? Comments? Pie?
