#Ailean-Conall Hemlock

[ash-isnt-writing]

Hemlock.

A poisonous flower that causes paralysis and, like all good things in life, death. The flower used to put Socrates to sleep for his moral philosophy. You’ve probably heard of it. Film, fiction, history, philosophy, botany, floriography, all that good stuff.

But what if I told you that there was a man. A man that wants nothing more than to be relieved of his curse. To be held, and to hold. A man that’s seen things no living, breathing being should ever have to witness, things that have shaken him to the core.

A man with skin of the very plant I’ve aforementioned and strikingly bright eyes of emerald. With hair of gold and with hands that tremble in anxiety, coated with drops of blood like the wake of an injured soldier, trekking through snow in the winter.

A man who knows nothing but suffering, nothing of peace or a restful sleep. A man plagued by the things he’s seen, the mistakes he’s made, the nightmares that dance in his mind to the cruel melody of his own heartbeat.

Can you imagine living like that, my dear reader? Having a life that follows the grace and beauty of a train wreck? A life as poetic as a car crash? A life full of misery, of shame, of blood? Living in constant fear of who you are, of a curse you’re bound to like how Ivy clings to a dying tree?

Hm. Me neither.

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A/N!!: Character credit (Ailean-Conall Hemlock) to @v-3-ll-1-ch-0-r / @v-3-ll-1-g-0-r-3 !! Idk I wrote this off the cuff with Alfred Hitchcock’s voice narrating the whole thing.

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[inkwell-and-dagger]

idk how to feel about this one? I just feel like something's off with it. anyhow tangled jumpscare except this lad can do the opposite of what rapunzel does

HP Taglist: @whumpy-wyrms

[allergic-to-four-leaf-clovers]

some of my blorbos if they were normal 🥺🥺 I love them your honour

in order, we haaavvveeee!!!!!!

Rayan Hyacinth from How To Kill An Immortal — he/him

Zuriel Damaris from Halos And Horns — it/its

Aarin Malchediel from Halos And Horns — they/them

Ailean-Conall Hemlock from Hemlock Philosophy — he/they

Ruaridh Mullen from Uilebheist A Rinn Ann Duine — they/them

all these ocs and their series are on my sideblog lmao. here's the picrew link, the style is so pretty!!!

[h3mlockboy]

ELLO THERE MATEYS VELL HERE UHH FOLLOW @inkwell-and-dagger / @allergic-to-four-leaf-clovers THEY'RE MY MAIN BLOGS. I don't know if I'll use this much so sorry if this is empty lmao 😭

anyhow this is for my wonderful whumpee Ailean-Conall Hemlock, mc of Hemlock Philosophy! he's sad and cursed and stuck in a lab please handle with care :c

[inkwell-and-dagger]

colour is a thing I use very frequently in the process of designing my characters. they can all be reduced to a single colour that is incorporated in their design and / or personality in some way

for example:

Rayan's assigned colour is red. he has a warm colour scheme in his design, commonly wears red, and is always covered in blood. always

Foster is blue. in comparison, their design uses greys, blacks and of course, blues. their demeanour is equally as cold.

Aarin is more of a pastel blue, due to the colour of their eyes and their withdrawn, quiet personality

Zuriel is orange. compared to Aarin, its design is warm and friendly, much like its personality. it and Aarin balance each other out perfectly

Ailean is a light, pale green. due to the white brightness of the lab and their own albinism, along with the fact his design is inspired by a hemlock flower, they have a pale, muted appearance

Madir is beige. this is mostly shown in his design, in the white streaks of his hair from his poliosis and his dark, neutral clothing style

Esrana is a dark purpleish-pink. purple is an elegant colour, wouldn't you say? perfectly describes her, from her hair to her silky smooth accent

Madison is a mahogany colour. a strong colour, yet warm and inviting. she could crush you if she were so inclined, and yet her hands are gentle

Kore is a smoky, foggy grey. hard and cold like stone, scrutinizing eyes judging your every move. a vile man, he is

Zayn is a lavender-ish colour. unlike Esrana, who's dark and unforgiving, he's a lighter, more easygoing person

Derwyn is a neon, bright pink. eager, bright, loud. the colour reminds me a lot of their wide, unblinking eyes

Ezra is white. like ailean, he has albinism, and this is incorporated in his design a lot. he has a pale, light colour scheme, and nobody can really tell whether or not he's actually okay with or against Foster's situation with a captive. he's just.. neutral. white

but what about Ruaridh, you say? well, they're a special case

the lab is the only thing Ruaridh has known. for their entire life, they've had nothing but the clothes that Derwyn gave them, nothing but the books Derwyn gave them, nothing but the injections that Derwyn injected. they've had no outside communication, had never seen the world, had never had a chance to gain their own colour, in a way. they don't exactly have a colour

anyway. I like my ocs

[inkwell-and-dagger]

>< Bed Of A Lake Where The Hemlock Grows ><

A/N: the second introduction to our lovely new oc, Ailean-Conall Hemlock. STS was created by @er0s-1s-whump1ng, since- y'know, this whole OC series is technically a collaboration, as are. the other two series. but shh. the title is a lyric from Irish Eyes by Rose Betts :3

CW: lab whump, technically a non-human whumpee, cursed whumpee, prolonged captivity.

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Ailean sighed contently, thoughts soothed by the gentle trickling of water as it glided down the stream he was laying beside. Soft grass caressed the skin of one calloused palm, the other dipped into the water, warmed by the sun's glare. The former was the only soft touch — if it could even be called that — that he'd felt in.. well, a while, really. He was glad that, at the very least, plants didn't wither away at his touch, unlike humans.

These were the sparse moments in which the cursed man could relax; could let his thoughts of self-loathing and the vivid images of the innocent people he'd killed with his bare skin, evaporate and give way to blissful peace. He never thought he'd be able to feel those things again. The sun on his face, the wind blowing in his golden hair.

Ailean's eyes were closed. But he liked it that way. If he just blocked out the memories that gnawed ferociously at his mind whenever he wasn't distracted, the darkness became a haven. But he didn't tend to enjoy the dark for too long. Opening his emerald eyes, expecting to see a canopy of green above him...

TS-0166 only saw flickering fluorescents, making him squint and shield his eyes with a bandaged, pale hand.

Oh.

He sat up with a soft groan, his soft clothes having been long replaced with a baggy shirt and matching shorts.

Oh.

So he was still here. In the hellhole he'd come to know, to memorize, for— what had it been, years? The test subject didn't know anymore. He could've sworn he had hardly been aging, either, which just added to his confusion.

TS-0166 lay back down and curled in on himself, drawing his bruised knees up to his chest and wrapping his arms around them, almost in a pathetic attempt at giving himself a hug. And it kind of was. He himself was the only comfort he had in the confines of his cell. The floor felt cold and hard under his weight; a feeling that felt oddly familiar to him.

Oh, how he wished for freedom. To be back in a forest, by that stream, dipping his hand into the water and letting it run across his fingers.

Maybe he could have that again. If he planned it right, he could escape...

TS-0166's thoughts were interrupted by the telltale whirring of the cell door opening, followed by footsteps he, somehow, recognized. Him. The very ginger prick he wanted to touch, to hit, to make paralyzed and die more than anyone else in the world, but he couldn't get near to that even if he tried.

"Hello, '166."

He could escape another time, maybe.

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[inkwell-and-dagger]

!!

LETS GOOOOOOOOOOOOO HI!!!! :D

okay I'm gonna talk about my lovely new oc, Ailean-Conall Hemlock! he is the main character of Hemlock Philosophy, a lab / medical whump series created in collaboration with my wonderful mutual, @er0s-1s-whump1ng!!

Ailean-Conall is a twenty-seven year old transgender man (undergone top surgery so far) with a curse that makes his bare skin — similar to that of a hemlock flower, hence his surname being Hemlock and the series being called Hemlock Philosophy — dangerous to touch. if he were to touch someone's bare skin, or vice versa, it would cause paralysis and death in the other party. in floriography terms, hemlock also symbolizes death in general, which is a very frequent topic in his backstory. he has very outgrown blond hair and light green eyes, along with pale skin and a tattoo of — you guessed it — a hemlock flower on his arm. there's also a tattoo which he was forced to have put on him by the lab he's stuck at, holding the name of the lab, the logo, a barcode and his TS number

Ailean has killed many, many people accidentally because of this curse; even his parents when he was much younger. constantly paranoid that he'd kill somebody again if he stayed another moment in open society, he found solace in adventuring alone and running away from his problems and burdens. aka he likes nature. he can climb trees and has probably slept / gotten stuck in one more than once.

very soon, STS labs (jokingly and frequently called STD labs by me) just sorta. casually found him and took him into the lab itself to be tested on. there, Ailean would spend most of his years, from 19-27 years old, so eight years! his test subject ID fucking Thing™ is TS-0166. why is that specific? cause 0-a sorta bland, really light blue / grey, 1-white, 6-green. I associate these colours with Ailean's character design :3

so far, he's just sorta chilling in STS. he's probably killed a researcher or two but that doesn't matter. also there's a ginger in his story 😨?! /j his name is Helix Vellen and he's a head researcher for that branch of STS :D!!

anyway here's my sopping wet cat of a man. feel free, as with any of my ocs, to whump him. he deserves it lmao

picrew credit

[inkwell-and-dagger]

I might give ailean a redesign.......

[inkwell-and-dagger]

Ailean got a little too upset at a researcher. Luckily, said researcher's skin didn't touch his, so nobody's dead!

original pose template credit under the cut!!

[inkwell-and-dagger]

Ailean had many questions about his existence.

How did this curse come to form, to plague his very existence, to rip away everything he knows and loves until the day he either gets killed or kills himself? How did the spiralling markings of vines and hemlock flowers across his skin come to paint his flesh? How does his body hold the power to make a living, breathing organism wither and die beneath his fingertips, with every minute touch and every brush of flesh or fur?

And then the whole STS thing. How did they find him in the first place? What is their motive, their goal, in keeping unfortunate non-humans cooped up in sterile, boring cells to be tested on like lab rats? Why are they doing this?

And now, as he lay curled up in his own little cell, tracing the winding patterns on his fingers with his eyes, he wondered why he'd been cursed in the first place, and what he'd done to warrant it. All he could remember clearly was living in the forest, hardly remembering the poor people he accidentally killed. What had he done, as a small, innocent little child, to get this fate?

Ailean frowned. His own name felt foreign on his tongue. 0166 felt more familiar, the degrading serial number having been engrained into his mind by now due to all the times the researchers — especially Helix — had called him it. He wondered how many other subjects in this damned facility were like him. Had forgotten their identity, had their autonomy stripped away, all in the name of 'science'. It was fucked up on so many levels.

His eyes gazed up, up, up, until he rolled onto his back. Eyes narrowing, he searched the barren ceiling. He knew damn well they were watching. Either the researchers, or handlers, or even the Specialists. Which one specifically, he didn't know (although he prayed it wasn't the handlers) but he knew somewhere, somehow, they were watching him. Not a sliver of privacy. It made him sick.

"Fuck this," he groaned, standing up. He was bored out of his mind, and he needed something to distract him from these plaguing thoughts. He didn't want to think in general right now.

His frown deepened, outstretching his arms. "I know you're fucking watching me! What the fuck?!" As expected, he gained no response. And if anything, the silence made him more agitated.

"Fuck you, fuck all of you! Let me go home, for God's sake!

"Just let me go home..."

[inkwell-and-dagger]

just thought of what my ocs would taste like if they were edible so I thought I'd just put some of them here

Ailean — floral perfume when you accidentally spray it into your mouth

Rayan — rotting meat probably. it suits him

Ruaridh — c h e m i c a l s

Madison — a warm cup of tea

Ezra — tequila

Foster — blood probably

Esrana — red wine

Madir — metal

Aarin — water

Zuriel — salt water

Kore — f o g. I will not elaborate much but fog looks like it'd have a distinct taste and it is kore

uhh I think that's all of them. I can't think of one for zayn or any others I forgor :c

[inkwell-and-dagger]

I like to think all my whumpees are cursed in some way, or believe they're cursed with something. just for the sillies y'know?

Rayan believes his Immortality is a curse because it's what made him survive in Foster's grasp for a whole two years. sure, he's 'dead' now, and he's been wandering through that forest for god-knows-how-long, but that just confuses him more. how can he be 'dead', but be Immortal? did this 'curse' have some sort of glitch or whatnot that caused this fate for him, causing him to grow lost in a forest where he's remained until he's quite literally a husk of his former self?

of course, Ailean is the only one who's actually cursed. cursed so his skin displays pattern upon pattern of hemlock, that his bare skin causes paralysis and death to the point it ripped away everyone that made him happy. this curse, this horrible part of himself he can never remove, is what caused him to be captured by STS because he's 'inhuman'. and he thought living in a damned forest made him safe from himself and others

of course, Ruaridh believes their entire life was cursed from the beginning. they only knew the lab, only knew suffering, and why are they the only lab rat they know of? why did they get this fate, this curse of becoming some disfigured monster just to get thrown out when their lifelong captor realized their brain, their past self remained instead of a lifeless, obedient creature? their captor wanted them to be some fucked up guard dog from the beginning, and Ru did nothing to deserve it

Zuriel is, or believes it is, cursed with being a fallen angel. it didn't ask for this fate, to be taken by Kore and conditioned until even it believed it was unworthy of being a human being, unworthy of being seen as an angel in the Upperworld's eyes, instead only being worthy of being a statue, a decoration, a bragging right in its captors' home.

Aarin's case is similar to Zuriel's, given they both received the same sort of treatment by Kore. Aarin still does believe they're nothing more than an object to be shown around, and as much as they're trying to break the conditioning (with the help of Vee and Zuriel, of course) they still believe they're cursed to not be worthy. at least they're still an angel though lmao

[inkwell-and-dagger]

sad boy hours

[inkwell-and-dagger]

now it's time for our lovely Ailean-Conall!!

look at this precious boy, smiling for the camera!! he's so pathetic, I adore him <3 STS belongs to @er0s-1s-whump1ng / @paranoia-exe!!

[inkwell-and-dagger]

>< Wilting Petals And Distant Daydreams ><

A/N: this is completely off the cuff and it's midnight as I'm posting this so please don't mind if there may be errors. Ailean deserves a hug. and this also references a character who will come later on in his story ;3

CW: prolonged captivity, nonhuman / cursed whumpee, lab and medical whump, mention / description of unethical experiments on whumpee, whumpee forced to kill for research,

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Every day was the same for TS-0166. Hours of being injected with god-knows-what, having tissue from his own fucking body being sent to god-knows-where, and— and he even had to purposely make skin-to-fucking-skin contact with some random, unfortunate person to make them wilt away and fucking die right in front of his eyes, among so many other things. Just so this fucking lab — no, this Hell — can try and figure out how his curse works. As if it wasn't obvious enough.

TS-0166 felt like a wilting, shrivelling flower. He didn't know what day it was, what month, what year, he— he didn't know how much time had passed since he'd been captured and put into this dingy fucking cell. He kept forgetting things, too. The few times he was called by his actual name and not "TS-0166" were few and far between, and as much as he relished in those moments, he couldn't help but hate his name, and moreso hate the man, the thing, the monster, who that name belongs to. Himself. TS-0166 was pathetic, really.

He doubted anybody in this fucking hellhole actually wanted to help him and cure him of his curse, his— his disease. It was abundantly clear that a good portion of them didn't, and were just tormenting him mentally and physically for some fucked-up science that nobody else knew. Although he was glad some people were nice to him, or at least had some decency to pretend to be, it gnawed at his mind to even think that, at the end of the day, he was just an unfortunate lab rat; a disposable pest, a potential danger to humanity itself.

But oh, how he wished the day would come where someone, anyone, would find a cure. He envisioned that person, despite his imagination waning as the days and nights and endless agony dragged on and on; he saw someone with black hair, and eyes that glowed like a distant star in the night sky, and soft skin he could hold, and could be comforted by when he was held by them. He hadn't figured out their gender yet.

The test subject wished he could just be trapped in his daydream. That he could ignore his own screams, how the only human contact he'd felt in years weren't the cold, trembling limbs of inmates and other test subjects, and latex gloves even more frigid on his skin, and just drift off into a wonderful world where he'd be free and cured of his curse.

Maybe he'll have that someday. Maybe he'll have that freedom, that weight lifted off his mind so he could finally wipe people's blood off his hands and start afresh. And he'd be with his saviour. His light. Whatever or whoever they were, he didn't care. He just hoped they'd come soon. The only thing he could do, right here, right now, was hope and fight off the bastards that keep hurting him whilst he still has the energy to do so.

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[inkwell-and-dagger]

🔨 🌐 🪄 🩹 for the whumpy music ask game!!

THANKS FOR THE ASK MATE :DDD!!!!!!!!!

🔨 — a song with your whumper's vibes?

ooh that's quite difficult. I'm just gonna pick from foster's oc playlist (I haven't touched it in so long but I'm gonna find one that fits with my current music taste. hopefully)

okay! so I've decided on Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want by Deftones, Mama's Boy by Dominic Flake and Take Me To War by The Crane Wives!!! they all fit them so well out-of-canon. little meow meow <3 (there is a man in their basement)

🌐 — a song with the vibes of your whumpy story?

hmm! I might have to go witthhhh Bang Bang Bang Bang by Sohodolls for HTKAI? idk! it just reminds me of future chapters n stuff :3

🪄 — a song you love imagining something whumpy to?

PARTNER IN CRIME BY MADILYN MEI PARTNER IN CRIME BY MADILYN MEI PARTNER IN CRIME BY MADILYN MEI PARTNER IN CRIME BY MADILYN MEI PARTNER IN CRIME BY MADILYN MEI PARTNER IN CRIME BY MADILYN MEI PARTNER IN CRIME BY MADILYN MEI PARTNER IN CRIME BY MADILYN MEI PA

🩹 — a song with your whumpee's vibes?

Curses by The Crane Wives for like. Most Of Them I Think™!!! Ailean-Conall because he is cursed, Rayan because in his personal opinion he's cursed with Immortality, Zuriel because it believes its cursed with being a fallen angel because of Kore, Aarin because being an angel is now like a curse to them because some particularly cruel people in the Underworld sought after them for their beauty. idk what Ruaridh's doing though. eating bugs perhaps. they are full of whimsy and joy