#alabaster infodumping

[drksanctuary]

Me: *posts a Nicobaster post almost every day for the past three days*

Also me: there’s not enough Nicobaster out there. *posts another thing*

Anyway have some chibis

[spitsonyou1]

augh I'm covered in mosquito bites from camping but I need to infodump about a song i really like and a concept I really like

You know what I keep thinking of? The "Harpy Hare" song (By Yaelokre) I keep hearing. Now of course I have to connect this to the character I'm fixating on, aka Alabaster + the mistreatment of unnamed TA demigods.

I know this song is tied to a different storyline and fandom, but I can't help but think of how the lyrics could fit and I love the concept.

"Harpy hare, where have you buried all your children, tell me so I say" Specifically I want to think of how the gods have lost so many children but only see them as expendable, although they are kids. Children burying children (Unless the bodies were never found, or the child was not honored, thus why the remaining would ask where they have been "buried"). Or I want to take it in a less literal sense, as in how the minor AND major gods have "buried" their children in the Hermes cabin, because of never being claimed or never having cabins. I also like to think about how most of the children in the titan army were mostly killed off after the war, and then never honored.

"You can't keep them all caged, they will fight and run away, mother tell me so I say" I think again about how the children in the titan army were most likely never meant to be there, and how most never came back alive. And still, a lot might've not even known their godly parent. "You can't keep them all caged" In reference to how they feel the need to rebel because of the need of recognition. "They will fight and run away" run away meaning how after they die, they leave no trace and most likely go to the fields of asphodel to be forgotten. And again if we swap it to a literal sense of how most of them were runaways/rouges

"She can't keep them all safe, they will die and be afraid, mother tell me so I say" This is where I'm targeting Alabaster. Most of Hecates children had died, and he most likely felt guilt for not being able to keep them safe and dying. Only a handful lived, and then Alabaster was exiled. And then in the Son of Magic when Alabaster is being hunted by Lamia, the reason why Hecate couldn't let Lamia kill Al or Lamia die is because most of her children had already died at the hands of the Olympians, then again taking the "She can't keep them all safe".

I don't exactly know about what happened to a lot of the demigods after the war, this is what I've assumed and just been hyperfixating on so tell me if something is incorrect. anyways you get a cookie if you actually read til the end of this

[froggie-at-home]

continuation of this post

during one of will's infodumps alabaster gets obsessed with the idea of homunculus and post-mortem photography

they both later gaslight nico into believing all works of valdevia are real. but he calls bs soon after asking gods about it.

(he decides not to talk about how disappointed he is about creatures of the fog being fake)

[walkman-cat]

i’ve gotta know abt ur little guy orpheus alabaster whats his deal,,, i keep seeing ur little doodles and tags and feeling curriiooooosiityyyyyyyy

HI PIP!!

orpheus alabaster my BOY !! he's so silly <3 (also this is going to be a LONGGG post so it's under a cut) (he's my little guy i've got a lot to say about him)

He's like the city equivalent of a world-famous detective (one half of a detective agency working out of the attic of a curiosity/antique shop in the oldest part of the city)– he's a household name, and is known for taking on pretty much every case that he comes across (except, curiously, the biggest unsolved mystery the city has ever seen). Basically, Orph is the detective of the gentleman thief-detective dynamic and the watsonian narrator-detective dynamic (i love detectives <3)

He's observant, and will not rest until he's solved the case (to his detriment), and would risk his life if it meant saving the lives of others (to his detriment). He's got a terrible memory (so he writes everything down in one of his numerous notebooks) and he's not great with people (he's trying, somewhat. Cecil's usually the one who talks to clients). He's always down to work around the law/the watch (the city's law enforcement). He's very nosy (Cecil also is, they're perfect for each other).

He's also basically all those memes that are like "kinda gay to be a detective [etc etc]". While his partner (Cecil– they started the detective agency together!) has been pining over him since pretty much when they met (6 years before the story starts), Orpheus fell much harder and discovered this in the past year (he's having a Great Time. demiromantic king !!). They're so silly and devoted to each other (they call each other "Mr. Alabaster" and "Mr. Meyers" theyre sickening) and it's a whole Thing.

Also! Orph's the new incarnation of the forgotten/illegal/dead god of deceit and dreams (he's a detective and also the patron god of thieves and liars wbwbwb– this amuses me greatly). He's got a complicated relationship with his identity and personhood (which may have something to do with him taking on faces and personas at the drop of a hat) and isn't quite sure if he counts as something alive anymore.

Also to do with the fact that he's a kinda-not-really dead god, Orpheus isn't quite alive; he's a believable fascimile of something living, but he doesn't bleed when cut, he's cold to the touch, and sometimes Cecil can swear that he isn't breathing. He died not too long before he arrived in the city (and has the ligature marks on his neck to prove it) and came back, but even though he'd love to have come back wrong he came back exactly the same as he was before.

Here are some extra/funky facts about Orph:

he plays the piano!! he doesn't do it often for reasons he's never told Cecil but he's very good at it and has played for him in the past

he wanted to be a poet when he was younger, and still sometimes jots lines down in between all his other notes

his hands are perpetually inkstained, his fingertips are nearly all blackened from ink

the only times he's been truly excited for his clientele to be some of the city's richest are for hermes vetch heists. they're also the only times he's happy to have not solved the case (he's got a soft spot for the thief and misses him greatly)(he keeps reminiscing about heists to kit's face without knowing kit is hermes vetch and it's so funny to me)

he's mixed race (this isnt very important story wise, but it's important to me (also mixed race)) (so's kit)

he's non-binary!! (he/him enby times!!)

he's also a trans allegory for reasons i will not go into (they contain secretsssss)

he wouldn't like to say he has a favourite method of murder, but it's poisons. he likes to have an excuse to infodump and show off his knowledge of poisons

he probably would look real nice if he put any effort in to how he looks. he doesn't, so he looks like if a cat got drenched then blow-dried and rolled in ink

he hates having anything touching his neck, especially if they're wrapped around his neck. he will suffer and be cold if he has to be

the only times he'd overcome his need to put others before himself is when cecil (and to an extent kit/hermes vetch) is in danger (they're his best friends !!)

he often stares unblinkingly when thinking. it's a wee bit intimidating

his family is basically just matchsticks kelly (the guy who owns the antique shop who took him in), and cecil (later it'll also include kit), he doesn't talk about his family

he's known about cecil's sleeping habits and tendency to clamber over the rooftops for 6 years and still gets jumpscared by him clambering into his window in the dead of night

[silverior968]

Character bio: Alabaster Hailstorm

Name: Alabaster Hailstorm

Age: 16

Pronouns: They/Them

Info: Alabaster is a British exchange student in the city state of Morning Rapids and child of two highly renowned scientists. They’re agender and aroace. While their parents always met all their needs, their jobs caused them to be away a lot and also put a lot of pressure on Alabaster to live up to their names. Their distant relationship with their parents has led to them looking up to teachers as guiding figures. The thought of rebelling against authority feels alien and uncomfortable to them, although after arriving in Morning Rapids and being egged on by Virika, they managed to start a tiny rebellion against their parents’ wishes by picking up courses on magic. Their grandmother was magically inclined and Alabaster remembers her with fondness, even carrying a small alabaster pendant that used to belong to her. They were even inspired to pick their name based on the pendant. If asked to pick their biggest fear, they would name something like death, when in reality it’s failure and being seen as unworthy.

When it comes to their studies, Alabaster is confident and skilled, but social situations are a different story. They also freeze up in the face of danger. They are booksmart but very much lack streetsmarts. 

Their favorite style of clothing are vests, both the fancy and the sweater kind. Their favorite color is blue and their favorite foods are pretty much anything Virika’s parents make. They spend a lot of time at Virika’s house and her parents are very fond of them.

Relationships with other characters:

Virika: Alabaster and Virika are autistic bffs. Their interests and personalities are wildly different, but they understand and compliment each other. Alabaster helps Virika with her studies and Virika introduces Alabaster to fictional literature. Alabaster spends so much time at Virika’s house that her parents have pretty much adopted them. Despite how social she is Virika hasn’t ever really had a best friend, so she’s extatic about Alabaster being around.

Niklas: Alabaster was intimidated by Niklas at first, seeing as he can be a bit chaotic and rambunctious, but they grew on each other pretty quickly. Niklas has that effect on people. He’s sort of like an older brother figure to Alabaster, protective yet prone to scaring them with stories he just totally made up.

Jae-Seong: Alabaster was a bit intimidated by Jae-Seong at first, mostly because they’re not good at reading people so those who don’t announce their feelings out loud, like Jae-Seong seem enigmatic to Alabaster. Slowly they have learned to read Jae-Seong better, to the point that they get the impression that he isn’t as aloof as he makes it out to be. But Alabaster doesn’t know for sure. Alabaster is prone to getting into trouble, and you’d imagine that Jae-Seong might be tired of rescuing them, but Jae-Seong has also taken on an almost older brother mindset when it comes to Alabaster. He also appreciates that Alabaster doesn’t push them to talk abou things he doesn’t bring up.

Kioni: Kioni and Alabaster are both very introverted and awkward, so if they hadn’t both been adopted by their group’s extroverts they probably wouldn’t have become friends, but it’s a good thing they did because they find solace in having someone to talk to that understands their social struggles and anxiety. They also like infodumping each other with their special interests.

Benicio: The most surprising friendship of the entire group! They met at the school that they are all students at. They both spend a lot of time at the school after hours and their rooms are very close, so they spend a lot of time studying together and Alabaster makes a point to go see all of Benicio’s plays, even though they can’t understand all of the abstract symbolism yet. They want to learn though. Benicio’s overflowing charisma and social skills make up for Alabaster’s lack thereof.

Liv: Alabaster looks up to Liv and is even a tiny bit jealous of how well she knows the city and how she always has the courage to stand up for herself and others. Liv thinks Alabaster is nice but should learn to chill a bit. She also thinks it’s nice that someone appreciates how well she knows the shortcuts in the city. He could just duck through an alleyway and Alabaster would be totally flabbergasted. 

Trivia: Alabaster was the first one of these characters that I created. They were originally based on a prompt for a creative writing class, where we had to randomize a character. Mine was an exorcist from a different dimension, and thus Alabaster was made. Virika was also there in that story,  she was also from the interdimensional school made for killing monsters, but her name used to be Aamaya. After that I abandoned the exorcist aspect and the interdimensional school and just made them regular teenagers in a magical realism world. I wrote a longer story for the same class about these characters, called “ A Shadow Over Morning Rapids”. The story is outdated now and Liv did not even make an appearance, but I still like that story and might finish the second draft to use as some sort of pilot for these characters. Basically: there’s a creature called the cadavermoth stealing people’s souls. The squad (minus Liv because she didn’t exist yet and Niklas because he had his soul stolen) had to defeat it to return the souls of their friends.

[ihaveatheoryonthat]

Note: This is unfinished and I likely won’t be returning to it. It ends abruptly and is littered with placeholders/notes. If that’s a dealbreaker for you, you’re better off skipping this.

---

Neither Ingo nor Emmet paid too much attention to social media. Certainly, they used it to promote the station or stay in contact with faraway associates, but it wasn’t something either of them did for fun.

So neither of them noticed when #zorua began to trend.

It came up, tangentially, in the downtime between end of one battle and the next-- one of Emmet’s challengers briefly addressing the topic with the friend she’d brought for moral support-- but whatever the news was, it had all day to circulate before either of the twins looked into it.

And circulate it did. It came up no fewer than four separate times on the doubles train-- three on the singles-- and, by the end of the day, it had Emmet curious enough to investigate. While Ingo was busy with the last few forms before their shift ended, he tapped away at his Xtransceiver, trying to figure out what in the world was going on.

The first few images loaded. He blinked at them, uncertain he was seeing correctly, but the image stayed static.

“These are photographs of a Hisuian Zorua.” He announced.

There was a long pause, Ingo’s hands stilling over the evening’s paperwork, and, eventually, he said, “...I beg your pardon?”

Wordlessly, Emmet turned the screen so his brother could see, and Ingo spent another few seconds studying it.

“That looks...” He trailed off, brows furrowed, and his eyes dropped back to the paperwork without actually seeing it.

With no ending forthcoming, Emmet concluded the thought for him and tilted the device back to where he could scroll further down, “Like the Icelands. Correct.”

[that tech didn’t exist outside of the village, which was a static studio]

“Then you won’t be happy to hear that those are stills from a video.” He said, eyes locked on the screen as he read further, “It seems they’ve recovered a device remarkably similar to the one Akari carried.”

This time, Ingo didn’t wait, coming around to Emmet’s side to peer over his shoulder. “Oh. I’d… completely forgotten about that.”

Emmet shot him a questioning look and, silently, he nodded. It had been his for a very brief amount of time, long, long ago. Given everything else that had slipped his mind at the time, the fact that this had fallen by the wayside until now was hardly a surprise.

[…]

[He checks his own Xtransceiver, finally, and realizes that there are messages from friends who recognized the circumstance/his voice in the full clip. Begins to panic]

“It’s currently 7:06-- no, 7:07 pm. I’m hoping to document some wild Pokemon using this strange device--”

“Emmet.”

His twin hummed an acknowledgment, smile turning fond as the past version of Ingo marveled at the sights around him.

“I think you should stop the video playback.”

Emmet glanced up out of the corner of his eye, puzzled, and then shifted his attention entirely as the look on his brother’s face processed. Blindly, he reached over to pause the clip, interrupting Ingo’s [infodump] on the matter of Snorunt’s eating habits.

“Something happened to you in the Alabaster Icelands. You think your device captured it.”

“No, I’m positive that it did. [Has multiple messages from peripherally aware people going ‘this u?’ and Elesa, who’s in the know, freaking out about him having been attacked].”

---

[Much later. Reluctantly, Ingo decides he needs to see the clip to understand the context of what he’s being asked/what he can plausibly deny if need be. Isn’t asking Emmet to watch with him, necessarily, but of course he does.]

Emmet’s grip on his hand tightened, ever so slightly. At the stillness that followed, Ingo allowed himself to lean further into his brother’s side. “If there’s something you want to say, I’m listening.”

[long pause]

“I am… verrry grateful this footage was not discovered sooner.” / “If it had surfaced while you were missing...”

[...]

[it wasn’t the zoroark attack that wiped his memory-- that was an unrelated incident]

“Ingo. I think Arceus may hate you.”

The bluntness of the statement caught Ingo off guard, and he huffed a laugh. “After everything that happened, I’m relatively certain it hates us both.”

“Then it will have to dispose of us as a unit.” / “I would like to see it try.”

[raymond-rs]

Welcome!

My name is Raymond Remington Alabaster, but you can just call me Raymond or Alabaster.

My pronouns are he/him but I’m also okay with they/them.

I’m part of the @raven-system. You can find my posts there under #raymond posts, #alabaster posts, and #raymond alabaster posts in all likelihood.

I’m 35, however the shared body is 16.

I do have memories of what you might call a “past life” (these are more regularly referred to as “pseudomemories” in the system community though), so I’m a bit out of date. I lived in the 1930’s in these memories, but am fully aware that these memories aren’t “real” and are likely not even accurate to the time period.

I like science, space was my specialty. I’m not at all caught up, but we have pictures of space now, can you believe that??

I am married to my former colleague and best friend Charles Whitney, lovingly referred to as C.W.

This blog will most likely be mostly science-y but may contain personal things as well.

Feel free to ask questions or submit posts! Please infodump about science of any kind I would love to hear it!

P.S. The title comes from a nickname another headmate gave me somewhat recently. I do not know who Bill Nye is.

- Raymond 🥽