#asphodel:v

[asphodel-hq]

OOC

Name/Alias: Kush Age: 23 years old Pronouns: They/Them Timezone: GMT+2

IC

Face Claim: Lee Soohyuk Full Name: Raphael Joon Choi Gender & Pronouns: Non-Binary & He/They Age: 31 years old House: House Valerian Tier and Role: Significant, Sentinel Gift: Pyrokinesis Occupation: Security Guard at the House HQ

3 Positive Traits: HONEST, OBSERVANT, RESOURCEFUL  3 Negative Traits: SARCASTIC, RESERVED, IMPULSIVE 

Biography: fire tw, injuries tw, weapons tw

Born and raised in America, Raphael was always sort of disconnected from his Korean heritage - he considered it a leash, put on him by his parents to keep him under control, so he fought in all kind of ways to get rid of it. He was definitely a troublemaking child - and a naive one at that, believing that this kind of a behavior would shift his parents’ focus to him instead of his oldest sister, who they considered the prodigy of the family. It never worked out in the end and he remained in her shadow until the day he finally moved out from home.

He was very young when his powers manifested for the first time and this event left him terrified of them for years; he set the tree house in their garden on fire by accident, and while his sister was lucky enough to get out of it with only a broken leg from jumping off the tree, Raphael had way less luck. He spent long weeks in the hospital getting his burns treated and he still has some scars on his back and sides that remind him of that one afternoon.

Maybe that fear of his made it way harder for him to learn control over his powers - he had to work through not only the technical difficulties but his fear of fire too, and while he is majorly over it now, it still happens sometimes that he freezes when seeing a big enough fire that could remind him of that one afternoon during his childhood.

He’s a very careful user of his powers, often resorting to other tools like guns or knives, if it came to defending himself and/or others. He’s pretty proficient with those but refuses to elaborate on where he picked up that knowledge - conspiracy theories say that it had something to do with those few years when he disappeared from home right after graduation, and he doesn’t confirm nor deny those claims.

As for his disappearance, it happened a few days after his high school graduation - he just gathered his stuff and got on a bus to god-knows-where, just to come back years later with a college degree as if he never disappeared. When asked about it, he immediately becomes grim, rarely lashing out at the asker to mind their own business. The truth is that he was married and very much in love during that time, but his wife left him for someone else which broke him and took away a great portion of his belief in love.

He’s very careful when in comes down to relationships and tends to keep people at a certain distance - it doesn’t necessarily mean he doesn’t trust them, it’s more about not wanting to be involved in fear of being left alone in the end. That frequently makes him look unfriendly and unempathetic, while he has no intentions of looking like that - he’s just set on protecting himself from another disappointment that would come with a close relationship.

He came to Asphodel almost six years ago, with the plan to stay for a while and then move on, but the moving on never happened - he decided to try his luck at a more organised lifestyle under House Valerian, and while he still has some minor issues with adapting to that lifestyle, he’s trying his best to not mess up the chance he got here.

[asphodel-hq]

OOC

Name/Alias: Nico Age: 27 years old Pronouns: They/Them Timezone: GMT+1

IC

Face Claim: Sean Teale Full Name: Prospero ‘Prop’ Olvino Cisneras Gender & Pronouns: Non-binary & They/Them Age: 28 years old House: Valerian Tier and Role: Significant Gift: Electrokinesis Occupation: Staff at Hestia’s House

3 Positive Traits: CAREFREE, DUTIFUL, PROFOUND  3 Negative Traits: INCONSISTENT, MISGUIDED, TACTLESS 

Biography: death tw, drug use tw, abandonment tw

Prospero grew up knowing one thing for certain, believing one single yet fast truth: their brother was the best human being in the world. He was strong, he had the whole town behind him, and wherever he went, people looked up to him. Isaias was ten years older, incredibly handsome, and not the perfect person that his younger sibling thought he was. He earned all the money for the family, kept the little farm going. They lived in a small town in Venezuela near the border with Colombia, and enroute for drug cartels. Isaias was often away, using his gift to create whirlwinds to throw the police off. He hadn’t been working for the cartel out of his own free will, and he had dreamt of an escape for many years.

As far as the family knew, Isaias had left for the United States hoping to further hone his Gift. Prospero had to grow up quickly to support the family, but they too were gifted. Albeit theirs wasn’t as easily described, they could talk with electrical devices and jolt them awake using electric currents. They would fix small devices all over town, and teach themselves some mechanics to keep up with the growing demand. It wasn’t long until the cartel took an interest in the youngest sibling as well, but their parents were less blind to the circumstances this time around, and the cartel took a chance on the situation.

It was said to have been an accident. But Prospero knew better. They sold the farm, much to the discontent of the cartel, and soon became a puppet in their play. Twelve year old at the time, Prospero quickly began to believe they were doing the right thing. Or at least that they had no other choice.

Isaias returned years later, and unaware of their sibling’s shifted loyalties, came to face off against his old enemies. Using his gift to destroy a whole field of future crops, intend on destroying much more. Prospero was warned, and told that if they did not take care of it themselves, the cartel would, and they would be less quick to kill him. Thus they drove out there, hiding a gun in their back pocket, fighting through the whirlwind to get to their brother, knowing what they should be doing was a mercy. They tried to reason with Isaias, gun pointed at him. Isaias, adrenaline coursing through his body, didn’t recognise his sibling at first, or at all, and defended himself. A car that had been picked up by the whirlwind was hauled at Prospero and hit them in the side.

They woke up two weeks later, laying in the back of a car, the road disappearing underneath their back, and something covering their eyes. They heard their brother’s voice telling them not to remove it. So they didn’t. A few days later they arrived in Asphodel, the town where Isaias had laid low for the last decade. There Prospero hid away in their brother’s apartment for weeks on end, only leaving a few times to go to the doctors, only to understand nothing of what their brother discussed. They spend their days trying to learn English from the television, trying to read the braille books that Isaias had provided for them, and wondering if they would ever see again.

One day, almost a year after they had settled down in Asphodel, Prospero woke up in an empty apartment. It took them two days before they knew he wasn’t coming back. They spend a full day trying to walk to the hospital on their own, eventually being helped by someone in their search. The doctor, who knew some basic Spanish, deciphered the situation, and contacted someone who was a part of the Valerian House, given Prospero’s unique Gift.

About two months later, Prospero was finally allowed to remove the bandages that had become part of their life as much as the constant confusion to their new situation. While they were still partially blind, the fact that they could still see about eighty percent with one eye filled their heart with gladness. They began learning English and Braille at the same time, supported by the House their brother had once been a part of. Started working at Hestia’s House, and tried to get their life in order. As far as they could, as much as possible.

Sometimes they would wake up in the middle of the night, thinking their brother had returned, then remembering he had left them without saying a word. They would cry about what had happened to them, and hate that they had nothing. Their constant fear of being disliked resulted in doing the dumbest shit to make sure everyone liked them. Their fear of having things fall apart again made them irresponsible and inconsistent. But mostly there was a constant knowledge at the back of their mind that everyone they had ever loved had walked away from them, and that they were bound to be abandoned again.

[asphodel-hq]

OOC

Name/Alias: Jay Age: 28 years old Pronouns: She/Her Timezone: EST

IC

Face Claim: Jade Tailor Full Name: Nita Samsara David Gender & Pronouns: Cis Woman & She/Hers Age: 23 years old House: Valerian Tier and Role: Significant, Sentinel-in-training Gift: Aerokinesis Occupation: Part Time Waitress at Lou’s Diner

3 Positive Traits: STRAIGHTFORWARD, BRAVE, TOUGH 3 Negative Traits: TEMPERMENTAL, STUBBORN, BRASH

Biography: depression tw, suicide tw

Nita was the daughter of two tribes. Her mother, Kinta, had her tribe woven into her heart and her home, both humbly kept on the Choctaw Reservation of Louisiana. Her father, Ezra, saw his tribe as a life forgotten, fading away in a small synagogue to be rekindled only in passing moments with his parents. Yet despite the deep roots of her ancestry, Nita found that home was a moving target. As a child, home was the Reservation; it was her mother’s world–warm, safe, and wrapped in raw emotions. Later, home became an apartment in the Garden District, and her father said this would be the place for them to grow. The schools were nicer, the jobs more plentiful, and the doctors more specialized. Sometimes home was a hospital waiting room, curled up with a book she wasn’t reading and a father who wasn’t saying anything. Sometimes home was a boiling kettle, screaming and screaming and screaming.

At the age of twelve, Nita became a child of two homes. Kinta and Ezra’s love had burned strong and bright like a falling comet, and the impact had been just as explosive. For a time their two lives and their two gifts aligned perfectly. Ezra would coax a fresh bouquet of flowers from the ground every morning just to watch his wife’s eyes light up with a joy that would overflow into his own heart. Her empathic abilities magnified their happiness, reflecting one into the other until there was no way to differentiate where one began and the other ended. Kinta couldn’t or wouldn’t control her ability; she felt everything deeply and let those she loved feel it, too. But the world was not always full of happiness, and she felt its grief and pain like an open wound, often falling into sudden and deep depressions. Ezra, for his part, eventually grew tired of coaxing flowers from the ground and hiding his temper; if his wife could indulge her sadness, he could indulge his anger. Their shared child and responsibilities did nothing to bring order to the increasingly chaotic home they built, and so much as their joy once had, their exhaustion, grief, and anger reflected, magnified and grew.    

Of the two gifts she could inherit, Nita wasn’t sure which one terrified her more. So when she manifested her aerokinesis, it was almost a relief. The gift suited her well, a tangible tornado of chaos to mirror her life’s figurative one, but despite its unique nature, she still took after both of her parents. Like her mother, her gift was left untamed, fluctuating in power from raw emotion. And like her father she could control the nature around her but never her own, succumbing to his self-same temper and trailing a destructive path in her wake. For all the prestige gifts could offer, Nita never felt very privileged. Controlling the wind didn’t help her soothe her mother’s pain or quell the fights with her father. And none of their collective talents could salvage their breaking family which drifted farther and farther away with each passing year.

After her high school graduation, Nita moved in fully with her mother, relieving her father of the duties of parenthood he was so clearly exhausted by and soon finding herself in the role instead. Any aspirations she had for her own life were put on hold, waiting for the time when she could trust her mother to take care of herself, financially and mentally. So Nita passed the next three years, living a bad rerun of her parent’s relationship as compassion turned to resentment, depression and temper folding in on each other in their home of shared emotions. Their destructive tendencies to the world and themselves landed Nita in jail almost as often as it landed her mother in the psychiatric ward, and whatever savings they had were eaten up in bail and bills. Until one day, after a particularly vicious argument, Kinta made a decision, one final fracture to their home: she was moving to Asphodel.

House Endine was supposed to save her mother. In all ways, they were perfectly suited for the job; they controlled the best hospitals in the area and, more importantly, they were home to the largest congregation of empaths in the state. Surely among them someone could teach the woman to reign in her ability, control it as it had come to control her. Kinta, for her part, committed herself to the plan completely, promising Nita she wouldn’t come home until she was better. Whether kindly or cruelly, she nearly cut Nita out of her life completely, limiting their connection to a single phone call each month. She said she didn’t want to keep holding Nita back from living her life, but her daughter couldn’t help but wonder if she just didn’t want to carry the baggage of their family into her new one. And so two more years passed in two dozen calls. The transition wasn’t easy, but slowly, Nita started to carve out a life for herself, a semblance of stability in a small studio apartment, bolstered by the slow improvement she could hear in her mother’s voice each month. Until, abruptly, the calls stopped.

Nita missed her mother’s funeral by six and a half weeks. Kinta hadn’t listed any family contacts, so no one had known to call; even her headstone erased her family, devoid of their surname or a single familial epitaph. The obituary and medical records were vague but she could recognize the euphemisms for suicide easily enough. And just as easily, she came to the conclusion that this was, without question, a lie. House Endine was supposed to save her mother, but the more she searched for answers, the more certain she became that House Endine had caused her death. Self-assured in her conclusions, it didn’t take long for Nita to take action. The encounter with Dr. Montgomery Lacroix was brief, but brutal, drawing swift attention from the Magistrate as well as Marchesa Montalvo. The two came to a simple compromise: Nita would stay under the watchful eye of House Valerian and the Magistrate would excuse the first offense. Unwilling to give up her opportunity to uncover the mystery of her mother’s death, Nita begrudgingly agreed, beginning a fresh and already fractured home here in Asphodel.

[asphodel-hq]

OOC

Name/Alias: Rai (Admin R) Age: 28 years old Pronouns: She/Her Timezone: GMT+8

IC

Face Claim: Gina Torres Full Name: Isobel Adrienne Marchesa ‘March’ Montalvo Gender & Pronouns: Cis Female & She/Her Age: 50 years old House: Valerian Tier and Role: Prime, Head of House Gift: Geokinesis (main), Pyrokinesis Occupation: Member of the Board of Trustees for Asphodel’s local college and high school

3 Positive Traits: NURTURING, UNFLAPPABLE, SELFLESS 3 Negative Traits: CUNNING, AUTHORITARIAN, GUARDED

Biography:  death tw

Marchesa, only a privileged few calling her ‘March’, was once just a headstrong, independent young Heir of the Valerian Main House. She absolutely loved her family, but she knew from the beginning that her eldest brother would be the next Head of House once her father retired. Too ambitious to let herself be delegated to a secondary position, Marchesa volunteered to lead one of the first official Chapters of the Valerian House and struck out on her own. 

She grew in prestige and power over the years, carving a reputation for herself for being unsympathetic, exacting and ruthless. Marchesa knew how to play the game, nearly blinded by her aspirations to climb to the top of their world swiftly, without care for those she stepped on. Soon, she received one of the highest honors that could be afforded to Primes in their country - earning the title of the youngest member of The Magistrate’s High Council in nearly a decade. 

But being in the eye of most of the gifted world painted a target on your back. While Marchesa went on and married another member of the Council, giving birth to a son who she completely adored, there was some part of her that still hungered for more. When the Magistrate discovered the latest headquarters of the Institute, in her eagerness to solidify her position, Marchesa volunteered House Valerian to lead the raid, not knowing it was a trap - leading to the near decimation of her House and the loss of her husband and child. 

Overwhelmed by grief, Marchesa took off with the last remaining members of her House, suddenly finding herself at the heart of Louisiana, in the small, quiet town of Asphodel. It’s been nearly twenty years since then and she has settled into her new home, though there will always be shadows in her eyes that cannot be fully erased, even with the passage of time. Marchesa would do, sacrifice anything, to protect those of her House, her love and sense of responsibility a fierce and heavy devotion. 

[asphodel-hq]

OOC

Name/Alias: Gracie Age: 25 years old Pronouns: She/Her Timezone: EST

IC

Face Claim: Adria Arjona Full Name: Teresa Ramos-Montalvo Gender & Pronouns: Cis Female & She/Her Age: 28 years old House: Valerian Tier and Role: Prime Heir  Gift: Aquakinesis (main), pyrokinesis Occupation: Surgical Resident at Sacred Heart Hospital

3 Positive Traits: CONGENIAL, CURIOUS, LOYAL  3 Negative Traits: PERFECTIONIST, RETICENT, UNCERTAIN 

Biography: death tw, fire tw

Tessa was adopted when she was six years old from Puerto Rico. Her parents died in a house fire she’d unwittingly caused. It was hard to believe the reassurances she was told: that it wasn’t her fault– she was too young to know what she’d done or how to use the gifts she was given. She was told that she couldn’t ignore one gift in favor of another, just because she was scared of it. But, for most of her adolescent years, she did.

Far more talented at aquakinesis, she enjoyed working with water in its various forms. She enjoyed summer showers. She loved thunderstorms and swimming and anything that submerged her in her preferred element. Fire, however, caused her anxiety but she was not allowed to not practice it, lest she wanted to create another fatal fire. Over the years it got easier but it never came as easily as her gift over water did. Until she reached teenage years, every time she practiced, she ended up with burns.

Though magic and training were a constant part of her life, so were her explorations of the world around her in Asphodel. She found beauty everywhere she went and ever curious, had 100 questions for everything. Sometimes, she’d wake Marchesa up in the middle of the night with a new “urgent” query. These explorations helped center her, helped make her more aware of how nature worked together seamlessly and how she should strive to have her gifts do the same.

But this newfound control wavered in the light of the raid, and her father and brother’s deaths. She doesn’t speak of that night, but she remembers all of it. She remembers being pulled in several directions and getting separated from them. She remembers her last glimpse of them being between flashes of light in the night, of reaching for a hand that wasn’t there and being whisked away to safety in another direction. She remembers burning herself as she struggled to reign in emotions that threatened to give her away. She remembers the screaming that still rings in her ears years later.

After, things changed. Marchesa kept her remaining child closer than ever and Tessa clung to her mother, terrified of losing yet another parent. And once Marchesa began adopting again, it didn’t take long for Tessa to welcome each sibling with open arms. Right off the bat, she looked to them with admiration, seeing the control they had over their abilities and never really considered herself to be a real candidate for Prime. She always thought that she’d be better served helping others in less public ways. After all, as a girl she was always fixing cuts and bruises, with and without magic. She was never one to let someone hurt, even animals. Because of Tessa’s pleading, the family fostered hundreds of cats and dogs over the years.  

As soon as she learned that she could be a doctor, that’s what Tessa set her heart on and through high school, she could always be found with her head in a biology book or another, between her training and other studies. Knowing that her life was indefinitely tied to Asphodel until one of her siblings ascended eventually, she decided to venture out of town for college, attending undergrad and medical school in Texas. 

She returned two years ago for her residency at Sacred Heart Hospital where she’s got three more years to go. She’s happy to be home and is grateful she can help people in a practical manner, but she didn’t miss the constant politics nor the tensions that have seemed to grow in the years she was away.