#diphtheria didn’t fit unfortunately

[ollyvoile]

Add your reasons, if you like!

Other people have added these:

• Yellow fever @notoverjoyed

• Scurvy @monitorchakas

• Lymph disease @wyrmalien

• Diphtheria ( I couldn’t fit this one)

• Malaria “ye olde marsh fever” @bombadilbaddie

• Scrofula “The King’s Evil” @hasturswig

Edit for all the people telling me “uhhh tuberculosis still exists”: I know! :) In fact, all of these sicknesses still exist. In the modern world we live in, however, most of these are only prevalent in developing countries, and certainly not to the extent they once were.

[lethe-rpg]

For Rhett Harris taking inspiration from Bonnie and Clyde was not the best idea, unfortunately no one ever got through to him in time. Born in Kentucky in 1903, Harris was often seen self reliant. As the second youngest of seven, he was often left to fend for himself when it came to family dynamics. They were not the most well off but managed to get by with what they were able to produce on their small farm. He did however have a close bond with his little sister, spending much of his youth being the one to look after her. That coupled with his farm work was the only honest living he could remember having done. Whatever he lacked in life he made up in charm. Whether it was by his wit or by getting into some trouble, Harris wanted to be talked about by his community even if it wasn’t a compliment. By the time he was a teenager, Harris was practically a man, but he was an incredibly restless one. This caused him to get more reckless as the small town farm life was getting to him. His little acts of trouble would escalate into bigger things just to get excitement in his life. He wanted to get out and escape from boredom. Tragically the way out came in the form of the death of his little sister.  Watching her die of diphtheria had been the final nail in the coffin for Harris and he disappeared the day of her funeral. It was also the day that he stopped caring about how others felt. Harris crafted a veneer of charm and sociability to lie about how much he cared. It slowly turned into manipulation of others to get what he wanted and for the next ten years it worked. He would roll into the next town talking a big game and have men and women falling for whatever lie he’d made up about himself. He’d earn favor playing the part of a pretty idiot (which admittedly he kind of was )and would rob them blind in the middle of the night only to disappear come morning. In the process there would be some broken hearts and a few broken bones depending on who he was robbing.

The stock market crash of 1929 only added to the fire in him in wanting to take the wealth of those he felt didn’t deserve it. It was only when he met Lennox Turner a short time later  that he’d met his match. He had broken into an apartment and was in the process of raiding until he offered safety to her since it appeared she had been in some trouble. Harris was not typically an honest man but with Lennox he was matter of fact and more truth seemed to come out the more they drank that night. By morning two things happened one, they had formed a partnership and two, he was pretty sure he had fallen  in love. For close to a year the duo were taking a page out of Bonnie and Clyde and were living it up as a couple who had a tendency to get by one crime at a time. Penny Riot came into the picture when she tried to pickpocket Harris and had made the duo realize they were meant to be a trio in the end. There was just one small thing, Penny was a vampire. By then though Harris was only the type to judge if you had something he wanted and her supernatural nature was completely fine to him. In a war it was comforting to know she wouldn’t get killed in a botched robbery since he’d grown attached to her. An attachment that grew when Harris was shot and Penny turned him into a vampire to save him. Unfortunately, that lack of control and reckless nature he had in life became magnified when he came back as a vampire. Due to his own instability he killed Lennox causing something to snap in his brain. He knew he’d killed someone he truly loved but was too far gone. It was as if the positive traits he had as a human were shoved to the furthest corner of his mind and all that remained was that charming smile  and criminal visage that he presented to others. When Lennox returned from the dead as a Lich he had a hard time verbally expressing how he felt about what happened. Whether or not he realizes it Harris is in love with both Penny and Lennox. He sees them both as the loves of his immortal life and these feelings only seemed to grow due to their supernatural connections to each other. As a result the trio have been in a relationship since the 1930’s and still function as a loving couple despite the fact that Harris doesn’t come off like could feel such emotions. Still if anything were to happen to either of them, Harris would flip over the world for them. Their immortality meant the trio could be together forever and that was something that made the world exciting for Harris again. He never had to stop. He never had to worry about dying old and broken or young and penniless.

For years the trio spent time stealing and living the high life until they realized sustaining a life where crime was their only means would alert someone to their presence. They did one huge score and lived off that for a long time until the money ran out and they needed to steal again, unfortunately this time it was from the wrong people. The supernatural team had stolen from a high ranking company Silver Security, owned by other supernaturals and they had to lay low. That was when Lethe came into the picture. It was a place they could be safe from any retribution and could live without hiding what they were. They needed a little extra protection for once in their lives. It seemed like everyone was distracted by other things like the Riverborn as opposed to a trio of professional criminals which made Lethe seem like the perfect fit. Harris was willing to use any distractions to his advantage even the amnesiac supernaturals showing up it town.  Harris has a hard time laying low though since he is such a fan of being known and charming people out of things but he is well aware that there are rules he has to follow otherwise retaliation from the company wouldn’t be his only worry. He works around it by still stealing, only out of the boundaries of town and selling it on the side. He also works as a bouncer for CHURCH as a way to at least get a little more excitement in his life even though there is a sense of boredom from not being able to everything he wants. Things have become almost domestic with the trio and while there is potential for loss of excitement in town, he knows as long as he has Lennox and Penny thing’s will always work out for the best.