#so is thistle and eodio being Doomed as hell

[roomba-mangga]

dunmesh modern AU headcanons & story threads masterpost (melini-centric)

also projecting my culture as a treat, hence the photos below for reference. names are changed to be appropriate to the setting but i'll just be using their canon names for most of this.

premise / background

set in the philippines, mostly around manila. part family drama teleserye, part urban fantasy monster-of-the-week shenanigans. overall mood is a blend of absurd, light-hearted, and dramatic

the melinis (merinos) are a wealthy but cursed family whose lineage can be traced back to the spanish colonial period. their patriarch, delgal, notoriously relies on the family's engkanto kasambahay/helper, thistle (lirio), to solve most of their problems, mundane or otherwise. thistle has acted as the family's guardian spirit and loyal servant for a couple generations now, but the pressure is starting to wear on him

as delgal approaches the end of his life, thistle fights to keep him alive by any means necessary (mainly via witchcraft)—all while skirting around his strained relationships with the rest of the family, particularly over matters of inheritance and his future

the other melinis aren't as fond of thistle as delgal is, especially in light of his controlling behavior, so there's a painfully real chance he could be disowned at the end of the day. on paper they'd just be dissolving his contract, but on a personal level it goes much deeper than that. things get nasty when delgal considers entrusting the inheritance to thistle instead of eodio or yaad

meanwhile, the touden siblings (ilyas and fina) are scraping to get by in the city after running away from home. laios works at the port and harbors a secret fascination with engkanto while falin is a med student. after crossing paths with the melinis and senshi, the siblings find themselves entangled in the family's personal—and supernatural—affairs

(more character and story headcanons below)

dramatis personae

thistle (lirio) — colloquially known as tinik ("thorn"), the scary little shit has garnered a fearsome reputation in the seedier parts of town, hunting down anting-antings and components at any cost. he's been shaking hands with questionable characters, eliminating rivals, the whole nine yards. 50/50 chance the dark shape emerging from an alleyway is actually him instead of a holdupper (most would prefer the holdupper). he goes through college once a generation and this time is accompanying yaad; they attend the same high-end school in manila's university belt (eyebrows frequently raised since they both look 16ish but it's waved off as them being accelerated students. or a terrific new strain of nepotism). when he isn't practicing dangerous magic or hovering over his family, thistle haunts local comshops and does urban photography

yaad — sheltered good-natured church boy, certified kuya, altar server, etc. he's cursed with perpetual youth (not immortality, just youth) and thistle drags him up mount san cristobal every year to renew the spell. it's an open secret that yaad's "cousin" (tito? yaya? satan?) is an ancient being who's been performing rituals on the family. he finds thistle overbearing yet is the only one who sympathizes with him, understanding how fucked up his position truly is while helpless to do anything about it at present. thistle takes it upon himself to chaperone him when they're out and about. they have a more-or-less functional, if teetering, relationship

eodio — head of the family but barely, because..... thistle. as a child, eodio was sickly and thistle would see to his health, but when his condition worsened, thistle resorted to cursing him in order to save his life. this brought unforeseen complications that come back to bite them both. he and thistle have the most contentious telenovela-esque relationship among the cast, as he resents being dependent on thistle to stay alive—plus the ritual to renew the spell involves eating the most heinous shit. it's all deeply undignified. there was a time delgal promised thistle he'd still be able to look after and love the next generations of his family after he's gone (that is, before his fear of death got the best of him), but the strain in thistle and eodio's relationship soured that possibility

delgal — at death's door, sorry king. delgal isn't cursed with anything beyond glamors to make him appear less sick; cheating death itself has been a long-running project of thistle's, at his request. in spite of having a brotherly relationship with thistle, delgal has never stopped viewing and treating him primarily as a yaya, which was thistle's original role when first brought into the family

laios and falin (ilyas and fina) — originally from a rich family up north, laios fled south to live independently, even if his prospects aren't great. after reuniting with falin in manila, where she's attending college in the same area as the melini boys, they settle in a barangay in calabarzon and hang out in the city. laios is deeply fascinated by the world of engkanto and seeks a way in (and further than that, he wishes to become one, if possible), while falin is seemingly content with her lot in life, even if it's spent in someone else's shadow. time will tell if that changes for her

as for the rest of the party, manong senshi is the merinos' cook. thistle found him scrounging the garden and yaad took pity, so they took him in. he's a gift to the household. izutsumi is a vagrant who likes to sneak into the melinis' garden to nap and pester yaad. they're besties. marcille (maricel) is a researcher secretly dabbling in occult magic, and thistle views her as a rival/threat. chilchak is laios' coworker and a tito. no elaboration needed. tito chil. you know it's true.

story threads

re: immortality, the most viable spell thistle is able to uncover calls for a complex engkanto feast, far beyond his capabilities. if only there were a pack of weirdos somewhere out there who could pull it off…

laios suspects the tyrant of the comshops is an engkanto in disguise and investigates. to get this persistent nuisance off his tail, thistle points him to the side of town that deals in ancient magic in hopes he'll get snatched by a tikbalang or something (who knows, maybe they've broadened their palates beyond innocent maidens lately). when laios gets there, he runs into senshi doing weird esoteric grocery runs and the two strike up a friendship over monster food. a successful project of theirs catches thistle's attention due to the aforementioned spell he's working on and, after much internal deliberation, he outsources that part of the ritual to these weirdos under close supervision

a magical mishap between marcille and thistle causes falin to be transformed into an engkanto. they discover she's able to sniff out other engkanto and has a sense for magic. now knowing such a thing is possible after all, laios continues to pursue his goal of becoming engkanto himself

shenanigans ensue in the process of acquiring + preparing + tweaking recipes for the engkanto feast. though squeamish, marcille counts herself in on this since it's relevant to her own studies, even if thistle remains wary of her. laios and senshi decide the ideal arrangement for the ritual has to be a boodle fight (look at the imagery, it's divine), but that would require the entire melini clan to be willing to feast together on monster cuisine with nothing but their bare hands, which is a tall fucking order. thistle is forced to try to make amends on their terms

the toudens wind up befriending yaad and, by some miracle, thistle. wrt the latter it comes as a shock to everyone because that boy doesn't do friends, strangers are dogshit under his heel, what the hell—but turns out treating him like a person is quite effective. thistle doesn't realize this consciously; he denies any sort of attachment beyond his family, but yaad is relieved this ill-advised project is allowing him to build a network

a figure known as the Winged Lion, rumored to be an all-powerful diwata, comes knocking at the melinis' door to collect his dues, making tempting offers to the rest of the cast to fulfill their desires at the expense of the family (down the line, marcille and laios decide to make a joint bargain with it)

in spite of his efforts, thistle's conflict with eodio escalates to a breaking point. in an extremely teleserye turn of events, eodio is killed by one of thistle's spells, and thistle's incredibly well-adjusted response to this is to preserve his corpse, stick his soul in a jar in the form of a moth, and add necromancy onto his sorcerous TDL. he winds up carrying this jar around and dedicates significant effort to keeping the moth alive. yaad is super going through it

Holy Week vacation arc feat. beach episode where, after an extended period of family drama, thistle and yaad forgo vacationing with the family to hop on a flight with the toudens and manong senshi to rural mindanao. they touch grass. yaad discloses his personal feelings on the mess and lets himself get a little mad. eodio's jar is there. the chismis back in the city is insane—everyone thinks they got disowned or kidnapped by hooligans

in another extremely teleserye turn of events, there turns out to be a connection between the toudens and the melinis which further complicates the inheritance issue

at some point a boodle fight does happen, just not between the melini clan ;)

might add more details as they come to me in other posts. much to think about, all very fun. the slice of life scenarios have me in a chokehold