Halcyon is so cool! Do you have any lore for her?
OH ANON THE CAN OF WORMS YOU HAVE OPENED
Spoilers ahead for The Secret History by Donna Tartt (it’s so good yall should read it, tw: abuse, murder, alcohol, drugs, incest, glossed over animal death, and suicide.) The only TWs that matter for my explanation are murder and suicide.
Halcyon Winter, oh my fucked up girl
Halcyon Winter is the daughter of Lethe and an unimportant father who died very early in Halcyon’s life. Leaving her in the care of her father’s aunt and uncle. Said aunt and uncle lost their son Henry to a suicide. Well……..kinda
Somehow, Henry got reborn, not sure how cause there is NO WAY that fucker went to Elysium, and he most DEFINITELY followed the Greek way of thinking but alas. He did. The rebirth is Halcyon. She figures it out fairly quickly, and so do her adoptive parents, and they LATCH onto that. They start to mold her into a…..new Henry of sorts.
Main problem with that: HENRY HAS COMMITTED MURDER. TWICE.
And Y’know, performed a Bacchanalia which ended up in the first murder. But, they’ve set her up to follow the same path. And she does. She follows Henry’s life to a T. Even going to the same college in the same program that Henry went to, Hampden College in Hampden, Vermont, for the same classics major.
Enter Richard Papen, her professor, AND HENRY’S FORMER CLASSMATE. In my lil crossover AU, long after the case was closed and the evidence was too outdated to use, Richard, under a pseudonym, publishes the events of The Secret History, and it has the effect that it had in our world: creates a generation of pretentious classics students. So Hampden has a reason to bring back its Classics course.
Anyway, Halcyon is in Richard’s class and he clocks her ass as the reincarnation of Henry IMMEDIATELY.
Now, Richard’s classes are small and intimate, much like Julian’s were, but Richard sought to PREVENT another situation like the one he was in from happening so he’s actively taking steps to do so, but the classes end up small and close like his was anyway. This group is less likely to perform ancient rituals to induce Dionysian Madness and commit murder anyway, except for Halcyon.
BUT, Richard clocks that Halcyon can be saved!!! And she can! So he’s working on her, she will get better chat I prommie. But he becomes more of a father to her cause unlike her legal guardians (even though she’s 20), he has her best interests at heart. She will be as grounded as you can be at 20 for attempting the bacchanal I assure you.
Cause she KNOWS what could happen, she got her hands on Richard’s book. She is fully aware of what could happen, she’s just convinced she’s built different.
Hope this answers your question anon!!! I’m so normal about TSH I swear.