Molded in the image of someone mistaken for dead, Echo is a pale and flawed imitation unable to escape the nature of her creation, yet wishes to become their own being. Whether possible or not, Destarin will be where she finds out. Echo is ageless, has the appearance of a 28 year old, and uses she/they pronouns.
tw: domestic violence, implied psychological, physical and sexual abuse, anxiety and self-image issues, existential horror, mentions of war and military.
Lillian Acheron was born to a house on the brink of ruin. Her family line had been marred by the betrayal of an ancestor back in the Forty Seasons War, one whose portrait had long since been removed from the walls of the dusty and derelict estate. Generations of her family were unable to turn the tide of their dwindling fortune and station, and now a grand manor remained as the only symbol of their great standing, hidden within dense forests and surrounded by grounds perpetually covered by snow, its stonework more alike to a tomb than hearth.
She had been raised on those hallowed grounds by a nan that did not share her blood and an old, long-forgotten loyal knight. She had dream-like memories of a stern father and a kind mother, but they were both dead and buried, lost to time. The half-demon blood within her was the only thing that reassured her that they were her parents, and the grief she felt was bone-deep; proving she was not just a child taken from the streets to be made to bear the weight of this house.
She wouldn't cower. She had been allowed into the military academy that only other children of the court were allowed to attend. Maybe a mistake, maybe pity— what did it matter? It was her perseverance and willpower that became her strength, and the reason why she did not only match the skill of her peers, but exceeded it. Her potential meant too much for it to be lost to jealousy and pettiness. Under the right attention, Lillian's magic became stronger as she weaved it with her prowess of the blade.
By the end of her time at the academy, the whispers following her changed from pity and scorn to praise and recognition. When she entered the ranks of Withermore's military at eighteen, they turned into fear and respect. The Acheron house of old was known for its ruthlessness being only met by their loyalty. Lillian delivered.
Witchblade, they whispered. Slayer of beasts, and scourge of men. A hidden weapon, its sharpness kept by the grander and grander assignments she was sent to accomplish in the name of the crown. When the drums of war arrived, she would be ready. When the time came to prove herself, she would excel.
THE HOMUNCULUS' ARRIVAL WAS A THING OF HORROR AND PAIN like black tar like your eyes against the sun thumbs pressing into the sockets like pins and needles and blood pouring down like a throat too sore to scream and like a deep seated bile that would not come out— yet, the first emotion the Homunculus ever felt was love.
A name rolled off His tongue and she thought: this must be mine. She would learn later the consequences and implications of the magic and alchemy —and something much, much darker— that had molded IT like clay into this: a form as easy to comprehend as It could be made into, a mind that reflected the intellect that should be. But that pull between her and Him, she knew from the start. She could reach out to it, almost tangibly, and feel the taut way her entrails were connected to his presence. As if she could use them as a rope to guide herself over to Him.
He was all she knew. In His words, she had no need for anything else. Her skin was unblemished, her hands uncalloused, and the bud of magic within her was left to wither and rot. She had no memories, but that did not matter: she was here, she would not be lost again. There was resistance, at first. Angry and upset, confused and wanting to fly away, tear herself open and free— but the pull was there. Once her knuckles had been bloodied against the walls, once she had been too tired to keep going… The pull was always there.
So she stopped. The walls stopped being bare, the windows wide and beautiful in their stonework. She tried to meet the eyes of the few animals and birds that sometimes peeked through the pine trees across the courtyard covered in untouchable snow. She knew what they were, even if she had never seen them, and they were the only things alive besides herself and Him. But every time her eyes met their beady ones, they would still and flee. The little ones, little birds and mice, died without delay. She could only see the corpses from the other side of the barred windowsill.
But it didn't matter. The outside was unnecessary. The outside was cold, unsafe, nothing like the inside with its endless warmth: warm meals, plush sheets, soft hands even with their desperate grip. Even if He was prone to fits of madness, of grabbing her shoulders and shaking her, demanding to know all sorts of whys, why her reflection was so flawed, why couldn't she be right, why she couldn't be herself! And the pull— but the pull, that disgusting pull, the one that turned her stomach inside out and she dreamt of clawing out with bloodied hands— that he had called love was still there. Even so, there was nothing else.
Years passed. The servants of the house were few, and many of them desperate for money and lodging. After all, who else would work in this accursed place? The widow of the lady had gone mad, and besides the sounds of plates breaking and furniture being thrown, there were servants that had heard footsteps where there should be silence, murmurs of their master that were met with a sweet voice, and the sound of windowpanes rattling, less like the wind and more like tapping…
So when they heard of the celebration in the town nearby, none of them rushed to their master with the news. Instead, they cowered and hid. The occupant of the carriage was boisterous and victorious as it approached down the worn road. The gates opened with a great shake, the trees rustled and birds sang as life came back into the courtyard. The main doors of the estate were opened: and it was with great satisfaction that Lillian stepped back into her home, one that she had not seen for six years.
The assignment that had taken her from her home would be a tale to be told, but she was looking forward to sharing it with her lover— she had wed a powerful witch. They fell in love as teenagers, and had seen each other grow, hand-in-hand. They had been married for little before she disappeared. When she left that morning alongside her unit to slay the devils and scourge that had made it their mission to weaken Withermore from within, she had not expected to be trapped in their dimension for years to come.
Yet even as time passed she never doubted her lover's loyalty and dedication, just as she hadn't hesitated in hers. They had promised to never leave each other, be it in life or death. As she stepped through the foyer and took off her gloves, seeing him rush down the stairs, she couldn't help but raise her chin and give him a wicked smile. 'I am here' her eyes said. 'How could you ever doubt?'. But the mirth lasted little, as the blood on his face drained, and hesitant footsteps came close behind him.
After that, things happened quickly. Lillian was a woman of little nonsense, and her decisions seldom matched the kindness of her intentions. Its arrival into this world was taboo. It was not meant to exist. It had been cruel for the Homunculus to be brought here. Yet she would take responsibility.
But the Homunculus was too startled to recover as quickly: looking at a face that looked like theirs, older but without that wrongness, that which they could recognize now as their own aberrancy. Everything made sense so suddenly that it was like a slap to the face. The strength bled out of them with quiet words of reassurance of it not being needed, a body too weak to wield the sword or wear the armour or to fight back. But the same likes, same mannerisms, same immediate recognition of what was broken beyond repair.
Of course he had hated— because it must've been hate, it must've been— it was a pale imitation. A weak, disgusting thing, failing in its purpose of existence in this world.
But mercy would not be the blade, but the cruelty of a chance. The Homunculus could not stay in Withermore, not if it (she? they?) was to live a life. They were not and had never been a child, but there had been no future in their mind besides the eternity of a companionship that they could now recognize as what it truly was. That pull had never been anything but one-sided, an unbreakable bond between the summoner and summoned, one that could be mercifully (but painfully, like tearing teeth) ignored unless she reached for it, never too far away.
And so they left; entering the carriage that would bring them to Withermore’s borders with a new name, one that she would later silently and secretly reject. Echo rolled more easily off the tongue, the original bitterness of it now just an acceptance. Letters arrive monthly with enough money for them to live comfortably and to attempt to create a life— but the reminder of the origin of their own existence brings a daily torment that she has to learn to endure. She hides herself under the hoods of cloaks and does the best to conceal both the wrongness and familiarity of her appearance and the truth of her nature. They observe, now, and try to imitate— to understand and maybe to create a self that could belong in this reality. And they struggle, wondering if this is because of the years of isolation and berating or a deep-seated and innate wrongness.
Destarin would be the stage in which Echo would either become, or accept that they never will.
species: homunculus.
weaknesses: mortal, unable to physically hide hints of her true aberrant nature.
strengths: enhanced senses, minor resistance to poison, recognize the aberrant and the eldritch, sense magic, psychic effect upon sight.
physical description: as a homunculus, anyone that looks at echo may suffer a small psychic effect from their eldritch nature. the sense of wrongness or oddness when looking at the type of eldritch she is is permanent, but can be accepted or resisted after the first instance. as an imitation of a half-demon, echo has red eyes and slight fangs, alongside lightly pointed ears.
additional notes: echo was never intellectually a child, but most of their common knowledge is theoretical and implanted, rather than from first hand experience. the materia and means of which echo was created from gave them magical and eldritch awareness. however, as they were made to be kept safe and away from battle, echo has a harder time developing physical strength and wielding weaponry, but it is not an impossibility. echo hides their face by means of hoods and cloaks as to not startle others and to maintain anonymity, and currently dresses quite commonly.
echo is played by auberon and their fc is mai davika hoorne.