❛ EPIDIMÍA + PANOÚKLA ❜

(NOUN) 1. a widespread occurrence of an infectious disease in a community at a particular time.

[epidimia-blog]

why dont you call yourself the 'epidemic'? i think thats a lot cooler and slips off the tongue better tbh

There’s a pause, but it’s far from thoughtful.

“Maybe I like to be called by my job; Not the thing I’m researching.”

[epidimia-blog]

So, here’s a quick bullet point list of Vic’s life. Tbh it might be subject to change, but mostly bc I don’t have all the dates and specifics and details worked out, but that’s more for inner monologue info rather than like. other characters knowing info.

When Vasiliki and her twin brother, Nikos, were born, their mother died during the birth due to a prevailing illness (or curse as she’s heard her grandparents call it), that runs through their family; Effecting near everyone who enters into the family via birth or marriage.

However, it didn’t effect her or her brother, so both in order to try and shelter them from the sickness and to give them proper care, they often stayed at their godmother’s farm where Vasiliki developed the want to become a vet.

WWII happened, and she and her brother joined the resistance in G.reece where she received a trial by fire in order to become a nurse due to her experience with animal care (which was better than nothing).

During the war, her brother fell ill with the sickness, and in effort to protect him, she wound up with the wound across her mouth and a wounded leg.

She didn’t treat it properly until it was time to amputate it; Fascinated by the way it rotted and decayed, and performed some quiet self-experimentation on it before it had to be removed.

This instance coupled with her family’s illness and having to care for ill soldiers sparked her interest in medicine, and she found herself fascinated with the illnesses themselves, and potential cures for all of them.

After her brother fell ill, she stayed in G.reece for only a year more before leaving to pursue an actual licence that took her to E.ngland due to her brother making ‘friends’ during their time in the rebellion who knew the language and was willing to teach her so she had a better chance.

During this time, she met and fell in love with her future wife, Anjali. They spent a few years dating before secretly getting married, and remain happily so to this day.

After the war and getting her licence, she returned to G.reece to help rebuild and aid those she could while continuing her research into bacteria and diseases.

Despite her best efforts, she got hasty when leaving her temporary home and lab, and didn’t properly seal away a project she had been working on; Resulting in the little town being killed overnight due to the fact that she reacted too late, and didn’t have a cure ready.

It was after this event that she became much stricter about how things were handled in her labs to come.

She continued to study disease and their effects on the human body; Figuring that if she could make a cure all that actually could cure everything that it would reverse the damage she had done and cure her family who had been trying everything with little success.

As the months go by, her methods - as clean and precise as they were - started to become questionable to some, and attention grabbing for others.

And it was with that new attention that she received a job offer; Study the effects of Australium on a body, and find ways to reverse any adverse side effects, and she would have all the funds she could ever want or need for her own research.

She accepted.

[epidimia-blog]

There’s an ever-present hum as she works; Softly. Gently. A sonata for bacterium and blood alike as diligent fingers dance across the counters. Stopping in their steps only to examine implement after implement. From probes to scalpels to pipettes. One after another.

Spotless. All of them spotless.

They have to be in a room of black-lights and florescent, neon blooms barely contained in their dishes. Flourishing. Waiting. Clambering to escape their enclosures into uncharted territory. To be apart of the world at large if they could only just remove the lid that confined them-

Some were luckier than others. And luck itself was relative.

The woman’s attention is pulled away from the glinting steel once her guest stirred.

A volunteer for her cause that allowed himself to be put into circumstance through his choices. A face that wouldn’t be missed; Looked over in the crowd, but not quite missed by the prying eye. It’s a difficult business to be in - mercenary work - but once the contract was signed, there were worse ways to die.

And he wasn’t going to get anywhere without her anyway. Not when he was slowly rotting away; His jaw alone only being held together by bandage that wrapped under his chin, but there was no need for any other bindings as he lay across her table.

Whimper is met with cooed hushes; Sterile, gloved fingers barely brushing against the man’s cheek, dragging to his chin as brown eyes met with worried greys.

Fearful of the cure. Fearful of the work. Fearful of science.

Fingers gingerly pressed into his softened jaw - a hand pressing against his chest to keep him from fighting against the pain. A rising pulse beat against the skin.

That wouldn’t do.

“You have nothing to fear,” Came her voice, hushed behind the mask as fingers remove themselves from his neck. “The cure will come.”

Despite half her visage being hidden, grin manages to reach kind eyes that only soften more as the man relaxed under her hand enough for her to retreat back into her work; Only returning again once a syringe filled with florescent pinks and yellows was in hand.

“It’ll only pinch for a second-” (There was no denying the man’s wince as she stuck the needle into his arm and pushed down on the pluger; Watching as his veins glowed for a moment before fading away) . “See? Nothing to fear.”

She grasped his hand in her own - the flesh soft as the bone beneath; held together only by tendon and muscle fast deteriorating though pulse could be felt still. A comforting gesture as soft gaze observed the reaction:

The first stage was gentle; The only discomfort from the initial injection, but such comforts were luxuries to be stolen away. The second stage was delayed; The man was still strong willed, and it was his eyes that gave him away. Widening. Shoulders beginning to tense. Throat struggling to force words past a jaw bound shut. The third stage was disappointing; The bones beneath his hand remained soft and growing softer still under her grip. What was left of the man twitching. Trying to convulse and struggle against fate. Whimpers pierced the air as his breathing quickened. A network of webs starting to show a dark blue under his skin.

“It’ll end soon. Let it take its course.”

And with the forth stage, her cooing starts again as hand comes to caress his face; Turning visage to face hers as she watched his eyes dilate before finally glazing over. Twitching coming to an end before she abandoned the corpse to return to her notes.

There was much to improve on.

There were stages she could remove.

[epidimia-blog]

mmmmm deity au vic has eyes along her collar bone and a wood leg that is just decayed flesh and rot underneath thanks for coming to my ted talk

[epidimia-blog]

Also Vic would 100% wear heels to make herself even taller tbh like. 6ft ain’t enough. gotta add like 3 more inches to that + make her calve look 👌

[annajoganiyan]

[gaycop]

top reasons to get married

Firmly saying “That’s my wife!” and knock someone out in one punch

love i guess

[sicklizardman]

I love these two game so much ;_;

[endiness]

[epidimia-blog]

tbh one of the big differences between vic and jean is that, when vic was a kid, she was hella pasifistic. like. would play fight a lot yeah, but didn’t want anything to like. die for real or be hurt for real.

jean on the other hand wouldn’t hesitate to throw hands. just a lil ball of anger, spit, hiss, and vigor.

[loftsounds]

The silence is so loud

[epidimia-blog]

so cute thing before I hopefully pass out before work: Vicky’s wife won’t let her live down the fact that with their first meeting, Vicky did have to have someone help translate all of her flirting attempts bc she SORT OF knew English at the time in a very I can sort of follow the conversation bc of your tone?? Friend please translate p l e a s e sort of way but they did wind up keeping a correspondence and so that’s how she learned to read and write English and later how to better speak it when they moved in together later on.

[epidimia-blog]

mmk so for some mythos: she would probs disguise herself to be human for a while and go to her own temple to seek ‘help’ just to make sure that things are running properly, and if she sees that they are then they’re going to get a boon of some sort but if not, then Oh Boy Not Good.

[epidimia-blog]

also: she might be willing to sacrifice for people bc she’s lived as and among them for a while but make no fucking mistake she ain’t taking anything from other deities like. she just ain’t.

[epidimia-blog]

so tldr of deity au (bc i do have like. mythos figured out already that i do want to write in like. story format-ish).

Vasiliki is the goddess of healing, plague, prophesy, and wisdom, and started off as a demigod along with her twin, Nikos. Their mother didn’t survive childbirth, so they were passed around until they finally just. Left. Lived in the woods for a while.

She ascended after her brother had fallen ill, and she did her damnedest to try and heal him with what little herbs they had, but eventually had to return to civilization to pray for his health to return; Eventually offering a blood sacrifice that lead to her seeing a vision that boiled down to “you have to go on this quest and do shit if you want to save him’

And it was, in short, a lot of self mutilation.

First, there was the village of the deaf who didn’t know what the FUCK was going on, and was dying off because of it, and so she had option a of just ending them all then and there and save them the trouble and suffering, or sacrifice a part of herself so they could not die. So she cut off part of her lip to give them guiding words.

Second, there was the fact that there wasn’t a lot of medicinal herbs to be used, and she crossed a band of people fleeing from a tyrant who would p much die without proper treatment, but couldn’t turn back and wouldn’t make it to the next town, so she could have either killed them, or turned them back, but instead she tired to help, and when nothing worked, another vision told her to sacrifice another part of herself, so she cut off her leg and it became all the medicinal herbs and plants to aid travelers who need them. poetic shit.

and finally, she was lead back into town where a priest and physician were being real sons of bitches and abusing those under their power; taking too much from those who couldnt afford it, and pretending to treat those under their care. now this was a difficult one, bc she could either blind them both and render them helpless, or blind herself to give them clarvoyance into hey stop doing that shit bc its wrong, and if you read the rest, you know where this is leading. Like, she came close to stabbing the two in their sleep, but instead used a hot iron to blind herself, but she didnt really go blind;

instead she saw everything and nothing. the visions she had of the past and future allowing her to see the present and fucking finally, god-dad was like oh shit yeah ok. youre one of us now and she became a goddess like that, and her bother accended with her due to her own bargaining bc--- fuck yall i went and did this shit to save him so hold your fucking end of the deal or ill fucking fight all of you afer that shit

and so they did

and that was that, and like. shes associated with plagues bc like. if she can give and heal she can sure as hell take it the fuckith away and yeah. associated with clean stuff and snakes and rats and blood and bodily fluids now. like. she’s pretty happy with where she wound up esp seeing all the good her sacrifice did, and acts kind of like a//pollo with the oracle and as a healer of the gods, and shes associated with wisdom bc of the cheesy know when and why you fight dont just murder if there are more ways to try and shit

[epidimia-blog]

quick messy deity au doodles i managed to finally sketch down for vic

done in purble bc I didn’t see the pencil that was hanging off the binding-spiral-thing of the sketch book

[epidimia-blog]

Anyway. Less angry post. Yeah Vicky’s married now. Character development happened as I zoned out at work. Her wife, Anjali helped her learn English and I have a lot of stuff tossed around in a different thing, and I’ll have a post up more about her later (eventually) but my god does vicky Love Her Wife.