Someone had once questioned my research and said it was not science. Well, I replied: "Who said this is science? Have you ever seen magic?"
immobiliter, an indie rp multimuse, containing muses from a variety of different universes. selective and low activity. est. june 16, rebooted july 26, written by lottie ( she / her ), gmt, 30+
please read the rules below the cut before interacting !
RULES :
• This blog is selective & low activity, meaning that I only write with mutuals for my own state of mind. I work and have a busy life outside of tumblr which takes priority, so I cannot write with everyone. I also do sometimes practice exclusivity, although I tend to be very picky about this: any portrayal to which I am mains or exclusive is listed on that particular muse’s page.
• I have several worldbuilding affiliates listed above, who tend to be my go-to blogs when it comes to certain muses & dynamics. These blogs are not exclusives by default, but these are writers who have been integral in the overall worldbuilding and character development of a number of my muses, and honouring them on this pinned is my way of showing appreciation to them! You will see a lot of them here ^-^
• In addition to the muses featured here, I also have unlisted muses that I do not actively feature here on my pinned post but are linked below. These are generally on the blog for specific writing partners, but I am still more than willing to write them with others if requested ( providing, of course, that I am not exclusive to another portrayal ). This also includes my OCs!
• Be aware that inspiration, not obligation, directs my muse to write, so do not expect me to be fast to write everyone on the blog. There will be some muses who are neglected in favour of others depending on where my mood or enthusiasm strikes.
• I do not care to see call out posts or any other kind of drama. I will unfollow and potentially block if I see it on my dash: I am here to write, not to engage in tumblr politics.
• I ship based on chemistry and, for the most part, I am open to them ( dependent on particular muse of course! ), however I do not automatically ship ‘canon’ pairings – chemistry must still be there first. Smut is only ever likely to be written with partners that I am comfortable with on an out of character level.
• I have no triggers, and I will endeavour to tag anything appearing on this blog that could come under that label, but be aware that due to the variety of muses featured on this blog, dark topics may crop up from time to time.
• Usual Tumblr etiquette applies. Please don’t godmod, don’t rush me on replies as I am very slow, please make sure meme replies are transferred over to a new post etc etc. Icons were made, although not capped by me, so please do not take them.
• If we are mutuals, I absolutely want to write with you! Hitting up my IMs for plotting is likely the easiest way to get something going with me, but sending a meme or liking a starter/interaction call absolutely works too!
• I’m Lottie, she/hers, 30+, GMT timezone. I’ve been writing on tumblr since 2014 and I can also be found on my other blog, trickstercaptain, if not here. Mutuals are welcome to message me on tumblr IMs, and I will selectively give out my discord.
MOBILE ACTIVE MUSE LIST:
• GENSHIN IMPACT ... furina, navia, nicole reeyn, alice
• HONKAI STAR RAIL ... herta, march 7th, cerydra, nihilux, topaz
• DRAGON AGE ... valyssa mahariel, varric tethras
• MASS EFFECT ... garrus vakarian
• THE EXPANSE ... camina drummer, bobbie draper
• STRANGER THINGS ... robin buckley, dustin henderson
• MISCELLANEOUS ... aimee gibbs ( sex education ) daniel molloy ( interview with the vampire ), james flint ( black sails ), misty quigley ( yellowjackets ), villanelle ( killing eve )
• my unlisted/request muses and more info about them can be found HERE!
so full disclaimer that i haven't finished the full quest yet, but i'm assuming herta won't turn up again after her cameo with ratio and those were enough crumbs for me anyway so !
firstly, as much as i know this is a reference to the fate franchise itself, the line "passionate in both love and hate" is just so chefs kiss to the way i see and write herta that i have to include this, thank you hyv
this is also something i'm happy was addressed, because i do see herta as somebody who, certainly pre-amphoreus, did not really pay that much attention to her physical fitness. as a child and young woman, she did engage in dance and sports in order to help channel her restless energy into something, but with all of the resources and power she has at her disposal in the present, there are far more interesting outlets to her than exercise.
however, something that i do hc changes post-amphoreus is the idea that herta needs to be ready in both body and mind for whatever calamities arrive next for the cosmos. so physical exercise, training, and learning how to use her emanator power more effectively in combat becomes a higher priority for her.
also shoutout to herta coming to the trailblazer's defence when gilgamesh started talking about the stellaron. that she is an imagenae based on the trailblazer's memories and she still acted like this is everything to me actually
i love her. i love her and her love for humanity so so much, herta you're not fooling anyone.
i swear sometimes herta says these things without realising how they actually sound. but anyway, lastly-
gilgamesh who can (i think???????) see the past and future of a person lumping ratio and herta together in the topic of slaying gods? after herta went toe-to-toe with zandar and sought to rewrite one of nous' instants? interesting. another red flag to add to herta's growing list of red flags hinting at her future storyline. it tracks though seeing as i do believe these two are more aligned than they would admit in their view that knowledge and wisdom belongs in the hands of humanity than with the aeons.
@immobiliter replied to your post “"Funniest thing about rumors is the imagination to...”:
navia vc: maybe you should come closer, i can check that mug out for you and see what all the fuss is about 🤔
An interesting approach on the matter!
Who was he to deny the boss' professional perspective on matters? Recognition flashes beneath those shades before those steel toed boots worked the distance over to her.
Face to face, a quieter, more subdued and content ferocity was not facing the Golden Rose of the Spina. Warmth and fire alike molded that sharp shape.
Meanwhile? He's content to get study those starry eyes.
"Don't hold back any opinion for my sake, Navia, I'm all ears."
“ Hmm... your ears, huh? ” He was the one who had said it, not she — if it were up to her she would have chosen to inspect far more appealing aspects of his face first, but in the interests of playing this game between them as convincingly as possible, Navia had to make it at least somewhat tricky for him.
Giving away any notion that the weight of his stare, even behind those tinted lenses, made her feel a little weak in the knees was an absolute no-no.
Reaching up, Navia let her gloved fingertips slowly trace the shell of one ear, before a single finger continued its delicate, but intentional descent along his jaw. To be absolutely certain of her opinion, Navia spared a glance at his other ear before speaking. “ They both seem rather ordinary to me... along with your jawline, too. Not notable enough for anyone to hate them, surely... ”
Slowly, one by one, the many walls they have barricaded themselves in crumble. One small piece first, then a cascade that leaves naught but dust at their feet, and the striking realisation that perhaps it had all been for nothing; or at least, no other reason than barriers they had put up themselves. Out of resentment, out of fear, out of pride? Does it even matter? And is it truly right, to let those walls falter and collapse at their feet? A myriad of questions dance in Neuvillette's mind, and he has no answer for any of them. For someone so comfortable in the darkness of the depths, this blindness certainly feels entirely new and disarming.
And Neuvillette, dragon sovereign of water, Chief Justice and Iudex of Fontaine, willingly lays his own powerlessness bare for Navia to see - and choose whether to sentence him or extend a hand to bridge that strange gulf of their very own making. His heart, his very, very human heart, thrums in his chest, a bird desperately attempting to escape its cage and leap out and into freedom, as she speaks; the memory of her kiss, ghosting on his lips as though given just a moment and not days prior. I still want to. He hangs onto her every word, draconic eyes transfixed upon her and refusing to look away, his breath caught in his lungs as though breathing would make her change her mind. And instead of some earth-shattering, terrible moment of misunderstanding and miscommunication, comes... a sense of relief? No, not relief. Longing. Certainty - each of these fuzzy, confusing, chaotic emotions finally converging, like rainwater gathering into a single stream after a storm, focused and directed and flowing freely towards its destination.
Towards Navia - and Navia alone.
" ... seeing you panic is not something I would have thought to ever see, I must admit. But then again, so did I... " As far as he could remember, he had all but frozen in place, and by the time he had been able to react, she had already escaped, like water running through his fingers. Many times in those few days since, he had regretted his inaction. And now that Navia is confronting him with her own reserves, with his own failure to be honest, forward, with her and with himself, he stands on the edge of a precipice they will either fall in together... or one of them will be left behind. And so, Neuvillette grasps his courage with both hands, and opts for the only thing that is right to do: the truth, bare, and imperfect, and confusing, and everything that stands in complete opposition to who is usually is.
" ... I'm afraid I had never given the matter any thought, nor entertained the possibility of me developing such feelings for a human being. Not out of disdain, or hatred; but although centuries have passed since I came into human society, I always felt like there was an insurmountable wall between myself and... every living human soul around me. However your kind bonded with one another, however you slipped into or built relationships with one another, however you fit into one another's lives and hearts - there was no conceivable way I could ever be a part of it, unless as a passive observer on the stage Focalors had set for me." Without thinking about it, Neuvillette brings a hand over his heart, gloved fingers pressing lightly against the fabric of robes that had never been less relevant, had never mattered less.
" ... until you, Navia." His voice wavers, like waves breaking upon the shore. His gaze finds hers once more, as though he might just find answers there. Even if he doesn't, there is nowhere else he would rather drown in his turmoil. "Until I caught myself watching you even from afar, worrying about you, aching over our disagreements, over every time you walked away without knowing whether I would be able to speak with you as friends again... and until you kissed me, and I spent every waking moment since replaying it in my mind as though it would erase my incompetence in that very moment."
His hand falls back by his side; his shoulders relax, lighter from the weight finally shed from them. "I do not want this, whatever this is, with a human, Navia. I want it with you."
At times like this, she only wished that she could read his thoughts. Where Navia was sure — in fact, everyone in Poisson had told her this, frequently — that every mood or feeling or attempt at a lie could instantly be discerned through her facial expression alone, even now Neuvilette maintained that cool composure in the face of the ledge they now stood on. This was indeed a precipice, after all: Navia had taken that leap, laid her heart out as plainly as she could and clung tight to the faint sense of hope and possibility that it was not in vain. Neuvillette had caught her once, in Fontainian ruins before she had fully submerged into the Primordial Sea and been lost forever. Would he catch her again?
His remark about her panic cut the tension so thoroughly that Navia nearly laughed. “ It was completely understandable... I, uh, can't imagine someone kissing you in your office is an everyday occurrence... ” Regardless of the outcome of this conversation, regardless of whether they left this meeting spot as friends or as, well, more than friends, Navia suspected that she would carry that particular embarrassment with her forever.
At last, Neuvillette finally spoke his heart, and the strength of those words, the truth that a dragon who had believed for centuries he would never integrate or connect with humanity had been proven wrong by the likes of her... the emotions it stirred up threatened to completely overwhelm her.
Navia looked at him and exhaled softly, feeling those strong currents repeatedly tug at her chest. She did not know what to say. What could she say? No words in that moment felt adequate when compared to those he had chosen with such thought and care, considered over those days of deep turmoil she had left him in. And so, instinctively, her hand reached out to find Neuvillette's, squeezing gently as if to reassure him that, this time, she wasn't going anywhere.
There was another pause as Navia attempted to collect herself, a small smile threatening to break across her face. “ I want this with you too. And I don't want you to ache over our disagreements ever again, Neuvillette. Of course... we're going to disagree again, I'm fully aware of how I can be, and you're allowed to be frustrated about it, but... I want us to be able to solve all of those future problems together. ” And there would be a lot of problems. What was she going to tell the rest of the Spina? Was she going to tell them anything at all? Their respective positions and public reputations... the list of obstacles to this unlikeliest of matches was indeed lengthy...
That was a problem for future her. Future them. As for right now... Navia carefully reached for Neuvillette's other hand, looking up at him with a tentatively sly smile. “ Does this mean... we can now correct my mistake of running off in a panic and kiss... properly this time? ” Navia flashed him a somewhat guilty look. “ I think it might be good for both of us after everything. ”
okay so ! some may have noticed already that moving blogs has made me do a little reshuffling, most notably of moving some muses to my request-only list. this doesn't affect any pre-established or developing dynamics ( and i will sloooowly be adding pages for these muses but my main active roster were higher priority ) but i needed to reclassify a few just to ensure my roster felt uncluttered and only contained those muses that i actively throw out there for interaction
After finishing her sixth form education, Aimee firstly pursues a vocational photography degree at university, before being offered a fashion internship.
STRANGER THINGS VERSE
Aimee is one of the most popular girls at Hawkins High, frequently spotted around Carol, Tommy H and resident king Steve Harrington. She lives in the affluent side of town, her father working away in the city as a high flying lawyer and her mother living the life with him as a socialite, often leaving her alone at home where she hosts her popular friends and several infamous school parties. As Steve's focus shifts to pursue sophomore Nancy Wheeler, Aimee grows closer to friend and school pariah Maeve Wiley, and slowly begins to reconsider her preoccupation with social status at the school.
AGE OF SAIL VERSE
Aimee is the daughter of Arabella Gibbs, who was from a family of sailors, and the son of the prestigious Moore family, Nathaniel. The pair's courtship raised eyebrows among the English aristocracy and the pair eventually eloped. Continuing tensions between Nathaniel and his family prompted him to cut them off and take on his wife's name, passing the bar and working as a barrister in London. Later, his parents sought to repent by leaving Nathaniel their entire fortune in their inheritance, and the couple were able to buy a country home just outside of the city and move in the upper echelons of society. His daughter is therefore a suitable candidate for the London marriage market --- although Aimee has trouble adopting many of the attributes and skills of a young lady, and that is without mention of Arabella's brother, dishonourably discharged from the Royal Navy and, last they heard, closely associated with pirates.
Born 2159 and grew up on Lowell City, Mars. Despite living in the immediate aftermath of humanity's discovery of the mass relays and colonisation of the wider galaxy, Bobbie is still committed to the terraforming project on Mars and dream of making it a habitable garden world.
Alliance marine, Gunnery Chief, N6 and did not manage to complete her N7 training before her discharge from the Alliance
Shortly before the events of ME1, runs afoul of Turian Spectre Saren Arterius during a mission which wipes out her entire squad and leaves her the only human survivor. When she recovers, she discovers that it is her word against Saren's, which states that humans were the aggressors against a Turian unit. Given Saren's political sway with the Council, and the Alliance's desire to avoid another diplomatic incident that could affect their chances of improving humanity's standing on the galactic stage, Bobbie is asked to sign a declaration taking responsibility for the attack, the blame landing squarely with one of her dead squad members for firing the first shot
Bobbie refuses and the Alliance has no choice but to discharge her from service. She is left at the Citadel, where she commits to uncovering Saren's corruption one way or the other, and eventually elicits the support of an UNAS (United North American States) diplomatic official, Chrisjen Avasarala, who does not believe the official story and backs Bobbie to topple Saren and uncover the truth.
This incident is the tipping point in Bobbie adopting a more nationalistic attitude towards aliens and galactic exploration, harbouring a deep distrust for other races and the Turians in particular
Shepard can encounter her during ME1 and elicit hers and Avasarala's help in combatting Saren, recruiting her onto the Normandy as a squadmate
In defeating Saren, she is formally exonerated and reinstated as a Gunnery Chief in the Alliance marines
If reinstated, she then cannot be recruited onto the Normandy in ME2 and similarly to Kaidan and Ashley on Horizon, will express her concerns over Shepard aiding Cerberus, but will continue to help from afar and provide intel from the Alliance during preparations to enter the Omega 4 Relay. When the Reaper War erupts pre-ME3, Bobbie will rejoin the crew of the Normandy and commit to the fight.
If she is not helped in ME1, she is not formally rewarded or reinstated when Saren's link to the Geth is confirmed and he attacks the Citadel. She loses contact with Avasarala and ends up back on Mars, where due to increasing unemployment on the planet as people continue to leave for habitable worlds beyond the Charon mass relay, Bobbie falls into operative work in Mars' black market. Her nationalism remains and she goes on to join Cerberus, where she can be encountered by and recruited by Shepard during ME2.
If recruited, her time among alien races helps her overcome her distrust of other species, and her loyalty mission involves being exonerated in the eyes of the Alliance. If this is achieved and she survives the Suicide Mission, she will leave the Normandy to begin N7 training prior to the Reaper War breaking out. She will then rejoin the crew of the Normandy in ME3
I'm keeping her early life a bit of a mystery still: from Nicole's drip marketing we know she was a child in Teyvat at some point in the past though there's still no confirmation that she's a Teyvat native
She remains tied to Teyvat as in her genshin canon, but as established recently in events and Nicole's character stories, she does visit other worlds and is responsible for Teyvat's "border," which is in effect a planetary version of airport security and is a physical space (thank you Nicole's character stories)
When she first left Teyvat, she traveled with Kleiner and Octavia, both Nameless, on board the Astral Express. The trio eventually parted with the Astral Express, but still consider themselves tied to the path of the Trailblaze,
and take an interest in the Express' adventures, even if from afar.
She then became a Masked Fool for a while, following the path of Elation, and took interest in all kinds of other factions and paths while learning about the wider cosmos (as well as learning about the Abyss). The Preservation is also a path that she takes a keen interest in, and is tied directly to her work at Teyvat's border.
Teyvat is not a planet widely known to the rest of the cosmos, and so most would know Alice as a member of the Hexenzirkel and former(ish) Masked Fool before they would know her as a Sustainer of Teyvat's border.
Late 1980s-1990sThis verse is set after the events of canon, assuming a happy ending where Robin and Steve achieve a clean break from Hawkins once Vecna is defeated and the Upside Down is destroyed for good. After (finally) completing her senior year and graduating from Hawkins High, Robin and Steve make the move to New York City. Robin starts a languages degree while also picking up a job as a tour guide in the city to help make ends meet.
OLDER POST CANON VERSE
1990s and beyond. This verse is flexible in terms of how old Robin is, but imagines a future for her where she works as a self-employed private investigator, picking up cases too peculiar, complicated or niche for ordinary law enforcement.
AGE OF SAIL VERSE
Paternal grandmother set sail for Americas from plague-torn Southern Italy in the mid 1600s, settling in Port Royal, Jamaica with a fellow immigrant merchant from England. Grandfather and father ran a moderately successful carpentry business in the city, mainly by refitting and repairing damaged ships that came in and out of the harbour. Both of Robin's parents had ambitions for their daughter to rise above their own modest station through an advantageous marriage, but for now she works with them at the shipwright in the harbour.
WWDITS VERSE
Robin is the director of the human team following the Staten Island coven of vampires, with the documentary being hers and college friend Jeremy Russek's brainchild. Whenever she is not ruining her sleep schedule by following the vampires around and agonising over editing together episodes that will not take her show off the air, Robin lives in her New York apartment with bff and roommate Steve Harrington, who she is desperately trying to keep away from this supernatural horror show part of her life.
Herta is not physically in Teyvat, but one of her puppets is and it lives in the Imaginarium Theatre under Wolfy's supervision. Herta abides by the same rule as the rest of the Hexenzirkel that she will help Mondstadt out in a crisis, but she is one of the least likely members of the Hexenzirkel to answer the call as she is a busy lady elsewhere in the cosmos. Teyvat is honestly just not a place she is interested in or particularly wants to get involved in, period.
This changes post-Amphoreus, because she is now confronted by the data remains she and Screwllum recovered from the scepter, the existence of <i>As I've Written</i>, and a nebula in the cosmos that could one day be reborn as Amphoreus. She admits herself in the epilogue that she doesn't really know <i>how</i> that rebirth may come about, but in exploring all of her options as to how this fledgling system might be protected from external forces, this is how Teyvat ( and how it is shielded from the abyss by the border which Alice sustains ) piques her interest.
If she is ever going to physically show up in Teyvat, it would be post-3.7, and it would be easy to coincide this with the events of Nod-Krai and unwittingly drag her into Events. I imagine in order to enter Teyvat, Herta would have to use a vision ( cryo, and likely the same one that her puppet possesses ) in place of her Erudition powers so as to not upset the fragile balance of the world. So she would be much less powerful than we know her to be within HSR canon, but on Genshin's scale she would be a powerful vision holder.
MASS EFFECT VERSE:
Madam Herta is a renowned ( if a little eccentric ) Earth scientist who works out of Herta Space Station, in orbit around the planet. She actively works with Arcturus Station and the Systems Alliance ( having formerly been a Scientific Advisor to the Alliance, these days being more of a celebrity ) on the defence of Earth as well as housing scientists from across the galaxy, regardless of species. Due to her own experimentation with element zero over the years, she does have biotic abilities. Her age is hotly contested; many believe that she must have discovered some hidden secrets deep in the galaxy to have maintained such a youthful appearance well into later life, whereas the reality is that, she was her own test subject and tried it first on herself, successfully resetting her biological clock.
Herta was born some time prior to humanity's discovery of Prothean technology on Mars and, shortly after this, was taken on by the Alliance as a scientific advisor and became an instrumental figure in understanding mass effect field technology and the discovery of Charon as a dormant mass relay.
Possesses a considerable fortune, collects weird and mysterious artifacts from across the galaxy and has a small army of robotic puppets that she can use as proxies in her place.
The technology that underpinned the Lazarus Project in ME2 came from her; given how much Cerberus were paying her she could not say no, even if she sees the group and the Illusive Man as deeply questionable.
Post-ME1, she is not convinced by the Citadel Council's explanation that the attack on the Citadel was the result of the Geth, and begins researching into the Reapers. By the end of ME2/ME3, she has successfully created a simulation of the Reapers' likely path of harvesting the galaxy, and she will happily aid Shepard and the crew of the Normandy with this during ME3.
furina is a nameless and a member of the astral express' crew.
if asked about her past before she joined the astral express, she will simply say that she comes from a sealed-off world from very far away, and won't tend to divulge anything further unless you know her very well. but as a narrator's note, everything about her canonical story remains intact in this verse
i haven't really landed yet on how any sort of powers would manifest in her in this verse. while she would follow the path of the trailblaze, i could see a few aeons showing interest in her ( namely the harmony and the remembrance ) but i could also see her being a little non-committal about THEM in return given her experience with divinity. this part is a work in progress but for now she is just working on adjusting and figuring things out. she'll go out and trailblaze but she's not combat-ready or a force to be reckoned with. just a girl with a lot of trauma but an enduring love for humanity and the human experience
this also means i could theoretically put her anywhere in the hsr universe, including any of the worlds visited so far, so wild suggestions are actively encouraged here
Robin's family tree began with a young Italian beauty called Franca de Felise, who immigrated to Clinton, Indiana in the late 19th century with her three brothers, all searching for a better life than the rural poverty they had grown up in and been orphaned by in Southern Italy. She went on to dazzle and marry an American carpenter, Thomas Buckley, for love a few years after arriving and the pair settled in a small town called Hawkins, where they had three children.
The eldest, Christian, grew up and made it his life mission to expand his father's business, branching out to Indianapolis where he met and fell for a young secretary in a passionate romance. However, when it came to the matter of marriage, her fiancé's insistence on being close to his mother in Hawkins following his father's death from ill health, as well as a looming pregnancy, meant that, for the young Susan Quincey, any high-flying career as a PA to a wealthy businessman in Manhattan or L.A was derailed. Almost overnight, she became a stay-at-home housewife, primarily responsible for looking after their new daughter Robin, born in March 1968.
Christian abandoned any plans to expand the family business so that he could remain close to his mother, and the family's finances took a hit. With his father gone, his focus was entirely on keeping the carpentry business afloat in Hawkins, which meant making certain sacrifices in order to keep his family fed. He could not be described as entirely absent from Robin's life (his mother had instilled the importance of family into him from a young age), but he would work long days and weekends throughout her childhood and the times he was around became very special to her. Despite these lengthy absences, Robin was always far closer to her father than she was to her mother.
Susan Buckley would never outwardly admit that she resented her daughter for robbing her of a successful career and life outside of the trappings of the mid-west, but the feeling would permeate nonetheless into the way Robin was treated. While at high school in Indianapolis, Susan had been top of her class, popular, and a cheerleader ---- completely normal, in other words. That made any initial signs that Robin was slow to develop as a toddler difficult to deal with: the story that she took six months longer to learn to walk than all of the other babies became one that was repeated over and over in Susan's social circle, and all of Robin's accomplishments (or lack thereof) as a child were constantly compared to her peers.
Robin's struggles with her coordination and social skills, as well as her loner attitude at elementary school, were issues that Susan believed could be solved by enrolling her daughter in extracurricular activities. Robin was given the choice of a sport and she picked the soccer team, which she continued to be a part of until her sophomore year of high school, and she was enrolled in marching band, where she learned the trumpet. She continued in marching band throughout her school career, giving her the comfortable label of band nerd that she embraced as her allotted place in the Hawkins High food chain. To deviate in any way from that label would be dangerous.
Robin's parents' marriage was not loveless, but it remained strained throughout her upbringing, with neither side willing to concede to divorce. Christian had been brought up to prioritise family as the most important thing in the whole world, and he would often be the one to concede and try to make things work between husband and wife, while Susan was too afraid of the reputational harm leaving her husband might cause. Instead, she sought to live vicariously through her daughter's achievements, which put extra strain on the relationship between mother and daughter as Robin never showed the desire nor aptitude (at least in her mind) for the kind of high-flying career that her mother had always wanted for herself.
Italian was spoken frequently whenever her uncles or nonna visited, and knowing that her family originated from Europe inspired Robin to take a particular interest in the learning of languages as a teenager, opting to teach herself French and Spanish with the aid of language tapes and dictionaries since the school system didn't offer the subjects as electives. As for her actual school subjects, the pressure from her mom ensured that Robin maintained a good enough GPA and grades across the board, although deep down she despised the rigid structure of the school system.
Expressing herself became a tightrope walk between keeping her mom happy and flying under the radar at school: where she couldn't physically escape from this town and its monotonous chokehold on all who lived here, movies and books took her to distant lands where things might be different. A disastrous attempt to audition for the school play made Robin resolve to stay in the background, helping out with set design behind the scenes. And then there was the matter of boyfriends, a topic of conversation so spectacularly uninteresting that Robin had to wonder whether she was simply wired differently to all of the other teenagers at Hawkins High.
As soon as she reached her sophomore year, Robin got her first job at the movie theatre in town, allowing her to somewhat alleviate her dad's financial concerns and begin raising the funds for what was her biggest rebellion to date: Operation Croissant. Her plan to run away to Europe didn't quite work out the way she planned, but she still plans to leave Hawkins one day --- even if it means enduring a whole summer working at Scoops Ahoy alongside Steve Harrington.
Choices throughout Origins will typically stay the same except for a divergence at the Landsmeet to account for two separate verses / world states that I will typically write in: one where Alistair rules alone, and one where Anora rules alone and Alistair remains with the wardens. However, in the verse where Alistair becomes king, Val does not become his mistress.
Mages supported at the Circle Tower
Isolde and Connor alive, desire demon defeated
Peace brokered between werewolves and Dalish
Anvil destroyed, Harrowmont supported to be king
Urn of Sacred Ashes not defiled
Romanced Alistair ( default )
All companions remain friendly, alive, personal quests completed
Dark ritual completed, Valyssa and Alistair survive
BIOGRAPHY.
Valyssa's father was Atsas Mahariel, Keeper of the Sabrae clan of Dalish elves for many years prior to Marethari. He fell in love with Elonne, a young Dalish hunter from another clan, and the two were forced to suffer a tragic Romeo and Juliet-esque courtship, with Elonne's elders not approving of the match due to Atsas' more open attitude towards trading and conversing with humans who passed through the forest. Where the Sabrae clan, under his leadership, understood the need of the Dalish to adapt in order to survive in a world where their culture was rapidly disappearing, Elonne's elders stubbornly clung to their past and their historical distrust of the races who had destroyed their way of life.
During one of these secret trysts, the pair of lovers were ambushed by bandits ( comprised of both humans and city elves ), with Atsas mortally wounded as a result. Elonne, who was carrying Atsas' child, fled to the Sabrae clan, where she remained until she gave birth to Valyssa. Wracked by grief and guilt for her part in Atsas' death, she then disappeared into the forest, abandoning Valyssa, never to be seen again.
The truth of her parentage was always kept from Valyssa, who only knew that her parents had both died when she was very young. She was brought up by Ashalle, who became her guardian and the closest thing she had to a mother figure. Following Atsas' death, Marethari took up the role of Keeper and had the clan retreat even further into the forest. The attack by humans and city elves had only proven that a more open dialogue with outsiders was dangerous for their survival, and forced the clan inward.
Val was a quick-witted and impulsive child, but was schooled into becoming one of the clans most adept hunters as she approached adulthood. She took Andruil as her vallaslin, and dedicated herself to the Dalish philosophy of Vir Tanadhal ( the way of three trees ), the code of all hunters. There were three tenets: Vir Assan, the way of the arrow ( fly straight and do not waver ), Vir Bor'Assan, the way of the bow ( bend but never break ), and Vir Adahlen, the way of the forest/wood ( receive the gifts of the hunt with mindfulness ). This teaching helped curbed some of Val's more impulsive behaviours.
As her adolescence progressed, she became very close to one of her fellow hunters, Tamlen. The pair became inseparable, but at his point Val did not truly understand the depth of her feelings for him.
After encountering a group of humans snooping near to their clan, Val makes the decision to let them go, and to seek out the ruins they spoke of. When Tamlen is seemingly killed by the Blighted mirror that they find, and Marethari announces her intentions to leave the forest in the fear that the humans would return to sack their camp, Val holds herself personally responsible for the fates of the only family she knows.
But that was to say nothing of her own fate. Mortally wounded by the blighted eluvian in the ruins, she is rescued by a passing Grey Warden, Duncan, and it is explained that the only way she can survive her injuries is to become a Warden herself. The role of the Grey Wardens is to fight darkspawn, corrupted, tainted creatures who usually dwell underground in the remains of the Dwarven kingdoms. Duncan had approached Clan Sabrae to conscript and recruit: a Blight was coming, and it was only the Grey Wardens who could fight the oncoming hoards of darkspawn without succumbing to their corruption, because they themselves carried the same taint in their bloodstream.
A Blight began whenever a darkspawn tainted one of the Old Gods, sleeping dragons who are revered and worshipped by many throughout Thedas, specifically in Tevinter. These beings would head for the surface, bringing an army with them. Grey Wardens were needed, and quickly.
Val learns of her parentage mere hours before leaving the camp with Duncan, but it only fuels her initial resentment towards him for ripping her from her home and his obtuseness regarding Tamlen's fate. She goes with him because Keeper Marethari tells her it is the only way for her to survive but, despite the battle about to be fought at Ostagar, she remains bitter.
Ostagar changes everything.
From the Tower of Ishal, where she and Alistair are instructed by King Cailan of Ferelden to light beacons to signal to Loghain Mac Tir's forces, Val witnesses the slaughter of Duncan and the Grey Warden forces. Loghain does not come to their aid despite his promises, and King Cailan is killed. Ferelden is cast into civil war and uncertainty, and only two Ferelden Grey Wardens remain, Val and another new recruit, Alistair Theirin, who later reveals himself to be the bastard son of King Cailan, a human with a legitimate claim now to the throne of the nation.
But politics are not yet Val's concern. She sees only a human man grieving over the loss of his mento Duncan, the denouncement of Grey Wardens as traitors by Loghain as he seizes control of the Ferelden, and an Archdemon who will continue to ravage the country with its darkspawn forces if nothing is done to stop it. Val and Alistair are now the only ones who can stop the Blight and, in the face of staggering odds, they set out to do something about it.
One beacon of hope survived from the Battle of Ostagar, and that was the ancient treaties that influential groups in Ferelden had signed many years ago ( the dwarves of Orzammar, the Mage Circle, the Dalish elves ) to promise their support should another Blight return to the country. And so the two of them begin a quest to recruit these forces to their cause, building an army of their own that can withstand the Archdemon and the darkspawn.
By the time Val and Alistair reach Denerim, she has become one of the most influential individuals in Ferelden. She had successfully saved the mages at the Circle Tower, defeated the desire demon holding Redcliffe Castle hostage, brokered peace between the werewolves and the Dalish, and supported a new king of Orzammar. Teyrn Loghain can no longer ignore her even if he wanted to, and she becomes an instrumental figure in the Landsmeet, a political meeting of Ferelden nobles intended to choose a new monarch.
In the arc where Val chooses Alistair to be king, he helps lead the charge against the Archdemon at the final battle in Denerim and then assumes the throne, the pair breaking off any romantic feelings they might have developed for one another in the process. In the arc where Val supports Loghain's daughter, Anora, she leads the charge and then Ferelden into a new era of peace.
As for Val, her heroic efforts earn her the respect of the entire kingdom, and the position of Warden Commander. She moves to Amaranthine, lands previously owned by the traitorous Howe family but now handed over, and makes her base of operations Vigil's Keep, a fortress that she restores from the ground up. She has a respected position over others ( even humans treat her with reverence and courtesy now ), a castle of her own, a command and the duty of the Wardens to uphold, but she has lost plenty in the process. If her former lover sits on the throne, she mourns his loss no matter the companionship of those around her who helped her stop the Blight.
And no matter the arc, she loses her heritage, and that which makes her Dalish. Upon learning that the Sabrae Clan had relocated to the Free Marches, a political trip to Kirkwall coincides with an awkward visit to her former people. Much has changed and, above all, she has changed, and as the world of Thedas continues to be fraught with strife... a mage revolt, a breach in the sky, the Dreadwolf... Val's role as a dutiful hero is not quite over yet.
But, in the background, a quiet desire. A quiet wish. A way to stop the Calling, the pull of the taint in Grey Wardens' blood towards the darkspawn, something that grows louder with age and eventually signals them to last heroic stand in the Deep Roads. If Alistair remains as a Warden rather than a King, it is an urge for happiness, for a family, that spurs Val down a more personal path.
Aimee doesn't just come from a rich family, but from a lineage that dates back to the landed gentry. Her father, Nathaniel (Nathan for short) was the heir apparent to land that his family had owned in the English midlands for hundreds of years, and had been raised as many of the upper class are: educated at Eton, taught to hunt and play polo, and expected to engage in pursuits that upheld the family tradition.
But Nathan had always been a rebel, uninterested in the static and often backwards thinking that came from his family and the better part of the British Establishment. He endured his schooling, but spent plenty of time in the city among those poorer, more unfortunate and yet way more interesting than he was. He listened to rock and roll, experimented with drugs, and witnessed for himself the huge disparity between the life that he came from, and the social unrest that was present in everyday life. A part of him wanted to use his family's resources to try to change it.
He didn't only wish to rebel politically, however: he also met the daughter of a sailor, Arabella (Bella for short) during his time in London, and his family's disapproval of their romance only increased his disillusionment with his parents. Posed with an ultimatum to either end things with his girlfriend or be cut off from the family fortune, Nathan made the decision to cut ties himself. He took on his fiance's last name when the pair were married, becoming Nathan Gibbs and shrugging off the classist ties of his past.
Bella, however, was not quite as happy about this as she might have appeared to her new husband. From a poor, working class background in London as she was, marriage to Nathan would have meant that she'd never need to worry about money ever again. Instead, the newlyweds both ended up hard on their luck, and Bella would always harbour some bitterness for her husband cutting off his family's fortune.
The pair still settled and had two children, Sam and Aimee. Nathan, intent on being better than his parents, and using his expensive education for the purposes of good, trained to become a barrister, and eventually passed the bar and began practicing the law in London. The commute from Manchester was difficult, and so the couple were starting to look at moving closer to the city.
The family's finances benefitted from Nathan's new job, allowing Bella to continue life as a housewife and mother for a while. But the real surprise came several years later, when Nathan's parents passed away. Despite excommunicating himself from his family, Nathan was still the sole heir to his parents' inheritance. He presumes that in their advanced years they desired to make amends and seek forgiveness. As money was all they knew, this was how they decided to do it.
They were therefore able to buy a country home in the small village of Moordale. Much of Nathan's parents possessions and prized art was moved to the home ( as per Bella's request ) and Bella finally had the life that she'd always dreamed of. She bought expensive clothes, changed her accent so that assumptions might not be made of her social class, and began to engage in expensive hobbies. She encouraged this same kind of materialism in her children, though was more successful with her daughter Aimee, who was 10 at the time.
With her father absent working most of the time, and her mother growing increasingly preoccupied with appearances, Aimee's behaviour slowly began to change in order to match. Where she had enjoyed a childhood friendship with fellow student Maeve Wiley upon first moving to Moordale, puberty hit and she began to experiment with clothes, and makeup, and hair — and boys. By the age of 14, Aimee had pierced the social bubble of the Untouchables, the most popular clique in school, with her friendship with Maeve made a reluctant secret.
James McGraw's story starts with his father, William, who grew up in Padstow in North Cornwall. William's father was a fisherman who worked in what was a bustling, if small port town, but his son had far greater reaching ambitions than merely running a fishing trawler for the rest of his life and being squeezed out of his hard earned profits by cavalier city merchants. Learning all he could about the sea and ships during his youth, William left for Plymouth as soon as he was old enough, scrounging for food and lodgings during the first few weeks until he signed on to a Royal Navy vessel out of the port.
Without a formal education, William could not advance much further than that of a carpenter's mate, utilising his knowledge of ships from his own father's business to help out the carpenter already qualified on board. But he enjoyed the prospect of sailing the world, and was sociable enough: he made plenty of friends on board, including the captain, Samuel Hennessey. The two struck such a close bond that they would frequently spend time together during their shore leave too; Samuel was the one to introduce William to his future wife, Laura, and was as eager as his friend to meet their firstborn son, James, when he came along nearly a year later.
When the young James was nearly twelve, the first tragedy struck their small family: William died at sea during a shipboard fray. His wife was financially compensated for the loss, as many sailors' widows were, but when Hennessey returned to Plymouth to pay her and her son a visit, he was dismayed by what he found. Laura was in poor health herself, having not taken the loss of her husband well, and deteriorated even further in the days that followed. Hennessey was with her when she passed, and now had the unenviable task of determining what to do with their orphaned boy. He did not know whether William's parents were still living in Padstow, and Laura too had no surviving relatives. In order to give the boy the best future possible, Hennessey took him under his wing, and James began a career in the Royal Navy himself, starting as a cabin boy.
It was during these early years that Hennessey tutored James privately, teaching him literacy, as well as more practical skills that were useful on board a ship, and encouraging him to read widely. It was this head start, as well as Hennessey's own respect and sway within the ranks, that led to James rising quickly, despite his low social station. By his mid-twenties, he became a midshipman for the first time, and six years later he finally attained the position of lieutenant, marking him as an officer with a bright future.
But such a ambitious career trajectory and desire to make something of himself had its drawbacks. James learned very quickly that, once noticed by his naval superiors, he invited scrutiny in to all aspects of his life. From his perceived lack of culture as the lowborn son of a carpenter ( there were plenty of his comrades who wondered why he was given so much of Hennessey's time, particularly as the latter rose towards the rank of Admiral ), to the way he carried himself and even his preferences, James became acutely aware of managing how he was perceived by others. Certain experiences were cut short and never spoken of, and James moulded effortlessly — or so it seemed — to the role that was required of him.
Amidst the backdrop of a war with Spain and a failing colony in the Caribbean as the port of Nassau is overtaken by outlaws, James is assigned by Admiral Hennessey to the son of Lord Alfred Hamilton, Thomas and his wife, Miranda, as a liaison to the admiralty. Thomas, a known radical, intends to make waves in the political landscape of the growing British Empire by proposing a plan to reclaim Nassau and eradicate the pirate issue on the island. In doing so he will also unknowingly remake James McGraw, and send him down a path that will, over the following ten years, turn him into Captain James Flint, feared pirate operating out of Nassau itself.
