he’d been talking to himself, and he knew it— not uncommon though, to find the gravekeeper wandering around, a bumbling mishmash of under-the-breath mumbles. “i saaaid——” he prolonged the syllable, taking the seat across from jude with a red bull in hand. “fire or water? the great debate, age old question, right? is it worse to drown or burn?” nice morbid idle chat over lunch in the staff quarters. lunch consisting of caffeine and hardly much else. what a delight! “not many people can ever really answer that question.” a punctual jab of his brow upwards, insinuating that it was somehow the cross they bore. “for science, man.” justification.
he’d A L M O S T be willing to state the blatantly obvious lack of relevance such a question had in regard to anything; it wasn’t epiphany worthy and it certainly didn’t draw him into having to change his system of beliefs and stated opinions but he’d bite — what were friends for if not that. “ It’s gotta be worse to burn, ” by the assumption of the situation in which this would be a set option, if death came in some unexpected or aggressive fashion he’d certainly attest to the idea that being left to suffer in agony wasn’t something he’d want or something he’d wish on his worst enemy ( if only because his worst enemy had kids ). “ burning and dying from that takes hours but drowning happens quicker...— doesn’t affect my overall choice but I like to remind myself of the stakes at hand. ” maybe he was a little bias but also hardly bias at all given that his answer probably went completely against what was expected of his species. “ water. ” there was the psychological answer he could offer out but he was happy to stick with the idea that water greatly benefitted something he’d been attuned to in school and therefore his bias seemed fitting in an unquestionable way.
“ i couldn’t decide between pizza, fried chicken, and chinese food, so i got a little bit of everything. DON’T ASK ME HOW. i think i blacked out somewhere between PJ’s wings & things and the chinese place. ” he puts down three very heavy bags filled with takeaway on the counter, a sheepish look on his face. all this because he couldn’t decide, or couldn’t remember, which was jude’s favorite. “ the girls are at track practice, so we might actually get some of the lo mein this time. ” last time he’d opened the container only to see a sticky note with the poop emoji drawn onto it. underneath it had said SORRY SUCKER. ( kit was nothing if not predictable. ) he leans forward, glancing over at him with amusement before he continues. “ – are we eating at the table like CIVILIZED people, or am i dragging this into the bedroom ? ” @rcignsinfire
“ you’re gonna make me choose? ” something of a W A R M and a rather chaste expression seemed to idly take hold of his features; yes he’s firmly aware of his feelings but there is a rather blissful and soft reminder that tends to LEAP forward when his husband comes clambering in with enough take out to feed a street. Granted maybe the very fact it happens to be food aids those reminders in every soft and pleasing way imaginable — he enjoys being fed. “ this is a buffet and I’m having a bit of everything BUT I am happy to eat it off your head if you’d like to wear any of it as a hat. ” a teasing grin that seems to form for a moment, certainly briefly washed away by the twinge of pain that presented itself as Alfred biting his ankle for the attention he’d certainly be lacking until the girls got back from practice. There’s a pause to chuckle as he swooped the cat up, hoping the gesture to ease Alfred’s rather frustrating diva attitude wouldn’t lead into any arm biting ( his ankles were already walking cat bites ). “ uh — I don’t think we know what that word means, ” a pause for dramatic effect and certainly, to let himself be amused by the notion of them doing ANYTHING civilized that wasn’t teaching...even then he was certain there were times in which it would often take a back seat then. The thought counted at least, drawn back from the place he’d found in his thoughts with the desired effort to lay Alfred on his husband's head with the advantage of a seemingly innocent peck to the lips. “ I’ll drag the food and you can deal with Alfredo, ” another glowing smirk across his lips. “ as always, I appreciate your existence. ”
she likes jude. at first, she might’ve thought he and her father were an odd pair. but she’s grown to realise that he’s a good guy, a good fit for their family, even. she still thinks he’s odd, but she’s come to know it’s because he is. no offence. she likes odd people and he just happens to be one of them. “ i can see that you and your muffin are very happy together. ” it’s a good looking muffin, sure. she wouldn’t write sonnets about it, but she would snatch it if she were any worse of a person. “ dad was asking if you want take out. ” she isn’t quite to the point of calling him dad numero dos yet. it’s an adjustment. “ he offered to cook again. which, ” she grimaces and her face reads game over, “ literally never ends well. i think we should just get pizza. ” the way she drops the next part of the message, all her own, is important. it has to be casual, nonchalant. ( jude and ansem have been together for long enough now. this shouldn’t matter. but it does. ) “ kit’s coming over so i’m casting her vote for her. ” not for dinner, never for dinner, but coming over none the less.
there’s a certain C O M F O R T in the normalcy of things and people: the way they worked and the way everything certainly seemed to fit together in a jigsaw formation that just...WORKED. Was he always so obvious in regard to those comforts? no, not in the slightest because in spite of what people may believe he liked who he was — including his eccentric annoyed at the world and ( most of ) the people in it personality. He was who he was although there was something to be said about the ease in which it took to laugh at her comment, the way in which came as no hardship to recognize his step kid because such bluntness had become a welcomed trait if anything. He finds it better to not question the lengths in which things matter or, at the very least, WHY they matter because that tended to mean opening a can of worms about abandonment issues and the depravity of contact. His mother was someone he thought of often because maybe there will always be a sadness in his mother dying long before anything REMOTELY happy had happened to him ( if the being in charge was walking the earth he’d almost certainly believe it was his brother playing a cruel trick ). There’s the crack of a smile, something rare and certainly obtained by those who he had certainly allowed to see past his often guarded and solemnly grim appearing side. “ his attempts are at least, ” looking for the right words as he slid the muffin over, mostly because he had certainly been given the image of pizza and that wiped out all need for chocolatey goods. “ endearing. ” that thought at least made his features softer for a moment as if he’d floated off into some irrelevant and rather crass thought. “ I want to say your dad isn’t hopeless in the kitchen but we don’t have time to fly in some Italian chef — I support the pizza. ” maybe just because he was a bitch for cheese. There was always questions he wanted to ask, granted knowing the mind of an eighteen-year-old he wasn’t sure he ever quite wanted to push the boundaries and ruin the understanding they had so far; Alfred would be DEVASTATED and if there was one general principle he had in life, it was keeping his cat happy. “ how is everything with you and her? ” basically a soft and subtle way of asking the age-old question of if she was happy because that MATTERED.
in a continued A T T E M P T to remain as functional as possible, he’d found himself with yet another shot of espresso and a mug of herbal tea; it was safe to say his grumpy and often underlying mood was going to only progressively get worse with age and he wasn’t sure anyone deserved to be at the back end of that when it happened — not even the students that got on his nerves. in hindsight ( and a fair point made by his mother back when she was alive ), he’d probably be a far more sociable person if he made ANY effort to eat better and find himself with a better sleep schedule. “ I’m gonna be honest, ” he hummed at the very fact he had taken a note of the other’s presence but alas, his brain wasn't functioning and he wasn’t ENTIRELY sure he’d taken half of what they’d said in. “ I was VERY distracted by this muffin and in my defense, it’s a fantastic looking muffin but yeah...— you’re gonna have to repeat that. ”
( jake gyllenhaal, 40/89, he/him ) class is in session for JUDE OLIVANDER MONTAGUE. their resume says they’re a PHOENIX and they’ve been teaching NECROMANCY at the academy for THIRTY YEARS . the psychological report says they are EVASIVE and CRASS, but they’re also ECCENTRIC and MOTIVATED. we wish them good luck in the new school year.
PT ONE: Understanding and drawing power from living things such as the earth and nature; to understand what it is to control death you must understand life first.
— The composition of living organisms and the way magic can be drawn from them.
— using plants and smaller organisms as practice of this skill — controlling the growth of a plant or organism in order to understand the necessary key points in control over the living.
— understanding the ethical and moral implications and laws to apply to the idea that every cause has a reaction and a consequence.
PT TWO: The way the body changes following death.
— drawing from what has already been learned comes a detailed understanding of the way the body shuts down and decays. ( will include the practice of watching an organism die ).
— then comes the practice of using magic in order to cause said decay and wilting of a plant or organism to make note of the difference between drawing from life force and taking it away.
— understanding the balance the world demands from death and or life magic.
PT THREE: drawing from death and understanding that a dead organism flows within the system of the earth and that in most scenarios death in many ways equals life.
— studying the patterns necessary to understand the magic required to control said organism including resisting and practicing hand movements along with a produced example ( done by the teacher and and student advanced enough ).
— creating an orb of light drawn from the magic the is now pulled from the death of the organism.
This is the general thesis for years 1-7 following these understandings each year progresses onto a bigger organism, a bigger plant, and specimens such as toads or spiders. Years 8 through 10 will learn the more detailed art of control over the dead as listed below;
— understanding the history of Necromancy, both the darker and lighter sides as to show both the good and bad sides of such an art.
— understanding the spell work necessary and practicing the correct pronunciation; there is a complicated pattern to the way necromancy is done it’s hard to control the dead in the correct way without understanding all of it.
— a demonstration on a brief control over a specimen, with the request that the class attempt to keep there own moving and/or showing motor functions for at least 30 seconds.
— a brief mock exam on everything learned so far.
— once a student has mastered motor functions for at least 30 seconds, next will be the art of perfecting it for longer as if the dead specimen can once again function and/or walk around.
— understanding the spirit world and the way that can be used as a fuel to make the dead function for longer granted a brief demonstration and a closely watched practice regarding the subject is iffy to get too into.
— compulsion over half-dead things and their implications e.g. the effect in which it has on the mind should said attempt go wrong.
— a demonstration over the compulsion of a living organism to demonstrate the cause of both correct compulsion and incorrect compulsion ( specimen used in this scenario will be healed afterward ).
— a final attempt and mock examination over the students understanding regarding both necromancy as a whole and the use in which it is capable of good ( applies only to the 10th years but can be adjusted for advanced 9th years )
( jake gyllenhaal, 40/89, he/him ) class is in session for JUDE OLIVANDER MONTAGUE. their resume says they’re a PHOENIX and they’ve been teaching NECROMANCY at the academy for THIRTY YEARS . the psychological report says they are EVASIVE and CRASS, but they’re also ECCENTRIC and MOTIVATED. we wish them good luck in the new school year.
how did your muse become their species? were they born or made?
born.
( teachers ) is your muse an arcanas alumni? if yes, what house?
yes, house mentioned above.
was your muse recruited or did they enroll on their own accord?
enrolled on their own as a student and joined the teaching staff willingly later on in life.
what would your muse do if they found out that the zanzara orb was stolen from the armory?
report it to the headmaster as well as try to learn more regarding who would’ve stolen it and why.
BIO:
Jude was born 89 years ago as the result of his mother’s affair with a man named Alistair Longmire, a Phoenix and a witch who practiced dark magic only to die consumed by it. Jude never got to meet his real father and was fairly fine with it given the reluctance to fall into the same habits as him.
His mother Antoinette Michaels married the man Jude would consider a true father for business purposes Nathaniel Montague was kind enough and the man who funded his money into beginning a business for the protection of witches and humans alike: a security task force of trained witches of any species and respected the idea of equality even weaving that into not only Jude ( the youngest ) but Jude’s older brother Charles whom Jude grew up in a feud with because their parents tended to favor Jude as the one who would eventually take over the business.
Prior to attending Arcanas Jude knew a brief amount of magic given that his parents and extended family tended to use it day to day, granted it wasn’t controlled and he did find himself accidentally blowing up and object or two in the early days which his brother would tell their Parents about to get him in trouble.
Charles was the first to attend Arcanas being two years older than Jude, Jude, of course, witnessed his brother’s struggle and then rise in popularity before he eventually attended and found himself sorted into Terberis ( earth ) house and didn’t have the same luck his brother did; he suspected it had something to do with rumors his brother passed around but it didn’t matter all too much because he did make one friend in his first days there.
James was someone Jude wondered upon, he was getting picked on and Jude stepped in and took the brunt of their attempts to harm James and from that point, they became fast friends; Jude truly found himself needing few others.
Jude was the top of his class for the majority of his subjects, granted that only heightened the fights between him and his brother.
By fifteen he recognized his feelings for James, though nothing ever came of them given that in the one opportunity he’d had to say something he hadn’t and then James went MIA and Jude was left none the wiser. He didn’t know if his friend was dead or had simply been transferred elsewhere but regardless it made him cold and closed off.
He kept to himself up until graduating Arcanas and found himself working briefly in a funeral parlor briefly, living an hour away from the home he grew up in with his cat Alfred and his paintings.
By the time his father was preparing to hand over the business, he met someone whom he let in for the first time in a long time and he did love this person until the truth came out. His brother had plotted with this person to be a distraction for Jude until his brother could get him in the right place at the right time and attempt to kill him ( because he certainly didn’t know what Jude was ).
At 25 he discovered he was a phoenix, he found himself sickened by his brother’s choices but their father’s business didn’t seem worth the hassle of fighting with his brother until they both found themselves old and alone. He allowed his brother the business on the promise of minimal contact and so that was settled.
He jumped around job-wise, had found himself at the jaws of death a few times before he would resurrect and by 48 he had decided that his role in life was to teach and help kids who were like himself or those he had known in the past.
PRESENT:
Became friends with Ansem over having mutual family issues in common and started out as drinking buddies until Ansem eventually made a move. They began seeing one another eventually ( recently too ) tied the knot and have been working through the starting place of married life; Ansem, his daughter Jade and by extension Kit and her cat Jessica moved into his haunted house.
CONNECTIONS:
Students he gets along with and who ask for extra work because they’re more advanced than their year ( 0/2 ).
Students who are in Terberis/Phoenix’s and whom he keeps a watchful eye on ( 0/5 ).
Teachers & Staff, he is friendly towards and drinks with ( Clayton & ( open ) ).
Staff or Teachers, he happened to be friends with when he attended Arcanas ( limited to Vampires or those that have extended their aging ).
His niece & nephew, a wanted connection but they’re the kids of the brother he hates and who once tried to kill him. So he hasn’t completely met them but would be aware of them attending Arcanas ( 0/2 ).
He has a dark aesthetic, something gothic but formal.
He has a home in Aurora but also lives at the school when its easier as far as work goes.
His name means praised as his mother named him in regard to the favoritism she and his father held over him.
He had two older brothers: one who died working for their father and a second that really fucked Jude over.
Being that he is the result of an affair, it should be known his family were witches and his mother hadn’t died of unnatural causes to trigger being a phoenix. It had been a family secret so hence why it came as a bit of a shock to his brother when he tried to kill him,
He’s pansexual but has mostly been with men, his last relationship was however with a woman but it didn’t end nicely and left him with a few issues.
He has a scar from when he took the brunt of the physical violence his friend would’ve received from when he was eleven, it most spans the upper part of his back and is faded.
He has a cat, which is the 3rd he’s had over his life so far.
He has a younger niece and nephew that he’s never met.
He likes to paint and is pretty good at it.
He presently has been using magic to extend his life span, given that phoenixes can still age and die of natural causes.
He has a very mild Irish accent which mostly comes out when he’s angry.
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