I never thought of Alpha x Perpetua but it hasn’t left my mind so I thought I’d draw them using one of @kabukiaku’s story of them as a reference which by the way if anyone’s been treating @kabukiaku’s tomodachi posts (reference under the cut) as their new show then know that I am right there with you… anyway here they are in all their fledgling lineless artsyle glory
*SFW:PG13:*mentions pet loss, vet office/needles, blood, allusion to death not specified*
"...That is the Rollercoaster, that is life..." -Papa IV
🌌🕊🌨⚘️🐀✨️🦇🫲🙂↕️🫱🦇✨️🪦🥀🌨🪽🌌
Secondo lifted Copia's chin, "That rat was a mean old one eyed bastard who was a danger to himself and others, and yet you loved that little shit so much you cared as best you could and loved him to the end..."
The vet office was quiet aside form the muffled sounds of kenneled animals. A box of tissues sat on the table looking lonely on the stainless steel slab, where an empty rat cage lay open and unoccupied.
Pirate the rat had been wonderful until one day he snapped. He bit Copia's thumb so hard, Copia's blood had spurt in time with his thundering heartbeat. Secondo looked down at the thumb now, where grew a deep scar that still looked pink, and frowned.
Primo wanted to release him as a garden rat, liking the idea of a pasturing rat belonging to his wildflower. 'Tersero' had suggested sending it to a sanctuary. Secondo, however, called for it to be put down. Young Copia had put off his decision, until he couldn't anymore... Such a weight to carry at 11 years old,having to be responsible for life and death. He never wanted that burden. And yet it seemed one that wanted to land on him anyway... unfortunately, fate would intervene for the little creature - and at his old age, he broke his leg falling in his cage for which copia blamed himself... he was too old to save. Too tired. And too damn mean.
*The pet had become a menace, with Copia having to resort to shooing him into a bucket trap, just to clear out the cage and keep it clean. And Pirate with his one eye would launch himself against the cage in feral screeches and squeaking, repeatedly bitting at the bars and not letting go even if someone simply walked by. God forbid their hair or clothes get to close. Its aggression was unsuitable, and contributed to making his own life miserable, to be trapped and moved and towel-wrapped...the poor little beast.*
Copia looked up at Secondo, who was his reluctant guardian for today. Tasked with accompanying the boy to the vet, to "put that vermin down." As Seestor so emphatically put it. She never would forgive 'the little monster' for injuring her boy. Nihil, just indifferently didnt give a fuck. Go figure...
And while Secondo may not have been a good babysitter, being hard in his exterior as a young man, when he heard one of Copia's little pets (pests) had bitten him and sent the boy crying down the hall bleeding, it was everything in him not to immediately rush into Copia's room and snatch up the wretched animal himself and dispatch it to feed to his pet snake, for the boy's sake... yet even as Copia looked in Secondos eyes, the boy asked a difficult question that gave him pause...
"Secondo... do, do rats go to heaven?"
The silence felt worse now that the little animals body was being taken to the next room to the vet to be given the final shot to the heart that would make it stop forever.
"I don't know... I don't know if animals go to heaven when they die"
"Oh." Copia said softly. His little leather shoes kicked gently off the ground, he was too short to touch the floor on the bench. The boy had arrived with his guardian, knowing he may have to be ready to say goodbye to his pet, and he wanted to make sure he looked proper to go to the vet, dressed to appear a responsible pet owner. He was afraid of the kind of unsolicited advice and rebukes of the grown-ups he was used to encountering, he was keenly aware of the potential judgement he might face, bringing in his rat to perhaps be told it must die... Though one deep glare from Secondo at the check in counter shut that down quickly. The man stood like a giant guard dog to the boy who's nose barely peaked over the high reception desk as he reached his little gloved hands to set the cage up, "like a big boy should".
Secondo woukd not do this for him though. He felt it was important for the boy to face this experience head-on... the first death of many the boy would ever face in his life, though annoyed with having to be the one to do this instead of a parent, Secondo prayed a person was not next. It was better for him to chauffeur the kid who asked hard questions he didn't even want to know the answers to himself, than hear spiteful opinions and unsolicited pity from somone else... And so, while he 'voluntold', Second would rather do it than not. At least the knew the boy wouldn’t be coddled from the experience.
Primo was always busy either tending his dark flock or his garden. Terzo, as usual, off somewhere or getting into trouble. Secondo wanted nothing more than to be left to his sciences and devices, his books, his charcoals, his poetry writing. His quiet hermit-like behavior gladly earned him a reputation of "being available" for errands like this. He was sure he'd have to grab a shovel later to make a tiny grave somewhere...
Yet even as he tilted Copia's chin up to him, he realized the words leaving his mouth came from somewhere deeper than his usual portrayed indifference. It came from that secret place people didn't often see, "Bambino, it is ok to be sad about it. It is OK to grieve. Grief is what happens when love has nowhere to go; it is the perseverance of love, and you have so much of it to give. You are good to be kind merciful to a creature like, like that." he said tensely, trying not to be a total dick. The kid looked skeptical and looked at Secondo up and down. Copia was young, but he knew when adults were just saying things, things they didn't mean to make themselves feel better. Secondo could see the gears of doubt turning, that he wasn't quite reaching the boy. He sighed.
*What would Primo say?...*
Primo, ever patient and wise seemed to almost always know what to say to inspire righteous anger for the ungodly, or be a balm of comfort in the midst of someone'sBabylon... and his sentiments, from a time not that long ago, echoed in Secondo's at that moment. The eldest brother's words, Secondo's only older brother, touched Secondo's heart then, "Kindness , compasison, love for even the most humble of the earth's creatures. Now that, that, is a good seed. That is the seed to water." Primo had said, with a hint of admiration. The words shared between the brothers was when Copia decided to keep Pirate in a cozy cage instead of in the wilds of The Ministry gardens as Primo had first suggested.
But fuck. The kid loved the mean little bastard so much, it was hard to truly despise it. Still, the matter at hand remained. A young boy, was becoming a young man, and that is no easy thing. Secundo wanted to listen to his own big brother about how to handle this situation, pursing his lips, wondering in what way he hoped the boy might listen to what he had to say...
It was because Copia felt guilty; if the poor creature found itself in a trap or something else's meal, or a victim of the elements, it would be an 'end undeserving', as Copia's lack of attention, and resulting blindness on the rat's part, would have been the reason for it.
*Pirate had lost an eye while in Copia's care and it wasn't noticed until it was too late because Copia could barely get close enough to that damn cage, for the vermin to come charging like a little deamon hell bent on drawing blood.*
"Carry that love in your heart where that loss lived. It won't replace anything, but it will keep your heart full. Even if only for yourself, you can't pour from an empty glass, si?"
He set his other hand on the boy's shoulder, turning from the bench on his toes to kneel in front of the seated little deacon, to get on his level and make this moment stick. He felt it surging from his consciousness, and it tasted like an ill omen, as much as it tasted like a blessing. Something he wished, more than anything, was true.
Copia looked down at his empty lap where his hands twitched nervously. Like he was stimming. The boy was skittish and hid his hands under his thighs, and Secondo realized he had only just noticed it.
*had he really been so blind?*
"Love transcends death, and time. Listen to me bambini, you will never, never walk alone."
There was a momentary pause where Copia chewed his lip anxiously, hanging on to the surly man's words.
"Like, like ghosts? Do you beleive in ghosts?" Copia asked, his eyes pleading, his lashes wet with tears trying not to shed.
*this was a moment wasn't it. When a boy becomes a man, having to face a world where he must be brave, must not cry, must hold on to something bigger than himself*
It was a truth that made Secondo tired and broken, angry, enraged even, for he knew this life and this pain, this moment for himself, having lost his best friend, Rafaél, last summer... Somone he loved dearly. Somone he truly cared about and missed. Somone who one day, it seemed, snapped and couldn't hold on long enough to see his 21st birthday... was his ghost really so damned? The pain of such a tragic loss had made Secondo cold and recluse. He had shut out the world wherever he could, looking for a reason his best friend might have done something so awful... It had killed anything left of the child inside, leaving only a stoic young man in its place, with much fewer friends and even fewer dreams to believe in...
Secondo's face softend, the sympathy in his face making the skull makeup he wore intense and saddened. "No, not like ghosts, because well, ghosts, they can be anything" he sighed, trying to recover as he shook his head, trying to re focus, "Allot of times they're just wishes. Energy we name to be of comfort -" but he knew that wasn't what the boy wanted to hear. He knew the boy wasn't ready for such a hard truth.
*was it really for him, at this moment, to crush the dreams of one so young?*
*what if it spoiled something in him, what if Secondo's words, right now, were to influence this innocent into choosing a life in the world of the damned, where the likes of a child's unconditional love for a wretched thing, didn’t belong...*
*Let him dream a little longer. Let the kid hold that innocence a little longer. Even if it only is ever pretend...*
*He did. By all that was unholy and all that the gods could mean, he hoped Rafael would come back to him somehow... he had looked everywhere for an answer, a way to bring Rafael back to him and have him in his arms again... deamons, magic, cursed stones, blood parts, and choice about life eternal, if only to have enough time to find the answers, and nothing... nothing but heartache and frustration, disappointment and anger, had come of it*
Secondo thought hard head hanging down a moment, eyes to the cold linoleum floor, and then, he took a deep breath, unlocked his jaw, and softened the furrow in his forhead, letting his own tears wet his eyes as he restarted his position, the skull paint serious, and yet forlorn, a simple beauty in the gaze of death that reminded Copia of the engraved images on quiet headstones, feeling, and yet, somehow peaceful.
"Maybe Pirate will come back a ghost, maybe he won't. Who knows. Anything is possible here, " Secondo said almost to himself as he saw himself reflected in Copia's watery eyes, "I hope he comes back,"
And now his lip trembled as he spoke, "It would be nice if he did, hmm?" Secondos gloved hands smoothed the frock of Copia's clothes, petting back his hair with a pursed lipped tenderness, unlike him, almost as if to his own heart. "Maybe he will walk by and brush your hand, maybe feel a warm touch once more when you reach out to pet him, even if he is gone..." he choked up, his voice wavering as it pitched higher, trying to squeeze the sob in his throat painfully down.
All was quiet. Only the sounds of the animals in the back kennels muffled through the small crack in the door, and the tiny thump of the hands on the clock hanging near.
Then, Copia, a touch deprived child trying to make sense of the world and the way it turned, his face suddenly solemn with a wisdom beyond his years, for indeed, he was beyond his years, regarded Secondo kneeling in front of him, stood up, and at once threw his arms around Secondo's neck, hugging him tightly, patting his back softly even as he hitched back his own little sobs.
Secondo, for a moment, gasped and felt stunned. Then quick as the shock hit him, it left him and he matched the intensity of the boys embrace...He held Copia in his arms, with a look of feirce determination but to no avail. Quickly they had their faces in each other's shoulders as they cried, Copia's little breath warm and his tears streaming. Secondo knelt before him, clutching the boy like a life-line in a storm, trying to hold fast.
*None of the family or Ghoule were allowed to speak of it, it was especially forbidden to let Copia know that the rumors were true, that he was an Emeritus; He was one of the "stronzino brothers", lauded and feared because of the dickhead they shared blood in common with, that jackass of a "Papa", Nihil. Copia was the old man's Bastard son... A Prime Mover... and he was denied his birthright, and his family. Somehow that made it worse. Secondo almost seemed to envy it, for the heartache of atrachment to those he most cared for felt worse than to be ignorant of it all*
*Secondo knew it, he had known all along that they were brothers. The other brothers knew, but the kid, didnt, he wasn't supposed to, he couldn't know, and to pretend otherwise was such an intimate farce left Secondo to resent it even more, especially since it meant he was often being ripped from his brooding solitude and made to take the boy everywhere he had to go. He rebeled, often ditching the kid half the time to smoke or drink with his friends and neglect him, acting like a jerk. No... like *Nihil*
Nowadays he seemed to bare his teeth at the world and its gods out of spite, and even the boy wasn't safe from his outbursts and harsh words.
*But Copia was only a boy, wanting to belong. To have a family. He was undeserving of the ill treatment he got for being different, being sneered at and bullied, for being neglected and ignored, rarely if ever hugged. He was a sweet boy and deserved to go to heaven with his little rat. A rat so vile it deserved time in the pit not that Copia would ever agree.*
*Secondo beleived it deserved, but the kid was better than him. Copia had nursed the thing to health as best he could, giving the wretched thing every chance to prove himself worthy of the boy's love, even ifbit wasnt deserved... Copia at least had hope left. He had compassion and so much of it. The fact that the young boy showed mercy to such a mal-adapted creature that was so angry and fearful that it attacked anything and anyone that came near...was a blessing in the open for him in this moment of shared comfort in one another's grief.*
Secondo felt an overwhelming sense of love and protectiveness as Copia threw his arms around his neck. He knew the young boy had been touch deprived, a product of his circumstances and the way his life had played out to this point, and yet, even in his young age, he had wisdom beyond his years. Wisdpme to be the moste beautiful thing in the darkest of moments... his little sunshine, who could take a sad song and make it better...
*As Copia's breath shuddered, Secondo held him tighter, feeling the weight of the boy's affection and all the years of loneliness and isolation rest on his shoulder. As he knelt before Copia, he finally saw it...the depth of the boy's love.*
*Secondo was at that moment of vulnerability and consolation, struck by the realization that Copia had known all along! He didn't know how or when, but Copia had understood. It was undeniable in the way the boy looked at him, the way he leaned into his embrace. Little Copia loved Secondo, and they had hardly if ever touched, yet that precious boy, had all along loved him... Even though, he knew *The Truth*
Copia sobbed with Secondo as they both came together in their undersranding, and even as Secondo's crying subsided, and Copia's too, even when he caught his breath, he wouldn't let go of that little warm kid that he was holding, kissing his hair whispering words of comfort and sympathy, holding him the way he wished somebody had held him when Rafael left this world to be free... yet he knew Rafael had loved him, and Secondo's love for him had been real too...
And Rafael wouldn't want him trapped in a cage, protecting his broken heart away from somone who needed his love now more than ever. He had to do it...
* He had to let love in. He had to fill that emptiness laying on the cold planes of his heart.*
Secondo prayed harder than he ever had before. He prayed in his heart as he held Copia and kissed the tears from his sweet face, comforting and crying with him, finnally being there for him...
Secondo had vowed he would never leave his littlest brother behind ever again, a promise he would swear his own life to when in time Secondo would be blooded a Child of the Night; Such a transformation for life eternal came with a price; it came with certain features that made him beg from deep within that empty Rafael shaped hole in his heart, where a Copia sized loved was filling it to the brim even if he didn't deserve it, "Please, darkness, my old friend.. please," Secondo prayed through gritted teeth as he rocked Copia softly, holding the sniffling, hiccuping child in his strong arms, "Please..." he kissed Copias head once more. He whispered as he buried his words with a kiss, like a blessing into his baby brother's heart, "when the time comes, I don't want my fangs too long..."
Thank you @bebellsoterel for helping feed my Copia and Secondo brother papaganda!!! I just love the idea of them as a reluctant older brother taking care of the younger and now thats everyone else's problem too 🙂↕️
• Dark skin color: from gray to black. Shades of red, purple, pink, white
• Each quintessence ghoul has white/silver hair
• There is a quintessence mark on the body; it can appear anywhere
• Patterns on the body appear due to magic – the stronger the magic, the brighter and more intricate the patterns. Magic is also divided into black and white. Mostly intertwined; the color depends on intent
• When using magic, an aura appears that only the ghoul using it can see. To others, it is invisible
Phantom
• Like all ghouls of this element, he has white/silver hair, but constantly dyes it dark
• He also always has a messy hairstyle because he cuts his own hair, and it reaches the point of absurd: "I didn't like how this strand lay, so I cut it off"
• His eyes are gray with a white iris; this doesn't affect his vision in any way — it's just a feature of quintessence, like the white hair
• He has bat-like features (ears)
• Slim build. lt looks feminine...
also, sometimes I draw ghouls with paws, it doesn't apply to anything :)
silly little headcanon that when a papa performs a summoning ritual, there’s no promise of where the ghoul will end up. it’s just somewhere on the vast property that the ministry sits. so as soon as the book shuts and the candles blow out it turns into a sprawling race to see who can find the new summon first. it gets real competitive.
yes more SecAlpha I have no idea why I like this ship (even tho lowkey my headcanon is turning more into they do romantic things but aren’t necessarily in a declared relationship, I cannot see Secondo willing to settle for one person (or even have enough commitment to be in an open relationship.) I will probably share my ideas later once I think it out more)
Alpha is supposed to be dancing but idk if it looks like that so he’s just doing whatever I don’t even know. It’s based off the one clip of Secondo showing off alpha while he plays his guitar 🥺
The Three-Layered Mask: A Theory on Ghost's First Three Papas
So, I was studying classical drawing techniques in my art class—you know, starting with the skull, then layering on the muscles, and finally learning how light shapes the face with chiaroscuro. And suddenly, looking at Ghost's first three Papas, it all clicked. What if their iconic faces aren't just random cool designs, but a deliberate, artistic progression—a perfect, three-part reveal of the very process I was learning?
It starts with Papa Emeritus I. He is the foundation, the absolute baseline beneath everything else: the human skull. Stripped of all flesh, he's the cold, elegant truth of our anatomy. A memento mori. Not just a "spooky skull," but the literal bone we all wear beneath our skin.
Then comes Papa Emeritus II. Where Primo revealed the bone, Secondo builds upon it the architecture of life. His makeup isn't a skull—it's the musculature, the sinew and form of a face. The cheekbones, the jaw, the suggestion of lips. It’s like an anatomical drawing sprung to life. If Primo is death, then Secondo is the potential for life, the biological machine given shape.
And this culminates in Papa Emeritus III. His face is the masterstroke. It’s neither bone nor muscle, but perception itself. His iconic paint is a study of light and shadow falling across a living face. It’s chiaroscuro. It’s the illusion of depth, expression, and character created purely by black and white. He is the spirit, the fleeting image we project and recognize in each other every day.
Think about it: It’s a progression from the most solid (bone) to the most ethereal (light). From what we are (Primo), to how we are built (Secondo), to how we are seen (Terzo). It transforms their succession from a simple costume change into a profound artistic statement about identity, illusion, and what lies beneath the surface.
It makes Terzo, in his final perfection, not just a pope, but a ghost in the truest sense—an apparition of light and personality, born from the anatomy that came before him. I haven't been able to see them the same way since.
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