i. the hunchback of notre dame - victor hugo // ii. edgar allan poe // iii. “out there” - the hunchback of notre dame ost
( KENDJI GIRAC, DEMI-MAN, HE/THEY ) — Look who it is! If you take a look at our database, you’ll find that AMELINE JASKÓ is a twenty-seven ( six hundred and seventy-three ) year old CHURCH CUSTODIAN AND BELL-RINGER that’s been in Chicago for TEN YEARS. According to the file, they’re a mutant on LEVEL TWO with the power of GARGOYLE PHYSIOLOGY. That must be why they’re SENSITIVE and COMPLIANT. If you ask me, they remind me of stained glass glimmering in the moonlight, the lonesome rings of a church bell, basking in the last of heaven’s light. They are affiliated with THE KAPPA RUNAWAYS.
QUICK FACTS:
full name: ameline jaskó
significance: ameline is one of the few remaining male romani names... same with jaskó (or so it seems, but i just got that from another romani actor so take THAT with a grain of salt but manz is 100% romani so HFALKDS you gotta make do sometimes when there’s only so much you have to work with...)
date of birth: unsure. arbitrarily assigned march 10th, 1350.
zodiac big three: pisces sun, cancer moon, pisces rising
gender & pronouns: demi man & he/they (~700yrs is too long to feel like you’re strictly cis!)
sexual orientation: bisexual. but scared.
ethnicity: romani
nationality: french
religion: christian (catholic)
languages spoken: french (5), sinte romani (5), vlax romani (3), english (4), latin (4), spanish (4), italian (4), german (3), hebrew (3), LSF (4), LSE (3), BSL (3), ISL (3), learning ASL (they had a lot of time...)
enneagram: 9w1
mbti: infp
temperament: melancholic
alignment: neutral good
ability: gargoyle physiology
affiliation: the kappa runaways
alias: quasi
BACKSTORY:
*note: there’s a shorter timeline below this section if you do not feel like reading all of this. i do not blame you. just keep in mind that the triggers still exist in the timeline.
triggers: homicide, exile, implications of abuse, coercive kidnapping?
ameline was born in france many, many, many years ago. his father was of the highest status in the hierarchy of the cour des miracles -- the grand court, to be more precise. his mother only had so many opportunities -- she danced and she wove. and, in 1355, she was mistaken for a thief and forced to claim sanctuary within the walls of notre dame, lest she be killed by the maréchaussée -- france’s vicious police force.
when they stepped foot in notre dame, ameline felt a connection they had never felt before. it was as though this beautiful, intimidating cathedral was meant to be a part of him.
alas, she could only stay for so long, and her honorary husband grew worried. there was no way to get food, and her honorary husband did not know her location. when she finally step foot outside two weeks later, there was no time wasted in killing her. and her honorary husband? he was none the wiser for three years, though he knew she would not have simply left with ameline. she was imprisoned or she was killed -- and there was nothing he could do.
during this time, ameline was easily manipulated into hiding as he fluctuated between boy and stone. his home became the bell tower, brute strength allowing him to ring the bells each hour and stone self allowing him to keep watch over the city. and his father? there was still nothing he could do...
...except find his son when he caught sight of a small boy, about nine, shift from child to stone. he communicated this to the court, and he longed to communicate to ameline his whereabouts so that the child may join him in relative safety, but it was far too easy to find trouble as a man of his means when he stepped foot within the church. a ‘miracle’ occurred (he could suddenly see!)... and he was exiled.
although ameline witnessed this, there was nothing they could do... but, by 1360, they were invited to the court by a strange man who had managed to scale the building. curious of the outside world -- what was the worst that could happen? he gets killed? okay.
by the time ameline was roughly 17, he became a regular in the grand court. the biggest slum of paris, everyone who has turned to criminal acts so they could live in a world that despised them
for the first time, he was welcomed. despite who he was, despite what he was -- his father had paved the way for understanding amongst the criminals. he was just as downtrodden as they were, even if he had somewhere to sleep at night. perhaps it would be better if he didn’t...
ameline was an exception to the purse-cutting rituals. between his father having been at the top of their social class (nepo baby?) and his affliction being so... unique, he was allowed to be a part of their mini-society without the challenges that arose for most. at the end of the day? the court could walk, could see, could hear. at the end of the day? ameline could not become human.
but he would always return to the cathedral. despite the archdeacons’ ‘dedication’ to it, despite the parishioners, so long as they were not protecting it, it was in danger. especially the bells.
for centuries, he cycled through further abusive and disgusted archdeacons who claimed they kept him within the walls for his safety. as a disgusting creature, an abomination, no one would dare to accept him. they were the only ones.
for who could love a monster? a question ameline must have asked himself for those hundreds of years -- until leonadra faustina liberata da sabbioneta came to notre-dame for the first time in the 1570s. a chance encounter turned into realizing he was not just a monster. he introduced her to the court -- all of whom were wary of her presence, but had grown to trust ameline’s judgment (the gargoyle had been around for nearly 300 years! he wasn’t about to risk the court!). head over heels, it was a connection he would never forget. someone like him, if not far more beautiful. but there are many things a woman of her status must do... he must stay with his cathedral. parting is such sweet sorrow, but... the first time he felt loved...
what followed soon thereafter was great tragedy. the court began to fall due to reforms, thus beginning to leave him without his family and without the woman he had grown to love. by the 1700s, reforms had nearly destroyed it. under napoleon’s reign? it was abolished -- all but purged.
for the next 200 years, he seldom left the cathedral -- seldom left the bell tower. where did he have to go now? the lesson he had learned all those years ago was drilled into him again, and no one was there to tell him otherwise. he had nothing but the other gargoyles -- the ones he could only pretend talked to him -- and the singing bells that were becoming harder to hear.
but the 20th century began bringing kinder, more understanding, men into power. that is not to say they were fond of what he was, but many... if nothing else, accepted him.
in 2012, he was finally encouraged to learn how to control his unpredictable switching. us america had various programs, so he was told. for the time-being -- and for the time-being only -- they would put a system of pulleys into place to ensure the bells continued ringing.
with great hesitation, he arrived in chicago the same year. every other minute, it was time to return. every other minute, the bells were beating in his heart... but it was for the greater good -- and this was temporary. very, very, very temporary!
with no one in america to miss him, and with only the ministry of notre dame to so much as know his name, the sight of his gargoyle mold was easy for a kappa agent to spot. and they did not have to kidnap him -- coercion worked just fine -- because he was to learn about how to control his power! of course he would agree!
of course, things were not so simple. despite having the power level of level three, his compliance and appearance set him within the level two range. they did not fear him. he was used to obeying abusive authority, to submitting. and, for nearly a decade, the most painful thing of all was knowing that he could not protect his home.
daniel managed to convince him to join the first escape. his first thought? return to notre dame... then he realized that they were all in danger -- he could not risk the cathedral, no matter how much it made his heart ache. when they were safe, or when they were forgotten about, he would go.
however, he did not take up refuge within the warehouse like the majority of his companions. no, he shacked up in our lady of perpetual agony... and with his extreme passion and insistence that he didn’t need pay, the pulley system was removed so that he may ring the bells. the only pay came from janitorial duties.
fin !
TIMELINE:
1350s: ameline’s mother claims sanctuary in notre dame after being falsely accused of thievery. when she finally has to leave the cathedral, she’s immediately killed. ameline is manipulated into staying to ring the bells... more to keep the abomination from ever seeing the light of day again. his father, high-ranked in the cour des miracles (namely the grand court), finds him. however, he breaks his character in this moment of shock and awe. the ‘miracle’ -- his sudden ability to see -- forces him into exile.
1360s-70s: ameline is welcomed into the court. he becomes a regular, finding that the folks down there accept him for the monster he is. this continues for centuries.
1570s: leonarda faustina liberata da sabbioneta comes to notre dame and the two manage to meet. she is the first person who makes him believe he is more man than monster -- that he can be loved in a way beyond simple acceptance and friendship. he takes her to the court and introduces her to the bells and gargoyles. but beauty can only last so long when one immortal woman must keep moving, and one nearly immortal man cannot bring himself to leave.
1650s-1700s: the court begins deteriorating under new laws and reforms. the people who were able to reassure him of himself at night must begin dispersing if they long to keep safe.
1850s: the court is completely destroyed under napoleon’s reign. ameline seldom leaves the bell tower, keeping the bells and gargoyles as friends and the archdeacons as abusive caretakers. all confidence he had built up through the court and leo is squashed. his hearing becomes worse. everything is worse.
1990s: kinder men begin entering the position of authority. he is still largely confined to the cathedral ‘for his own safety,’ but there are less moments of feeling lesser.
2010s: the archdeacon advises him to go to us america to learn how to control his shifting. leaving greatly panics ameline, as he is away from what he is meant to protect, but it will be for the best. until a kappa agent capitalizes off his obvious insecurity when he accidentally turned to stone and coerced him into the program where he spent nearly a decade getting tortured. he is convinced to join the first escape by daniel santos.
2020s: he seeks refuge in our lady of perpetual agony. with passion for the bells and reassurance that he would need no pay, they get rid of the pulley system. his only pay stems from janitorial duties. when he is safe, he will return to notre dame. but he cannot be the person who puts it in danger.
HEADCANONS:
has moderate hearing loss in their right ear and profound deafness in their left ear, along with tinnitus in both. due to how long they have been afflicted by this, they have strategies to keep up with conversations, but it’s still harder for them than it is for the average bear.
fucking AMAZING at parkour. it was essentially their only way to leave the tower and get to the court. which also means they’re fucking AMAZING at blending in.
is only level two due to his visible nature. otherwise, would be classified as level three.
full gargoyle or not, they always have stone wings and glowing emerald eyes. the wings can glide, but not fly.
as long as notre dame is standing, they’re alive. this includes the many times part of it has been destroyed -- unless all of it falls, they live.
the reason they are eternally 27 -- as opposed to any age -- is because a policeman ‘killed’ them when he saw them leaving the court to enter notre dame in 1377. their heart stopped beating for a moment -- they should have been legally dead. however, near the cathedral, they woke up again. what they did to the policeman... they spent centuries praying for forgiveness and remain so awfully guilty, despite the fact that it was: 1) a knee-jerk reaction, 2) kinda deserved..., and 3) something that protected the cathedral, as it protected them. oh, but the ‘killer’ was ‘never found’!
(outside of that, he has killed for the protection of notre dame before.... feels very guilty for those too, but just a SMIDGE less so...... does fear for his immortal soul....)
started sleeping perched on our lady of perpetual agony’s in gargoyle chimera form.
(gray let me pretend the burning of notre dame never happened since ameline would’ve immediately found a way to break the fuck out and speed-run over there lFHKJADS!)
CONNECTION IDEAS:
he’s been alive for 600+ years there are plenty of opportunities!
fellow kappa runaways !
ancestors ! ( preferably at least half romani, though... reiterating that he has been alive for nearly 700 years... )
uh i’ve been writing this for over an hour my brain is SHOT i’ll come up with more later !
















