#aklys

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For the autumn prompts — You swear you put the pumpkin pie on the windowsill to cool, but it looks like something’s taken its place.

pumpkin pie

That wasn’t pumpkin.

Aklys cursed to himself, dropping a glass vial into his cauldron, hurriedly sprinting to the windowsill. He’d initially opened it to air out the fumes that often came with potion craft. And it would be remiss of him to leave his most recent concoction in the warm room. The last potion he’d worked on was supposed to congeal, supposed to take a more appealing shape. One that was all too familiar when left in a pie crust.

But the potion sure as hell didn’t have any pumpkins in it.

Except when he finally made it to the sill, the little treat of potential death was missing. Aklys smiled something tense, the breaths in his chest as tiny and sharp as shards of glass. Who on the gods’ green soil could have taken it? A tenuous checklist formed between the panic taking his mind captive. Cecile hardly left her room, Gabriel wasn’t supposed to be out of a meeting until noon, and Neith —by Empyrean.

His stomach dropped. The glass in his lungs fell with it.

Until he felt a very real needlepoint against his back. A voice brushed against his ear, low and mocking, but eternally welcome and warming. “You really ought to keep a closer eye on your venom, Aklys." 

He spun heel, meeting Neith’s eyes. "You know that’s not pumpkin, right?”

“I want you to look me in the eyes, and ask that again,” Neith chided. With one hand on her hip, she offered the tin to Aklys (some of the potion was still liquid, forcing him to step back before it flooded over the rim). “Because I know your skill with this stuff, and I know I’m not enough of an idiot to fall for it.”

Aklys smirked, meeting those emerald eyes of hers. “And yet enough of an idiot to take it from me.”

Neith sighed humor through her nose, rolled her eyes, and returned it to its comfortable place on the sill. “Just put it somewhere safer. We don’t need any ghosts for Cecile to run into.”

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merry pridemas.png

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Favorite foods of the Business of Death characters?

Cecile admittedly isn’t much of a foodie. The exact opposite, really. But if she has at least one comfort food, it’s likely onion soup. Especially if it has a thick slice of bread at the bottom to saturate with broth.

Neith was born in Saffa, but grew up in Atlas, so she has one hell of a soft spot for Atlian street food. It’s not the healthiest, but every time she has the opportunity to get a funnel cake cone, you know damn well she’s getting one.

Aklys hails from Bruya and greatly misses the vegetable stews that were immensely common there. It wasn’t exactly a meat stew, but mushrooms and other vegetables in a broth were comforting on a cold night.

Gabriel is definitely a man to indulge in fanciful and pricey meals, but he can’t deny the enjoyment that can come from something simple. A simply well-seasoned steak or pork chop does it for him.

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“Hey Aklys: I know Gabe said no 'business' while we were at this party but... you think he'd excuse us if we did it in defense of Cecile?”

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Untitled WIP Concept

Capable for holding out grudges for centuries on end, certain demigods would be glad to rid themselves of their nemesis. And fortunately, a certain business is willing to help them.

Mazina made it well known that they were not going to welcome children of Empyrean, forcing them to move across the sea to a small northern continent. Among these divine transplants were Aklys, the descendant of Bruyan witches; Neith, the daughter of Vena; and Dovia and Constantine, children of Thanata. With Aklys trained in poisons and Neith in the trade of an assassin, it was clear how they’d profit off the old blood feuds in their new home.

The children of death itself, however, decided otherwise. Constantine set up shop as an ordinary businessman as a front for Aklys and Neith’s less legal activities. But Dovia wanted nothing to do with anyone. Despising her own corporeal form and attempting to avoid physical and social contact with everyone possible, the necromancer shut herself up inside the house they built as soon as the foundation was sound.

That is until Dovia meets an apparition who calls herself Raven. Another daughter of Thanata, she has learned how to make herself incorporeal—a skill Constantine has refused to teach Dovia. Desiring to be free of her own skin, she tries to chase Raven into teaching her.

Until Constantine uncovers the situation and sends Raven off.

Aretta, meanwhile, arrives from Bruya on the grounds of simply wanting to see her younger brother, Aklys. And ask his little business a favor of course: to “take care of” the Triumvirate, a trio of immensely powerful demigods who proclaimed themselves the governing body of Mazina’s colony.

Constantine fails to trust Aretta and insists Aklys and Neith don’t go. Desperate to find Raven again, though, Dovia breaks her hermit’s vow and insists that she, Aklys, and Neith leave without Constantine’s permission and pursue the Triumvirate.

And so they flee into the night to carry out their business.

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I had to throw in the towel for tonight because the 23 icons I’ve made so far took me like… 3 hours and I need to go to bed soon. But this is an almost comprehensive list of all my story characters (that I’ve designed so far—some characters are not pictured with their casts due to a lack of design).

If you’re curious about anyone pictured, feel free to ask!

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Soft redesigns for my characters Cecile, Gabriel, Aklys, and Neith.

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Send questions about some of my other characters! I’ve spent a lot of time working with the Of Debtors and Dissidents cast and want to change things up for a little bit! Characters names in the tags below!