#charles graver

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also because I’m oc brained I have been imagining an Anastasia inspired au with Charles lmao

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disabled ocs!

Aria is autistic and has a wound on her arm that never fully heals. she has chronic pain from that, and if she is not careful, it could get infected and spread into other areas of her body. so she keeps it covered with tomb-colonist style bandages.

Alexandria has one eye (lost the other one to an infection as a child), and has chronic pain in his knees and elbows from years of manual labor on ships.

this one I haven’t talked about yet! Dexter has CVID, a primary immunodeficiency where his body doesn’t make enough antibodies in response to diseases. it results in frequent, recurrent infections, especially in the sinuses and lungs. Dexter doesn’t know what his condition actually is, since it’s primarily diagnosed with blood tests and this is the 1900s. but he does know he gets sick easily and often, and he is very careful to keep himself, his house, and his food clean in order to help mitigate that.

Metis has dyspraxia, autism, and chronic fatigue. dyspraxia is a disorder that impairs coordination, balance, spatial awareness, and motor skills. it makes typing difficult for them, but less so than writing by hand. they also have to plan their days very carefully, because their autism and chronic fatigue can interact a lot. sensory processing is exhausting!

Mr Morbid cannot fly, and relies on the Tower of Thorns for transportation around the high wilderness.

Charles gets migraines from the fingerkings still in his head that he doesn’t know about. he suspects he isn’t entirely free of their influence, but he has not ventured into parabola since his escape a few years ago, which he would need to do to confirm their presence.

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who the hell is Charles Graver?

basically: no one knows! here’s a rough timeline of what went down

born in Varchas

told all his life to never touch mirrors

when he does touch one, it’s an accident. but he sees such strange and wonderful things in the glass!

he wants to know more, becomes obsessed with the jungles just beyond the mirrors, and eventually this culminates in him being driven mirror-mad.

his family tries to send to him to the hospital, but he escapes into a mirror and becomes an exile. per the traditions of Varchas, he loses his original name and becomes known only as Taamas.

he remembers cats, vines, bright orange light. and then snakes. so many snakes. and then… nothing.

he wakes up in an alleyway in London. he is wearing plain black clothes and clutching an envelope addressed to the Reverend Charles Graver. these are the only things he has. he does not remember how he got there. he remembers bits and pieces of his journey through parabola, and he remembers growing up in a well lit city. but the specifics escape him; he actually believes he grew up on the surface (because he remembers what he think is sunlight), not in Varchas.

whoever Charles Graver is, the name feels important, solid in a way that nothing else does. that must be him.

he’s not very good at this whole pretending to be a priest thing, though. if he ever was one, he’s forgotten most of what he needs to know.

after a few years of this, Charles gets the chance to travel to the high wilderness. he accepts immediately, planning to make his fortune among the stars and build a new life for himself.

tl;dr: originally Varchaasi, went mirror-mad, somehow escaped to London via Parabola and woke up with almost no memory of what came before. because I’m incapable of making a sunless oc with a normal sense of identity I guess.

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Prophet’s and Quiz’s posts got me thinking about surnames with my ocs…

Kepler is Vela’s chosen surname. it was zir mother’s maiden name, and neither of zir parents liked that side of the family much. but Vela’s best friend growing up was a Kepler cousin, so zir last name was chosen to honor the family who were there for zir and say fuck you to the family who weren’t.

Thorne is an English surname, given to Alexandria’s father’s family decades ago. her father, Adonis, was a black Greek man, and her mother Saniyah was Haitian. her full name, Alexandria Saniyah Thorne, is a reflection of the mixed cultures she grew up with, and she would not change any part of it. especially now that she is so far away from her home on the surface.

Dexter has never been particularly attached to his last name, and I could see him changing it if he ever got married. but also I can’t really see him getting married, at least not any time soon.

Cain is Fornax’s chosen last name, but not her first choice. she wanted to be Fornax Ancona, but Furnace was very clear that was not going to happen. and honestly, Fornax doesn’t feel a connection to anyone in that family except Furnace. Cain was chosen because of a phrase she heard: “raising Cain”, which means to make trouble. much later, Charles tells her the story of Cain, a biblical figure who killed his brother, and she can’t decide if that makes the name more or less fitting. she keeps it anyway.

Charles has yet to meet any other Graver family members. he has no idea what he would do or say, but part of him still hopes one of them finds him. so he keeps their last name.

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Charles Graver, the Debonair Ex-Reverend, made here

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the real thing that gives it away that Charles isn’t a real priest isn’t his complete lack of knowledge about the bible, it’s how chill he is with grave robbing

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4 songs + lyrics that I think capture the vision I have for Charles Graver

Garden by Halsey / Glory by Nova Twins / Nobody’s Soldier by Hozier / Isimo by the Bleachers

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garden is a such Charles and driver song. “and I really wouldn’t mind if we don’t go anywhere” of course. “I think your tired eyes are kind of nice” is very fitting. but I particularly like the double meaning of “when I first met you there was a garden growing in the black hole of my mind”. you could certainly describe Charles’s mind as a black hole, and the garden growing there could be his new memories and identity, and/or the remnants of his time in parabola that still linger (especially since it’s often described as being a jungle or a forest). on the driver’s side, there are things literally growing in their head that have been there since they first met Charles.