#chere lightless

[agaricriminal]

oc masterpost once more

these characters belong to the Chere Lightless universe, which takes place in the city of Chere Lightless, low fantasy modern universe (yes ik its trite but its fun :) )

Nina/Levanna : recruited as an intern to work on the magical complex that controls the city and gets groomed by her mentor (michael). michael dies badly in a maintenance accident that gets the whole complex cordoned off from the public, nina fakes her death, changes her name to levanna, and now years down the line she schemes to destroy the complex entirely. shes the driving force of the story and acts antagonistically in the sense that her actions often harm others :)

Jasper Ospina : soon-to-be college graduate who gets hired to work on the complex. hes done urbex in the catacombs where the complex's facilities are built. he also has terrible self-worth issues that fuck up a lot of his relationships + almost lets levanna manipulate him into sacrificing himself to destroy the complex (it does collapse eventually but he doesnt die)

Sunny Yu : she feels stuck in the city and desperately wants to leave. she runs her dad's convenience store to pay for jasper's college (theyre childhood friends) and likes doing urbex with him, though shes claustrophobic and prefers rooftops to catacombs. she is falsely accused of causing an explosion in the complex which kicks off the "plot." she cant read a room or people for shit, which causes some strife in her and jasper's relationship, and she smokes

Laika: journalist/investigator whos digging into the complex and helps sunny and jasper figure out whats going on. shes mildly offputting and really tall and likes ominously standing in doorways and alleyways but ultimately means well. she doesnt have a stable living situation so she relies on using the magic of the complex to scrape by, which is why shes so interested in how it works

Amaury : Jasper's college roommate who is secretly from an energy mogul family. however! amaury had an older brother (Davide) who pursued magical studies and then went no-contact with his parents > his parents blame college and are not super happy amaury is following his footsteps, so in exchange for funding his studies he is not allowed to disclose his family history to anyone. hes also disabled (which his family is annoyed about) and has installations in his wheelchair for drifting and uses this ability to make fun of jasper for walking slowly (which is sort of the ableism thats putting a strain on his family relationships but. well.)

Thomas Davros/Ash Silver : he's several things! firstly tommy davros is a charming and popular conspiracy theorist who runs a podcast on what the complex is "up to". secondly ash silver is his alias when he sells sunny cigarettes (he can buy nice brands, and he got her hooked as a kid). third hes the guy who actually caused the explosion that sunny is accused of at the beginning of the story. the explosion killed him (rip!) but before that he was in contact with ninavanna (who accidentally convinced him to blow himself up) and besties with amaury's older brother (Davide)

bonus non-CL character as a gift for getting to the end

suki: started off as a vld shiro genderbend/self insert and evolved into her own character. shes the black paladin > dies (although her death is actually self-sacrifice instead of mysterious disappearance) > comes back wrong : majority of her character development happens once she returns. she spends 3-4 months w hagar between revival/cloning and reuniting with the gang, thus she is both allegorically and literally a sexual assault survivor

[agaricriminal]

The way Levanna says "[michael] was like a father to me" + "[me and michael] built the superstructure together" + she consistently refers to the superstructure as an "organism" that she has to "kill" in the "embryonic stage" (abort that thang!!) + the consistent reference to mother/daughter dynamics throughout the main plot and that the superstructure is sometimes called "she" makes it really obvious that it's her "child." and it makes the superstructure deliberately out to be a metaphorical child of incest.

Levanna was basically a kid when michael was a known and respected architect working with magic. he found her and brought her to the industrial complex. the superstructure was mostly her idea. the story deliberately invokes this idea of incest to draw parallels between the way michael exploited levanna's naîvité + labor + trust in the industrial complex and the way the nuclear family allows for sexual abuse.

it all goes back to the fact that the superstructure is literally built upon the abuse of power and exploitation of people/resources. suffering is literally fundamental to the miracle; which is why levanna tells sunny+jasper its necessary to destroy it.

[agaricriminal]

CHERE LIGHTLESS CHARACTER NAMES

MAIN FOUR NAMES

Sunny Yu

Jasper Ospina (related to Jasmine Ospina)

Amaury Uvory (related to David Uvory)

Laika (aka laika chell)

OLDER GROUP

Nina farallia (merged with levanna)

Jasmine Ospina (dating nina)

Ash silver (calls himself ash argent)

David Uvory (nepo baby)

OTHERS

Connor (possibly dead? might not even keep him)

Michael (same. probably will be cut. used to know ramira)

Ramira Vasquez (major character in MAIN FOUR, mostly interacts with Sunny. forgot Michael after Architects)

Ethan Nobata (sunny's dad)

jasper and jasmine's unnamed parents

Eliza Uvory (senator)

Corvus Uvory (rich man)

[agaricriminal]

ookk. im trying to make their real names take priority instead of taggin everything "oc name" but thats kind of hard when i keep changing my damn mind

[agaricriminal]

Oh the absolute STATE of my oc names right now

so i have 3 of the main four locked down (although at some point amaury's last name was laition??) but jasper's last name keeps changing and so does jasmine/ospina/olya like FUCK!!! pick one!! and i have to organize them all using my damn tumblr tags

so i've decided jasmine's name WILL BE JASMINE and the jaz sibling last name is ospina, NOT OLYA and fuck that means i have to change all of jaspers last names too UGHH

and im thinking of combing levanna and nina into one person because "obsessive manipulative woman taking down the superstructure" and "overambitious stem-focused genius obsessed with defeating death after her brother died in the superstructure" are like slowly merging together in my mind. and there's way too many characters here already.

that leaves the question of where the hell connor is going to go or if he's even going to stay. I might just cut out the entire portion of architects, which! is sad but also i wrote most of the foundation for that on a jet-lagged subway trip across the city so its honestly not my best work

[agaricriminal]

The wind is light today, prickling at skin like the probing gaze of strangers. The metal grating below Sunny's feet creaks in time with the swaying of the lamps overhead. The everpresent bustle and drone of the stacks is carried on the breeze.

"It's been okay," Jasper says. "Kind of a lot. I still don't know if the school is worth it, though." He's sitting cross-legged on the solid metallic section of the floor, grounding himself with the illusion of stability a hundred feet above the ground.

"Of course it's worth it. Fuck, I'd pay 20,000 be in Metla for eight months a year." Sunny is standing, one shoe off, pressed into the balcony. The wind whistles through the gaps in the metal grating, between her toes, snaking under her pants and jacket.

The two are on the 12th floor of this stack. They frequently hang out here, in the alleyway formed by a gap between two adjacent housing blocks, and a metal balcony with a steel grating floor that wraps around the front and leads to doorways on both. Old flyers and old wires flap in the wind on the wall that loosely functions as a community board for the 12th floor. Somebody, a long time ago, set up some hanging upside-down cone lamps to marginally light up the area.

"I know you hate it here," Jasper says drily. "But like…20,000 is a lot. And anyways, what's an arcana degree gonna do in this city? I'm good at it, but-"

"Come out west with me," Sunny says. The rumbling of an airplane reaches their ears. She glances up. Aeroknife jets, the loudest sound of their engines not quite touching the ground yet, soar overhead. "Be my meganist for my plane." She leans on the rickety balcony, allowing it to creak under her weight. Jasper very deliberately does not react to the spark of fear in his chest. The wind ruffles her hair.

"You're still serious about that?" Jasper's eyes follow Sunny's gaze, catching the tail of the planes before they dip out of view behind the stacks. He yells to be heard as the sound of the engines makes full landing in his eardrums. "I though we hated cops. Does that not include military?"

Sunny grimaces. "I'll be in commercial airlines. Not every plane is for military. Remember the ones we get in spring?"

"You'd have to quit smoking." Jasper says. "And you'd always be up in the air."

"I'd quit breathing if I could be a pilot for a day," Sunny sighs. It's just loud enough to be heard over the wind.

Jasper frowns. "You don't mean that."

"I do," She says seriously. "Fuck man, can you imagine it? My very own aerostatic."

A vision of bright blue skies and white clouds under his feet flashes through his mind. He grimaces. "Yeah."

"C'mon, man," She laughs and finally pushes off the railing. "Can't believe you grow up in here and you're afraid of heights."

"I'm not afraid of heights," Jasper protests. "It's dangerous -- you have any idea how many people fall off their roof every year?"

"Roof? What's that got to do with planes?" Sunny asks pointedly. "Anyways, about the same as the people who die from burned lungs, I'm guessing." She steps off the metal grating and grabs her other shoe. The black and yellow ripcord lace forms a pair of bunny ears under her fingers as she jams her foot into her shoe. "You wanna take the shortcut?"

Normally he says no. But today, he finds his mouth forming agreement before he can regret it. Sunny's eyebrows grow higher as she straightens up, but he nods firmly.

After scuffing his shoe to make sure his feet are securely sealed within them, he follows Sunny around the wall with the bulletin board, revealing the 12-story façade of the stack beside them.

Like piles of matchsticks, the makeshift apartments, many still with scaffolding, some barely more than that, built on top of each into a in a tremendous wall of urban sprawl make up the entirety of the Stacks. Clouded dust rising above blot out most of the slivers of sky between apartment blocks. But to a truly devoted eye, one might see just enough blue to find heaven within.

Sunny unlatches the grate below their feet, revealing an old ladder comprised of scaffolding that descends to the lower balcony. From there, a fire escape descending to the floor below it, a slight jump to a precarious window ledge -- like an overgrown shelf of fungi on a rotted tree -- a slide down a rusty sewage pipe -- in heavier winds, he imagines it might sway, although he's seen it do so -- into the smoke break door of a production floor, and then through that floor to the most functional staircase in the stack, the only one that goes form this high up directly to the ground. It used to be accessible from the 12th, but some of the floorboards collapsed, and the only way to get to is now the parkour. Technically, you could just go down the ladder and find it on the 11th, but it's through a private residence on this side, and the old woman who lives there is angrier more often than not. Might as well go all the way if you're taking the shortcut anyway.

Sunny goes through the grate and lands like a plane hitting the runway. She doesn’t bother to button her jacket before descending down the ladder.

Jasper takes a breath to calm himself and peeks over the edge. She's not going to slow down for him now that he's said yes.

He ties the drawstrings of his hoodie into a hoop and pushes it under his hoodie before descending, though. No need to see them dance in the wind. He can feel it on his face plenty.

[agaricriminal]

(How sunny started smoking. How that came back 12 years later.)

YOU — You walk up to the unfamiliar man on the balcony.

PERCEPTION — He has broken glasses resting on the his nose, an oversized jean jacket with patches on the shoulders. Resting between his second and third finger is a thin, unknown roll of white and orange paper.

“What’s that?”

“Hey, fuck off! This is my roof!”

Approach without speaking.

YOU — ”What’s that?”

SMOKER ON THE ROOF — He jumps, dropping his roll of paper. “Shit! What—a child?” He laughs awkwardly and flaps his hand in front of his face to clear the smoke coming from his mouth.

IGNITION — The smoke looks cool. Like he’s breathing fire.

YOU — “‘m not a child.” You pick up the roll of paper. It’s smoking on the end.

IGNITION — It smells bad. But at the same time, it makes something in your brain itch the right way. 

Give it back.

Try to hold it.

YOU — You try to hold it like he did. It doesn’t work, though. You end up dropping it off the edge of the roof.

YOU — “Shit!”

SMOKER ON THE ROOF — “Damn. That was my last one.”

YOU — “Really?” You peer over the edge of the roof.

PATERNA MACULA — You need to get it back! Or else he’ll be mad.

RELEASE — So what if he gets mad? He’s a stranger on a balcony. It’s not your problem.

SMOKER ON THE ROOF — He laughs again. It sounds raspy, like air going through vents. “No, kid, of course not. I never walk around with just one.” He pulls an entire packet out of thin little rolls of paper. “You want a cigarette?”

“Yeah.”

“No.”

YOU — “Yeah.” You extend your hand to accept one.

SMOKER ON THE ROOF — He extracts a little roll and places it in your palm.

[Reasoning — Difficult 13] Figure out what to do with it

Walk away. This is getting boring. Jasper was supposed to be here ten minutes ago.

REASONING [Difficult: Failure] — You stare at the “cigarette” blankly. Why did you say yes again? 

SMOKER ON THE ROOF — He sees your confused look and decides to help you. “It’s like this,” He explains. He flicks a lighter and holds the flame to the end of the roll until the paper begins to smoke. Then he takes away the fire and inhales, exhales a puff of smoke.

IGNITION — I like that.

SMOKER ON THE ROOF — He holds out the lighter for you. “Your turn.”

YOU — You burn the edge of the roll and then sniff it. You try inhaling it.

PERCEPTION — Tastes like smoke. Raspy and scratchy.

YOU — You cough, then inhale again.

IGNITION — Smell that.

SMOKER ON THE ROOF — He smirks. “How do you like it?”

“Tasty!”

“Tastes like shit.”

Cough again.

YOU — “Tastes like shit.”

SMOKER ON THE ROOF — He laughs. “Yeah, it does, doesn’t it? How old are you again?”

YOU — “Ten.”

ENCYCLOPEDIA — Technically, you’re only nine by legal standards. By the standards of the culture your mother rejected, babies are considered to be one year old at birth, but you've only been out of the womb for a little over nine years.

DEFENSE — Can it, bookhead. 

SHIVERS — THE CITY BREATHES WITH YOU. THE SMOKE EXITS YOUR LUNGS AND BLOWS INTO THE STREETS, BREATHED IN BY OTHERS, CAUGHT IN THE RAIN AND WASHED INTO THE GREAT CISTERNS BELOW YOUR FEET. POWERING THE SUPERSTRUCTURE IN THE LUNGS OF THE CITY.

FORESIGHT — This means something. In ten, fifteen years, you will remember this moment, crystal clear, the first time you realized you were breathing in sync with the city. During the beginning of the end.

SMOKER ON THE ROOF — “Damn!” He whistles. “Maybe I shouldn’t have given you that.”

AVARICE — It’s yours! Don’t let him take it away from you!

YOU — “It’s mine.” You glare at him.

PERCEPTION — You hear something behind you. You turn around.

JASPER — “Sunny!” He hoists himself onto the roof from the ladder. He spots the smoker. “Who’s that?”

YOU — “Some guy.” You turn your back to him, although you keep the cigarette. “You were supposed to be here ten minutes ago.”

JASPER — “I’m on time!”

YOU — “Nuh uh!”

YOU — The two of you climb down the ladder together and argue. He wants to show you the new clock in his house so he can prove you wrong. You think the clock is probably wrong.

DEFENSE — Neither of you can read clocks anyway. 

THE SMOKER ON THE ROOF — He watches you go silently, then turns to the city and extinguishes his barely burnt cigarette on the concrete. The sun is beginning to rise.

————————————————————————12 YEARS LATER

BITCH COP — “Do you recognize this man?”

YOU — You stare at the photo below you.

SHIVERS — Do you?

[RETROSPECTIVE — Heroic 15] Remember him.

Lie.

Don’t answer.

RETROSPECTIVE [Difficult: Success] — Remember? The man who introduced you to breathing with the city. That face matches perfectly with this photo of the dead man.

[agaricriminal]

yippee oc doodles! silouettes of the main four of chere lightless. from left to right, sunny, laika, jasper, and amaury.

sunny is supposed to look kind of patchwork, laika has the scared deer look, jasper looks distant, and amaury is polished

notes! sunny(green) and jasper(blue) have matching earrings, matching shoes. sunny(green) also has a hairclip with amaury(red). and im a big fan of laika(purple) and her spiked cleats. sunny(green) is supposed to be the shortest one, but amaury(red) uses a wheelchair so he looks the shortest. if he stood up he would be taller though, between jasper and laikas height