#dead man magic

[notaficwriter]

for the oc ask meme: e!

i have been considering this for the past couple of days now, and it has occurred to me that i don’t. i don’t think i actually have an oc with a first or last name beginning with e. i could be wrong. i’ll have to correct this as soon as possible, but for the moment, please take this as an opportunity to roll again, anon!

[notaficwriter]

OC meme: G

griffon!

full name: griffon neophron 

nicknames, if any: none! griffon is not a nickname kind of guy.

hogwarts house: i feel like getting run out of university for doing illegal magic and sleeping in a graveyard as an undocumented refugee just to keep studying illegal magic is pretty ravenclaw behavior.

gender: male, he/him pronouns.

sexuality: deeply gay.

a song i associate with them: “la bala” by ana tijoux (fun fact! the tenants are some of the oldest characters in dead man magic, and were originally conceived as a pair of alchemist cowboys. hence the western vibes they both have.)

3 important relationships: bahaltn, his skeleton horse familiar; renate, who he has necromancer solidarity with; and velox, who he is unfortunately in love with.

2 fears: getting hanged for attempting to perform godless alchemy is a pretty big one, second only to velox getting hanged for attempting to perform godless alchemy before him.

1 element of their backstory: griffon is originally from tetvia, which has a radically different style of teaching magic from singrim. having actually gone to magic school and gotten a degree in necromancy, he’s got a pretty high-minded theoretical understanding of magic formation and decay cycles, more so than basically any other necromancer in the story, but has very little practical experience. he hardly ever raises thralls, and has only really successfully resurrected animals.

[notaficwriter]

please ma’am may i have the fallow songs?

yes you MAY.

dig, lazarus, dig!!! - nick cave & the bad seeds

but what do we really know of the deadand who actually cares?well i don’t know what it isbut there’s definitely something going on upstairsdig yourself, lazarus!dig yourself, lazarus!dig yourself, lazarus!dig yourself, back in that hole.

sorry sack of bones - volbeat

the smell is rotten, i’m out in the freethe trees are squeaking and the wolves are unleashedi got a hole in my head, and the cramps are so tighti’m decomposing in a sack of bones, i’m on fireand i go, ooh.(a sorry sack of bones)(a sorry sack of bones)

frozen pines - lord huron

i am ready to follow you even though I don’t know where.i will wait in the night until you decide to take me there.‘cause i know i don’t wanna stay here forever, it’s time to be moving on.i don’t wanna be the only one livin’ when all of my friends are gone.

danse macabre - the oh hellos

[instrumental]

[notaficwriter]

Orson!

thank you! one orson, coming up.

pais dinogad - ffynnon

“written in the seventh century, pais dinogad is one oldest known pieces of welsh verse. It was actually written in the margins of the epic poem y gododdin. a mother sings to her baby about father’s hunting skill, and about his two dogs giff and gaff.”

i love leaving - jonny fritz

someday i’ll meet a woman i know who’ll wanna keep me aroundand i’m gonna have to face the fact that i might want to staybut until then i’ll just be a'sitting in my drivewayturn the key, hopefully i’ll be on my way.oh, i love leavingleaving all my troubles behindi guess i’m getting that agewhen turning the page is easier than learning my lines.

finger back - vampire weekend

you know that i’ve been wicked and the road to hell is widecursed by curiosity that made us go insideeveryone was charming but we took ‘em for a ridebaby, you’re not anybody’s fool.

the living - san fermin

it’s for the livingwe don’t have to try‘cause aren’t we alive?                                                                                            alive.

[notaficwriter]

May I hear some Renate songs?

absolutely! thank you very much for asking!

little dark age - mgmt

i grieve in stereothe stereo sounds strange.i know that if you hideit doesn’t go away.

the balancer’s eye - lord huron

heaven never ever heard a word i saidi’ve cried enough to raise the dead.“everything comes and goes,” they sayhere tomorrow, gone today.

sweet bod - lemon demon (i’m sorry)

i’m digging up your coffinand pouring out the contentsgood god i’m glad to see youwon’t you be my panacea?

love is melancholy, but it’s all we’ve got - vandaveer

skip ahead to the last actstudy each and every linelook me in the eye and tell mei’m not left behindwe both knew this wasn’t easythere are ruts in every roadhoney, dancing is delicate and demanding.

[notaficwriter]

1, 4, 11 for Fallow please?

1. what influenced or inspired the creation of this character?

i went through a long period (and am still a little bit in it) where i was completely engrossed in learning everything i could about resurrectionists and the body market following the murder act of 1752. the whole maelstrom of social change and medical innovation at the time leading to this messy, horrifying time period where life-saving operations were being discovered, and cpr and blood transfusions were viable for the first time ever, leading to this very scary time for everyone where the human body was on display more than ever before. suddenly, instead of being the vessel for the soul, the body was being exhibited, stolen, fought over, cut open in public, even resurrected in a literal sense if acted on soon enough. that movement in general seemed really inviting for a story about necromancy, and having a protagonist who was a dead resurrectionist who spontaneously came back to life really spoke to me as the best way to approach it.

also: tim finnegan’s wake.

4. what were the conditions surrounding their formative years?

fallow was always kind of poor, but she definitely went through a time where she went from “poor, but with stable housing” to “poor, living on the street” when she was about 9 or 10. before then, she lived in apartment housing with her parents and brother in the industrial churn district of singrim, which, during the high point of the ash plague, were really a hotbed for the spread of the disease. when she was around 9, her passed away, followed by her brother, and the housing unit burned down for quarantine, and then she was homeless for a little while. after that, she lived in a man-of-faith temple with the rest of the churn plague orphans, but only really stayed there for about a year before she cut herself loose and started graverobbing and renting rooms with others her age.

11. are they normally peaceful or aggressive?

she’s generally pretty amiable, tries not to start shit with anyone unless she has to. but, while i wouldn’t call her aggressive, she is very impulsive, and acts on her first instinct, meaning she’s very good at hitting someone and then running very fast. by profession, it’s gotten her out of a lot of graveyard riots with her brain intact, but also is the reason why her skull is cracked.

[notaficwriter]

19 for Ede. 6, 14, and 16 for Renate

19. what are their guilty pleasures?

fun answer is that edenite actually does like eating people food, despite it not really having any sustenance for her. she can more or less sense anything that a humanoid would, to maybe a slightly less sharpened extent, and so food, even if it doesn’t always register as tasting “good” or “bad”, is fun and has different textures and flavors to explore, a lot more so than charcoal.

less fun answer is that, as much as as regrets it, she isn’t very guilty about doing what made her get put into storage. it was the just thing to do, and she’d do it again if given the choice.

6. do they have any bad habits?

lying, pretending grief isn’t happening, illegal necromancy.

14. what is their favorite holiday?like anyone married to a nature wizard, renate keeps the fast of the wilderthing along with the fast of the man-of-faith. which is a lot more fun, because it’s less of a fast and more an excuse to lay motionless on the floor nursing the hangover from the night before, when the feast of the wilderthing happened.

it’s a lot more successful at making you silent and penitent than praying at temple is, anyway.

16. if they could instantly kill one person in the world without consequence, who would it be?

the man-of-faith. failing that, the stratocrat.

[notaficwriter]

fallow hijacks a memory.