florence & frost

Essy’s Muses

Selena’s Muses

June Preston

Jael Sinclair

Zoja Heaton

Milo Davis

Graham Docherty

Emerson/Kisten/Silas

Alejandro Acosta

“there are three things all wise men fear: the sea in storm, a night with no moon, and the anger of a gentle man.”

BACKGROUND

Born into a family of three, Kisten hadn’t always been called by such an obscure name. Because of his cat-like features after birth, the nickname “Kisten” actually originated from his mispronunciation of “kitten,” stemming from whenever his mother would call him one. Ever since, it stuck, save from on his legal documents.

While the Costello family was arguably one of the most loving when it came to their children since the momentMissy Costello, his sister, came into the world, the happy atmosphere declined upon the death of his mother when he was around six-years-old, turning seven. Their father sought for comfort in his work, believing if he kept busy, everything would be okay ( a trait Kis has inherited ), which left the Costello siblings to themselves.

Throughout their childhood years, the Costello duo were inseparable, which made sense given how they were only a year apart, with Missy being older. They shared the same friend group, the same room, the same heartaches - feeling the pain when another was hurt; they were each other’s best friend. It was not only because they were siblings, but because they would make up for what the other lacked.

Kis had the emotional stability - that sixth sense for empathy, at least when it came to his sister - and Missy gave him the tangible comfort and support from anywhere on the spectrum of physically taking care of him, especially he simply couldn’t himself. They would assume the role of what the other would need, which is how they managed to make it so far with just themselves. They had to create a home.

The bond between the siblings never wavered, even when Missy was bitten by a lone wolf during her junior year of high school. The shock of the incident was enough to scare her alone, but when the transition happened, never in her life had she needed her brother more. Petrified of what she was becoming, Kis did something for her that he can say he’ll never regret. He convinced her to scratch him, so he could turn into a werewolf too.

Kis willingly accepted his sister, but that was a different story for their father. On the outside, he acted as though he could handle what his children were - had become - but as the years progressed, it was evident that he really never had condoned it; he was ashamed of it. The concept put an even further strain on the duo’s relationship to him, although the feeling was never mutual.

It wasn’t until Kis had graduated from high school did his sister and him find the answers they had been looking for. It was revealed through a member of the Wahy'a pack that he had been unknowingly close to an Ookami girl, thus meaning there was a target on his back. The attack on his sister had been a direct result, with the name “Costello” having been misinterpreted by the brute that was sent to finish him off. Because of the effects of the attempted murder - them resulting in werewolves, themselves - a proposal was offered.

In order to be initiated into the Wahy'a pack, intensive training and study had to be undergone. While his knowledge about werewolves, packs, and the concept of hunters expanded, Kis had never been more intrigued. Of course, he had heard stories, and had done plenty of research himself when his sister had initially been bitten, but it was nothing but myth or legends. This was actuality, and he accepted the new life. He intended on killing a hunter, if that’s what he had to do in order to make another home.

After months of careful observation, hiding in the shadows and doing his utmost to be cautious, Kis invited his sister with him to make a name for themselves so they could finally rest. He knew the stakes, and how much of a strain they could be to someone’s heart. They were kids. In fact, he kept second guessing bringing her, kept wondering if Missy could perform the task, and rightfully so when she was nearly killed because she couldn’t do the killing herself. She couldn’t kill another person; another “human.” Someone that was “once like us.”

In order to protect his family, Kis slayed both of the hunters that he had tracked that night, and claimed that he and his sister had done the killing respectively. Without any further evidence needed other than the bodies at the scene, their initiation was complete. They’ve been part of the pack ever since, with Kis even unintentionally climbing up the ladder to reach the ranks of deputy.

EXTRA

Is 6'3", which also means he’s a relatively taller wolf. His hair matches his fur - charcoal black.

Has a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology and Business Administration, graduating three years ago.

Currently works at a marketing firm, on his way to become a human resource manager.

Is lactose intolerant, scarred by a bad experience of chugging a half-gallon of milk.

Lives in an apartment complex with his sister and Jael Sinclair.

CONNECTIONS

MISSY COSTELLO. 26, OF THE WAH’YA PACK. Kisten is her younger brother by two years. She probably wouldn’t be able to live without him.

JAEL SINCLAIR. Kisten is her roommate, in a three-bedroom apartment. He has a crush on her, but he isn’t saying anything. Don’t mention it.

BACKGROUND

SONGS OF THE OLD WIND CALLING,

BEFORE STUMBLING INTO FLORENCE, Emerson was a king. From a young age, he wanted nothing more than to be “well-off;” to be able to provide for his family, and within years, that was accomplished. He grew into a man that didn’t know when to quit, and became fixated on his “goal,” believing the end justified the means. He was a pioneer with a one-track mind. After settling into a small town, he created a stolen goods empire — he had an underground trade that was known for miles, and they were his everything. Not only in wealth, but in power. He built his “crew” from scratch, picking only the “top” men, and became not only a revered conman, but wiser pack leader. He had it all, until it crumbled.

DO THEY REMIND YOU OF HOME?

In a day, his wife left him, and it set the tone for the months to come. maybe, if was more sensitive, less focused.. maybe, if he didn’t put his business before his love, or remembered the reason why he wanted to create something great.. she would’ve stayed. It was as though the night she left caused him to snap him back into the man he used to be; the man that protected his loved ones before himself, and had compassion. How could he have forgotten her? Before long, he threw it all away — his pack, his business, and everything else he created. He set it aflame, and killed loose-ends, keeping only those he called “close” alive. He had spiraled into a ruthless man, succumbing to greed and paranoia, and realized it all too late.

OR HAVE YOUR FOUND A NEW MOUNTAINSIDE?

To start a new life, he moved to florence —somewhere that could give him a peace of mind, and an escape. He became known as the washed-up pack leader, regaling in the tales of his youth while drunk on the streets, or when sober, the loner from across the bar that never spoke a word to anyone. He was just whispers and senseless gossips. No one knew who he was, for certain, until the night a bar fight ensued. There, the town, or at least, the ookami, found someone who not only slayed their deputy, but their pack leader as easily as a breath. They had no choice but to take him in as their new leader, despite his protest. You see, the fight was for the thrill, and the brief sense of power that he once had. However, he ultimately decided to accept the role, and proved to the pack that he was more than a brute. He was a calculating force to be reckoned with. The gears began turning, just like they had before.

MAYBE, THIS WAS A SECOND CHANCE.

CONNECTIONS

MASSIMO MCCAIN. 32, OF THE TIKAANI PACK. Emerson killed his father, the previous pack leader of the Ookami, and spared his life during the“initiation process.” Doesn’t really know he exists, tbh.

MISSY COSTELLO. 26, MEMBER OF THE WAH’YA PACK. Emerson believes he married her while in a drunken stupor, and so, now he’s seeing how it goes, all the while carefully making sure his pack doesn’t find out.

npc. “SABOR.“ 40, DEPUTY OF THE OOKAMI PACK. Portrayed by skeet ulrich. Emerson is not only his pack leader, but best friend. While it took getting used to having a new reign, Sabor quickly realized how capable and ever wiser Emerson is compared to the previous successors. The respect they have for each other is immeasurable.

DAHLIA. Emerson isn’t sure how she randomly appears, but needless to say, the girl is an enigma to him. However, it’s his duty to protect her, and so he keeps their relationship at a fairly professional distance. There’s a tenderness, as she reminds him of his old sister-in-law.

ARMANDO. 25, MEMBER OF THE OOKAMI PACK. Emerson takes care of him. After all, he was named after one of his favorite food joints. Believing there should be trust within a pack, he does his utmost to prevent Armando’s hazing, along with Sabor. They’ve taken a liking to the wolf, almost as though he’s under their wing.

BACKGROUND

As their parents had, Veronica and Jordan wound up together due to their lineage; while their hearts weren’t truly with one another, they were purebred, and that’s all that mattered to the Maverick family. Once they were wed, they birthed three children, all females; Grace, the eldest, and Bailey and Lacie, the twins. Since nobody in their lineage had ever been with a human, being a wolf was all Grace ever knew, and up until she was ten, Grace thought everyone was a werewolf. Her world came crashing down when a human friend she’d made tried to kill her. It was then that she learned about hunters, and it was then that her prejudices toward humans began to flourish.

She constantly looked down on anyone who had anything to do with humans, and got irritable whenever bitten wolves found their way into the pack. She was seen as ruthless by elders in the pack, who warned her that her thinking was dangerously mirroring the thought process of the Durus pack, but Grace was never one to care about the wisdom the elders had to share; after all, one of her closest friends had tried to murder her for being a wolf, so why couldn’t she hate humans for being that, human?

Grace didn’t go to public school like some of her pack mates; her parents opted to have her home schooled by a relatively smart elder, who had received public education his entire life. As the years passed, Grace lost interest in school. She would die as a wolf, so why did human information matter? Besides, she wasn’t ever going to get a job, so why was she learning history, science, etc, for? She was sixteen when she decided to stop going to his lessons, and she’s not been to a lesson since.

She was seventeen when she realized that her childhood friend, Remus, would be her ticket to power. She didn’t want to further her human education, but she certainly wanted to further her rank in the pack. Grace knew that she wanted to be Beta, but in order to become that, she would have to mate with whomever had the best potential to become Alpha, and that someone was Remus. She proposed the idea to her family, who in turned proposed the idea to his, and once their parents were on board, the two teenagers entered an unofficial relationship - they knew they would be mates one day, but they didn’t want to be tied down, not quite yet. Grace hopes that she’ll love Remus truly one day, and her feelings for him will turn into something more than brotherly, but for the time being, her heart doesn’t truly belong to him. Her parents made it work, though, so how hard could it possibly be?

BACKGROUND

The Hampton’s had been one of the founding families of Florence and eventually found themselves to be the narcissistic founders. Even today they are known for their attitudes, as well as their seemingly endless amount of income and lavish parties. Their son, Charles, was certainly no exception. He was raised to believe that he was better than everyone, and that he deservedall the spoils of the world. As a result, he often looks down upon, well, everyone. Just like his role model, Scott Disick, he often calls people “peasants”. While his attitude would have annoyed most people, he only amused his best friends, William York and Xavier Miles.

They had all met as children; after all, all three of their families had been founders of Florence, so it was only natural that they would have become friends. Charles was seen as the asshole of the bunch, and William and Xavier often had to apologize for his words or actions. Over time, they stopped trying to change him; they learned to accept the fact that he was an asshole, and trying to change him was pointless.

Charles never had to try hard to get anything; everything he’s received he’s gotten for free and, seeing as he’s the heir to the Hampton fortune, he never planned on changing his simple lifestyle full of parties and booze. He had just gotten home from a party and was lazing around on William’s bed when he got a phone call from his mother; his plans for living the lavish lifestyle were cut in half when he got the news that his father had been diagnosed with brain cancer. With a short amount of time left, Charles began spending his days off at his father’s office, trying to learn the tools of the trade for when he would inevitably take over.

Despite the severity of the situation, Charles treats it like a joke; it has to be. He’s never been without his father, and he’s never had any responsibility in hislife. All the young Hampton wants to do is party, and he’s incredibly pissed that his parents are taking that away from him. He’s still very much in denial about his father’s illness, and constantly gets into fights with his mother about it. She’ll tell him to grow up, and he’ll tell her to stop lying to him. After all, Mr. Hampton looks exactly the same; if he was dying, he’d look the part, wouldn’t he?

lots of people have bad stories, and if they wail and sob and tell their story to anyone who’ll listen, it’s crap. or half crap, at least. the stuff that really hurts people, the stuff that almost breaks them…that they won’t talk about. ever.

BACKGROUND

When looking back to your time as a child, much of your memory escapes you. You don’t remember the first time you walked, or the first word you spoke. Heck, you can’t even remember when you were born; you’re told about the exprience. However, when Silas looked back on his life, he realized no one told him the stories of his origin. There wasn’t a video of his birth, a scrapbook kept to show his growth throughout the years, and especially not a parent that had time to indulge in his curiosity. No, life in the circus was always about time and money, and because of that, it’s only natural he wouldn’t have known that wasn’t where he belonged at all. If someone had bothered to answer his questions, perhaps, they would’ve told him that his name wasn’t Silas and that he wasn’t the son of the Cold Wind Circus’s ringleader. Unknown to him was that he was once “Matias Iglesias,” before he was whisked away when his father took him to see the troupe. He was too young to know not to stray after the show was over, and soon enough, was swept by the rush of the packing crew. He was wandering in a daze through boxes and animals, carts and dressing rooms — he was completely lost and confused during the hectic time when an arcobat picked him up. Of course, the proper thing to do would have been to return him to his father after seeking him out, but his first transformation as a werewolf caused a commotion that suppressed all rational thinking. The traveler was shocked to see a child’s bone break out of fright, dropping him while he writhed in agony. Some of the performers that began to crowd voted to toss him the moment he proved to no longer be human, and some even suggested to kill “the beast” on the spot. They hadn’t a clue as to what to do with him after the occurrence — that is, until the ringleader of the circus entered the scene. It was nothing he had ever witnessed before, which caused an idea to spark: had any circus had their own werewolf? What an act that would be, to see such a transition accompanied by a few tricks, he thought. With only ticket sales and the flourishing of his own pocket in mind, he offered to take the child under his care, which was how Silas, whose birth name was mistakenly heard, was introduced to a new world where he would learn to live, breathe, and be entertainment. He was taken aboard the train.

He struggled with the thought of how he got to the circus namely because facts never added up. He was different; he was alone. However, while he never really bought that he was the ringleader’s son, his questions were always brushed off and he eventually gave up. He had no choice but to accept his situation for how it was, and allow himself to be engulfed by the circus as there wasn’t another option. Because of this, he was taught believing lies were okay and stealing was fine so long as the end justified the means. While he was raised for the spotlight, he was also used for work in the shadows, conning people, pick-pocketting, and taking for the betterment of his own. He grew up learning the ropes of the underground as the troupe traveled across the surface for roughly twenty years. The pick-up-and-go was his style for as long as he could remember, which was exactly what the carnie was doing after a performance in Florence, Oregon. They were getting ready to go when a man reached toward Silas with tears running down his face and a faded photograph in his hand. He never thought three words would’ve changed his entire existence. “I found you.”

LIFE IN FLORENCE

Another stop, another performance. To Silas, the small town wasn’t any different from what he had seen before. Save for Zell’s, the restaurant he fell in love with during his stay, he thought of it as ordinary. It was quiet, sheepish — he’d been to such places numerous times during his career, but at the last day the circus was in town, his opinion couldn’t have been anymore different. When someone claims to be your father, needless to say it was a place that couldn’t have been forgotten even if he tried. Perhaps, rather than “home” being a train freight, it could actually be some place more stable. It’s all up in the air.

PERSONALITY

Loud, arrogant, rebellious, flirtatious, impulsive, reckless.

CONNECTIONS

AURELIA. Silas hates her and simultaneously wants her attention at the same time.

ELIJAH ADHIKARI. 31, HUMAN OF FLORENCE. Silas doesn’t know him personally, but he feels for the guy.

npc. GABRIEL IGLESIA. ??,WEREWOLF OF FLORENCE. Silas always believed himself to be a Loch, so discovering that his entire life was a lie was a little more than a shock. He had been completely flabbergasted at the man who claimed to be his father, but after seeing those tears and the photos Gabriel held, the two embraced after years of being apart. Opting to stay in Florence to discover his father, Silas is nervous, but excited.

history

derived from the ookami, wahy'a wolves were the wolves that never left makena after the first attack. instead, they hid. these wolves rely not on their strength, but their agility and ability to see without being seen. the wahy'a helped the ookami take down the remaining hunters, but the ookami will never admit that they received help. the wahy'a never cared: they were just happy to be living within their territory once more. after the incident with the hunters, the wahy'a have developed a distrust in humans and often see them as nothing more than annoying fodder.   

current ranks

Leader: To be decided.         Deputy: Kisten Costello. Healer: To be decided. Queens: None currently. 

customs

Wahy'a wolves are the first to detect hunters: after living in the shadows for so long, they know what to expect from them, as well as how they conceal themselves amongst regular humans. These wolves have stopped multiple hunters from killing their own, and, on occasion, helped to save a few humans from being killed for being too close to one of their wolves.

being derived from the ookami, the wahy'a wolves have a tendency to be aggresive and cruel, but they've given up their initiation ceremonies for something else. in order to prove themselves to the pack, new wolves must study hunters. while it may take years, the death of a hunter will signafy their initiation into the pack.

there is a small section of the wahy'a that hunt humans for sport. they've managed to go undetected by their leader and deputy for moons now, but they're beginning to draw attention to themselves. they never kill humans, but hunters know the marks of a wolf when they see one.

history

the tikanni wolves were the last to arrive in makena, seeking refuge after being nearly wiped out in montreal. they understood that there were already packs within the mountain city, but they had no other options. the wahy'a wolves welcomed them, though the ookami made it clear what their opinions were. the current leader of tikanni challenged the leader of ookami to a duel in order to prove their worth, and even though he lost greatly, the leader of ookami respected the wolf and allowed him a small portion of territory, and the tikanni wolves have been there since.   

current ranks

Leader: To be decided.         Deputy: Remus Walker. Healer: To be decided. Queens: None currently. 

customs

tikaani wolves are most known for their willingness to bring outsiders into the pack, actively seeking out loners. rogues, however, are another story. the tikaani were originally betrayed by one of their packmates turned rogue, so they harbor hatred toward these wolves and kill on sight.

tikaani wolves are most friendly with those of wahy'a: there have been a few children born between the two clans, and the tikaani take these children in. they value their queens dearly and give them special privledges.

many wolves from tikaani tattoo themselves to signify their new lives within the pack.

due to their leader often taking in loners, tikaani has recovered immensely from their losses, and are the biggest pack in makena. they are sometimes teased by the other packs for having the most mixed blood, but their leader sees value in all wolves, especially those who have lost their pack.

history

a proud and powerful pack, the wolves of ookami hold the title of being in the longest running pack in makena. before the humans colonized the foggy city, these wolves called the makena mountain's their home, and fiercely defended it. if you ask them how the city was taken by humans, not one of them can give you a straight answer. they may even attack you for asking them such a thing. the truth is that they were bested by hunters, but centuries later, the remaining ookami eventually killed any lingering hunters, and are now living in secrecy with the humans. they want to take back their territory — even if it means killing the other two packs.   

current ranks

Leader: Emerson Calder.         Deputy: Sabor. Healer: Unknown. Queens: None currently. 

customs

Ookami wolves are known for being ruthless and unafraid. Due to their strength, they've been victors of many great battles, but it is in their strength that they lack intelligence. Leaders are almost always headstrong and hotheaded, rushing into battle relying on brute strength rather than strategy. co-mingling and mixing blood with other packs is strictly forbidden by the current leader. those found pursuing relationships with tikaani or wahy'a are to be executed.