liberdolorum

Set when Aurelius is about 20, not very long after his old brother Narcissus has died.

It was an honor to be allowed into one of the secret strongholds of their society, a sign that he is being allowed deeper into their ranks even at his young age. He knows this and so he acts as such. He has always been known for his decorum but he takes extra pains today. His cousin and her husband are his guides for this excursion and Aurelius does not know what to expect.

That was a lie. Aurelius knows exactly what to expect.

His cousin was Celestine was a sadist, he had known this since he was a child and her husband was no better. The two were truly made for each other, it was one of the rare love matches in their family. Helped by the fact that Caius was from a family of wealth and good breeding of course. Whatever they wanted to show him he knew was not what had been agreed on by the others and would not be pleasant. Celestine made it a point to try and get a rise out of him, even more so after Narcissus had run away and left her without his furious outbursts. But Aurelius is not his older brother, he keeps his opinions and feelings to himself. They left the fine halls of the manse and descended into a secret dungeon beneath, the gentle perfume of flowers and fine food giving way to a creeping chill and damp stone.

He heard the soft sobbing before he saw the poor wretch.

Aurelius began to steel himself, already sensing where these two would take this but still curious as to the purpose of it all. He hadn't known they kept prisoners but it didn't surprise him, it was a logical action when one was at war. They stopped at the second heavy wooden door on the left as Celestine opened it, turning to smirk at him maliciously as she slipped inside. Aurelius followed, with her husband, Caius still behind him. He wasn't much taller than Aurelius but he was broader and Aurelius didn't like to show him his back.

The woman inside was ragged, weeping and hunched over herself. Aurelius stood just far away enough from the door to not look a coward but not so far into the cell he seemed interested or a target and watched, his breath freezing in his chest. She was dirty, with the hair and body type he associated with grandmothers in their 60s or early 70s. Her floral blouse and navy clam diggers were torn and caked with the dirt of the cell floor.

Caius came in carrying a heavy chair that locked into four indentations in the center of the floor that Aurelius hadn't noticed before. Celestine grinned wickedly and lunged at her, laughing as she grabbed her hair. The woman screamed and tried to stop her, to get away, but it was futile. Her body was too weakened from beatings and imprisonment to fend off anyone. Celestine smiled at him gleefully and Caius smirked as if he'd done more than carry a chair. They were putting on a show for him he knew but it was a stupid, unnecessary thing. They had always been garish, it was unsightly. Suffering was a necessity to be borne, not reveled in like ill bred children.

Aurelius watched stonefaced as they strapped the woman into the chair. It wasn't hard to discern where this was going.

"This woman is a professor Arlie" — He loathed that nickname, she'd made it up to spite him, the cunt — "She has things the society wants but she refuses to tell us anything we want to know."

Celestine pouted theatrically at him, the inspid cow, before smiling wickedly again.

"But don't worry baby cousin. I know exactly how to make people talk."

That was when she pulled out a slender club similar to the one his parents owned from the voluminous folds of her black coat. A chill swept through Aurelius that had nothing to do with the dank earth suffocating them. He saw the shape of things now. The chair, the club. He did know what was happening here. It was what his parents had done to them. This was where they had learned to punish.

In a perverse way he was glad for the fact they had, knowing the threat of it was ever present had given him cause to learn mastery of his expressions at an early age. He gave her nothing, gave them all nothing. In truth, it was easy to not give a reaction because slowly he was no longer in the room. As Caius and Celestine went to work Aurelius stepped further and further back in time. To his father's study, Narcissus sitting in a chair, small hands clutching the arms as father hit his forearms and hot tears ran down his face. He stared at Aurelius the whole time, every time, even if he flinched he would return to his tearful staring match. Aurelius never knew what it meant. Now he would never be able to ask. Narcissus was dead and it was only a matter of time until this woman was too.

There was a disconnect here that his mind prodded like a loose tooth. They speak so highly of our blood but then they use the same methods on us as they do them.

It's all that formed. His mind was too brutally empty to chase its tail further.

He has no idea how long they were there, only a vague idea of what was even gleaned from any of this sticks in his head. His cousins are satisfied with his constitution at least, the test here it seems was to gauge his stomach for violence. He does not relish what that means for the future. He feels cold and clammy, the thought whose tail he cannot catch is circling in his mind nebulous but all encompassing as he makes his way out of the manse and back into woods and clean air.

He walks for a good fifteen minutes before he has to rush into the woods by the side of the road and be sick. The night air hurts as he heaves and gasps. He can feel his vision fading and so he leans against a tree, looking aimlessly around the forest before him semi illuminated by the filling moon. He has not felt this lost since he buried Narcissus. Since they told him that Caelistus could not be saved. Since he realized he was the last.

He hopes that woman will be dead soon, for her own sake. But her plight is not his concern, there's nothing that can be done to help her now. He is more worried now about going home, to a home so similar to this one that also houses that club. They speak so highly of our blood but then they use the same methods on us as they do them. The dog keeps chasing its tail in his mind. He sees her bones break even as he traces the tree branches with his eyes, he sees the welts on his and his brothers arms. He knows the club. They did that to us. So which was it then? A family punishment taken to its extremes by his sadistic relatives? Or a traditional torture that eventually came to be used by members to punish their children?

𝑯𝒆 𝒘𝒉𝒐 𝒉𝒂𝒖𝒏𝒕𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒏𝒂𝒓𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒗𝒆 . . .

Caliban Darkwood was one of Aurelius' close friends and rivals during his time at the Blackthorne School for Boys. The two boys were some of the best students in their year, constantly vying for who would be first place this time. Where Aurelius was solemn and serious, Caliban was charismatic and dramatic. While both boys were tall and fair, Caliban was the taller and more athletic, likened to Apollo while Aurelius lacked any such romanticization by their peers.

Caliban's popularity did not phase Aurelius as Aurelius cared little for people outside of what use they could be to him — something the boys agreed on but went about in different ways. Caliban was also, to put it bluntly, a notorious bully. It seemed his most genuine pleasure came from sadism and he relished putting others in their place. As they grew they came to feel the only one worth their time was the other and when they came into the fullness of their adolescence things became... tense.

While Aurelius was as attracted to Caliban as much as he wanted to beat him, it was never clever how much Caliban genuinely reciprocated and how much was his cruel sense of humor waiting for the perfect moment. In the end it didn't matter, When Caliban chose to play his hand and gloat to Aurelius that he would out his rival to ensure he gained all the accolades they were competing for in their senior year he sealed his fate. Aurelius murdered him on the spot in a fit of passion, he then hid the evidence and spun a yarn. To the elders who he could not truly hide from he used Caliban's own plan against him to smear his name with the bigoted old ghouls who decided their futures. Getting his last laugh against years of Caliban's horrible behavior by soiling his reputation with the people he was so desperate to please.

a very brief look at the larger woe family, not complete or super detailed, just to give a sense of how big the family is and who Aurelius might actually be talking to.

Key: ♇ - Deceased ☓- Disowned ♊︎ - Twins

Aurelius's House

Aurelius Sébastien Odile Narcissus ♇ ☓ ( Caelestis ♇ Tiberius ♇ Sybil ♇ )

Wulfric's House

Wulfric Sigurd Cassandra Antigone Cassius

Philomenia's House ☓

Michael De Luna ☓ Philomenia ☓ Aspen ☓

Sigfreid's House

Sigfreid Agatha Magnus Leif Helga ♊︎ Hans ♊︎

Celestin's House

Celestin Carlotta Casimir Charlemagne Claudius Carmen Cécile

VERY SMALL BIOS

Spiritually pulling from:

bloodbending from ATLA, the Flesh/Jared from TMA, human transmutation from Full Metal Alchemist, heartrenders from the Grishaverse and whatever biology I can remember/comprehend.

When it comes to "the magic of life" there are two schools, Dead Materials and Living Materials.

Dead Material is necromancy and a small selection of related fields. Things like zombies are basically magic made robots of low level programming comprised of dead flesh/corpses instead of mechanical parts. Most necromancy is frankly some version of this since you’re working with something that is inert or falling apart. Things made from dead/inert material lack an animating force of their own and not even magic can create a soul whole cloth from nothing. In theory, dead flesh can be used to create a house for an animating spirit but this usually comes with a lot of issues and rarely goes well thanks to compatibility problems.

Living Material included things like healing, but also covers sectors like mutation or sickness. To fix a body takes the same knowledge base as it does to destory one even if you end up focusing on one side exclusively. Both involve an extremely thorough knowledge of biology and the human anatomy in order to successfully heal or curse someone. Creating life in nonstandard ways is also much more successful when starting with living material, though the actual processes are far more complicated than making a body from dead material which is why most try to do it with necromancy. To work with living matter and keep it living while also getting the desired results requires a brain surgery like level of preciseness that working with dead matter simply doesn't need.

Creating life without interacting with the traditional procreation methods (not just pregnancy but related things like IVF) is insanely complicated and difficult. When it comes to doing so with Living Material, it requires a starting point of living flesh without a soul, which usually means an early stage fetus, stem cells or "donations". From there insanely delicate work needs to be done to begin the mutation/construction process while keeping the living material alive. Outside of the kind of obvious supervillain uses of this, like making monsters, this is also a useful endevour if one is interested in the study of the soul, as you can observe how the body functions without one and try to facilitate the "growth" of one. The marker of "success" in making an ensouled artificial being is the moment that the spark of "true life" seems to enter the creation's eyes and they seem to "come online" as people as we understand people.

PRIMARY. YOUNGER

I BROKE OPEN THE DOOR OF THE HOUSE OF LIFE. Aurelius is an independent researcher/expert of both the occult and the historical. He is highly respected in his fields as he is known for his excellent and rigorous work. It is possible to hire him to work on projects of the magical variety, so long as they pique his interest. He is generally willing to consult and educate about magic if he feels the asker is genuine and he is either paid or it's somehow made worth his while.

While his area of focus is in the dark and illegal kinds of magic, those aren't what he's known for. Instead most know him for his gifts in unraveling complex curses and healing magical maladies. If a case is interesting enough he doesn't even require payment for his efforts.

PRIMARY. YOUNGER.

YOU REAP WHAT YOU SOW. Aurelius is dutifully following the path his parents made for him into a darker and more dangerous future that threatens to destroy him completely. As he starts to see the writing on the walls Aurelius has to find a way to dig himself out of this grave all while dealing with the death of his last living brother, Narcissus, and subjecting himself to the biological processes needed to secure an heir. Topping it all off with the fact he's been horrifically poisoned and now he has to figure out how to keep people from realizing the cause of his sudden deteriorating health.

A good verse if the goal is just watching people make really fucked up bad decisions since this is just him trying to reverse uno an evil cult, politically maneuver and not die. Truly the beginning of him realizing that actions have consequences, and he has, in fact, been doing actions.

TAG — v : gen / younger / believe nothing you hear and only one half that you see. AGE RANGE — 18-35 SHIPPING — Open THREADS — Open VERSE STATUS — Open to all

RESIDENT EVIL.

Aurelius is a research scientist for Umbrella. After the Racoon City Disaster and the shutting down of the company, Aurelius continued to work with a few of the offshoots that wanted to continue their research while also working on his own personal research not just on the Umbrella viruses but on anything else he can get his hands on (ex. the Mold, Las Plagas, etc). His illness is caused by a rival scientist exposing them to a strain as a means to get rid of the competition. Aureluis was the only survivor, including the rival who tried to kill them, thanks to his own paranoid nature.

When it comes to threads/settings etc. Either Aurelius is still working for Umbrella or one of the other bioweapon groups or he was picked up by by someone like the BSAA and made a deal to work for them sharing what he knows and working on their projects. He is still working on his own secret research in this context as well. Which I go with really just depends on what makes the most sense to produce interactions.

TAG — v : gen / rsdntvl / the search for knowledge supersedes all else. AGE RANGE — 35-55 SHIPPING — Open THREADS — Open VERSE STATUS — Open to all

VAMPIRE DIARIES.

I SERVE A HIGHER POWER. The Woes have been a coven of ill repute for centuries and done deals with Klaus Mikaelson since the 1500s. Now the latest Woe, Aurelius, has officially joined Klaus' personal coven of witches as part of a deal to help Aurelius extricate himself from his family's culty eugenics based coven and protect his son. It's a good set up, he gets do to as he please with little complaint about the bodies so long as he is loyal and does what Klaus commands.

Aurelius has been working for Klaus since about his mid-20s, mainly working on ways to break his curse or kill his presumed enemies as one would expect. While he is very loyal to Klaus he draws the line at anything that could endanger his son or bring him into their world of hyper-violence.

TAG — v : au / vmprdrs / more than a simple peddler of misfortunes. AGE RANGE — 35-55 SHIPPING — Open THREADS — Open VERSE STATUS — Open to all

Ameliaverse.

AURELIUS IS THE SECOND SON AND WAS NEVER MEANT TO INHERENT. Even so he was the golden child, as his older brother, Narcissus, was always a wild creature and his younger brother, Caelestis, was considered too weak while Aurelius was a dutiful child. His parents favored him greatly and offered him more freedom and opportunities than they did Narcissus or Caelestis. This didn't protect him from their abuse, but it gave him ways to lessen the blows and appease them. Beyond the abusive parenting the first true tragedy of Aurelius' young life was the death of his younger brother Caelestis, who drowned at the age of 7 while the older brothers were supposed to be minding him. 10 year old Aurelius tried to save him but drowned in the attempt. While they were able to resuscitate Aurelius, Caelestis was declared dead. From that day on Aurelius fell into a deep depression and became obsessed with death, the soul, and gaining control over the uncontrollable.

He attended the finest boarding schools, living in the shadow of his boisterous older brother who was always somehow as popular as he was cruel. Aurelius focused on his schoolwork, making few friends, only socializing to prepare for future networking. He was a member of many prestigious groups both public and secret during his tenure and graduated with top marks from secondary school, going on to one of the best universities in the country.

But Aurelius' life changed again the day Narcissus died at 21, only two years older than himself. The two had never seen eye to eye and by the time Narcissus had died they weren't talking. But even so Aurelius fought to protect his brothers remains from the wishes of their parents and ensured he would be laid to rest in the way he would have wanted. Aurelius was made the heir but the recognition he had always craved was ash in his mouth. Already on the dark path his parents guided him onto, his new status had him thrust even further into the grim world of black magic his family had been living in for centuries. Soon he was inducted into a cult they had been apart of for generations and began to learn the full extent of its mysteries.

The more he learned however, the more concerned he became as he realized that his own sexuality meant that one day he too would be cleansed from the earth if they had their way. Uninterested in dying, Aurelius began to plot against them. He planned to secure enough collateral that either blackmail them or make himself invaluable to their enemies. However these actions were did not go completely unnoticed and while he was not discovered as the traitor, he was poisoned during a toast. The poison was mystical and design to kill only the traitors to their group. Aurelius' own magical skill and paranoia were the only things that kept him from dying.

Even so, Aurelius had to hide what had happened to him to prevent someone figuring it out. He claimed he needed to check on one of their foreign properties and left London so his sudden bad health would not be discovered. He lingered half dead in an empty house in Manchester for a while before he could finally pull himself together enough to be seen in public. During this time while he was a member of this cult Aurelius set about securing the future of his line. He might not have had any interest in women but he believed in the importance of heirs and the continuation of the family name so he had his son Sebastien, the product of a completely utilitarian affair.

NAME  Aurelius Woe NICKNAME/ALIAS  Aure TITLES  Viscount Severn AGE  20s-50s DATE OF BIRTH  October 31st GENDER & PRONOUNS  cismale, He/Him ORIENTATION  homosexual / homoromantic RACE/ETHNICITY  human (magic) / white

HEIGHT  6’01”HAIR  black, straight EYES  blue PIERCINGS  none currently SCARS / TATTOOS / MARKINGS  a few small scars from childhood accidents or punishments FACE CLAIM  Cillian Murphy (older), Freddie Carter (younger) DISTINGUISHING FEATURES  thin frame glasses, walking cane, always wearing gloves PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION / FIRST IMPRESSION  Aurelius is a tall man who is always impeccably dressed in 3 piece suits. He is strikingly handsome but his expression is eternally stony and impenetrable. His gaze can be unsettling, as though he is dissecting you. He comes across as a reserved, educated and stern man though not necessarily remarkable but when he chooses he can come off as very intimidating and unpleasant. POSITIVE TRAITS  thoughtful, humorous, sophisticated, loyal NEUTRAL TRAITS  intelligent, meticulous, determined, patient NEGATIVE TRAITS  cruel, vindictive, self-centered, resentful ASTROLOGY  Scorpio Sun, Aquarius Moon, Scorpio RisingMBTI  INTJ-TENNEAGRAM  Type 5 Wing 6 NEURODIVERGENCES & DISORDERS  - PTSD - Hallucinations - Paranoia

PARENTS  - Tiberius Woe (Father, Deceased) - Sibyl Woe (Mother, Deceased)SIBLINGS  - Narcissus Woe (Older Brother, Deceased) - Caelestis Woe (Younger Brother, Deceased) SIGNIFICANT OTHER  - None/varies with verse CHILDREN  - Sébastien (Son, Legitimized Bastard) OTHERS  - Various Cousins PETS  Mephistopheles (black cat) OCCUPATION  Gentleman of Leisure / Private Researcher / Academic HOMETOWN  Castle Morley, Severn, Gloustershire / England NATIONALITY  English LANGUAGES  English, French, Latin, German, Spanish, Russian and climbing. PHYSICAL DISABILITIES / CHRONIC ILLNESSES  - Vertigo - Chronic pain - Digestion issues - Hydration issues - Chronic fatigue

POWERS / ABILITIES / SKILLS  - Magic — to really explain this deserves a whole section on its own but essentially Aurelius is an extremely adept and talented user of magic who specializes in the study of more esoteric areas (time, the soul, space, dimensions, etc) while being extremely skilled in the more "mundane" forms (potions, spellcrafting, transfiguration, curses, etc). He's essentially a multi PHD holding evil professor.

Important Characterization Notes

Aurelius is a bad person. I will keep saying this over and over. And not just in a supervillain sense, he is also awful in a mundane sense. He is a bigot, he is elitist, he does not care about the suffering of others or their rights really. He was raised like this and the only reason he ever left this sphere is because of danger to himself, not because of a change of heart. This means he will say offensive and ignorant things and will not always really care if it hurts others or if he's wrong per say. DO NOT INTERACT IF YOU CANNOT HANDLE IN CHARACTER BIGOTRY. If your character doesn't like how he acts they are more than free to blast him/correct him/try to educate him/punch him/whatever. I cannot guarantee it'll work but you're more than welcome to try.

Aurelius is closeted. He is not ashamed of being gay, but he's pragmatic. Most of his contacts are still some kind of bigoted and he knows how people can be, so it's a precaution for his safety. He is also an intensely private person naturally and prefers to keep all his relationships on the down low and his trysts outside the country.

Aurelius is physically disabled. He has gastric damage from a potion he consumed that leads to intense sporadic pain or bloody vomit. He gets dizzy spells often and vertigo sporadically. He struggles with staying hydrated. He walks with a cane and has a flask of elctrolyte water on him at pretty much all time. This will impact threads.

Aurelius is mentally ill. This potion also effects his mental health, causing hallucinations/psychosis and increased paranoia. On top of this he does in fact have PTSD, depression and a plethora of other issues from his upbringing and family which are not at all addressed. All of this will be made your problem.

Aurelius does human experimentation. He has done it in the past and he will keep doing it until he is forced to stop or chooses to stop himself. Generally in plots he's something like the scifi or fantasy version of the nazi scientists brought over in operation paperclip. Remember I DID say he's a bad person. However it's important to note he's not a sadist, he does these things only if there's a value to it for his research.

Aurelius is an aristocrat. This doesn't really need to effect how you treat him if your character isn't one to give a shit about this but he will be kind of an uppity cunt because of it. So in those contexts the fact that he's a viscount/aristocrat will be maintained and even put forth as a far more important part of his character than it would be in a more modern setting. So say, in a fandom like A Song Of Ice and Fire he's Evil Westerosi Lord #1235445 while in Resident Evil we'd care more about the fact that he's an evil super scientist than the fact he's technically part of Parliament.

Aurelius is a victim of child abuse and grooming. hate is not innate, it is learned and that is very obvious in the story of the Woe brothers. Aurelius is like this because he was groomed from a young age to think like this, he and his brothers were also subjected to severe corporal punishment as well as the withholding of things like food and proper shelter when they did wrong or to "motivate" them. It doesn't excuse him but it's why he's like this and why things like child abuse can make him violent or be like... a decent person for five minutes.

001.   I CANNOT FUCKING STRESS THIS ENOUGH THIS CHARACTER FUCKING SUCKS. HE IS A BAD PERSON. Aurelius is a bigot raised by bigots, his is a supremacist in a lot of ways. He is a classist, he is morally pretty fucking repugnant. Aurelius is a SEMI-RETIRED villain, basically while he's not actively doing evil shit he still is Like That and not super invested in unlearning his ways. HE WILL SAY/DO FUCKED UP SHIT. If this is an issue than just LEAVE NOW. I am not going to deal with complaints later, I try to put up as many warnings that he sucks as possible, ignoring them is a you problem. AT THE SAME TIME— your character is allowed to fight him on this and can challenge him about his beliefs as much as you want! Freedom of speech protects him from the government, not the Justin. Be the Justin. 

002.   MUSE =/= MUN I cannot believe this shit has to be said in the 2020s but people are stupid as shit and cannot comprehend the idea of fiction anymore. I am writing a VILLAIN/ANTI-VILLAIN which inherently means I am writing a BAD PERSON WITH BAD POLITICS. If you genuinely thing that anything I write or that anything anyone else writes in the context of FICTION is an accurate depiction of their REAL LIFE BELIEFS then I-- just don't know how to help you. Consider going back to elementary school you need the help. 

003.   FOLLOWING Please be over 18, ideally 21+, as I will not rp with minors. I’m a mutuals exclusive blog – meaning that I’m only interested in rping with people I’m mutually following. I’m extremely open to crossovers and OCs. It can take me a sec to go and look through blogs and their pages before following back so give it a little, just because I haven't followed back in a day doesn't mean I'm not interested. This is a blog I'm planning to be extremely picky on so if I don't follow back it's not on you, it's because I want to keep things very small and specific.

  004.   PURITY CULTURE I don't have time for it. Unless someone is a legit danger or a terrible person I do not give a fuck about how supposedly problematic they are. I don't care about callout culture or the laws of "acceptable" fcs, or if this or that is problematic. Like the whole point of fiction is to navigate these topics and I don't wanna hear debates on shit like age gaps when Thor is like.... a thousand years old or if Tony calling Namor "fishsticks" is really racist or not. It's not that these things aren't important it's that the well is so fucking poisoned for these discussions online now that I just am not fucking getting into any of it. 

005.   WRITING I write everything from one liners to multi-paragraph. I don’t require anyone to change their style to meet mine nor do I require my length matched. I only ever ask that what I’m given is legible and gives me something to work with as a jumping off point for a reply. 

006.   PLOTTING This is a blog that will be geared more towards plotting or at least a kind of cohesive storytelling, where the events/effects of one thread directly effect other threads, even if all the threads in question are with different writing partners. 

007.   MAINS & EXCLUSIVES While normally I don't really do exclusives, given the nature of this blog I will be doing so here. This will not be a particularly strict thing, but I'm really only interested in building up narratives, plots and relationships here. I plan to only have one real timeline, in that I will talk about events from other threads inside of current ones and things like that. If I say a character's name, I'll probably only mean a specific person's version.

  008.   SHIPPING I’m fairly open to shipping of all kinds with characters but I don’t like having things forced on me and will only do romantic ships with people I’ve talked to OOC for a bit thanks to past experiences. I am much less strict about platonic, familial, antagonistic, professional, etc dynamics which are all completely open to all mutuals.