#asphodel:task

HISTORY:

Most of his early life, Montgomery could never say for sure what he felt, wanted, or believed, and that was all thanks to Cecilia Rose. The woman was a con artist, an independent empath who had discovered early on exactly how to best use her gift for manipulation. It might’ve been a lesson passed on from her own mother, but Montgomery was never allowed close enough to that side of the family to say for sure. Those gifts were the reason why a man like Nathan Lacroix, someone possessing old money and substantial power of his own, fell in love with her in the first place. His feelings for her blinded him to the fact that the woman he brought into the family was of a crueler bent than the wandering free spirit she tried to appear.

The rest of his family wasn’t so easily deceived, but if there’d ever been hope of Nathan listening to them, it was destroyed once Montgomery was born. Tying their families irreversibly together, giving her a taste of that power and prestige that she craved for herself. It was the reason she pushed her only child harder than the seemingly indifferent statue that was his father, the man never really having space in his heart for anyone other than the woman he married. Regardless, neither of them tolerated imperfections or failures, and the night his powers manifested was perhaps the only time he ever saw anything like pride reflecting back at him. Waking from a nightmare to find his bed levitating off the ground.

He tried to do as he was told, even if it was rarely good enough for either of them. Outbursts of any sort weren’t tolerated, his temper kept firmly in check by a mother who didn’t hesitate to use her powers and manipulate her own child into something more docile. Slips in control of his abilities meant hours spent practicing, forced to repeat the same exercise over and over again until it was second nature.

It wasn’t until he left home for college that he became aware that for all his striving to please his parents, she had turned him into something broken, something flawed. He didn’t understand his peers, he didn’t understand the fluctuation of human emotion or behavior, when his own had always been kept firmly under control. Simply having that awareness was cause for greater frustration than he’d felt before. He didn’t need either of his parents to push him towards a medical field, it was the part of human nature he understood best. The simple, physical aspect of breaking a body down into its parts.

For everything else, he learned halfway through his bachelor’s that there was a pill for it. When his workload got too heavy, there was one to keep focus, another to help him relax, one to substitute the sensation of happiness. It became his new crutch, his favorite form of self-medication.

He was twenty-three when his father died, killed in a home invasion that he didn’t know enough of the specifics of. His mother didn’t want to talk about it, no one else had been there that night. Even at the funeral he didn’t need his mother’s influence to keep his emotions suppressed. He didn’t feel anything, not even his grief, but all of his life was an exercise in faking the proper reaction.  It was only after he was gone that he thought both of them had served their purpose to Cecilia, and when he came to that conclusion he resolved never to go home again.

It was an easy thing to achieve, and eight years ago he took the opportunity to do his residency in Sacred Heart. He left behind his family and friends without a second thought, transferring from New York to the Asphodel chapter of the Endine House. He made it his new home, a degree in pathology the best way he knew to make himself useful to his community. Striving just as hard to make himself useful for his house, half hoping that it could serve as enough of a stand in for familial affections.

HEADCANONS:

Appearances are extremely important to him, not solely in a physical sense but how he portrays himself and how people regard him.

Following this, Montgomery isn’t prone to any great displays of emotion; he almost never loses his temper, even when he’s in pain it’s handled with a clinical efficiency. He doesn’t like anyone in Asphodel seeing him drunk or out of control, if he feels the need to try and cut loose he’ll drive to New Orleans for the weekend and go bar hopping there.

For a brief time he was dating a man in New Orleans, but his lack of attentiveness and his unwillingness to allow him anywhere near his life in Asphodel made him convinced that Montgomery was cheating on him and broke it off.

He is not out yet about his sexuality, preferring to keep it hidden like most things regarding his personal life.

He chose pathology for two reasons; the first that it felt like something more technical, the second that he doesn’t have to maintain appearances for the dead. He functions as a medical examiner and coroner when necessary, offering reports to the police and the Magistrate if the death looks to be caused by one of the gifted.

CONNECTIONS:

He often works in the coroner’s office so anyone associated with the hospital, law enforcement, and possibly the magistrate he has likely worked with.

He has been in Asphodel for eight years, and makes it a point to know anyone who might be considered a major player, or present for a similarly long time. 

part one: the basics

name:  Liliane Sol age:  twenty five gender & pronouns:  cis female, she / her house:  Oleander tier & role:  prime, heir gifts:  necromancy and summoning occupation:  none positive traits:  unyielding, dutiful, loyal, direct, ambitious  negative traits:  condescending, insensitive, ruthless, inflexible, elitist more information:  can be found by clicking this link aesthetics:  early morning fog over a graveyard, biting words, the click of high heels on marble floors, family heirlooms, sharp nails & a sharper tongue, setting yourself deadlines, applying a perfect cat eye without even trying, glass shards, and catacomb walls covered in bones which rattle gently as you pass.

part two: the story

tw: mentions of dead animals / people / things bc necromancy When Liliane was five years old, her aunt told her how fitting it was that the flower most often brought to funerals in their native Korea was chosen to be her namesake as it bloomed in their greenhouse ; the family cat tilted his head as though in agreement, clumps of dirt stuck in his fur, lifeless eyes glassy and opaque. 

The initial lessons she had begun to receive increased tenfold after her gift manifested, and the stirrings of her secondary gift appeared soon after, blurry shapes hovering over her hands as she glared at them. Over the years, her instruction began to include the differences between her house and the others, as well as ( with perhaps more enduring effects ) the difference between her tier and any other ones. If that was not enough to give a precocious ten year old an over-inflated sense of self-worth, the differences she found between herself and her peers certainly were ─ all of the other heirs, her own sister included, were not part of the head of house’s actual bloodline. 

Some might take this as a gift, or a reason to be gracious to the others, but Liliane saw it yet another example of the innate superiority she held over them. After all, she was the only one born to be the head. 

This attitude often manifested in what she liked to call confidence ─ and what everyone else named arrogance. It hardly made her the most popular person around ( though her tendency to raise the dead certainly didn’t help ) but she did not mind in the slightest ; she much preferred quiet afternoons studying than spending time with her so-called friends. Besides, knowing she was better than them was entirely different than being able to follow through with it. 

She confronted the task of strengthening herself just as she had all other tasks up until this point ─ with anger and intense determination until a problem was resolved, only to quickly turn to the next obstacle in need of conquering. Every possible hour was spent learning to use her gifts, every spare moment spent summoning or bringing back whatever animal she could find on the headquarters grounds. Soon enough, human skeletons rattled in front of her, their bones growing ever more ancient as she grew older. 

As she neared adulthood, it was clear to her that only a few professions would be worthy of her time, and, more importantly, would be useful in her quest to become the head of Oleander House. A lawyer was easily the most attractive of her options, and she threw herself into becoming one with the same fervor as everything else. Although she has recently been focusing most of her efforts on her schooling, the ultimate goal is never far from her mind ; her father had clawed his way to the top, and she is determined to honor his efforts and continue growing the might of the Sol family and that of their House. 

part three: the headcanons

When she was taught about her uncle’s ousting, her first reaction was not one of concern, or even pity ─ it was to ask her father exactly how he’d done it so that she could make sure the same trick would never be used on her.

It’s true that she is fiercely protective of her sister, and that there is love between them, but she is still a bit purposeful about keeping the other girl happy. After all, her family is an example enough that a sibling who is not close and content could easily stab her in the back. 

After her mother passed away, she poured all of her energy into learning how to bring back the deceased’s spirits instead of their bodies, if even only for a short while. For much of her late childhood, she could most often be found on her bed, tiny legs swinging above the ground they couldn’t yet reach, complaining about one thing or another to the hazy figure sitting next to her.

She has summoned and made frequent deals with a raven spirit which, as of yet, still refuses to make a permanent bond as her familiar ( citing the fact that summoning is only her secondary gift as the reason ), much to her displeasure.

the plot drop: The very idea of having to spend hours at Mortensen’s party socializing with people she couldn’t stand had nauseated Liliane, and, after what was definitely not pleading, her father had agreed to let her stay at home to study. When the lights had gone out, her first instinct had been to investigate ─ and her assigned sentinel’s first instinct had been to immobilize her so that she could do no such thing, dragging her instead to a safe room with the others where she was forced to sit and wait, fuming the entire time.

part four: the connections

CREDENTIALS: 

Columbia University — B.A. Biomedical Engineering, 2010

Johns Hopkins University — PhD, Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, 2019

MacArthur Fellowship — Recipient, 2018

National Academy of Sciences — Member, 2019-Present

BIOGRAPHY: 

Juliet Velhankar was the product of a one night stand, the brief meeting between Roland Velhankar and a woman he hadn’t bothered learning the last name of. Only his own family name mattered, the deciding factor behind his acceptance of the restless baby girl with round, wild eyes. After all, he couldn’t just let an heir to the Velhankar bloodline to live in the streets — theirs was an ancient family, well-respected and prominent members of the Gifted community. He had no doubt that his daughter would continue in his footsteps. 

In the first seven years of her life, Juliet was adored. She was nothing less than a spitfire, a bit wild, a bit brash, and with far too much intelligence — enough for her personality to be seen as charming rather than abrasive. That’s just Juliet, members of New York’s Endine House would say, shaking their heads, fond smiles on their lips. But as the years went on, it became clear that something was missing. For all her smarts, the Velhankar heir seemed late in developing her Gifts. 

Until they realized that she had none.

And then the adoring smiles turned to strained grimaces, which eventually turned to looks of pity being thrown her way as her father focused his attention elsewhere, anywhere but his failure of a progeny, a stain upon the Velhankar family tree. It didn’t matter if a seven year old Juliet could calculate the trajectory of an object — she was useless to move it in the first place. Powerless. A Null. 

There was nothing she could do to please him, no matter how many academic awards she brought home, no matter how many fights she won. You realize the Sentinels are just humoring you, he’d scoff, if they use telekinesis, the fight would be over in minutes. But she still tried. And tried. And tried. She would be the best. She would be the brightest star in the galaxy, and then he would be forced to acknowledge her presence. 

But Roland Velhankar's gaze was focused somewhere else — Athena Novak. She was everything his own daughter was not, self-restrained and poised, powerful. And so he named her his heir, moving their makeshift family to Asphodel, Louisiana, where he founded the town’s Endine House. 

It was enough for Juliet to realize her own delusions, and for countless years later, she would berate herself for how someone so smart like her could be so stupid. 

Most of her late teenage years in Asphodel were spent either on the shelves of the library or on the shelves of the liquor store. Because if she couldn’t attain her father’s love, then she would settle for his disdain. 

Her only sense of love came from science, breezing through her undergraduate studies and easily making her mark as one of the brightest rising stars of the scientific community, her research focusing on the genetics of Gifteds — the origin of magic through genetic markers, and how it had changed through time. It was enough to capture the attention of the Institute, for if the origin of magic could be found, then so could its destruction. 

And Juliet, bitter from her years of being seen as useless in the Gifted community, agreed to work with them, accepting a position as an Independent Researcher. 

☆ PINTEREST ☆

FYI:

Anything/everything about her family history is public knowledge. The Velhankars are very well known in the Gifted community worldwide, as well as in Asphodel for founding its Endine chapter. 

Juliet is currently back in Asphodel after having accepted a position as a Visiting Scholar at Asphodel College. Her main job is in research, though she serves as a guest lecturer in some biology and chemistry classes. Most of her (work) time is spent in the labs, located at Asphodel College as well as Sacred Heart Hospital. 

She was originally initiated into the New York Endine House. 

BIOGRAPHY

Leo Van Doren grew up with a large family in Mexico City. There was always food and music around, dancing was tradition and laughter was common. He had two sisters, he adored them both, and he lived with his mom, dad and abuelos on his dad’s side. It was a good life. He was a clever kid – getting into to trouble but always managing to find a way out of it, through words or deed, there was no one who could hold Leo Van Doren and when his gifts started to show themselves, nothing could hold him. Little Leo zipped through town faster than the blink of an eye. He’d stop short and stumble into street vendor stalls or knock into the sides of buildings or cause a mess trying to stop before he got to his door, only to run straight through the entire house and back again before he could manage to stop.

It was a good life until it wasn’t. When men in suits came calling, his parents told him to stay in his room. They left but there were cars on the streets for a week after. And it was enough to scare his family into enforcing new rules. Leo wasn’t allowed to run anymore. Nothing faster than a brisk walk. They didn’t trust that people weren’t still watching. They didn’t trust that they were safe. And they were right to be cautious. Leo should have listened. But two weeks into this prison his life had become, he decided to break free. By this point, he’d lived most of his life zipping around town and at sixteen, there was little his parents could do to truly enforce these rules on him. And when he was walking home from school with his sister Ana, he decided he knew better than his parents and took off, laughing as Ana shouted after him. It wasn’t a big deal. It shouldn’t have been a big deal.

That was all it took to confirm what the men in suits had suspected. An independent prime with a rare gift. Just the type of candidate for the Institute. He doesn’t really remember the night it happened – Leo woke to chaos, his family screaming as men barged in and he remembers his sister Ana and his other sister Adriana, trying to grab onto the men who’d barged into his room. He remembers seeing the gun and hearing the bang. He can still see their bodies falling in his mind’s eye and, for the first time in his life, his speed failed him. He couldn’t move. He was frozen in horror and that was all it took for them to place charmed cuffs on his wrists and ankles, keeping him from moving at all.

The next years blurred together. He was taken to the Institute and for several years, he and a few others taken from Mexico City that night were the only faces he knew. He was experimented on daily. New tests designed to test the limits of his speed and his ability to phase. They were cruel. They would fire at him until he moved faster than the bullets and whenever one caught him, they’d tell him he needed to work harder or they’d be forced to do worse. That he was in control of his fate in the Institute if only he actually worked harder.

When he was 21, four years after he was brought there, and the only remaining subject who’d survived the years since Mexico, three others were brought in and kept with him. Dominic, Devery and Theodore. He was wary, at first, withdrawn and quiet before they slowly broke through the walls he’d had to build up to survive. He thought that maybe they were friends, though he forgot what it was like to have friends in the years at the Institute, and he began to trust them. They were the only people who knew what he was going through because they were going through the same thing. He thought that maybe they were going to make it and he wasn’t wrong. But he wasn’t exactly right either.

The day of the escape Leo had been taken in for unplanned additional testing. He was in the labs, under surveillance and the time had come for their plan to unfold. When it did, they were forced to leave Leo behind or risk recapture themselves. In a way, he understands why they did what they did but that doesn’t mean he ever forgave them for leaving him. It would be another two years before Leo managed to escape with the help of a newer doctor who’d taken sympathy on his plight and helped him escape.

When he did get away, Leo didn’t know where to go or what to do. So he went back to the last place he called home. Mexico City. His family was gone but there he ran into an old friend, someone who was just as shocked to see Leo alive as he was to be alive. They told him they had a way he could make some extra money and having no other prospects, Leo took him up on his offer.

At first it was little thing –– robberies, roughing up a few people, sometimes finishing the job. It was good for a while before Leo realized there was quite the market for finding people and bringing them in. He started off on his own about a year after he escaped and has been a mercenary since, working for hire both domestically and abroad. Recently, a job has brought him to Asphodel, a town he never even heard of before. He plans to stay just long enough to get the job done and move on. Little does he know the surprises the town holds.