He Was Just A Kid, Your Honor

I climbed a Mountain and I Turned Around.

Modern Magic OC RP Blog for former-villain and Archfae Titus Macrides, aka THE OVERGROWTH. Beloved by Clownboy 🤡🐙.

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Korgrove: Survival

Macrides: Freedom

Titus: Survival

The basic idea was that his son (who I just named Titus because he was just a reskin of another character and that characters name started with a T) was killed by a man made illness that had found its way to their isolated forest community, and so he was looking for vengeance as a living forest.

The only reason I started thinking of Titus as a primary character later on was because I played him in a friends dnd campaign, and the only reason I decided he would be The Overgrowth going forward was because I was dming another campaign where One of the players knew about the campaign I used Macrides in, so it was like a twist for them when they found out the guy they thought was gonna be the bbeg was actually dead, only for it to be a character I had barely mentioned in the past ykno?

(( very sick and needed to take a mental refresher from trying and failing to do artfight, so I drew this out as a more fun way to to dump my less important world building ideas lmao;; but also I forgot I can’t draw animals ))

Fae Courts and Style

I think that when Titus goes to the fae deserts, it’s very much in this theme of “old west cowboy” energy, with an environment that seems heaviky reminiscent of the deserts of the US Southwest. But I think when Macrides was a kid there, it was much more of a desert like the Sahara with a theme more fitting for a fantasy setting.

I think that the courts manifest themselves physically based on whoever rules over them at that point. Korgrove, Macrides’ father, definitely fit more into a dark fantasy setting so the Deserts took that inspiration. When Macrides became king and subsequently fled into the mortal realm, it took on a more “American Frontier” style as he started becoming influenced by the frontiersmen he would see/interact with in the beginnings. And then it just barely shifted over to the old west energy when Titus became king; not because he’s particularly attached to the old west or anything, but because it’s how he imagined wherever Macrides had come from.

Archfae Advisors

This is just sort of a silly idea I had that just really rooted itself in my brain. But I don’t think that far royalty would have actual advisors. There’s too much room for subterfuge, too much importance placed on the solitary power of each courts throne, so how do you get around that?

Well, people can’t be trusted. So they don’t use people.

I think that when an archfae is created, they do so with a demi-being that is created from The Wilds and based on the archfae in question, that Only They Can See. Like a narrator or a Jiminy Cricket that pops up from time to time. For example:

Korgrove’s advisor was a mouse, discreet and calculating, the fur around its mouth matted with the still-fresh blood of its children.

Macrides’ advisor as King of the High Desert was a coyote, sharp teeth and sharper awareness. It never exactly spoke to him, but would lead him places he needed to go (maybe it was even the reason Macrides noticed Titus leaving the commune before his death, maybe maybe)

As King of the Wildfire, Macrides advisor is still the coyote, now bone-thin and smoldering like a dying ember. It bares it’s teeth at every motion, but still leads him where he needs to go. He still follows (i was so so tempted to make it a burning tumbleweed like the vegie tales moses, yall remember that? Moe and the big exit, anyone? ok ill go)

I think that Titus has no clue because his just looks like a guy. And, as Titus changes and grows, the advisor changes with him! But I do think Titus believes he is being haunted for a while.

I think Titus doesn’t meet his advisor until he dies the first time as The Overgrowth. And also it probably caused that. When he sees it the first time, it’s in the treeline, a shadow, a vision of smoke that distracts him as the destruction flies against his head.

In his teen years, I don’t think he sees it at all since this is the time he’s most disconnected from The Wilds. Which gives him enough time to completely forget the strange experience until he runs away.

When Titus is on the road, he stops at camp sites and rest stops and gas stations, and every once in a while he sees this same weird crustpunk dude that he had seen a month ago across the country. At some point, he asks for a ride to another state. Titus refuses at first, but then decides to help out. They drive, the crustpunk in the passenger seat asking him questions and talking for hours about how people don’t understand the beauty that nothing stays forever, that they don’t appreciate the fleeting joys this world has to offer, that everything will always change and grow and die and grow. Titus, largely ignoring the rambling, pulls up to the destination, looks out his side mirror to make sure his parking is good, and looks up to find himself entirely alone. He’s pretty sure that’s ghosts.

Because, and without exaggerating or making it something it’s not, the commune was a Religious group, all serving The Wilds as a sort of diety. And obviously, Titus had a really bad time when he became The Overgrowth and subsequently a sort of spiritual leader/end-bringer.

But before shit hit the fan, I think Titus really liked it. I think he loved seeing the world as a larger intertwined system that he had a place in, an ecosystem he could be part of, a larger body he could be an organ in. And I think, as much as he was interested in the world outside of the commune, he had never wanted to leave for good. He just wanted to know more than his family knew, and that would be the thing that caused the most waves for him.

But if Macrides hadn’t died that day that Titus snuck off, if he hadn’t noticed his son had slipped away and chased after him, then Titus probably would have just walked down the mountain, met some people, and then would just come back by sundown.

But Macrides did die. So he’s all messed up, but it isn’t really the spirituality itself that’s messing him up; it’s the people who decide they know it better.

I think as a teen in Pironbury he was like. Angry religious kid. Honestly I think he gets pretty pissed when he finds out nobody else knows about The Wilds, like “what do you mean you dONT KNOW”

I think if there’s anything that keeps Titus from going full-in on his spirituality as an adult, it’s just the memories of how bad (specifically how quickly bad) things got on the commune when the wrong people took charge, people who would wield the community’s faith and devotion against them. He doesn’t want to be a zealot, doesn’t want to be seen as religious or spiritual, but he does still have that sort of faith that no matter what happens, The Wilds will be there.

I also think karma is a big part of his belief. The idea that if he is good to nature it will be good to him, if he is disrespectful to it things will be Bad, and then trying his best to extend that to everything, because everything is part of The Wilds.

He was 17 when he was completely alone for the first time. Even after he lost his dad and his family, he had Pironbury and people looking out for him, but once he drives away and doesn’t look back he’s completely on his own.

And I think most of the time when I write Runaway era Titus, I’m writing him from this perspective of him being in his twenties and having already figured a lot of the “living on the road” stuff. But Titus didn’t learn that from anyone. There wasn’t anyone to learn it from; between the commune not having any sort of motors or advanced technology and his foster dad Gregor being more of a stay-at-home or walk-there kind of guy, it was a miracle he even learned to drive.

And he didn’t have the van until a year into him leaving. He had a beat up old sedan that he would sleep vertically in the front seat of without a blanket, just in case he needed to peel out quick. He didn’t have a good supply of canned food and first aid supplies, he had whatever he could manage to swipe from random gas stations and a sewing kit. He didn’t even have a good hold on his powers as an archfae, barely able to muster the strength to heal even the most minor of his injuries.

He for sure had a baby face tho. Like all this struggle and terror made him feel like an adult, but then he’d stop at a gas station and the lady at the counter would say something like “aww hey kid, hey grumpy, what’re you doing all the way out here, oh look at your little cheeks, where’s your parents?” and that’s why he started trying to grow a beard.

This is also the time period where Titus still doesn’t really trust people, doesn’t really feel that keen on helping others, and still is mainly looking out for himself because like, who else will? And what, is he just gonna put himself out there with an open heart only to be left dead and alone on the side of the highway or at some isolated campgrounds? Absolutely not.