[This started out as a personal sketch blog but quickly became an haha-tumblr-is-hilarious-and-everything-goes blog. I also started this thing called Character Solidifying Sunday; related to this I talk way too much about my OCs.
Phantom's Art Tag | Sketch Requests Tag | Deviantart | CSS | House of Seven Spades
Feel free to drop me a question or seven in my askbox.]
hhi phantom. i searched through everything and i still can't find anything on this, which is weird because i had a really strong feeling that this has been asked before. oh well. anyways, do any of your characters believe in ghosts or supernatural beings? (either related or unrelated to any faith) and would any of them actually seek to communicate with them or summon such entities? or do things like 'ghost hunting'.
HEEEEY SEXY!
There was once an ask that involved the Grimms and Fantomes and Abstrials and Phanlockes who are all these interlocking families who have a lot to do with the paranormal, especially ghosts, but I don’t recall if there was ever a specific ask on that. And if that was the specific ask, it was like one of the first CSS questions I ever answered, so you know, it’s been awhile and I’m fine with answering again.
Anyway!
Quite a few of my characters have belief in ghosts and supernatural beings. Some of the most prominent are those families I mentioned above.
The Fantome family, which is just down to just Celdiere and her younger brother Arcaterxes, in particular are surrounded by the supernatural. They live in a haunted house, their uncles are vampires (one of which lives with them), there are ghosts and doppelgangers and werewolves and demons somehow involved in their property and even though they don’t always know what the supernatural things are, they’ve seen enough to believe that these things do exist and aren’t some hoax or coincidence.
Then there’s the above mentioned vampire uncles who are the last of the Abstrial line, Anon and Mercutious. They actually haven’t seen much of the paranormal happenings in the Fantome house, but being supernatural themselves has given them a belief that other supernatural things can exist as well. I should note that Mercutious is entertaining the idea that maybe what they are is caused by something scientific and not something unexplainable.
Then there’s the Phanlockes (cousins of the Fantomes), who have all died out now. There were five generations, the only before mentioned characters of this family being Obsidian and Jayce, of individuals who were involved with the supernatural. Two of which were monster hunters and three who were paranormal investigators.
And last but not least of these interwoven families is the last of the Grimms, Montague. Montague’s just a teen, currently homeless, and has the ability to see spirits and ghosts. I’m mentioning him because he is apart of this family, but I should note that he doesn’t actually believe in the supernatural and is under the assumption that he’s just crazy.
Some other characters include:
Davide, who believed in demons enough to summon Jesse at the least.
Isabeau, who not only attempted to bind Jesse to her, but also had a… knack, you could say, to find demons and to manipulate them. In her last years she became paranoid and thought that there were spirits surrounding her everywhere she went.
Saint George, who had a bad run-in with some kind of demon and now fights the supernatural for the SAFETY OF HUMANITY.
Matthias, who has the same abilities and skills as his mother. He also attempts to summon a demon for certain knowledge and he is, in fact, successful. But the situation scares (and perhaps scars) him so much that he’s wary to try it again. It should be noted that he believes in angels, demons, and ghosts- but doesn’t believe in a God.
Jesse believes that the most reasonable explanation is the most likely, but that there are often things that can’t be explained. Or might not be explained now, but will be in the future. In other words, he thinks that anything can be possible. But not that the supernatural is hiding around every corner or anything like that.
And then not related to the world that all of those above characters exist in:
Commodore Septimus believes in spirits. She thinks there’s good and bad spirits and that sometimes they walk around like people and that they have their own agendas most the time and shouldn’t be trusted.
Selidor believes in ghosts. No real reason why, he just does.
Oh, and last character of note is James/Jellybean who DOESN’T believe in ghosts or the supernatural DESPITE having the ghostly figure of Haedyn following him around in space.
Whelp that was a lot. I hope that kind of answered your question. And thanks for asking it!
What are some of your characters opinions on romance and relationships?
So, I do better with questions when they’re about specific characters, thus I’m going to use the SPAAAACE characters from this past CSS.
James, or Jellybean, comes from a humble Christian home in the Midwest plains where he was encouraged to find himself ‘a nice girl and settle down.’ He believes in dating before marriage, in celibacy before marriage, and in trying to keep that marriage til death do him and her part. He also believes in being true to one person and that sort of thing. He doesn’t vocally protest or show much negative reactions to non-heterosexual relationships or anything that doesn’t follow what he practices (like sleeping around or fetishes or such), but non-females or non-humans hitting on him makes him extreeemely uncomfortable.
Haedyn’s views on relationships and romance aren’t that clear, but he does know that Jellybean gets infinitely uncomfortable when he gets into his personal space and when he makes vulgar gestures- which seems to matter most to him. His vulgarity in speech towards anything sexual gives the impression that he has no respect for it.
Envi’ere thinks it would be STUPID to let romance or relationships get in the way of her job, she also doesn’t understand how to romance someone but… she thinks it sounds awfully nice.
Drytzein’s views on both are very complicated. He’s a horny seventeen year old boy who until recently was working as a prostitute. Romance has always been a job for him, or a means of getting something (like money or food) rather than something for love or the like. He understands it, how it effects people, and how it works- but if it isn’t for material gain he’s a little lost. Relationshipwise, he’s also recently found a fine gentleman whom he’s not only attracted to, but would also like to pursue some kind of relationship with. He’s confused at these EEEMOTIONS (he’s always been very… distant, especially with his job) and he’s not quite sure what to do with relationships for love.
Destere is terrified of what she would do if she were ever in a relationship. She’s also terrified of what she wouldn’t do. She’s also terrified of ‘what if no one ever asks me out’ and what that might mean about her. But, despite all of that, she wouldn’t mind a relationship in the slightest, she doesn’t think it would interfere with her job, and she thinks that people in relationships are pretty swell.
Selidor thinks,
and I quote,
“Relationships are gross and give cooties.”
For CSS: Does James "Jellybean" even like jellybeans? How does he feel about his nickname?
So, I have mentioned before that Jellybean does have a sweet tooth that Haedyn reprimands him for, but I never mentioned specific foods. I don’t think jellybeans are not his favorite, and you probably couldn’t come across them on the ship anyhow, but it’s not unlikely that he wouldn’t like them.
He does NOT like the nickname, for one it’s Haedyn pointing out a weakness (sweets) and two, it came from Haedyn. Which is reason enough not to like it.
riarii replied to your post: Also do you have some fun facts about Haedyn and James?
oh man i love these types of details. the singing, fishtank, and sweet tooth. nice! Thank you. Also, do you have anything more to say about Foil? Any other characters of interest?
Um… well I did mention that I will probably tell Haedyn and James’ story through an original character tournament, which means that a lot of what I had planned will change. I’m not sorry about this, and think an OCT would fit them well, but the only thing I regret is that I wouldn’t be able to name their story Foil. It’s one of those names, and I am very particular with what I name things, that just fits so perfectly. A foil in literature is a character that contrasts another (usually the protagonist) in order to highlight certain traits and show them with higher contrast. Haedyn and James are foils, in personality at least. Perfect opposites in the way that they think and act and what their priorities are. There’s also the fact that James, in a way, foiled Haedyn’s plan. While making it successful at the same time.
I also employ a lot of literary doubling, which is basically when you see themes/characters/situations that are a reflection of a previous theme/character/situation. A good example of this is Frodo and Gollum/Smeagol. They are of similar height and in similar situation, and eventually start saying similar things, etc. This is why I purposely made sure that Haedyn and James are about the same height and about the same weight (though Haedyn looks a bit skinnier/unhealthy [which is also ironic, him being the doctor and all]).
In the original story, there is not much interaction with anyone besides James and Haedyn. Which is kind of weird for me since I usually have a cast of FIFTY THOUSAND PEOPLE, but I think they work best with a small cast. In their story, it’s basically them and occasionally someone over their computer (and the computer itself has a voice, although it’s just an interface and has no sentience), and if I do an OCT I’ll be sure to make sure it’s them and their opponent with no tag-alongs.
Also do you have some fun facts about Haedyn and James?
I kind of talked about them a lot with Alice’s question, and you’re one of the few that know their WHOLE story, so you probably know everything of interest about them already. I’ll try to answer with a few little things though, and hopefully some of these are new, and those that aren’t might be new for other people.
-Haedyn cannot sing. He is off-tune and has a scratchy monotone voice and he sings at the top of his lungs and gosh it’s horrible. Despite this fact, he attempts to sing often. His most sung song is SHOT THROUGH THE HEAAAART, AND YOU’RE TO BLAAAAAAAME, YOU GIIIIIVE LOOOOOVE A BAAAAAD NAME. I’m pretty sure that he does this mostly to get on James’ nerves.
-James has a sweet tooth, which Haedyn reprimands him for often. This may also have some effect Haedyn deciding to call him Jellybean. Along with its similarity in sound to the nickname Jimmy-boy.
-Haedyn likes making James sexually uncomfortable, it is probably the top item on “Haedyn’s Favorite Things To Do” list. This ranges from flirting in a homosexual manner with James to when James meets an attractive girl and Haedyn whispers all these horrible sexual things James can do to her in his ear. The later ends with James yelling at Haedyn to shut up, which in turn makes James look even crazier.
-One of James’ main problems is that Haedyn is so horrible and a jerk and all these things, but he also knows that Haedyn is his hallucination. He’s terrified that this means he’s the horrible person and has all these negative traits. Most of the times he deals with this by thinking to himself that Haedyn is just the product of what he saw and imagined the real Haedyn to be, so it’s not him being this horrible person.
-Haedyn had a really cool fish tank in his room. It was broken in the hectic of the attack and the poisoning of the crew. The hallucination Haedyn shows some sorrow in this.
-Haedyn, despite any moral flaws, was a very, very good doctor.
-James, despite moral excellency (depending on how you look at him), is an average mechanic at best.
-Not really about them, but the name of their story/comic was going to be Foil. Which I still really like.
why is Haeydn's skeleton visible? and is he a ghost/spirit? and if so, what kind of ghost/spirit?
Well, a lot of this was actually SEKRET because I was going to make this huge comic and they’d be surprises with these characters and all that- but I don’t think that’s going to happen, although I do plan on using them for an original character tournament. Thus I can tell you more than I could’ve, but not everything.
First off, there is James and Haedyn. These two characters are so inseparable to their plot that it’s nigh impossible talking about one without talking about the other. James and Haedyn work on a research exploration vessel out in space, and James is a mechanic on this ship and Haedyn is the doctor.
James’ actual name is James Jill, often called Jimmy-boy by other shipmates, and eventually called Jellybean by Haedyn. Jellybean is the name that I use most often for him, but for this description I’m going with James because it’s more OFFIIIICIAL.
Haedyn’s just Haedyn right now, but will most likely have a name of Irish decent when I decide on that. Regardless, he’s also known as Doctor Haedyn on the ship.
Their story basically begins when an alien spacecraft attacks their ship, and Haedyn recognizes that these aliens (despite having technology for space travel) don’t have the best means of reading life signs- and if he’s able to lessen the life signs on the ship enough, then they will think this is another abandoned ship in deep space, and he has a chance for survival.
So Haedyn releases a deadly poison on the ship and injects himself with the antidote. He begins to move around the ship to make sure his plan is working. As the crew starts to die off, quick-witted James figures out what’s happened, who did it, etc. and runs to the Doctor’s room, and although he doesn’t find Haedyn, he finds remnants of the antidote and injects himself with it- though he’s terrified that it’s not enough.
Stuff goes down, basically Haedyn and James are the only ones left on the ship, and they meet on the bridge. James, hands shaking, grabs the captain’s gun and shoots the good doctor through his heart. Haedyn dies- but his plan worked. James is the only one left alive and because of that, the alien ship moves on, probably planning on coming back later to scrap the ‘abandoned’ ship.
Sometime later, the Haedyn as we’ve seen him shows up. He’s transparent, got a hole in his chest, and is pretty pissed at James. In all appearances, he looks like a ghost- but pretty early on, James figures out that Haedyn isn’t a ghost, but a physical manifestation of his guilt- a representation of the fact that he failed to save the crew and then he directly shot a man himself.
So no, Haedyn isn’t a ghost, he’s a hallucination. Their story from there is about James trying to get back to some form of civilization before the aliens get back and while fighting his own cracking mind (AKA Haedyn).
His skeleton is visible simply because that is how James sees him. Which, on that topic, sometimes Haedyn looks more dead or less dead or more physical/less just according to what state of mind James is in. And how much he’s winning/losing against his irrationality.
