tw: drug use, alcohol, eating disorder recovery  &  bouts of unreality.

disclaimer:  Pāru  is a dark gretchen - full of rough edges & an even tougher past. once an addict now trying to stay clean in a world that wishes she’d stayed forgotten. there will be themes of overcoming self-hatred & fighting an eating disorder as well as drug recovery, setbacks & self - fantasy as escapism. viewer discretion is advised.

Name:  真珠   Shinju  安田  Yasuda Nickname:   パール  Pāru Stagename: Juju  Eiko - Eiko   Faceclaim: Erika Sawajiri Age: 31 Birthday: March 3rd ( girl’s day ) Religion: Christian with shinto characteristics Born: Oda-shi - Izumo Province, Shimane Prefecture, Japan Current Residence :  Koenji, Tokyo in an industrial apartment above a second hand store. Occupation:  popstar accidental heiress hopeful musician. Ethnicity:  East Asian - Japanese Nationality:  Japanese Languages:  Japanese & English

FAMILY  

Father: unknown Grandmother:  Ume Yasuda, owner of Misora Onsen Aunt : Yukiko  Harada nee Yasuda Mother: Emiko Eichi nee Yasuda ( deceased ) Stepfather:  Hiroyuki Eichi ( deceased )  

PHYSICAL

Body: 5'2" (158 cm). Pāru  is small even relative to her height. waifish & fragile looking, with thin arms & legs.  she was the ideal woman 5 years ago, the sort who is too pretty to look away from but delicate enough to approach. she takes great care in her appearance, careful to keep her nails long, but not too long, her heels high but not too high, an attempt to create the effortless grace the world expects of her.  but that’s what it is, an expectation, there is none of the joy, the manipulative joy, seen in most city girls who look pretty on the arm. instead there is a hardened resignation, the shouldering of a burden without complaint. Face: When she began her career as Juju she had the fresh dewy face most j-idols do, happy to be included in a group & have the chance to love & be loved by the idol world. And while she is no less beautiful at 30 : her dark, half moon, eyes are still wide, her lips are still full, her skin barely flawed . . . there is a hardness to her now. Difficult to spot at a distance, but impossible to miss up close. The cut of her cheeks, the glassy distance in her eyes, the slightest tug of a perpetual frown. Detached, as if she floating through life, her expressions the same edifice of quiet expectation as she keeps her voice sweet, her smile pleasant & her responses to a minimum. Hair: while most might consider her hair a “typical look”, with heavy bangs that sit just above the eyebrow & long hair which swings at her waist. But no matter how average, Pāru dedicated a significant amount of time to it’s presentation. Keeping her hair a midtone brown, lightly sunkissed, making sure it shines & does not frizz, that her bangs are curled just enough to land above her brow. Wearing it the same, every day, the habits mechanical  -  a left over from the days when her hair was blonde & highly styled, filled with clips & stars & butterflies.   Wardrobe: as Juju she was always pushed to dress innocent. cute. bows & curls & soft locks & layered dresses with poofy skirts & lace trim. that was her job, to be the innocent face who would never kiss a boy, or cry, or fuck, or drink, or smoke. With that facade thoroughly destroyed  Pāru  decided to take the only option available to a girl like her. Tight dresses, dark smokey eyes, clicking heels & pink papered cigarettes, dripping with a wealthy edifice from her fur coats to her crosses & jewels. If she was going to be forced to play the part of the unmarriable disaster heiress -- she’ll at least look the part.  

HISTORY

Pāru  was born at the worst time in the perfect place. Her mother, Emiko, was 17, barely out of school & about to start at university. The delay cost her everything, not lying cost her more. But when her elder sister, Yuki, said she’d raise the child as her own, Emiko didn’t want the first part of her daughter’s life to be a shameful one. Even if it ruined her future.

No one can say Emiko didn’t do everything she could to make a good life for her daughter. Without university she started working in an office, little better than making coffee & filing, but it paid the bills. It bought young  Pāru nice clothes & tutoring & dance classes after school. Even if it meant leaving her daughter with Baa - Baa Ume for days & days, she’d make sure that her daughter was never a burden to the family.

Emiko deserved her Cinderella story. Even though she cried when she was transferred to the main office in Tokyo, knowing that meant the days would turn to weeks until she could see her daughter again, nightly phone calls & happy letters made the distance worth it in the end. After all that’s where she met Prince Charming.

Hiro was everything she could never be.  Born to parents impossibly rich, brother to both an Ambassador & a business man, son of a CEO, walking a gilded path through life never touching the ground. He was swayed by Emiko’s small town charm & she by his worldly gaze.

But that left their new life with an unanswered question :  what about  Pāru  ?  8 years old & not knowing why her mother’s new friend looked at her like that. It was strange at first, but over time she started to look forward to Hiro’s visits  &  when he suggested they both move to Tokyo Emiko agreed.

They were married by the time she was 10, but then she knew why her new Uncles, Aunts, Nephews & Elders stared at her like that. The Eichi family wasn’t interested in bastards. Even pretty ones who sat nicely at the piano & got good grades.

She was never going to be an Eichi. Even if Hiro protested, even if he begged. And so Yasuda she remained. Even in their beautiful house in Denencho. Even after her new father took her on trips to Seoul & Sidney & Macau. Her teen years spent bouncing between trips & prestigious academies & summer holidays with Obaasan & Yuki. Trips that just so happened to coincide with the yearly family reunion of the Eichi clan. Yes, she would always be a Yasuda. So when at 16 she said she wanted to be an idol like all the pretty girls on her walls, Hiro decided if he couldn’t make her an Eichi ... he could at least make her a star.

She’ll never know if Hiro bought her place on Girls10, or if she got it on his word & her own merits. Maybe his word was all it took. And they were an easy hit  : happy girl pop with lavish costumes & dances in the colors of candy were all the rage in the 2010s. They had a number ten hit, then a five, then a three, then a one. They went on tours & greeters & Juju learned to sign her name to posters & cards & dolls & balls & walls. They were on top of the world, young & beautiful & successful ... as long as they stayed that way. Perfectly untouched in their little halls of glass, forever young until they were old enough to become actresses & supermodels. It was everything she ever wanted & more -- then Hiro & Emiko died in an attack in Paris, half a world away.

She was in the middle of a tour she couldn’t leave & by the time she got back all that was waiting for her was a note & half a dozen boxes already packed. Even in death she was Yasuda. Left with a piece of paper that didn’t even call her by her name.

Hiro had seen to her care, of course, a sizable inheritance as a stipend & a few holdings her mother had. But the home belonged to the family ...  and she was not welcome. Not here. Not at the family home. Not even at the mausoleum where her parents ashes were kept. She was to walk away & never come back again. They had finally found the opportunity to make Yasuda go away.

Pāru   called a moving company, left her things in storage - refusing to look at them ever again, and went to Roppongi looking to be someone else for the day. Two months later she was back on tour, doing all the same dances & smiling songs while inside she was tearing at the walls.

The rest of her time with Girls10 was a blur. A series of pills & lines & dance routines. Nights on nights of  “ you’d be prettier if you got a little thinner” & “  best get that injection, you wouldn’t want them to see you getting older. ” and when she couldn’t take it anymore she’d get wasted in the high rise they shoved all the girls in & lay on her floor dreaming of another life somewhere far away.

And when her manager found out she fucked him & when the photographer found out she posed for him. Until she was walking around with a dozen little chains she couldn’t see wrapped around her disappearing waist.

The minutes felt like hours for so long, years where every moment was an eternity ... it was amazing that it was over so fast. A party, an interview, a few photos & she was gone. Breach of contract. Cast upon the priory of un-virginal behavior. She never knew who leaked them to the media. It didn’t matter really. A public screaming match was the final nail to her perfect persona, the disastrous headlines waiting just long enough for her to board a train back to Shimane. A girl beaten, abused & cast aside. To be forgotten the moment another pretty girl found the spotlight.

CONNECTIONS  

none  ... yet

Name: Margarete Anna Lehmann. Nicknames: Margo, Anna. Faceclaim:

young :  Jaroslava Schallerová  

adult :  Romy Schneider

Birthday: July 14th 1876. Birth Place: Berlin, Germany Current Residence: the fine estate of Maxima Aurum. Paris, France Religion: A combination of Roman Catholic & Eastern Orthodox. Ethnicity:  Slavo-Germanic. Nationality:  German (birth).  French (residence) Languages:  German, French, Conversation Polish, small amount of Italian. Religious Latin. Cyrillic ( read & write ).

FAMILY

Father: Guenther von Lehmann (deceased) Mother: Ida Henrietta Lehmann nee Schneider Brother: Valentine 'Val' Lehmann Sister: Zelma Lehmann (deceased)

PHYSICAL

Body: 5'5" (165 cm). Doll like, with arms and torso that gives to  the touch. Her hands have a few callouses, a confession that her life  has not been one of upper society wealth. Very little muscle, but enough  to give away her favor for riding, and the knowledge that for years  she's done her own laundry by hand. Face: Round, young, with wide eyes and long lashes. She bares a  striking similarity to DaVinci's virgin of the rocks, a fact her mother  loves to bring up. Her eyes are bright blue. Her lips are full though slightly small in comparison to the roundness  of her cheeks. She abstains from all rouges & powders at her mother’s insistence, so the  pink coral color to her lips is entirely her own. Hair: Long & with a natural wave, it is dark brown in the  winter lightening to a light chestnut in summer. Despite her mother's  attempts to keep her from popular trends she tries to keep her hair in  whatever is new and takes great pride in the care and length of it. Wardrobe: her mother has kept her in clothes below her age, an attempt to hide her growing femininity &  to keep suitors away. For that reason she is often seen in white lace  outfits more fitting for a teenager. With black buckle shoes & bows  in her hair. Once her mother leaves for Spain to pursue her own  prospects however Margo gets her first taste of proper adult clothes.  Obsessed with the newest fashions she has begun to use her considerable  sewing talents to try & recreate the fine clothes she sees Maxima & the other women in high society wear.

HISTORY

Born  near Berlin her father was a shopkeep & tailpr of only a small  note. They were not drenched in finer things, money being quite tight  & living in a one room house. As a young child Margo’s father passed  away from a fever, despite Margo’s slavish attempts to save him. This,  however, proved something of a windfall to the family as her Father had  been setting aside a careful inheritance should something befall him.  Henrietta used this opportunity to move her children from Berlin to  Paris where she felt they might have better prospects & opportunities.

There  they met Maxima Aurum, on their very first day in the city, and came to  be something of her wards. Maxima helping to teach Val & his  sister French while their mother found for them lodgings. They did not  move very far, as in her search for alternative housing Henrietta found  herself wholly wooed by a similarly stationed German ex-patriot by the  name of Henri Scholz & set off to secure a marriage with him.

By  this time the collective Lehman’s had been living in Paris for some  five years. Val had joined the military, a guarantor of citizenship  where he had been found to be dedicated & tactically brilliant. Quickly growing in the ranks. While Margo had been entrusted to a combination of tutors & Maxima’s good graces.

When  Henrietta left for Spain she formally entrusted Margo’s care to Maxima,  giving her proper legal guardianship over the blossoming girl ; under  the agreement that she continue her lessons & be compelled to attend church every Sunday. Maxima for her part found no disagreement with the former &  little need ( or desire ) to compel the latter as Margo had always been  a fastidious church goer. But with her new found freedom burgeoning in  turn of the century Paris Maxima plans to make sure that Margo is well  capable of handling the world of high society Paris & the world of rung climbing suitors to ensure her darling ward is given only the best of possible futures.

CONNECTIONS

REDEEMER :   roland / tag SISTER : maxima / tag BROTHER :  val [npc] / tag

disclaimer:  while I do not have a canon faust, I am also not actively looking for one. not just because the chances of finding one in the rpc is slim ( hell  -- finding 16th century muses set in germany is like finding the arc of the covenant at this point so I suspect I will get to write Gretchen about as often as I willingly go clothes shopping )  ... so not only that!  but also because I have a particular view of him, and their relationship, that would likely not jive with any interpretations I do manage to find. however I am always willing to be proven wrong & if some one had the mad desire to make a faust to suffer with me in 16th century obscure media I welcome the attempt. hit me up. I’ll make us edits. we’ll cry. it’ll be a great time.

Name: Margarete Maria Lehann. Nicknames: Gretchen, Maria (family) Faceclaim:  Holliday Granger as Lucrezia Borgia Age:  15 Birthday: July 14th 1576. Birth Place: Staufen, Germany Current Residence: a small parish house in Staufen. Religion: Reformist Protestant Christian. Ethnicity:  Germanic. Nationality:  German. Languages:  German, a small amount of English.

FAMILY

Father: Guenther von Lehann (deceased) Mother: Ida Henrietta Lehann nee Schneider Brother: Valentin Lehann Sister: Zelma Lehann (deceased)

PHYSICAL

Body: 5'1" (155 cm). Doll like, with arms and torso that gives to  the touch. Her hands are covered in calluses from house labor assisting her aging mother while Valentin is away. Still there is something fragile to her, thin & wraith like, as if she could disappear in an instant. Face: Round, young, with wide eyes and long lashes. Her mouth is heavily bowed & small with bright coral lips, to match a small nose & low cheeks. Her skin is free of pocks thanks to her summers spent milking her uncle’s cows and she takes great pride in the statuesque qualities she has heard people praise such as her long neck & strong jaw. Hair: Long & with a natural wave, it is a strawberry blonde in the  winter which lightens to a honey blonde in summer sun. Often kept in simple braids beneath her hair covering at home Gretchen is especially vain about her locks, a fact her mother has chided her for as she is known to spend hours on it’s brushing & care. Wardrobe: a working girl in a home she has had to run since a young age Gretchen’s wardrobe is deeply practical, with few extravagances save her church best. a lover of embroidery she has worked on several wedding dresses for her friends, though her mother has forbade her to attend any weddings to make sure her daughter is not taken advantage of by a suitor.  still her embroidery has worked well to keep the family afloat between Valentin’s military pay & has granted her a few embellishments to catch the light amongst the church candelabras.

HISTORY

Born in Staufen she expected her life to always be the same. She would grow up, find a nice boy, marry him, have children, and die. Being buried in the same town in which she had always lived. But it seemed life had made a few change of plans. While she would never leave Staufen, the boy she would meet would not be a boy but a man. And while she would know his touch they would never marry. And while she would have a child, he would not live as she drowned him to save him. And while she would die - it would be very young.

These are the events of Goethe’s Faust. Where a young girl grows up with a dream in her heart of saving some one as she never managed to save her baby sister. Where she would fall in love with a man who wanted nothing more than Death, and when it proved illusive took power instead.  Where a young girl would accidentally kill her mother, and drown her baby, while her lover would kill her brother in the street without her ever knowing.

Where she would be abandoned to die, only to be lifted to heaven.  Where she would save a man’s soul for the promise of trying, knowing that some darkness can never be cast away but it can become holy in it’s own right And where a serpent in the shape of a girl would win a bet for impossible deities before disappearing back into the ether from whence she came.

CONNECTIONS

REDEEMER :  faust [unclaimed] / tag DECEIVER: mephistopheles [unclaimed] / tag

disclaimer :   this is the Divine Gretchen. The Celestial. Gretchen in her most holy. She cannot appear on earth in this form, only appearing in the places which linger between death & the other world.  she will visit each sinner / redeemer at the end of their life in this form, to give sinners a final chance at redemption as Poenitentium the repentant, or to welcome redeemers to the light beyond where they will be given the choice to return to the cycle of rebirth, or to remain with her in eternity. otherwise this rendition is only available to beings who are defiers of death, of deity or deity like strength, those who can walk in the shadow between life & death, or the already dead.

Name: UNSPEAKABLE IN THE HUMAN TONGUE Title:  The Divine Feminine, L’Femme Eternale, Sanctum Animus Rhea, Poenitentium,  The Sorrow,  The Receiver,  The Harlot. Purpose:  holiest of holies, singer of the 3rd choir, guardian of  the repentant, walker of the purgatorium. Redeemer. Giver of second  chances.   Faceclaim:  none Age: infinite Birth Place: the top of the circle mount, precisely seven seconds after Lilith had passed & Adam fled the garden.

PHYSICAL

Body: Appearing as both child & woman combined, she seems as if carved of stone. Pale white & shrouded in heavenly robes her eyes are covered by a blind which cannot be removed, and her head shrouded by a halo of many fragmented light which paints impossible colors in streaks like shooting stars.  Her very skin glows in a soft & warm light, though she will be forever cold to the touch as if long dead, and she shimmers in passing light as if merely a ghost or figment of the imagination.

Face: with her mask removed she will take on the face of the Gretchen the viewer once knew, or should they have never met her the face of her progenitor - Lilith - the first of God’s daughters. As Lilith she is impossibly beautiful, wreathed in gold,  with hair which is flecked with stars. Her lips are red, though unstained, with almond eyes & dark olive skin.  

Hair: Long it falls like a veil around her body. Nude beneath the shroud her hair is a cascade of moving water, shifting through winds that any in her presence cannot feel. A thing alive it moves around her like an echoing shade, floating in some invisible body of holy sea.  Much like her body it seems never to touch the ground, forever dancing just above it like a floating dance.

Wardrobe: as Poenitentium she is shrouded in a thick robe of white which hides her face from beneath which she is heard to constantly weep.  Unmasked she is nude, with hundreds of veils like ribbons which move around her, the thin gossamer sparkling with moving stars.

CONNECTIONS

none

tw : rape, murder, vengeance, violence, madness, unreality..

Gosia is built for dark fantasy taking from slavic folklore as a spirit of vengeance after her murder. she can be violent though she usually hurts others without intending to. she is also very powerful, able to summon spirits & plants to her aid if she feels threatened. approach with caution.

Name: Malgosia Jagwiga Vidniy Nicknames: Gosia, Ida Faceclaim:

alive : Olivia Hussey

dead :  Isabelle Adjani, Natalya Varley

Age: appears 19 but the eyes are far older Birthday: August 12th Religion: Eastern Orthodox. Ethnicity:  Slav Nationality:  Polish ( or nearest equivalent ) Languages:  Polish, Ukrainian, Russian, Trade ( or nearest equivalent ) Race: Rusalka, spirit of vengeance Curse:  to find a creature who can love her as she is, with purity of purpose.

FAMILY

Father: Vladomir Ivanovich Vidniy (deceased) Mother: Adelina Malgosia Vidniy (deceased) Sister:  Sybilla Ada Vidniy

PHYSICAL

Body: 5'4" (160 cm). Beautiful in life she has since become pale with the enchantment of the wood upon her. Her face grown long to match her hair. But still the beauty of before remains, if twisted in her new form. Her neck is long & graceful, the same with her limbs, her body has brown to that of a proper woman even as the youthfulness remains on her face. But the darkness around her eyes, the pale bloodless quality of her skin, and the deep sadness in her gaze confess her for something otherworldly. Face: A long oval with prominent almond eyes, deep set & frame with long black lashes. Her nose is strong, but not overbearing, with full lips & high cheeks where her jaw sinks into the heavy veil of dark her hair granting her a strange skeletal quality in the night. Hair: Long & with a natural wave, it was once a lovely deep brown, but has since become black as the darkest night, trailing long about the ground. A wild mane left to grow wild in flies around her face. Where a proper woman might have her hair covered Gosia’s remains down, following her every movement like a shadow. Wardrobe: though sometime taking on the illusion of a woman of merchant standing, Gosia is most often found in the formless white of her funerary gown, walking the woods barefoot in the same dress she was to be buried in.

HISTORY

Gosia was a blessed child from the moment of her birth. The first child to live past an early age, and a beauty from childhood, she was everything her parents could have dreamed. A devout helper in the home as well as at the small chapel in her rural hometown, friendly & godly, the daughter any family would want.

Protective but practical - the needs of running an inn made it that her parents felt the need to watch her closely, ensuring no would be suitors would attempt to take advantage of the beautiful creature as she helped prepare tables & rooms. But sadly it would be treachery from within which would end the happiness of the Vidniy family.

From the age of 15 it was clear that the two boys nearest her age, both from worthy families, would want for young Gosia’s hand. Still the parents held firm, their daughter would not marry so young as so she could not choose her happiness for herself. And so both boys, friends & now rivals began their furtive attempts to woo fair Gosia.

Viktor, son of the town trapper, boisterous & arrogant would promise Gosia a house which never went hungry, a fire which never went cold & fine dresses edged in fur. He would buy her anything she wanted, if she would be his, but spoke more of himself than his feelings.

Ivan,  grandson of the church elder was far poorer than Viktor, whose fathers furs had bought them a fine house & lands, but he promised her poetry, to hold her in the cold, to clothe her in the finery of his feelings, and a heart which would never betray.

Ivan was an easy winner. Between her own piety & the sweet surety of his words there was no other for dear Gosia. This infuriated Viktor, and soon the two best friends began to quarrel as Viktor tried all he could to make Ivan give up the chase.

When at last Gosia declared who she would marry, Viktor begged her for a final moment to speak before she made her intentions before the town. In secret she agreed to meet him, and in the woods on the outskirts of their village he begged her to reconsider -- and when she refused he raped & beat her, leaving her body forgotten amongst the trees.

It was Viktor’s own father who found her, carrying her broken body back to the small village. It was decided as Gosia never named her chosen suitor both Ivan & Viktor would keep the vigil over her body. And each night while Ivan slept, Viktor was visited by horrible dreams.  By  spirits of hell condemning him & a horrid ghoulish Gosia who cursed him.  

Finally on the third night, Viktor went mad. Screaming throughout the church house he attempted to set the chapel ablaze, fighting with Ivan over the torch before beating his once friend to death & casting him into the growing flames.

But when Ivan breathed his last, Viktor watched with horror as Gosia opened her eyes, raising from the coffin as the two met. No one is sure what happened, there were stories which said they heard him screaming, his shadow racing from window to window, but the end result was plain to see. As the church burned Viktor thrust himself from the bell tower, dying in a heap upon the cobblestones.

While the body of Gosia disappeared, not to be found amongst the ashes though her intact coffin remained untouched by the flames. Some say they still see Gosia on the outskirts of the village, her own sister attesting she has seen her standing in her old room, staring in the mirror, shrouded in a crown of wheat & flowers.

CONNECTIONS  

LOVER: ivan [npc] / tag BETRAYER : viktor [npc] / tag

Name: Margarita Francesca Yamila Arcelia Hernandez Nicknames: Rita, Fran (family) Faceclaim: Penelope Cruz Age: 34 Birthday: December 25th Religion: Devout Roman Catholic Born: Buenos Aires, Argentina Current Residence :  unsettled. Owns a series of greenhouses in Riverside, Ca. Occupation:  Part - time Horticulturist, Full - time Witch. Ethnicity:  Latina Nationality:  Argentinian ( 1/2 spaniard 1/2 native ) Languages:  Spanish, English some Japanese & Mandarin Virtue : goodness & honesty Curse:  to never find love.

FAMILY  

Father: Diego Salvador  José Luis Hernandez Mother: Angelina Maria Rosa Yamila Hernandez nee Geuterres Brother:  Valentin Rodrigo José Luis Xavier Hendandez    

PHYSICAL

Body: 5'6" (171 cm). Rita has been told most of her life she could have been a super model. Naturally thin with an hourglass shape, graceful & long legs, glowing skin, delicate fingers. Rita takes pride in her appearance, believing the body is a temple & she likes hers well gilded, but she believes it’s practical. If she wants to live to be a ripe old spinster then she needs to start now & it’s never been enough to stop her getting her hands a little dirty. Being a horticulturalist means no matter how long her beauty routine she’s still going to have dirt under her nails. Face: A soft oval with a wide forehead & soft mid-cheeks, her dark & heavy set brown eyes are well weighted against full lips that tip to a pout when concentrating. Her long lashes have always been the first thing her mother complements her own, calling her doe eyed, with something of a child like expression, despite the last marks of her childhood falling off several years ago. Still she is expressive, her face always busy with her emotions despite her obvious attempts to hide it. A rather unfortunate side effect of the curse being that any attempt to keep her thoughts from flying out of her mouth is pointless. Hair: midback in length & heavily layered to deal with the weight, Rita takes good care of her hair even if she doesn’t do much with it. A bit of a curl & a blowdry the best anyone can expect without paying some one else to do it. However her tendency to leave it down is something of a double edged sword as she finds herself constantly having to push it back out of her face, an action so automatic at this point she barely notices it. Wardrobe: highly feminine, she switches between tight fitting dresses & looser summer dresses depending on where she is working. This is a girl you are never going to find in pants, preferring instead the traditional off shoulder tops & skirts from home for working in the fields. Prodigious in heels she’s famous for her ability to keep up with casual walkers in them & once, very unfortunately, got herself into a bet to run a marathon in a pair of stilettos. While she did finish the race, quite admirably, the blisters alone made her vow never again.  

HISTORY

Rita was born a miracle. The second child of Diego & Angelina she was born on Christmas, the celebration of the birth of Christ & a day of deep significance to the Geuterres family. A maternal line of witches going back long before the Spanish invasion the eldest mother of the family, Margarita (senior) had prophesied that the most successful daughter of the family would be born at the birth of Christ, and when she did the family would, on the third day, bless the child with a wish to follow her all her days.

What her family gave her was a curse. See all seven of the Geuterres sisters had planned since childhood what they would give the Christ child, and they had decided together to bless the daughter with living a good & honest life.

The effect wasn’t obvious at first, her mother worrying that perhaps infallible Margarita had been wrong for the first time in all her many, many, many, many, years. But once Rita started talking, the result became beyond apparent. Rita couldn’t lie. Worse yet she would feel compelled to answer when asked a question, forced to spout out her honest feelings no matter how brutal.

The family soon realized that there is a lot to be said about getting what you asked for. Blunt without intention, the family quickly learned not to ask Rita anything you didn’t want the truth to. Unfortunately everyone else didn’t.

Things came to a head at fourteen years of age when, visiting the mountain villages where the family practitioners still live to this day, she met an old friend of Margarita : Teodora. It had gone well until she asked what Rita thought of her methods, to which Rita, staring in horror, replied “ I think you’re a fraud who stole everything she knows from my family. ” Needless to say this did not go well with Teodora who cursed her with a loveless life, never able to find a man who would stay.

Needless to say she learned Teodora wasn’t a fraud that day. From that day on Rita became deeply superstitious, throwing herself into the study of her family’s craft, as well as other methodologies. And what she’s become is a very good witch, and a very poor spinster, so afraid of even attempting partnerships she avoids them entirely throwing herself into her work with the greenhouses & collecting rare herbs for potions & cooking.

It isn’t the life she wants to be living of course, a romantic at heart she’d like nothing more than to be swept off her feet, but curses are curses . . . or are they?

CONNECTIONS  

BROTHER : tino [npc]  / tag

below is a masterpost of the many iterations of Gretchen through out the infinite centuries, realities  & universes.  open Gretchens are Gretchens who have not yet found their sinner. Taken Gretchens have found their sinner but are open for other interactions, including romantic ones unless otherwise noted in their plotting call. feel free to send memes or check my wishlist for other possible Gretchens not shown here. click each name for stats & further information.

SANCTUM ANIMA [unknowable].   The divine feminine, the ever lasting soul of charity, head of the heavenly choir who wears the face of god’s first daughter, in tribute & sacrifice. this is Gretchen at her most holy & is only available to defiers of death, sinners, deities or near deities, or the already deceased.

GRETCHEN [faust only]. follows the canon events of Goethe’s Faust, from magic mirror to terrible end. set in the 16th century in Germany in a world of minor magic this is best classified as a historical fantasy with more history than fantasy. expect witches, demons, wizards, angels & heartbreak.

MARGO [taken] there is little greater than to become a woman at the dawn of a new century in the greatest city in all the world: Paris. Margo was born in Germany but grew in France after the death of her father at a young age. There she came under the care of Maxima Aurum, becoming something of an unofficial ward to the growing Aurum star, along with her brother Val,  while their mother seeks her own prospects. It is there, by chance, she meets a traveling minstrel by the name of Roland who is not all he seems, and falls hopelessly in love.

GOSIA [open]. she was beautiful once, full of hopes & dreams, a life filled with love spread before her to be gobbled up by starving youthful fingers. But when love betrayed her & left her dead in the woodside she became something more. a demon? possibly. a body for revenge? definitely. hunting for men who do not keep their promises & those who give them carelessly to girls with pretty smiles. cursed to walk the earth until she finds a creature who can love her as she is, a walking corpse, and at last find peace.

RITA [open]. everyone says they prefer honesty, but how much is that really true? blessed cursed from a young age with chronic goodness & honesty Rita did her best to keep her too - eager mouth under control, that is until a fellow witch caught her in an unfriendly remark & proceeded to curse her to never find a love that is lasting. now a chronic bachelor in her 30s Rita has done her best to accept both her curses with grace, focusing on helping the love lives of others where hers has failed.

PĀRU [taken]. A once rising star in the jpop scene Pāru’s fall from grace was widely publicized. first for an illicit affair with her manager, and then for drug use. 3 years later Pāru’s   all but forgotten by the fast moving entertainment world, and while she’s gotten clean her issues with men, drugs & food continue to haunt her as she tries to a return to the world of music she once loved.  

SANI [taken]  Once upon a time, a girl was born to a rural village. A special girl, blessed with the magic to make stories real & whose eyes had the power to know men’s hearts. But such power can never remain secret for long. So when the Mountain King came, they could only watch on as he demanded to take their village’s most precious possession. For no man may truly stand in the way of an immortal spirit.  But so too did they warn him, not to look at her face, for she would know the truth of his heart & there was naught he could keep secret from her gaze. But  the Mountain King was arrogant & for pride removed her veil. And when she looked at him he knew that people of the village spoke true, she had seen him, seen the truth of him. & so that day the Mountain King declared that none were to ever look upon her. That any who dared remove her veil would be put to death to keep secret what she had seen.

MARGO & CLOTHING: while Margo has a distinct love of modern fashions, and a desire to be dressed in the finest frills that are en vogue at the time - in reality Margo’s mother Ida is very strict with her attire and has her dress younger than her age. Well into her late teens Margo is kept in ‘juvenile’ clothes, ( reference: x, x, x, x ) . Kept baggy as to hide the form, and always in plain prints ( usually a plain cotton white, but occasionally a navy blue sailor dress or her favorite pink dress ). Most other girls were moved into the elegant longer dresses in their midteens, it’s only once Ida leaves to pursue a new husband that Margo at last gets to graduate into more adult clothing under Maxima’s watchful eye.  

GRETCHEN DOES NOT DREAM. Dreaming is a mortal thing.  Being connected to the celestial & a vessel for YHWH to experience it’s creation she does not have the capacity to dream.

If monitored via a sleep test one will notice a series of very strange things happen while Gretchen sleeps.

After ten to fifteen minutes in Alpha sleep ( a near wakefulness state ) she immediately drops into Delta sleep ( deep, dreamless sleep ) & remains there for the rest of her sleep cycle.

Her heart rate drops to >20 bpm, and her body temperature drops .3 to .5 degrees F.

Her breathing slows. Iit is not uncommon for some one to place a mirror or their hand near her mouth to ensure she is merely sleeping.

Her brain activity is sub-normal, bordering on catatonia.

There are unforeseen benefits to her strange sleep cycle, being that she needs less sleep ( 4 to 6 hours on average ), and generally is better rested than most people who experience cycle & REM sleep.

But it does mean that Gretchen, in all her forms, is fascinated by people talking about their dreams. Having never experienced them ( something she will claim is due to her lack of imagination ) she loves to learn about them second hand, happy to sit for hours listening to the finer points of dreaming & what it is like.

HISTORY OF GOD   --   for the purposes of just a general cosmology I’m going to break down the creator God :  basic history, some general rules, what it’s the god of, etc. consider this a general reference post as far as this blog is concerned on Y*WH, J*hovah All*h etc.

the creator God did not make the universe, it came into being in the first pentasecond after the big bang & is the oldest being as far as it knows. the universe is it’s own organic being, unbeholden to any one god.

it also did not create man, man was created through an organic process following thousands of years of evolution. though it is true that god loves humans the most, so much so that it created a physical form to interact with his creation. and then y’all stabbed him.

Y*shua / J*sus was not mortal but a piece of god placed in a physical form in it’s hunger to spend time with humanity. as mentioned above this didn’t work out well  & it’s since shied from joining mortals again, preferring to work through interlocutors ( angels ) as well as occasional celestial mortals ( like gretchen ).

God is a God of Love & Death who can only exist in the place beyond the mortal cycle of death & rebirth. it’s purpose is to love living beings without limit & to help them learn to love as it does. it created the place between life & death ( Purgatory) to help teach these lessons, as well as to house the wheel of rebirth where those at the end of their lives are either allowed to choose to leave the cycle through the grand epiphany or are returned back to mortal lives to continue the cycle anew until they are ready to the here - after.

the creator God cannot manifest in the physical realm & can only manifest as proxies of itself ( burning bushes & so on ) in Purgatory.

there are of course other gods! the creator God is not even the most powerful. it just loves endlessly & wants the best for all mortal beings touched by the light of consciousness.

Name: Sadaf al - Nadiyya bint Mohammad al Desikan Nicknames: Sani, Kahani / Kahanivala Faceclaim: Aishwarya Rai Age: unknown, seems mid20s Birthday: unknown Religion: Muslim Born: a small village in modern day Bangladesh Current Residence :  the palace of the Mountain King. Occupation:  storyteller for the royal court of ya al - Malik Arjun King of Mountains. Ethnicity:  bengali Languages:  urdu, hindi, arabic, tamil, latin

FAMILY  

Father: Mohammad ibn Yusuf al Desikan Mother: Jawarya

PHYSICAL

Body: 5'6" (168 cm). of comely shape with wide hips & an hourglass shape, Sani seems taller than she is by sheer magnitude of her presence. Her entrance heralded by the bells about her ankles there is a breathlessness which fills a room whenever she enters. Her hands & feet covered with exquisite henna designs, bedecked in jewels, & surrounded by the scent of rose water, incense & honeywine. There is an almost holiness around her, a quiet which follows whenever she dare open her mouth to speak. Like the moment before a flower blooms,  hush waiting for the petals to open. Face: Covered in veils, her details are difficult to make out but there are a few things that any who linger can say for certain about the storyteller. Her face ovular, with full lips & a strong nose. Her eyes appear large, though forever downcast, with dark enough lashes to be seen through all but the thickest veils. Her voice is sweet, grabbing immediate attention & her skin is of a sunkissed hue from long walks through the palace gardens. Hair: there are many who could claim her hair another veil, which sweeps the floor to hide any imprint of her having been there. In truth it reaches only to her knees, kept in a long braid which follows her dancing like an echo. Covered in flowers & jewels she keeps it hung over one shoulder when playing the sitar, otherwise she allows it to fall long, resting on her back as a second spine. Rarely she can be seen in the gardens with it down, like a cloak around her shoulders, it’s thick curls of brown nearly black save that softest hint of gold where the sun makes itself known or in the rain where it loses it’s wave like curl fall straight to slap against her calves as walks. Wardrobe: dressed as a King’s Concubine, she is cloaked in the finest clothes. Her hair, feet & hands bedecked in jewels, with veils which are lined with golden thread, sparkling with crystals or finely sewn flowers. Around her wrists sit hundreds of bangles, and on her ankles bells. Her nose is pierced, as are her ears, with a fine chain which connects between them on the life side. Her hair is always woven with flowers,  which grant her a natural perfume. Dressed in either a Lehenga or Kurta as needed for her performance, she dresses in bright colors, preferring a monochromatic look which matches her veil, commonly in red, yellow, or blue. Whenever she enters she always carries with her a gold tray, with a single burning lamp, along with three bowls -  each filled crushed saffron, red tumeric & jasmine.

HISTORY

In a small village near the jungle, a girl was born. Touched by the hand of Allah, she was gifted with the talent to see into the hearts of men at a glance of her eyes, the color of sky, bright & beautiful blue. In the village she was the daughter of all the people, raised by the town together as their precious jewel.

And among the tall trees, beneath the figs & mangos, she learned to dance & sing. To weave the shadows, to call the light, to bend the world beneath magical fingers which let stories, for brief moments, be real.

But there is no keeping such things secret forever, & as the fame of her stories grew so too did the covetous nature of men. Many tried to buy her, win her, marry or keep her, but it was only when the King of the Mountains came that the people did not have merit to send him away.

I will take her as my own, said he, to sing for me all my days & I shall give you gold a plenty, enough jewels to cover all your homes, you shall be rich as Sultans, never wanting for money. And when the people of the village said they would not part with her for gold, nor jewels, nor money, the Mountain King replied, then I shall send you good harvest, with many rains, I shall grant you quiet peaks calm of fire, & seas more full of fish than you have ever seen. And when still the people of the village would not part with her for harvest, nor fish, nor rain the King replied then I will send you flame, I will burn your village & your forests. I will make it that nothing ever grows, fit only for the blasted sands of the western desert will I leave you. And to this Sani stood tall, though her eyes remained downcast, & spoke with a voice as sweet as the first spring rain, “ I will go with the King, but only if he promises to keep you happy, to leave you songs & pleasant mornings, filled with abundant crops & families. That you will never come to harm, by his hand or any other, so long as I shall live.” And to this the King agreed.  

But before he left the village elder warned him, with a voice wise with age, not to look beneath her veil, to keep his eyes forever averted from her gaze. For if so it would bring ruin upon him, for she would know his heart then & there would be no lie he could keep from her.

And as they rode away, back to the palace of the Mountain King, the King became suspicious, curious if perhaps they had slipped him a horrid beast, or spirit in the form of woman to trick him. And so when they arrived at the palace he helped her step from her palanquin & there did he lift her veil to know for truth what he had brought home with him.

What he saw was a beauty as he never had before, not among all the spirits of the heavens combined, but as he met her gaze did he see the old man spoke true. For in that moment she saw the whole of him, stretched out before her as if a fine tapestry. Every thought, every deed, good or ill did she know, & for the first time the Mountain King felt afraid.

With shaking hands did he cover her, & there decreed no man but he must ever look upon her face. Anyone who attempted to remove her veil would be put to death, as her face was for the King & the King alone.

CONNECTIONS  

MALIK : arjun [npc]  / tag AMIR : taiyang / tag

Name: Margarete Anna Lehmann. Nicknames: Margo, Anna. Faceclaim:

young :  Jaroslava Schallerová

adult :  Romy Schneider

Birthday: July 14th 1876. Birth Place: Berlin, Germany Current Residence: the fine estate of Maxima Aurum. Paris, France Religion: A combination of Roman Catholic & Eastern Orthodox. Ethnicity:  Slavo-Germanic. Nationality:  German (birth).  French (residence) Languages:  German, French, Conversation Polish, small amount of Italian. Religious Latin. Cyrillic ( read & write ).

FAMILY

Father: Guenther von Lehmann (deceased) Mother: Ida Henrietta Lehmann nee Schneider Brother: Valentine 'Val' Lehmann Sister: Zelma Lehmann (deceased) 

PHYSICAL

Body: 5'5" (165 cm). Doll like, with arms and torso that gives to the touch. Her hands have a few callouses, a confession that her life has not been one of upper society wealth. Very little muscle, but enough to give away her favor for riding, and the knowledge that for years she's done her own laundry by hand. Face: Round, young, with wide eyes and long lashes. She bares a striking similarity to DaVinci's virgin of the rocks, a fact her mother loves to bring up. Her eyes are bright blue. Her lips are full though slightly small in comparison to the roundness of her cheeks. She abstains from all rouges & powders at her mother’s insistence, so the pink coral color to her lips is entirely her own. Hair: Long & with a natural wave, it is dark brown in the winter lightening to a light chestnut in summer. Despite her mother's attempts to keep her from popular trends she tries to keep her hair in whatever is new and takes great pride in the care and length of it. Wardrobe:  her mother has kept her in clothes below her age, an attempt to hide her growing femininity & to keep suitors away. For that reason she is often seen in white lace outfits more fitting for a teenager. With black buckle shoes & bows in her hair. Once her mother leaves for Spain to pursue her own prospects however Margo gets her first taste of proper adult clothes. Obsessed with the newest fashions she has begun to use her considerable sewing talents to try & recreate the fine clothes she sees Maxima & the other women in high society wear.

HISTORY

Born near Berlin her father was a shopkeep & tailer of only a small note. They were not drenched in finer things, money being quite tight & living in a one room house. As a young child Margo’s father passed away from a fever, despite Margo’s slavish attempts to save him. This, however, proved something of a windfall to the family as her Father had been setting aside a careful inheritance should something befall him. Henrietta used this opportunity to move her children from Berlin to Paris where she felt they might have better prospects & opportunities.

There they met Maxima Aurum, on their very first day in the city, and came to be something of her wards. Maxima helping to teach Val & his sister French while their mother found for them lodgings. They did not move very far, as in her search for alternative housing Henrietta found herself wholly wooed by a similarly stationed German ex-patriot by the name of Henri Scholz & set off to secure a marriage with him.

By this time the collective Lehman’s had been living in Paris for some five years. Val had joined the military, a guarantor of citizenship where he had been found to be dedicated & tactically brilliant. Quickly growing in the ranks. While Margo had been entrusted to a combination of tutors & Maxima’s good graces.

When Henrietta left for Spain she formally entrusted Margo’s care to Maxima, giving her proper legal guardianship over the blossoming girl ; under the agreement that she continue her lessons & be compelled to attend church every Sunday. Maxima for her part found no disagreement with the former & little need ( or desire ) to compel the latter as Margo had always been a fastidious church goer. But with her new found freedom burgeoning in turn of the century Paris Maxima plans to make sure that Margo is well capable of handling the world of high society Paris & the world of rung climbing suitors to ensure her darling ward is given only the best of possible futures.

CONNECTIONS

REDEEMER :   roland / tag SISTER :  maxima / tag

Lily Cole in The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009)

Auguste Ottin (Detail) Polyphemus Surprising Acis and Galatea,1866,the Fontaine Médicis.

Nick Alm (detail)

― Anaïs Nin, Henry And June

[text ID: There are two ways to reach me: by way of kisses or by way of the imagination. But there is a hierarchy: the kisses alone don't work.]

SIMULCRUM : [ n. ]  an imitation or likeness of a person or object. such as a statue or a painting, especially of a god.

[ 18+ ]  Private  &  plotting only reimagining of Gretchen from Goethe’s Faust as a celestial entity created by god to test sinners across multiple timelines & realities. Exploring love, destruction, redemption &  predetermination. Previously poenitentium & margosfolly. Started 2017.  Revived 2022.

           RULES.   GRETCHEN.   MARGO.   PINTEREST.

writer:  n.  she/they.  30+.  artist.  horror enthusiast.

blogroll:

desanguined [ high activity serial killer oc ]

lem0nsheadz [ high activity yandere oc ]

dangerdriven [low activity plotting only multi. under co.]