Evangeline Minet (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
daebutante) wrote2034-08-04 07:16 pm
daebutante) wrote2034-08-04 07:16 pm
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[OOC] Background Information
EVANGELINE MINET
We all exist to be loved, but some of us more so than others.
stats
basics
Josephine and Gerard Minet want what many loving couples want, a perfect, precious, adoring family of their own. So after years of trying to have the Perfect Child that would be everything they wanted, they decided they would just have to use magic to make one. They sacrificed the souls of 12 humans and 1 daemon to create their perfect baby, Evangeline. She was raised like a fantasy southern belle socialite, believing she is one of the most perfect beings to exist and that everyone should love her. She was raised to be a polite, charming, respectful young lady of high status in a loving household, despite all the murder and dark magic going on.
Her passion is being a concert pianist. She eats the souls of daemons to survive and for a week or so will take on the powers and some surface memories of the daemon she devoured (the stronger the daemon the stronger the memories and abilities). She is easily offended and scandalized but puts up a very pleasant and unassuming facade. She has been told her entire life that she was meant to be beloved by all and to live up to the expectations of her parents, so she does whatever she can to endear herself to others. She does not know how to handle being disliked besides covering up her feelings and being Even More Nice And Friendly to that person because How Dare They Not Like Her?
Evangeline would probably consider herself bisexual if she took the time to think about sexuality. She knows women and men can be very attractive and engaging although she does find herself leaning towards seeking attention and validation from women more often than not. She comes across as polite, personable and a bit high maintenance but also has far less respect for other people's boundaries than she pretends. Boundaries are for people with power and control after all, not for those lower status people who exist to do whatever they tell them to.
setting
In a world where the Supernatural flourishes and normal humans live alongside them as best they can, coexisting and trying to survive when caught in the crossfire of the fights and wars of daemons, vampires, angels, werebeasts, and the like, some humans have taken to using magic of various sorts to compete. Humans like the Minet Family have a long history of magic and influence, but as generations have gone on the types of magic they have used have turned darker and darker and more corrupting. Now they are one of the most prominent Black Mage families in the country.
They are wealthy, powerful, and few would ever even attempt to remove them from their status and position because of how integral they are to the balance between humans and the other factions of supernatural beings. They have connections and alliances and know who to go to for favors or calling in the favors others owe them. They have made themselves invaluable and have gained a lot of leeway because of that. The power they have gained and their relevancy in the social and political structures are undeniable, but at the expense of the corruption of their bodies and souls—to the point that some of the family is incapable of dying, their bodies so altered by their mage-craft. They still look human, but there's also an Otherworldly quality to them.
history
Josephine and Gerard want what many loving couple wants, a perfect, precious, adoring family of their own. So after over a hundred years of marriage, with no children, they decided to do whatever needed to be done so they could have a child for themselves. They spent years trying in various ways to have a child who would not only be able to withstand their magic, but would also be perfect in every way for them. In the end, they decided they would just have to use magic to make one. And they did this by calling in the debts of 12 people they have contracted with, humans they felt were suitable for the “sacrifice” that they had done favors for of and made magical pacts with to give them power of their own.
They used their souls as part of a ritual to summon and bind a powerful daemon, Xinestros, who they killed and as the final sacrifice to create new life. That new life being a baby born of blood, fire, and ashes that they named Evangeline.
Evangeline’s birth was treated as a miracle, even if many knew it was anything but. She was a sweet child, with a pleasant disposition who was easy to care for, except that every month or so her parents would pay hunters to capture daemons to bring to their estate. Many assumed they were using the daemons for rituals of black magic and not many humans cared enough to stop them, but in reality they were feeding the daemons to Evangeline. The nature of her birth meant that while normal food was nice to eat, her true sustenance came from the soul of a daemon. And the older she got, the more souls she needed to consume as her own powers awoke and became stronger and stronger.
Her parents were perfectly happy to continue on with feeding her all the daemons she would need, while raising her to be the perfect socialite. She was loved, spoiled, and giving any kind of training she would need to control her abilities like a civilized person (having the memories of lesser daemons for some hours to days after feasting on them did cause her some “stress” as a child), but her true passion came in music. From the age of five she’s been studying first in singing and then on piano where she had a natural talent. She decided that she would become a professional pianist and her parents couldn’t have been more proud of her interests in the arts. A true debutante who easily charmed others with her genteel demeanor and wide variety of interests, although most of them are not so much true interests for herself so much as things her parents thought she should take an interest in. And Evangeline would do anything to please her parents and make them proud of her.
Not that Evangeline didn’t have some control herself in what she did and how. By the age of fifteen her parents accepted her request to allow her to find her own meals, and even procured her a hunter as a tutor in the ways of tracking and containing daemons in ways that wouldn’t damage them. Her own powers give her a natural immunity to daemonic powers, as she absorbs them rather than being harmed by them, but she’d never had to find a daemon before, and thus she needed to learn how to contain her powers and aura so as to not scare them off before she even had a chance to eat. Her hunter teacher was paid wealthily to be as doting and polite to her as possible and Evangeline was grateful for his knowledge and instruction. She didn’t realize until the time for her training neared its end just how disturbed and unsettled by her he was.
The problems started when Evangeline was 16 and her powers began to grow exponentially. After feeding on a higher level daemon, she became confused by the strength of their memories and how long they lasted. For over a week, she disappeared, acting as if she was said daemon, and it took that long for her parents for find her and seclude her in her home until the memories faded in strength and she could be herself again. After that her parents restricted the strength of the daemons she was allowed to eat because weaker daemons’ memories and powers faded much faster, but it also meant she had to eat more often.
By the time she was 17, even eating on lower level daemons could cause a bit of confusion for hours at a time and instead of the powers lasting for days they would stay for weeks. Too many powers and not enough control. Years of being perfect at everything, but for some reason Evangeline could not control herself enough now as she should. It felt like she was losing everything and her parents decided the only want for her to receive more specialized training and for that she may have to seek out someone she never would have thought her parents would want her to interact with---a powerful daemon. Only someone strong enough and familiar enough with the kind of dark abilities she had and was using had the chance to help her and her parents had no other options. Finding that daemonic teacher for her, well, that would be a bit harder.
personality
Evangeline sees herself as a simple girl of high means and quality interests and expectations. She was born into privilege to parents who adore her, but also have very high expectations of what she should do and accomplish. In their opinion, if she chooses to do something in life, she must succeed at in above all else and while maintaining her social attentions. Because as much as her parents love her, they also see her as an object, a possession, proof of concept for their legacy and power and all they have accomplished. She is expected to live up to everything they've done to create her and bring her to this point in her life. They adore her, but they also are not people who show love in the same way most people would expect. Love for them is both demanding, commanding, full of codependency, and easily manipulated against those who yearning for it. You cannot love without knowing how to use in their minds, and thus Evangeline was raised to know her parents love her, that they expect everyone else to love her, but that she was be the height of perfection to maintain that love.
Spending hours a day with her piano doesn’t mean she shouldn’t apply herself in her other studies and entertaining other high profile socialites. They have to maintain their connections and acquaintances if they want to maintain the balance and peace between all the factions, after all. So Evangeline sees it as her duty to impart herself much like a social and cultural ambassador to other groups. She will be polite, courteous and respectful to anyone she believes can be important or have some influence.
But at her heart, she’s a spoiled rich girl, too. For all her dedication and studying and social etiquette, she’s a girl who was raised to think people are supposed to just love her. And if they don’t she doesn’t understand why and will become a bit preoccupied in pushing the subject or interjecting herself in the other person’s life because how could they not like her? What had she done? Where had she miss-stepped? How can she rectify the failure to ensure it doesn't spread? Not being liked by one of her classmates was enough to drive Evangeline to distraction, to the point that she stalked the other girl and showed up at events she was participating in, such as lacrosse (magical lacrosse that involves a lot more injuries) and track meets just to “support her,” hoping this would improve their relationship. In the end, none of this worked, the girl just didn’t care to be her friend, and Evangeline’s obsession became obvious to her parents. Shortly after the girl’s behavior changed drastically and Evangeline never knew it was because her parents used their influence on the girl’s parents to make her be her friend and if she had, she wouldn't have cared. She would have been touched by their concern and desire to go to that extent for her. She comes by her sense of entitlement very naturally.
She’s also easily scandalized by things she was raised to see as “improper.” Overtly sexualized behavior, skimpy clothing, profane language, poor hygiene, crude treatment of women by men, and the like. To her this is the height of uncivilized behavior and she gets easily flustered by it until she calms down and decides the best route to manage it. She is good at pretending these things don’t bother her until the tension builds up and she does something more drastic, such as using her shadows to retaliate or casting a spell to make a person act as she wants to. She doesn’t have the same level of concern about encroaching on others personal autonomy and free will, considering her parents do it all the time. Sometimes other people need to be taught what’s best for them, they would say. Boundaries are for those with power and control. If you have the power you decide where the boundaries are.
feeding
There are three different ways that Evangeline can feed on the daemons she hunts and the stronger the daemon the longer she can go without eating, but with weaker daemons she needs to eat once a week to sustain herself. The weaker daemons are also much less likely to cause the side effects.
- She can kiss a daemon and suck their soul out that way, but she doesn’t really like using this option unless necessary because she sees it as improper to kiss your food.
- She can cut open a wound and suck their soul out through it.
- She can eat the daemon’s heart fresh. Or the brain, but really the heart tastes better.
abilities
BLACK MAGE CRAFT: The ability to use spells, charms, make potions, and perform other various forms of magic. Black mages have a darker almost black aura around them when performing their craft which is how they gained their name, but they also tend to do more magic involving darker arts such as necromancy, curses, summoning and binding of daemons, etc.
DAEMONIC SHADES: Evangeline has the powers of Xinestros, the original daemon she was born from, meaning she can manipulate shadows, creating extensions of herself using the shadows around her like additional limbs. Turning the shadows corporeal allows her to use them to grab and touch things and she’s even trained them in using the piano. These shadows can also become intangible and phase through items or people, such as reaching inside of a daemon to grab its heart and rip it out, as she’s done numerous times. She can also travel using shadows, but doesn’t really enjoy this ability because she always comes out with her hair and clothes looking like they are covered in shadow residue and disheveled.
DAEMON DETECTION/CLOAKING: She has the ability to detect other daemons and mask herself from them. She can sense the daemonic energy of other daemons and use it to follow them, much like having an enhanced sense of smell. The better a daemon smells, the more appetizing their soul is for Evangeline, although she doesn’t have an uncontrollable need to eat them even if they do smell tasty. When masking herself from other daemons, she blocks her daemonic energy from their view and instead can come across like a typical mage, albeit a stronger one.
DAEMONIC ABSORPTION/IMMUNITY: She also has immunity to daemonic abilities because she absorbs them and can redirect them back at their user. This ability is what causes her to take on the abilities and memories of the daemons whose souls she eats although the effect lasts much longer after eating the daemon. The more powerful the daemon, the longer their memories and abilities stay with her, but if the daemon is too strong she can become disoriented while working through their memories overlaying her own.
MUSICAL MUSE: Evangeline's skill as a musician were gained by one of the humans whose souls were used to create her. It's not magical in nature, but she had have preternatural understanding of music and being able to play almost any song by ear on a piano.
visuals
