Name: Logan Adley
Age: Eighteen.
Physical Description: Short blond hair, clear blue eyes, and tanned pale skin, Logan is pretty typical for all descriptors that come to mind when other’s find out he’s a white suburban middle-class teen. He presents a fit physique, obviously someone who works out, likely plays a sport of some kind, but rarely drops the serious unperturbed expression on his face. There are minor drifts in his appearance that set him apart from the ‘norm’ of suburban teens everywhere, namely the plentiful newly added piercings around his ears, which would never have been allowed by his parents,and the slightest hints of ‘edgier’ preferences seeping into his style in the form of band-tees, fingerless gloves, a rarely worn studded belt, all of which his mother would have nagged him about before eventually confiscating and disposing of them herself.
It’s Teddy Altman, aka Hulkling, if you’re interested to see better pictures of him, but this was the best I could find with him by himself instead of smooching Billy Kaplan--just saying, that’s a very nice ship.
Important Items:
Rainbow Friendship Bracelet:
A gift from Mary Jane Summers, an unlikely friend from school. The bracelet is simple, only a few braided colors tied together, but the bracelet has deep sentimental meaning for Logan.
Chinese Bead Necklace:
Logan was pretty sure it was a scam, but a Chinese mystic recommended he take her necklace, and she told him it was made of cinnabar which was good for breeding stability and reinforcing independence. For a long time the necklace sat on his dresser unworn, but it is now one of the few things he takes with him everywhere.Short Bio: There was no question about it; Logan Adley was king of Palo Vista High School. He was friendly and outgoing, an attractive member of the football team, he could sing, was invited to all the parties, knew everyone by name, and his parents were heavily involved in the community. For all perspectives looking in, Logan was on top of the world, but not everyone was blind to the cracks spreading wide across Palo Vista, nor was it missed that Logan Adley sat at the center of it all.
His parents were typically controlling and overbearing, policing his activities and interests, and they, like everyone else in town, were devout Christians and hard eyed conservatives. His brother was overlooked often, becoming wild and maybe a tad rebellious because of it, but Logan didn’t mind nearly as much as their parents. Logan felt he had little to complain about; his family loved him and came to all his games, always encouraging him and praising his successes, he knew his grades weren’t always the best but they were consistently high enough it didn’t matter, and he had talents he could pursue with his voice, and an endless number of friends to hang out with.
Things changed with Mary Jane Summers. They’d been distant friends, that kind of friends of friends that meant they were often in the same places and knew the same people, but didn’t interact much. She stopped coming to parties not long after they began their senior year, she stopped going anywhere really, and her friends began to move on without her. Logan couldn’t forget her though, everyday in school they would pass each other in the hall and she would slow, hesitate, as if she wanted to say something, but then she never did. It left him wondering though, because the worry in her eyes, the skittish flitting from class to class, it didn’t seem like a crush, like he might’ve assumed otherwise, instead it seemed like… like something was wrong.
He understood when she handed him a flyer between classes, passing it folded over so as the contents couldn’t be seen by others. ”Please come?” she’d asked nervously, “Even if I’m wrong about you?” He hadn’t understood until he read the flyer after she’d hurried away; a GSA meeting. Palo Vista did not have a GSA club, it did not have gays period. It just didn’t. Except it did, but not publicly.
So began the lies. His parents didn’t mind much if he went to Veronica’s party, they looked the other way, made plans to hang out with their own friends, but a GSA meeting? He told them he was going to Veronica’s party. He was the only one to turn up at Mary Jane’s door that Sunday, though he knew she’d given fliers to at least two others. He tried to forget he’d seen that.
Over the next few weeks they became friends, and Mary Jane visibly seemed to get better, coming out of her shell once more, walking calmly between classes, talking with her old friends again. She never returned to her old self though, and Logan began treading a bit more softly--his confidence had rubbed off on her as much as her fear had rubbed off on him.
Then came the book. He was with Mary Jane when he found it, studying together in the library. He didn’t remember picking it up, though he recalled how small it’d been, with a worn hard cover and faded pages within. The things he read… the things he learned… He hadn’t been able to stop reading until he looked up into Mary Jane’s wide frightened eyes, and then the book was gone.
He thought he’d understood her before, but with the book came the other half of her secret; she’d read one of the Records too, she could see people for what they were. It was why she was so scared; she saw what everyone in this town was capable of, saw what they thought, what they felt, what they could do if they knew. She saw him as he was then, what new knowledge filled his head, what he could do, and she laughed, because this was her fault, and now it was so much worse for him. Her magic was invasive, troublesome, maybe a little incomprehensible, but Logan’s? His magic was dangerous, blasphemous, imagine if-
The cracks in Palo Vista were now well and truly wide, and it wasn’t just him and Mary Jane dangling in the gaps. She told him of others with secrets, told him of every sin flowing through the sunny skies of this warm and cheerful suburban town.
Then she died.
It took only a day to topple the king of Palo Vista High School. Friendly, outgoing, kind, he was the star of the football team, he had an amazing singing voice, his grades were good and he had endless friends, his parents were nice to everyone and did so much work for the community. Then young Mary Jane Summers fell over six hundred feet down Maria’s Gorge, her body broken beyond repair, but her mind… sometimes dead men do tell tales.
Jeremiah Blake was the only son of Pastor Tobias Blake, he overheard Mary Jane when she told Logan about all the sins of the citizens of Palo Vista, especially the part where the Pastor was cheating on his wife. When Jeremiah confronted his father, the man demanded to know where he’d heard those ‘lies’ from. Once told, Tobias then held all the cards he could ever want, but first he had to protect himself.
Alexander Summers was an upstanding man who worked hard and always attended church, but he was a harsh husband and father and his wife accused him of abuse. Their divorce was the messiest Palo Vista had ever been, but it was quickly forgotten, their daughter bounced back and put the mess behind her with a sunny smile. For the first time in years Alexander reached out to his daughter, offering to spend time with her and mend bridges. Funny how that ended with her falling from one.
Mary Jane’s ghost told Logan everything he needed to know. His anger and grief made him raw, and irrational. He came to Mary Jane’s mother, who was being consoled by Alexander, and told them everything. Alexander did not take being outed very well, and Logan would wear the marks of the man’s retaliation for weeks afterwards. Mere hours later, far too many people to just dismiss were sitting in the church crying and overdramatizing their connection with the newly deceased, headed by Pastor Blake. Once Logan was finished with them, laying out every dirty dead he knew of, seven people were arrested on the spot, and dozens of shouting voices were hollering in the chaos- among them Logan’s own family. His mother disowned him, his father defended him, his brother… did nothing but look lost.
An agent of the government had been on their way to investigate the murder, by the time they arrived the town was in an uproar. Eventually they got the whole story and offered Logan an out, and by midnight Logan Adley was no longer king of Palo Vista High School, he wasn’t kind of anything.
He wasn’t grateful, he wasn’t lost, he wasn’t… upset, but he was changed. He had no delusions, the government would use him as long as he was useful; that’s what governments did, they turned people into resources, into tools, used them until they couldn’t anymore, forgot they were living breathing creatures with thoughts and feelings, and then they dropped them in the dirt and forgot about them. It was clear to him where he stood now, what his options were, what choices he had to make; and then he made them. There would be no more hiding, no more trusting, and definitely no more holding back.Spell List:Underworld
Nekretairos (Dead Fellows): This spell not only beckons to disembodied spirits, calling them up so Logan may speak with them or ask favors of them, but can also grant the spirits a measure of influence on the physical world; allowing them to be seen, heard, and even touch tangible subjects. The summoned dead are not forced to obey him, nor compelled to be honest or even answer the call, but some measure of kinship is enforced by the spell, meaning the calmer, kinder, or even just bored spirits are more inclined to help, while the angrier, antagonistic, or cruel spirits would spurn or offend him. Ghosts of any kind can be summoned this way; human, mage, dog, whatever, but only if they remain in this realm: i.e. the recently deceased or those who refuse to move on.
- Ghosts who cease to be or are reincarnated cannot be summoned, and ghosts that have fallen into other realms, such as that of an underworld god or other such afterlife, must be contacted instead with the Pneumebelos spell.
neck-ret-air-os
Cooldown: 5 minutes, add 5 minutes if ghost is granted limited tangibility, add 10 minutes if granted total tangibility.
Pneumebelos (Wicked Thresholds): A conjured portal to a supernatural realm, be they of demons, faeries, or even those of the more angelic inclinations. The connection established by the spell, linking two worlds, is temporary in every sense. Whatever goes in must come back out, and whatever comes out must go back in. Unlike Nekretairos, the spell does not inspire even a slight sense of kinship, instead whoever answers is free to act however they please and think whatever they want- and there’s always someone, or something, that answers, even if it isn't who or what was summoned. The portal is ‘locked’ at first, but allows communication to take place without opening, and it can be opened only on the side it’s conjured on, so Logan can summon the door and someone next to him can open it, but nothing on the other side will be able to unlock the portal.
- Deals made through this portal are not enforced by his own magic, as with the spell Prostheno, nor are they permanent, instead they rely on the other’s nature; demons or faeries or angels who can't lie or can't break their promise once made- creatures without such bindings may say whatever they like, and break their word as well. The only exception is to the permanence rule; bartering with a demon for power over fire will fail shortly after the portal closes, bartering with a demon for a weapon will also fail - unless the weapon is made of platinum.
new-meb-el-os
Cooldown: 30 minutes if unopened, add 30 minutes per traveler if opened.
Prostheno (Sacred Debts): Deals made with Logan must be kept, the magic of the spell will make it so. There is no discrimination based on coercion, if Logan decides to torture someone until they agree to his deal the magic will accept that, and likewise if someone tortures Logan until he accepts their deal the magic will accept that also. Deals made this way are permanent and must perform a trade, the deal cannot be broken nor can something be conjured from nothing- not without the ability to do so at least. Logan can barter with a bilingual woman for her knowledge of a language, but he cannot barter the same with someone who only speaks one language. In the same analogy the bilingual woman would lose all knowledge of the language she traded away, but may relearn it again quicker than from scratch. In a different deal Logan might barter for a man’s belonging, once handed over the man could just snatch it back- unless part of the deal was not to try and reclaim it, and deals can be as complex as needed.
pro-sthen-O
Cooldown: N/A
Eikotheion (Of Brimstone): Gathering the simmering underworld energy in his hands, Logan can throw a blob of harmful dark energy, formed like a smoldering smokey black substance with flecks of still burning ash within, which feels sharp and hot to touch, and sticks to whatever it lands on, digging in to cause as much damage as possible and be impossible to peel off. The energy is corrosive and will attempt to burn and rip at whatever it touches, be it living flesh or hard steel. After a few minutes the energy will begin to dissipate. The energy has no friends and leaves Logan’s fists more singed and scratched the longer he waits to throw it.
EYE-ko-thay-on
Cooldown: 5 minutes.
Thanekros (Deathly Bearings): Logan’s body temporarily takes on the attributes of the dead, his appearance becoming thin, pale, and bruised, before vanishing from the sight of the average eye. He is able to see and hear, but he can make no sound nor touch anything but spirits. He is able to cast his magic, though with significantly more trouble and less effectiveness, and can be touched - and harmed - by magic or magic tools. His temperature drops uncomfortable amounts, which will leave him shivering and near hyperthermic when he returns to his old self, and the temperature around him while in this state will be noticeably colder. The bruises caused by the transformation will not heal when he reverts back either, and he will be physically exhausted and achy for a time afterwards, but while transformed he cannot be lethally injured- even if bisected by a magic blade or crushed by magical debris, he will still feel it when he reverts, but while ghost-like he can simply reform.
than-eh-kros
Cooldown: A week for every hour spent transformed.
Anisoma (Risen Things): Bodies without spirits, no longer carrying out the functions of life, but bearing that hole where the spirit once was, can be raised to serve Logan’s commands. The longer a creature is raised the more intelligent it gets, but also the more independent. The magic fueling the undead slowly becomes more potent as time goes on, movements becoming smoother and more lifelike, until they reach a peak equivalent to a living version of themselves. Disrupting the magic in any way however, such as lopping off a large enough body part or even just canceling the spell, will instantly cause them to fail and return to an uncontrolled, unaugmented state.
an-ih-so-ma
Cooldown: 20 minutes, regardless of how many are raised.
Sry bout that, but we have begun planning out what to do. However, we have not figured out how to put that plan into action just yet.
And by that, I mean I'm being a lazy sob and I should really get to working on a post.