- █ █ B A S I C S
█ NAME ▬ Pippin.
█ AGE ▬ 22
█ NICKNAME ▬ Pepper, Pep, Pip
█ GENDER ▬ Male
█ RACE ▬ Alchemist
█ ORIENTATION ▬ Demisexual; virgin
█ OCCUPATION ▬ Chop Shop Co-Owner & Part-time Curse-layer
█ PARTNER ▬ Single
█ MASTER // SLAVE ▬ He recently acquired Frey as his new pet~
█ █ A P P E A R A N C E
█ HAIR ▬ Blonde
█ EYES ▬ Blue; at least the living one
█ BUILD ▬ Lean and soft, no real defined muscle but a healthy figure [5"8]
█ TATTOOS ▬ A small lotus flower on his left inner ankle
█ SCARS ▬ Only a few shallow nicks; you can barely see them
█ BIRTHMARKS ▬ none
█ █ P E R S O N A L I T Y
█ THEME SONGS
█ ▬ O1 Dude, Where's My Skin? - Schoolyard Heroes
█ ▬ O2 Living Dead Girl - Rob Zombie
█ ▬ O3 Sweet Dreams - Eurythmics
█ ▬ O4 Dream On - Aerosmith
█ ▬ O5 Goodbye to a World - Porter Robinson
█ ▬ O6 Heavy Cross - The Gossip
█ ▬ O7 General Mumble - The Stare Master
█ ▬ O8 Safe and Sound - Megan N. & Tiffany A. Cover
█ LIKES
█ ▬ His big brother (maybe a little in that way, he's not sure)
█ ▬ The beautiful cycle of life & death
█ ▬ Art, in all forms
█ ▬ Inventing new enchantments
█ ▬ Pain & Suffering as a case by case study in others; he finds it fascinating
█ ▬ The anatomy of people
█ ▬ Eating. Particularly, certain meats he and his brother peddle. Incidentally, anything Pietr cooks.
█ ▬ 'Mattie'; a young womans corpse that Pepper uses for various experiments
█ DISLIKES
█ ▬ Pain & suffering, when it's his own or his brothers
█ ▬ Disrespect for death, his art, or his corpses
█ ▬ Sloppy killings (particularly evisceration, it ruins the meat)
█ ▬ Reading out loud
█ ▬ Sleeping; "I'll sleep when I'm dead."
█ PERSONALITY TRAITS
█ ▬ Perpetually Curious, experimental
█ ▬ Bubbly, always smiling about something or other
█ ▬ Zen, he's very at peace with most of the world (aside from minor annoyances)
█ ▬ Free-Spirited
█ ▬ Playful; he's still a child in most respects
█ ▬ Unsympathetic (with the exception of Pietr)
█ █ H I S T O R Y
█ BACKGROUND
Being the youngest of three brothers, Pippin couldn't remember a time when things hadn't been tight for his family. Hunger was just a normal state of being, sometimes worse, sometimes better, but ever present. His parents always struggled, doing whatever they could to keep their little family afloat. Often Pietr, the oldest, was left to watch Percival and Pippin while their parents were out, scrounging for whatever sources of food or work they could find. As a child, Pippin never understood why, but he never thought to question it. To him, it just... was. Parents had bags under their eyes and were gone most of the time, childrens bellies rumbled at night, roofs and ceilings leaked when it rained, and you glued the bottoms of your shoes every time they fell off until they were more glue than shoe. It was just the way the world was. Like the sun rising in the morning, these were simply facts of life, of existence. And if it was miserable, there wasn't much of anything to be done for it. He remembered crying, certainly, tugging on the hands of each of his older brothers because his stomach hurt, but what could they do about it? He remembered his mother holding him, hand over his mouth, telling him to hold very still and be very quiet as lights shined into the house they were staying in. He and his brothers learned quickly to keep still and quiet and unseen even when their parents were gone. They moved from place to place, from empty house to empty apartment. He learned at a young age to be small and sneaky and silent, and even as a child he knew that his parents were afraid, although he never understood of what. And because they were afraid, he was afraid.
Pippin didn't remember much about Percy getting sick. All three of them were prone to coughing and colds, a side-effect of poor nutrition, certainly, and exposure to the elements. But Percys coughing only got worse and worse, never receding like he and Pietrs did. He started sleeping more and more, and then he just didn't wake up. At the time, Pippin didn't understand what it meant, and he kept waiting for Percy to open his eyes again, even though no one looked at him anymore, and mother cried, and father put a blanket over Percys face. Pippin heard his parents talking in hushed, urgent voices late at night when they were with them, but he couldn't understand the words or what they meant. He just curled up closer to Pietr and slept as much as he was able. But then, as if by some miracle, they had food again. And Pippin didn't understand how everyone could look so solemn when they could finally eat again. His parents talked to him, then, about something they called 'death', and they seemed very sad about it. Mother started crying halfway through, but Father explained it well. They told him that 'death' was when a person stopped being a person and started being a corpse, and you couldn't see them or talk to them anymore, not ever again. But it wasn't something bad, they said, even if you feel sad because you miss them. It was something natural, something good, something holy and sacred. 'Death' was something very necessary and very important, and Pippin should never hate or fear or disrespect it, because death meant a lot of good things. Like food. All food came from death, they said. Death of plants, death of animals, and death of people. Death was necessary for life to go on. They said it like it was something difficult for him to understand, but to Pepper it seemed very simple, it all made perfect sense. They told him that Percy was dead. He can still vaguely remember Father showing him and Pietr (admittedly mostly Pietr) how to turn a corpse into food, where to lay the knife to rend flesh from bone. At first Pippin was scared. He was worried that the knife would hurt Percy, because getting cuts hurt. But they assured him that it was okay, Percy couldn't feel anything anymore, it was all right. Even though he felt quelled, Pippin couldn't help but feeling sad and confused. It was Pietr who consoled him, who explained that they would still have Percy with them. When they ate what Percy had become, they gained a part of him. The knowledge made him feel whole.
The food Percy gave them sustained them for a good long while, and their parents made it last as long as they could. But, eventually, it ran out, and the hunger started creeping back in again. Pippin clung to Pietr more and more, as if trying to fill the gap that had been for two brothers with the remaining one. And Pietr was ever-present. No matter what happened, he was never alone. The next few years were a blur of home-jumping, hiding, and dumpster-diving. With Percy gone, part of them now, Pippin took over the role of lookout for his eldest brother, always tagging along when he went to catch tiny fish and crabs or rifle through dumpsters and warning him whenever anyone suspicious came too close. And they were ever-suspicious. Everyone who wasn't them was a threat. Even the people mother and father sometimes spoke with quietly around corners, slipping small wrapped packages and whispers from one tattered coat to another, they weren't friends. They weren't to be trusted. You only trusted your family. After all, staying together was what was most important. It was part of why they ate what Percy became, because then they'd never leave him. Staying together is why they did everything they did. So when Mom started stumbling, they helped her stand. When she started laughing when they hid, they clamped hands over her mouth, just like she'd once done with her youngest, to try and keep her stifled. When she shook and shuddered and cried and yes, even when she couldn't walk anymore, they carried her. Pippin was too little to help Pietr drag her along on the metal sheet, so he tagged along behind, making sure Moms feet never dragged along and got scratched up, and talking to her. She always seemed upset by then, like she was hurting. When Pippin was hurt, she always talked to him to make him feel better. So he talked to her. And as time went on, it seemed that sometimes she wasn't even aware that he was there. They were few and far between, but Mom seemed to know. And even if she and Pietr thought he couldn't hear them when they talked at night while Dad was away, rolled over trying to sleep, he could. He heard Mom telling Pietr what to do. And even if they thought he didn't see, he did. He saw his brother put the awl against Moms skull, and saw the life drain out of her in a thick line of black-red. And he was able to sleep peacefully after that. So he was shocked at Dads reaction when he came back to them, and utterly confused. When he started beating Pietr, Pippin had tried to stop him. It wasn't really something he even thought about. They were supposed to look out for each other, so that was what he tried to do, even against Dad. But little Pippin could take not a fraction of the abuse that his brother could. Dad gave him a smart backhand and told him to stop, to go and get out of the way, and, cowed, he did. He watched him beat Pietr so hard he was afraid his remaining brother would die, too, and he put his face in his knees and cried and begged him to stop.
After, they had food again, but this time Pippin understood that the last three of them were unhappy about it. Pip wasn't sad about Moms death. Sure, he would miss her, and maybe sometimes he would cry after her, but she was still there, inside of him just like Percy. But she was calm and the cuts couldn't hurt her anymore. They were all unhappy because there was a strange rift after that between them, and Dad was ever more miserable and ever more absent. Pippin found himself, strangely, angry at the man. Angry for making Moms death confusing and feel unnatural. Angry at him for beating his brother for doing what he was told. Angry at him for not trying to help at all, it seemed like. And Pippin held on to that anger long after Pietrs bruises faded. He even sometimes found himself wishing that the man was dead, too. Soon enough he got his wish.
When their father was gone more and more, he seemed to be faring better for money. He always seemed shaky and nervous, looking over his shoulder whenever they moved. He told Pippin and Pietr the right way to answer certain questions if certain people were ever to come around. He sometimes had them hide as he went outside to talk in hushed, low tones to strangers with scars and plastic baggies in their pockets. But it was enough, whatever he was doing, that he could buy them food even when Mothers ran out. They got coats that actually fit them, and he was even talking about new shoes when it happened. Pippin and Pietr had been fishing by the river again, catching scrawny fish and tiny spider crabs. Dad told them he would be home a few hours after sunset. When they went back to the little hovel that they had settled in temporarily, he still wasn't there. They did their best not to worry, since it wasn't too uncommon since Dad had started coming into money for him to be late. But it got later and later and he didn't come home. Pietr told Pippin to sleep, and so he did, but only for a while. When he opened his eyes again, the moon was high and nearly full and the wind was cold. Pippin saw the blurry outline of their father staggering into the abandoned shack where they were staying, and he saw the figure collapse. In the dark, Pippin couldn't really see what was wrong with him. But when he and Pietr came close, he spoke to them in such urgent tones that Pippin, old enough to understand by then, knew that he was dying, too. Immediately the little alchemist remembered he thoughts he'd had, wishing for his death, and began for the first time, to cry for his family dying. He was too upset to do as their father asked, when he told them they needed to leave, and quickly, to take what they could but then hurry away into the night. As always, Pietr had to be the one to take responsibility, working quickly and expertly just like he'd been taught before grabbing Pip by the hand and dragging him away while their father was still alive and blind.
And then the five were two.
And this was the time Pippin would remember better than the rest, a little older and worlds more laden with responsibility. He had accrued it bit by bit for a while. Picking up being a lookout from Percy, being stable from Mother. But all he'd gotten from Father was guilt, and his eye. His enchanting abilities had come to him late, it wasn't until after Fathers death that he really tapped into it. It was out of necessity, certainly. But the first enchantment Pippin mastered was quite by accident. It happened when Pietr first had to leave him alone. With Father gone it had been bound to happen eventually, his only remaining family stalking out in the evenings to find what meager wages he could, forbidding Pippin to follow, as much as he cried and protested it. But by then he was nine, way past the age where he could keep being a burden, a child. He had to be able to watch himself on the streets while Pietr Piper went away to work as he was able. His brother told him to stay still and quiet, to sleep away as much of their time apart as he could, when Pip had found a place suitably safe for the two of them. He had an eye for it, all the careful dark quiet nooks and crannies. He learned to find them watching rats, but that was beside the point. During one of the nights he had to spend alone, he rolled Mothers eye along the palm of his hand, desperately longing for the nights when all five of them would lay close together to fend off the cold. Fathers guilt wrapped around his heart again, and he started to cry. but as he did a strange, nostalgic feeling washed over him, and all he could feel was that warmth, the familiar feeling of being safe and surrounded and warm, when they were all together. He realized later he'd unwittingly infused those feelings into the eye, and could feed back into them when he needed to. After that, Pippin started purposefully trying out enchantments, infusing objects with purpose and intent. they were all weak at first, flittering and prone to coming undone at the most inopportune times. But he kept working at it, in those days sticking to only the most useful enchantments, like waterproofing and heat-preserving. He made their little temporary homes as safe as he could, as comfortable as he could manage. He wanted to make sure Pietr could come back to him and rest. But the streets were difficult to danger-proof, especially for a near-blind fledgling alchemist when he was all alone. So the straw that broke the camels back occurred very late one night, far past when Pietr was supposed to be back. Pippin was all alone and shivering, contemplating all the ways his brother might have died to leave him lost. He tried to sleep, but anxiety and worry kept him awake. And that was for the best, because soon enough a figure appeared in the little alley where the brothers had made their temporary stead. In the dark, and with his poor vision, Pippin assumed at first that it was Pietr, finally returning to him. But as he sprang up to greet him and the figure loomed closer, he realized that the dark blue was much too big to be his brother. The stranger spoke to him in low grumbled slurs, asking him questions which Pip couldn't quite understand. But he understood that strangers were threats, were dangerous and not to be trusted or engaged. He wanted to run away, to skitter off quickly into the dark and vanish, be a little mouse like Mother taught him. But what if Pietr came back? How would he ever find him again? So he merely shook his head, drawing back and avoiding eye contact. But the stranger already seemed to have some idea about him. In all likelihood he was high or drunk. What his intentions for Pippin were remained unknown, whether he meant to use the boy as some measure of relief or rage, or merely wanted to chuck him into the maws of a local gang for some quick cash, who knew. Pippin didn't want to find out. He shied away when the man grabbed for him, but that only served to make the intoxicated creeper angry. He struck the boy across the jaw, sending the tiny alchemist sprawling, and in fear and desperation he cried out Pietrs name, hoping against all hope that somehow, magically, he would appear and rescue him. And he did. He had been squeezing his eyes shut, so it was the feeling of hot blood splattering across him that mad him open his eyes to see Pietr there, gouging the creepers throat out quickly and easily. Pippin watched through the rain of blood that poured down over him, still shivering in absolute terror. When the stranger was pushed back to quickly fade from man to corpse and the blood stilled Pippin was still shaken. He cried uncontrollably for what seemed like forever, shuddering against Pietr and unable to catch his breath. As jarring as the experience was, it became a pivotal turning point for the tiny alchemist.
First, it spurred the brothers on to enchant their fathers preserved eyes, similar to how Pippin first enchanted their mothers eyes, so that they could look into one and see out of the other. The tradeoff being, of course, that they needed to make a bit of a sacrifice in order to use them. So they made room in their skulls, Pietr deftly and skillfully cutting out Pippins eye as well as his own, so one brother could always see what the other was looking at. It was painful, certainly, but worth it, for Pippin to never again have to worry over where his brother was and if he was okay. Second of all, the events of the night triggered a bit of an internal conversation with himself; why was he so afraid then? Too afraid to run or move or think of anything but calling his brother for help? What was he so afraid of? He'd been afraid he was going to die. But he knew, knew, that dying wasn't a bad thing. It never had been. All his life he'd been afraid because the people around him were afraid. But now it was only him and Pietr, and Pietr had already demonstrated, in the brightest way possible, that fear didn't rule him. So why did Pippin allow it to control him? He decided then that it wasn't his fear, or wouldn't be anymore. It was pointless to fear something benevolent and inevitable. And so he told himself he wasn't, talked himself through it every day and every night until he realized he wasn't afraid. He never really had been, and he wouldn't let the illusion stop him again.
Pippin forgot fear.
And after that life was exactly as difficult as it always had been, but it was simpler. Deleting fear also helped immensely with Pippins enchantments, eventually allowing him to tinker with, and ultimately forge, the most powerful enchants he had yet mustered. Pippin kept supporting his brother as best as he could, always strengthening his skills and enchantments and adding ever more tricks and tools to his repertoire. They kept making do on the streets, eyes always on one another. Third, and finally, Pippin learned from that night a new way to make food. It only made sense, didn't it? It wasn't as if they would be the only ones to kill to make a living. So Pip saw no reason not to utilize what was readily available. After all, the slums were full of shadows of men who would go unmissed. So for the next several years Pietr and Pippin lived in this way, taking food where they could get it and making it where they couldn't. By the time Pip was thirteen he was luring unsuspecting slum-dwellers away from prying eyes to slash at their tendons when he grew hungry enough, despite his elder brothers warnings of caution. It was around that time that he met Rick.
One of Pietrs 'clients' Rick found the two of them after a less-than-clean hunt of Pips was concluded. But instead of turning them in, the older man gave them a place to cut up their prize away from prying eyes. It was suspicious, to say the least, but Pip followed his brothers lead, and Pietr followed the man. It turned out that doing so would be a very profitable decision for all of them. As it would later come to light, Rick had a common problem shared by many gangsters - bodies tended to pile up, and discreet, efficient means of disposing of them were few and far between. So when the nymph found two young cannibals, well-versed in shearing flesh from bone and utilizing every scrap of tendon and marrow, he saw an opportunity which would benefit all three of them. So the gangster set the brothers up in an old building he owned nestled safely in Crownless territory and set them to work, providing them with shelter and food in exchange for little more than their compliance and discretion. And even if Rick liked to play the part of the distant boss, Pip could see that the older man was fond. He looked after the two of them, getting Pip glasses so he could see the world for the first time, keeping them warm and sheltered and constantly repairing their little shanty (a veritable palace to them, with working doors and locks and keys and everything). Soon enough they literally had more than they could eat (you'd be surprised how much meat you can get off of an adult body) and so, why not make a business of it? Rick supported them, and between the brothers eyes and Pippins ever more powerful enchantments, the few scattered attempts to undermine their rapidly popular Chop Shop by pissed off vampires were short-lived (literally in most cases, ha ha), and those who wished to avoid doing business with Blood Nation were happy to lend the brothers their patronage.
While Pietr did most of the legwork, moving bodies and mincing them into more manageable pieces, moving them this way and that, Pip took care of the more delicate work, delving more deeply into preservation enchantments and handling scheduling and numbers (he'd loitered in libraries during storms sometimes). And they were finally something that Pippin had never known before; secure. They didn't need to hide from the prying lights when they came. They had connections, friends, alibis. They didn't need to move around, but rather had their own space that they could chase others away from. They no longer needed to scavenge, and when they needed or wanted they had money they could simply use as it suited them. And it was during these years that Pippin finally had an ounce of freedom, he was finally able to start pursuing his wants instead of his needs. So he began experimenting.
Enchantments came naturally to him, as did curses. The first curse he picked up was on the streets, enchanting small barriers so that those who looked too long forgot where they were or what they were doing, defensive things of that nature. Once he was able to settle into his workshop he started expounding on them, honing in, specifically, on his favorite thing; flesh.
The study and manipulation of flesh became an obsessive point of study for Pippin. When they had money he bought all manner of books on anatomy and the different cell and tissue structures of different races. He would take bits and pieces of what Rick dropped off for them and experiment, trying to see how far he could stretch magic to make the limbs move under coercion and on its own, how quickly he could cause flesh to rot and crumble, and if he could bring it back. He could make curses to affect only certain races (or individual people, if you brought a bit of DNA of the one you wanted afflicted), curses which would exempt certain people, and even curses which would affect anyone who shared immediate familial blood. From sudden necrosis, blindness and violent illness, memory loss, even things so sinister as to temporarily let another person control a victims limbs. But what Pippin was really after was deaths secrets. He had a great reverence for the great equalizer, a respect which bordered on the divine, but it did not preclude the alchemist from seeking answers, from prying. He respected death as a lady, but it didn't mean he wasn't going to try and find a way under her skirts, so to speak. And so began the mad experiments of Pippin Barker. And, soon after, the shakes started....
█ ABILITIES
▬ O BROTHER WHERE ART THOU (grey eye)
One of Pippins eyes is false and, in reality, his fathers eye, magically preserved and coated with glass. It's hella creepy to look at. But it's enchanted so that, on command, Pippin can see what his brother is looking at with his own glass eye (his fathers other eye, completing the set). It also works in reverse, allowing Pietr to see out of Pippins eye as well. Granted, he can always just close it if he's not keen on his protective big bro knowing what he's up to.
▬ EYE OF SOLACE (blue eye)
One of the spare glass eyes Pippin keeps on hand is actually his mothers, preserved in glass. It's been enchanted with one of the first enchants Pippin learned. When he uses this eye, it fills him with a sense of safety and comfort. The warm feelings helped him and his brother to pull through in the dark lonely years when it was only the two of them alone on the cruel city streets.
▬ EYE OF TRUTH (green eye)
The last of Pippins spare glass eyes is Pietrs own eye, which his brother cut from his own socket when they took their fathers eyes. Preserved in glass like the rest, this eye has an unusual power. When using this eye in his socket, Pippin can make those making eye contact with him believe anything he says to be the truth.
▬ CAST IRON STOMACH
Partly through eating a lot of questionable scraps as a child and, admittedly, partly through a lot of his own experimentation, Pippin has developed an incredibly hardy stomach and immune system. He has become largely immune to most forms of food-based poisoning and illness.
▬ NO FACE
Pippin was never registered as a slave nor as a citizen. According to the government, he doesn't exist. As such, he has a little more freedoms in some ways, since he has no paper trail. There are no records, no documents to track, no past to look up. As far as the records go, Pippin was never born. So good luck digging anything up on him. Granted, this does also preclude him from gaining any manner of legitimate employment. But hey, now he's a small business owner. Follow your dreams, kids.
▬ SOMETHING WICKED
Pip is a rather skilled enchanter, but he is an expert curser. Particularly when using his favorite ingredients of blood, flesh, and bone. Pips specialty is 'pinpoint' curses, voo-doo-esque malicious spells meant to harm one particular person or family, and curses centered on body afflictions. Lately he has even been able to curse items to 'take control' of a victims limbs or, in rare cases, their entire body for a short time.
█ EXTRA
- In recent months, Pippin has been experiencing some issues, particularly with his balance. He has started stumbling more often when he walks and, much to his annoyance while working, has started having tremors as well. He finds it obnoxious to deal with, but doesn't worry over it much beyond that. After all, he feels fine otherwise. Truth be told, Pippin knows he's dying. He's not sure why, but he doesn't want to tell Pietr.
- Growing up starving, Pip has a few odd habits when it comes to his food. Mainly, he eats everything offered to him. The cores of his apples, the rinds of cheeses and fruits, any bits normally labelled as undesirable he eats without hesitation. It's not out of a particular conscientious effort to be less wasteful so much as habit. After all, sometimes as a kid, the cores and rinds were all he could get.
- His education was sparse at best. While he does know how to read and write, it takes him an awfully long time for a man his age. However his comprehension is top notch, and he is naturally clever, capable of forming connections between information quickly. But there is a lot of information many would consider common or basic that has escaped him for years.
-Pepper is blind as a bat, incredibly near-sighted. Without his glasses he can hardly see his hand in front of his face. Coupled with the fact that he only has one living eye, and you've got vision poor enough that he regularly runs into doors, tables, shelves, and, well, pretty much everything else.
- He thinks sleeping for eight hours is a waste of time, so Pepper has adapted to an alternative sleep schedule, taking several short naps throughout the day and night so that he can stay awake otherwise. He is an incredibly light sleeper. He is adapted to the Dymaxion Sleeping cycle.
"Anything that is beautiful, people want to break. And you are beautiful, I'm afraid."
