I'm in a writing mood (or in a mood to write just about anything if it saves me from writing the novel I am supposed to write), so I have another post right away. Before diving deep into my characters, I figured I could start by sharing some bits of who these resin chunks are and what they do. Right now, I have that information all scattered across a million platforms. Because my universe focuses on some fantasy elements, it’s best to start with them, probably?
In case you haven't noticed so far, I'm not much of an outdoors(wo)man, so this blog also doubles as "my beautiful interior" blog, and "how often I don't clean my home" blog.
First up, let’s take timeshifters, aka the dollies with supernatural powers. 10 of my 13 dolls belong to this story, so it's a definite majority. Timeshifters are regular humans who have been possessed by a demon that gives them the power. To say they are time travelers would be an overstatement, since timeshifters can only shift to the future to a time that is exactly 121 years apart from their own. While they shift times, they can also simultaneously shift places to anywhere they’ve been before, so tracking a timeshifter is near impossible. Right now, the timeshifters are living in the 1890s, which means they can shift into 2010s. My story takes place in the USA, so we are right at the end of the Wild West times and gunslingers’ golden era.
The timeshifters aren't born with supernatural powers per se, but it’s their demons that give them the abilities. The demon resides in its host and has no separate physical appearance, but it does have its own free will and mind. The host may hear it speaking to them, forcing their hand, or playing with their emotions and memories. The host can try to suffocate the demon’s voice, but it will be painful and, unless exorcised in a proper manner, the demon will always be there waiting for a weak moment.
Carol Cole is an example of one handsome part-demon:
If a person fails to resist the demon, they will at first experience a boost in their mood, strength, stamina, resilience, and powers. They will be able to withstand lethal damage and have superhuman senses. This boost may last from months to years depending how well the person learns to balance with the demon. In the end however, every person will corrupt themselves and die.
While people do speak of “inheriting” the timeshifter power, that’s technically not how it happens. Birth doesn’t transmit any demons (least not the timeshifter kind), but instead, each person must get possessed by their very own demon. This usually happens during teenage years. Children are too naïve to have minds open enough for a demon to crawl into, while adults tend to be too resistant.
It’s not certain why the children of timeshifters are more prone to demons than people who grow up with regular humans. This may have something to do with the fact that the kids have been exposed to the demons of those around them from a young age, making their minds more vulnerable to demons seeking a new host. Then again, happy and resilient children with healthy upbringing may never get possessed even in a family filled with timeshifters, while on the other hand children with childhood trauma can get possessed even if they’ve never been near a timeshifter.
Among my current crew, there aren’t cases of successfully exorcising a demon from a timeshifter without killing the host in the process, thus making them mortal again. Some believe it is possible, others don’t. There are records of a very old cult who have performed successful demon exorcisms for centuries. The other option of Demon Riddance 101 is killing the host. This will not harm the demon, but the demon will be forced to leave its shell and find a new host, which may take it a while. Through the more restless times, there have been timeshifter “baby boomers” when a lot of timeshifters died in conflicts during a short period of time, and their demons were released into the wild looking for new hosts.
Sometimes even just handing the demon the eviction note is better than doing nothing. If the demon has had years or even decades of time to feed on its host’s life force, it may be too strong to kill off by exorcism at that point unless the priest knows, like, very specifically what they’re doing. Killing the host will force the demon to seek a new host, making it more vulnerable, since the new host will be resilient at first. It will take the demon years to gain back the powers it had. Some demons may not be capable of much development to begin with. As you would expect, there are demons, and then there are dumb demons.
Sometimes I feel like Carol definitely shares his last brain cell with his demon. And Ted has his doubts regarding exorcising said demon because he's worried about the possibility that the demon keeps that last brain cell.
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The existence of timeshifers is largely a secret to the common public. A great thanks to this belong to an organization called The Holy Alliance who have presence both in the 1890s and in 2010s. It is unknown quite how did the Alliance come to be, but it was likely once founded by the templars and later separated from them as its own inquisition-type organization. Or, the Holy Alliance founded the Templars. In any case, at some point, the Alliance's agenda separated from the ideals that the Templars lived by. The Templars eventually perished, but The Alliance lived on. The Alliance separate themselves from the common Christians and have their own views of holy ideals and sacred texts. They believe they are the true Christians, but demons are eating away their souls. True Christians despise them and other timeshifters fear them.
The Alliance only accepts timeshifters as members, and their intention is to force every timeshifter to live by their rules and destroy those who refuse. One of their main causes is to keep the nature of timeshifters hidden. Some of the Alliance’s leading families have been in the “family business” for almost a millennium, and they are very wealthy and influential. Their main area of research is destroying the demons that possess the bodies and minds of timeshifters. They know enough to understand that killing timeshifters will just shift the problem forward for future generations to deal with, since if the demons escape alive, they will resurface later.
My dead character Tate Heilig (aka LLT Roderich) belonged to one of the leading families of the Alliance.
A true Alliance servant refuses to take advantage of their powers to forward their holy cause. This means many of them wield weapons like swords or bows and arrows, and train for years in combat skills. Tate Heilig for example carried a templar sword that passed down to him from his ancestors. However, the Alliance aren’t dumb, so they know they do not stand a chance with their weapons and faith against the likes of Carol Cole, who is essentially a demon with a machine gun.
To skirt around the rules, the Alliance has recruited mercenaries who are loyal to the Alliance, but don’t follow its rules as strictly as its true heirs. The Alliance is on a constant lookout for fresh timeshifters who have just discovered their abilities because at that point people tend to be vulnerable and open to brainwashing. The Alliance’s most precious members remain hidden and let these puppets do the dirty work for them.
Since Tate's death, I only have three characters that I could categorize as having something to do with the Alliance. Abigail Avery is a timeshifter who was mentored by Tate Heilig to be a servant of the Alliance, but with Tate's death, her loyalty has shifted. She however realizes that if she reveals that to the Alliance, an insignificant character like herself will be dead before she knows it. So, she's playing along until she knows better what to use against the Alliance.
A recent portrait of Abigail after her faceup refresh by Angeltoast this summer (I edited the lips, added the freckles, and changed the eye makeup a bit):
Jane Cole (MacFarlane) is the ex wife of Carol Cole, and she originally seeked Tate to rat out Carol's location to the Alliance as an ultimate revenge. Jane was lucky that Tate kept the information to himself until his untimely death, even if that wasn't due to feeling sorry for Jane. It was because Tate learned that the person hiding Carol is Tate's former best friend Theodore Rosatti, and Tate knows that the Alliance would not think twice about harming Theodore to weaken Carol.
When Tate was alive, the relationship between Jane and Abigail was quite strained. Abigail was jealous of Jane getting Tate's attention because Abigail fancied Tate. In reality, Tate was not interested in Jane but was just trying to win her trust over so that he could beat Carol. Jane again disliked Abigail for her naïve obsession over Tate's affection, deeming Tate "not worth it" and a "narcissistic snob who obviously has no interest whatsoever in Abigail's wellbeing apart from having a free maid". While Jane meant well and just wanted to talk some sense into Abigail, Abigail took it as Jane trying to sabotage her and Tate's relationship.
Only after Tate passes, the ladies realize they need to bury the hatchet and combine their powers to save Jane's daughters, Carol and Theodore from the Alliance and end the organization's reign of terror for good.
Jane in her Iplehouse Bibiane western set:
The third girl is more of a recent addition, so recent that I haven't got a name for her. I'm stuck between a couple of options. She's a Fantasia Doll sleepy Alice, so we shall call her Alice for now. After Tate dies, the Alliance sends Alice to monitor Abigail and Jane and to ensure the pursuit of Carol Cole will be a successful one. The problem is not so much finding Carol as it is facing him and living to tell the tale. The next chapters of my story will decide some major plot twists, like if Alice will join to help Abigail and Jane in their cause, and if the ladies will travel to the modern world (apart from Jane who cannot timeshift), seek Jane's daughters and save them before the Alliance gets to them.
I was also thinking that the Alliance could use Alice as someone who goes to the university that the kids attend, and once she wins over their trust, the Alliance has plans to capture them to lure Carol out.
Alice and a makeshift outfit/wig:
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