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Athena - Teacher - Homosexual

Purpose

To learn more about where she came from, as well as what else is out there. She’s fascinated by the prospect of the existence of a whole other world of beings, as well as the fact that she can possibly help preserve that world.

History

Trigger Warnings: homophobia, transphobia

Tovah - assigned male and given the name Thomas at birth - spent her early years in a group home in Manhattan, after her biological father left her at a hospital under a save-haven law. Growing up, she seemed more mature and intellectual than many of her peers, and rarely engaged in disputes with them. She often stood up for other children who were being picked on. Because she was seen as a boy, her even temper and clear-headed ability to avoid being riled up was seen as curious by the caretakers who worked at the group home: most boys living there had emotional issues, particularly when it came to anger, but not Tovah. It worked in her favor in the end, because she was taken in by a foster family when she was only five, and they adopted her a year later.

The Silverstein family raised Tovah to observe their Jewish faith, and became worried when she started exhibiting feminine mannerisms and mimicking the behaviors of her older sisters, the Silversteins’ two biological daughters Rebecca and Abigail. They had her speak to their rabbi, to whom she confessed that she felt more like a girl than a boy. Rabbi Abramowitz told the Silversteins that Tovah was “probably gay” and required some sort of intervention to prevent his from happening. Said intervention involved not only Tovah’s family and the rabbi, but the parents of some of her friends from Hebrew school, as well as a few other members of their synagogue. She was eight years old when this took place, and the stress triggered a tonic-clonic seizure: the first of many in the years to come.

As a result of the seizure, which was eventually diagnosed as epileptic, the so-called “intervention” was never mentioned or attempted again. The Silversteins saw it as a sign from God that they were in the wrong, and did their best to try and accept Tovah as she was, even though the prospect of their “son” being gay still made them uncomfortable. Tovah maintained a good relationship with her parents as she got older, but as she reached her teens, she became curious about her biological parents. The fact that she had been adopted was never a secret, since she vaguely remembered the group home from her early childhood, but no one she asked could tell her anything about where she’d come from. Eventually, she was able to track down the nurse with whom her biological father had left her; the nurse remembered, since Tovah was the first safe-haven surrender she’d ever managed firsthand.

Dead-end after dead-end left her frustrated and depressed. She loved her parents, absolutely, but there was something about her bio-father that haunted her. It kept nagging at the back of her mind, like a word on the tip of her tongue, but eventually, she put the matter to rest.

When she was twenty-four and in grad school to become a teacher, she met him purely by chance when a fall from her bike triggered a seizure. A man saw her and called 911 - a man who so happened to be her biological father. The man, Chad Farmer, visited her in the hospital when she regained consciousness, and told her the story of her conception. Farmer told her that, when he was in college, he met a woman with entrancing grey eyes and a mysterious smile. The attraction was immediate, and the two of them spent a single night together; he never saw the woman again, or even learned her name. Then, ten months later, she returned with a baby: she told Farmer that the baby was his. Farmer panicked and left baby Tovah at the hospital.

Once Tovah was discharged, she didn’t hear from Chad Farmer again, until she saw on the news that he’d been killed in a hit-and-run two years later. She attended his funeral, but the entire time, felt as if she was being watched. After the end of the service, she noticed a young girl with brown hair and abnormally large eyes, wearing a feathered coat, watching her. The girl told Tovah to follow her, if she was interested in learning about her biological mother. In her emotional state, Tovah was unable to resist such an offer, and followed the large-eyed girl out into the woods. The story that followed was even more strange than the vague tale Farmer had told her two years prior.

The girl informed her that her mother was a goddess: specifically, the goddess Athena. Tovah, being level-headed and logical, dismissed this right away as the ravings of a mentally-ill homeless person, but the girl in the feathered coat shut her up by transforming, right in front of her very eyes, into an owl and then back again. When Tovah returned home, she went to bed and dreamt of a grey-eyed woman with an owl perched on her shoulder. The next day, Tovah’s roommate remarked that she hadn’t known Tovah had a tattoo. Confused, because she didn’t have a tattoo, she asked her roommate to snap a photo: in it, there was a stark black image of an owl on the small of her back.

The owl-girl kept cropping up, simply watching Tovah from a distance, not approaching her, until the day she graduated from grad school. She was needed, the owl-girl informed her; there was a job waiting for her at a place where there were many others like her: the children of gods and goddesses. Tovah’s curiosity overwhelmed her common sense, and she accepted the offer. Recently, Tovah has started becoming aware of strange abilities, including an affinity for birds (especially owls, which are symbols of wisdom and beloved of her mother), as well as the ability to inspire those around her. Likewise, her calmness in adversity seems almost supernatural; she’s never been known to lose her temper at anything.

Ever since she learned about her origins, Tovah has struggled with her faith. She was raised Jewish, and therefore to believe that there was only one God. The years of being involved in her religious community are at stark odds with what she now knows to be the truth. However, because she is unwilling to seek help, she feels lost and adrift, even as she does her best to guide others.

Personality

Like her mother Athena, Tovah is a rational, calm, level-headed woman. She does not act out of impulse or spite, and can often see the big picture when others get tripped up on the details. Unfortunately, this also makes her a bit withdrawn, and people tend to assume she doesn’t care about things that would get a normal person riled up. Even in moments of stress, she rarely shows what she’s feeling: she bottles everything up, rather than seeking the assistance of others. She tries to take care of things herself, and believes that she is in control of matters even when she really isn’t. Tovah is a defender and mediator, and has no patience or tolerance for bullies of any kind.

Nemesis - Lieutenant of the City Guard - Demiromantic Pansexual

Purpose

Rie has come to Cure partially at the behest of her mother. She is to watch for signs of dissent towards the gods and to prevent escalation to mutiny. While she’s distrustful of her mother, Rie still wants to make her proud.The family health insurance included with her position is her main reason for coming to Cure.

History

Rie’s favourite bedtime story was how her father, Hisao met Nemesis. While enjoying the evening with friends in a casino in Las Vegas he saw a man win the five million dollar jackpot. The winner bragged about his lucky streak, and amusedly Hisao watched as a sharp eyed woman slid up to the new millionaire’s side. He thought her another sycophant, until she laughed when he proclaimed he was invincible, until he saw her smile stretch as he lost it all within the hour, and how it sparkled as he lost more in the next. Hisao approached her when she finally left him, just as he turned in his last five chips. “Why did you stay?” he asked. “Everyone else left him after the first half hour.”

She turned that smile to him, a gleam in her eyes. “You know what they say about train wrecks.”

Nemesis visited Hisao sporadically over the next year. Rie loved the paintings he made when she was his muse; the sweetly smiling face under white and black scales, two women curled up against each other, one with black hair and white skin and the other opposite. Balance and harmony. At the end of their affair Hisao was left with a baby Rie placed in his arms, Nemesis walking away.

Rie’s childhood was unstable. Hisao tried his best to raise her; giving up art to take a job in a bank. Still, she found making friends difficult. It became worse and worse, until it erupted in middle school. She found herself standing over the bloody body of a bully who had boasted that everyone was too terrified of him to fight him. Barely escaping expulsion, she and her father moved up to San Francisco. At high school Rie made a conscious effort to make friends and to keep her head out of trouble, although rumours still followed her. She was a star on the track team, especially in relay. After working on and off at her father’s bank and getting a degree in criminal law, Rie enrolled in a police academy. Part of her resented the fact that she was drawn to law because of her heritage, but it was the only thing that felt right.

She rose through the ranks, quickly finding her way into financial crime. Rie was renown in her department for being able to pick out the crooks in all the shady businessmen. When she narrowed in on a fraudster the evidence against them quickly followed. Their good luck quickly turned to bad. Her first big break was making a case against the CEO of Hisao’s bank for embezzling. Millions of funds funnelled into yachts and mansions. She smirked in the face of the CEO when she handed him the court order and search warrant. The guilty verdict came within a week of the case going to court. Later that night, her then-girlfriend pointed out the tattoo on the back of her neck; scales, the support a sword.

Hisao was quietly made redundant, but took the chance to return to his artwork. He started making a name for himself in smaller galleries. For Rie, politics got the best of her. Promotions that had been promised to Rie weeks earlier eventuated to nothing. She stayed in her position but the leads dried up, witnesses stayed silent.

Frustrated, she eagerly took the chance to transfer to a detective’s position, just for want of something to do. Bloodhound was what her new team called her. If a perp fled the scene she had an uncanny ability to track them down. Over foot, over road, even one time down a river. If they did get away, Rie would find them a few days later and bring them in. While promotions to higher paying positions were still barred to her Rie enjoyed the work, enjoyed seeing people taken to justice for their crimes and the balance of luck evening out again.

Then, her father’s health took a turn for the worse. He had always been thin, but soon he barely ate anything. His throat was sore. It had been sore for a while. Throat cancer. Stage four. Inoperable. No insurance. Rie used up the last of her savings paying for the diagnosis and the first round a treatment. She was desperate.

Which was precisely how Nemesis wanted her. In the dream, the winged goddess approached her daughter and told her of Cure, and what she would have her do there. Under the goddess’s’ orders Rie is to watch for any signs of insurrection in Cure. Nemesis knows how much power Cure has over the gods, and she’d have Rie strike down anyone who lets it get to their heads, or worse.

Rie applied for the City Guard shortly after finding out that they would help pay for her father’s treatment. Although she’s new to the position of authority, she is dedicated to doing her best. She says it’s to prove a point to herself, but she’d be lying if she omitted that she wants to impress her mother. Even if she suspects Nemesis made her father ill.

Personality

Rie has always had a vindictive streak. She remembers every injustice that’s been paid to her, no matter how small; even if she doesn’t want to. Because of this she tries to make a conscious effort to be forgiving, even if her apologies come through gritted teeth. She’s cautious and guarded simply because she knows how quickly relationships can change. Rie tries to keep her distance; she worries that as a daughter of Nemesis she can only bring bad luck to those close to her. Win her respect and trust and her stony shield will crack open to reveal a slightly softer interior; a truly empathetic friend who will kill anyone who hurts you with the fury of a thousand suns. Even though she is quite a serious person, Rie has a wicked deadpan, and can’t resist laughing when people take her seriously.

Like all true (ex-)detectives Rie has a curious streak, and like all curious streaks it can get her into trouble. Professionally Rie is a good team-player, making sure to give credit where it is due and trying to keep humble in her victories. Her morality is unusually black and white. On cases she can occasionally be stubborn, sure that she is right even when she might not be.

Vulcan - Blacksmith - Bisexual

Purpose

Lynchpin in Vulcan’s revenge, even if Rio doesn’t know that yet

History

In Munich as the last of a lineage, Rutger came into the world with a scream on his lips and his mother’s blood along his skin. The Arsen dynasty would live on in the body of a green eyed boy with toothy grins and grabby fingers. And life was splendid, for those first ten years, with old money in his family’s pockets and affection wherever he turned.

Ten years old and the world came to a sudden, screeching halt. A work party gone wrong, and his banker father found the thrill of narcotics and his socialite mother was introduced to the fluttering haze of pot and cocaine, starting a downward spiral that only pulled their young son down with them. Affection turned to neglect as the two would rather breathe in fumes from one another than care for their child, and when the money started to run thin from their developing drug habits, the neglect turned to abuse. Desperate, watchful as his parents did their best to destroy the family that had survived for generations, Rutger turned to selling the very drugs that his parents now thrived upon. If he couldn’t make them love him as he was, then he would make them need him.

One morning at fifteen, the shadowed symbol of an anvil appeared on his skin, pressed into the flesh of his lower abdomen, black against the rest of his skin. Hung over, he paid no real attention to the mark, misplacing it as a drunken tattoo. It wasn’t until a few days later that he began to take notice of things. A deal had become rocky, with the buyer less interested in his wares and more interested in what sort of services he thought Rutger could give him. Frustrated, disgusted, he staggered when the older man shoved him, only to watch as the lighter the man had been toying with became an inferno between clenched fingers.

It only grew from there, slowly, and he learned that if he focused hard enough, he could light the same fires with the aid of a lighter until they grew and flowed with his fingers for staggering seconds. This arrival of power was only over shadowed by his father’s death from a drug overdose and the news of his mother’s infidelity. Between the knowledge that he was not his father’s son and the fire that called to him, he stood by and watched as the woman pulled drugged herself to a slow death when he was twenty-two. Lonely, angry, and only trained by his own fascination, it was then that Vulcan came to him.

Easy to convince, desperate to please a father than would love him, Rutger reveled in the attention that the God gave him. He was special, or so the man said, with a fire like the forges that burned in the heavens, and the words were honeyed to the lonely young man. Over the next few years, his drug business dwindled, with Rutger set with nearly as much money as his parents had wasted from the Arsen name. He kept himself occupied until his father called him to the Cure, Vulcan saying that there was a home for his son now, and that he had a job to do. He adopted a new name for himself, answering to the moniker Rio as much as he did Rutger, and settled into his new home with the intent of making his father proud.

Personality

Just a little bit wounded and a bit cynical, Rio holds himself apart with a sharp eye and a sharper tongue. There is nothing wrong with adding insult to injury, not if it means he can make his father proud of him, if he can do something right for once. Impatient and short tempered, Rio is quick to point out faults in those around him, and while the young man excels at his training, his easily frustrated nature hinders him with his fire more than it helps. Petty and harsh, he is also loyal to a fault, and earnest with his affections. Good hearted and lonelier than he cares to admit, he’ll do anything just for someone to love him, even if it means he’ll be taken advantage of.

Apollo - Seer for the City Guard - Bisexual

Purpose

Ash wants to restore the things that society has taken away. He also knows that if he’s in the city with his ‘special gift’ that he will be protected versus being out in the real world.

History

Ash was always aware that he was different. It wasn’t anything his mother hid from him – after all there was no shame in loving his father. It was just tragic that it was Apollo and not some rich business man. If Ashton was truthful he would say that his mother was lying. He had after all left the both of them without a second glance, but Ash was happy for the most part. That was until he kept seeing things. Being the son of the God of prophecy wasn’t easy – especially when you got that power instead of his calmer ones. They were always blurry – filled with vague shapes and symbols.

But they always came true. That was the one constant in them and so Ash elected to ignore them. After all what is the point of seeing the future if you cant change it? And for the most part he didn’t want to – until he was eighteen and had a vision of his mother falling down the steps. Panicking Ash called out to his mother who was upstairs. As she rushed Ash realized a moment to late that it was what happened in his vision.  June Richards died that day in a freak accident that her son had seen.

After that Ash tried to keep his visions to himself – tried to suppress the ‘gift’ he had received. That was until recently when the visions kept coming at a rapid pace.  Instead of having them once or twice a month they were happening almost every day. He could no longer keep the visions to himself and instead opted to go to the Cure. After all if anything could help him it is being around other demigods. He signed up to be part of the city guard, but after finding out about his abilities they assigned him to be a seer for another officer. This however isn’t what Ash wants for the rest of his life, instead he’s hoping to learn how to suppress the seeing ability. After all If he can learn to suppress it maybe he can have a normal life.

Personality

Ash, much like his godly parent, is charming and boyish but also has a tendency to be abrasive and rude. Ash has also been known to take a joke to far and to be deemed shallow. Although this isn’t true Ash does have a hard time forming close relationships as he is frightened to see the same thing that happened to his mother happen again. That being said Ash has many  contacts he’s friendly too and when he wants to be is the life of the party.

Hades - Officer of the City Guard - Bisexual

Purpose

Eve came to Cure for her mother. She had become a girl she knew her mother would be ashamed of, and Eve saw Cure as an opportunity to start fresh. Eve wants to make up for what she’s done, but she’s not even sure that’s possible.

History

Brook Sappho was a thoughtful, kind women. Working at a hospital as a labour and delivery nurse, she saw tons of children delivered and passed into the arms of loving mothers, she just never saw herself as one of those mothers. Whether she liked it or not, on October 13th, 1989, Brook found herself in the delivery room holding a baby girl of her own.

Raising Eve proved to be more of a challenge than anticipated. Brook was well educated on how to care for children, however, she lacked the skills to care for a demigod. She wasn’t sure how, but whatever toys Eve played with broke. The plastic blocks and rings were fine, but the dolls would have heads missing and the animals would end up in piece. Brook decided to watch Eve play one day to see if her daughter was purposefully being a pain in the ass. Instead of finding a raging toddler, she discovered a normal child who just happened to break everything she touched. Maybe it was the way she held the dolls - Brook didn’t know. But whatever it was, it wasn’t intentional.

As Eve grew up, not a day went by where she wasn’t told to be more gentle or calm. To simply go slower and not be as aggressive, but Eve wasn’t quite sure how to be less aggressive when she wasn’t angry. Wanting to help others like her mother, but knowing that with her luck that nursing would turn out horribly, Eve decided to become a police officer. She was twenty two when she had finished her degree in criminology and started her first week at police academy. It was that same week that her mother by an unknown suspect in her home.

When Even found out, she became obsessed. Her friends kept her focused on school until their training was over, but after that Eve went off the grid. Working alone, she tracked down the man, popped a knife in his neck, and watched him bleed out in the valley of a country road ditch. That’s when the tattoo appeared. Eve didn’t even noticed it until two weeks later, and shortly after that they found her.

Personal security for someone important, they were all demigods and quickly informed her that a spot had just opened up for someone of her talents, for a daughter of Hades. Confused, alone, and still frightened by what she had done, Eve joined them. Eve hated the job. She hated her powers, and she hated what she had done. However, it paid well and gave her life structure, two things she believed she need in order not to become obsessed again. So she used them, not one or twice, but too many times for her to remember. While the others each had their unique talents, Eve took care of those that needed to be taken care of.

Once she heard about Cure, it took her a while to leave. The position she was in wasn’t one easily gotten out of. When she left, she took nothing but the clothes on her back and a weapon or two - no cellphone, no identification, no attachments.

Personality

Undisturbed, Eve is fairly passive. When she makes daily decisions she does so strategically, and when she’s alone she rarely makes a noise. Around other people she’ll put on a lovely demeanour that’s friendly on the surface. The demeanour usually lasts a few minutes - longer if she’s working - before the sarcastic, stubborn, aggressive girl emerges.

When she becomes focused on something, nothing will stand in her way. The longer her focus is held, the more obsessive she becomes. Her thoughts become more intrusive, and her decisions increasingly reckless. Unknowingly, she slips into a “do whatever it takes” mentality. Over the years Eve has become better at catching herself early on, however, she’s still not perfect. When she does realize what’s happening, she’ll actively fight her behaviours.