Orion
cupidry
- Created
- 2 years, 6 months ago
- Creator
- orochidere
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- 55
Profile
Since the debut of Unbleeders years ago, it's fair to say that those on the precipice of death — at least, death of the permanent kind — have indeed become a dying breed. Even with the revival process's exorbitant price tag, there are few who don't see immortality as a foregone conclusion now that it's an option.
Of course, no rule is without its exceptions. For Orion, life without death means nothing at all. Severely ill with a disease they both shared, Orion's mother was sure to drill one thing into his head before her passing:
Death is a friend, not to be feared or run from. Life, after all, is made sweet by its brevity. As such, when Orion found himself nearing his own early end, he spent his days breezily: trying new things, making friends, and finding as much joy in his remaining days as he could.
...until an old flame made the decision to claim his revival for him. Now, he seeks a cure for immortality, struggling to reconcile his easygoing nature with his newfound desperation — and his lifelong convictions with returning affections.
/ ɒˈɹaɪ.ən (oh.RYE.en) ・ dy ・ nɔʁ /
floating crown; arrow through the heart; ring; 3 floating birds
First Face : The World
When first making his acquaintance, it's difficult to ignore that Orion is, first and foremost, a charmer. Armed with lowered lashes and a silver tongue, "indiscrimiate flirt" is a label he wears with pride. Indiscriminate, however, doesn't necessarily mean insincere. Orion's coquetry is generally rooted in good will, and he's quick to back off if he senses his attentions are unwelcome.
Either way, it doesn't take long for a certain sense of far-away to seep through. Rather than an arm's length, Orion often gives the impression of being just an ebb of tide away: presumed to come back eventually, but instead receding ever further, just out of reach.
Second Face: Close ones
A naturally easy-going sort when it comes to new people, Orion inherited the ability to make new friends wherever he goes from his mother. For a cocktail of reasons, however — consisting mostly of his mother's death, Ayumu's abrupt departure, and concern over his own past — the people he considers himself truly close to are few and far between. Those few people find Orion a softer, less polished version of his usual self: quieter and less put together, and less distant for it.
There is a price for this vulnerability, however: when close to someone, Orion finds himself far more likely to get carried away with his emotions. This is no problem when he's feeling affectionate, but during an argument, or a split-second self-destructive decision...
Third Face: True Reflection
Despite the ever-spinning carousel of people with which he often surrounds himself, Orion is ultimately plagued by an intense feeling of loneliness. Losing Ayumu and his mother in turn left him with one childlike thought on loop: There will never be anyone again who will love me unconditionally. Beneath his anger and betrayal, he can only think that Ayumu's disappearance was due to some fundamental inadequacy on his part, even now.
These insecurities are easy enough to bite back when you're certain death is on its way. Now, facing the possibility of eternity, Orion is doing his best to sort through years of unprocesssed baggage — including parts of their past that Ayumu seems to have completely repressed.
Knight of Cups
- Rainy weather
- New Year's Eve
- Blooming flower teas
- Immortality
- Rich people
- Dolls
- Eternity
- Dismemberment
- Abandonment
- Aid in Eschaton's mission
- Sort things with Ayumu... somehow
- Figure out why Sensei hired him
- Learning new things
- Reading
- Dating
- When they were younger, Joan used to read The Little Prince to him and Ayumu. This is the origin of their nicknames from her — Principito and Rosita respectively — as well as Ayumu's choice of Orion's inserts.
- His favorite holiday is New Year's Eve.
- Through a strange series of events, he currently works for Ayumu's parent. They mutually dislike each other, but then, most boss/employee pairs do.
- In some myths, the hero Orion was killed by a scorpion. Orion is a Libra, a sign which precedes Scorpio.
At 19, Orion's mother, dissatisfied to be called Rose the rest of her life, legally changed her name to Bella: short for Bellatrix, 27th brightest star in the night and the constellation Orion's shoulder.
Later, she would tell him he should always change things he didn't like, because life is short, and it's always worth being happy. (She also told him she would always be on his shoulder, an angel to the left. Don't worry, now.)
Once upon a time, the phrase "pretty as a doll" was practically carved into Orion's skull. Nowadays, his beauty is one more comfortable and lived-in — indeed, more human, despite his rather obvious inserts. Though covered in scars, Orion is softer and healthier than ever. Thoughts on immortality aside, it's hard to argue that it doesn't look lovely on him.
- AFAB, trans masc; no top surgery, some hormones.
- Has a lot of scars. They seem long-healed, but he still seems attached to wearing bandages...
- Expansive wardrobe. The nun outfit is for official Eschaton things.
After a lifetime spent on the cusp of death, Orion still continues to wear out or stumble more easily than most other Unbleeders. Still, the physical boons of immortality are not to be underestimated -- something even Orion can admit.
Perhaps most curiously, Orion has an incredibly clear head with his heart out. Without seeing him physically, it'd be difficult to tell there was anything different about him at all.
- resilient
- fast
- distracting
- ranged
- easily knocked down
- self-destructive
Abilities
Orion's combat experience pre-mortem was unique. Though he wasn't uninitiated when it came to violence, chronic illness (and Ayumu's intervention) kept him from dirtying his hands too much -- and he was much more likely to use a knife than a bow and arrow.
Still, an Unbleeder's weapon is tailored to them for a reason. With some practice (and the Star's unwanted blessing), Orion has become a perfectly capable fighter in his own right. He frequents the gauntlets when he has nothing better to do, whether to socialize or self-destruct.
When Orion rolls a nat 20, he's able to get his opponent onto their back and straddle their legs. From there, he shoots them directly in the heart, with enough force to hit true.
self-preservation
TL;DR: "Too Long, Didn't Read"
WARNINGS: parent death
- Grew up in extreme poverty. His mother was very ill; they knew when he was quite young that he had the same illness, and likely would not live long.
- His mother taught him life was precious for its brevity and death was a friend. Still, life only felt truly joyous when he met Ayumu at age 11: a rich boy touring the slums for fun.
- The two became inseparable. Ayumu promised they would die together. After a few years, however, Ayumu's boredom led them to become entrenched in criminal activity.
- This went on for a few years, until an incident wherein Ayumu lost his leg, and was promptly pulled out by their parent.
- At the insistence of said parent, Orion quietly took the blame for the incident — which ran the risk of hitting the tabloids — in an out-of-court settlement. Orion's mother passed away. Ayumu never came back.
- After six years, the two reunited by chance: Ayumu as an Unbleeder and Orion on death's door. Ayumu insisted his intent hadn't been to abandon. Orion's grudge remained.
- ...especially after Orion died and was revived, against his will, by Ayumu's orders. Things get Complicated TM.
- Orion joins Eschaton and vows to make Ayumu keep his childhood promise.
CHAPTER ONE: "CORVUS — gate to the underworld"
WARNINGS: terminal illness
Orion was born into the knowledge that death would come soon. Death always found those in his family quickly; by the time he was born, it was only him and his mother, and she was fading fast. That he had inhereted her illness was only a matter of course.
But she was intent on teaching him one thing before her passing: death is a friend, and life's brevity is what makes it so precious. A hard sell for a kid, especially one stuck in poverty in the slums. Still, even as fear needled at him, Orion assured her of his agreement in her belief — trying to believe it if only so she could go on believing it, too.
If life is short, and precious for its shortness, then joy must be found everywhere. This is what Orion's mother said; this is what Orion himself was desperately trying to believe. But there was little joy to be found in the crumbling buildings, the nights without food, the people always going missing in the neighborhood. That is, until he was 11; that is, until Ayumu showed up.
Hoshino Ayumu came from another world, one where you could drink milk every day and the future extended on into forever in all directions. A pretty rich boy in nice perfumes, Ayumu was easily bored but prone to brief, passionate obsessions. Today's antidote to monotony happened to be slum-touring — and, as it happens, meeting someone he might want to keep.
And so, in making his very first friend, Orion began to believe, after all.
CHAPTER TWO: "AQUARIUS — enthralled, enthralling"
WARNINGS: implications of adolescent endangerment
For a while (longer than any of Ayumu's prior obsessions, he told Orion excitedly) the two were inseparable. As for Orion's death... Ayumu had his own thoughts. Filled with his typical shallow-and-deep love, Ayumu proposed they die together someday: a comfort and control all at once. For Orion, this couldn't be more appealing. After all, it was so much easier to go on living if, in some way, his own death was contingent on Ayumu — Ayumu, who was so magnetic, who played three instruments and read Latin and could talk his way out of anything — also dying. Didn't that just seem impossible?
Still, after a few years, Ayumu did get bored... just not of Orion. They were teenagers now; the urge to do more pressed in. And the slums were rife with opportunity, if one wasn't afraid of unsavory sorts...
And thus began their foray into Caer Sidi’s criminal underworld. Pretty, young, and often reckless, the two eventually found themselves in the employ of one Natalia Beck — or rather, of her splinter group – and, after some time of ascending favor, hanging around with Morgan White and his mercenaries. Their escapades were varied, extravagant and gruesome, risque and mundane; however, the bigger picture of their work was generally above their heads.
Orion still took care of his mother; Ayumu still attended school (at least enough to appease his parent). The rest of their time was spent out. Both of them got to fill their days with excitement, albeit with some danger; both of them get to spend all their time with their favorite person. Despite everything, it was a perfect arrangement.
Until, after some years, curiosity finally finished gnawing away at them, and Ayumu and Orion made the mistake of peeking in on the shipments they were escorting.
CHAPTER THREE: "ANDROMEDA — princess in chains"
WARNINGS: death, briefly mentioned dismemberment
The ties that the Hoshino family has to Ayumu and Orion's discoveries have been removed from this report.
It was, however, through these discoveries that Ayumu lost his leg — allowing Hoshino Ayato, a brilliant prosthetist, both a shining showcase of their work and a way to finally get their son out of the slums. The process was simple: pin the blame, legally, on the boy who kept Ayumu coming back there over and over again.
The case was settled out of court; Orion's legal fees were paid quietly, and Ayumu was whisked off to rehab without so much as a word. And that was the year Orion's mother died.
No word ever came from Ayumu. No visit, no text, no letter; no sign at all that Ayumu hadn’t grown bored of him after all, or thrown him away with the rest of the time they’d spent together. And so Orion threw himself headlong into his mother's philosophy about life and death. He was, after all, happiest when he was with Ayumu. Death is a friend, after all; Orion found his joy, and he would find more, and when he died, he would be glad to have lived at all.
Needless to say, when news about Unbleeders broke – immortality, life with no escape – he was appropriately repulsed. And when he and Ayumu were finally reunited six years later, only for him to realize Ayumu had become one willingly... Well, perhaps it would’ve been reconcilable, had Ayumu not paid for Orion’s at the same time. Without telling him, of course.
And so, when Orion succumbed to his illness, only to have himself stolen back from death on Ayumu’s whim... well, of course he ran to the group which pledged to end immortality once and for all. His relationship with Ayumu continues to get trickier and trickier. Still, if Orion can’t let go of him, he’s determined to ensure he makes good on his promise: the two of them die together.
“It is the time you have wasted for your rose that makes your rose so important.”
“It is the time I have wasted for my rose—” said the little prince, so that he would be sure to remember.
“...you must not forget it. You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed. You are responsible for your rose…”
“I am responsible for my rose,” the little prince repeated, so that he would be sure to remember.
The Past: VULPECULA, PINING
The seven years Orion first spent with Ayumu remain, in his mind, the happiest in his life. Ayumu could be cruel, and Ayumu could be selfish, but Ayumu looked at him like there was nothing else in the world — held him like a treasure and a weapon both, something unfragile and unafraid — and Orion knew he couldn't go back to life before them.
Experiencing, together, the things they did while working under Natalia Beck brought them even closer. Even now, Orion knows that no one will ever understand him so completely as Ayumu does. Thus, the depth of Orion's despair when Ayumu failed to return.
The Present: LEPUS, PURSUED
...and, thus, the difficulty Orion has had committing to a lifetime grudge against Ayumu. Despite the grief they've wrought in Orion's heart, they've remained steadfast in their insistence that they still love him — albeit in their strange, self-absorbed way. But then, that in itself is proof that they're still Ayumu: the only person alive that Orion has ever truly loved.
At present, their relationship is best labeled "complicated." Occasionally cordial and affectionate, only to violently pivot to furious and bitter, the only thing that can be said with certainty is that the two of them have history, and they're at least trying to navigate it.
The Future: CANIS, HUNTING
Orion has one true goal when it comes to Ayumu: die together, just like Ayumu always promised. Whether this is done as lovers, enemies, friends, or some strange amalgam of all three, Orion only knows that his death won't be complete without Ayumu at his side. Depending on his mood, this sentiment is either a bitter one, or entirely romantic.
"Alkaid is the best...! My mom would get so excited when he'd come over for lunch, eheh. I hope things calm down for him soon..."
Orion's childhood friend— well, when Ayumu wasn't intervening. Growing up in the same neighborhood (and thus similar circumstances) forged a close bond between them. He disappeared for some time inexplicably, but Orion is thrilled he's back now. Unfortunately, he seems to have taken on work with Orion's own former employer, which makes things increasingly complicated...
"Ah, Joanie...! Joanie is a real rock, you know? She's so bright. I only hope we can be there for her the same way she's there for us."
A dear friend whom Orion met while dabbling in less than savory situations. Though Joan has since lost her memory of those times, the two of them have recently been reunited, and Orion is happy to remind her of how kind she's always been. Her warm, nonjudgmental nature makes her a wonderful friend and confidante.
