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Wormwood is a busted up fallen angel. While stabbing a demon lord several eons ago, it got its wings ripped off and was sent spiraling down onto the mortal plane. It was able to survive for a very long time by putting itself into stasis, and could have remained like that if not for an unfortunate spelunker who accidentally broke the seals keeping Wormwood asleep.
To survive on the mortal plane, Wormwood needed a flesh interface, so it hopped into said unfortunate spelunker, completely taking over his body, and proceeded to try and figure out what’s going on here. Turns out the demon lord it stabbed has been waiting for Wormwood to come back online again, and now that they’re awake he’s trying to track it down and drag it to Hell for a very long catch-up session involving fire and brimstone.
Wormwood luckily happened to stumble into the lives of a couple of demon hunters, and now they’re a little squad for the time being. However, being cut off from Heaven means that Wormwood has a limited power supply that is slowly but surely running out, and they don’t have very much time left.
Wormwood does not get the mortal plane at first. Having been sealed away for so long, everything they encounter in the world is new to it. It is incredibly intelligent, and loves learning. It is constantly watching everything around it, trying to consume and absorb new content.
It is very difficult for Wormwood to adapt from angelic ideas and thought patterns into human ones. It has a human brain and body, and although thankfully it can work the body pretty well due to autonomous systems and muscle memory from the body’s previous owner, it has trouble with the more psychological aspects of physical existence. It misses communication via thoughts, and being cut off from Heaven makes it feel incredibly lonely sometimes. It is frustrated with the shortcomings of language; even though it can read, speak and understand all human languages (and a few non-human languages) none are as perfect as what it used to use. Thus, Wormwood sometimes eschews speaking altogether in hopelessness.
Wormwood has also experienced pain and suffering beyond the scope of human comprehension, and has to actively keep those memories locked away for fear of accidentally leaving their physical form when triggered. Their physical brain cannot contain such huge and incomprehensible sensations.
Wormwood can feel emotions like guilt, love, hate, fear, joy, etc, but it has trouble expressing those physically because it still isn’t quite clued into the expressions of the human body. As a result it can sometimes seem very calm or somber externally regardless of internal emotion.
- Divine Powers: As an angel, Wormwood is inhumanly strong and fast. It has little reaction to physical pain, and can recover from most physical wounds, either by speeding up the natural healing process or hijacking stem cells to regrow missing parts. It does not need to sleep, breathe, eat, or drink, but can. It enjoys sleeping.
- Supernova: In a tight spot, Wormwood can unleash a large burst of innate angelic energy (tends to manifest as light and heat).
- Blessed Touch: Wormwood can sanctify objects or areas if it wishes.
- Degraded Battery: Since Wormwood has been cut off from Heaven's power supply, it has a limited amount of energy left. It managed to survive in stasis for several millennia, but since it's awake now, it's using up energy much faster. Every time it manifests its angelic powers, it loses more energy, which cannot be replenished. Wormwood is living on borrowed time.
- Wingless: Without its wings, Wormwood cannot travel out of the mortal plane by will (this includes dreams and altered consciousness), and would have to resort to the same methods humans use. By extension, it cannot unlock its true form anymore.
- Albinism: The body Wormwood uses has oculocutaneous albinism. Wormwood is therefore rather photosensitive, and has lower visual acuity. The body's previous owner wore colored contacts because of this, but Wormwood doesn't know about that. Wormwood's skin is also sunburnt easily, but Wormwood tends to heal this when it happens as the pain is an annoyance. The reason it doesn't fix its eyes is because it doesn't actually realize that its vision is abnormal for humans.
- Human: Tall, spindly, emaciated body. Devoid of pigment. Hair is straight and very long, nearly waist-length. Big lips, long nose, no eyebrows. Looks very clearly sick, exhausted. Top surgery scars on chest. Larger and nastier keloids/scabs occasionally surface on its back in accordance with stress level.
- Halfway: Human body structure, may increase in size. Normal facial features completely disappear, and are replaced with thousands of eyes in various sizes that cover the entire body. Most eyes appear irritated, bloodshot, or tearful. Back is a mess of raised keloids and scabs, which occasionally break open and begin bleeding. Halo may become visible.
- Trueform: No longer accessible post-fall. Massive. Humanoid torso, head, and arms. Cloaked in a hooded, billowing white robe that conceals rest of body. Exposed arms and face are covered in eyes. Five pairs of white feathered wings sprout from its back. These are eyeless, but have eyespot patterns on the tips of the flight feathers that match the eyes on the body. Entire form is ringed in several constantly moving, gyroscopic solid halos.
- Tends towards awkward poses, either curled in defensively or limp as though it forgets it can move its body around
- Not very expressive in the face
- Has absolutely no sense of style NOR clothes of its own
- Wears a mixture of Kero's clothing (too small) and Bishop's clothing (too big)
Kero stuck up for Wormwood back when they and Bishop first found it. They insisted the two of them help it, because it needed their help. Wormwood appreciated that very much.
Wormwood likes Kero, even if it doesn't understand them most of the time. Kero is trying very hard to clue Wormwood into how being human works in a very short amount of time, with mixed success. Kero talks to Wormwood much more than Bishop does, but that may just be because Kero talks more than Bishop does, period.
Wormwood thinks Kero is not very careful. Each thinks they need to protect the other.
Wormwood is not sure what it's feeling here. In Heaven, angels don't really differentiate between types of love, or between angels that much either. The dominant idea is that angels are a collective, all fingers branching off from God's palm. The only differences that should be recognized between them are differences in rank.
But Wormwood hasn't been in Heaven for a long time. Hanging out with Bishop and Kero has influenced them to be a little more human. And Wormwood begins to realize that the way it feels towards Bishop is NOT the way it feels towards Kero. And neither Kero nor Bishop are ranked above or below Wormwood. So this is all very confusing. Wormwood doesn't really know what those feelings mean, or what to do about them, or what they might lead to. But it does want to be around Bishop very much. And listen to him. And watch him. And touch him.
Rosier is hunting Wormwood down and trying to get them to Asmodai, through seduction, force, or both. Wormwood does not like this. And so it does not like Rosier. But it does pity them. Sure, that pity is mixed with equal parts revulsion, and yes, it will definitely try to kill Rosier on sight, but still.
Rosier kind of has a weird thing for Wormwood. Wormwood does not like that either.
Nothing complex here. Asmodai is evil. A long time ago, Wormwood put a bunch of swords through him that now keep him trapped in the diabolical plane. During the very same incident, Asmodai ripped Wormwood's wings off and sent it spiraling down into the mortal plane. Some might consider that sufficient payback, but not Asmodai. He has Wormwood's wings nailed above his bed and wants to add all the missing pieces. Wormwood does not want that to happen.
code by jiko
