Recent Posts

when pressed, zayn will say that he's a native of the glorious city of chrysós, and this is true. all good lies have to start somewhere, after all. after that, he'll likely spin some strange tail- he's the first born of some noble, he was born in the center of the mercenaries' headquarters, he's secretly the bastard son of the vasiliás- but his origins are truly far more humble. his parents were unremarkable merchants, faceless nobodies in the army of travelers that pass through chrysós each day. they weren't rich, but they weren't dirt poor either, and from what he remembers they had a fairly decent life together. they rarely stayed in one place for long, and his parents often left him with the other children of merchants in the area, but things generally turned out alright. there were no signs of him being a strain in the beginning- he was obnoxiously good at hide-and-seek, and was often accused of cheating by the other young children, but they all just assumed he was particularly clever and left it alone. life was good.

until it wasn't. he didn't know how it happened, at the time- he wouldn't connect the dots until well into his teenage years, and by then the damage to his psyche was already done- but one day when he was six years old, his parents forgot him. it wasn't anything so dramatic as being kicked out, and he wasn't really abandoned, per say, his parents just... forgot. he'd been upset about something stupid- bed time or extra dessert or moving yet again- and told them to go away and leave him alone. and the funny thing was, they did. they looked around for a while, seeming like they'd forgotten something important, but even though he was standing right there they looked right past him. he thought that maybe they were making a cruel joke (it wasn't exactly like them, but they'd always preached to be careful what you wished for) except for the small detail that they never came back. that was it.

his emotional turmoil meant his powers went crazy, and for nearly a year he wandered the city like a ghost. it should have been cool, the freedom and the ability to get away with anything, but that grew old quickly. it wasn't any fun stealing food when didn't seem to know he existed. he was in denial for a while, convinced that this was some elaborate prank that the entire city was in on. that phase passed, and then for a while he thought that maybe he might have died and was cursed to wander the world forever, but even that grew old after a while. he was plagued constantly by a bone-deep fatigue, and winter came and it was cold and he was so, so lonely. the more upset he got, however, the more people seemed to look away from him, until one day the strain finally collapsed from sheer exhaustion. he awoke to strangers, and at first he was ecstatic because they could see him- but then a gruff adult voice was telling him to "get up, kid, strain filth has to work for their keep" and if the past year had been purgatory, this was hell.

he was just a kid. he was 'cute'. that's about what he had going for him, in the beginning, but they still expected him to pull his weight. later, he'd realize that he had gotten off somewhat lucky, but at the time being taken in by a band of mercenaries had seemed like about the worst thing possible. at first they sent him on easy jobs, sneaking into houses and stealing items, providing a distraction for the adults before getting the hell out of there. he wasn't the only gifted one in their little group, and though they weren't exactly treated as equals they weren't despised either. eventually he befriended an older teen, a strain, who explained to him what it all meant- the fact that he was a strain, their guesses as to the nature of his power, what it meant for him now that he was an inhuman monster- but he picked up valuable skills and they gave him food and he was happy. he was their loyal little puppy trotting along at their heels, and yes, they kicked him more often than they praised him, but they gave him attention and he loved them with all his heart.

of course, they also showed no qualms whatsoever about throwing him to the hounds when things went south. they'd been on an admittedly risky job in piros when unexpected resistance showed up, and without missing a beat they'd claimed that this evil strain had made them do it. they sold him out and ran for their miserable lives, but he didn't even have time to be mad because they next thing he knew he was being tossed into a cage on the black market. and to make matters worse, when he was the sole living creature being put on display, he had a hell of a time making himself invisible to the more unsavory customers. he did his best to avoid the shadier ones, but he learned quickly from his two failed escapes that antagonizing his superiors wasn't the way to go about it. so he sucked up. he was the perfect little pet, played along and bent over backwards to appease the window-shoppers, and before long he caught the eye of a representative of a small noble family. he was somewhat exotic looking, relatively unscarred, cooperative and useful- and so he was soon on his way to the home of his new masters.

and you know, some strains were upset by being treated like pets, but he adored the lifestyle. they dressed him in nice clothes and gave him jewelry and call him vain but he adored it, no matter the symbolism of him being draped in chains. it might have been a cage but it was certainly a comfortable one. he further honed his powers, learned to pick locks and wield a sword, and was otherwise groomed into the perfect little agent. during the day he was simply a household servant- young and pretty and more than willing to serve- and when the sun went down he was sneaking into other noble houses, rifling through papers and stealing away valuable information. the other servants hated him, as he was a suck up and a flatterer and not at all kind to his fellow slaves, but it got him far with the people in charge and that was what counted. besides, whenever the other strains got too angry with him he could just slip away.

as he got older he got a tad bolder, taking more liberties, pushing the boundaries of what was allowed- and it got him quite a few beatings, though his masters were careful never to let it show. he showed genuine remorse when they were displeased with him, begging and pleading and having no shame whatsoever when it came to earning back their favor, but it never stopped his slight rebellious streak. the others called him masochist, said he was a glutton for punishment, but the horror of once again being a ghost, lonely and forgotten, was too much to risk when he could be important. it was of no consequence that the others got all of the fame and fortune, as long as they continued to spare him the occasional glance. he genuinely liked his masters, even if he was little more than an expensive pet to them.

it came as a true shock to him when he overheard them discussing plans to sell him- apparently the family had come upon hard times and could use the cash. he did some digging and found they planned to pawn him off to a group dedicated to hunting monsters in the shadows- and notorious for going through strains at an alarming rate. and you know, he wasn't afraid of death, per say, but that was as an inglorious and anonymous fate as they came. he liked fighting, sure, he'd taken well to lessons with the blade, but he was not some cannon fodder, no sir. so when his master's servant came to lead him away, he stabbed the unsuspecting man through the stomach and took his leave of the place and the people he'd loved for the last eight years. it was a rough journey, but he had no qualms about stealing what he needed, and he eventually found his was to lilla. 

he could have tried freelancing as an assassin or something and been moderately successful, but the idea of being alone in the world didn't appeal to him in the slightest. he considered asking about joining the resident clan, but the eighteen year old him had been wary of the unfamiliar city, and thus he wound up working the pleasure district. and, okay, call him disgusting, but he reveled in the attention. it wasn't freedom, but then he'd never wanted freedom, that was an entirely overrated concept. he managed to secure a job at saint's pleasure and spent two years getting a feel for lilla and building relationships with those who seemed like they knew what they were doing. he finally petitioned to join the purple clan and was, due to the usefulness of his strain power, accepted. he's spent the past four years making a figurative name for himself- very few even remember zayn's face with any detail, but the snake has built himself a quite decent information network, an attempt to worm his way into society and ingratiate himself to his king. they call him liar and whore and snitch, but they call him something, they know him, and life is good.

TIMELINE

three years; strain ability manifests, doesn't know it for what it is

six years; forgotten and abandoned by parents

seven years; taken in by mercenaries, learns to harness strain powers

ten years; arrested, sold to noble family, trains as an assassin / thief / agent

eighteen years; runs away, winds up in lilla, flees to find work in the brothel

twenty years; joins the purple clan, starts dealing in information