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04:41, 1st May 2024 (GMT+0)

Poe Shepherd

General Information:
 Name: Pollux Shepherd

Nickname: Poe

Species: Demi-god

Sexual Orientation: Prefers women

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Physical information:

Gender: Male

Age: Appearing to be in his late twenties or early thirties, Poe and his brother haven't seemed to age a day in the 5 years they'd been in town.  They were, much older than they looked.

Human Hair Color: Blonde

Human Eye Color: Blueish Green

Human Distinguishing Marks: Other than their demeanors, the are only two ways to tell him apart from his brother.  The first is by closely looking at his eyes which are slightly more green than his brother's.  The second is to get them to undress.  His brother has a faint scar on his abdomen while Poe's skin is completely unblemished.

Human Description of General Appearance:  At just over six feet and just under 180 pounds, Poe (and by extension, his twin brother Cass) is tall, lean, and eminently comfortable in his own skin, which he should since he's worn it for a very long time.  He tends to be the darker of the two (not in terms of outlook, in fact, he'd call himself the more optimistic of the two, but in terms of smile and gaze.  He also tends to be the more energetic of the two, as though he was always ready for a bit of action (though he could often be found sitting and directing the action rather than engaging in it).

To make up for the fact that his brother is stuck wearing a boring uniform, Poe often dresses a bit extravagantly, which sometimes makes him stand out in the small town.

He also doesn't shave as frequently, which can help tell them apart but can't be relied upon.

Alternate Appearance: N/A

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Society Information:

Time in Port Washington: Five years

Occupation: Business Owner (most notably of Pleasures Night Club, though he has very little involvement in the day to day operations)

What brought you to Port Washington?  Early in their immortality, the brothers grew frustrated and began to find others like themselves, those who weren't Gods themselves, but were the product of a  God's antics.  Granted, they themselves had gotten off pretty easy.  Poe's father had been generous, even if not as generous as he could have been, and let him keep his brother alive after death.  That said, he wasn't quite so generous with their sister Helen, and Aphrodite was outright cruel to her and the other sisters.  Suffice to say, their love of the Gods was a complicated thing (even if Poe and Helen were both technically demi-gods themselves).  They'd spent most of their lives beyond the Classical Era avoiding gods and monsters and helping others do the same.  Occasionally this put them at odds with those gods and monsters, so when the notion of a neutral ground reached their ears, they jumped at the chance, plus, Poe, always one with the schemes, saw it as an opportunity to try something new, all from the safety and comfort of place most people saw as a joke and a place most people would forget about the moment they left.  Coming in five years ago, the two weren't the earliest 'recruits', but they came at a time of transition for the town, the prior Police Chief ousted after a run of 'corruption', the Industrial Zone in increasing decay and a new influx of residents as another round of 'people' caught wind of the town.  Getting in at the start of that second wave, they quickly established themselves as pillars of the community, one taking the side of those looking for a peaceful, quiet life free from prying eyes and unwelcome interest, the other taking the side of those looking to enjoy that freedom without judgment or embarrassment, and that's how Cass became Chief of Police and Poe became one of the first people to set up shop in and around the Industrial Zone, after all, pillars needed to be spaced suitably apart to properly hold up a roof.

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Personality Details:

Personality:  Poe is generally the rougher of the two brothers.  Perhaps this is because he was always immortal, or perhaps it was just because the blood of Zeus flowed in his veins.  Whatever the case, he was always more hot-headed, more ambitious, less patient, you get the idea.  That's not to say Cass didn't have a temper.  They were both born of an era of tit for tat vengeance, honor in the form of theft, abduction, death, and more.  They'd grown moderate in the modern era, but still, they'd come from a harsh time and that wasn't easy to forget.

That said, they've come to adopt a live and let live sort of philosophy.  The problem is, not a lot of people follow that with them.  Oh sure, they talk a good game, freedom, individuality, etc., but the truth was, most people were still either under the heel of someone more powerful than themselves, or just plain scared of being themselves.  While Cass is more of a peace-maker, Poe is more of an instigator.  Fortunately, he's smart enough not to be a rabble-rouser though, so his instigation takes a more personal approach, or a more long-term approach, adding grains of sand to the scales so slowly no one is likely to notice the balance shifting.

Strengths:  Despite his temper, Poe is patient and strategic.  As a result, he generally seems confident and assured (and generally is).  He's fairly persuasive, mostly because he's perceptive and usually good at seeing past a person's facade and figuring out what makes them tick (and then feeding that tick until it pops).  Though he always looks a little like he's about to burst out of his seat and do something rash, he's actually quite restrained and if anything, really wishing he had a good reason to burst out of his chair (and just hasn't found one yet).

Weaknesses:  He holds onto grudges a lot longer than his brother.  He'll do just about anything for his family, especially his brother.  He has a soft spot for mortals and mortal like beings who have been subjected to the whims of gods or more powerful beings but is especially drawn in by those who haven't quite figured out their place in the world yet (and revels in seeing them find it, though truth be told, then he usually loses interest).

Fears:  He hates being alone.  His greatest fear is isolation.  He's also slightly claustrophobic.

Background/History:  The story of the Dioscuri is fairly simple.  At least it is once you get past the whole quintuplets born of one mother and two fathers from eggs.  The rest of their story is fairly traditional, the abduction of their sister, the abduction of their other sister, the deaths of their younger sisters, the death of their older sister by the hand of her own son.  Girls just didn't have a great time of things in the 'good old days'.

Truth be told, neither of the brothers had been all that great themselves back then if you asked the Leucippides, but that was a long time ago and times change, people change, the world changes.  And how the world had changed.

Their first set of stories end with the death of Castor, gored with a spear by Idas.  It was then that Pollux sealed their fate.

"It's not a terrible fate, is it?" Poe asked.

"Not really," Cass admitted.  It hadn't always been great.  Death still came for them and they still had to spend some time in Hades (which was awfully cold and dark, like living in outer space), but they had gotten to see the world grow, they'd seen their sons grow, their nephews grow (even the one who had killed their sister), they'd seen those trees spread roots and branches and make meaningful and meaningless contributions to the world.

And they'd never been alone.  Of course, first and foremost, they had each other.  Sure, they got tired of each other now and then, but they weren't attached at the hip, they were only attached in death (and rebirth), though they usually stayed together for a lifetime or two before death and rebirth took them.  Sometimes they were joined by their sisters, who Poe also brought back to life (though Helen of course was a demi-god in her own right and quite capable of taking care of herself).

"Then again," Cass supposed.

It was hard to know whether it was a terrible fate or not.  It was hard to remember much of their lives, their memories only able to contain so much.  Most of what they remembered from the earliest years was like something they'd read in a book, saw on a screen or felt in a dream.  They could recall bits and pieces, feelings, but unless it occurred in this very lifetime, or at most the last hundred-odd years, it was little more than a fragment.

"It might well have sucked," he said, though without any bitterness.  If anything, he seemed amused, like remembering a wild night of drinking, or more accurately, not being able to remember a wild night of drinking, but still having all your parts and pieces, so it couldn't have been too bad.

He knew that generally wasn't true of the last few hundred years since Cass had started keeping logs.  He knew they'd done some good, they and others like them, those who'd had their lives turned upside down by the whims of gods.  Not that they hated gods, but more.

"Someone's gotta help," Poe interjected, which might be a little bit surprising since Cass was usually the more overtly humanitarian of the pair.  Then again, Poe had given up a part of himself, not once, not twice, but five times to ensure his family survived through time, and he was giving up more of himself now in order to wake more of their family, others born of a god's blood.

"Don't tell anyone though," he chided, "after all, I have a reputation to keep."

"No you don't," Cass said, rolling his eyes.  They were both, in his estimation, fairly insignificant among the supernatural population, two minor figures of myth whose only real claim to fame in the modern age was that they had a couple of stars named after them.

"Which, by the way, anyone can do for nineteen ninety-five," he added.

The two of them had been adapting to the modern era, which wasn't as hard as it might have been for some of the older immortals since they grew up in it, or right before it.  They weren't quite Boomers (technically, not apparently), but they weren't Millennials (technically, though they were apparently).  Technically they more Gen X, coming up on about 50 years in this incarnation.  Granted, this incarnation looked like the last incarnation, and that one looked like the one before it, and other than the occasional change in hairstyle and the obvious change in fashion (they used to run around naked in the really old days), they always looked the same.

They were coming up on that turning point (not middle age, since that was closer to seventy-five for them) in their lives when they decided what would define them when they stumbled upon the announcement.  Like most people at the time, they thought it was a joke and they only looked into it because they were bored.  Suffice to say, they were more than a little surprised to find out it wasn't.

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Skills and Abilities:  Poe and his brother Cass were both prominent warriors at the time of their birth.  They both retain some of those skills, though truthfully, they're both woefully out of practice (their last major engagement was during World War II).  They've lifetimes of knowledge, though they tend to only recall the last 50 some odd years with any reliability, the rest is more like something they've read about.  In some cases that's literal, since Cass is something of a scribe and has kept journals for the last few hundred years (and has tried to research their own past back before he'd started keeping track).

Education: Poe has studied business and chemistry, though he doesn't hold any degrees, this does include actual university-level classes taken while Cass was going through a 'self-improvement' phase a couple of decades ago.

Non-Educational Skills:  Poe is good at reading people, both their level of honesty and the nature of their dishonesty.  This generally amounts to reading between the lines and/or reading facial expressions/body language.

Poe was always the more physical of the two, a famous boxer, better at making tough decisions and generally better intuitively than his brother.

Magic: Poe has only one real magical 'power' and that's his immortality.  Though he can technically 'die', the underworld doesn't hold him and he can walk out of it whenever he finds himself there.  The same can't be said of his brother, so when Cass dies, Poe has to actually go down and 'get him'.  The same is true of their sisters (with the exception of Helen).  If his body is destroyed while he's in the underworld, he has to be reborn.  This can take a while and then, of course, he has to grow up.  This can only happen when Cass is also in the underworld with him and Cass has to be reborn and grow up too.

Beyond that, they've collected a bit of 'magic' along the way.  Most notably, they have a door to the Underworld which is currently located in the back of a closet on the second floor of their house.

He also has the blood of Zeus in his veins.  This ichor is not as powerful as the blood of a god, which is why he can use it to make Nectar, a drug he's begun to distribute beyond the boundaries of Port Washington (he doesn't allow it to be distributed or used in town).  A small sweet liquid, the drug affects everyone a little differently but generally produces a euphoric feeling when drunk (it can be injected as well, but tends to be far more potent and occasionally fatal).  The main aspect (and purpose) is that it can trigger an awakening in those with ichor in their own background.  Though demi-gods may awaken on their own anyway, semi-gods and those with more fractional godhood in their heritage benefit from a little jump start, and Nectar is just the right kick.  At least, that's the plan, they've only been at it a few years and their distribution network hasn't reached very far beyond the Pacific Northwest.

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Writing Sample:

He made a fist.  He wasn't going to punch anybody, it just made the blood flow a little faster.

The truth was, he liked the poke of a needle.  He'd actually get a few tattoos if they hadn't agreed it could be beneficial to keep their appearance as similar as possible.  He'd suggested they could both get the same tattoos, but Cass had won that coin toss and rules were rules.  That wasn't to say they couldn't be told apart.  It wasn't a secret they were twins and of course, people talked, it was after all a small town.

But if they wanted, they could pass for each other and had on occasion, and unless you knew them, really, really knew them, you probably wouldn't ever know.

The thing was, he was still half-human, which meant he could only give so much without getting weak, so he could only give so much of his blood to the project, which limited how much they could distribute and the demand was outpacing supply in ways that were becoming problematic.

"We need to find a few more demi-gods," he supposed.  This was not met with the kind of surprise you might imagine.  That was what made Port Washington special, you could say that out loud and not many eyebrows would raise, especially not in places like Pleasures.  Hell, gods walked through there, and stranger things than that.  But he didn't need a god's blood or a stranger thing.  There was a reason his blood worked.  A god's blood was just too volatile and stranger things?  Well, who knew what that would do.  It might be worth an experiment or two though.

Of course, not everyone was on board with their plan.  Even Cass had to be convinced, but once he saw some of the early results, even he agreed it was a good idea.  It wasn't exactly a secret plan either.  They hadn't written up a business proposal for approval or anything, but they weren't naive enough to think they'd escaped the scrutiny of the Mayor or some of the other major powers, but if they were lucky, those powers wouldn't look past the surface greed and beyond to the end game.

"What's the worst that could happen?" Poe had asked when they first came up with the idea.  He was still confident in his immortality, more confident than Cass was.  In Cass' mind, their immortality was finite, that already it was lessened because they'd shared it with their 'mortal' sisters and he was sure it lessened with every rebirth.

"That's an oxymoron, you know," Poe had said confidently.  Finite immortality was just longevity and those were entirely different things.  Still, they were careful and he was confident, if their plan was discovered for what it truly was meant to achieve, they'd be given a chance for a mea culpa and everything would go back to the way it had always been.  Poe was always the more optimistic of the two.

"Bring me a list of the ones we know," he told one of his assistants as the nurse pinched off the tube now that the bag was 'full', drawing the needle out of his arm and putting a bandaid over the spot.

"Cookie?" he asked her, sounding far more innocent than he ever was.


The Shepherd Family


The Shepherd family tree was complicated.  One of their great-grandfathers was probably their uncle.  One of their great-great-great-grandfathers was an uncle too.  Add a bunch more greats in front of it and you'd find a titan and change grandfather to grandmother and you'd find a moon goddess who was both titan and Olympian, or maybe Egyptian, who fell in love with a Shepherd Prince, which was where they took their name.  And that was just on their mother's side.

On their father's side, well, they had two fathers, so that tree got out of hand and as crazily spun as a drunken spider's web.

There were seven of them, two boys, five girls.  They all lived together in a modern monstrosity of a glass house on a steep embankment of Treheim Lake.  It had been the vanity project of one of the sisters.  She'd been dating an architect and had it built immediately upon their arrival to town some five years prior.

Cass and Poe, the boys, lived in town year-round.  They'd taken jobs and roles that required them to stay.  The girls came and went as they pleased.

Helen and Cleo were twins.  Helen was generally considered the prettier of the two, after all, she was born divine, but they were twins, like Poe and Cass, so take that as you will.

Timandra, Phoebe, and Philonoe rounded out the group, with Philonoe gaining immortality on her own, not needing it shared from her divine elder brother and sister.

Other than Philonoe, all of them were reborn every century or so (the boys usually lived 100-150 years, the girls a little longer), having to grow up before their memories would start to return to them and they'd find each other (though Cass and Poe, Helen and Cleo were always reborn together).  Sometimes they found each other quickly.  Sometimes it took a while, occasionally, it took an entire lifetime.

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