Zettaijin wrote: Sun Nov 05, 2023 9:24 am The enemy myself
It's a story as old as time. A vain woman refuses to accept the passage of time and seeks out mystical means of prolonging her youth.
The lengths to which some women will go to turn back time can be quite extreme - bathing in blood, human sacrifice, devouring infant flesh...
Josephine, as she is known these days, is no different. One day she set out to find the secrets of eternal youth. She scoured academic tomes - well she tried anyway. Truth be told, the poor woman was not barely able to read in her native tongue let alone the ancient arcane languages of sages and mystics. So she sought out the fabled wanderers of the mist with hopes of having something of value that could be traded in exchange for eternal youth. Sadly, she fell for the rumors and tall tales regarding the powers of these wandering folks and they laughed at her request. Jilted but not defeated, she sought advice from presumed alchemists and specialists of all matters otherworldly. It meant a few unpleasant nights by the side of her wealthy but oft drunk husband and the risk of being caught pilfering his coins, but she'd outlive him.
Perhaps the Dark Powers spied on her thoughts and spread a few bread crumbs to aid in her quest to find an answer to her burning query.
They led her to an ever changing entity capable of providing her with the means to achieve eternal youth.
Now, she was perhaps not a learned scholar, but she knew of these "dark pacts" and "deals with the devil." She knew there was a price to pay in the form of some terrible curse or twisted fate - her mother had not raised a fool. So she bluntly asked the entity for the various costs, to which the entity in its guise of a rotund child with an oddly small face laughed and praised her for her boldness.
"You know well, dear girl, of the dark ways. Bah, these things are all part of the protocol really. The transaction bears a heavy cost... blah blah blah... Listen, mine is the power of the endless cycle. I am the snake which devours its own tail. You will bear a child - your own self. As the child grows older, you will slowly become younger. It would behoove you to dispose of the child after it has reached a proper age."
"I would kill myself then?"
"In a sense, yes! Amusing, no? Quite a departure from what my peers offer."
"Indeed. But I find the price in blood to be rather trite..."
"Bah, what would YOU know, mortal?"
"Apparently enough to inquire about the suggested age... for my double's death. Also, let us be clear, I am aware that there is usually a price in blood in these matters. Old wives have told these tales to their daughters to deter them from seeking ones such as you. But I am not keen on shedding blood myself. Keeping my hands clean would be preferable."
"Such boldness! You, a mere mortal woman of no particular skill or power, come to a powerful, mysterious entity such as I to bargain? Ha ha ha ha! Very well, I have grown fond of your stubborn pride. I shall devour the child for you. You need not watch - merely deliver the child to my Earthly avatar and be on your way."
"Again, thank you for your generosity, however you failed to answer my initial question..."
"I may be endless but I am forgetful in my old age. yes, for the matter of the age, the girl will be... oh I don't know... perhaps once she reaches the age of motherhood herself? Let's make it a challenge, shall we! If she somehow bests you, I shall eagerly devour your bones and grant her the boon of eternal youth. Oh my, that would be... unoriginal now wouldn't it? Let us make it more curious... the double will live and enjoy her own boon of limitless youth. But one of you must bring into the world a sacrificial third. The rules remain unchanged - her growing age ensures your access to this fountain of youth."
"Needlessly convoluted and dare I say somewhat inane... but since I do not need to stain my hands... Now what if we both bear a son?"
"Try again, then. Your sons will be cursed with some manner of crippling affliction that will likely make them outcasts. I suggest you do not get too attached. There are two of you, one if bound to produce a daughter."
"Fair. Inane and complicated, but fair. And how shall we bring this offering to you?"
"I shall send an herald to summon you when I am ready."
"Now, what if my... our... umm this is confusing... this girl, what if she were to somehow be with child herself? The world is cruel... Or what if my double and myself both bring daughters into the world? Or if the child dies before reaching the age you request?"
"Ah yes, men are beasts and all that. Well now, there can only be two. The third is a sacrifice... a fourth would be... well, I haven't given that much thought to my admittedly elaborate scenario. But suffice to say there can only be two and I shall leave it at that. Oh, but remember that this child will one day gain the awareness of her status and much like your double will assume to be the real you. There, call it my twisting and turning."
"Ugh, this is messy... So, are you to father this double then?"
"Of course! Proper protocol must be followed. Allow me to change into a more suitable form... Any preferences? It need not be human either! I will refrain from judging as I really am beyond such silly mortal concepts as attractiveness and lust."
"This is unusual in ways I did not expect..."
And so, Josephine gave painful birth to a fully grown female double. The excruciating pain of this unearthly ordeal left her unconscious as the otherworldly entity weaved its magic and made it so neither woman knew who was the original, leaving them to plan out their newly acquired immortality.
Potential hooks:
As expected, it took only a few generations for things to go awry. Upon reaching a somewhat precocious "awakening" following a teenage pregnancy (as was brought up during the initial pact, no less!), the daughter of one of the two has escaped (with a bit of help from the entity who finds this turn of events amusing). A panicked, teenage mother is on the run from her mother/self and seeks help. Perhaps she does not share her older selves own desire for eternal life?
What of the sons? Surely one of them bore a son at some point. The "curse" states these will inevitably be outcasts, but how do they feel? And what is the nature of their affliction?
The entity is not so much malicious as a devious trickster in search of amusement in this dreary prison. The entity clearly has an uncanny amount of self-awareness but also despises being seen as boring or redundant. But what exactly is it? What happens if it is somehow banished?
This is another level of genre-savvy brilliance.
Note: A desire for immortality doesn't necessarily make you evil. Wanting to live is healthy, natural, and an instinct necessary for survival, and immortality is just the logical extreme of it.
The bad part is being willing to kill someone else in return - which is both cruel and hypocritical: Your life matter so much it can never stop, but another's is dispensable?! - and especially your own child, which symbolically violates the natural cycle of life (we bear children so our families, our cultures, our species will continue to exist after we're gone; the aspiring immortal in this trope rejects this natural solution for mortality in search for a supernatural and amoral one).
So my point is, the third girl might desire eternal youth too, but simply not be a scum! At the moment she's probably just trying to avoid dying right now, but when she has some time to plan ahead, she might look for a non-homocidal way to achieve it. (Look for Pointy Hat's 'Which Lich' series. He made lich-like undead for every core class & a few others - some of them require morally-questionable steps, but others don't, or leave room for getting around it.)
), but the classification itself is pretty modern.