Gilded Serenade: Bastard AngelsTo love, one needs to bare all

And dare to dream

To be loved for what we truly are.

WILLOW GROVE – One of the most exclusive commercial/residential properties

in the outskirts of Dumaguete City. Set in on one of the highest points of the area, it is built on what used to be the ruins of Hacienda Alegria, a small sugar plantation where the cliffs open to the sea. The lay-out of the property is carefully designed to follow the symbol of the Triple Moon Goddess. Two crescent shaped buildings facing opposite directions house the galleries and shops. Nestled in the hills and surrounded by a carefully planned orchard is its famous landmark. An imposing structure of glass and steel, which stood eleven storeys high, the Jade Tower, currently the most exclusive address for young professionals who seek privacy and luxury at a reasonable rate.

The Willow Grove also boasts of Japanese gardens connected by a man-made flowing stream. Many trees grow in the property including Japanese willow trees which are planted near the small pools scattered all over the fifteen-hectare property. It also has access to a private cove where the residents go to take a swim.

However, Willow Grove has a secret. The top three floors of the Jade Towers, the Willow Pavilion, is an exclusive twelve-unit condominium complex. This is the sanctuary of the so-called Bastard Children of the Heavens, the creatures caught between the Human Existence and the Ancients. To the eyes of mortals, they are monsters.

When to the world….they had always existed.

They had come from all over the world, their past lives chasing them to this castle by the sea. Some had come in search of peace. Others have come to seek out answers. There are those who came to test their mettle and there are those who simply came because it is home.

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Willow Grove is owned wholly by the EverGreene Group, a group of young individuals whose common ground is the fact that they are non-mortals living among the mortals, mostly on the roster of the Brotherhood of the Golden Lotus. Other parts of Willow Grove are off-limits to non-tenants / customers. This includes the greenhouses, the plant nursery, the workshops and the main residential tower. Willow Grove is like a pet project for most of the stockholders. Most of them are children or members of powerful families around the world. Some are movie stars while others are child prodigies. Still others just managed to get ‘discovered’ or get ‘rescued’.

Pasaveda Group runs a slew of businesses which includes organic farming, pharmacology, spas, construction and real estate. They also have non-profit organization / institutions such as Bay-House for Children and the Lunti-an Academy. They also support various charities around the world.

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As of now, the Willow Grove employs many BCH who would most likely land on the hunting list of most secret organizations. The Willow Grove is specially equipped with sensing crystals that vibrate at the approach of enemies or those who bode ill to its inhabitants.

Les immortels – Chandra Asti – “I am born of my Mother’s heart and my Father’s soul. I move with the wind, my touch as warm as the land’s heartbeat, my spirit as deep and mysterious as the Great Sea. My name is a secret that I will whisper in this one kiss.

Never forget me.

I am Chandra Asti. I am Love as I am Death, I am Justice as I am Truth.”

Her name roughly translates the Shining Loving Presence. She had been reincarnated thrice and had managed to become a deathless phantom in search of a body to reside in. In her latest reincarnation, she had taken on a human existence, with its hefty package of insecurities, pain, angst, drive and hopeful dreams. Tired of being a casual spectator of human existence, she sought a more active role and found herself in a family wrought with dark secrets with the supernatural world surrounding them like a garden fence. Plus, Chandra Asti…….as Almira Candra Cailin Perreira Santibañez had to make a lot of sacrifices just to get everything back.

Her last battle was with another Cambion, who goes by the name Gage. It was a draw that left them both wounded and nearly drained. She willed her entire being to travel through time and space, in search for a human womb to house her spirit and give birth to her anew. Now at her twenties and a lot wiser now, she kept her magickal side dormant unless necessary.

As Candra Santibañez, she was born to an affluent family. Everyone treated her with kid gloves, like a porcelain princess who couldn’t do anything wrong. A near-scandal ‘saved’ her from marriage that had seemed to be pre-destined for doom from the start. Both sides of her illustrious family tree carry more whispers of dalliance with the occult than can be handled; her life is not exactly the bed of roses one envisions. Escaping to Europe for two years, she comes back to resume the life she had run away from. Although she still maintained the aura of untouched innocence, her eyes spoke a different language, of another side of her that just might threaten her filigree existence she had desperately tried to build.

She is works as a researcher for the university library and is a major stockholder of Willow Grove, an exclusive community. She dresses up in dark, almost dowdy clothes and wears thick glasses over a clean, make-up free face. At night, however, she takes to the skies to stretch her wings. She is working for the Brotherhood of the Golden Lotus and is presently on-leave from her duties. Her form is a rarity among most Cambions. She had iridescent dragon wings, her body covered with hieroglyphs, her hair turns almost silvery white while her eyes can change from brown to burning gold.

Lately, Chandra Asti/ Candi is evolving at a faster pace. Her transformation can now be triggered by her emotions. This is something that is now causing disturbance in her well-honed self-control.

DESCRIPTION:

Height: 156 cms

Weight: 60 kilos

Eyes: Brown

Hair: Reddish Brown

Age: 26 (actually she is an old soul, dated @276 years old)

Super Abilities / Capabilities: Flight, Five-Element Attacks, Invisibility, Sight, Astral Projection, Teleportation, telepathy, telekinesis

Element: Fire / Cosmic

Other skills, attributes and weaknesses: Can speak ten languages (Spanish, French, German, English, Filipino, Japanese, Egyptian, Sanskrit, Welsh, Celtic); proficient in dual sword fighting; proficient in housekeeping except handyman jobs; Can bake and cook mostly meat dishes, she eats veggies fresh and raw (because she can’t cook vegetarian dishes); loves most animals but hates bugs; doesn’t go to nightclubs (can’t dance modern); cannot tell jokes; a chocoholic and alcoholic at the same time

Pet / Familiar: A half-wolf, half-malamute named Agares, whose origins is as mysterious as his Mistress.

Agares / Aiden Louis Thorncastle – “I serve no one but the one who fed me and shielded me from death.”

He had kept his form from his Mistress for so long. Unknown to his parents, he had been snatched by the monster who bred the wolves in order to create modern-day werewolves. The madman had only succeeded in cursing him to be in wolf-form for two years. Although inside, he was screaming his pain, all he could then was howl.

Until the Cambion Chandra Asti suddenly came to end the madman’s reign of terror in the countryside. While the monstrous beast which embodied terror was soon put to use as the lead guard dog of the monks, nobody would take him in, another wolf, but strangely locked up separate from others.

Since then, Asti and he were inseparable, often accompanying her in her trips. He had always longed to shed his wolf-skin so that he can walk proudly with his master.

DESCRIPTION:

Height: 178 cm

Weight: 75 kilos

Eyes: Brown

Hair: Brown

Age: 26 years old and counting

Super Abilities / Capabilities: Celerity, strength, shape shift or animorphing, animal-speak

Element: Fire/Earth

Other skills, attributes and weaknesses: Cursed to become a werewolf / lupine, he had almost given up on freedom until the day he became Chandra Asti’s pet. With more refined senses than most, Aiden is most adept in scouting. He has a gift of diplomacy and charm. Now that he is out of his wolf-skin, he now relishes his freedom to be able to walk like a man again.

Gage Ishmael Beauchamp Dupree – “I have gone to the ends of this Land just to find myself.”

A vagabond, a Bohemian folk artist and a first class assassin. His blue hair and purple eyes are what sets him apart the other Cambions. Only his appearance is angelic. Gage is a true and thorough killer who gets by thorough life with his childlike innocence and maniacal rage.

Born in Paris to a member of a British nobility (who had gone to Paris unchaperoned) who had a tryst with a mysterious dark gentleman who called himself Luc. After her family turned their backs on her, she turned to meeting and receiving well-heeled gentlemen in one of the most fashionable houses of pleasure in Paris. He had

been sickly until he reached seven years old, born with a silken head of bluish grey locks and purple eyes. His mother had to powder his head with soot and made him wear colored spectacles just to hide his ‘aberrations’. When he reached fourteen years, his father, who turned out to be a wealthy merchant named Lucas Dupree took him away.

For several years, he stayed at his father’s estate, educated by a number of ageing tutors because his father will not let him go away to the university. His father insisted he should pay more attention to studying business and finance. But he really prefers spending time with his violin. His own relationship with his sire is strained as he is made to stay in a small manor while his father stayed at a grander villa, surrounded by towering trees and ivy-covered walls. Finally, he was sent to the Indies to work on his father’s accounts until he was called home.

His coming home party was the last day he had stopped being human. It was the night that his father turned him into a vampire. He promptly fled as soon as he was able, rambling around the continent. In his travels, met friends and enemies alike.

He even met someone like him, an Angelic Cambion, who tested his mettle. The battle nearly killed him.

Many years later, while he was on his way home from the bar he is working for, he found himself chased down the streets by newly-turned vampires eager for a kill. It was there that he was snatched off the streets into mid-air only to be carried on top of a building to be interrogated by not just one but three other Cambions. His rescuer dropped him in the middle of a sealed circle where he could barely move except to speak. They had been searching for a Master Vampire, responsible for breeding new followers in the city. It was his rescuer, the Cambion who nearly killed him a hundred years before that vouched for him.

She had been watching him and had been watching out for him.

To make sure he stays out of trouble, his rescuer was ordered to take him back with her to her sanctuary until the Master Vampire they are looking for is caught. She expected him to be locked up in a box. But he showed up at the airport with his bags and trunks. Up to this day, she would remind him how much she had to shell out for his travel expenses.

Now, he earns his keep by teaching classical music and running the bar, Solaris, in Willow Grove. He is the first one to sound the alarm at incoming danger. Since he cannot really go out to the malls, he makes Candi shop for him.

DESCRIPTION:

Height: 186 cm

Weight: 80 kilos

Eyes: Purple

Hair: Blue

Age: 295 years old and counting

Super Abilities / Capabilities: Invisibility, turn into mist, Life steal, enchant, celerity, demonic strength, shape shifting, flight

Element: Ice / Darkness

Other skills, attributes and weaknesses: Can read and speak seven languages (German, Welsh, French, Russian, English, Dutch, Syrian-Aramaic); perfect tone in music, complete disaster on the dance floor; wine and chocolate connoisseur; vain; has an aversion to most foods but made off with several trays of sushi at one time; Has an aversion to flowers but will happily sleep under the willow tree; declared himself to be a reformed playboy but still gets caught flirting; can smell homosexuals a mile off and refuses to serve them anything on the bar; has perpetual motion sickness, prefers to walk, cannot swim; absolutely loves dogs and collects stuffed animals (actually took over Candi’s collection); doesn’t need weapons to kill.

Chandra Soma Ansi – “All shall come to pass and I shall see to it that order must prevail.”

Another Vampiric Cambion, closely affiliated with Chandra Asti, he lives out his present existence as a successful rockstar-child prodigy. Nobody knows how he arranged his reincarnation as he was ALWAYS born intact and complete. Androgynous beauty. SOMA ANSI, Angelic Captain of the brotherhood, is Chandra Asti’s direct superior and is tasked to be her mate. He had taken advantage of the privileges afforded to someone of his rank within the brotherhood. On his eighth reincarnation so far, he always manages to recover his past memories for present use. A female Chandra is a rarity among them and not much is known except that their powers are undocumented, that they are close to being demonic unless they were ‘trained’ first.

His new name right now Gunnar Leon Himmel, better known as Spark Himmel, the lead singer of the famous band, Android 21. He is presently in the service of the Brotherhood of the Golden Lotus, an international confraternity formed to recreate and preserve the balance that gave birth to the world before Man’s greed and lust for power polluted it. He earned the rank of captain by disposing of those who oppose the organization’s movement for transcendental peace and universal existence. His sword remains sharp with his encounters with his enemies and targets. Nowadays, the main enemy of the Brotherhood is the Order of Saint George, also known as the Sons of Fire. They are a rogue Order who claim to carry out the Will of the established Church.

Chandra Soma Ansi is one of the most dangerous in the roster of the Bastard Children of Heaven. He has been one of those who were especially preserved so that the security and the sanctity of the Brotherhood will last throughout time. He has witnessed most of the births and deaths of his Kin, mostly through the executions carried out by the Paladins from the Holy Order of St. George.

DESCRIPTION:

Height: 190 cm

Weight: 85 kilos

Eyes: Black

Hair: Golden brown

Age: 23 (old soul, dated @ 326 years old)

Super Abilities / Capabilities: Invisibility, celerity, demonic strength, shape shifting, flight, life steal, hypnotism / mental manipulation, weather manipulation, charm and seduction; telepathy and telekinesis

Element: Lightning / Electricity, Air

Other skills, attributes and weaknesses: Can read and speak five languages (German, Spanish, French, Russian, English, Dutch); accomplished singer/composer, likes to dance like a chicken; slightly vegetarian; androgynous beauty; highly skilled in sword-fighting, prefers rapiers; loves wine, doesn’t like most sweets; mischievous and obstinate; likes to drag race; accomplished equestrian; cannot stand the colors pink and yellows, will only go to top brand stores and haberdasheries; walks around naked; usually sleeps alone unless he can convince Candi to let him share her bed; has mood swings; collects toys and video games. Has a penchant for tattoos and piercings. Looks younger than most members of the group.

Chandra Emilian – “I am Grace Personified, I can be anybody you want me to be. Let me help you forget.”

Born and raised in Shinjuku-do, his name is Takatori Hisoka. He comes from a family of writers and singers. Educated in the prestigious Waseda University, he experienced his reborn and remembrance just recently during a freak car accident that plunged his car into the river. He was in a coma for a week.

As a member of a popular male idol group in Japan, his face can be seen on TV and on magazines. Off-screen, he finished his degree in international trade with a minor in humanities. He also goes to dance classes and

swimming classes as his fitness regimen. He is known for sporting long hair and always wearing a hat or tinted sunglasses in public. As a fledgling among the ningyo (Japanese mermaid/merman), he takes mysterious vacations to the coast.

For a Chandra, he is the gentlest among the BCH. His idol-status in his home country is actually helping him hide his other life. To most BCH, Chandra Emilian’s life seems to be in perfect peace. However, Hisoka’s life is about to be disrupted by an incoming danger. There is an ongoing rumor about a ningyo who is seen coming out of the sea and living among the people. Most people don’t like mermaids and believe them to bring curses on the populace.

DESCRIPTION:

Height: 180 cm

Weight: 78 kilos

Eyes: Black

Hair: Brown

Age: 23

Super Abilities / Capabilities: Shape shifting (Merman form); sleep spells; water magic; astral projection; enchantment; divination; telepathy;

Element: Water

Other skills, attributes and weaknesses: Can speak English, Chinese and Japanese; shy and an introvert, actually; trained in singing, dancing and acting; lactose-intolerant; loves to travel; likes to go to the opera; a kabuki fan; Loves hour long baths; has a strange fear of cats although cats seem to follow him around; prefers coffee over tea; hates reading, manages to get others to read to him; charming when drunk; hates psychics and psychic investigators (the only people who can make him angry)

Catarina O’Malley – “I walk with the wind, I can embrace you without touching you. I don’t need you but you need me.”

Catarina O’Malley grew up with the name Caithren in the Valley of Lenmhigrae and she had always known she was different. The other Fae children don’t like to play with her. Her green eyes and red hair are exotic among the people in the village. Her father, Lord Alreid Dal Migrae, had put her away to stay with her grandmother when he remarried. His new wife cannot stand to look at Caithren for more than a few moments without shrieking.

Her grandmother took care of her in a small cottage at the edge of the valley. Being near the dwarven mines, the miners would trade jewels for baskets of her grandmother’s vegetables. Her grandmother didn’t care much for the colored rocks but bade Cat to keep them. Cat grew up competitive and adventurous, qualities unheard of in most elven young women. However, her skills and attributes was the last straw for her father’s new wife who finally ordered her grandmother to tell Cat that she had a human mother. That way, Cat will be honor-bound to leave the village to give way to her full-blooded children.

Caithren took on the name Catarina O’Malley as that was her late mother’s name when she walked away from the valley for good. Her mother had been dead for more than sixty years and she cannot pass herself as a long –lost relative because she had inherited her father’s ears and his violet eyes. She walked into the human world with enough jewels and gold to build her own kingdom. But Caithren didn’t leave the valley blindly. As a last act of charity to an unwanted daughter, her father bid her to find Chandra Soma Ansi as he is only one of the few who can help her. Her grandmother did more. The night before Cat left, she entrusted to her granddaughter a pair of magical cuffs that are imbued with the powers of the forest.

Chandra Soma Ansi had been waiting at the end of the portal when she came out. He immediately took her to the monastery in Paris where she lived as the resident herbalist for the monks. She quickly developed infatuation with the dashing captain who coldly told her to turn her affections elsewhere. She merely smiled and kept her infatuation under wraps. However, when she met Chandra Asti, the rivalry quickly sprang forth especially when she recognized the glowing emblem on the other young woman’s back as Chandra Soma Ansi’s personal crest. But Chandra Asti’s terrible powers made Caithren pause and reflect if she is indeed correct in her actions towards the former. When Chandra Soma Ansi casually mentioned that Chandra Asti needed a herbalist, Caithren immediately packed everything and presented herself to Chandra Asti.

Willow Grove immediately became her new home. She is always seen with her ridiculous hats and tinted glasses, reveling in her role as the eccentric gardener.

DESCRIPTION:

Height: 175cm

Weight: 60 kilos

Eyes: Purple

Hair: Brown

Age: unknown

Super Abilities / Capabilities: Green magick, healing magick, telepathy, invisibility, forest walk, flight (with faerie wings); telepathy

Element: Earth / Water

Other skills, attributes and weaknesses: Can speak English, French and Elven; witty but childish; hearty eater; still amazed by television, scared of the camera; a natural equestrian; infatuated with Soma Ansi. Adept in archery and stave fighting; natural tree climber/gardener. Forever curious and dances in the rain; swims in the cove naked; cannot drink coffee or beer; cuts her own hair when depressed.

Chandra Vercobret Marrok – “Not even the depths of the sea can put out the fire that burns in me.”

One of the older Chandras, he holds a rank equal to that of Soma Ansi. His father was one of the last Nephilim and he was tutored in the Olde ways. Vercobret Marrok now carries the name Chretien St. Pierre, a member of the French Legionnaires as well as war journalist. He has no love for Soma Ansi and he doesn’t trust the other members of the Pasaveda. He is the voice of opposition in the council and this made him rather unpopular. But still, Marrok shares a very strong sense of foresight and know much of things to come. But his love for warfare and contention as well as his Spartan upbringing makes him more of a doer than a talker.

Lately, he has taken leave of his duties in the French Legion and has taken personal interest in the movements of the Knights of St. George. He has been tracking their movements and their mode of recruitment. He knew that the noble cause of the knights is tainted with fear, hatred and prejudice. It already pained him that he has a brother who joined the Order in order to eradicate unusual people like Vercobret Marrok.

He had no chance to spend time with Chandra Asti or to get to know her. He is intrigued about finding a female embodying the characteristics and abilities of a Chandra. The abbots had been keeping him busy with working with the French State. Of all the Chandras, he is the only one who had royal blood in him during one of his reincarnations. He was one of the many sons of the conqueror Kublai Khan who lived hundreds of years ago.

DESCRIPTION:

Height: 182cm

Weight: 78 kilos

Eyes: Brown

Hair: Bald

Age: 385 / 32 year old

Super Abilities / Capabilities: Speed and strength, Foresight, flexibility; can climb walls and trees easily; shape-shift, water-walk

Element: Water / Ice

Other skills, attributes and weaknesses: As a French Legionnaire, Chretien has trained both in armed and unarmed combat. There was even a time when he got involved in underground pit fighting until he got drafted into the army by a mentor who wants him to channel his abilities to a more constructive output. Chretien decided not to get married because he will always outlive his spouse. There is a rumor that he had sired another BCH. He is still looking for his child as of now. Chretien plays saxophone and has learned weaving from his travels across Asia. Can speak French, Russian, English, Creole.

Other characters:

Saffron Sakaguchi– ”I have no heart. I don’t know what it is. I only give in to your unspent desires. I feed on your hunger.”

A popular cross-dresser in a cosplay café in the city called Magenta. His real name is Baron Jared Charles Rodriguez and he is a marine biologist who assuages his frustrations by inspiring the sexual frustrations of others. A bishie who is well-known on campus as a heartbreaker, he wreaks havoc on Candi’s world with his acerbic remarks and stolen kisses. The undergrad students call him by many names including Prince. His lovers just call him Jared.

Tall, blindingly handsome with his longish black hair, Jared breaks hearts even without trying. As one of the top students in his department, he uses his position, popularity and charisma to bypass some rules in the university. However, beneath the dazzling image, Jared keeps a more sinister personality that has intrigued and charmed Candi while it inspired fear among others.

He leads a band of young men who call themselves Dandy Lions, who are mostly in their teens and bisexuals. The Dandy Lions are just one of the many secret groups that populate the city. For all their shallow frivolity, most of the Dandy Lions’ members practice the Dark Arts, under the tutelage of their master, Saffron.

Jared and Candi had too many run-ins in the university that Candi practically throws a tantrum at the sound of his name. But as Saffron, he knew Candi is mesmerized by his actions in the café. He guards his identity as Saffron tightly in respect to his father, who is working in a government office in a particularly important position. But Jared found himself challenged by the group who stands between him and Candi, the Ordo Esoterica Luna, a coven of witches who are all friends of Candi.

Hyacinth Carmelli Gallardo – “I adore the changing sky. The stars give me inspiration in my works while the clouds bring promise of change.”

She doesn’t need to shout to show people she is there. Hyacinth has a way of making her presence felt and known in a room without overshadowing other people. She is not afraid of being her own person but she always maintains a healthy relationship with her parents even though there are disagreements. Although she works in the family bakery, her real talent is in fashion design.

Hyacinth is no-nonsense person and can debate very hotly if provoked. She is usually reserved with strangers while warm and loving with friends. As an animal lover, she doesn’t use animal products in her designs. She met Candi during a Comicon event in the city and they became friends. Hyacinth doesn’t have any special powers of her own. But she is one of those who can catch Candi’s mood and tame the anger.

November Robin Vergara – He is one of the closest of the blades to Saffron / Jared. He also knew Candi and had been close to her before having a falling out. He considered himself a ‘spirit vessel’ until his ‘spirit’ decided to abandon him. Now, it is suspected that he is merely having delusions in being a vessel. He is unabashedly lusting after Jared / Saffron.

Pepper Antonino Cruz – Pax Cruz is one of the well-known names in the city and owner of Magenta. Although he had heard of the underground rumors that his club is one of the watering holes for the gay blades of the city, he cannot shake off the fact that Solaris is more popular with the crème de la crème of the society. He had been to Willow Grove and he had to admit that Solaris is really one of the best bars. But a brush with its enigmatic bartender landed him on the blacklist for good.

Josef Orion Guzman – He is Candi’s best friend and first line of defense. Dabbled in the dark arts and master of OEL, he had never expected a Candi / Jared tandem to rock the city. He loves his best friend so much that he will do anything to keep her out of harm’s way. He didn’t realize that Jared was willing to face anything and anybody just to be with his best friend.

Antonio Giovanni “Gion” Garcia – Fate and recklessness drove him and Candi apart. Formerly they were best of friends, almost engaged. But apparently, Fate had other plans and their ten year friendship went down the drain. Then while Candi was away, he became best friends with Jared. When Candi came back, he wanted Candi to come back to him. But Jared decided Gion should have adhered to Fate’s decision in keeping him and Candi apart. He went after Candi, daring those will speak against to come after him.

Including Gion.

Who wanted Candi back.

Javier Jose Palma – One of Candi’s old friends who is a practicing shaman. He had been very suspicious of most of the tenants of Willow Grove. As kind as he was to Candi, he can be very ruthless at the slightest provocation.

Anna Bernadette Ledesma –A practicing Wiccan who stands as Candi’s mentor and adviser. She runs her own shop in the city.

Wilson James Duremdes – Currently employed as a costume designer for Blue Brigade Brothers, an all male dance group that is rumored to consist of only bisexual young men. 3Bs is not on good terms with Dandy Lions.

Sylvester Ramon Tiu – Another member of the Dandy Lions. An adept in spell casting, he once ‘studied’ under Josef with OEL. His nickname is Stevie.

Ramona Rose Vergara – member of OEL

THE BROTHERHOOD OF THE GOLDEN LOTUS:

Father Abbot Paulinus

Brother Maru

Brother Gaspar