Chapter Text
The Blythes where once a prosperous family, without a worry in the world. But one day, their parents went off to help a village that was suffering a plague and didn't return. Adlepha was 16 at the time, her sisters Jacklyn and Catrina were 8. Adelpha went out to work and soon found a house her and her sisters could stay in. They were happy. 6 years after their parents death, Adelpha found a little baby laying in a basket in an alley way, crying. She took her home and named her Ava, and told her sisters that Ava would now be their baby sister. Despite Ava bringing great joy to the family, her welcoming was followed by a great famine in Weathered Hollows, the town where Adelpha and her sisters lived. Despite this, Adelpha made sure to keep the famine hidden from her sisters, who had taken up pranking and scaring each other to keep themselves entertained. Months past and soon their was news of a neighboring town sending some left over crops to help Weathered Hollows through their famine. Adlepha was overjoyed along with the rest of the town, and everyone went on to plan a Halloween festival to celebrate the good health. Sadly, Halloween came around and the food that the village had, had been used up weeks prior. Jacklyn, having given up her food for the past few weeks to ensure Ava got the most food, died on that day. Adelpha and Catrina mourned their sisters death, but vowed to live their days in joy and liveliness, the way Jacklyn had spent her whole life. The very next day, Jacklyn's twin, Catrina died of a cold, with not enough food to allow her to fight off the disease. Eventually the neighboring town did send over their extra food, and Adlepha and Ava survived the famine, but were now without their favorite twin sisters. Despite this, Adlepha went on to live her life happily, and soon went back to her normal routine of dropping off Ava at a friends, going to work, and occasionally spending time with her friends. She especially loved to bring some of her friends together and introduce them to people she thought would be good boyfriends/girlfriends for them. The last few days of the year past and soon it would be the new year. Sadly, Ava had caught a cold because of the cold weather and inadequate clothes to keep her warm, and on the stroke of midnight on new years eve, Ava died of her cold. Adelpha was grief stricken, and mourned for days, but soon picked herself up and vowed that she would live her life for her sisters who had died the year before. But her life did not last long after. On Valentines day, when she was bringing a basket of goods to one of her neighbors, a jealous girl who had had her eye on Adelpha's neighbor struck her in the back with her father's arrow so that she wouldn't stand in her way. Despite this, as Adlepha lay dying in the jealous girls arms, she said that she had no intention of courting her neighbor, and would have helped her to court him if she had just asked. The once jealous girl was now sad that she had killed the kindhearted girl and got up to get a doctor, but Adelpha stopped her, asking her to stay there with her, saying that it was too late for a doctor. The girl stayed there with Adelpha as she lay dying, and listened to her as she told stories about her sisters who had passed the year before. Adelpha had finished telling a story about the day before Jacklyn's death, how she had given her baby sister a blanket she found while she was out playing, when she too, passed.
The man in the moon was sorry for these girl's deaths, especially since they all had died on such joyous holidays and for reasons quite unfair. So each time they died, he brought them back as a symbol of happiness representing the holiday they died on, and recruiting them as new guardians.
Jacklyn yawned as she woke up. She wondered how long she had been sleeping. She then looked around in a fright, not knowing where she was or who she was or anything about her past. She then noticed it wasn't day, but night. She looked up at the sky, and saw the moon. She then heard a name, Jacklyn of the Lantern. She got up from where she lay and walked over to the pond near by her and looked in the water. Her reflection showed a girl with orange hair and freckles, bright cat like eyes, pale skin and sharpened canines. She wore a barrette the shape of a pumpkin and had on a black leotard and a black skirt with an orange tutu like skirt sticking out underneath. She wore long purple stockings with lighter purple stripes, and had on black satin slippers. She spotted a broom near by that seemed to be left by someone. She picked it up and picked up the Jack-o'-Lantern that lay next to it. She was feeling hungry, so she pointed to the lantern and candy appeared inside of it. She then pointed to the broom and had it follow her so she could have her other hand free, and she walked away from the pond, eating the candy happily, not once wondering where it came from or how she knew to create it. She wondered off into a near by town and found that it was Halloween, yet no one was out celebrating, everyone was inside, sad and lonely. Not liking the sad and lonely looks on everyone's face, she poked a hole in the top of her broom and strung the handle of the jack-o-lantern through it and carried it around like a staff, walking the streets. She saw an old man and a boy sitting next to each other on a bench. She walked over to the boy and dropped a piece of candy in his lap. The boy was startled, not being able to see Jacklyn, but picked it up and unwrapped it, popping it into his mouth. As he did that, Jacklyn pointed to the floor and a scary/silly mask appeared. Once the boy had finished the candy, Jacklyn conjured up a firefly that landed on his nose. His eyes lit up and he spotted the mask on the floor. He picked it up, jumped off the bench and turned to the old man next to him, saying "rawr!" The old man jumped and saw the boy smiling with the mask on. The fire fly that had landed on the boy's nose, now flew past the old man, catching his attention for a few seconds, before the old man smiled. The man feigned being scared and laughed with the boy when he removed his mask. Satisfied, Jacklyn roamed the streets of the little town, ridding on her broom stick like a witch would, with fireflies following her broom like magic dust, diving down to turn into carved pumpkins, bowls of candy, costumes, and sparks of mischief in the minds of the young boys and girls, and sparks of joy in the adults and elders of the town. Happy she had brought a proper Halloween to the town, she flew off with her remaining fireflies to another town that needed her help to have a proper Halloween festival.
The next to wake up was Catrina. She woke up in a graveyard, unlike her sister who woke up in a forest. She was scared like her sister, also not knowing her past, or her name. She looked up to the moon suddenly, and calmed when a voice in her head said she was named La Calavera Catrina. She walked over to a fountain in the graveyard and looked at her reflection in the water. She had make up on her face, accentuating her cheek bones and surrounding her eyes, making her look like she had dressed up for Halloween like a skeleton. She wore a large, plumed hat atop her head, and a red Baile Folklorico dress lined with roses. Her black hair wrapped around around the back of her neck and came to rest on her left shoulder. Each of the roses that lined the neck of her dress held a little skull decorated with many colors. She looked out at the cemetery and noticed a sad Hispanic family mourning over a grave. Feeling a connection with them, Catrina walked over to them. She stood behind the grave, almost as though she was a spirit. Seeing them sad reminded her of something, but she couldn't tell what that something was. Not liking their sadness, Catrina closed her hands together and pulled them apart, a calavera that resembled the picture of the person on the family member's grave. She placed it atop the tomb stone, and the family looked up, seeing the calavera standing there. Catrina moved it the way she imagined the person would, and the family smiled, the little kids with them laughing and clapping. Catrina smiled, and handed it over to one of the little kids, who took it. The family then left the cemetery, leaving Catrina content with their smiles. After that she began roaming around grave yards, creating skeletal representations of the lost loved ones of the families who visit.
Ava smiled and clapped as the fireworks rang through the night. As she clapped, she aged quickly, only slowing at the age of 5. She smiled, it was a new year. She didn't quite know her name, but she didn't mind. The moon was hidden behind the clouds that night, but she could still hear its calls of joy, welcoming her as the baby of every year. Ava smiled.
As the year went on, Ava aged quickly, and by the end of the year, Ava was an old woman. On the stroke of midnight, Ava slowly turned to dust. But like a phoenix, in that same moment, a new Ava arose from the ashes and walked around spreading joy and happiness to all the party goers through out the world, in her new, and different body. This would repeat every year. She'd die on the stroke of midnight, and rise from the ashes that same moment with a different body, then age through out the year until she once again became old and withered away and rose once more.
Adelpha woke up in the late months of winter, and walked around the town she found herself in. As she walked, she spotted many couples breaking up and many lonely people. Over the years, Valentines had become a sad holiday, a holiday with more break ups than sweet poems and flower giving. Adelpha, feeling saddened by this, roamed the towns on this day, not knowing much about her powers and never using them. That is until one day when she saw a couple happily celebrating valentines day properly. She followed them all day, expecting them to break up or get into a huge fight or something to ruin their day, and yet nothing did. Feeling rejuvenated by this revelation, she began going around to couples that were on the verge of breaking up, and would brighten the mood around them, using arrows she conjured up after seeing the happy couple. She would also bring together people she thought would go good together. She especially liked that, the act reminding her of something; something she did in past life.
That night, as she sat watching couples spending the nights cuddled up by a fire, she looked moon-ward and heard its words. She was named Adelpha Cupid. Seeing herself in the reflection of a window of a near by house window, she had light brunette hair that cascaded down her back in a lush clump. Her eyes were red and she wore a black winter clothes with fluffy pink lining. Upon her back was a quiver of arrows, the strap that crossed from her shoulder to her hip was embroidered with the name Jasmine Jamison, the name of the girl who stabbed her with an arrow, a moment she had no recollection of. The arrow heads of the arrows in her quiver were pink, and her bow was a light, yellowish shade of wood. She then jumped from roof to roof to bring more couples together, and save other relationships.