headcanon
Duke Baskerville's previous lives:
Headcanon says that the older they are, the less 'fresh' the memories are-- but the last six-to-eight incarnations are pretty vivid for Leo. Sometimes, in fact, he experiences these memories as if they're actually happening.
Lucien
His mother died shortly after giving birth to him, then as a toddler, his older sister contracted a terrible fever and died. Shortly thereafter, his older brother fell down a flight of stairs and broke his neck while playing with him. His father lost his business, and suspicious and superstitious and terrified of Lucien, he locked the boy up in the basement, keeping him captive from then on. Blaming him for all the terrible things that had happened around him, the abuse began around this time, as well. By the time the current Duke found him (during Lucien's thirteenth year), the boy had forgotten a great deal of speech and could no longer recall what the outside world looked like. It took him years, even after becoming Duke Baskerville, to stop waking up in terror, feeling his father's weight above him.
August
An orphan, he was largely ignored until his teens, when people began noticing the bad things that happened around and to him. Thinking him a monster, they first tried to drown him, but as a Baskerville, he couldn't die. When that proved futile, they chained him to a pyre and set him aflame-- but even then, no matter how he burned and screamed and burned, he couldn't die. After days, Duke Baskerville found and rescued him, taking him down from the pyre and home.
Headcanon says that the older they are, the less 'fresh' the memories are-- but the last six-to-eight incarnations are pretty vivid for Leo. Sometimes, in fact, he experiences these memories as if they're actually happening.
Lucien
His mother died shortly after giving birth to him, then as a toddler, his older sister contracted a terrible fever and died. Shortly thereafter, his older brother fell down a flight of stairs and broke his neck while playing with him. His father lost his business, and suspicious and superstitious and terrified of Lucien, he locked the boy up in the basement, keeping him captive from then on. Blaming him for all the terrible things that had happened around him, the abuse began around this time, as well. By the time the current Duke found him (during Lucien's thirteenth year), the boy had forgotten a great deal of speech and could no longer recall what the outside world looked like. It took him years, even after becoming Duke Baskerville, to stop waking up in terror, feeling his father's weight above him.
August
An orphan, he was largely ignored until his teens, when people began noticing the bad things that happened around and to him. Thinking him a monster, they first tried to drown him, but as a Baskerville, he couldn't die. When that proved futile, they chained him to a pyre and set him aflame-- but even then, no matter how he burned and screamed and burned, he couldn't die. After days, Duke Baskerville found and rescued him, taking him down from the pyre and home.