August Blakewell

Nathaniel August Blakewell, often referred to as August or Auggie, is a Beholding avatar who has tangential connections to the crew. While employed at the Magnus Institute as Jonah Magnus's right hand man, he found himself delivering letters from Jonah's beau, Dorian Harris, a pirate captain helming a ship of avatars. Even after Dorian left the crew to pursue Jonah on land, August remained in sparse contact with the pirates.

August's playlist can be found here. Isaiah Stanton's can be found here.

Description
August is a white man of moderate height and a heavy build. He has a rounded face with bright green eyes, strong eyebrows, a snub nose, and full lips. His hair is light brown and curly, and is usually worn in a somewhat-unkempt poof around his head. He has freckles covering his face and body, alongside scattered scars from his encounters with other avatars. He does not emote easily, and can typically be found with a displeased or indifferent expression.

Fashion-wise, August is most often seen in the formalwear of the Regency era. He owns a variety of silk vests and cravats in many colors, but his preferred style leans heavily on the colors green and gold.

Story
August was born the youngest child and only daughter to a pair of decently-wealthy parents in 1800, and spent his childhood living at the Blakewell Estate in the countryside near London. Growing up, he envied his older brothers for the education and power they were so easily gifted, when he himself was taught to sew and cook and be a lady. He felt disconnected to femininity from a young age, often dirtying his dresses or shirking them altogether to go play in the woods. He had a childhood nanny, Maria, with whom he was decently close.

At the age of 8, his mother passed away due to illness, and his father remarried soon after. August never entirely got over her death, and he and his new stepmother butted heads near-constantly. Though she wasn't a cruel woman, August was too surly and unrefined for her liking, and preferred to squirrel himself away in his room with a book or search for new species of mushrooms rather than listen to her etiquette lessons. He pursued knowledge endlessly, beginning to spend late nights reading in the family library as he grew into his teens. This thirst for knowledge was unquenchable, and was what led him to be marked by the Eye.

At the age of 17, August had had enough of living as an inauthentic version of himself. He ran away from home after cutting his hair and stealing his brothers' clothes (along with a decent sum of money). He moved to London, where he established himself with his new name: Nathaniel August.

After making a quiet and modest living for himself for several years, in the summer of 1824 he received terrible news: the Blakewell Estate had gone up in flame. By the time he arrived at the scene, nothing was left save the still-smoking rubble, and a singular woman standing among it. The woman's skin appeared to be made of wax that emitted an unearthly heat, and she smiled as she told August how everyone in his home had suffered as they burned. Distraught, August nearly tried to fight this demon, but managed to escape the encounter without a physical mark from the Desolation - though he had been marked.

This encounter only solidified a theory that had been present in August's mind for years, that the supernatural existed right beneath everyone's noses. Now left even more alone than ever, he turned his attention to discovering the nature of the woman who had taken his family from him, and in this search discovered the Magnus Institute, an institution dedicated to knowledge of the esoteric. He wrote its founder, Jonah Magnus, a letter with a concise description of his experience and his research into the paranormal, in hopes that Magnus might have some light to shed; what happened instead was that Magnus invited him to the Institute in person in order to discuss it. Upon their meeting, Jonah took August's statement about the encounter (though August didn't know to call it that yet) and offered him a position as a researcher/assistant within the Institute. August, distrustful but unable to turn down an opportunity to learn more, accepted.

Jonah Magnus
"But then, Jonah, you can See these troubled words, can you not? You Know my soul better than I know it myself, despite my appeals for morality. Redemption is not an option for men like us; I could not stray from the path we have chosen even if I wished to. Never fear, old friend. I shall not fail you now. Until the morrow."

August fuckin' hates Jonah Magnus.

Phoenix Crew
August became aware of the crew after their captain began exchanging letters with Jonah, and regards most of them with little interest. However, he did strike up a correspondence with their Lonely avatar, Micah Lukas, which he maintained after Dorian left the crew. The two have met for dinner and wine on several occasions while the Phoenix docked in London, whereupon August has shown himself to be quite capable of charm and flirtation. It is unknown whether he would pursue a serious relationship with Micah if given the chance, but he certainly holds a fondness for them, as evidenced by the long letters he sends and the interest he takes in their life.

Although Augustin Choudhary seems to think of August as a rival, both in a romantic and entity-related sense, August views him mainly with bemusement. He enjoys getting under Augustin's skin, but never goes out of his way to interact or communicate with the man if not given the opportunity.

Alva Brooks
Alva Brooks was a male companion of August's who lived during the early 1800s. Based on their extensive involvement in each other's lives and the depth of affection they expressed within their letters, the two seemed to be very good friends. This platonic bond lasted, for Alva, beyond August's death, as evidenced by the letters and flowers he left on August's grave for years afterward.

Edmund Harris
Edmund Harris was a necessary sacrifice.

You
You were among August's closest companions in life.

Powers

 * Limited Omniscience: Like many other Beholding avatars, August can see and know things that he would otherwise have no way of knowing or seeing.
 * You Give Me The Creeps: When August physically touches another person, whether human or avatar, said person feels a crawling sensation under their skin and has the overwhelming feeling that they are known and seen entirely. The feeling of August's gaze will also press heavily upon the back of their neck. This sensation fades slowly after contact is broken, though it is hard to shake.
 * Conditional Immortality: Like Jonah Magnus, August has the ability to switch bodies by replacing someone else's eyes with his own. He gains full control over the body he possesses, along with knowledge of their memories, and otherwise ages normally while inhabiting the body.
 * Tougher Than Nails: Similarly to Jonathan Sims, he has showcased an ability to quickly recover from injuries that would normally prove fatal. This ability carries over between bodies, as seen in Alexei Lukas's failed attempts to assassinate Isaiah.

Trivia

 * August shares many notable similarities with Steven's other character, Augustin Choudhary. Said similarities include serving Beholding, being nicknamed "Auggie," being autistic gay trans men, possessing more than two eyes, and losing their mothers to illness in their youth.
 * In his original body, August was marked by the Desolation, the Vast, the Dark, and the Lonely, among potential others. His second body was marked by the Corruption, and his current by the Web, Lonely, and Hunt.
 * His character does not originate from the crew canon, but rather precedes it. He was originally conceptualized by Steven as a separate TMA OC, whose story had intentional similarities to Jonah and Elias's. In his original canon, TMABS, he (in the guise of Isaiah Stanton) brutally murders James Wright and seizes control of the Magnus Institute.