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CHARACTER INFO
His first instinct is extreme pettiness. He does tend to fight against it more at his current canon point now that he's not as miserable of a person as he was at the start of the show (while he was at his most deeply closeted), but honestly it's an ongoing struggle and when stressed he reverts back to it with a vengeance. When he feels like things are spiraling out of his control he tends to have a terribly short temper and he lashes out at the people around him (verbally) and himself (physically). Despite being an organized planner by nature, Alec gets impulsive when the people he cares about are in what he perceives as danger, and he can be easy to manipulate or lead through this.
He is deeply insecure as a result of being raised by emotionally distant parents who heaped impossible expectations on their eldest child, and though unintentional, Alec's mother and father made him feel that their love was conditional and that nothing he ever did was good enough for them. This led to Alec being being a perfectionist, and to resorting to self-harm when he was incapable of living up to his own exacting standards, generally through hiding and refusing to treat his own injuries after receiving them (though he also would train to the point of making himself bleed if he was not already injured.) At the start of the series he was also repressed and so far in the closet that he might as well have been in Narnia, as Shadowhunter society was deeply homophobic and placed a lot of emphasis on marrying other Shadowhunters and having children young as a way to replenish constant population loss to violent death in the line of duty (very common for Shadowhunters.) Because Alec grew up in and was completely indoctrinated by this messed up, martial society he has already started to replicate some of its worse tenets, including sending his extremely young (10ish?) brother into field duty. It's the same age that he started, and he still doesn't really see anything wrong with it, even after his sister (who has always had more perspective than him honestly) tried to stop him.
Alec is a stickler for the rules and follows them without question... up to the point that they effect the people he cares about, in which case he will immediately find a way to rationalize bending or breaking them. This bleeds into the way he will protects his own first and above all others, and he would—for all of his dedication to duty—absolutely choose to preserve his loved ones over the rest of the world. (Not in active battle, because they're all warriors and honestly mostly better fighters than him, but in every other aspect of their lives.) He doesn't lack compassion for everyone else, exactly, he just is a product of his extremely selfish old-money environment and he gets some serious tunnel vision for the people that he thinks of as his responsibility. At least until they, generally being more in touch with the world around him, make him confront the fact that others need his help and protection more than they do.
Which is not to say Alec is all flaws, he just uses most of them as a shield to protect his gooey center. Alec is loyal, persistent, and highly intelligent, though his particular expertise lies in coordination and administration rather than in the sciences like his little sister. He is quite ambitious, and is rarely ever afraid to throw his political weight around to get what he wants out of people—which, generally speaking, means trying to coerce the broken system he works within into actually helping the people who need it. He is actually deeply nurturing, which rears its head as soon as he starts to like a person or is just under the impression that they need protection: he's absolutely the mom friend, he's just very prickly about it. He loves kids and after helping to raise his little siblings, he has a way with getting them to like and trust him back. He clearly yearns for the sort of domestic bliss that people who aren't Shadowhunters get to have, and he basically rushes headlong into his first romantic relationship at breakneck speeds, trying to settle down and move in within just a couple weeks (lucky for him Magnus was not afraid of commitment, or Alec might have sent him running for the hills.) He also becomes downright sweet and playful in relationships, which if one met him in any other sphere of his life would seem bizarre, but it's just how he is when he lets down his walls.
Alec is a mixed bag, and pretty frustrating to deal with, but he's absolutely someone you want on your side, anyway. He'll make it worth your while if you let him.
Alec is tall, standing at 6'3", with broad shoulders a Hollywood Glamour Muscles™ build. His neck, arms and torso are covered by a smattering of black tattoos (they are Enochian runes, to anyone who would recognize that sort of thing.) He has black hair, hazel eyes, and a serious resting bitch face. He is always dressed head to toe in black, and tends towards clothes with simple cuts and construction (t-shirts or button-downs, jeans or slacks, leather jackets or blazers, and combat boots or dress shoes, depending on whether he's in the field or behind a desk at the moment), but don't be fooled every garment he owns is absurdly expensive for no reason. His posture is impeccable and he tends to stand at parade rest from sheer force of habit. As soon as he gets comfortable with someone he starts to talk with his hands, and he absolutely does not have the level of poker face that he thinks he does.In Shadowhunters lore, Nephilim are mortals with angel blood. Said angelic blood makes it so they can utilize and survive being marked by Enochian Runes, which they burn into their skin (and equipment) to give themselves temporary supernatural abilities. They must activate these runes/abilities with something called a Stele (think: wand. It is just a wand, because the book series started out as Harry Potter fanfiction apparently.)
As a career Shadowhunter, Alec has a ridiculous amount of runes that he's chosen to mark himself with permanently for ease of use, which appear like black tattoos until activated (at which point they briefly glow like they're burning.) Regardless of the fact that the runes are always present on his skin, each use is temporary and they must be repeatedly reactivated with a Stele in order to be effective. Alec has memorized all of the known runes, though, so he could theoretically use any rune listed here as long as he has the time to draw it on himself and the Stele to do it with.
PERMANENT RUNES
• Block/Deflect: Increases his ability to effectively block or deflect attacks, and it also works to thwart most magical tracking methods while active.OTHER RUNES HE WILL LIKELY USE:
• Stealth: Renders him invisible to humans, and to surveillance equipment. He can still be seen by other supernatural creatures and humans with "The Sight" (the ability to perceive the supernatural.)
• Heightened Speed: Gives him the ability to move fast enough to become blurry to the human eye in short bursts.
• Healing/Painless: The Iratze rune can heal most physical trauma that is not immediately fatal, though there are exceptions for particular types of magical or demonic wounds specifically made to circumvent it. Either way, even after being healed with Iratze, he is likely to be too drained to return right to combat after.
• Strength: Gives a very short burst of incredible strength.
• Flexibility: Alec only marked himself with this one after he became sexually active and he stuck it in the middle of his upper back, so draw your own conclusions.
• Equilibrium: Improves equilibrium to a superhuman degree.
• Agility: Improves agility to a superhuman degree.
• Endurance: Improves endurance to a superhuman degree.
• Courage in Combat: No flight instinct, only fight instinct.
• Soundless: Allows Alec to move completely silently for short periods of time. Can also temporarily soundproof rooms when inscribed on a wall or door.
• Calm Anger: Calms... anger. He doesn't use this one as much as he probably should.
• Accuracy: Enhances accuracy, limits unknown.
• Recall: Allows him to recall targeted events from his memory with perfect clarity. Generally uses this for mission reports.
• Promise: (Effects unknown.)
• Gift/Talent: (Effects unknown.)
• Expectation: (Effects unknown.)
• Angelic Power: Mostly symbolic on Alec since he already has angelic blood, this rune is used to indicate when a Shadowhunter child is ready to graduate from training to field work. When placed on objects it imbues them with certain angelic properties, which is why it is used mostly on weapons to inflict more damage on creatures with demonic blood.
• Parabatai: This rune indicates that Alec has entered into a soul bond with another Nephilim, namely Jace [Insert Current Last Name Here]. They are stronger and better coordinated when they fight side-by-side than they would be otherwise, the runes they draw on one another are more effective than they would be otherwise, and also they can sense one another's physical trauma and emotions through the bond. Practically speaking, if anyone can sense this sort of thing, they have literally intertwined their souls and Alec is walking around with a bit of him missing, while carrying around a little bit of someone else. Weird!
• Tracking: If he has an item relevant to the thing he is looking for (someone's personal belongings, for instance), Alec can intuit a location based on visions or feelings given to him by the rune while holding it. This is not the most effective magical tracking method in-series, but it's better than nothing if that's what else you're working with.
• Heat: This rune is used by drawing it on paper in order to send a fire-messages. Useful in a pinch if someone's phone battery is dead.
• Locking/Unlocking: Anything that can open (doors, drawers, etc) can be inscribed with a locking rune, and will then need an unlocking rune written with the same Stele (though not necessarily by the same hand) in order to be opened again.
EQUIPMENT
• Bow & Arrow: His bow and arrows are heavily Runed so that he can summon them into his hands (like so) and also dismiss them at will. The arrows are made out of a supernatural material (Adamas) and are strong enough to punch through concrete walls when he shoots them. He has even used the arrows in lieu of melee weapons during a fight, because they are durable enough to parry swords. He can and will shoot up to 5 at once, ridiculous.
• Seraph Blade: A sword that appears to just be a hilt when not in use, which Alec frequently carries in a holster strapped to his thigh. It activates in Nephilim hands and manifests an adamas blade, which is especially fatal to most demonic creatures.
• Stele: A tool he uses to draw runes. If he loses this or breaks it, he will not be able to use any of his above rune specific abilities.
HISTORY_INFO