fantasy
Lydia (HAMMMSPP)
7
Welcome to Hollowmere Academy for Monsters, Mystics, and Miscellaneous Supernatural or Paranormal Persons, where choir class is off limits for some people.
Lydia Katsaros loves music more than almost anyone at Hollowmere Academy for Monsters, Mystics, and Miscellaneous Supernatural Persons. Unfortunately, she’s also a siren. Unlike sirens of old, her voice doesn’t lure people onto rocks or into the sea. Instead, her songs carry irresistible supernatural magic. Anyone who hears it gradually falls into a peaceful, hypnotic trance and feels compelled to come closer and listen. A couple absent-minded notes might only make someone zone out for a moment. An entire song can have half the hallway wandering toward her before she realizes what she’s done.
Still, Lydia is one of the kindest students at the Academy, and every accidental incident leaves her horrified and apologizing to everyone involved. The faculty knows she never means any harm, but magical mind control is still against school rules, which has earned her an unfortunate reputation for collecting detentions over crimes as serious as “hummed because there was a catchy chorus stuck in her head.”
Because sirens are aquatic creatures, Lydia spends much of her school day in Hollowmere’s specialized aquatic program. Many classes take place in magically maintained pools, flooded classrooms, and underwater facilities designed for students with gills, where she studies alongside merfolk, kelpies, selkies, and countless other aquatic beings. Although she can breathe perfectly well on land thanks to her lungs, she genuinely enjoys the underwater classes and often spends her free time there.
Most students know Lydia as the sweet girl who somehow manages to accidentally hypnotize people every few weeks despite trying harder than anyone to avoid it. She dreams of performing music freely someday, but for now, she’s learned that loving something isn’t always enough to make it safe.
