—biography.

[leitners]

source

permissions • cross-canon wishlist


— Gerard Keay
— the Magnus Archives
— son of Mary Keay (owner of Pinhole Books in Morden, London, and enthusiast of rare, supernatural — and especially dangerous — books, primarily 'Leitners,' supernatural books collected and curated by Jurgen Leitner that possess particular abilities. imagine if Goosebumps books were haunted by the monsters in their stories. and could kill you probably.)
— hunter of Leitners, Jurgen Leitner, associates of Fears, and some peace from his batshit mother.

— has some capacity of Knowing, not omnisciently, but enough to call it a quirk. (from the Magnus Archives Wikia: "[...] that seemed to provide some protection against the effects of other powers, and occasionally seemed to demonstrate knowledge he should not naturally have in a way similar to that of the Archivist." Gerry also at one point recognizes a person as being marked by an entity and can Know enough to be able to tell them so, as well as to give them a specific direction that literally determines their success at overcoming said entity later. it seems more intuition-based for him.)
— sounds unexpectedly friend-shaped (linked to a conversation point between Gerry and Gertrude Robinson; it was the least-spoilery point I could think of)
— visual invocations: old books, all black clothes, metal music, badly dyed long black hair, books on fire, tattoos of eyes, cigarettes, full length leather coat, long distance travel, band tees, isolation, painting, demigods, old school Hot Topic, British Goth, Sony Walkman, Only 90s Kids Remember.
— quick rundown on What's The Deal With All These Fears (be aware this basically spoils the findings of season 1-2): Fear entities are ambiguous eldritch beings within the world of the TMA canon, based on our own real world (known entertainment media is referenced in passing, suggesting it's a version not dissimilar to ours.) Fears generally destroy people, their lives, and consume them to gain power. each type (like elements in Pokémon) has its own overarching category and from there, unique forms. ultimately, individual types of Fears want to accrue the most power and try to monopolize on reality and enforce what the cast calls "an apocalypse" for lack of a better term. eternal living nightmare of endless suffering in our reality is a bit of a mouthful.
(if reading on mobile, you should be able to copy and paste spoiler text into a typing field to view.)


in early life, Gerard was the ward of Mary who prioritized her pursuit of rare books, powers, and Leitners above all else, teaching him about and exposing him directly to ancient horrifying entities from a young age with the intention of creating a kind of legacy of harnessing evil powers, with Gerry as her intended successor. from childhood, he was shown and instructed in the known and documented concepts and theories of The Fears, entities categorized by a renowned architect who had dedicated himself to studying them. this life bound him to Mary as she ruthlessly searched and travelled for these books with the intent to harness all the known Fears, constantly uprooting Gerard while keeping him bound to her, making him incapable of functioning independently of her in the 'real world' where people aren't aware of these beings and their influences. when you can't beat 'em, you can try joining 'em, and he assisted Mary in hunting down Leitners for a time, but Gerard eventually found that any efforts he dedicated to giving his mother what she sought after earned him nothing in return. this began a life-long resentment and distrust toward his uncaring mother, and Gerard revoked his dedication to her as her son and assistant in her work.

and that's the unfortunate beginning to a line of Some Bullshit that encompasses Gerard Keay's life. it gets...worse. a lot worse.

long spoilery story short — mom goes wild, Gerry goes rogue, he dedicates himself to destroying the books that Mary wants him to find, literally just to piss her off. d̶̛̩͑͢i҉͓̥͇͆̄̕͢ṡ̸̡͕̜̪͠r҈̧̠͋̕e҉̨̠̣҇̉͆s̵̘̯̙̀͢͡p҈̛̮̫̊̽͜e̴̡̲͗̀̕ç̴̣͇̳̋̍̏͝t̵̢̯̖͇̀͆̕ y҉̡̫̰̆̀̇͞o̵̡̟҇͌͋ų̸̪͚͂͂̅͝r҈͍̍̂͢͡ š̵̨͉̣̫͠ṳ̶̧̰́̌̂̕r̵̨͍̭̖҇͊̾r̶̨̜̯̱̾͞o҉̛̪̳̓͊͋͢u҈̢̖̮̳̍̕n̷̡̝̉͊̕ͅd̶̛͕̋̾̂͜i̸̛̲͚̘̽͢n̵̡͇̍͗͝g̶̡̳̮͒͞s҉̢̰̪̩̇̕

personality is — aside from the obvious broody goth label — in canon he's demonstrated as being unexpectedly irreverent and glib, almost casual and laid back in the two instances he speaks in canon. others in canon through their statements of encountering him paint a picture of a quiet and rough-edged teen, even during encounters in his older adult years. these encounters show that he's not above stopping people caught in the crossfires between existential horrors from reaching a point of no return, even when it means going out of his way to do so, or if it's not necessary to his current operation. his later work is arguably pretty altruistic whether Gerry intends that or not, but it doesn't seem that he's careless about that fact. overall he seems to be aloof, acerbic, extremely resilient, dedicated, sincere, stubborn, and reserved. also, he's apparently very good at painting (realism) according to one guy in one statement. it's a fun anecdote.

versions of Gerry Keay available:
— late teens, stuck with Mary, emo and edgy (if tagging a teenaged character, I'm assuming this age version of him)
    ~ optionally book hunter for mom of the year (from hell)
— my usual default unless tagging someone younger: 20s+, gone rogue, anti-mommer, eye tattoos aplenty and has some cool full body scars, possibly working with Gertrude Robinson at the Magnus Institute
— spoilery final option: Catalogue of the Dead version, deceased Gerard on a page, utterly miserable, your reluctant and summonable pocket buddy (we can hash out the hows and whys of yours in possession of Gerry's Death Page specifically)

I will also usually assume some sort of timeline AU in 99% of scenarios with castmates, possibly even with cross-canon. please just know if I seem to be flagrantly ignoring or misquoting canon facts, it's because I consciously am picking and choosing things I like. ✌🏻

if unfamiliar with canon, I insist a 200+ episode podcast is worth, even if Gerry takes up like 5% of the content. I'll even argue that you don't necessarily need to consume all 5 seasons for Gerry-relevance (though episode 162 is not worth skipping for the sake of our last scrap of Gerry content for the series.)

final fun fact about Gerry that I constantly forget: he's done time in the slammer for murder but was acquitted. (he really actually didn't do it.) I forget this because it's very spoilery to say how and why. maybe if I add this here I'll stop forgetting that happened...

Comments

canon visual qualities—

[leitners]

canon descriptions of Gerry that are absolutely intended to be present in play. (I made the choice to adopt another played by instead of have piecemeal fanart icons, and this current one fits him well enough!)

according to others in canon:
—tall
—pale
—thin/lanky
—artificially dyed black hair that is noted to be "bad" insinuating he likely colors it himself and has application inconsistencies, also likely to be at varying stages of grown out (fans tend to draw him with blond-ish natural new growth and I adopt this)
—long hair
—goth manner of dress (I tend to lean toward more casual grunge goth than Hot Topic tropes such as Tripp pants and fishnets)
—metal band tees
—bulky boots for stompin books or something

if adult aged, he will also be seen with:
—eye tattoos* over his body, claimed to be at his joints, and one over his heart; fanart tends to include a throat tattoo as well. I'm down for it!

*here's the thing: only one character in canon comments on Gerard having these eye tattoos, a nurse tending to him in accident and emergency, but no one else mentions them (from what I can recall after reviewing.) I have a headcanon I like to consider that they're not tattoos he got intentionally, but the after-effect of encountering a character that causes the burns mentioned in the following bullet point. they are specified as being specifically untouched by the burning, so I don't consider them to be part of the burns, but a result of being protected by the Beholding and becoming physically marked by the Entity that Gerry uses and aligns himself to, but is apparently not an Avatar of. it's not something I will assume in most threads, if they're referenced as tattoos then that's what they'll be, but considering this is a guy that can't get his hair coloring game on point, I *squints* at the idea that he would have the time or have bothered getting ink for that and not anything else. THIS IS JUST ME THOUGH. if you're fine with this reasoning about his eye marks if it's ever brought up or questioned, please lmk uwu

—full body burn scars from his throat down, second degree. full body is not an exaggeration, moreso a skin color difference than any obviously garish scarring.

particular favorite art designs of Gerry I think of the most in writing:

one • two • three • four • five • six • seven