Basil Wakefield

Basil Iolanthe Acuna (née Wakefield) is

Early Life

 * basil's mother and father never married, though they were engaged.
 * k was born before their mother was married, and so she kept wakefield. when her parents got married years later, she preferred her mother's surname over her father's, which she felt lacked the rich history and traditions that wakefield carried.
 * both relationships were tumultuous in their own ways; basil's father was rather abusive emotionally, turning into physical, before he eventually abandoned them. k's father was technically separated from his first wife, but failed to disclose that info until after k was conceived. k's parents were not together for at least a year and a half after her birth, until they reconciled and quickly eloped. that is why both had their mother's surname of wakefield

[header] skills and abilities

after everyone's been held prisoner and Basil goes back home, she visits literally all the time, especially with bed-rest (she was forced, for like low blood pressure or something) [immediately after they arrive and are forced to stay there; i was rereading this and thought this meant during her pregnancy with avis] Devin and cute little Elias. after a while, it comes out that Basil felt incompetent a lot, compared to them, because she couldn't even hold the knife Devin gave her properly. at that, Devin tells her that when she's better she's going to train her personally. Basil's surprised (not what she was looking for exactly) but she gets excited. the excitement gives her life because she felt so alive when with the Cyprians, even though she was constantly in danger. going back to her mundane life (which she still loves ofc) kind of leaves her lacking in meaning, basically. so yeah, anyway, Basil gets trained in mostly basic combat, usually by Devin but sometimes gets to "guest fight" against other Cyprians (it's not like they're wasting anyone's time; they're all stuck there) and "prove her worth" - or they take over when Devin is too pregnant with Avis to fight. by the 15th year, Hayk has said that she would be Cyprian worthy, and they all agreed she could receive the scar if she really wanted. she does, and they schedule a time for it, but before it could happen shit goes down. so she really does never receive one. anyway she does have her fight scene, in a kitchen. after she's found that enchanted mini-sanctuary for not just the Lennox-Clarke kids and Anna, but also her own family, she somehow gets found out and is attacked while she's cooking lunch, while everyone's outside. it's dim but light is streaming in (kind of imagine the light in houses in The Witcher 3) she uses a slotted spatula to stop herself from getting stabbed, and manages to hold her own for a bit (she doesn't want to alert anyone, so she's trying to be quiet (same with the assassin, ofc)). eventually Anna walks in on her own, and all three freeze. Anna also has basic fighting skills, so with one shared glance to Basil, she joins in. she's younger and smaller, so she can do a lot more kicks and jumps (onto counters, tables; flips away from damage) while Basil has dropped the spatula for a cleaver. realistically, the assassin is fine against the both of them, until after some cool fight moments, Basil just suddenly grabbed the searing hot frying pan (bare) and slams it into the assassin's face. they let out a surprised yelp but fall. there, Anna knocks them the fuck out with a kick and Basil drops the pan, with a silent cry and holds her wrist. Anna realizes what happens, eye wide, and quickly runs back out to get Aspen. gotta move this to the document

Etymology
iolanthe is greek but she was named specifically from the flower magnolia iolanthe. her great-great[-great] grandmother was named iolanthe and started the trend within the family to name girls from flowers/plants (rarely boys, but is still there).

side note: basil picked doing a name like k's because aspen wanted to name their first daughter after his mother (who also died in raids). obviously they couldn't do this with jasper, and the wakefield's rarely gave boys flower names. however, aspen is a geologist (petrologist) and his family has a bit of history with it, like the wakefields with flowers. so they decided to start their new family tradition for acuna's; rock names (jasper) for mainly boys. but, since they picked jezamin for their daughter, her middle name is bluebell. they were actually their mother's favorite flowers and were coincidentally gifted to her when people visited her home right before giving birth (she did home births with close nurse friends. but in ohio (and anywhere else tbh lol), basil had plenty of friends, so she received a lot of small gifts/flowers and congrats!), so as she laid in bed holding her, about to give her 'rose' or 'amaryllis', she noticed the flowers in the window and felt a "powerful force" urging her to go with bluebell. not the most elegant plant name but jezamin is a pretty strong name in the first place. they picked "peridot (peri-doe)" for their third son.

side note: their mother's name was amaryllis, but she went by ama!

Extra Notes
basil's father is irish. kennedy "ken" and met ama when she was still living in Britain. when she found out he was moving to the states, she followed him because she was so enamored and in love. they moved in together in ohio, and soon after she was pregnant with basil. both parties were excited, and ken proposed when basil was two. however, things were rough and money was tight, and ken was often working multiple jobs, which obviously made him cranky and irritable. he also has some background in his family's affairs, which is mostly criminal. when he moved to ohio, he was supposed to start working there but then had basil, so he tried to avoid it to do better for her. well, they eventually latched on to how exhausted he was and accidentally got him hooked onto what he was moving. he would go on binge periods, in which he'd not be seen by ama or basil, and then show up burned out and more irritable than before for about the next five years. ama stayed because he was their main source of income and had more legal lee-way to stay employed in the US, she didn't want to be alone in another country (he and his family also helped isolate her, after ken admitted he didn't want her to leave him) with a little girl, so she rationalized that he kept his business rather secret and didn't hurt them. but ofc by the time basil was 8, ken had begun to spiral out of control and was physically assaulting ama, though she herself was in too deep to leave. ken stopped showing around more and more - which ama was somewhat okay with (she doesn't love him anymore, has an okay job, but still has more with him around), then he straight up disappeared on basil's 11th birthday, kind of stereotypically telling her he'll be right back and then doesn't - ama later found out he basically got too far in with his "job", did something terrible and went on the run. they were left low on money and were pretty low on morale as well. ama's mother, X, didn't approve of ken and was outraged when she left britain to live with him, so she disowned her in a fit. X didn't even know she had a granddaughter. ama was nervous to mail her, but she did and was very straight up: "ken left our daughter and i with no money and we need help." "i'm sorry i hurt your feelings" etc, and X called her. she wanted her to move back to britain to help, ama couldn't (don't have legal reasons rn), which X was pretty upset about but still sent small sums of money. ama couldn't afford the house anymore so she moved closer north, where she eventually met canadian will and his son. they got together, and blah blah. when basil was in her 20's (idk yet), ken came back into her life under the guise of wanted to reconnect, but all he really wanted was money/shelter. caieta was pretty young but grew up rather cynical, so she told basil she didn't think it was a good idea, telling her not to get her hopes up, etc. basil was gutted and returned to the house crying, refusing to see anyone except K, who laid next to basil on her bed as she was curled under the blankets sobbing for hours. he would try a few more times but it obviously stopped when ozias came and shit on everyone. he's likely dead.