[hider=Jessica] Name: Jessica (usually Jess or Jessie) Mackay Age: 26 Gender: Female Species: Selkie [hider=Appearance] [img]https://heartofra.files.wordpress.com/2015/01/10494847_320560028141052_3462430659212292546_n.jpg[/img] [/hider] Abilities/Skills: Jess is capable of changing from human to seal (or seal to human) form using her magic sealskin. As well as having all the usual abilities of a seal, she is a strong swimmer in her human form and able to hold her breath underwater for several minutes. She’s a skilled dressmaker/tailor, whatever the correct term is – custom clothier is the one usually used. Weakness: If she ever loses her sealskin she’ll be unable to change and will be trapped in her human form. She needs to swim at least once a week and eat fish several times a week to stay healthy. Apart from her swimming, in human form she has no more abilities than normal humans. In seal form, she can only swim in salt water, so she can’t live away from the sea. Personality: She comes across as shy and withdrawn; amongst friends, or people she trusts, she’s slightly more animated and playful, even mischievous. She has a good eye for detail and is a conscious worker - she is passionate about her trade and can spend hours looks through second-hand clothing for anything to salvage and renovate. Brief history/background: Born to a family of selkies (human/seal shapeshifters) that originally lived in the Orkneys but travelled south and settled in the Scottish highlands. Although she was happy living the traditional life of a selkie, swimming with her siblings in either form, her gaze always wandered to the horizon and she wondered what lay out there. She enjoyed making things, and discovered she had a real knack for sewing. She started making items and repairing clothes, eventually making them from scratch. She studied fashion at university before being offered an internship at Angels, the famous costumers working in their alterations department in Hendon. Although it meant leaving home, she knew it was a golden opportunity and accepted. She moved down to London and when her internship finished stayed on as a permanent member of staff for almost two years before leaving and going freelance. She now works as a custom clothier, making exclusive items to order. Her experience of working on fancy dress means that she can make clothing for the rather unusual demands other supernaturals may have without too many difficulties and can be guaranteed to be discrete. She’s fashioned her sealskin into a coat that she wears all year round. It looks like suede or even velvet at a casual glance. She lives in a flat on the edge of the Thames in Greenwich; the family clubbed together to buy a property in Southend on Sea in Essex. Members of her extended family will sometimes come to visit her and use the property as a holiday home, swimming with the normal seals that can be seen on the nearby Foulness or Wallasea Islands. Anything else: her seal form is a grey seal. Don’t mistake her for a common seal – she hates that. And don't [i]ever[/i] ask her if she can balance a ball on her nose. [/hider] [hider=Evie] Name: Aibhlinn (pronounced Ave-leen; she introduces herself as Evie) Brennan Age: 22 Gender: Female Species: Human (part banshee) [hider=Appearance] [img]http://www.sunsetmusicstudio.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Girl-Playing-Acoustic3-e1399056355442-960x650_c.jpg[/img] [/hider] Abilities/Skills: When she sings any traditional Irish songs, she raises ghosts that she can command. Other people may see these ghosts as a vague mist or just feel a coldness as the ghost floats around them. Evie can see them, the more recently dead the clearer - ghosts that are more than several hundred years old are only a human shaped blur. She can't hear them, but can sense how powerful they are. All of them will scare normal humans, who will want to get away from them. The stronger ghosts can be ordered to attack people. These attacks are more psychic than physical – a victim may feel a terrible coldness as though their heart or brain has been squeezed by an icy hand; this will stop most would-be attackers in their tracks. If they persist, the ghost will use a stronger form of the same attack that will hurt people - presumably they could even be killed this way, but it hasn't happened yet. One ghost she often sees is that of a young woman in turn of the last century clothing. She thinks this is her great grand-aunt Kathleen. This ghost seems to regard her with familial affection and will attack anyone who threatens her. If she gives a banshee scream she can drop everyone nearby to their knees in agony and make dogs howl; this will give her time to run while they’re recovering. Weakness: Apart from her voice, she’s a human – gag her and she can be dealt with as any other human. Personality: Evie is cheerful, friendly and upbeat. She has quite a steady temper, but when goaded enough will explode. Energetic, she doesn’t like sitting around with nothing to do, and if she doesn’t have a guitar in her hands she’ll usually be drumming her fingers on any nearby surface; this habit has driven friends mad before now. Brief history/background: Born in Kildare in Ireland, Evie has one brother, Liam, who has almost ten years older than she is; she was only born after several miscarriages (hence her name, which means ‘longed for child’). Her enthusiasm and talent for music developed at an early age. She loved singing the old songs that her granny taught her, but when she hit puberty her banshee tendencies began to develop. Her granny insisted the blood of the fae had joined the family long ago, and she had inherited the talent from ‘poor, sweet great aunt Kathleen’ who had hoped to make her fortune in America, but had the bad luck to sail on the Titanic. The first spirit she ever summoned was of the young woman she believes is her great grand-aunt; she will appear if Evie sings more than a few notes and is a reassuring rather than a frightening presence. At 16 she applied for and was accepted in the BRIT school in Croydon, a suburb of South London. She developed her talents and even though she sings material that’s a mix of Celtic rock-pop and folk to avoid summoning ghosts, she has dreams of being the next Mary Black (her personal idol). She’s currently living in Camden, making a decent living playing live gigs in the many pubs in the area, working a couple of nights behind the bar of a pub and working on a stall in the market that she co-owns with a friend of hers selling general bric-a-brac. Anything else: She’s friends with Jessie, having met the selkie when she was inspecting the vintage clothing in the market. [/hider]