MAIN GOAL ⫻ (What does your character hope to accomplish in life?)

PHILOSOPHY ⫻ (What is your character's outlook on life?)

SECRETS ⫻ (What is your character hiding?)

SEXUALITY ⫻ (Your character's sexual preference?)

FEARS ⫻ (What does your character fear?)

REPUTATION IN OLD COVEN ⫻ (What was their reputation in the old Sycamore Tree Coven? Did they play a part in its dissolution? If they're new, simply place N/A here.)

ROLE IN THE BATTLE AGAINST THE STYGIAN SNAKE ⫻ (Basically, how did your character aid/hinder the against with the Stygian Snake? If they're new, simply place N/A here.)

FLAWS ⫻ (What holds your character back?)

Pretty standard affair. I'm not going to expect a super long essay here, just the basics and whatever.

TYPE ⫻ (Put Adept, Apparition, Aberration (Afflicted/Agent/Adjoined/Abscised/Abominable), Blind or One-Eyed-Open)

ABSTRACTION ⫻ (Put the name of the Abstraction here, with a one-sentence description of what the Abstraction does. If Adept, put what Lux they have, and what their channeler is.)

ABSTRACTION DESCRIPTION ⫻ (Go in-depth with what exactly the Abstraction allows them to do. Please be as detailed as possible because if it's not in the sheet; they can't do it. If Adept, detail every individual spell.)

LIMITS ⫻ (What are the limits to their abstraction? The stronger/more complex the ability, the more limits I want. Remember Emotional-Fields will inhibit the use of certain abstractions on other Paranormal beings.)

WEAKNESSES ⫻ (DO NOT FILL THIS OUT, I WILL PROVIDE IT FOR YOU)

Anyyyything else?

MAIN GOAL ⫻ Britney truly wants to forgive herself and be forgiven by the old Coven for her actions. In the battle with the Stygian Snake, she did some... not so great things (such as forcing curses and Apparitions onto people so they could join the fight). Afterward, the entire Sycamore Tree Coven hated her and eventually voted her out. Thus, in the ten years since, Britney has been working on herself and wishes to be forgiven.

PHILOSOPHY ⫻ Britney Williams believes in the power of compassion as the keystone of her life. She sees compassion as a virtue and a driving force that dictates her actions, decisions, and interactions with the world. Britney recognizes that people make mistakes, including herself. She believes in forgiveness and second chances (as she so desperately needs herself), always seeking to understand the reasons behind actions and offering support to those who genuinely want to change. Britney understands that small acts of kindness can have a significant impact on the world and the lives of others. She makes it a daily practice to perform acts of kindness, whether helping a stranger in need, volunteering, or simply offering a listening ear to a friend in distress.

Britney Williams believes in achieving the greater good, even if it requires getting her hands dirty, because she has seen that idealism has fallen short. Her philosophy involves doing everything necessary to keep the world safe for others, even if she has to sacrifice herself. While she has a compassionate side, her sense of justice can be unforgiving and brutal. She views sacrifice as something that just cannot be avoided, realizing that sometimes the needs of the many outweigh those of the few. This drives her ruthless streak, willing to cause significant collateral damage to protect the rest of the world and eliminate threats such as the Stygian Snake, the 8th Street Coven, etc. Britney believes that actual change requires hard choices, and sometimes you just can't pussyfoot when the fate of the world is at stake.

SECRETS ⫻ In the battle with the Stygian Snake, Britney held a lot of secrets... mainly that she had been purposely infecting people with Afflictions and Adjoining them with Apparitions to have more footsoldiers in the fight against it. However, after it came out, her reputation plummeted, and since then, Britney has dedicated herself to holding no more secrets.

SEXUALITY ⫻ Britney is pansexual, but she wants kids someday, so she leans a bit toward males. Other than that, Britney isn't all that picky, and she isn't above flirting with anybody.

FEARS ⫻ Britney, deep down, fears the world of magic and the Paranormal and that someday another threat along the lines of the Stygian Snake will arise. This time, they won't be able to stop it. Britney also fears herself because of a deep-rooted guilt in her previous actions.

REPUTATION IN OLD COVEN ⫻ Britney was... not very well liked. Originally, she was seen as instrumental in defeating the Stygian Snake, but after some revelations came to light about the lengths she went to defeat it... her reputation and relationship with the group plummeted. She was only kept around due to her knowledge of the magical, but even that was shaky. Shaky enough, she was voted out of the Coven a few months before their eventual collapse.

ROLE IN THE BATTLE AGAINST THE STYGIAN SNAKE ⫻ an essential part... as when Britney was brought in, the Coven had no clue of how to defeat the damn thing and were just throwing spells at it and hoping something worked. Britney told the Sycamore Tree Coven about the artifacts known as the Apparition Killer and the Bull's Ring. With Kari Wilson's help, they could travel to different universes and locate them. Britney was also secretly forcing people to join with Apparitions and cursing them to have more hands to battle the Stygian Snake - which was not well-received by the Coven when they found out.

FLAWS ⫻ While Britney is ultimately a well-meaning person, she has an issue with forcing her ideas of what is right and wrong onto other people (one could say it's a mild God-Complex). This means that Britney was willing to screw other people over to stop the Stygian Snake and justified it to herself by saying she was doing the right thing. Britney is ultimately helpful in doing whatever it takes to get the job done, but she cannot understand when she's infringing upon someone else's autonomy.

The Williams Family is a wealthy family that owned a lot of sway in the town of St. Portwell, as they hold plenty of businesses (primarily tourist attractions) that get plenty of foot traffic. They weren't millionaires, but they had amassed enough wealth to provide their daughter, Britney, with everything she needed. However, Williams held a dark secret: they were Adepts who used their magic to bully their business rivals and make people sell their businesses to them. Of course, Britney didn't learn about this until she was far older. Britney lived her early life as a loner despite her nature, as she was used to reaching out to people only to get used to her resources. Thus, she grew up keeping people at arm's length. Still, she kept herself company by digging into her family's archives, a massive library on the world of the Paranormal, and learning about different artifacts, Apparitions, and so forth. It was her hobby to dig into such a place, and it was her quiet place, as her family never bothered her.

This was between school, interacting with her few true friends, and dance class/ballet. As she grew up, she learned how to sort out the people who had no interest in her and kept her friend group small. However, when she entered high school, the Stygian-Snake's reign of terror began; Britney was spending time with some friends when one of them was enthralled by the being and forced to kill everyone else in the room - including Britney. When the girl came at Britney with a knife, she underwent her Kindling Event and activated her connection to the Red Lux... which was useless now. Britney managed to escape and immediately retreated to her family's library, where she found information on the Stygian Snake.

Britney saw herself as the only person who was capable of stopping the damned thing, so she completely locked herself off from everything (friends, school, etc.) and practiced casting spells. She discovered her affinity was towards plant life, so she kept at it and devised several plant-based spells. After deciding she was ready, she set out to battle the Stygian Snake... Britney knew that she was one girl, but she was going to do the best that she could. This led her to her friend Auri Auclair, who asked for Britney to be there under the Sycamore Tree when they formed. Making Britney one of the founding members, however, they weren't making any headway on the Apparition, and they were losing members one by one as if the thing was trying to dry them of all hope.

Britney took the role of "Magical Advisor" (and she was considered the defacto fourth in command) as she was the most magic-knowledgeable out of the Coven and told them everything she could find on the Stygian Snake and various artifacts such as the Apparition Killer and the Bull's Ring. She was a part of the brave group that ventured to the alternate universe to find both artifacts. However, Britney didn't have complete faith in their odds, even with powerful artifacts such as the Bull's Ring, so she did a little something... that was finding Apparitions and binding them to people without their consent, and even afflicting people with curses. She would "find" these people and rope them into the Sycamore Tree Coven, and one of them was "Queen Bitch" Emily G.Reed (in Britney's defense; nobody liked her, and it would make the world a better place if she died).

On the eclipse day, Britney helped defeat the Stygian Snake by binding the bastard in vines while Ashley put the finishing blow on the bastard. However, Britney overexerted herself and passed out; thus, she was not there when the Stygian Snake was sealed into the tree. Britney had her memory of the tree wiped and joined the Coven in their adventures, who would go on to do great things...

... and those "great things" were fighting over every little tiny thing, slinging shade at each other, and overall being useless. Worst of all, Britney's little "recruitment drive" came to light, and the Coven vilified her due to her awful actions. She became the group's punching bag because of her actions and was nearly kicked if it wasn't for the fact that she was so valuable. Emily G.Reed was the least happy about it and constantly antagonized Britney and the more generous members of the Coven. Britney hung in there because she cared about her friends and knew they would get themselves killed without her. However, she was ultimately voted out for the good of the group and accepted it. They completely dissolved a few months later, and everyone went their separate ways.

Britney moved on with her life, only maintaining contact with Auri as she knew that Britney had regretted her actions. She went to college, wanting to build a life without living in her family's shadow - but she wasn't sure what she wanted to do with her life. Eventually, Auri suggested that she could become a model, and Britney thought it was daunting (she was huge and didn't have that model built). However, Auri motivated her to go ahead with it, and she made a portfolio, found an agent, and became a plus-sized model! She appeared in food, appliances, and clothing advertisements for various companies around St. Portwell. However, she kept her ear to the ground to the events of the supernatural scene around St. Portwell, learning that Emily formed her own Coven, the extradimensional intrusion, etc. Britney had zero interest or agency in participating in it, so she kept to herself but knew the next threat was just around the corner...

However, Britney learned of the string of murders happening to the previous members of the Coven, and Auri put out the call to her - telling her that she was getting the gang back together. Britney was unsure of how the reception to her return would be, but she didn't want to see anyone else get killed.

Britney hesitantly accepted and attended their first meeting at Auri's flower shop...

TYPE ⫻ Adept.

ABSTRACTION ⫻ Red Lux. Britney's channeler is her silver necklace engraved with the logo of the Sycamore Tree Coven.

ABSTRACTION DESCRIPTION ⫻ Britney is a very experienced Red-Lux Adept who has an affinity towards Nature Plantlife, Water, and Light due to her compassionate and fun nature. Britney has created three "modes" for her Spells that she switches between back and forth. She is proficient in her "Land-Mode" mode due to overreliance on it and neglecting her training. However, she is learning to branch out and tap into the potential that is "Mode: Sea" and "Mode: Sky."

MODE: SEA ⫻ A new mode that Britney is seeking to experiment with. Mode: Sea marks Britney Williams' journey into harnessing the elemental power of water, which complements her Floramancy and Edafosmancy. With this evolving style, Britney delves into the depths of aquatic-based elemental magic, channeling the fluidity and adaptability of water to augment the rest of her Spellbook. Through "Mode: Sea," Britney can summon and manipulate bodies of water that dance at her fingertip and are limited by only her imagination. There is only one element that she is developing under Mode: Sea: Hydromancy.

MODE: SKY ⫻ As Britney continues to explore her Red-Lux, she delves into a new discipline known as "Mode: Sky." This is primarily a Mode she developed in the Old Coven, learning spells from Jake Valos and Elsa Connor - however, she didn't get a chance to flesh it out thoroughly and neglected this mode in favor of Mode: Earth. This style revolves around harnessing the power of light and weather manipulation. In her early attempts, Britney's control over this domain was fragile. She attempts to conjure light in various forms - Similarly, her efforts to manipulate the weather are met with limited success as she struggles to coax even a few drops of rain from the heavens.

MODE: EARTH ⫻ Britney's Floramancy is limited by range and time; she has a far easier time manipulating existing plants as opposed to creating new plant life. If she wants the plants to survive, they have to be in an area where they can logically stay - so if she makes vines on concrete, they're going to die fast, or if she creates something that lives in a different biome than St. Portwell... it won't last long. Creating plants on non-soil-life also takes far more effort and time than it would on dirt. For her Floramancy and Edafosmancy, she has to be touching the ground (she can't, for example, be on a fire escape trying to manipulate a tree beneath her).

MODE: SEA ⫻ Britney's hydrokinetic abilities are practical only within a short range (around two meters). Britney's hydrokinetic spells have a limited duration before dissipating or losing effectiveness. Her skill is minimal, but she can push past these limits as the Spell group develops.

MODE: SKY ⫻ Britney's Weather and Light manipulation spells require a significant amount of stamina, leaving Britney physically and mentally drained after extended use. Britney struggles to control the intensity and direction of her light manipulation spells, leading to erratic and unpredictable results. She may inadvertently create blinding light flashes or fail to maintain a steady illumination.

MODE: EARTH ⫻ For Britney to use her Floramancy, her primary Spellgroup, she needs to donate a bit of her life force to power it. The more she uses the Spell, the physically weaker she'll become, the paler her skin will get, the more sluggish, the hungrier, and she can even kill herself if she pushes herself too far. Other than that, her plants are as vulnerable to poison, fire, and ice as other plants. For Britney to use her Edafosmancy, she must be immobile (surfing on dirt doesn't count as she's using the dirt to move), which can leave her vulnerable.

MODE: SEA ⫻ While Britney's Mode: Sea grants her the ability to manipulate water with finesse, prolonged or intense use of her hydrokinetic abilities leaves her physically drained and dehydrated. Manipulating large bodies of water or creating powerful water-based spells taxes her body, causing fatigue, dehydration, and physical weakness. This vulnerability affects her ability to continue casting spells and leaves her vulnerable to physical attacks or other threats while weakened.

MODE: SKY ⫻ Britney's ability to manipulate light can overwhelm her senses, causing sensory overload and disorientation. When she channels intense beams of light or creates blinding flashes, she may experience temporary blindness, visual distortions, or headaches due to the extreme brightness. Britney's connection to the weather in Mode: Sky makes her highly sensitive to changes in atmospheric conditions. This sensitivity manifests as physical and emotional discomfort, exacerbated during extreme weather events such as storms or intense heat waves. Britney experiences migraines, nausea, or anxiety in response to fluctuations in barometric pressure, humidity, or temperature.

Britney likes to be nude when she's alone.

MAIN GOAL ⫻ She hopes to understand more about her apparition and how she can protect herself so she doesn’t have to night-stalk at its bidding.

PHILOSOPHY ⫻ She believes it’s better to be feared than loved.

SECRETS ⫻ She hides her insatiable thirst for entropy. She tries to blame it all on her apparition, but somehow, the thirst has become her own.

SEXUALITY ⫻ She is innocent, without thoughts of the such.

FEARS ⫻ She fears being alone and being trapped.

REPUTATION IN OLD COVEN ⫻ When it became known that she had fallen into the habit of night-stalking, she wasn’t well-liked. It often led to heated arguments when she refused to change her ways. It is likely that her inability to find an agreement with the heads of the Coven played a part in the dissolution.

ROLE IN THE BATTLE AGAINST THE STYGIAN SNAKE ⫻ She gripped the Snake in her phantom hands and sapped it of its strength, helping aid the battle and weaken it.

FLAWS ⫻ Her indecisiveness. She doesn’t want to give in to her thirst or her apparition’s demands wholeheartedly, yet she also doesn’t stop herself or seek help.

She was very young when she had dreams of walking through a dark place, what she would later learn was the Void. One of the times she walked, a being approached her, dark and smothering in its presence. It held out a phantom hand, and she, unknowing of the consequence of her action, held it.

When she awoke, the same apparition, albeit in a smaller form appeared before her. Ts voice was in her mind, and its desires were grappling with her own. They fought, and she managed to draw a figurative line between them, keeping control of herself and her body. However, its incessant thoughts and whispers continued to try and mold her to its will as time went on.

She was the only daughter of a father who was a wealthy businessman, and her mother had passed from illness early on. With a business opportunity presenting itself in St. Portwell, her father moved the family from Paris to St. Portwell. The change was difficult for Alizée, which her Void Heart took full advantage of.

During one particular night, she was battling with her apparition after she refused to use Void Entropy on a young girl, a similar age to her, who was lost in the city. The battle became rather violent and chaotic, with buildings getting knocked out and glass shattering. Luckily, Ashley Stone and a few others found Alizée before the police did, and managed to subdue both her and her apparition before things got out of hand. That was how Alizée made her first introduction with the Coven, and was soon inducted after that.

During the battle with the Stygian Snake, she sapped it of its energy and worked with her Coven to defeat it.

Tensions raised in the time after the great battle, as Alizée slowly changed. Despite being in a supportive environment, the whispers of the Void Heart were getting stronger and stronger. It was the 12th night in a row she had gone night-stalking when Ashely Stone followed her and uncovered her dirty little secret: Alizée was preying on the Blind, harming them, and causing them weeks in the hospital to recover from Void Entropy.

When Ashley confronted Alizée, she merely dismissed her accusations, trying to gaslight her. As Alizée continued to deny Ashley’s accusations, the room became more heated, and eventually ended in a physical fight where everyone intervened, holding the two girls back.

Ashley banished Alizée from the Coven, telling her Alizée wouldn’t be welcomed back until she stopped preying on the Blind. In hot, angry tears, Alizée swore she'd never return, and stormed out of the room. Little did she know those were the last days of the Coven before dissolving.

In the dissolution of the Coven afterward, more angry tears were shed. The Coven had been the one place where she felt she had family, despite their differences. And now, she was left to wander alone, with the apparition’s will crushing her at every given opportunity.

Without much to go off of, she returned to her father’s side and began learning his trade as a businessman. He owned a factory, producing different kinds of products based on the market demands in their city. She began learning more about how to run his business, even going as far as to become his official Junior Vice President when she turned 23. He had said many times he hoped to entrust her with the family business when she was ready. And if her life would be mundane and Blind, this was likely where her path would lead her.

Alas, life for the paranormal was never so cut and dry. Just a few years later, after her 25th birthday, Auri’s call reached Alizée in the form of a sealed letter, stamped in red wax with the seal of the Sycamore Tree Coven. When Alizée read the contents of the letter, she was in shock. Who was targeting them? Why? And how would the remaining Coven protect itself?

Yes, old wounds never healed, and she still held many grudges. But many of the people who were the source of her grudges, namely Ashley Stone… were dead. And death had a funny way of healing old scars, or at least numbing them, near-instantly.

Regardless, it went without saying that, despite their differences, she knew where her loyalties lay and made her way to the Coven’s meeting place, the flower shop.

TYPE ⫻ Aberration (Adjoined)

ABSTRACTION ⫻ Void Light: The seams of the Void that yearn for entropy, sapping strength away.

ABSTRACTION DESCRIPTION ⫻ A purple and dark, smoky light that appears around her being whenever she uses her abilities. Also the main color of the Void Hands. If phantom hands are summoned, there is enough strength in the Void Light to bend steel rebar, which she uses to suppress the struggles of her victims. Both she and the apparition can use Void Light.

Subcategories:
- Void Eyes: Appears as purple irises with a red ring around the pupil. Cosmetic when she uses her Void Hands.
- Void Heart: Her apparition from the Void, usually floating a couple of inches above her shoulder. A ball of void light with Void Eyes. Has a thirst for entropy. Is able to use the Void Hands on a whim, and has been known to use Void Hands on Alizée on occasion when it doesn’t get its way. Being chained to her soul, the Void Heart can immediately take in and absorb any energy she siphons off using Void Entropy. This is how it eats, and it’s always hungry. Being connected to the Void, it has a special affinity for being in the in-between places of things, like dreams. The last time it dream-walked was when it was haunting Alizée before their souls became adjoined. Its haunting desire translates to Alizée’s continuous night-stalking as she ‘haunts’ her victims before siphoning off their energy.
- Void Hands: Claw-like phantom hands, made entirely of Voild Light. Can change in size from regular human-sized hands, to as large as a refrigerator, allowing her to grip humans and smaller apparitions with ease. To be touched by physical Void causes an immediate weakness in the body. Prolonged exposure saps all the energy of the target. Eventually, this is enough to slow and stop the heart, however, due to Emotional-Fields, it does not allow her to stop the heart outright, only bring it near.
- Void Entropy: Any strength that is sapped away by being in contact with her void light causes her to instantly absorb said energy, which can be used to sate the desires of the Void Heart. She must be in physical contact with her victim to sap its strength and energy. This is why her normal attack is to enlarge her hands and hold a victim by their torso with a death-like vice grip. She enjoys it when they try to struggle, but soon enough, white light in the form of energy is siphoned from their being, drawn past the hands, and coalesces through Alizée before being sucked into the cragged jaws of the Void Heart. Due to the nature of their entwined souls, the apparition’s sated thirst translates to her own phantom thirst’s satisfaction.

LIMITS ⫻ Being able to sap a person or thing of its energy does not mean she can outright kill them. The Emotional-Fields prevent her from doing so.

WEAKNESSES ⫻ Accessing the Void Light opens Alizée's eyes to the Void itself... and over time, by utilizing the Void Light, she will begin to see hallucinations of the horrors of the Void. Eldritch abominations and people lost to the Void will appear alongside the mundane universe that Alizée is used to, attacking her mental state and making her doubt what is real and what is fake. The more Alizée (or the Apparition she's adjoined to) uses her abstraction, the worse this effect gets so that she will be functionally blind if she goes all out (as she'll see into the Void). This effect wears off over time, but its effects on her mentally will not. However, sapping away someone else strength and energy also begins to drain away at her - it won't be as dramatic as on the victim, but if she does this a lot, she can stop her own heart. An Abstraction like this will unnerve others and make it difficult for people to trust her.

- TikTok Tribute
- She also speaks French.

MAIN GOAL ⫻ Since meeting the Void Heart, her goal has become to absorb as much energy as possible so Void has the strength to open the gates of heaven, so she can see her loved ones.

PHILOSOPHY ⫻ Loneliness will kill me before the entities do. Is it so bad to still want a friend, even if they might die? I’ll burn the entire world to feel a little comfort, a little warmth.

SECRETS ⫻ She continues to give ‘sacrifices’ to the void to save her own skin.

SEXUALITY ⫻ Too innocent.

FEARS ⫻ She fears the events of her childhood happening again, living every day on a fine wire, fearing the entities that play on her with puppet strings. She fears attracting the wrong attention due to her ‘sweet blood’ and causing a friend, if she had a friend, to perish.

REPUTATION IN OLD COVEN ⫻ Mainly unnoticed. She was known to be sweet, kind, and not speaking much. When there was violence or a disagreement, she usually kept quiet, fearing anyone’s anger on her. She was one of the last members to leave.

ROLE IN THE BATTLE AGAINST THE STYGIAN SNAKE ⫻ She tried throwing white crystal roses at the snake in an attempt to get entities from the void to attack it. However, not many dared to attack such a fearsome foe, and she hid behind Stormy most of the time.

FLAWS ⫻ The belief that she’s right to be vindictive and heartless to her ‘sacrifices’ since the world was heartless to her. The stubbornness and refusal to drop her guard and let someone in, which would resolve a lot of her internal conflicts.

She figured a long while back, at least a few generations, she had some Greek in her lineage. Hence the poignant name. Always got teased for it. However, she’d take the teasing over what… happened. What… she did, any day.

The Hyacinthus family was known to be a family of brooders. Dark colors, dark home, dark expressions. This was many due to one thing, and one thing only. A secret the family kept hidden.

Other families would talk about ‘boogeymen’ and ‘monsters under the bed’. In the Hyacinthus home, these fantasies came to life. Every night, when the lights went out, in the wee hours, the quietus would be disturbed by bloodcurdling screams. Often, the lights would flicker on to expose Layla or her sister half dragged out of bed, a dark creature chewing on their arm.

‘Sweet blood’, it was called. That’s what her father said, anyway. It was a curse of the family, to have blood so sweet so as to attract the denizens of the night.

Layla was given an antique pendant containing a family portrait for her 12th birthday, had a frightening nightmare of being consumed by flowers, and ever since, she discovered she could manifest crystal flowers at will.

They had a unique quality to them, white in color, softly glowing, fragile, and easy to break. What was more interesting was how they changed the behavior of the denizens that would come to visit them - the entities she would one day discover came from the void.

Her sister had been balling from the pain of the bite a monster had given her the night before. Thinking it might help, Layla laid a crystal flower at her sister’s bedside that night. In the morning, her sister… was gone. In her place, a bloody mess, ripped flesh, a near-unrecognisable body.

The mourning in the home continued for days.

Layla blamed herself, and a few nights later, she thought she would join her sister. She created a crystal flower, and laid it at her own beside that night. After a few hours of blissful sleep, she awoke to smoke, fire, and the sound of ripping flesh.

She escaped her burning house. The report from the fire department and police later that night explained how two bodies were discovered, marred beyond being identified, before being set on fire, the fire spreading to the rest of the house.

The entities didn’t touch Layla for an entire month. That’s when she discovered, in a horrifying way, how the roses worked. Every time the denizens started to get antsy, she only had to give someone a rose, and she would be left alone. Little ‘sacrifices’ to appease the entities that haunted her.

When she was a few years older, she was walking the streets alone at night, before she heard screaming and fighting. She came across two girls fighting in the streets, whom she would later learn to be Alizée and Ashley. This was her introduction into the coven, after she tried to offer Alizée a rose, judging her to be the source of the conflict. The voidly being with Alizée immediately bit down on the rose and shattered it, spitting it out and telling Layla to ‘get lost’. Ashley was intrigued, however, and offered to meet with Layla again.

In the battle against the snake, Layla mainly hid behind Stomy and his shields, throwing white crystal roses at the snake to get as many entities to attack it as possible. Only a few showed up who were brave enough to risk it all against such a foe, and unfortunately didn’t do as much damage as Layla would have hoped.

After the fight, there were more and more arguments. Layla was never the source of any. She kept herself very private, you see. She was one of the last members to leave, and did so with a heavy heart.

After the dissolution of the coven, she began experimenting with the white roses. She started kidnapping people no one would miss, and watched the entities tear them apart. If she did this, the length of time the entities would leave her alone lengthened.

Preferring to be awake at night instead of the day, she took a nighttime job at a local gas station to pay for her studio apartment. With the Hyacinthus assets all liquified and life insurance wired to her bank, she essentially took a dead-end job to cover rent and her expenses as she continued her experiments with the white roses and what the entities wanted.

When she heard Auri wanted to bring the coven back together, she told herself she had a night shift to get ready for, and couldn’t possible attend. She didn’t want to get discovered, after all these years. Prolonged contact with people who once knew her could very well put the puzzle pieces together.

However, in her nap before her shift, a certain someone or something came to her in a dream. A flowering white field stained with darkness. A crooked grin, albeit sad, on an orb she recognized from long ago. And a dark hand, outstretched, waiting.

Of course, she took it.

What happened afterward was interesting, to say the least. She lost the ability to make crystal roses. In its place, she gained the powers of the Void Heart.

TYPE ⫻ Adjoined

ABSTRACTION ⫻ Tincture Horrors, the ability to create and deliver poisons through needles. Master of the Hounds, the ability to call and command the hellhounds subservient to the Rill siblings. Smoke's Crossing, the ability to come and go through the Void at a moment's notice.

ABSTRACTION DESCRIPTION ⫻ Layla's abstraction can be broken down into facets:
Tincture Horrors
Master of the Hounds
Smoke's Crossing

Tincture Horrors - The ability to form, summon and create poisons in vials and needles. They are shaped from what appears to be smoke, but they're really sourced from the Void.

Besides being summoned from nothing, there seems to be no other obvious difference between these needles and ordinary needles.

Almost any type of poison can be created to affect apparitions and humans the same. Effects include dizziness, hallucinations, fever, vomiting, numbness, paralysis, and near-death sickness. Emotional-fields prevent these from being outright lethal.

Master of the Hounds - The ability to summon hellhounds, the size of mid-sized dogs, from the Void. There are about 30 hellhounds in total. If injured, the hellhounds will despawn and return to the Void. They can bite, claw, and listen to basic instruction from their masters. If more than one master gives them instruction, they may become confused.

Smoke's Crossing - The ability to cross from the Shimmer to the Void, and back. This is done through the appearance of smoke. The travel itself is instant, but limited to four crossings per day as Layla's mortal form is not able to handle Crossing like apparitions can.

LIMITS ⫻ Tincture Horrors - Emotional-fields prevent the poisons from causing death automatically.
Master of the Hellhounds - If more than one master gives them orders, they will become confused. Emotional-fields prevent their bites from being lethal.
Smoke's Crossing - Layla's mortal form can only handle four Crossings a day.

WEAKNESSES ⫻ Having such an Apparition adjoined to her gradually saps away at her lifespan and lifeforce as it weakens the girl longer they are adjoined. She will constantly feel tired, sickly, and far easier to wound/injure. The vials are fragile, susceptible to magic, and if broken open, they can splash on Layla and get her sick. As beings of the Void, the Hellhounds are like Anti-Matter to the land of reality, and just being in the world will gradually weaken them. They are susceptible to magical attacks as they do extra damage to them, and Layla doesn't directly control them. Finally, the Void is a perilous place full of horrors, and crossing into the Void is incredibly taxing and straining on Layla's body.

MAIN GOAL ⫻ There’s a legend that says, “Enough souls will unlock the gates of paradise.” Void has interpreted this to mean that there’s a path from the void to wherever souls go, and aims to devour as much energy as possible to become strong enough to open the gates.

PHILOSOPHY ⫻ Cut and dry. You are either food, or a passing whim - a toy.

SECRETS ⫻ He covers the pain of losing his wife with his predatorial nature and bloodlust.

SEXUALITY ⫻ N/A, tends to fall in love with his playthings. They remind him of his wife.

FEARS ⫻ Fears the deeper, darker parts of the void. Fears anything happening to his playthings.

REPUTATION IN OLD COVEN ⫻ Was disliked, along with the late Alizée.

ROLE IN THE BATTLE AGAINST THE STYGIAN SNAKE ⫻ Aided the late Alizée in grabbing ahold of the snake and absorbing some of its energy.

FLAWS ⫻ Can become so focused on his own goals that he puts others at risk. The late Alizée is an example of this.

Void lived peacefully in the darkness of the void dimension with his wife. Or at least, as peacefully as one can in the land of nightmares. One day, a war broke out, and his wife got caught by the enemy. He had to watch as the void denizens larger and more fearsome in power as compared to him tore, ripped, and shredded apart his wife.

He was never the same after that.

He sought power, and he sought solace. He knew of a legend passed down by past generations within the void realm revolving around the gates of paradise. Anyone with enough power, and enough energy from souls could open the gates and see those who had passed on. Moved by bitter grief, he began seeking a conduit, a hauntee to tether him to the Shimmer so he could enact his will.

That’s when he found her… the late Alizée. He chose her almost immediately simply because she reminded him of his late wife.

He was the whispering voice in her mind, pushing her to fulfill his agenda. Sometimes strangling her when she was fussy. He tolerated the coven when they showed up and, out of necessity, helped with the battle against the snake. He refuses to admit it to himself, but the camaraderie was… nice. However, that quickly vanished when they interfered with the late Alizée’s night-stalking. It made him furious, and he was happy when Alizée blew up at Ashley and was banished. Less interference with his plans.

The reunion was… surprising, to say the least. He kept an eye on the late Alizée, but it clearly wasn’t enough. His heart was broken a second time when Alizée fell at the battle against the Wolfpack. Losing his tether to the Shimmer, he was left alone in the void to weep, and to wander.

He remembered, a distant memory, of the girl who stumbled across the late Alizée while she was fighting the late Ashley. He peered into the Shimmer, and found her… Layla.

She would do… Yes, she would do splendidly.

TYPE ⫻ Apparition

ABSTRACTION ⫻ Void Light: The thirst for entropy.

ABSTRACTION DESCRIPTION ⫻ Void’s abstraction covers his entire person, but he affects the world with the hands he summons. Similar to the late Alizée’s, his hands can change in size, can bend rebar, and absorb energy, or life force.

Dimensional Portal: Void is able to create a portal between the Shimmer and the Void under specific circumstances.

1) Tethering/Adjoining - Void moves from the Void to the dreams of the target he wants to adjoin to, then to the Shimmer. He is unable to go back or stop the process of tethering to someone.

2) Severing Tether/Adjoinment - In the event a hauntee dies, the tether is shattered, and the Void opens up a portal meant to reclaim Void. He is unable to resist this process, as he is not strong enough to survive in the Shimmer without getting knocked back into the Void when he is not adjoined.

3) Travel - For the purpose of traveling between dimensions, Void can open a portal. This is how one day he will fulfill his promise to Layla to let her see the 'gates of paradise', only accessible from the Void. The limit to traveling is that opening a portal takes at least 2 rounds of posts before it opens.

LIMITS ⫻ He is unable to kill a person outright by siphoning off their energy due to the emotional-fields.

WEAKNESSES ⫻ Accessing the Void Light opens his eyes to the Void itself... and over time, by utilizing the Void Light, he will begin to see hallucinations of the horrors of the Void. Eldritch abominations and people lost to the Void will appear alongside the mundane universe that he is used to, attacking his mental state and making him doubt what is real and what is fake. The more he uses his abstraction, the worse this effect gets so that he will be functionally blind if she goes all out (as he'll see into the Void). This effect wears off over time, but its effects on him mentally will not. An Abstraction like this will unnerve others and make it difficult for people to trust him.

[

MAIN GOAL ⫻ She's doing what she was told to do so by her boss: keep an eye on the movements of the coven. Her own goal, however, is to spy on her own terms. She dreams of being friends with the Coven once more, and is slowly working towards being what she was ten years ago - the spying friend.

PHILOSOPHY ⫻ If she wants something, she'll get it. She keeps her head held up high, honored by what she has earned in her life. She only lowers her head to her father and her boss. It's okay to gently brush others aside if there's an obstacle in the way of what she wants. Brush, or get someone else to violently shove them away. She is used to fighting for her own opportunities, and believes anything can be done with a little luck and hard, bloody work.

SECRETS ⫻ It's the nature of the mafia to have one's hands dirty, and Luna is no exception. Beyond this, she is somewhat addicted to Mother Cards eyes, and tries to keep this under wraps.

SEXUALITY ⫻ Too innocent.

FEARS ⫻ The disappointment of her father, or her boss. Of failing her family. Of really amounting to be nothing other than a ‘snake’ in the eyes of her covenmates.

REPUTATION IN OLD COVEN ⫻ Sweet, humble, kind and charismatic. At least, until it was discovered that Luna was trying to steal coven members for her mafia. Then she was regarded as a bit of a snake, and an outcast.

ROLE IN THE BATTLE AGAINST THE STYGIAN SNAKE ⫻ She fought side-by-side with her covenmates, attacking the snake and its minions with bullets and sword swipes.

FLAWS ⫻ A messed up moral code where the taking of a life can be commonly justified by any means. Blind loyalty to her family, even at the cost of her friends and coven.

Luna's known the mafia her whole life. Family ties were always tight, as her father was specially asked by the House of Cards Mafia to oversee the accounting and management of the casino before it burned down.

Growing up in St. Portwell, there was a night she suffered in a drive-by shooting, killing her mother as she protected her father. The anguish Luna suffered as a result attracted the attention of an apparition known as The White Suit. Faceless, freakishly tall, spindly, and wearing a suit with impeccable taste, the White Suit took pity on the young girl and gave her power for revenge.

Luna was 15 when she spent her years clashing against the opposing mafia who sought the life of her father, and was responsible for her mother's death. She earned her place as a made member of the House of Cards, despite her age.

It was shortly after the conclusion of the war that a new threat permeated the streets of St. Portwell. The Sygian Snake. To protect her family, and serve her boss and her father, Luna headed out to try and stop the snake. It was in one of these clashes against its minions that Luna met Alizée and Void. It was through this connection that Luna was inducted into the Sycamore Coven.

Luna tried to keep her ‘business’ and her coven separate, but the congregation of paranormal abstractions attracted the eye of Phantasia Vorpal, who began asking Luna to spy on them, and learn from them. So she posed as a friend as she made notes of everything.

After the defeat of the Stygian Snake, the coven was falling into quick disrepair. Upon being told this, Phantasia (Mother Cards) asked Luna to see if any coven members would be interested in being hired. Luna tried to be discreet as she asked coven members. However, word got out that she was trying to drag people off into ‘dirty business’, and she was quickly exiled.

Before she left, she managed to entice Alizée, who worked with the House of Cards Mafia as hired muscle for a few years.

Without the coven, Luna focused herself on serving her mafia, keeping her father and her boss happy. When she turned 25, she was rewarded with the status of Captain.

At Auri's invitation to return, after 10 years of the coven being disbanded, Luna disregarded it. Instead, she's been taking orders from Mother Cards to resume spying on the coven once again, except this time from the shadows.

TYPE ⫻ Adjoined

ABSTRACTION ⫻ White Suit's Power

ABSTRACTION DESCRIPTION ⫻

Luna's White Suit's Power can be broken down into facets:

White Wings - Made of white energy, these wings sprout from Luna's back, faintly glow, and allow Luna to take flight.

White Construct - Any small, handheld construct that's simple in form can be created from Luna's white energy. This includes swords and guns, which are some of Luna's favourites. However, she has been known to simply create balls of light to see, or rope to type up hostages.

White Armour - Made of white energy, Luna can conjure plate armour from head to toe, including a helmet. It is strong like steel, and packs a punch when she throws down. This protects from physical and apparition attacks. If the attack is strong enough, like a bullet, it can shatter her armour, causing Luna to need to recreate it, which is physically taxing.

LIMITS ⫻ Piercing attacks like bullets can shatter her armour. It takes energy to recreate the armour, which can quickly exhaust Luna.

WEAKNESSES ⫻ The primary weakness of the White Suit's power is the color black. Against anything black colored - whether magic or mundane - the constructs will crumble and warp against it, and anything colored black will shred through her constructs like it's nothing. Creating the constructs puts a strain on her, and larger constructs, or after a prolonged period of fighting, will cause intense headaches, nausea, vomiting, and other fun things.

She has a photo album of all the instances she has spied on the coven. This includes a photo when Alizée was shot. Bird's eyes shots of the Temple's outsides, of Dairy Queen. The gazebo. The burning church…

She also speaks Japanese.

Her themesong

MAIN GOAL ⫻ She just wants to sell her books and be an artist in peace. She wants her friends close, and she wants to forget about the sadness and horrors of the Snake and the coven's troubled past. She wants everyone to be safe, and for the serial killer plaguing them to be caught, so she can get back to doing what's important - finishing her next poetry book for the publishing office.

PHILOSOPHY ⫻ Live and let live, peace and be peaceful, do good unto others as you would like them to do good unto you, increase your good karma and good things will happen. She is an extreme idealist with a pure heart.

SECRETS ⫻ She feels guilty about her weed habit and occasional graffiti rampage around the city.

SEXUALITY ⫻ Too innocent.

FEARS ⫻ Death by serial killer, death by brutality, anything involving pain or extreme lengths of pain, scary situations where she doesn't have any control.

REPUTATION IN OLD COVEN ⫻ She was considered to be nearly everyone's friend. Those that didn't like her saw her as somewhat of a dreamer and weedaholic. Those that did, well, she supposed they saw the same thing.

ROLE IN THE BATTLE AGAINST THE STYGIAN SNAKE ⫻ Aislin used the environment, like power cables, to electrify and deal damage to the Snake.

FLAWS ⫻ Her idealism turns into naivete, which can make it hard to see when she is being taken advantage of or is in a dangerous situation.

Aislin had a conventional childhood. At least, as conventional as one could have within the walls of an orphanage. She spent most of her free time drawing on whatever she could get her hands on, sometimes the walls. The pristine white walls. No matter how many times the woman of the orphanage tried to discipline her, she just couldn't shake the habit, and couldn't give it up.

Despite her free spirit, Aislin attracted the attention of her adoptive parents, Mira and David Rose, who found Aislin's talent for art endearing. At the age of 7, she was adopted into a household of two business executives. They showered her with love, yes, but being the only child of two very busy parents left Aislin with lots of time alone. She had to learn how to bear the silence by herself.

It was then, at the age of 14, that her world shattered and changed forever. She had gotten separated from her parents at a late-night fireworks festival, wandering alone in the dark. A girl with white hair, strange orb hovering around her, reached out and pulled small Aislin into a dark alley. None other than Alizée, using the phantom hands on Aislin's struggling body while lifeforce was sapped.

This attack caused Aislin's Kindling event. Being unable to defend herself, it wasn't until Drake Blackmore stepped onto the scene and chased Alizée away that Aislin was saved. The two stayed in touch, and Drake was the first to hear of Aislin's abstraction development. Drake invited Aislin to the coven, promising Alizée would stay away. Aislin simply shrugged, said it was all under the bridge, and became the newest Sycamore member.

This was at the beginning of the war with the Stygian Snake.

Aislin discovered a lot about her new powers during the war with the snake, and cheered with the rest of the coven when the snake was finally defeated.

It was a bit awkward yes, seeing Alizée again. But Aislin told herself that everyone was on the same side now, that she could forgive and forget. Start over fresh. Yes. Even become friends. Alizée was just behaving naturally anyways, right?

She became fast friends with many coven members, including Alizée, Layla, and Kali Mahendra. She was usually the voice of reason when people got into arguments, and she tried her best to keep everyone together as coven members began to fight more and more amongst themselves.

Alas, it wasn't enough, and she eventually left along with the rest as the coven dissolved. It was a few years later that she really started getting into her art phase, and she did what any sane paranormal artist would do in St. Portwell - join up with the 317. The next few years passed peacefully through artworks, printed t-shirts, books of poetry, and other printed memorabilia with her art on it. She has managed to earn almost six figures a year through royalties, online store space, and attending festivals with her own booth. And when she feels devious, she takes her spray paint to the streets and leaves beautiful graffiti on the buildings of St. Portwell.

She was content to spend her time as such, happy to forget about the shadow of the Snake. However, the call from Auri changed everything again. Aislin didn't attend the first few meetings as she was in denial. There was nothing wrong. She was safe.

But when Kali ended being one of the murder victims, Aislin knew she could ignore this no longer. When Alizée became a victim in a street brawl, Aislin had to question just how safe the paranormal of St. Portwell were.

Empowered by a love for her coven, and an urge to protect so no one else would have to die, Aislin has decided to return once again.

TYPE ⫻ Adept

ABSTRACTION ⫻ Animation. The ability to give life to inanimate objects. Red/Gold Lux, channeler is a worn stuffed penguin.

ABSTRACTION DESCRIPTION ⫻ The ability to give crude life to inanimate objects. This means that anything that Aislin creates a mental connection with, she can give a program, or a set, to follow. For example, she can connect with power cables, and cause them to snap at one end, with the cables spinning and dancing in the air. This wound use Set 1, Play, as its not meant to hurt anyone. However, if an intruder charged Aislin in the next moment, she could change that set to 4, Attack, and the power cable would try to restrain the intruder. Emotional-fields make it so no animation can deal immediately lethal damage to an intruder.

Each animation gains its own bit of sentience for a short period of time.

She has learned to program animations with various sets, which are listed below.

Set 1 - Play - This is the default set given to animations when they are created without purpose other than to amuse. They will appear harmless, curious in nature, and innocent.

Set 2 - Watch - This set makes the animation act like a sentinel, doing rounds where Aislin is and keeping watch. If the sentinel notices anything amiss, it will alert Aislin right away.

Set 3 - Defend - This set makes the animation defend Aislin in every which way possible from an intruder. It will even sacrifice its own life to ensure the safety of its maker.

Set 4 - Attack - This makes the animation attack in every possible way against an intruder or offender. It will sacrifice its own integrity and life to deliver damage.

Set 5 - Listen - When the need changes on the fly, Aislin will program an animation with Set 5, where an animation will have no directive except for the thoughts going on in Aislin's mind. The most risky, and most versatile type of set in Aislin's arsenal.

LIMITS ⫻ Emotional-fields prevent animations from immediately killing an intruder. Emotional-fields also prevent people and living things from becoming animated. The heavier or larger an object is, the more energy it takes to animate it. She cannot animate corpses. Animations require focus - if Aislin were to fall asleep while an animation is running around, the animation would become inanimate. She can only animate 1-2 animations at a time.

WEAKNESSES ⫻ By animating objects, Aislin donates a bit of her life force to animate them and keep them alive. By doing this, she makes herself weaker and weaker; the more significant the animating, the more life force is required, and thus, the weaker Aislin will get. By willingly dispelling the animation spell, she can return her life force to her and return to normal. However, if the Animation is suddenly destroyed, the life force goes with it. If she uses too much of her life force, she may kill herself using her own magic. Her animations are weak against Elemental-Magic, such as fire, electricity, ice, etc., and are far easier to destroy by it.

MAIN GOAL ⫻ Immediately, Eksa's goal in life is to help others. Though, in truth, she isn't really the kind to stew too much on what she should be doing with her life - but being that she has achieved a healthy education that now allows her to operate in pharmaceuticals, this aforementioned goal could be considered well underway. If she were to really think hard on it though, she could suppose her life has other purposes. She has always had an interest in the paranormal world she's involved with, but has had little extra time to explore it to a deeper extent. Acclimating herself further to such a realm could be a worthwhile adventure.

PHILOSOPHY ⫻ Eksa's philosophy is straightforward, yet compassionate. Oftentimes, things just.. happen. Not particularly because they're supposed to, or because someone or something deemed it so - but because they just do. And it can be unfair, and often is. But no matter what happens, perseverance is key. There is always a path ahead, no matter how hidden or treacherous. And there is always a second chance. And there is always someone out there who will stand by your side. Somewhere.

SECRETS ⫻ Eksa has.. a complicated relationship with who she is. Her personal deformities haunt her, and make her extremely self-conscious. Gazes and glances unnerve her, and talking in front of groups is.. unpleasant, to say the least. She doesn't trust others not to judge her for her distorted self, and as such, tries not to get too attached to people. Additionally, Eksa blames herself, in part, for her mother's passing.. if only she had been more careful, or.. been better, her mother would still be alive.

SEXUALITY ⫻ Eksa is bisexual, with a lean towards women. Though she could never see somebody liking her back, given her condition.

FEARS ⫻ Eksa is plighted with a few irrational fears, due to her past disturbances. She's an insomniac - she dreads sleeping, as she once suffered a coma that left her unable to help her mother in her most difficult moments - a fact that has lead to countless sleepless nights. The thought of never waking up terrifies her, as well. She also has a bit of an aversion to open flames -- not as severely as she fears sleeping, but enough to make her want to distance herself physically from such things. Additionally, she also fears that she will never be seen as normal. After her accident she has, in part of her own doing, never really re-acquired any friends. This has altered her perception of herself.

REPUTATION IN OLD COVEN ⫻ Eksa' reputation with the old coven was pretty amicable. She was a friendly, adventurous sort with a fondness for learning about the other coven members and their paranormal features. She wasn't one to make many enemies.

ROLE IN THE BATTLE AGAINST THE STYGIAN SNAKE ⫻ Eksa's abilities as a black-lux adept were rather helpful in the battle against the stygian snake. With a penchant for manipulating apparitions, Eksa was quite influential in their skirmishes with the snake's abominables and apparitions.

FLAWS ⫻ Eksa is, moreso than others, secluded. She has trust issues, is quite self-conscious of what others think of her, and has made no real bonds with anybody since she was a teen. Her issues and anxieties have warped her since her childhood and have her sheltering her adventurous, fun-loving nature in a shroud of cagey uncertainty. Furthermore, she has been secluded from the paranormal world for a time, in favor of her education and work. She has, however, ensured her own paranormal abilities never get too dull.

The tale of Eksa's life stems from a simple, if tragic, set of circumstances. The tale of two lovers - Ava Thresh and Mac Grieves - who knew no true love. In truth, Eksa's conception was unintended, brought on by the aforementioned two while Mac was visiting The States from Scotland. After his departure, it was brought to his and Ava's attention that she was pregnant. But where Mac had no intention of being a father, Ava was excited -- she had always wanted a daughter.

But fate would have it that she was ill-suited for motherhood. Her history of addiction and substance abuse wasn't something that was so easily cleansed by the pure-hearted desire to be a mother - no, in fact, the stresses of pregnancy and impending motherhood were vectors through which she would collapse to her old vices. She would, once again, enter a state in her life where her cares were few and irrational. Which left Eksa, newly-born, effectively motherless.. But she was fortunate enough that Mac, hesitant as he was to be involved in paternity, was not without a heart. He was her biological father, afterall, and he would see to it that she wasn't left to the mercy of the system, or some relative he'd never known.

And so Eksa grew up under his care in Glasgow, Scotland. Into her teens she would be seen-to by Mac Grieves and the company of his estate. Mac was a wealthy man who, although initially reluctant to raise a child, had a big heart, and accepted nothing but the best for his daughter. Their home - a mansion. Her schooling - the best. Her hobbies - droned over by her father, when he had the time. Luckily for her, his time was often consumed by his work as some sort of medical professional, as he said. So, while the circumstances behind her birth were perhaps contemptible, she grew up cared-for better than most. And this peacefulness of sorts lasted well into her teen years -- until she received unexpected correspondence - from her mother.

Over the almost-fifteen years of Eksa's life, she had never met Ava. Mac, in protection of his daughter who had been endangered by Ava's actions, hadn't allowed it. It was something daughter and father had argued over sometimes, but it had never really been a real issue, or something that even mattered that much, until now. With the correspondence came a request - Ava wanted to see Eksa, and not just for a meet-up. She wanted to be back in the girl's life. After almost an entire year of arguing, bickering, and the arduous convincing of Eksa to Mac, he finally folded. The decision was reluctantly made - the girl could, temporarily, move to The States and spend a semester with her mother.

And so she did - and one semester turned into several, even.

Eksa moved to St. Portwell, Oregon, and she.. liked it. It was weird, living with a woman who she.. never really knew, and was supposed to be her mother, but.. she did like it, nonetheless. The States were an adjustment, sure. But she grew to form a bond with her mom than one might expect of a daughter-mother combo. And while the schooling adjustments were equally, if not moreso, difficult, she found the people of St. Portwell to make good friends.

And even amongst all the acclimations she had to do, there was something more important, still. She had to hide her paranormal status from her mother. Being paranormal was something that she had ascertained only a year or two before moving to the U.S., triggered through a kindling event stemming from an exceedingly heated argument with her father over whether she should really see her mother. Fortunately, Mac himself had a hand in the world of the paranormal, and was there to guide her. Now was the first time she would have her own independent responsibility over her paranormal side, away from her father. And what better time was it to find similarly-afflicted individuals? It was during this period at St. Portwell that she'd make a number of advancements in her own paranormal abilities, as well as a few friends.

And for a time, her life was pretty happy, if weird. But fate always had its ways to turn the tables.

Towards the end of two years spent in The States, events took place that would quickly spiral Eksa's life into tragedy. The town was plagued by a paranormal enemy the likes of which Eksa could never have imagined - something that would spell the end of all she grew to know, should it not be stopped. But there were those who wouldn't just stand aside for such a fate- and those few managed to form a group called The Sycamore Tree Coven, which Eksa was recruited into. And for the purpose of stopping this enemy, Eksa made a sacrifice that would scar her for the rest of her life. In the battle against The Stygian Snake, Eksa fought hard.. and fell harder. She, at a point, managed to find herself outmatched by one of the Snake's abominables, and was struck unconscious in the midst of a burning building. She was fortunate that, in the chaos, someone was able to get her out of the danger, but by that time, the damage was done. Smoke inhalation and heat-damage had her hanging onto her life by a thread.

After then, she was rendered unconscious for months. Her father, upon hearing the news, immediately had her seized from wherever she was being treated and took her under the care of one of his own personal facilities - though not before doctors at a St. Portwell hospital deemed that Eksa's circumstances seemed insurmountably grim. Which was simply too much for her mother to handle.

By the time Eksa awoke, months later, her mother had fallen to her vices once again. And this time, they took her life. Eksa was stricken with overwhelming grief at the news, even as she spent the next few months in physical rehabilitation. It took some time for her to recover, both physically and mentally, but she could only imagine that her mother would wish the best for her and would want nothing more than her to live on.

And that she did.

In fact, Eksa was far from one to allow her tragedies to define her. Even before her final steps to recovery, the girl took it upon herself to continue her education - and her education was promising. She had always been a bright girl, but the vigor with which she applied herself after she got back into schooling was.. galvanizing, in a sense. She continued her path from where she left off - seeking virtuosity in the field of medicinal sciences, like her father.

And like her father, she would succeed. She was a quick learner, deft worker, and attentive colleague as she worked her way into the field as she, after many years, graduated from a Scottish university with several degrees - a doctorate among them. And from there she achieved her "dream profession" of becoming a pharmaceutical chemist.

Present day, Eksa enjoys a comfy lifestyle and a flexible job, and lives peacefully in Glasgow, Scotland.

Though, with a recent revelation brought to her attention by Auri Auclair, who managed to track her down, the members of her former coven were being.. murdered. Why? Who knew. But she doubted that someone so unhinged as to systematically kill a group of people would be hindered by the fact that she no longer lived in the states. No- that was little comfort, and as such, it seemed she'd be revisiting the states once again, to meet up with Auri and whoever else she'd gathered. The idea of getting brutally murdered wasn't one that was on her bucket list, so it was up to them to figure out how to stop it.

TYPE ⫻ Adept

ABSTRACTION ⫻ Black Lux. Eksa's channeler is her mother's medallion.

ABSTRACTION DESCRIPTION ⫻ Eksa is a Black-Lux Adept with a strong aptitude for manipulating apparitions. She has dabbled very lightly in the black lux's necromantic side, but never developed it much.



LIMITS ⫻ Eksa's Dominion is a spell which requires most, and sometimes all, of her focus, and engages her in a metaphysical battle with the target. This means that particularly strong-willed apparitions can overcome its effects, in which case her most potent spell is rendered ineffective. Amplified Sealing, due to it simply enhancing a sealing ritual, is obviously useless without the prep time required to set up the process. Seek Apparitions, while wide-sweeping and thorough, requires Eksa to define specific parameters -- she must look for a specific known apparition, an apparition capable of a specific feat, or an apparition with which she or her companions are partially familiar. The Black Pact is a spell limited only by its application - it serves only to ensure one keeps their word, even if they don't intend to. All participants, of course, must be willing and knowledgeable of all caveats, and are supernaturally informed of such things once a proposal is made. The Black Shroud is limited mostly by its specificity as a tool against apparitions. In any other capacity, it is useless. It is also noticeable that Eksa cannot use Dominion while using the Black Shroud for obscurity.

WEAKNESSES ⫻ Below are weaknesses for each of Eksa's spells.

Eksa is accompanied, without fail, by a companion-apparition.

_{Eksa's banner color: 23527C
Eksa's signature color: 3277b3}

MAIN GOAL ⫻ Linqian’s primary long term goal has always been to fall in love and start her own family (surprising many, as she isn’t particularly maternal or even nice) eventually - though right now the thought of settling down terrifies her. Her shorter term goal is to see her younger brother through college and into independence before she can concentrate on her own life. Currently, her goal is to destroy the piece of shit that killed her twin brother.

PHILOSOPHY ⫻ Family is more important than anything else. Linqian believes in always prioritising her family over any other relationships and sometimes herself. The bond between close family is incredibly important in her eyes - but she also doesn’t believe it extends to distant relatives. She also thinks that others opinions (outside of family) don’t mean shit, if they disapprove of what you do then fuck them. People that hate you are just jealous, and if anyone causes you problems you should just cut them out.

SECRETS ⫻ How she always felt inadequate next to her much smarter twin brother. Sometimes she resented him. She has insecurities that come from this, deep down not feeling good enough, but she’d never let anyone know that.

SEXUALITY ⫻ Pansexual, with commitment issues. Linqian had a difficult breakup with a former coven member, which was the breaking point for her leaving the coven, and then was cheated on by her next partner. She tends to keep things casual nowadays, and has slept around quite a lot the last few years - but never with the same person twice.

FEARS ⫻ Linqian’s worst fear has already come true - losing her twin brother. Second to this is losing the only family she has left, her younger brother. She’s scared of commitment. She also has a much more mundane fear of dogs.

REPUTATION IN OLD COVEN ⫻ Linqian’s reputation was mixed. On one hand, she was friendly and charming, especially when she first joined the coven. On the other hand she was fickle, quick to decide she disliked someone, and incredibly argumentative. There are plenty of members she got into heated fights with, and others that she gave the cold shoulder for seemingly no reason. While some might have neutral or positive opinions on her, there aren’t any that saw her as a close friend - any friendships she had were surface level only. Linqian left the coven explosively after being broken up with by her partner of the time. She wasn’t there when it dissolved, but caused enough fights after the battle that she definitely had a hand in it.

ROLE IN THE BATTLE AGAINST THE STYGIAN SNAKE ⫻ Linqian fought against the Stygian Snake’s minions, and the apparition itself, from relatively early on. While she was nowhere near the strongest, she’d had her abstraction long enough to know how to use it and help. In the final battle she helped weaken it, lowering her body temperatures to deadly levels and using that to damage and fight its darkness constructs.

FLAWS ⫻ Linqian is quick to change her opinions, especially in relation to other people or her emotions. One day she can be incredibly nice to someone, the next giving them the cold shoulder due to some perceived slight. She’s incredibly ‘hot and cold’ when it comes to relationships outside of her family. She also doesn’t hold back her opinions, often being quite blunt and harsh. She won’t back down on her opinions and is incredibly argumentative if someone disagrees with her. Once she loses her cool it's difficult for her to see reason, and normally it was her twin brother who reeled her in. For all she would deny it, she was incredibly dependent on her twin, and now that she’s gone it’s left her struggling.

Linqian was born in Tangshan, China just ten minutes after her twin brother, Jinhai. She spent the first seven years of her life there, relatively peacefully - until suddenly her dad had a falling out with his parents, cutting off all contact. Their family moved to Pointe-Noire, in the Republic of Congo, where her mum’s family was. The sudden move was a shock to Linqian and not one she took well, being in a different country speaking a language she struggled with, surrounded by family members she’d never met. Her and Jinhai grew even closer than before, practically becoming inseparable.

Half a year later her younger brother was born, then less than two years later they were moving again. This time to St Portwell in the USA. Yet another new country and language, but this time it was only their family of five. It took a while to settle in, and for a long time Linqian missed her original home, but eventually she managed and all was peaceful again.

Then at age fifteen Jinhai had his kindling event - and immediately after it he used his abstraction to freeze Linqian’s hair when she’d just come out of a shower, triggering her kindling event. It was fucking weird talking to a great grandmother she’d never met, who was convinced that she should already know about Lux and how their family line could use it. Unlike Jinhai, who’d taken to it easily, Linqian was freaked out and confronted her parents over it. If she should know, they should too, right?

Turned out, both her mum and dad came from a long line of Adepts - in fact, it was because of this their dad had cut off his family and thus been severed from his lux. His parents believed in the purity of their line, trying to keep marriage between those of red lux only. On the other hand, her mum’s family was much more relaxed - most of her relatives were green lux but there were a few mixed just like Linqing and Jinhai. For some reason they’d made the decision to not teach their children about this, even though their mum still had her abstraction. So suddenly Linqing was not only in the midst of puberty and petty highschool drama, but she also had magic. Her and Jinhai started practising together whenever they had time - frustratingly, as with all things, he was better than her.

Then, the Stygian Snake appeared. Linqian’s dad, who was only one-eye-open now, was enthralled by it and tried to kill the rest of his family. Her mother used her abstraction to stop him, sacrificing herself in the process so Linqian and her brothers could get away. While fleeing they bumped into a group called the Sycamore Tree coven. Jinhai made the decision there and then to join, which Linqian followed (reluctantly). Their brother, only one eye open and eight years old, was sent to temporarily live with a distant relative in a different city.

Linqian used her abstraction to participate in each battle with the Stygian Snake and its apparitions, primarily focusing on taking out the apparitions and thralls it created. She was always in a group with Jinhai - and always following his decisions over others. He was intelligent, and one of the group members who took part in planning with the information provided by those more knowledgeable about magic (namely Britney). Linqian, on the other hand, was there to help with the fight and cause unnecessary problems.

Somehow, in amongst all this Linqian managed to find love with another coven member. She started to drift from Jinhai, spending time with her partner in the small moments in between battling the Stygian Snake’s minions. It was her first relationship and she fell hard very quickly. It caused tension in her relationship with her brother, which they resolved after multiple arguments and before the final battle.

On the day of the eclipse Linqian helped defeat the Stygian Snake by manipulating her body temperature to deadly cold levels, using this to distract and weaken it to help Ashley deal the finishing blow, even when it required her to get close enough to touch it - sustaining injuries in the process. She was drained and hurt after the battle, barely aware of the apparition being sealed and agreeing to have her memory wiped. Then, she joined the brand new coven afterwards.

Linqian played a big part in the petty arguments and fights the coven members had afterwards, and had no interest in going after other apparitions. They’d already done enough, surely? Honestly, she was only still there because of her partner and her brother still holding some interest in it.

Then, her partner suddenly broke up with her - over text on the day of a meeting no less. Angrier than she’d been in a long time Linqian confronted them when the coven met up, and what started out as petty insults and angry words turned into her being practically dragged out by Jinhai when she tried to use her abstraction to burn her ex. She never went back. She probably would’ve been kicked out anyway, and the coven dissolved only a month later.

Linqian moved on - well, as much as she could when her parents had died. She dropped out of highschool to start working, first in supermarkets then in bars when she was old enough. Together her and Jinhai moved for his college, and their younger brother moved back in with them now that they were legal adults. It was difficult, but between her job and Jinhai working part time around his degree they made it work.

Finally, after years of being the main breadwinner of the family, her brother graduated his law degree and passed his bar exam. Her younger brother was finally in college too. From now on things would be easier for Linqian. She wouldn’t have to work herself to the bone. The night after her brother got a job at a well known law firm she went to work with this knowledge, more relaxed than she had been for a long time, and looking forward to a drink with him once she was done.

Instead she came home to his unmoving body in their living room, blood staining the ugly cream carpet. He had been stabbed to death, and the only pointer towards who’d done it was a wolf idol she found hidden in his bedroom.

Linqian lived in a daze for a week after that, sorting out everything that needed to be done when someone died, and continuing as if she hadn’t lost one of the most important people in her life. It was as if she wasn’t quite there. She felt emotionally numb, but also incredibly volatile at the same time.

When Auri reached out to her about the string of murders that were happening - murders including her brother - Linqian didn’t hesitate to return. Under any other circumstance she’d decline (especially with the risk of seeing her ex again), but not for this. She needed to find whatever had done this, and make sure it died just like her brother had.

TYPE ⫻ Adept

ABSTRACTION ⫻ Red & Green Lux. Channeler: her mother’s wedding ring

ABSTRACTION DESCRIPTION ⫻ Linqian is a relatively experienced red and green lux user, with a specialisation towards temperature manipulation. However she’s not been able to spend much time on her spells the past ten years due to looking after her family. She has a still undiscovered affinity towards fire and more advanced self transformation, which she’s only touched the surface of.


LIMITS ⫻


WEAKNESSES ⫻

Nothing

MAIN GOAL ⫻ To be free of the apparition he’s adjoined to. After that he just wants to live his life, enjoying all the things he was unable to - spending time with his family, playing soccer again and just using a phone without worrying that he’ll destroy it.

PHILOSOPHY ⫻ Live life as if everyday could be your last. Luca has always focused on living life to the fullest, without getting dragged down by the small things. This has only grown stronger when they realised how short their life might be. They believe in focusing on the good and in enjoying himself, rather than the inevitable end. Because everyone dies eventually, some just sooner than others.

SECRETS ⫻ Luca’s biggest secret is his shortened lifespan, and how ill his abstraction has made him. He keeps on a strong front as if it isn’t slowly eating him from the inside. He hasn’t told any of his family, because how could he even begin to explain it? He also hides that sometimes he feels that it's all pointless. This is a feeling he tries to hide from even himself, shoving it deep down everytime it rears its ugly head.

SEXUALITY ⫻ Probably attracted to men, but Luca has never had the chance to be in a relationship. When he was younger he was struggling with his gender, and now he can’t get physically close to anyone without hurting them.

FEARS ⫻ The Rot possessing them. They can constantly feel it prodding their mind, looking for a weak spot to take advantage of. They fear it more than dying, though they also fear dying like most people do. They also fear harming their loved ones, especially their family.

REPUTATION IN OLD COVEN ⫻ Neutral, or slightly positive. Luca joined the coven late, a short time before the final battle. He was helpful and friendly which would’ve given the others a good impression of him but also standoffish as he learned the effects of his abstraction. He stuck with the old coven until it dissolved and while he wasn’t contributing to the petty squabbles his attempted positivity didn’t help towards the end.

ROLE IN THE BATTLE AGAINST THE STYGIAN SNAKE ⫻ Luca joined the coven late, but from then he was very useful in the battle against the Stygian Snake. His abstraction was one that allowed him to directly weaken the emotions fueling apparitions and the Stygian Snake itself through touching them. With this he was able to help them defeat and seal the Stygian Snake on the day of the eclipse.

FLAWS ⫻ Luca has absolutely no filter. He says what he thinks, whether positive or negative. This can come across as blunt and is incredibly tactless. He hurts others often because of this, regardless of his intentions. He is almost toxically positive. Luca hides difficult emotions from even himself, burying them deep down so he doesn’t have to think about them, ignoring all his problems. He can often invalidate others emotions because he doesn’t understand why they’d dwell on the negative. As he’s grown older Luca has become more self sacrificial, and become worse at looking after himself. He’ll neglect his health frequently and in a situation where sacrificing himself would save others, he’d probably do it. While generally optimistic and cheerful, Luca can be somewhat erratic thanks to the apparition adjoined to him that’s constantly trying to corrupt him mentally. This mostly manifests in sudden mood swings and acting outside of his normal, especially under stressful situations since he’s essentially always under mental stress.

Luca was born in Brazil, but his parents moved to St Portwell, and the USA, when he was only two for work. Luca has very little memory of his home country, and has only visited a couple of times as a child.

From a young age, Luca knew that he wasn’t who he was born as. His parents called him Isabela, but that wasn’t right. He didn’t have the language to explain it then so he settled for being a tomboy, refusing to wear anything girly and making everyone call him El - it was slightly less feminine, at least. It wasn’t until his teenagers that he began to figure it all out. He wasn’t a girl like everyone thought he was. He wasn’t really a boy either, but he was closer to that than a girl. He settled on somewhere in between and the name Luca. Just, he didn’t have the confidence to tell anyone.

Luca was fifteen when the Stygian Snake’s rampage began, something he was very unaware about until a week before the eclipse. It was just another day for Luca, heading home from school, when he was attacked by a group of Apparitions. He was thrown to the ground and almost killed there but a girl from a few years above him tried to defend him… Before getting injured herself. Both Luca and this girl, Olivia Ruiz, were saved by Britney Williams. Luca passed out from shock.

When he woke up, his entire world had changed. There was something else inside of him, whispering to him. When he grabbed his phone it turned to dust in his hands. Good, goaded the voice in Luca’s head. Destroy everything. Confused and scared, Luca managed to find the girl, Britney, who had saved him. She explained everything to him - that magic existed, that she was part of a coven protecting the city and that a thing called an apparition (which called itself the rot) had adjoined itself to him while he was injured. She invited him to join the Sycamore Tree coven, to help defeat the Stygian Snake that was attacking the city. Partly out of gratitude, and partly out of not knowing what else to do, Luca joined the Sycamore Tree coven. It was the first place he could truly be himself - being Luca, not a girl, from the start.

In the short time he was part of the coven, Luca threw himself into helping. He learned his abstraction quickly, figuring out that he could weaken apparitions and destroy abominables, though he wasn’t sure why. He didn’t dwell too much on anything outside of using it to help the coven and on the day of the eclipse he used his abstraction to weaken the Stygian Snake so that Ashley could stab it with the Apparition Killer. He had his memory wiped with everyone else, and was glad it was over.

He could live peacefully now, right? Except he still had an apparition attached to him - one constantly trying to get into his mind and whispering to him. The uncontrollable nature of his abstraction was more obvious too. He destroyed everything he touched, and everything around him slowly decayed. He felt weaker too, but he put that down to exhaustion.

Luca couldn’t exactly live a normal life like this.

So he stuck with the coven, hoping they could help him. He grew closer with Olivia, the girl who’d defended him what had felt like a very long time ago, who was now in a similar situation to him. They had a shared goal of splitting from their aberrations, though hers wasn’t as debilitating.

Luca was enraged when he found out that Britney was the one who’d forcibly adjoined him. It could hardly be called saving him with the life he had now. Luca didn’t treat her as badly as some of the others - instead he just didn’t talk to her at all. He stuck with the coven till it dissolved, hoping against hope that they’d help him instead of squabbling. But they didn’t. Luca was disappointed when it ended, but it was fine. He’d find another way. There was no point in dwelling in the negativity, as much of it as there was.

So he moved on, deciding to try and figure out how to get rid of his apparition. Olivia followed him, the only person he had left for him - he’d cut himself off from his family out of necessity, as painful as it was. Just being near him would kill them. He took some online courses at college while trying to research the paranormal as much as possible.

Then Olivia found out, through going to the same college, that Emily had formed her own coven. Luca didn’t particularly like Emily (not many did), but his need to get rid of the rot was stronger. He managed to convince them to let him join a seemingly all woman coven… And it was good, at first. They were learning about magic, and with that making progress in understanding adjoined. But it didn’t last. 8th Street’s agenda changed, and Luca couldn’t stay for it.

So they went back to just the two of them trying to figure it out, back to what it had been like just after the Sycamore Tree coven dissolved. At this point he hardly left the apartment he and Olivia shared. Every outing was a risk of hurting someone. He threw himself into research in his spare time, trying to find everything he could, while working a completely remote job. He managed to figure out a setup that worked for him - a desktop and large screen far enough away to not be affected by his abstraction, and a pile of cheap keyboards and mice on hand for when the ones he was using were destroyed. He gained more control over his decaying touch, learning how to turn it off… Even if it exhausted him. It was difficult, but that was fine. It wouldn’t be like this forever. He stayed optimistic and focused on the positives.

After a year of almost no results, Olivia decided to call it quits. Her family was moving to the other side of the country and she wanted to go with them. There were no hard feelings between them when she left, and they promised to keep in touch.

Luca’s life continued much the same. He found joy in the little things - his weekly calls with Olivia, the days where he could control his abstraction enough to do some wood carving without instantly destroying the wood in his hands, and the late night research that seemed to be getting him somewhere. He would go on walks late at night when very little else (human at least) was outside. He tried to meet with other paranormal, or ex-coven members - just anyone who could resist his abstraction a bit. It was relatively peaceful, if a bit lonely.

Of course, there were so many negatives. He never really got a peaceful moment, with an apparition inside of him constantly trying to erode at his mental state so that it could take over. He’d just gotten good at blocking it out and thinking positively. He was also growing weaker and weaker, struggling to walk around the block on some days. It was as if his muscles were wasting away. It was terrifying, and he had no one to talk to.

Finally, a year ago, it got bad enough that he went to a hospital. His uncontrollable aura wasn’t strong enough to destroy anything instantly, and as long as he didn’t touch anything it would be fine. He felt bad for putting the doctors and nurse through the pain of it, but he needed checked. What had started as occasional exhaustion and weakness had grown worse, and he was constantly in pain. Somewhere always hurt. The doctors ran their tests, so many of them, and took his blood.

The results weren’t good. They’d never seen what was happening to him, so they couldn’t give him a diagnosis, but it was as if his entire body was slowly decaying. A new kind of degenerative disease they’d never seen before. The outcomes didn’t look good. At this rate he probably had a few years left. If he was lucky he’d reach thirty. They said they could recommend him to a more cutting edge hospital that would research it and work with him, but Luca declined. He took a prescription of strong painkillers and went home.

After all, he knew the cause. Normal medicine wouldn’t help. He needed to get rid of his abstraction first before it could be treated.

Luca continued trying to find a way, speeding it up. He tried to talk to some of the paranormal groups in St Portwell, namely the Elite, Greenwood Coven and 8th Street again. The Elite was useless, 8th street was concentrating on its new ventures and the Greenwood coven didn’t take too kindly to Luca… after all his abstraction was one of the many destroying nature, even if he couldn’t control it. It was fine. He resigned himself to never getting rid of it, and resolved to enjoy the rest of his life. No point dwelling on what was out of his control, after all! He’d do what he could and that would be enough.

Then he heard that ex-coven members were dying. Then Olivia went missing. There was no news of her death, but she wouldn’t pick up his calls and wasn’t at home. Luca didn’t know what he could do, until he got contacted by Auri. It was an easy decision to join again. Maybe they could help him get rid of this abstraction that was eating him away, and if not, why wouldn’t he use the time he had left to help save others?

TYPE ⫻ Aberration - Adjoined

ABSTRACTION ⫻ Rotting Decay, the ability to decay and damage all living things, to corrode and weaken non organic materials and to decay the emotions that fuel magic.

ABSTRACTION DESCRIPTION ⫻



LIMITS ⫻


WEAKNESSES ⫻

Luca has no preference between he or they pronouns.
Luca is mostly fluent in Portuguese.
Luca has a box filled with cheap phones in his apartment because he has to constantly replace them. In fact most of his salary (after essentials) goes into replacing all the items that he destroys with his abstraction.