Three new Temple NPCs!

[hider=NPC Harietta Von Voletta]
[row][cell][h2][b]Harietta "Hari"[color=2e2c2c].[/color]Von Voletta[/b][/h2][/cell][cell][/cell][/row][row][cell][center][img]https://i.imgur.com/tB1wR9x.jpeg[/img]

[b]21 | Harietta "Hari" Von Voletta | She/Her [/b][hr][i]"This is absolutely not in the book."[/i][/center][/cell][cell]
[b]Description:[/b]
[indent]There are two ways a child under the age of eighteen joins the Temple of Charming and Graceful Individuals: If you're a child of a dedicated follower, or if you're a magical stray who happens to catch the whiff of Lux wafting up through the ground of their campus. Hari Von Voletta is part of the latter group, and like many followers of the previous decade who had come to them, Hari is one of the first of the New Generation to come. She arrived after the Sycamore Tree Coven's greatest deed, and only knows St. Portwell in a tenuous peace, without the chaos and open warfare of the magical underground that had existed previously. 

Her arrival five years ago was met by a dogged and exhausted Lynette, who was very quickly losing her grip on several daughters who pulled in different directions. Mia, her blood, was already cold and under the spike on a constant basis, while her chosen had already left, or were ready to leave her side. There was a call about a girl who was trying to chat up people outside of a Temple-owned establishment. When staff attempted to "insure her compliance" they found a strong, hardened Emotional Field brushing their attempts to the side. Thus, the carrot, rather than the stick, was employed. As the kids say, "real recognizes real.", and the very capable Pink Lux adept was brought to the Temple to be questioned.

Lynette appreciated the story the girl told, about her awful life and her rejection. Her struggle for survival. Of course Lynette took her in. A consummate foster parent, the paperwork was done up by her contacts in the State the next day. Nobody batted an eye when the girl started living in the Dorms and doing as she pleased. The problem seemed to be that despite that strange teacher's pet attitude she had, she was a genuinely pleasant girl. Not only, but strong willed and good natured; uncommon for someone who would've had all the trust issues of a homeless teen. It was like she didn't have any baggage at all.

Five years on, and it's a well known fact that Hari Von Voletta is a fugitive hiding out from her Thirteenth Generation Belgian Lux Dynasty. Not that she was from Belgium or anything; her family had settled on Chicago as their American headquarters, and they were three generations deep already. The Von Voletta line hasn't made any sort of move against the Temple, and while they did figure out what her real story was, Lynette has been unsuccessful in returning the girl to her home. As such, she's stuck around, and while she's mellowed out her direct involvement with her Foster Mother, she's remained close with the Richoux siblings. Particularly Mia, both of whom share a secret and sordid relationship between one another, and their opiate of choice (Or their frequent battles against it).[/indent]

[b]Abstraction:[/B]
[indent]Hari is a Pink Lux Adept whose Channeler is a men's black leather belt.
Famous for their diplomatic efforts in European politics, the Von Voletta family utilize Pink Lux spells passed down through generations in order to settle disputes through a specially developed set of skills: The Equality of Man. In essence, Hari excels in combining minds together into pools of thought and concept. At its most basic version, it's a tool that allows individuals to understand and accept one another when all other options of discussion have failed. At its most powerful, effected minds can be pooled together and re-allocated into different bodies with completely jumbled results, creating an essentially new set of individuals who are combined results of several constituents.[/indent]
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[hider=NPC Etiennette "Eddy" L'matise]
[row][cell][h2][b]Etiennette "Eddy"[color=2e2c2c].[/color]L'matise[/b][/h2][/cell][cell][/cell][/row][row][cell][center][img]https://i.imgur.com/PfUJTqC.jpg[/img]

[b]20 | Etiennette "Eddy" L'matise | She/Her [/b][hr][i]"Isn't it funny how God isn't here anymore?"[/i][/center][/cell][cell]
[b]Description:[/b]
[indent]A cousin of the Richoux family, Eddy and her family have been riding Lynette's coattails since her young mother escaped New York with Eddy in tow at the age of fifteen. Despite being raised in the cult since her infancy, Eddy never Kindled. Efforts were made, Lynette attempted to guide and instruct, but at the end of fifteen of her own years, the young girl was just... Worthless to them. Like others under the same scrutiny and expectation, she was cast to the wayside with the assumption that if she ever found her power, she'd be able to return. 

Eddy dealt with abuse and rejection not only from her mentor and teacher, but from her own mother. She had long since remarried a member of the Temple, and their life was a far cry from when they arrived. They were both expected to be dedicated, and while her Mother had already Kindled by the time Eddy was born, she seemed to be the only child not following suit. But she had friends: Not great influences, but Mia Richoux and Hari Von Voletta grew protective of the rejected girl. They were the best she'd get, and while the two girls may have introduced her to hard drugs, they were also able to change her life, and consequently their own.

Through literal highs and lows, Eddy was the little sister that both of the others needed. Far more unstable and prone to hot-headed behavior, she needed to be tended to in a gentle way that eventually became second nature to them. However, as time passed, a plan gestated. One where the Trinity would take matters into their own hands in regards to Eddy's overall situation. In a particularly dry, sober period of their lives, the girls left St. Portwell for the deserts of the South, where they spent a summer hitching around without money or support until they found themselves back on drugs in California.

In a seedy motel in the middle of nothingness, the three attempted to complete a ritual that would end the world. They failed, succeeding only in forcing a weak apparition of their desires and ambitions into existence. Serenity. Naturally, the girls would not let the weak creature fade; so Eddy volunteered to become the Adjoined to Serenity. The world of Magic opened up for Eddy that night, taking on the burden of nursing her own creation. The three have been "sober" since, but the powers of the Poppy Doll have only grown in the two years since. Now, Eddy is a nexus for their little Trinity, her powers providing an unlimited health-conscious buzz while keeping a spirit of rebellion alive inside them.[/indent]

[b]Abstraction:[/B]
[indent]Eddy is Adjoined to the Apparition known as Serenity, the Poppy Doll.
Serenity's main purpose was to be a tool of world-ending sloth and torpor created in an opium induced magic ritual. While the spirit itself was only half baked, consistent practice and usage has revealed several aspects of the Apparition that are available for Eddy to use. These aspects directly correlate to hers and her sisters' emotional states at the time. 
The M-Strain, influenced by Mia, is the love of the high: Eddy is capable of projecting a strong opiate-like field of influence around her immediate vicinity. It's the most practiced aspect, as the three girls (and often others) gather around on off days to soak up the clean high. 
The H-Strain, Hari's strain, represents the safety in stillness: Eddy targets a single individual, transfixing them in her gaze as they're filled with an overwhelming sense of empathy toward her until they feel compelled to keep her company or protect her from some unknown force. 
Her own strain, the E-Strain, is the most violent representation: Rather than attempting to influence or court comfort, Eddy's body becomes numb and cold to the touch, and being touched by her transfers this sensation from target to target like a paralytic virus that leaves the body unable to move or function as organs slow down to a dangerous crawl. [/indent]
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[hider=NPC Kane and Abel]
[row][cell][h2][b]Kane &[color=2e2c2c].[/color]Abel[/b][/h2][/cell][cell][/cell][/row][row][cell][center][img]https://i.imgur.com/ZCaSNEK.jpg[/img]

[b]Great Question | Kane & Abel | They/Them(It) [/b][hr][i]"How deep is the hole? We're not telling a soul!"[/i][/center][/cell][cell]
[b]Description:[/b]
[indent]Of all the relics and Apparitions in the possession of the Richoux family, none are as old and venerated as the pair of cats known as Kane and Abel. Aptly named due to their proclivity for more than dangerous kinds of antics and tricks, these two cats have been members of the family for as long as anyone can remember, and while there's no records of their arrival in France, it's said that they initially came from a journey to America during the first days of French settlement in the Louisiana Territory. What is known is that they are, seemingly, a pair of Maine Coon cats who exhibit exceptional intelligence and wit alongside a laundry list of other anomalous properties from capacity for speech to image perfect mind reading so strong that it ignores Emotional Fields. Strangest of all is the trait which they're named for, as Kane frequently and unceremoniously kills and devours his brother, who in turn reappears sometime later through inexplicable means. 

Strangely, they claim to know of St. Portwell, talking about it fondly as if it were some sort of vacation spot in a distant period of their lives. It was, in fact, Kane and Abel who originally influenced and urged Lynette and Maxwell Richoux to move from the streets of New York City to the rainy harbor city, and when they agreed, the cats were brought along as valued companions and advisors in the earliest days. They revealed certain secrets in those days, hidden truths and necessities that the Temple has since addressed and prepared for, and eventually the brothers became more and more relaxed as time carried on.

In addition, these talking cats were trusted to be a part of the children's' lives. Maxwell himself explicitly trusted the two with the stewardship of their infant children, and said children were expected to be respectful and mindful of the venerable felines just as he had been in his own childhood. It's impossible to think that Maxwell [i]didn't[/i] know what was going to happen; that if he had grown up with the same monsters, he'd know that they were anything but safe. The horrible things were torturous guardians; playing out the oroboros of murder until the children Kindled and were able to hear their childlike voices speaking as if they were children themselves. From there, the physical horror was only augmented by verbal torment and blatant abuse as they lauded their access to the children's' minds over them for years. Only Casey escaped, but they merely continued to physically torment him, their twenty pound frames easily ripping and tearing at his flesh while he slept, or other menacing tactics.

What's clear to Lynette, and was once clear to Maxwell himself, is that these two cats are far worse creatures than advertised. The entity in question is a Wampus Cat: a malicious spirit creature born of Mankind's fear of the unknown. Due to the nature of these creatures, it's often unknown what their true capacity for the supernatural is. While they're plenty capable of filling one's mind with falsehoods and lies, their age and seeming inherent knowledge of magic are both possible caches of valuable information available to the Temple for the small price of souls to torment forever.[/indent]

[b]Abstraction:[/B]
[indent]Kane and Abel are two halves of a single Wampus Cat whose real name is ∆æ¿ıӘɲɲ≤
While Wampus Cats aren't well documented as they're typically illusive creatures adverse to life among humans, certain Adepts have been known to capture them from the swamps and marshlands of North and Central America in an attempt to utilize them as powerful familiars. For reasons it hasn't disclosed, ∆æ¿ıӘɲɲ≤ chose to be "domesticated" by the Richoux clan.
While it's incredibly difficult to know what its plans are, the stewards of the Richoux have managed to collectively gather a list of effective abilities the creature has displayed over time. For starters, it seems to be incredibly resistant to Lux effects of any kind, his own natural Emotional Field bolstered by its alien and otherworldly complexity. Beyond that, its ability to split and absorb itself at will was observed long ago, and serves as the source of its horrific mockery of the Christian tale of Kane and Abel.

Its tremendous intelligence is mostly attributed to its proclivity for mind invasion, an effect similar to Pink Lux being used to intake, store and process memories of its victims for use later. Being two halves of the same entity, the cats share pain receptors, heart rates, step placement, and otherwise are capable of perfectly synchronized independent movement and action. Regardless of their massive size, the twin bodies are supernaturally strong and capable of withstanding tremendous damage as observed by an incident involving an invasion of the Temple's compound in the late eighteenth century.

In the same incident, an instance of their true form was gleamed by Antoine Alain Richoux, who described the full horror of the Wampus cat as "a six legged, elk sized beast of disproportionate mouth and head, whose glowing yellow eyes and wide Cheshire grin drove me to such madness that to this day I cannot bear to view even the silhouette of a feline in motion." Leon Richoux has confirmed this appearance, and many secrets of his own, as he's technically "catnapped" the creature and has been attempting to negotiate with ∆æ¿ıӘɲɲ≤ in order to claim the (potential) treasure trove of information. [/indent]
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