Name: Paulie "Poet" Cooper
Gender F
Age: 27
Alignment - Dark Shadow - Doubting
To Paulie, The Guild is just another good idea with a hierarchy that doesn't have the best interests of its people in mind. Dark Shadow might exceed her means and sound like a terrorist cell plucked from a Hollywood blockbuster, but the most realistic outcome of its success is clear; instability wide enough for nicer people to make a real difference and be heard in the community--a true reform.
Rank within Organisation - Member
Poet... has established a reputation for getting things done. Her abilities are nothing so fancy as what people read about in storybooks, but guns can even the odds in magical combat just fine. Poet's skills lie more in never having to fight in the first place. If not for what have been obvious loyalty issues she'd probably be captaining her own cell. She's a valuable infiltrator. No one's certain she can be anything more yet.

Birthmark Shape: the silhouette of what looks from most angles like a pair of glasses, about four inches long and two inches high.
Location of Birthmark: Just above her left knee along the inside of her thigh.
Magical Abilities
-Tongues: Manifesting at a very young age was Paulie's ability to understand and speak/write any language she encounters. It is a gift many have mistaken for mere heightened lingual aptitude but it extends much farther. Poet can intuit ciphers at a glance, draw concrete conclusions about local graffiti, and even parse and replicate contrived dialects like twin if she hears a single syllable or sees only fragments of writing/iconography.
-Suggest Absence: Her true power manifested during her first years of puberty. Paulie can seem to be invisible to people. This ability can manifest in multiple ways, but only one way at any given time.

---Latent Blank: Anyone who can see Paulie doesn't see her in their direct vision. She can still be seen in reflections (but Blank doesn't fade unless they directly notice Paulie), and anyone looking through multi-lense (telescopics, flash cameras) or digital instruments (phone cameras etc). Once a person sees her this way, they are immune to the effects of Latent Blank for a long time. Paulie has no knowledge of when someone has overcome this ability, but she knows every way to circumvent it and can often guess when the jig is up or she's unlikely to really evade people this way.
---Controlled Blank: As long as Paulie concentrates, any surveillance equipment (digital cameras, motion sensors, laser detection, physical photography etc.) she can see or knows the field of view for. This requires enough concentration that Paulie can't use any other magic (Tongues won't function alongside Controlled Blank). Paulie always knows when this ability fails, including when it doesn't work at all. When there are too many devices to obstruct, say, ten cameras observing a vacant lot, the ability can't function when called on. Device limit is up to the GM and may vary depending on the size of the space Paulie is trying to Blank through, i.e. in a ten foot corridor, Paulie might be able to Blank two dozen separate pieces of equipment; in Tiananmen square, she might be able to Blank three cameras at best.
---Selective Blank: As long as Paulie concentrates, she can choose exactly one person to be unable to perceive her with any senses other than touch, mor by any external means. Selective Blank includes reflexively manipulating devices and even magics so that they can't find her. She can only use this on a person she can see, and once it is active she can concentrate on it indefinitely. Once she stops concentrating, she has to see the person again to Blank them again. The only trump for this ability is for whoever she's targeting to have a mommet of her hair, a small sample of her blood, or some other similar totem of her flesh to focus on. Paulie has no knowledge of when someone has overcome this ability. Most importantly, Paulie has no idea that this ability can be overcome.

Note: Concentration can be broken by pain intense enough to cause shock, falling unconscious, or chemical inmbalances from drugs, alcohol, sugar rushes, etc.

Non-Magical Abilities: Paulie has a fair amount of practice on firing ranges with pistols and a small amount with conventional shotguns. She also has a hobbyist's understanding of Tai-Chi (she has played recreational Push-Hands for fifteen years). She supplements any combat she engages in with Blanking, to deadly effect when she intends to kill.

Place of Birth: Chattanooga, Tennessee
Present Residence: A home van: currently just a few hours out of New York City, and heading in at the beginning of this story.

Personality: Paulie is a happy soul with an acerbic exterior.

Apathetic toward society - "Life is sacred, nothing else. Screw your church, screw your money, screw your car, and screw your stupid freaking phone. Buy me a drink, I'll roll you a joint, and we'll have a good day."
Hopeful - "What are you apologizing for? You're not a jerk and you're not an infant. Don't sweat the small stuff. Be better. You usually are."
Generous - "I attend Earthskills festivals because it's the only work I've done that feels like it truly makes a difference in people's lives and my own. You should attend one sometime, maybe get some work-trade in. Want I should shoot you an e-mail?"
Anarchic - "That crap doesn't work. Once enough people get an idea how to manipulate other people they'll always have more attention at their disposal. You miss things, other people see opportunity and just take advantage, and the schemers walk away with whatever means the most power at the time. Tax evasion, stock markets, ponsy schemes... they're all symptoms of a flawed system. Education is about giving other people the means to exercise enough attention to not be victims. Fuck that shit. The system is fixed. We need to break it. Education should be about giving people the means to reject it."
Vengeful - "Marcie's one of my best friends from that town, and she was so excited about giving her virginity to Atticus. I was really happy for her too--it's sweet if you care about that sort of thing. Everybody needs a couple of beliefs. When word got out how things went down and that he'd told her to 'Bite the pillow and take it like a champ?' Yeah. Atticus doesn't get to come to Green Gravel Gathering, and if he shows up there he won't leave with both of his testicles I swear to god."

Name: Róisín Mihaela O'Shea /People usually call her Ro, friends also call her Mik/

Gender: Female

Age: 33

Alignment: Guild

Rank within Organisation: Captain

Birthmark Shape: A star tetrahedron /merkaba/



Location of Birthmark: Right above her fourth chakra - the heart

Magical Abilities: Aura manipulation. This ability allows her to heal or cause harm by manipulating the aura of a person. Her powers are affected by proximity, direct contact or no contact, amount of concentration used. With direct contact the effect of her powers is the strongest and most immediate. She can heal/harm very rapidly by touch, slower and with greater concentration needed at a distance. Also to be able to manipulate someone's aura at a distance she needs to have personally met her target and come into physical contact even if a brief one. At long distances her powers can still have effect, however she needs to be in a deep meditative state for them to work.

People who practice eastern philosophies like yogis and the like will be able to rebuff the effects of her powers if they willed it enough and sensed her attempts to heal or harm. In essence a person would need a good understanding of the concept behind auras as well as an ability of their own, even if rudimentary, to manipulate their own auras, to be able to stop the effects of her powers, or weaken them, depending on their ability.

She cannot bring people back from the dead and can only heal terminal diseases with multiple healing sessions. This applies to the harmful side of her powers as well. She can severely weaken and even render someone unconscious, but she cannot insta-kill with her powers. With enough time and malicious intent however she can cause a fatal illness.

She has incorporated perfectly the tactile use of her aura manipulation while practicing her aikido.

Place of Birth: Dublin, Ireland

Currently Residing: En route to New York

Personality and Appearance: Ro was always an adorable child. Be it in looks or in personality. She was sweet, well mannered, polite, gentle, caring and attentive. Of course, she had her wild, naughty moments as any child did. Because she was more conscientious that her peers though those moments were few and far in between and were limited to a couple of piercings and tattoos her mothers had learned to live with. In Emily and Mihaela's eyes, their daughter's true beauty began to shine once she hit puberty and even more so when that period ended.

At thirty-three Ro is a petite young woman at 5'4 with the body of a long time martial arts practitioner. She is fit and athletic, with good muscle definition. Because of her petite frame however she can never look masculine with her fit build, but is deceptively strong and capable. She has long, wavy brown hair and mystical hazel eyes that shift their color depending on her mood or the light, or even the color of her clothes. Her face is almost pixie-like, pointed at the chin, delicate and honest.

When people look they see a young kid at no more than twenty-five, sweet and innocent. Naive even. They would be, of course, sourly mistaken. Ro is anything but naive. And although sweet and retaining her childish innocence, she is very much so an adult. A deep thinker. A person with a very inquisitive mind and a very caring heart. She is warm and loving, and is quick to offer help. A predisposition which lends itself perfectly to her powers of aura manipulation. Which she uses almost exclusively to heal.

If Ro has a bad side, no one has ever discovered it, and thankfully so. Because however calm and collected she is, she is a very passionate individual. And that passion could push her either way. Of course there is a reason no one had ever been on her bad side. Being as calm and collected as she is, Ro has learned to temper her more darker moods and keep them in check. She is not perfect, of course. Her anger is a sight to behold should someone manage to get her their. Which generally happens when people she loves are being threatened. She also has a passionate distaste for innocent people being harmed in any way and is liable on rare occasions to jump before she looks.

She also has a wicked, somewhat sharp sense of humor, as well as a naughty, raunchy-ish side to her that few people ever get to see.

History/Bio: Róisín was born to a single mother Emily O'Sea née Corrigan. Ro's father had died shortly after her conception in a car accident, which he'd caused while driving drunk. Her mum, Emily often wondered in the early years if she regretted not being able to tell him he was to become a father, or if it his death was a blessing in disguise. As horrible as that thought was she had to wonder what kind of a father he would have been with his propensity to overindulge with the juice of the barley. Or maybe he would have turned his life around once he'd learned he was going to be a dad. But apparently it was not to be. And Ro grew up with only her mother to take care of her up until her eleventh year.

It was right about that time when some major events in her and her mum's life occurred. But most pressing of them all was Ro's emerging powers, which began awakening with Róisín's passing from girlhood to womanhood. When her puberty hit Ro's emotional state and her moods began to act as conduits for her powers.

Also the largely Catholic Ireland was not the best place for a young mother struggling with her sexual identity. Nor was it the ideal place for her young daughter who, completely separately from her mother, had similar problems of her own. Magnified by her puberty and the fact that in her fragile state Ro tended to internalize a lot, her powers wreaked havoc with her health. At first it was mostly problems related to the female anatomy and explainable with her puberty. But when the problems became too frequent Emily started to worry about her little girl. She forgot her own problems as any good parent would and focused solely and entirely on her daughter.

This led to the second big occurrence in the lives of mother and daughter. The day they met Mihaela Nikolova. A pediatrician who had immigrated to Ireland from her home country Bulgaria in nineteen ninety-three and had spent two years taking equivalency tests to be allowed to practice medicine in Ireland.

One day, when Ro's health had taken a turn for the worst, Emily had rushed her daughter in the Emergency Department of the nearest hospital. Mihaela was the doctor who'd attended to them. She was also the one to realize that the young girl was harming herself, although not intentionally. Mihaela was able to determine that because she was a magic user with the gift of medical/healing insight. She could tell a person's maladies by touch. And with her medical education she was able to intuit the best possible treatment.

In the course of a couple of weeks she managed to break the news to Emily about what her daughter was and what they needed to do, so that Ro would not get sick again. It wasn't an easy road. At first Emily was resistant to the notion of magic and magic users. Who wouldn't be in this day and age. But little by little, with patience and genuine concern Mihaela managed to break through Emily's defenses and convince her of the reality of the situation.

This was how it began. Ro's new life with not one mother, but two. Because in the process of taking care of her, the two women had grown close. They'd started off as friends, but their connection grew stronger and stronger, until neither of them could deny it any more. By then Ro had grown to love Mihaela and was all but ecstatic when Emily had fearfully broken the news to her daughter. That she was a lesbian and had fallen in love with Mihaela, and that Mihaela returned her feelings.

From there on their family was complete, even if recognized only by themselves and like-minded individuals. And Mihaela had begun training Róisín to control her awakening powers. She'd also confided in Emily and Ro about the existence of the Guild of which she was a member. And of the other side of the coin. Or of the magic users who were hell bent on mage world domination. At the age of eighteen Róisín became an official recruit of the Guild.

During her entire childhood Ro was a quiet, calm and collected child with a sense of purpose and possessing a self-awareness uncommon for her age. Nowadays people would come to recognize children like her as indigo children. Incredibly intuitive. Empathetic, curios and strong-willed and possessive of a very strong innate spirituality. This was all true for Róisín as well. Pretty soon she showed interest in the written word and the art of writing and crafting stories. She was gifted too. So Emily and Mihaela sought to encourage that talent. And when it came time for Ro to choose a life-path, she decided to study English and Creative Writing. As a highly spiritual child with a healthy physical disposition her parents also tried to find for her a suitable sports activity. The answer came with Aikido. It was non-aggressive, it held in itself strong philosophical teachings, and was physically demanding as well.

Today she holds an undergraduate degree in English Studies and a Masters in Creative Writing from Trinity College. She's an uprising young author, with three published novels that have garnered some success, she has third dan black belt in Aikido and is the apple of both her mothers' eyes.

Relationships
Aloysius Leighton:

Relationship: Best Friends - Good Friends - Friends - Well known - Warm - Acquaintances - Unknown - Cold - Dislikes - Hates - Enemies - Rival - Nemesis

Characters opinion of them: As a Captain in the Guild Ro of course knows who Aloysius Leighton is. Or at least she knows about him through the eyes of the Guild. She has no personal knowledge about the man and given the chance would like to find out who he is and why he is the way he is. Because after a certain point in our life we tend to become the sum of our experiences and she wants to know what would bring a man or a woman to welcome and live by such extreme ideals of hate and oppression.

---

Rose Miller:

Relationship: Best Friends - Good Friends - Friends - Well known - Warm - Acquaintances - Unknown - Cold - Dislikes - Hates - Enemies - Rival - Nemesis

Characters opinion of them: Every member of the Guild knows who Rose Miller is! She is their leader and in the eyes of many members, a sort of god figure. Not Ro. All her knowledge about Rose is second hand or even further down the line. And Ro preferres to get to know someone personally. Without risking someone else's views skewing the picture of the person she is trying to figure out. She does have a healthy dose of respect for what the woman has accomplished.

---

Olivia Turner:

Relationship: Best Friends - Good Friends - Friends - Well known - Warm - Acquaintances - Unknown - Cold - Dislikes - Hates - Enemies - Rival - Nemesis

Characters opinion of them: Ro doesn't know her.

---

Alexandra Pauline Cooper:

Relationship: Best Friends - Good Friends - Friends - Well known - Warm - Acquaintances - Unknown - Cold - Dislikes - Hates - Enemies - Rival - Nemesis

Characters opinion of them: Ro doesn't know her.

Name: Elena Crow
Gender Female
Age: 26
Alignment: Guild
Rank within Organisation: Lieutenant

Birthmark Shape: A hazy looking crescent Moon
Location of Birthmark: Right collarbone
Magical Abilities:
The Pen:
Elena can draw something on any surface and imbue it with magic essence, bringing it to life. Works best off of paper or parchment, but could work off of most surfaces. Using different surfaces grant different bonus attributes, but takes more magic. Such bonuses may be a more resistant creature, a creature with stronger attacks, or a structure that's completely stable.

Creation: Ink Life:
By drawing creatures, both mimicking real life creatures and imaginary ones, Elena can control them with basic commands. The less real a creature is made to seem, the harder it is to bring to life. These constructs are made of ink, making use in water or rain newly impossible unless Elena dumps large quantities of her magical energy into them, often limiting her to a single entity.

Creation: Ink Building:
With careful precision, Elena can even create objects that act as a fairly solid, if mushy, substance. This takes more time, but less energy. Uses include a small board to cross a gap, a ladder, a wall for cover, etc etc. Not very useful offensively, as far as she's aware.

Cloak of Ink:
Through careful control, Elena can Cloak herself in an inky wisp, only useful in darkness and shadows, to help improve her odds are remaining undetected.

Place of Birth: Charleston, West Virginia
Currently Residing: Middle of nowhere, West Virginia (home, but almost always out for the Guild elsewhere)
Personality: Elena is a fairly relaxed woman, hard to irritate but fiercely loyal. She's rather calm in most situations, preferring to be tactical in all interactions both in the field and during discussions and talks. She is, however, an Isolationists. Preferring solo, or loose knit missions and interactions except when it involves friends and loved ones.

She can be cold to interact with at first, having a great distrust of new people.

Beyond that, she enjoys time by herself to read and draw.
History/Bio: Born in a relatively large City, Elena was taught from a young age to blend into the world. Not to draw eyes, to keep undue attention away. To be polite and enjoy life. These were the lessons her parents taught her. Mostly because they were involved in large quantities of illegal activity.

At the age of six Elena had taken on an infinity for drawing, showing a mastery skill level of creating things she'd seen once, or even things she'd heard about. While her parents were actually fairly decent people outside of the smuggling and robberies, it took them a few weeks to catch on to this new set of skills.

One evening, after get eleventh birthday, she'd been brought along with them, for some unknown reason, on one of their many dealings in illegal activity. When things started going sour, the client being unhappy about some small detail and being incredibly paranoid, she willed a drawing of a wall to life.

Unfortunately, it only protected herself. Not that she ever learned or her parents' deaths, given Guild members had been nearby.

She was taken into a sort of orphanage, as she called it, and was under the care of one Charles Serento. There she met Paulie, brought in barely a day after her. They bonded quickly, both suffering from being removed from everything they'd ever known. Elena, at least, was still in her home state and faired better than Paulie.

As time went on and they began mastering the beginning aspects of their powers, their friendship bloomed. But all was not well, given Charles's addictions and abusive nature.

Elena pleaded with Paulie to stay, but awoke one fateful morning to find her best friend gone.

Elena was devastated, and things only got worse with Charles. With one of his charges missing, he cracked down ever harder on the charges he had left.

For every little mishap, Elena was beaten or forced to spend hours, or days, in a dark room with only a toilet for company.

One fateful day, a few months before her eighteenth birthday, Elana had had enough. When the first fist swung, she reacted.

Moments later, Charles laid dead on the floor, an inky smaller

Upon coming of age she joined the ranks of the Guild proper, to protect this beautiful world from forces who would wish it harm.

From there Elena progressed relatively rapidly, dealing with missions effectively and resourcefully, and providing support wherever and however she could.

Relationships
Name: Aloysius Leighton
Relationship:Best Friends - Good Friends - Friends - Well known - Warm - Acquaintances - Unknown - Cold - Dislikes - Hates - Enemies - Rival - Nemesis
Characters opinion of them: Given that he's a well known figure of the Dark Shadows, Elena can't like him. She'd never interacted with him directly, but firmly believe that the end does not justify the means. And while she understands where his beliefs come from, she could never accept his reasons.

Name: Rose Wilson
Relationship:Best Friends - Good Friends - Friends - Well known - Warm - Acquaintances - Unknown - Cold - Dislikes - Hates - Enemies - Rival - Nemesis
Characters opinion of them: Having worked personally with Rose when she was first starting out in the Guild, Elena has a first hand impression of the leader. She feels she's competent, but disagrees with many aspects of the Guild. One thing is for sure, Rose may very well be the most powerful person Elena has ever met.

Name: Olivia Turner
Relationship:Best Friends - Good Friends - Friends - Well known - Warm - Acquaintances - Unknown - Cold - Dislikes - Hates - Enemies - Rival - Nemesis
Characters opinion of them: Given her Isolationists nature, Elena has not interacted with Olivia, but has heard mention of the non-magic user in their ranks.

Name:
Relationship:Best Friends - Good Friends - Friends - Well known - Warm - Acquaintances - Unknown - Cold - Dislikes - Hates - Enemies - Rival - Nemesis
Characters opinion of them: (Why do they feel the way that they do)

Name: Paulie "Poet" Cooper
Relationship:Best Friends - Good Friends - Friends - Well known - Warm - Acquaintances - Unknown - Cold - Dislikes - Hates - Enemies - Rival - Nemesis
Characters opinion of them: Given their shared history, Elena may know Paulie the best. As such, there's a mixture of confusion and hurt in the high esteem Elena holds her old friend in. If it came down to it, Elena would leave the Guild for her best friend, even if she would prefer to bring her friend back into the Guild.

Not that she'll ever admit to such.
Why can't you just come back?

Name: Ro
Relationship:Best Friends - Good Friends - Friends - Well known - Warm - Acquaintances - Unknown - Cold - Dislikes - Hates - Enemies - Rival - Nemesis
Characters opinion of them: With Elena being one step above Ro, they've known each other from shared experiences and missions. Possibly the only other person Elena has grown close to, besides Paulie. Elena personally believes Ro to be a bit of a rival, despite their vastly different abilities.