MAIN GOAL ⫻ To live for herself. Tuyen wants to rediscover herself and to see the world outside of the small town she spent all her life in. She’s no longer going to live in the shadow of others. Her short term goal is to help the Vanburen family get rid of their curse along with Justin. Maybe along the way she’ll be able to improve her self confidence and figure out what she wants to do with her life.

PHILOSOPHY ⫻ Tuyen believes in helping others - especially with all the supernatural shit that she’s been through. She strongly believes that she, as someone who’s got experience in it, has to be there to try and help with other problems that might come up. She still believes in putting on a brave face and smile, even if it’s just an illusion, because you shouldn’t worry other people over personal matters. Who would she even talk to anyway? She believes that being positive around others is important and will almost always put others’ feelings, and happiness, above her own.

SEXUALITY ⫻ Tuyen is gay, though this is something she’s only recently accepted about herself. She spent a long time in denial, telling herself her lack of attraction to men was because she wasn’t good enough. She’s finally admitted to herself that she’s gay, but she’s not open about it. She doesn’t have time for romance right now anyway.

FEARS ⫻ Tuyen still fears failure, but in a different way to before. She’s free from the judgement of her family and instead fears that she will never get anywhere in life. She still feels just as worthless if she always did before. What if she is never truly able to be herself, or never discovers what she wants to do with her life? There’s always a fear in the back of her mind that she’ll never escape her insecurities, and the shadow that haunts her along with them. She wants it gone but fears it never will be. After the fight with the glutton she fears what might be next, what other supernatural threats there are out there especially as more people begin to obtain abstractions.

REPUTATION ⫻ None, Tuyen’s a newcomer to Araminta.

FLAWS ⫻ As much as she’s improved a bit, Tuyen’s lack of self confidence is still one of her biggest flaws. She’s no longer the girl to take all criticism without questioning it and she doesn’t hate herself as much as she did before. However she is still plagued with self doubts and her insecurities. She may have come to accept some things she previously couldn’t, such as her sexuality, there are still many things about herself she dislikes. This is not helped by the presence of her Shadow - which may not torment her in such a dramatic fashion anymore, but is still always bringing up deep feelings of dread in an effort to stop her from ever truly accepting herself. Still, she’s taking steps forward in accepting herself even with the massive setback that it is. Along with this she is very private about her problems, unlikely to tell anyone when she has a hard time. She likes to put on a brave face until she can’t anymore. There are times when she should prioritise herself or let it out, but she always refuses to do so. She also has some trust issues after everything that happened - there are very few people she’d trust (most fellow survivors of the glutton group), and even fewer that she’d talk to about her problems. This is added to by her not always trusting that something is real, having gotten too used to seeing illusions created by the shadow in her everyday life.

Tuyen was an accident. Her mother was a farmer hill native, with parents who moved over from South Korea to set up a business. Her father, on the other hand, was a postgraduate student who had moved over from Vietnam to study. The two hit it off and hooked up after a little too much to drink, resulting in Tuyen. It was safe to say her mother’s parents weren’t too happy about the child out of wedlock.

Things didn’t get much better after her birth – her mother had always been poorly and the pregnancy took its toll on her, meaning she passed away when Tuyen was only a few months old. Her father did everything to try and raise her himself – including submitting to the whims of her mother’s family. Tuyen doesn’t have many memories of this time, but what she has are happy ones.

Tuyen was only four when her father disappeared without a trace. His name was added to the list of people in Farmer Hill who had just gone missing and everyone went on without saying anything. Tuyen was taken in by her mother’s brother and his wife, since they had a son just a bit older than her.

After this her life wasn’t anything spectacular. She got on very well with her cousin, Min-Jun, even as they became very different as the years proceeded. She was always in his shadow – she couldn’t live up to her aunt and uncle’s expectations. She couldn’t be as smart as Min or as perfect as Min. She pretended she didn’t care, especially to him, but deep down it slowly chipped away at her self confidence. It didn’t help that they disapproved of what she was good at.

Still, Tuyen pursued her dreams and managed to get a place to study English Literature and Creative Writing at the college. Here she’s managed to get out of her cousin’s shadow just a little bit, easily making friends in different circles from him.

After murders that happened during a camping trip Tuyen was haunted by her shadow and constant hallucinations. Still, she joined a group of fellow students in investigating – discovering that this was some kind abstraction she had. During the fight with Scott her shadow manifested physically – allowing her to help finish him for good. But like all the others she wasn’t prepared for what was to follow and barely made it out alive.

Things continued to go more and more downhill as they tried their best to defeat the Glutton. Eventually through working together, though not without losses, they managed to defeat it. Through ascending Tuyen got to speak with her father again and gained some semblance of confidence in herself, accepting parts of who she was. After it was defeated Tuyen made the decision to strike off on her own, refusing to move with her Aunt and Uncle. She ended up offering to help Justin with his next “adventure”, and surprisingly he accepted, so she set off with him to Araminta.

Tuyen was a bit of an accident. Her mother was a farmer hill native, with parents who moved over from South Korea to set up business. Her father, on the other hand, was a post graduate student who had moved over from Vietnam to study. The two hit it off and hooked up after a little too much to drink, resulting in Tuyen. It was safe to say her mother’s parents weren’t too happy about the child out of wedlock.

Things didn’t get much better after her birth – her mother had always been poorly and the pregnancy took its toll on her, meaning she passed away when Tuyen was only a few months old. Her father did everything to try and raise her himself – including submitting to the whims of her mother’s family. Tuyen doesn’t have many memories of this time, but what she has are happy ones.

Tuyen was only four when her father disappeared without a trace. His name was added to the list of people in Farmer Hill who had just gone missing and everyone went on without saying anything. Tuyen was taken in by her mother’s brother and his wife, since they had a son just a bit older than her.

After this her life wasn’t anything spectacular. She got on very well with her cousin, Min-Jun, even as they became very different as the years proceeded. She was always in his shadow – she couldn’t live up to her aunt and uncle’s expectations. She couldn’t be as smart as Min or as perfect as Min. She pretending she didn’t care, especially to him, but deep down it slowly chipped away at her self confidence. It didn’t help that they disapproved of what she was good at.

Still, Tuyen pursued her dreams and managed to get a place to study English Literature and Creative Writing at the college. Here she’s managed to get out of her cousin’s shadow just a little bit, easily making friends in different circles from him.

After the murders during a camping trip Tuyen was haunted by her shadow and constant hallucinations. Still, she joined the rest of the group in investigating – discovering that this was some kind abstraction she had. During the fight with Scott her shadow manifested physically – allowing her to help finish him for good. But like all the others she wasn’t prepared for what was to follow and barely made it out alive.

Tuyen was a bit of an accident. Her mother was a farmer hill native, with parents who moved over from South Korea to set up business. Her father, on the other hand, was a post graduate student who had moved over from Vietnam to study. The two hit it off and hooked up after a little too much to drink, resulting in Tuyen. It was safe to say her mother’s parents weren’t too happy about the child out of wedlock.

Things didn’t get much better after her birth – her mother had always been poorly and the pregnancy took its toll on her, meaning she passed away when Tuyen was only a few months old. Her father did everything to try and raise her himself – including submitting to the whims of her mother’s family. Tuyen doesn’t have many memories of this time, but what she has are happy ones.

Tuyen was only four when her father disappeared without a trace. His name was added to the list of people in Farmer Hill who had just gone missing and everyone went on without saying anything. Tuyen was taken in by her mother’s brother and his wife, since they had a son just a bit older than her.

After this her life wasn’t anything spectacular. She got on very well with her cousin, Min-Jun, even as they became very different as the years proceeded. She was always in his shadow – she couldn’t live up to her aunt and uncle’s expectations. She couldn’t be as smart as Min or as perfect as Min. She pretending she didn’t care, especially to him, but deep down it slowly chipped away at her self confidence. It didn’t help that they disapproved of what she was good at.

Still, Tuyen pursued her dreams and managed to get a place to study English Literature and Creative Writing at the college. Here she’s managed to get out of her cousin’s shadow just a little bit, easily making friends in different circles from him.

After the murders during a camping trip Tuyen was haunted by her shadow and constant hallucinations. Still, she joined the rest of the group in investigating – discovering that this was some kind abstraction she had. During the fight with Scott her shadow manifested physically – allowing her to help finish him for good. But like all the others she wasn’t prepared for what was to follow and barely made it out alive.

MAIN GOAL ⫻ Oscar’s main goal at the moment is to become good enough to take over his mother’s pharmaceutical business, and continue its success. Below that he wants to further pursue his own interests, particularly in science outside of Pharmacology. Since he discovered the Extra-Normal he has wanted to learn more about it and get as much knowledge as he can.

PHILOSOPHY ⫻ Oscar believes in the importance of relationships and connections, and what makes a person is who he is close to and who he knows. In general he thinks you should treat others as you wish to be treated and not expect to get something from someone unless you give them something in return. To him, family is very important as in his opinion it is one of the strongest relationships that can be formed. As a result in his mind, family is a priority - especially those family members who give you the most. In regards to individuals he is strongly for pursuing what you are interested in and not giving time to mind numbing tasks you don’t care about. He also wants to one day have his own family.

SEXUALITY ⫻ Oscar is bisexual, with a preference for men, but it’s not something he’s told his family.

FEARS ⫻ One of Oscar’s greatest fears is boredom, to end up stuck in a life of drudgery forced to perform tasks he couldn’t care less about. He fears that he will never find the one thing he wants to do in life and will always be jumping between different interests. He is also scared of snakes.

REPUTATION ⫻ Oscar has an overall positive reputation in Araminta, though it is directly tied to his parents. He’s one of the many Vanburen children, and the heir to his mother’s long standing business. He’s well received due to his intelligence and friendliness. Within the Vanburen family he has a decent reputation, as he gets along well with most of his siblings, but he’s also known for getting weirdly passionate about specific things along with easily brushing off conversation with others if it doesn’t interest him.

THOUGHTS ABOUT FATHER ⫻ Oscar respected his father, and he got on with him even when they didn’t always see eye to eye. The main contention in their relationship was that James didn’t agree with Oscar’s plans for the future - not because he disapproved of Oscar’s plans, because he thought Oscar was submitting to his mother’s wishes rather than doing what he wanted to himself. On the other side, Oscar was close to his mother and disliked how easily James dismissed the women he had been with. He spent much more time with her and this caused something of a distance with James. However they still had a good relationship… he just regrets how he left it before James died.

FLAWS ⫻ With Oscar’s intense, borderline obsessive, passion for his most recent interest comes a lot of self destruction. He will pour everything of himself into this at the expense of all other aspects of his life, including even eating. It will often be all he can think about and, much to the chagrin of others, the one thing he wants to talk about. Even when he isn’t intensively into something there is almost always something he is interested in more than other things. On the other hand, Oscar is too relaxed in many ways. He doesn’t really care if someone wants to talk shit about him, everyone’s welcome to their own opinions. His laidback attitude contrasts with his intense interests and he can be quite lazy, not willing to put the work into anything he isn’t passionate about. If it’s not something he’s interested in he won’t bother. This includes relationships - he is incredibly friendly in person but won’t make the effort to actually meet with people, or keep in contact when he’s not physically with someone. While he puts a lot of importance on his relationships he can be fairly insensitive in times, struggling to understand difficulties that others have gone through and not putting in the effort to understand someone else. He is a man of extremes: obsessive when it comes to things he’s interested in but incredibly lazy with things he’s not. Often he will switch between the two in the blink of an eye, making him a rather unpredictable person to be around - one who is easily bored and switched off from a conversation.

Oscar was the result of a short lived relationship between James Vanburen and Eloise Price, owner of a small, family run pharmaceutical business that was saved by James. They got together in between his marriages (probably) and didn’t even last the full length of Eloise’s pregnancy. Things ended between them amicably but with one main contention - where Oscar would live and grow up (as his mother refused to consider moving to the Vanburen Estate) along with whose name he would take. Eventually they had to compromise and as a result Oscar was mostly raised in his mother’s home, but spent just under half his time in the Vanburen Estate and took the Vanburen name.

Of course, this wasn’t much of an issue for the young boy since he could easily travel between both in Araminta. In many ways it worked out well due to his mother working full time - he could spend time with his siblings when he wasn’t at school but his mother was at work. This meant that he was never lacking company as a child, growing up to be an incredibly sociable boy.

As expected of a Vanburen, and with a mother who was setting him up to take over her business, Oscar was sent to some of the best schools in Araminta. Here he flourished, both academically and socially. He was intelligent with particular strengths in the sciences. Along with this he made a good group of friends - you couldn’t call him popular, as he was a bit nerdy and got along best with people with as much passion for science as he had. However his natural friendliness meant that there were very few people that disliked him.

He flew through school without any troubles, until he reached the point that he had to decide what to do when he finished. He realised he didn’t know because there was a lot he was passionate about but he also wanted a degree so he could help his mother when he was finished. While he considered a lot of physics based degrees along the lines of his interests, but in the end he decided on getting a degree in Biochemistry (which his mother encouraged). This was the first time he properly left Araminta, moving to College in a completely different location. It was strange for him but enjoyable to be outside the influence of his family (as much as he enjoyed time with them). He spent the four years making more friends and working hard (maybe less than he should have), and managed to graduate with a good degree. Once again he was left uncertain of what to do: his mother was pushing him to do a Pharmacology PHD while he wasn’t certain if he could dedicate around six more years to school when there were other things he had much more interest in. After some uncertainty he went for it: since he got paid for tutoring and he did still find it interesting. It was that, or doing a different postgraduate degree anyway.

He was one year into his PHD when he was home for Christmas Eve, spending the night with the Vanburen family (to avoid his mother’s nagging). What was meant to be a normal discussion looking for advice from his father turned into a large argument between the two, and Oscar stormed out of the house in a fit of rage early on in the evening. It was on his walk back to his mother’s that he was hit by a vision in which his maternal grandmother, who he’d never met, appeared. She explained to him that he was an adept just like she was, along with his mother. Once the vision was over suddenly his eyes were opened to a world entirely outside of the normal one he was used to. He hurried back to his mother’s and questioned her on it, getting an even more in depth description of the Extra-Normal world along with what it was like to be an adept.

The next morning he woke up regretting what had happened the night before, the harsh words he’d said to his father. But he arrived at the Vanburen Estate to find that the unthinkable had happened: his father was dead. This was a shock to him, like it was to many, and he took days to recover from the grief combined with regret before attending the burial along with the rest of the Vanburens.

After this he went back to College, barely scraping by the rest of his second year. Instead of concentrating on his PHD all he could think about was the Extra-Normal. He threw himself into learning about it and ended up taking a year out (much to his mother’s annoyance), returning to Araminta and moving back in with his mother. To make up for it he’s been spending half his time working for her while the rest he spends learning to use his spells and learning more about the Extra-Normal. While he has mostly been in Araminta, Oscar felt the effects of the curse when he tried to visit a college friend: as he travelled out his hands slowly began to turn to stone. He headed right back to Araminta as this happened and quickly realised he went back to normal when he got there… and that it was happening to his siblings too.

Whatever it was, it was Extra-Normal in nature, which means that Oscar is dead set on figuring out the cause.

TYPE ⫻ Adept

ABSTRACTION ⫻ Red Lux. Channeler: An intricate, metal bookmark that his mother gave him at a young age, that he now always keeps on him rather than using as a bookmark.

ABSTRACTION DESCRIPTION ⫻ Oscar’s spells tend to fall under two categories, those that reflect him when he is at his most passionate, with incredibly high energy and those that reflect him when he is more relaxed. His fairly changeable nature means that the spells that



LIMITS ⫻



WEAKNESSES ⫻

MAIN GOAL ⫻ Surprising considering how she generally acts, but Trisha ultimately wants to find someone to get married to and settle down to start her own family. She wants to have kids and treat them right, giving them what she’d deem a better life than her own. Along with this, she secretly wants to change her degree and instead pursue computing since she discovered she was talented at this… which would require her getting over her shame at that fact.

PHILOSOPHY ⫻ Trisha first and foremost believes that you have to look after yourself, and that no one else will bother. Ironically she thinks that everyone has their purpose and it’s perfectly fine to discard them after you’ve used them. You should use whatever skills you have, whatever they are, to benefit yourself and your life. Along with all these you shouldn’t show others how what they say affects you, but instead remember it and make them regret it.

SEXUALITY ⫻ Pansexual, Trisha has been with many people with no care for gender. Though she often questions how much she actually likes men beyond the attention and easy compliments they give her.

FEARS ⫻ Deep down Trisha fears that she’ll always be stuck in this state, never settling down both for her degree (and future career) and romantic partners. She fears being alone even when she is the one that causes her isolation the most. Above all she fears living the rest of her life in the shadows of others and not finding anything, or anyone, that is truly her own. Trisha also has an intense fear of heights.

REPUTATION ⫻ Within Araminta Trisha doesn't have a great, or widely known, reputation. As one of the Vanburen kids she was always in the shadows - never making any big noise, negative or positive. Those who went to school with her (or know of her school results) would think of her as one of the less impressive Vanburen. Within the family, her reputation is negative. Trisha has always been incredibly standoffish at best and mean at worst, especially to certain people. What didn't help was her bad reputation with James himself which soured her reputation with many of her siblings.

THOUGHTS ABOUT FATHER ⫻ Trisha is one of the few Vanburens that views James negatively. At a young age her opinions were twisted by her mother, who’s relationship was ruined by his affair, and this continued into a bitterness towards him as she grew up. Still, she is upset that she never had a chance to fix their relationship even though there was only a slim chance of that ever happening.

FLAWS ⫻ Trisha is quick to anger and blame, with her rage coming in a cold and scathing manner. Unlike others she doesn’t blow up but instead resorts to incredibly harsh, biting words. When something goes wrong she is one of the first to point fingers as she’s grown up being taught that someone is to blame for what happened in her life (namely her father’s affair). Trisha is very bitter and holds a lot of resentment towards certain family members, and is one to hold grudges. Aside from this she tends to close herself off when it comes to sharing anything but the surface level of herself - even to those she would call her closest friends. She’s very quick to jump between relationships, quickly dropping one person for the next all with the aim to get validation. As much as she outwardly projects confidence and a don’t give a fuck attitude, she has crippling self confidence issues in relation to other people which have lead to her heavily relying on her looks to get her through situations.

Trisha was born to James Vanburen and his wife at the time, Maria Mendoza. The two had met while James was on one of his trips outside of Araminta and “fell in love”. Or, more accurately Maria one sidedly fell head over heels for James. So much so that she put her career as a Professor at MIT (in Mechanical Engineering) on hold to marry him and move to Araminta. Shortly afterwards, she was pregnant with Trisha and happily gave birth. Sadly this happiness was short-lived as it was only a year later that James had an affair with another woman (that she found out about, he undoubtedly had more as well), resulting in her pregnancy. The events that followed ruined any love Maria had for him and completely destroyed their marriage.

This ended with Maria leaving Araminta, and her daughter there in the Vanburen Estate. She went back to the job she’d had previously. Trisha spent most of her early years in Araminta. She would visit her mother for around a month a year during various holidays, which involved minimal time spent together around her research. Even in these short times Maria was sure to tell Trisha who was at fault for the situation: her father and his wife afterwards. As a young and impressionable girl it wasn’t hard to influence her and instill a bitterness towards those that stopped her from having a mother that was around. Even with the short time spent together, Trisha was incredibly attached to her mother. There was always a hope that once she got older she would be able to move out of Araminta and into her Mother’s in Massachusetts. On the other hand as soon as she could think for herself she did her best to avoid her father, which wasn’t exactly difficult.

There was one thing that Maria wished for when it came to Trisha: that she would excel in school just as she had. So Trisha started learning young from her, and kept this up when she started school. Most of her time was spent locked in her room trying to learn and completely ignoring the family she lived with.

Trisha wasn’t good at school.

No matter how hard she tried, she just couldn’t wrap her head around the most basic concepts. She was near the bottom of the class for learning to read and write, the only thing she was slightly above average for was mathematics. None of it was good enough to satisfy Maria - who even at a distance kept a constant check on how she was doing. It was obvious by the time she reached highschool that she wasn’t academically gifted. It didn’t matter that she went above and beyond when it came to effort. She had a whole folder of “tried the hardest” awards but nothing important came of it.

With her daughter not improving, Maria gave up. The already short visits Trisha got to her mother got shorter and their relationship quickly grew tenuous. Suddenly she was blamed for everything that went wrong. Because the least she could’ve done was be smart enough to make up for what had happened.

This left Trisha going into her teenage years already full of anger. She was ridiculed by her mother, basically shoved aside by a father she’d always disliked for her better siblings. She felt angry towards everything and would often lash out with sharp, cold words towards her siblings and parents that got her in trouble more than once. Still, she didn’t give up and continued to try even when it didn’t yield results. There was only one thing that kept her going: the small number of friends she’d made at school.

It was when she turned 16 that she realised she did have something. She had her good looks, something that may not help with her family but drew in friends and those interested in her for other reasons. She quickly began to use this for some form, any form, of validation. It wasn’t extreme throughout highschool, just making loads of friends (especially boys) and dating a few of them. It never went anywhere. Somehow she managed to get into a below average college to do mathematics.

Trisha was glad to finally escape Araminta and the Vanburens. While she didn’t excel academically at college, she did when it came to friendships. Along with this she delved deep into the world of romance… or more accurately, the physical side of it with no feelings on her part. She found it was easy to feel good about yourself when you had people complimenting your looks. She didn't bother trying her best anymore. Instead she spent all her time socialising and partying, indulging in drinking, drugs and one night stands.

Christmas Eve of her second year came, and Trisha reluctantly went home because she wasn’t allowed to stay in her dorms. To her it was a horrible time spent with people she wanted to avoid the most. But that didn’t mean she wanted to wake up the next morning to find out that James was dead. She was conflicted with how to feel, grieving in her own way and suddenly realising there was no chance to fix their relationship now that he was gone. She didn’t stay long in Araminta, returning to college immediately after the funeral.

During the next year she pretended it didn’t happen. She didn’t know about the world of the Extra Normal until just a few months ago, while she was in the computing department of her school she found an old looking laptop hidden in a closet when poking around. She was shocked when it talked to her and introduced itself and after talking, it explained that it was an Apparition sealed inside the laptop and that it could lend her its powers through that. Not quite believing this Trisha took the laptop and spent all her spare time, outside of socialising, learning how to use it.

Then almost a year after James’ death she was forced to go back to Araminta, because she suddenly started to turn to stone.

TYPE ⫻ Aberration (Agent)

ABSTRACTION ⫻ The Trojan, an Apparition that allows Trisha to create multiple "workers", minions to do small tasks for her.

ABSTRACTION DESCRIPTION ⫻ With the creation of the computer, computer code and viruses came the Trojan, an apparition that is the embodiment of that which makes technology run (and destroys it). He’s lent part of his power to Trisha in exchange for a price. This gives her the ability to perform a specific ability through the use of computer code. The basis of this is that Trisha must first write the code for the specific thing she wants to do, in the laptop that the Trojan is sealed in, and “run” it to have the effect come into place. While she can write a basic code framework in advance, saving it to be pulled up later, all the specifics need to be filled in at the time she wants to use the abstraction. Under time pressure this could be difficult without causing errors in the program. The Trojan has given her access to one program.

Master / Worker ⫻ Based on a pattern used in Parallel Programming, Trisha can create up to 5 “workers”. These are little creatures that are essentially two blobs on top of each other, with dinky arms and large eyes (kinda like this). Through the code that Trisha wrote when creating them, they can perform basic tasks for her. This could be collecting something, sneaking in somewhere, listening to a conversation, cleaning, seeing far away for her ect. They can communicate with very basic words to her and more complicated information they get is shown through the computer terminal, which she would have to figure out. Each worked can do something different assuming she codes it correctly and are all controlled through the 'master', her computer. They will follow what is written out in the code, nothing more and nothing less.

AURA SENSING ⫻ Trisha can sense the auras of people using a device connected to the internet within around 50 metres of where she is, assuming that she also has a device connected to the internet.

LIMITS ⫻ Trisha can create up to five Workers and they can travel around a hundred meters away from her. They are limited in what they can do by what code Trisha writes for them, and in order for Trisha to give them a different command, she'll have to change the code.

WEAKNESSES ⫻ The Workers are frail and not suited for combat, even a Blind can easily handle them. Other than that, due to the low power nature of the ability, it doesn't have a whole lot of drawbacks or weaknesses.

Ayano was born in Neon Miami, and to put it bluntly she was a mistake. Her mother was a prostitute, a lower level member of the Lips, and her father one of her clients. Things went wrong and it ended up with Ayano. So little Ayano was raised without even knowing who her father was and no chance of ever finding him. Now her mother wasn’t the worst mum in the world, but she certainly wouldn’t get a prize for being the best - she had a very hands off parenting technique (and had no qualms telling Ayano about all sorts of things a kid her age shouldn’t know). Thankfully for Ayano, she had plenty of big sister figures in her life… only they were all in the same line of work as her mother and gang members. When she wasn’t spending time with them she was hanging out with other youths like her, vandalising shit and stealing - her mother didn’t exactly have money to get her a phone or anything. All things considered, Ayano grew up about how you’d expect for someone in her situation.

Now, Ayano’s future was always set in her mother’s eyes: she’d follow in her footsteps, join the Lips and make back the money that had been spent on her upbringing (which was pitiful little, anyway). Ayano herself didn’t have much say in this… not that she had any thoughts for the future anyway, after spending all her childhood as a hoodlum. So she went along with it and went right into that line of work as soon as she was legal (and thankfully not before). It wasn’t exactly something she enjoyed but it brought in money and kept her mother happy. Everything was going absolutely swimmingly until she was twenty when one of her clients got a little too interested in her… in a stalker way. This culminated into him breaking into her flat, when her mother was away, and tried to force himself onto her. In her panic Ayano managed to grab a gun she always kept under her bed and shot him. Then she shot him again, and again. Then he was dead.

She was left shaken, from murdering someone and everything that had happened. She was left with two choices: stay and wait for her mother to get back, hoping it could get cleared up by being members of the Lips. Then she’d go right back to the life she’d been living up until then. Or, she could flee.

Ayano chose to flee. She didn’t want to go back to how things had been, not after that. So she quickly packed her essential things and ran.

This led to her joining the Royals, with the plan to live a completely different life from before… well, to never consider prostitution and do other sorts of terrible things. She switched to the street name Kite, after the bird - following her love of birds and some bullshit about birds representing freedom (but mostly the former, lame as it all was). Unlike others, she isn’t that bothered about being called that or Ayano. She started specialising in stealing… namely, car theft. After the learning curve jumping to that from her other kinds of stealing (don’t need to hotwire a phone) she quickly made a name for herself in the gang for doing it, becoming one of the best when it came to getting them the next car for racing: whatever the make they wanted, she’d get it. And when she wasn’t doing that she was beating up people who’d crossed them and destroying their property, because where was the fun in sticking with just one thing?

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 has a primary affinity towards thermokinesis, especially of her own body. She also has an affinity towards fire and transformation, which she hasn’t discovered due to not exploring outside of her primary affinity.



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.

MAIN GOAL ⫻ Anya has two primary goals. To get rich, and to become a master adept. She is consistently working towards both through her business, and constantly improving her core spells while developing new ones. She wants to prove to her parents that she can make it without their help, and just how strong she is individually. Deep down, she also wants their love - genuine and without any requirements.

PHILOSOPHY ⫻ The strong and smart make it in life, and the weak are left behind. She believes in prioritising yourself above all others and making selfish decisions to save your own skin. Those with power deserve prestige and to be in charge, while those who can’t make it on their own don’t deserve to at all.

SECRETS ⫻ The fact that she’s running a less than legitimate business. While more legitimate than most “spiritual” businesses due to her abstraction, she doesn’t actually deliver the full service she claims to. She also, throughout the years, would visit the dreams of old Sycamore Tree coven members - observing only, but still intruding on their privacy. She also keeps hidden her constant fear of not being good enough, and insecurities that fuel her superiority complex, caused by her parents high expectations.

SEXUALITY ⫻ Grey aromantic heterosexual. Anya very rarely feels any romantic and has never wanted to pursue a relationship. She’s open to more casual relationships, and had one or two queer platonic ones during university. They didn’t last long.

FEARS ⫻ Losing everything she’s built. Being severed from her lux. Being beaten by other people and proven to be inferior. Not meeting the high expectations of her. Getting stuck in the dream world and never being able to escape.

REPUTATION IN OLD COVEN ⫻ Smart but arrogant. Anya came with a large amount of paranormal knowledge that she was willing to share, particularly about developing spells, but also arrogance about her own abilities. After all, she’d been doing this for years, so many of them were just beginners in her eyes. Anya’s arrogance clashed with a lot of other coven members, and while she was generally tolerable not many actually liked her.

ROLE IN THE BATTLE AGAINST THE STYGIAN SNAKE ⫻ Anya was not particularly useful in the battle against the Stygian Snake itself, something she’d vehemently deny. It was through joining the coven that she discovered her affinity with dream based spells. Before she only had spells she’d learned from family members which she had some affinity to, but it didn’t really match her. Her main use came later on when she was able to manipulating dreams, helping people who wanted to train in their dreams by changing their dreams to simulate battles against the Stygian Snake or apparitions. She also helped with strategy.

FLAWS ⫻ Anya feels superior to others. She went through her kindling event at only ten, and then went through intensive teaching of magic from her parents (even through her rebellious stage, she was training herself). She’s been improving and developing spells for seventeen years and thus thinks better than anyone who hasn’t. There are very few people she respects. Her people skills leave much to be desired when it comes to genuine connections. She’s incredibly analytical when it comes to people and relationships, and this can be her downfall when she tends to look at things much more logically than emotionally. A lot of relationships are transactional to her, business only rather than for genuine connections. She’s very good at putting on the airs, especially for her business, but not so much in her personal life. She’s selfish, only caring for herself and the two siblings she’s still close to. Anya has controlling tendencies, and will easily manipulate others to get what she wants and needs. She feels no guilt over this.

Anya was born to Ranjit Baksh and Ishani Maharaj, first generation Indo-Caribbean immigrants to the United States. Ishani moved to the US from Trinidad as a young girl, and Ranjit moved from Guyana for college. The two met during their college years and got together, both from romantic feelings and a shared desire to have a powerful legacy. Both were of strong adeptal lineage that recently mixed lux types. Ranjit was a purple and orange adept, while Ishani was a pink and white adept. They hoped that together they could have children with multiple lux - four being the ultimate goal.

So after they graduated, they moved to St Portwell to make a life together. Ranjit became a highschool teacher while Ishani went on to get a PHD, eventually becoming a university lecturer (many years down the line). Only a few years after they moved they started having children together, four each two years apart. They had a girl (Nisha), a boy (Kiran), and then two more girls - Riya, and then the youngest being Anya.

Anya had a relatively normal upbringing for her younger years. Her parents were strict and her house busy, with three older siblings always enforcing their rules on the unruly youngest, but she never wanted for anything. She was a precocious, imaginative child who was either lost in books or running through the streets with her older siblings causing all sorts of trouble. Her parents tried to punish this out of her, forcing her into playing musical instruments and studying before she even started school, but her and her siblings always found a way to have fun.

She was only four when Nisha suddenly stopped spending as much time with her, then Kiran at six, and Riya when she was eight. Her parents claimed they had to study harder once they turned ten, but she didn’t understand why. She turned more to her books during this time, and started writing, much to her parents dismay.

Then Anya herself turned ten. For her tenth birthday the whole family was there - her four siblings, her mother’s parents, and her parents themselves, even though it was a Wednesday! She was even allowed to miss school, so she was on cloud nine. Her parents said they had a special gift for her, and when her siblings went to school they ushered her into the car. No matter how much she asked, anticipation growing higher and higher, they wouldn’t tell her where they were going. Eventually they reached one of the forests near St Portwell - a large, rarely visited place. Her parents led her deep inside. What was the surprise? Why were they in a forest?

There was no surprise. When they reached a secluded clearing and her parents turned on her. Suddenly there was a pressure on her mind she didn’t understand and her father attacked her with a glowing knife. The sudden fear for her life, combined with the anticipation she’d felt so suddenly dropping, forced her into a kindling event. People she’d never seen before appeared before her - her ancestors, they told her. There were four of them, from each family line, and they explained lux and magic to her.

When Anya woke up from the recollection she was back in the car. Her parents immediately questioned her - how many ancestors did she talk to, what did they tell her? Scared that they’d try to kill her again, Anya answered all their questions. The joy on their faces was unlike any she’d seen before. They explained everything to her. They hadn’t actually been trying to kill her, no, they loved her far too much. Instead they were inducing her kindling event through the threat to her life, with her mum applying mental pressure to her. That’s what they’d done to all of her siblings when they turned ten as well, the age they deemed old enough to start learning. But Anya was special. You see, they explained, they both only had two types of lux, and her siblings had three. But Anya? Anya had four.

It was a lot for Anya to digest, and she only had that day and night to do so. The very next day she was back to school, and then in the evening on top of the normal intensive studying she was brought into what her siblings had been doing - paranormal training. She started learning spells of them, reading book after book about adepts, and trying to develop her own. Suddenly there was a whole new world of stuff she had to be perfect at.

Anya suddenly got the most attention, something she’d hardly gotten before, but also the most pressure. Her siblings started to resent her and Anya started to resent them. It wasn't her fault she was so special, and better than them. Constantly being told how special she was started to inflate Anya’s ego, while also giving her a constant fear of not living up to their expectations. She worked herself to the bone trying to be perfect - getting perfect grades, learning more spells, and excelling in the instruments they wanted her to play. If she didn’t, they’d punish her and eventually stop loving her. But unlike her siblings, she struggled to develop her own spells. She could only learn off of her family. It was frustrating, especially when her siblings were too resentful to help her. She didn’t want their help anyway.

Her resentment towards them grew, and it grew towards her parents too. She reached the breaking point at age sixteen, when she suddenly wanted to have friends and go out rather than constantly being stuck inside learning. This was the beginning of her rebellious period, having constant explosive fights with her parents and frequently crashing on other people’s couches.

Then, the Stygian Snake started its reign of terror over the town. Her family didn’t plan to do anything about it - they’d protect themselves, and leave if necessary, but why solve this problem for no rewards? Anya held the same opinion too, until the only two friends she had were killed right in front of her while they were out together. She got away herself, but she couldn’t save them.

Because of this Anya found and joined the Sycamore Tree coven. She offered her paranormal knowledge, willingly passing on all of the spells she knew or hard tried to learn, and helping in any way she could. But it was always as if she viewed herself as better than them all. Like she was being oh so generous by helping them, and they should be grateful. She was also in an incredibly difficult and rebellious time of her life, so she made herself a bit of a nuisance.

She wasn’t actually as useful as she claimed, dependent on spells she had little affinity with… Until a while in, when with the help of Britney (who somehow had more magical knowledge than her) she discovered her actual affinity. Anya stepped into a dream that night and never looked back. She was finally able to help, even if it wasn’t useful in the final battle.

With the Stygian Snake defeated, there wasn’t much reason for her to stay in the coven. But she did for a short while - they were the closest thing to friends she had, really. They were friends. Then they voted her out for her snooty attitude and constant, vehement defence of Britney’s actions (who had done nothing wrong in Anya’s opinion). Whatever. Anya didn’t actually care. She moved on with her life, making up somewhat with her parents before going off to an ivy league college to do Chemistry. She spent more time developing and perfecting her dream spells than concentrating on her degree, but she did enough work to not disappoint her parents. There she reconnected with her oldest sister and brother, who’d both long moved out and cut off their parents. It was nice. Four years later she graduated with a good degree in a subject she didn’t care about, and moved back home.

It was tolerable. She got a decently paying job, and spent her free time on her abstraction. She kept up the contact with the two siblings she’d reconnected with, a secret from her parents, while still having a bad relationship with Riya, the sister closest in age to her - who still lived at home like her, and did everything she could to be their parents' favourite. Anya claimed not to care about that, even though she really did, because she was better. That was just a fact.

Her second breaking point with her parents came when she turned twenty three, just one year after moving back home. Riya had just gotten engaged, so Anya was next. Either she found someone herself or her parents set it up. Marriage wasn’t in Anya’s plans. She didn’t want to marry anyone ever, and told her parents that. This escalated and escalated until they threatened to kick her out if she didn’t get engaged. So Anya left herself.

Now as independent as she ever had been, Anya rented a small flat with her savings and quit her job. She set up her own small business - one of a “spiritual” nature, selling objects to ward away nightmares and offering more expensive dream related services. She ran this out of her livingroom at first, and then was successful enough to rent a small shop with a second floor she could live in.

Her business was relatively simple. She would get customers to come in and talk them through their dreams, including the sleeping problems it was causing. Then she would give them various options. She could ensure they had good dreams, or give them specific dreams. If they wanted she could have them dream of someone they lost. When they’d chosen she’d sell them a single use “dream” stone that would do just that. That night, Anya would go into their dream world. She would manipulate their dreams to be exactly as they wanted, while getting information about them she could use later. Then she would continue to sell them dream stones, that would ward away large nightmares while not being as effective. She also used the dreams themselves to manipulate her customers, pushing them to pay her large tips or buy more expensive products that did very little. This was how her business grew. It was scummy, but she didn’t care. Who was going to catch her?

She lived a good life, making money off her abstraction while constantly improving it. She never stopped learning and experimenting with spells, because being this good wasn’t enough - she had to be the best.

Then, someone started killing the coven members. At first Anya didn’t pay it much mind, because she couldn’t care less about them. Sure, she’d spent the last ten years occasionally visiting their dreams, but that was just to dig up dirt or out of pure curiosity. She’d moved past it. But then more died, and it was clear they were being targeted. Anya valued her life far too much to ignore it. So when Auri put out the call she decided to answer it… Though perhaps not right away.

TYPE ⫻ Adept

ABSTRACTION ⫻ Pink, Purple, White & Orange Lux Channeler: a silver fountain pen

ABSTRACTION DESCRIPTION ⫻ Anya’s main speciality comes with the ability to manipulate dreams. She sees dreams as a way into someone’s soul - to find out information they wouldn’t otherwise divulge, to manipulate their opinions and to ultimately control them. It took her a while to come to this conclusion, and discover her affinity.



LIMITS ⫻


WEAKNESSES ⫻

MAIN GOAL ⫻ Charlie’s main goal is to become a qualified nurse. Her secondary goal is to make enough to support herself and her dad so he can work less… but that’s much more far fetched.

PHILOSOPHY ⫻ Charlie believes in hard work and not giving up - with enough effort you can get where you want to be, even if you don’t have the natural talent. Even if you have to push yourself past your limit you should to reach your goals.

SECRETS ⫻ Her resentment towards her mum for leaving, and for her dad for being too stubborn to compromise. She’s resentful that her mum barely made an effort to see her, but she’s repressed the feeling so much she hardly even accepts it. She also struggles with inferiority towards her mum and her talents, something she’d never tell anyone. She also has a newly discovered fear of flying.

SEXUALITY ⫻ Pan. Charlie figured out her attraction isn’t really affected by gender in late highschool, and has gotten with various people. She hasn’t had a serious relationship, though.

FEARS ⫻ Abandonment. Though she pretended everything was fine, Charlie felt abandoned by her mum at a young age. She clings onto the infrequent relationship they have left and fears it happening in other relationships.

WHO IS ELEANOR BLACK TO YOU? ⫻ Eleanor Black is Charlie’s mother. She is very much a hands off parent, and not the custodial one of Charlie . They saw each other about four times a year from when Charlie turned 5. Nonetheless, Charlie is very attached to her.

FLAWS ⫻ Charlie has a bad habit of completely ignoring her own needs in favour of others. Mostly just because she doesn’t pay attention to herself, and she’s gotten a bit used to it. She just sometimes kinda forgets to look after herself too. She is almost too hard working and just doesn’t know when to give herself a break. Her seemingly constant energy and socialness can often be annoying, especially to introverts. She can be a lot. Also she tends to cover up her negative feelings, completely disregarding them and forcing herself to be positive about it all. She can also be pretty stubborn and headstrong.

Charlie’s story starts with her parents - Eleanor Black and Andre Martin. They were opposites in many ways, with Eleanor being a loud, energetic artist and Andre a hard working nurse who liked to keep to himself. They met by chance when Eleanor ended up in the hospital where Andre worked in Newcastle. Their connection sparked instantly and they started dating a few weeks after Eleanor was discharged.

Just over half a year later Eleanor found out she was pregnant. After fighting, crying and making up they decided to keep the baby and to marry - it seemed the best idea for their future, unborn child. That was how Charlie came into the world. At first life was happy, if not perfect. It was difficult for the newlyweds to support themselves and a new baby off just a nurse’s salary and what Eleanor made from selling art. But they made it work.

It didn’t last. Charlie was only four when her parents started fighting every week, and five when they started the process of a divorce. Her mother didn’t want to be tied down to one place. She’d been in an artistic slump since Charlie was born and she needed to see the world to help with that. Andre stubbornly refused to move - Charlie was still young, and they’d built a life here. They were both too different. They didn’t get anywhere so they divorced.

Eleanor moved out of their small home, staying in Newcastle for only a month before jetting away. Andre had full custody of Charlie at Eleanor’s request, though Eleanor had visiting rights. Young as she was, Charlie couldn’t understand why her mum was abandoning her. It didn’t take long for the happy memories of the three of them to seem like nothing more than a dream.

From then on Charlie saw her mum maybe four times a year at most, because Eleanor very quickly became an incredibly successful and prolific artist. She started school without her there to see her off. Her dad tried his hardest to take her from and to school, to fill in the shoes of two parents at once but it was difficult when his job had such long, awkwardly timed hours. There were weeks when she hardly saw him either, staying with her grandmother (his mother) who thankfully lived in the area. From then on she was self-sufficient because she saw how much her dad struggled. She resented, even hated, her mum for not being there.

The rest of Charlie’s childhood itself was relatively normal aside from the divorce, in her eyes. She went to school, got average grades and made a few alright friends. As she got older she pushed the resentment she had towards her mum deep down, somewhere she wouldn’t touch, and kept moving forward with her life. She just couldn’t hate her. Young as she was Charlie was very attached to her mum, and any anger she had about the situation was directed at her dad - the one always there.

Eleanor was there for some of Charlie’s important moments - when her exam grades came out, comforting Charlie over her first breakup, when she finished highschool. She just wasn’t there for all of them. But that was fine. Charlie had her dad after all.

She looked forward to whenever her mum would visit, listening to her amazing tales about the places she’d visited and looking at her paintings in awe. Spending time with Eleanor was always fun, a breath of fresh air from the monotony of her life with a somewhat boring dad (that she loved much more than her mum). She had so much to talk about, telling Charlie about a world she hadn’t seen because they couldn’t afford to travel. Sometimes Eleanor would even talk about her hometown, a swamp filled place so different from the grey streets of Newcastle. Charlie would ask about her family too, but Eleanor would always sidestep the question. It wasn’t a pleasant place to visit, she said, but maybe I’ll take you one day.

Of course she didn’t, because Eleanor only spent a week at a time with Charlie before jetting off. Charlie continued through life and finished highschool. She applied for nursing courses at University, wanting to follow in her dad’s footsteps. He took her to all the university open days, helped with the forms and applications. When Charlie didn’t get into any because her grades weren’t good enough he comforted her. Eleanor just told her it wasn’t meant to be over the phone. She just didn’t have the talent.

Charlie didn’t believe that. She didn’t have the natural talent for what she wanted to do like Eleanor had, but she had the work ethic - her dad had taught her that, and the energy she’d inherited from Eleanor allowed her to push herself to work harder than ever. So she found an alternative route, getting a job as a nursing associate at the same hospital Andre worked at. It was hard, but rewarding. Charlie loved working with people.

At this point Charlie hadn’t seen Eleanor since she was in highschool - she’d almost given up on seeing her again, assuming her mum was just too busy with her burgeoning fame. When she got a text that Eleanor was visiting the UK in a month, and would be staying a few weeks, she was over the moon. She rushed to get a bit of time off work, helping Eleanor find a place to stay and planning what they could do. It had been almost two years since she’d last seen her… she couldn’t wait to hear all of Eleanor’s stories, to hug her and tell all her own. She hoped Eleanor was proud of her.

When Charlie opened the door expecting her mum she found a stranger. She must have the wrong, Charlie thought, before the stranger greeted her as if they knew each other. The stranger didn’t even ask before walking right into her home, as if she’d been there plenty of times before. Charlie followed awkwardly, not sure whether to kick the woman out or call the police. But she found her dad talking to her amicably - Sophia was her name. A friend of his, then? But Charlie had never heard of or seen this woman and it wasn’t like Andre could just sneak someone into their house. Then he said something that completely confused her.

“Charlie, why don’t you get your mum a cup of tea?”

What the fuck. Charlie was certain she was hallucinating, it must be from overworking and not sleeping. Her dad was here treating this Sophia - this stranger - as someone he knew well, and as her mum. Charlie had never seen this person before. She spent the next week feeling as if she wasn’t there, relieved when Sophia left. But with her leaving Charlie was left with a feeling of emptiness and disconcertment. Where was her real mum, Eleanor Black? How come her dad thought Sophia was her mum, and Sophia was somehow texting from Eleanor’s phone.

In a fit of what felt like madness Charlie dug through her dads files for her birth certificate. It had two names on it - Andre Martin, and Sophia Blake. Then she turned to the internet, because her mum was a well known artist. But every single painting she’d done, every gallery and article about her, was attributed to Sophia. There wasn’t a sign of Eleanor Black anywhere. It was as if she’d just vanished and only Charlie remembered her. She’d never felt so unsettled. She tried talking to her dad, but all she got in return was concern that she wasn’t looking after herself.

Even her dad, the man who had both loved and hated Eleanor, didn’t remember her.

Charlie tried to put it to the back of her mind for a couple of months, working as if nothing had happened and pretending everything was ok. But it was always at the back of her mind, a niggling fear and horrible feeling that her entire life had been a lie. It just didn’t make sense. She checked online semi-regularly just in case something new came up - and it did. A whole forum of people looking for her mum… Well, looking for someone called Eleanor Black. Everyone’s stories were wildly different. It was as if Eleanor had been so many different people… Charlie couldn’t quite believe it. Must be a prank. But she kept reading because there were similarities. The fact that Eleanor Black was from Quintin, Louisiana for one. Her mum had told her about that town, the place she was born, but had never given any details.

If people were going to Quintin to find out what had happened, then she had to as well.

She scraped together her savings, took long term leave from work and got on the next plane that got her as close to Quintin as possible.

Charlie is blind.

This was Charlie’s first time leaving the country, before the farthest she’d gone was London once. It was also her first time on a plane. She didn’t like the experience.