[OOC] Recollections: Primal Sinister

[PatientBean]

I feel like a conversation was just had with me involved and yet I said not a word

[Estylwen]

@PatientBean Hehehe, sorry Bean. You're welcome to chime in at any point, just passing ideas out. ;> I'm very excited to play out this scene with you; you're welcome to try reading her mind, if you wanna go that route.

Should have a post up tonight!

[PatientBean]

@Estylwen I will note it would be a lot easier to talk and plan on Discord but I recognize not everyone has/wants one.

[Estylwen]

@PatientBean Ahhh yes, it's true. Can always DM me here though. :)

[Tesserach]

NPCs

Ryan Jackson

Ryan.Jackson

41 | Ryan Jackson | He/Him [hr//]"The fuck is that?"

Description:

Ryan Jackson's official resume has him working in corporate biotech, working for several companies selling boring agricultural products around the world. Unofficially a deep background check into US government comes mostly redacted and might actually raise system flags about anyone searching the name.

These days he's retired from government work, having entered the far more lucrative business of corporate security. Four years ago he'd assumed a career that had taken him to global hot spots meant he'd seen it all and that his employment with MFF Industries would be a quiet retirement, mostly keeping tabs on foreign and strategic threat groups trying to steal sensitive MFF Industry secrets.

Holy shit was he wrong.

Abstraction:

None, but may have access to minor artifacts

Alejandra Escriva

Alejandra.Escriva

23 | Alejandra Escriva | She/Her [hr//]"I'M JUST AN INTERN!"

Description:

alejandra is a recent graduate of NCU, father is from southside but has lived in north Cloverfield all her life. She recently completed her masters in social work, but was pressured by family to take a more business oriented internship with the intent of doing community work southside.

Her internship with MFF Industries has recently taken a sudden and dramatic turn after CEO Ioan Foster decided he 'saw something' in her.

Abstraction:

None

[FernStone]

Presenting my 4th and final (probably) character! I probably won't bring her in for a little bit but her background is nice information for people to have I think

Nessa Mendoza

[+]

Alternate Theme

"I’m just someone trying to survive. There is nothing special about me."

_______________________________________________ Vanessa Sidhaya Charlotte Beaumont Nessa Mendoza She/Her | 23 | Filipino-American | 5’2” | 89lbs _______________________________________________ Progeny _______________________________________________ Skills & Talents "Just as useless as I am." ___________________________________ [+] Want to be Wanted ⫻ Nessa is good at flirting. She knows how to act to get someone to like her in that moment, and how to use her body and words to get what she wants out of them - whether a bed for the night or a relationship. She also knows when to use her magic to help with this. While these relationships rarely last… there’s very few people she hasn’t at least slept with after targeting them. Something about desperately wanting to be loved pushes her to do everything she can to capture someone, even if it never works out. Magical Upbringing ⫻ Since Nessa kindled at a young age, she’s been taught about the Paranormal on the side of intensive spell training. She has a deep understanding beyond just what’s been taught - one that comes from years spent within the minds of other Paranormals. Her knowledge around Emotional Fields is especially intimate. There are gaps, namely around Apparitions and their sealing, but her understanding of Adeptal magic, the intricacies of Abberations and the protection Paranormal have against each other is incredibly solid. She’s also good at learning spells, even if it’s a slow process for ones that don’t align with her - but it’s all she’s ever done. Father’s Legacy ⫻ If there’s one thing Nessa’s father left her it was a preparation for the worst of humanity. She’s seen people die - she’s accidentally killed them herself. From a young age she was forced to witness horrific magical human experimentation that no one should ever see. Not only did she have to see it but she was forced to participate in it. While the circumstances she’s found herself in now suck, she hasn’t seen anything worse than she already has. It takes a lot to actually disturb her and she’ll do almost anything for her own survival, because it can’t be worse than what she’s already done. Her not so healthy paranoia helps keep her alive, and she has a high pain tolerance thanks to years of constant, magically induced migraines.

Appearance ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ "You can take a closer look somewhere private if you want..." Nessa’s looks are something that naturally draws the eye, something she easily catches with a seductive smile. Her short, slim build is now verging on unhealthily skinny. But this isn’t noticeable to other people, aside from how easy she is to pick up and a few places where her bones can be felt through her skin. She has nice curves, with an average sized chest she accentuates with clothes and more noticeable curves at her hips. She’s not afraid to use this to her advantage, and is very confident in her body and sensuality. But the year and a half struggling to survive has taken its toll. Her light brown skin is no longer smooth and unblemished. Cold showers and lack of care have led to it getting rougher, just like there are places that are uncomfortably bony to touch (but thankfully nowhere important when it comes to offering enjoyment to others). She’s often covered in scrapes, with small scars all across her limbs from violence she’s experienced since ending up in the South Side. Aside from smaller ones, there’s a larger, obvious knife wound scar on her back. Her medium brown eyes, with a hint of green at the centre, are often tired looking with dark bags underneath them. Thick, dark brown hair falls to her chest in messy waves, now often kept tied back so it's off her face. Freckles splash lightly across her nose and cheeks. While Nessa wouldn’t have been found dead without makeup on before, she has to be much more conservative with her supplies now. As a result she only wears it when she wants to look attractive to someone else. Base makeup is kept light, covering up blemishes, and her eyeshadows are done in darker, more sultry tones. Her round lips are painted in soft pink or a bolder red. She has two lobe piercings and one helix. Right now she wears simple gold hoops or studs, except for a cat claw dangle earring always found in her right ear. A once expansive wardrobe has now been cut down to the bare minimum, with the majority sold for cash that’s beginning to run out. It all fits in one suitcase, because that’s all Nessa has to work with. When alone Nessa wears tank tops and one of the two pairs of cargo pants she has left - now stained with dirt and dust. For outings and time spent with the constant cycle of partners, Nessa’s kept a selection of clothing that makes her feel and look sexy. Low cut crop tops, bandeau tops, or bralet tops are paired with tight, barely covering everything skirts and shorts. There’s also revealing and tight fitting dresses, nicely highlighting her body. Occasionally she’ll wear the few cuter, comfortable dresses or skirts she's kept. She dresses to get what she needs - which is normally someone to fall for her looks and give her a bed to sleep in.

_{Psychology
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"Is who I am now really a lie if I was never myself before?”

MAIN GOAL ⫻ Right now Nessa just wants to survive. The past year and a half she’s been in survival mode, and she doesn’t see herself getting out of that anytime soon. Pay rent, get food, don’t starve to death. The simple things. Beyond just survival, Nessa wants to get enough money to move away from Cloverfield. She wants to go somewhere that she can just be her rather than her father’s legacy.

Ultimately, that’s what she truly wants. Nessa wants to just be herself - and she wants someone who sees her and loves her for that. She desperately wants to be loved, and even as she’s struggling to survive she’s still trying to find that. She wants someone to see her.

PHILOSOPHY ⫻ Everyone leaves eventually. Nessa believes in always prioritising herself, and taking what she can from other people while she can. No one else will be there for her - it's been proven time and time again that she can only depend on herself. If you survive, it doesn’t matter how. Nessa believes that nothing comes free in life. Everyone wants something from you. For her, it’s always been her body or her magic. And everything is always conditional. What is given can, and will always, be taken away.

SECRETS ⫻ Nessa’s true identity is a secret. Vanessa Beaumont is the wanted daughter of a once millionaire criminal mastermind. Nessa Mendoza is a poor girl from the coast who moved to Cloverfield a couple of years ago for reasons she doesn’t want to share. It explains away the more neutral accent. Her magic is also a closely guarded secret. To the rare Paranormal she’s met since, she keeps it vague - trying to focus on the yellow and pink side. She keeps all of the spells her dad taught her a secret. That she has a spellbook filled with even worse spells is something she’ll never tell anyone. The only thing stopping her burning it is the part of her that still loves him. Then there’s her active participation in his human experimentation. That’s a secret that eats her alive, and has done for most of her life - only now there’s no curse to keep it trapped in her mind. Only a shoddily put together mental shield.

Outside of the secrets that would see her in a jail cell right next to her dad, there are Nessa’s more personal secrets. How much she fears being abandoned by every single person who comes into her life. How beneath her snappy, confident surface she’s incredibly fragile. How much she actually feels things. That she craves her father’s affection and pride, but at the same time she hates that she does. That she hates herself so much sometimes that she doesn’t think she even deserves to live, but at the same time she’d do anything to survive. Just what lengths she’d go to for someone to love her, but she doesn’t feel like she deserves to be loved at all. All things buried beneath the flirtatious, attitude filled surface that she never lets anyone past.

SEXUALITY ⫻ Whoever will give her shelter and safety. While Nessa considers herself bisexual, her actual preferences don’t matter to her anymore. The past year she’s been with mostly men - they fall much faster, even if it’s only a shallow, physical relationship that ends abruptly.

FEARS ⫻ Nessa has as many fears as she does secrets. She has a deep seated fear of abandonment. From a young age, both parents threatened it - and her mother eventually saw through with it. Forced isolation was her father’s punishment of choice. Because of this Nessa spends every moment she’s with someone fearing that they’ll leave her. Now her fear of abandonment is deeply entwined with her fear of not surviving the cruel reality she’s found herself in. She’s dependent on other people, and each person that drops her leaves her closer to the edge. Because she fears being abandoned, she also fears letting anyone in. It will only hurt more when they eventually leave her - which they will. That’s just reality, and she hates it. Being alone terrifies her, and this all pushes her to form incredibly unhealthy and borderline obsessive relationships.

On top of this, Nessa fears someone finding out who she actually is. There’s the surface level fear of being handed in and meeting a similar fate to her father for something she unwilling participated in. But beyond that, there’s the fear of people’s reactions. Disgust, hatred… All things she feels towards herself but can’t handle from others. But more than anything, she fears that things will never change. She’ll be stuck here forever. And she’ll always just be seen as Vanessa Beaumont, useful Blue-Pink Adept, rather than Nessa, and all the broken pieces that come with her.

WHAT DID THEY DO DURING THE CATACLYSM? ⫻ Nessa was hidden and protected by her dad’s magical protections and many, many mind controlled Paranormal.

FLAWS ⫻ A person of many contrasts, Nessa is a damaged individual. She pretends she’s strong - projecting an incredibly flirtatious, sharp spoken persona. And that is who she is, but she’s also someone who desperately wants to be loved. She jumps from person to person, coming on strong but at a physical, surface level. She tells herself every time it’s just for survival, and it’ll never go any further. But she’s also someone who gets attached incredibly quickly, to an unhealthy degree. When Nessa likes someone even just a little bit she can be aggressively obsessive. That person is the key to her surviving, but also a band-aid over all the insecurities she has within herself. There’s very little she wouldn’t do for a little affection. On the other hand, she holds everyone at a distance. She never lets them in beyond what she wants them to see, hiding all of her trust issues and insecurities. This leads to strange toxic relationships, where she’s both in too deep but it’s barely more than a physical just about exclusive deal. She picks the wrong people, and suffers through abuse she shouldn’t because there’s a chance they’ll end up loving her. She doesn’t know what it’s like to be honestly, truly loved - for her whole life she’s been chasing the love of an abusive father. So she continues to repeat the pattern of enduring for love. But then there’s a sign that they don’t care for her, or something that triggers her various issues, and she immediately lashes out. Explosive fights lead to breakups, which leads to a toxic cycle of dating, obsessing, and getting abandoned.

Nessa is unforgiving and resentful to the people who made her life this way. She’s constantly shifting between blaming everyone but herself, and thinking that it’s really her fault. Really, even though she tries to blame her father it always comes back to self-blame. She hates herself and everything she’s done. Her guilt constantly haunts her. There are days when she doesn’t feel she deserves to live because of this, and makes no effort to. With no healthy coping mechanisms, her many issues manifest in an incredibly snappy and scathing person. She hurts the people around her because of how much she’s hurting. Her love and hate for her father is perhaps one of the things she struggles with the most - and that relationship colours how she is with everyone. She always expects the worst. If someone is nice to her, she waits to see what they want, or goes on the attack before they can get something from her. Because why would anyone actually love her with how she is and after everything she’s done?

_{Backstory
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"It wasn’t my fault. None of it was my fault- but I still chose to do it, didn’t I?"

Vanessa Beaumont was born to Charles Beaumont and his wife, Malaya Mendoza, in Cloverfield. She’d fallen in love with Charles and put her own career, as an engineer specialising in military defences, on hold to marry and have a child with him. Charles was an incredibly successful business man, one of the richest and most well known in the city. He had his hands in many industries and the name Beaumont was known across the North Side of the city.

But behind his perfectly polished reputation as the rich tycoon who could save any struggling business was a more sinister man. Charles was a Blue-Pink Adept with great mastery over his craft, and a long spellbook he’d developed via human experimentation. His unique lux blend allowed him to breach Emotional Fields, using curses to manipulate the mind to the point of mind control without active casting. In his mid thirties he began small, with Blinds and weak Paranormal, but with each year he grew stronger. His lust for power meant he wanted to be able to control and change even the strongest Paranormal. So he found stronger and stronger ones, each one cracking under his curses until he morphed their brains into something unrecognisable while retaining their magic.

It was a cruel process. Blue lux used to breach Emotional Fields, allowing Charles access to his subjects' brains so that he could completely rewrite them. Intense pain was normal in the process, and the stronger the Paranormal the stronger they’d fight back. But they all succumbed to him as he grew his spellbook, fine tuning curses to cause pain at just the thought of disobedience and developing more unique and complicated mind altering on the fly curses. It was something he took great pleasure in - and something he could use to one day control not only the city, but perhaps the entirety of Dazzle.

It was this that Charles truly wanted an heir for. A child to inherit his Blue-Pink Lux, so that he could pass down his wealth of spells and have another hand in his bid for power. As he had what he wanted with Nessa’s birth, the marriage between him and Malaya quickly fell apart. They divorced when Nessa was only one.

Nessa was bounced between the two households - but her time was spent with Charles more than it was Malaya. He was the one that had really wanted a child, after all. Nessa’s early years were marked by neglect - pushed to a nanny who only cared about a paycheck with very little in the way of familial love. From a young age she was attached to both parents she barely saw, but never got that affection back. Still, she saw them both…

Then, when she was five her mom remarried. Less than a year later she was pregnant again. Nessa was distraught when her younger half-brother was born, shoved to the side in her second home. She had to watch as he got all the attention she never had. It made her start to act out - and that began to affect her time with her dad too.

So to placate her, he got her a pet cat. Something that actually loved her. Blossom was her best friend - and only friend, because little Nessa just couldn’t make any at school either. She lashed out too much, and very few people wanted to be around the sullen young Beaumont.

Those two years were the best she had. It was the only time she had consistent companionship - something that looked to her for food and safety, but didn’t have any other expectations. There was no need to read ahead of her age just to get a smile from them, or to not cry because it wasn’t ‘becoming of a Beaumont.’ Blossom loved her unconditionally, and Nessa loved Blossom.

Nessa kindled at eight. It wasn’t a natural kindling.

Charles didn’t plan to wait for Nessa to kindle naturally. It could be years - he’d kindled at ten thanks to his parents’ intervention, but Nessa would kindle earlier. After all, there was a lot for her to learn. As for how to cause a strong enough emotional reaction? That was easy.

Nessa’s eighth birthday was the first one her dad attended. Her mom didn’t, but that was fine! At least she had dad and Blossom with her for it. While Nessa was desperate for her mother’s attention and love, it was her dad’s that she craved the most. He only had her. She should have his full attention. And as she turned eight, it seemed she finally was getting that.

Unfortunately for her.

There were no presents. No happy birthdays sung around a cake as she blew out a candle and made a wish. Not even a birthday wish. Only a cat brutally slaughtered in front of her by the very man she’d been so excited to see.

Fear, sadness… and the want for her father’s love. The three emotions combined as she kindled into her three types of lux. There was no sympathy from her ancestors, knowledge that she could barely understand quickly pushed at her before she slipped out of the Kindling-Event recollection.

Nessa cried and shouted at Charles, and she tried to hate him. But she also wanted him to love her - and suddenly he was paying attention to her. He calmly explained why, which she didn’t understand, and apologised - even though it was barely an apology.

The next day he even got her a birthday present. A single earring, beautifully made from one of Blossom’s claws. It, and the subsequent appointment with a piercer, was the only gift she ever got from him. Strong sadness at the companion she’d lost, fear of what her dad could do to her, and that horrible love-hate she felt towards her made her emotional attachment to it stronger than one she’d had before - and it became her Channeler.

Unfortunately, Nessa was a disappointment from the start. Charles hadn’t known his ex-wife was an Adept too, and viewed Nessa’s Yellow Lux as a taint on the perfection of Blue-Pink. But he had to make do with what he had. So Nessa was told to ignore that part of herself - there was no need for protection and hiding with the power they both held.

Now Nessa went from barely seeing her dad to seeing him nearly every day. Mondays and Tuesdays were spent with her mom - watching her love her two other children unconditionally, while only paying enough attention to Nessa to tell her to study harder. But the rest of the week was with her dad. After school she had her ‘extracurricular’ classes with him, on Saturdays it was whole day learning and on Sunday it was special ‘mind sharing’ time.

Charles taught Nessa the basics of Pink Lux first. Reading surface thoughts, speaking to others through her mind, and similar. She practised on the household staff. It was easy with the Blind, though it took Nessa time to get perfect control. With three lux types to contend with, the pure Pink spells were often tinged with an addition of the other colour. An accidental curse as she read a maid’s thoughts had her in bed with a migraine for a day, her nanny’s voice dampened by yellow lux for thankfully only a few unnoticeable moments. Each mistake came with a punishment. Small, for small mistakes. A day spent locked in her room.

For someone so dependent on other people, who’s fear of abandonment was instilled in her from a young age with threats from both sides to leave her, just that was a nightmare.

But they always spent Sundays together, no matter what had happened. They were the days Nessa looked forward to the most… and would look back on with a horrible mixture of disgust and fondness.

Charles would spend the day inside Nessa’s head. Teaching her using his finely honed Pink Lux - correcting her where she’d gone wrong, and showing her the neural pathways to change. Subtle touches that Nessa didn’t even realise were being used on her even as they were demonstrated. From the day she kindled he’d put his curse on her - an infection on her Emotional Field that allowed him access to her mind whenever he wanted. The primary goal of his time in her mind wasn’t to teach her. It was to layer curse upon curse on her, ensuring his complete control of his daughter. These curses were his speciality - triggered by specific thoughts to cause debilitating pain. It ensured she couldn’t disobey him, couldn’t run away and, most importantly, couldn’t tell anyone.

By the time she was eleven Nessa had a basic list of both Pink and Blue spells - from the basics of telepathy to the more complicated mind control, one she naively had no problems with because ‘it didn’t hurt and the Blinds wouldn’t remember.’ Then there were basic curses - blisters that washed away with water, migraines from negative thoughts, making someone's appearance more monstrous. It had taken longer than her dad had hoped - something he made sure she knew.

With her mother, things had only gotten worse. Nessa’s half-siblings were now old enough to truly bother her, and her mom expected her to cater to their every whims. Nessa didn’t want to. She hated them. And eventually she snapped. It started with scathing words at her entitled half-brother, and ended with her blasting him with enough magic to leave him in a dazed, barely conscious state for days.

As an Adept herself, Nessa’s mother knew exactly what had happened. Not only was her young daughter a failure in the one thing she wanted her to succeed in - academics - bringing down her own reputation, but she was throwing around magic with little care for the consequences. Malaya didn’t want to handle it. Nessa wasn’t ‘punished’, in the traditional sense.

Instead her time at her mom’s was drastically reduced to a weekend every few months. Selfish, a failure, not my daughter, you never should have been born. Nessa internalised everything her mom told her as she was thrown away by her.

It was exactly what Charles needed. There was no comfort for having her already distant mother essentially abandon her. Instead, he took her training to the next stage - now there was little risk of her mother getting involved if she found out.

Only eleven, Nessa found herself learning things about her dad she never wanted to know. She was taken to the dark underbelly of his business, the laboratories filled with people he kept deep underground. Cells upon cells of things that could barely be called human anymore. They were Blinds and One-Eye-Opens he’d cursed to become monsters, painstakingly giving them Abstractions while turning them into mindless thralls. Even further through were the ones who were already Paranormal when captured. Mostly human in body, they were in varying states of mind control.

This was where the true lessons began.

“Human experimentation,” her dad explained, “is the only way to further the field of Adeptal studies. How else do you perfect curses and mind manipulation if not on human subjects?”

Nessa was horrified. While her upbringing had been isolated with almost no positive guidance she still knew right from wrong. This was wrong. It was kidnapping and it was torturing people. She didn’t want to participate in it. But if she didn’t he’d leave her just like her mom had… then she’d have no one.

So Nessa tried at first. It wasn’t so bad. She had to start with the most basic - the curse her dad had developed to crack an emotional field, allowing him to gain untethered access to Paranormals’ minds. She started with the weaker Paranormal he had, before moving on to stronger and stronger ones. At the same time she continued to practise the Pink Lux spells she’d learned before, just applying them to people who’s emotional fields she’d breached. It was almost a year before she’d learned the spell to the point that Charles was happy about it.

After that came the dreaded point - being forced to participate in the actual human experimentation. This was the first time Nessa truly rebelled against him. She outright refused. Just the thought made her feel sick.

The words ‘I won’t do it’ had barely left her lips before her mind exploded in pain. Her brain fired off pain signals to every part of her body until she was left curled up, sobbing and shaking. It was unbearable. Excruciating. All consuming. It felt like that moment, the pain, lasted forever.
“I didn’t raise a failure.”
Her dad didn’t say anything else to her. He didn’t have to. Over the year of learning a single curse he’d explained the basics of the rest to her - she’d seen his spellbook. He had cursed her too.

After that, Nessa was left alone for two days at their overly large, yet empty, house. Charles nowhere to be seen, and a nanny only appearing to take her to and from school. She was essentially locked in. Just her, her thoughts, and books that didn’t stand in for human company.

The next time Nessa didn’t refuse. It wasn’t just the memory of the pain, but it was the disdain in her dad’s eyes. She wanted him to be proud of her. She craved his affection more than she’d like to admit, even though he caused her so much pain. She loved him, but she hated him. It seemed worth it for the small compliments she got from him. It almost seemed like he loved her then, like a father should love his daughter.

She knew his love was conditional. It wasn’t even love. He wanted her magic, not her. But it didn’t really matter, did it?

Nessa went into her teens with this constant conflict inside of her. She learned spells that forced people to obey her or face the same agony she was afraid of, desperate for the love of a father she spent the rest of her time pushing the boundaries with. Each failed attempt resulted in that same pain, and the same punishment - isolation. She began to project an outward confidence she very much didn’t feel. All she felt was broken.

She was both a willing and unwilling participant in her father’s crimes. The guilt haunted her dreams, but was she really guilty? She couldn’t say no. But she still chose to do it. She just wanted to be loved.

It was incredibly isolating. Even as she grew and changed in a way that got her more attention outside of her family. She blossomed, becoming one of the most attractive girls in her small incredibly selective (in terms of financial status) school. She made some friends, and started having relationships with people. In a way that was also a way to rebel against her dad - more time spent out of the house, less time forced to experiment.

But it was all shallow. Nessa couldn’t really be herself. She wasn’t entirely sure who she was. As a result, both friendships and relationships rarely lasted. But just like with her dad, she found herself chasing the small glimpse of affection. It was unhealthy, and borderline obsessive, but it was the only thing that made her feel less alone. Less worthless.

Because she was barely more than that to Charles. She didn’t have the same affinity he did with the spells he tried to teach her. It was a slow and painful process. She learned spells to transform blinds into monsters, implanting commands triggered by certain events, manipulating the brain itself. But there was a disconnect that meant she wasn’t as gifted as he hoped. Compared to most her age she was a talented Adept, having kindled so young and learned for so long, but it wasn’t enough. It would only ever be enough if she was as skilled as Charles was - impossible for spells that didn’t quite click for her.

She continued to rebel more, even through the physical pain it caused her. Nights spent at partner’s rather than at home, skipping lessons with him, and barely trying to learn. She began to find herself - even though the person she found was still that messy, conflicted, argumentative failure.

Charles doubled down too. More curses on her, more rules, more isolation. It was a continuous cycle of abuse and pushing back against it that only left Nessa more resentful, and more resistant.

Still he got his goal. At sixteen Nessa began to learn the more important spells, beyond what he viewed as fundamentals. Firstly, the very same curses he had on her. Curses that forced obedience, a type of mind control that was far more sophisticated by the brute force method. Then fundamentally and permanently changing subjects’ brains. Finally, a spell that could cause a painfully slow death.

Spells that Nessa didn’t want to cast, even as she became more attuned to them. She couldn’t deny that some of them clicked. It was that want for people to love her - willingness to manipulate them to do so.

Because her dad never really would. He still viewed her as a failure, even as she learned everything he wanted her too. He’d gone out of his way to find alternatives… even if that failed. She wasn’t named the heir to his business. Her existence was hardly known, even though Charles was prominent.

She could lie to herself that it was to protect her, but really it was to protect his legacy.

She resented him. She wanted his love. She’d never get his love. Nessa went through the early years of adulthood much like she did her teens - dating around, rebelling, and experimenting at her dad’s side. Without school she spent even more time learning and improving her spells. There was no gained independence - she’d been independent from a young age in all things but her magic, and the curses implanted in her brain.

Then the cataclysm hit. Nessa was where she was the majority of the time - in her dad’s laboratories. Thanks to this she was kept safe. They’d been built with state of the art magical technology thanks to the many Adepts Charles had under his control, and there were a multitude of bodies to protect her. Bodies that were, of course, used to help end the Cataclysm.

But not for the right reasons. Charles saw this as an opportunity to finally enact a plan that could take many years - a city wide takeover. When Nyrah the Ravager was sealed he prepared to show his hand. An army of Paranormal under his command… it should be easy with the city in the state it was.

But he didn’t account for a betrayal from the inside. His business partner, a Green-Pink Adept who was the only other person outside of his daughter to know of his plans. She’d been there for as long as Nessa could remember, in the background - a person she barely noticed through her own pain and need for attention. Before Charles could go through with his plan prematurely she handed him over to the Paranormal authorities.

Charles was arrested and all of his assets frozen.

There was little warning. Just enough time for him to pass his spellbook to Nessa - forcing her to promise to protect it with her life - before the authorities took him. Nessa herself had to leave. Their house was a crime scene. She packed everything she could in a suitcase and ended up on the streets.

She was lucky to get away at all, only able to thanks to the finger only pointing at Charles. By the time his daughter’s involvement and his missing spellbook came to light she was gone.

Panicked, Nessa tried to reach out to her mom only to get the coldest response she could. Complete rejection. Malaya cut her daughter off without a second thought.

So Nessa was left alone with almost nothing. All of her cards were deactivated. All she had was what was in her suitcase. She couldn’t survive off that and she couldn’t survive in the Upper District. It was only a matter of time before her involvement came out. Her dad wouldn’t try too hard to protect her.

So she sold what she didn’t need - gold jewellery, her most expensive clothes. And she used some of the money to get a boat to the South Side. She went from having everything she could want in the material world, to having nothing.

Vanessa Beaumont all but vanished.

In the South Side, she went by Nessa Mendoza. Her past and family name were a closely guarded secret, and the case looking for her opened not long after she began her new, much rougher life.

Without any hireable skills, and knowing she couldn’t really work either, Nessa used what she had to survive - her looks and her magic. But she refused to use the spells her dad had taught her. He wasn’t around anymore to give her the attention and love she’d always wanted, so all she felt was disgust towards them. And if she started using them now she really would be guilty. Instead she began to develop her own spells - and finally began to tap into her Yellow Lux. She also began to excruciatingly tear down the curses Charles had put on her mind - breaking them curse by curse until she was finally completely free of them.

Nessa used other people to survive - primarily targeting men, who were much easier to seduce into giving her somewhere comfortable to sleep. Short lived, often incredibly toxic and abusive relationships were what sustained her. The time in between she managed to find somewhere with weekly rent - something she could just about afford with the money from selling her clothes. It was a shit life. But each time she got with someone new, there was that little bit of hope that it might become something permanent - and be a way to get out of the shit hole she’d ended up in.

It never was, and just left her with more scars.

Nessa’s been out of a relationship for almost three weeks. Money’s running out, and she’s starting to get desperate…

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"I’m just as cursed as those I use my magic on."

TYPE ⫻ Adept

ABSTRACTION ⫻ Blue, Pink & Yellow Lux. Channeler: A cat claw earring

ABSTRACTION DESCRIPTION ⫻ Nessa is an Adept of two extremes. One on hand, she has incredibly strong spells she was taught for many years that don’t align with her, and on the other a scant list of much weaker spells she’s finally started developing that are actually hers. From her father she learned a great many Pink & Blue lux spells - focused on control and cursed pain. Alone, she’s developed emotional manipulation curses and self protection spells.

The Cursed Contradiction ⫻ A discipline representing curses that Nessa has developed herself, which reflect her and her wants. Currently it is a small list, as she’s only been developing it the past year and a half.

Love is a Curse ⫻ A spell that Nessa developed since losing everything, this pink-blue curses changes people's feelings towards her. None of the versions of it affect those with emotional fields - it’s just too weak at the moment. To perform the curse, she has to be touching whoever she’s cursing.

”Want Me” ⫻ The weakest version of this curse, this curses the target to want Nessa physically. They find her incredibly attractive, and want to sleep with her specifically. The curse can be broken by sleeping with someone - anyone. It doesn’t impact the target's view of Nessa after it’s broken.

”Need Me” ⫻ This curse people to feel like they need Nessa - they can’t be away from her, they feel attached to her. It’s enough for them to want to have a relationship with her, and to look after her. This curse is broken by one of two conditions - after a week, or if the target of their affection (Nessa) says anything negative to them. Afterwards, they will feel more disdainful towards her.

”Love Me” ⫻ The strongest version of the curse, which curses the target to fall in love with Nessa. They will want to give her everything. It’s a magical, intensive form of love. It’s broken by one of three conditions - after two days, if someone questions their love, or if Nessa asks them to do something they would never do otherwise. Often, once this is broken, their feelings for her are the complete opposite.

Cursed Like Me ⫻ A spell Nessa developed to inflict some form of revenge on all the partners that have abandoned her over the last year. It curses them to suffer from crippling self doubt and insecurities. They question that the people in their life like and care for them, fearing that they’ll abandon them. It feels like they’re not good enough and will never be good enough. While this can affect those with Emotional Fields, the curse isn’t as strong. This curse is broken by a genuine compliment.

The Self-Preserving Victim ⫻ A discipline containing Nessa’s burgeoning Yellow Lux, in combination with pink and blue, and other spells that help her stay alive and survive. The majority of these spells are for self protection.

Telepathy ⫻ One of the first spells Nessa learned from her father, she has basic telepathy. This allows her to read one target's thoughts - primarily their surface level thoughts and emotions at a distance. With intense concentration and physical touch she can delve deeper. She can also speak to one person with her mind. Emotional fields block her thought reading, but not her ability to mentally send messages (and she can get through Emotional Fields if her Emotional Breach spell is on the target).

Alarm Bell ⫻ This spell is a combination of pink and yellow, with a low energy use in it’s ‘dormant’ state. It’s a reactive shield, using pink lux to know when someone has bad intentions towards her - reading their want to attack and triggering magical protection in response to it, while a magical ‘alarm bell’ goes off in her head. This triggered shield is basic, covering just her arms so she can use them to protect herself. It blocks physical attacks and weak magical ones, but nothing beyond that.

Mind Cloaking ⫻ A Pink-Yellow spell coming from Nessa’s need to protect her secrets. This spell protects her mind from all magical intrusion - an extra protection on top of her Emotional Field. It protects her against mind reading and similar that ignores Emotional Fields. It can be targeted to specific sections of her mind - she’s always casting it on the parts of her mind holding her knowledge and memories of her father. This spell is relatively low effort to maintain for a small section of her mind, but takes more energy for full coverage.

Pustulent Protection ⫻ A yellow-blue spell Nessa developed for protection - when cast on herself it means that anyone who touches her is hit with curse that causes painful, itchy boils to cover them, starting for whatever they used to touch her. This is essentially an invisible shield across her skin imbued with a curse. She can keep it up for thirty minutes, and dispel it at will. It affects people with Emotional Fields. The curse can be broken by washing the affected areas with water.

Shielding Curse ⫻ A yellow-blue spell Nessa is attempting to develop to protect her against curses. Combining her own curse magic with a shield, the aim is to have a spell that when cast will prevent curses from working on her - so she never has to worry about getting cursed by someone like her father again. This is somewhat effective at the moment - it helped get rid of the curses that were previously on her. But generally it's ineffective against curses actually cast on her. It still needs a lot of work.

Invisibility ⫻ Nessa’s first pure Yellow Lux spell, one that she’s been working on for a while with little luck. She wants to be able to turn herself invisible so she can get out of all the difficult situations she finds herself in… Unfortunately it barely works right now. When she casts it she’ll turn invisible for a moment, before becoming visible again. She’ll keep blinking in and out of view for a couple of minutes before it stops, making it trippy to witness more than anything else.

The Prodigal Failed Daughter ⫻ Technically Nessa’s first, and most powerful, Discipline. These Blue-Pink Lux spells were taught to her over (years) by her father, trying to mould him to be his heir and follow in his horrific magical footsteps. Directly taught by a master Adept, the spells are incredibly potent and powerful, but Nessa struggles because the spells don’t quite reflect her. She’s always disliked using them, but now that there’s no father’s love to try gain she outright refuses to… unless things are desperate. All of these spells require Nessa to have physical contact with her target. They have a relatively short cast time against Blinds, but a very long one against Paranormal - and are ineffective against them unless she uses Emotional Breach on them first.

Emotional Breach ⫻ The fundamental to the spells taught to Nessa by her father, this primarily Blue Lux spell with a little bit of Pink allows her to gain entry to a person’s mind through their emotional field. This essentially curses their Emotional field, opening up a cursed crack that Nessa can slip through. This allows her to use all of her spells on non consenting Paranormals even if they wouldn’t normally work, along with negating the dampening effect of Emotional Fields on those that worked but less well. It allows her to cast spells on the curse Paranormal as if they were a Blind. This curse can be broken by

Mind Control ⫻ A spell which Charles considered ‘basic’ and ‘impractical’ due to its need for the caster to be actively casting and commanding whoever was under their control. It was one of the first he taught Nessa, as part of the Pink Lux fundamentals. This spell is aptly described by its name - it allows Nessa to control the mind of someone completely, making them little more than her puppet. This works on Blinds, and on those she’s used her Emotional Breach spell on - but not those with intact Emotional Fields. She can control up to three people that she can see. She has to maintain sight of them to control them, and it's difficult to fully control multiple people. This control is done completely mentally.

Command Implantation ⫻ An advanced form of Mind Control that Charles developed and taught Nessa. This spell allows Nessa to implant cursed commands within her target’s mind. Since it’s a curse, it lasts until it’s broken and doesn’t require Nessa to spellcast beyond the initial cursing. The spell works via a trigger system. A specific trigger will then result in the implanted command activating - whether a thought, an event, or seeing a specific thing. For example, Nessa could implant the command “buy and bring me a coffee” which is triggered when the target sees a coffee shop or the command “check up on me” when the target thinks about her. The curse kicks in, brainwashing the target to follow the implanted command. With enough time these commands can be layered to the point that someone is completely under her control without further active casting on her part. But to get to this point would take weeks, as each command has to be relatively straightforward. Nessa can, if she wishes, trigger the cursed commands at will - but this makes it essentially normal, less efficient mind control. While she can cast it on people with emotional fields if she’s used Emotional Breach, they can resist the commands when they’re triggered. The curse is broken by a loved one stopping them from following the command it triggers.

Triggering Thoughts ⫻ A spell that Charles considered one of his best, and that Nessa spent years suffering from. Similar to command implantation, this curse is directly linked to the target’s thoughts and is triggered when they think these thoughts. When the curse is triggered the cursed is afflicted by incredible agony. This starts like a migraine before spreading to their entire body, as the brain sends pain signals down all the nerves. This pain lasts for ten minutes. Unlike Charles, Nessa can only set up this curse based on certain thoughts rather than any she could think of. These are: thoughts of hurting her, betraying her, lying to her, leaving her and directly going against her. Each thought a trigger is put on requires a new curse to be cast - it can’t be linked to multiple trigger thoughts. The pain of this is consistent, and happens immediately after the thought - making it near impossible to follow through. The curse is broken by someone showing genuine concern for the cursed when they’re in pain.

Slow Death ⫻ One of the spells taught to Nessa that she hates the most - a curse that causes a long and slow death. It uses Pink Lux to adjust the brain to cause constant, excruciating pain as the brain slowly shuts down. Eventually, they suffer from brain death, but only after a long period of suffering. This can technically kill Paranormals if she’s breached their Emotional Field, but they have an easier time resisting the curse - and managing to break it. The curse is broken by the cursed completely accepting their ‘inevitable’ death.

Lunar Transformation ⫻ One of the many monster transformation spells Charles had that he passed onto Nessa. This curse, which is Abstraction granting, turns the target into a horrific creature by night, while leaving them normal by day. The physical form is whatever Nessa can imagine when she casts the curse (from traditional werewolves to horrific, distorted abominations). They all share a few things in common: paranormal strength, speed, and regeneration. They can hit hard, kill easily and heal from a lot of damage. However they aren’t granted Emotional Fields. Nor do they naturally recognise the person who curses them - but they are especially vulnerable to Pink Lux manipulation. This curse is incredibly taxing on Nessa to cast, and she hasn’t used it since her dad was jailed… but some of the monsters she created are probably still out there. This curse is broken by someone recognising the cursed in their monstrous form (without being told who they are) or by fighting a bear… and winning in their non monstrous form.

Brain Manipulation ⫻ A spell series that Charles was constantly adding to and had Nessa developing alongside her: one that allows for fundamentally changing the mind. This is more than just Mind Control, because it causes permanent changes to the victims’ mind. Those whose Emotional Field’s have been breached by Nessa’s spell can still resist it - it takes much longer to be effective on them. She’s developed and learned various subspells. While Charles had a wide range and could completely change a person, Nessa mostly focused on spells to cause various neurological issues in targets.

Brain Fog ⫻ Nessa’s simplest Brain Manipulation spell, changing the mind to induce Brain Fog in the victim. This makes the victim less aware, struggling to think properly as if there's a ‘fog’ over their mind.

Remove Memory ⫻ Nessa permanently removes a memory from her target. As this is a pure Pink Lux spell, once the memory is removed it can’t be retrieved. Once she’s inside the mind, she can target any memory - but she must remove them one at a time.

Dystonia Induction ⫻ Nessa messes with the part of the brain causing movement, resulting in permanent primary dystonia in the target. This causes uncontrolled muscle spasms and tremors. She can cause dystonia in a specific muscle group, or across the whole body - with the latter taking much longer to cast. This can be cured with magical healing.

Dizziness Induction ⫻ By adjusting the brain, Nessa causes the target to feel chronic dizziness or swaying. This isn’t constant - it’s like many chronic diseases, where it comes and goes without explanation. The dizziness tends to last for anywhere between a minute and ten. This can be cured with magical healing.

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome ⫻ Nessa manipulates the brain to induce Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. This functions almost identically to the non magically induced illness. It causes constant fatigue, sleep problems and everything that comes with it. This can be cured with magical healing.

Cognitive Impairment ⫻ Nessa messes with the brain magically to induce a noticeable decline in mental abilities: namely memory, reasoning, judgement, and completing complex tasks. It can make it difficult for the victim to understand verbal information, along with how to say what they want to, and means they have a lower attention span. The longer this spell is cast the stronger the effect.

Brain Frying ⫻ A spell Nessa developed accidentally rather than purposefully. This spell is cast by overloading the victim's brain with Pink Lux, sending off so many neural signals that the brain is essentially ‘fried’ by magical overload. This, at best, puts the victim into a long term coma - at worst, it kills them. It’s fast, but painful. Nessa has never used it on purpose, only by accident while using Brain Manipulation.

LIMITS ⫻

The Cursed Contradiction ⫻

Love is a Curse ⫻ This spell doesn’t work on people with Emotional Fields. She has to touch whoever she’s casting this curse on. It doesn’t work on people who wouldn’t find her attractive eg. people not attracted to women.

Cursed Like Me ⫻ Nessa has to be within a few metres of her target, and able to see them to cast this. Its effect is dampened by Emotional Fields and they know that it’s been cast on them.

The Self-Preserving Victim ⫻

Telepathy ⫻ Nessa can’t read the minds of people with Emotional Fields unless they let her. Going deeper than surface thoughts and emotions requires physical contact and more concentration.

Alarm Bell ⫻ Nessa needs to refresh this spell every half an hour if she wants to keep it up, each time taking a bit of energy. The shield only covers her arm, and the alarm bell only gives her a few seconds to react. It only works for attacks, not accidents, as it requires reading the thought of attacking from whoever goes for her.

Mind Cloaking ⫻ Nessa can keep this up pretty much permanently if she is only protecting a small section of her mind, but its draining to shield her whole mind. She needs to refresh it every hour. It’s turned off when she’s sleeping.

Pustulent Protection ⫻ This spell is touch based. While it’s on, anyone that touches her will be hit by the curse - even people she’s friendly with. She can keep it up for thirty minutes, then can’t use it for another thirty.

Shielding Curse ⫻ This spell currently only blocks incredibly weak curses - it would block curses from a newly kindled Blue Lux user but little else. It does help a bit with curse removal, but is slow and ineffective at that too.

Invisibility ⫻ This spell basically doesn’t work right now. It’s useless.

The Prodigal Failed Daughter ⫻ All of these spells require Nessa to be touching her target in some way to cast, aside from Mind Control. They also don’t work on those with Emotional Fields unless she’s cast Emotional Breach on them, at which point she can gain access through their Emotional Field.

Emotional Breach ⫻ While Nessa got this to a point her father was happy with, it’s relatively inefficient against people who either don’t consent, or aren’t prisoners. For weaker Paranormal, it will take ten minutes to fully breach their Emotional Field. This amount of time takes longer and longer the stronger the Paranormal are - to the point that it would take hours to make that crack in the Emotional Field of a stronger Paranormal. Since it’s a curse, it works on all Paranormal, it’s just a long and slow application. Nessa can, obviously, only cast it on one person at a time - but the amount of people she could have this curse on is unlimited, as after it’s cast it requires no maintenance on her part.

Mind Control ⫻ Nessa has to actively concentrate to cast this spell. If her concentration is broken, then she loses her control. The more people she is controlling the more difficult it is, and she can’t fully control them unless she has them all do the same thing. She has to maintain sight of the people she’s controlling. Due to controlling someone else’s mind, she struggles to control her own body from concentrating on that.

Command Implantation ⫻ Each implanted command takes time, dependent on the complexity of it and the mental strength of whoever it’s being implanted in. Some people resist more, making it a long and arduous process for Nessa where she essentially has to fight their willpower. It could take five minutes for those naturally inclined to obey, and hours for those not. Each command requires another cast, going through the process all over again. Paranormal and those with especially strong wills can possibly resist the commands when they’re triggered. Commands have to be straightforward, with clear triggers. She can cast this spell for up to six hours consistently, before needing to have an eight hour or longer rest.

Triggering Thoughts ⫻ Nessa can only set up specific triggers for this spell: thoughts of hurting her, betraying her, lying to her, leaving her and directly going against her. The stronger the will of the target, the longer it will take for the curse to be cast - taking hours. After each Triggering Thought cast, Nessa has to take a rest at least as long as the time spent casting it. Each trigger needs to be cast separately. The pain lasts for only ten minutes.

Slow Death ⫻ This spell takes at least an hour to cast on a weak victim, nevermind on one with a strong will. It’s draining to Nessa to cast, and she can only cast it once a week.

Lunar Transformation ⫻ This spell can only be cast on Blinds or One-Eye Opens, as it’s abstraction granting. While Nessa can choose the monstrous form they take, the Abstraction granted to them is essentially the same. This spell takes a long time to cast - hours, possibly having to be done over multiple days. After casting she can’t use it again for at least three times the amount of time spent casting it. The cursed creatures don’t recognise Nessa as their creator - in fact it's the opposite most of the time, and she would need to use pink lux to control them.

Brain Manipulation ⫻ All of these spells, aside from Remove Memory, can be cured by magical healing or by another powerful Pink Adept. Each of them requires her entering her targets mind, leaving her own body vulnerable.

Brain Fog ⫻ This takes at least thirty minutes to cast a light brain fog on the victim, and longer to make it stronger.

Remove Memory ⫻ Nessa can only remove one memory at a time.

Dystonia Induction ⫻ Manipulating the brain to cause this takes at least thirty minutes. A specific muscle group is easier to do, and it would take hours to do it for the full body.

Dizziness Induction ⫻ This takes at least thirty minutes to cast. It can be magically healed. Nessa has no control over how this manifests - how frequent the dizziness occurs ect.

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome ⫻ This spell takes at least two hours to cast, and is draining on Nessa to do.

Cognitive Impairment ⫻ This spell takes at least two hours to cast it at its weakest - causing minor cognitive impairment. To cause stronger impairment Nessa has to manipulate the mind for hours upon hours, and this is incredibly draining on her.

Brain Frying ⫻ This spell is essentially overloading a targets brain with Lux - thus it is incredibly draining on Nessa’s magic. It’s uncontrollable and difficult to use by choice.

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

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"There’s nothing left for me anymore. I’m finally free, but trying to get his love was all I had."

There is a complete lack of presence of Vanessa Beaumont online. Her dad banned her from using public social media accounts, and any images of her were wiped by Orange Adepts he had under his control. Whether this was to not have someone he viewed as a shame to his name or to protect his legacy is difficult to tell.

Nessa thinks she’s free of her dad’s influence. While she got rid of the active curses he had on her, she hasn’t gotten rid of the one on her emotional field - meaning he could easily get back in anytime he wanted to.

_Playlist

And also the NPC sheet for her father

Charles Beaumont

Charles.Beaumont

61 | Charles Julian Edward Beaumont | He/Him "There are those that are born to rule, and those that are born to follow."

Description: A once prominent and well known businessman of Cloverfield, now fallen from grace. Charles built himself up from nothing - if nothing was, of course, two Adept parents who never felt the need to build wealth, but could easily get it from those less fortunate (Blind). It was much the same for him - his unique combination of Blue and Pink Lux making it all too easy to sway people to offer him the best loans, and to buy his products. Eventually, he had multiple successful businesses - a technology company, a city wide pharmaceutical, smaller businesses bought by him. He was one of the richest men in the city. Everyone - on the North Side, that was - knew the name Beaumont. But Charles was incredibly ambitious and intelligent. He wanted more than money, and he wanted more than what tasteful magic could offer him. Why was he born with Blue & Pink lux if not to unlock its full potential. So in his early thirties, Charles began a form of ‘human experimentation’. Paying South Side gangs to kidnap people who wouldn’t be missed, giving him guinea pigs to test out horrifying Blue & Pink spells. Completely rewriting their brains, curses to morph them into whatever grotesque creature he needed, and more sophisticated mind control - pain causing curses that put the test subjects under his control without the need for him to actively spell cast. Then, he got Paranormal. Cracking Emotional Fields with blue lux took some work, but he did it. From there, his magical power only grew stronger - and his spells crueller. Many perished, but a fair few were kept captive as nothing more than mind controlled zombies - and fewer still released back into the world as if nothing had happened. His dark, criminal activities were hidden underneath the legitimate businesses - and no one had reason to suspect. No one could tell. Even his daughter Vanessa, born only to carry on his legacy, was controlled by the same curses he used on his victims. Unfortunately for Charles - and fortunately for Cloverfield - his pride and arrogance led to his downfall. He saw the situation after the Cataclysm as an opportunity to take over the city, and his use of the test subjects was the first sign of what he’d been doing. His business partner - a Green-Pink lux user, and the only other person (outside of his daughter) - saw the fall before it came, and betrayed him. Thanks to this, the Paranormal Authorities in the North Side were able to arrest him. Now Charles is where he belongs - imprisoned and unable to continue his disturbing experiments. But his spellbook and his daughter, trained by him, are both currently missing, with an open case and bounty on both… Abstraction: Adept - Blue & Pink Lux. Channeler: Insignia ring Charles is an incredibly powerful Adept, having trained from a young age and furthered his own magic through constant experimentation with little care for morals. He seamlessly blends together his Blue and Pink Lux to form a large, and disturbing, spellbook. While he can do plenty of fundamental spells for both his Lux - telepathy, mind control, cursing people to turn into monsters, creating cursed diseases, ect - he’s constantly pushed the boundary thanks to his combined types. These spells are the ones he truly considers his, from his sizeable spellbook. Curse of Entry: A primarily Blue spell with a hint of Pink, this spell is the fundamental of Charles’ spellcasting. It allows him entry through an Emotional Field. Once the curst is cast he can get past the target's Emotional Field as he pleases. He’s perfected this to the point of incredible subtlety and speed, along with it being very hard to break. This allows him to cast all of his other spells on Paranormal as if they were Blind. Curse of Hallucination: Curses the target to hear constant, auditory hallucinations in their mind. These feed off their fears and thoughts, able to have a conversation with the cursed as if there was someone else in their head. There’s no escape from it - and these hallucinatory thoughts are always negative. Curse of Erosion: A curse to cause someone to lose their sense of self. Slowly, they lose all the love and joy they get from the world - starting by losing what they got pleasure from. Then, their feelings towards places and people are dampened. Eventually all they feel is apathy. Curse of Incorrect Memory: A curse that subtly changes the cursed memories. Sometimes it removes slight details, sometimes it adds them, sometimes it changes the memory. This means that the target often looks like a liar, or like they might be going crazy. It’s inconsistent, and a spell Charles developed purely for the fun of it rather than any practical benefit to himself. Curse of Painful Resistance: A spell that Charles considers one of his masterpieces. It is a curse directly linked to the target's thoughts. When cast Charles chooses what thoughts trigger the curse. When the cursed thinks any of them, the curse is triggered, causing them intense pain. This is akin to a constant migraine at first, which spreads to their entire body as their nerves send pain signals everywhere. It lasts for half an hour. He can do this for anything - most often causing pain if the target has any thoughts of going against him, betraying him, or similar. Most typically this was used on stronger Paranormal, or the few people he ‘worked’ with. Curse of Command: Similar to Painful Resistance, this spell is one Charles has perfected. It’s an advanced form of typical Mind Control spells, which he viewed as inefficient. Instead of having to directly mind control people, he implants cursed commands into his targets. Certain thoughts trigger the curse, which then brainwashes them with Pink lux. With enough layered they’re completely under his control without him having to actively cast. Curse of Death: A spell from his twisted desire to cause pain rather than control, this is a curse that causes an incredibly long and slow death. It adjusts the brain to cause constant, excruciating pain while slowly killing it off. Eventually, they suffer from brain death, but not after a long period of suffering. Curse of Monstrous Magic: Beyond just cursing people to have monstrous appearances, Charles developed a spell to turn Blinds into Paranormal - an Abstraction Granting curse. He has a large list of different curses, and was constantly developing more on the Blinds captured for his experimentation. Brain Manipulation: Rather than a spell, Charles’ ability to permanently change the brain is a series of subspells he was constantly developing on his test subjects. More than just changing thoughts or controlling people - this spell allowed him to fundamentally change their mind. He could mess with their nervous system through the brain, forcefully remove memories, create an entirely new person by adjusting their neural pathways. All of these changes were permanent. He saw this spell as limitless with enough time and work. Brain Death: A quick pink lux spell which causes immediate death by ceasing the brain's function, so that it no longer sustains life.