Atrophy

Recollections: Under The Sycamore Tree Part. 1 [Cancelled]

Interactions: Stormy @Blizz, Britney & Greenwood Coven @Punished GN
Flowers and Canvases -> Veni Vedi Veni

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“Good to see you too, bro,” said Sully, returning Stormy’s shoulder clap with a double pat on the back. It was good to see Stormy. Back in the good ol’ days, that is to say when they all thought the world was going to be plunged into eternal darkness and destroyed by a nightmare snake, Stormy’s presence gave Sully a bit more flexibility when it came to his role on the field. He still got regulated to playing nurse with Jade, but Stormy’s shields kept both of them from having to sprint around after calls for “Medic!” until they puked. Screw it, Sully gave Stormy a third pat on the back solely because of how quickly he was to pull back on his bravado. Maybe Auri and him could lead the Coven in some trust falls to get them all on the right page.

But first, priorities: "We're going to that strip club, right?" Britney asked. "Good. I could use some titties right now.”

“Shit did Eve pop yours by hugging too hard? Can that happen?” Sully laughed, following Britney outside but not before giving Stormy a wave for him to come too. Somebody had to make sure Britney was coming to a full stop and using her turn signals and it wasn’t going to be Sully. He let out a low wish as Britney pointed out her car. Way better than his old rusted out Tercel that, legally speaking, he wasn’t allowed to drive anywhere to the job he no longer had. He broke out in a sprint to the passenger door. “Dibs on shotgun!”

Sully didn’t hate strip clubs exactly, but he never really got anything from going to one and for a gay man he’d been to a lot of them thanks to his old football buddies and current drinking pals. Getting absolutely blackout drunk? Great! Paying nearly double for a bottle of Bud Light because the bartender, somehow, terrifyingly, likely painfully twisted the cap off with their rack? Ehhh. Being surrounded by an ocean of horny dudes? Honestly he’s more of bring home a guy who he could introduce to his mom kind of dude, but still could be fun and maybe Mr. Perfect just enjoys getting glitter in all of his clothes. Oh they’re almost all exclusively straight? No thanks. An all-you-can-eat buffet less than ten feet away from the men’s room and from a single mother premed student named Chastity doing suicide drop? Actually, the food was pretty good.

Naturally Sully more or less told Britney all of this on the ride to Veni Vedi Veni, assuming this was the catching up she had been referring to. It was more fun than talking about what was actually going on in his life, which either amounted to roughly jack shit or straight up self-incriminating. The conversation quickly died as Britney turned the truck into the parking lot of the strip club and Sully’s jaw went slack as he rapidly blinked his eyes. So this was where Alizée had run off to. She hadn’t been running away from the supposed feds, she’d been clearly running ahead to scout out the strip club for the Coven with her little shadow pet thing. And she’d even recruited Bea, the aforementioned Chastity’s little man, and—Sully was grateful he’d resisted the urge to pregame from his Chalice otherwise he would have choked on the beer—Leon, cut better than a hot knife through butter, to work with her.

Then he saw the Crater as well as Jess, the other slab of pure grass fed angus beef, laid out on the ground with Kashmira helping her up while almost the rest of Greenwood stood defensively on the other side of the lot. Sully felt his stomach sink. For starters, it didn’t look like they were all just tailgating in the strip club parking lot. Second, he was gonna have that uncomfortable moment where he runs into one friend group while hanging out with the other. Third, it was kinda that the Greenwood Coven hadn’t invited him out to the titty bar. He would’ve been busy, but still it would’ve been nice to have been included. Sully took his backpack off of the floor and stepped out of the truck, acting like he hadn’t noticed anyone by fiddling with the straps despite everyone being able to see his shocked expression through the windshield of the GMC. It was a foolproof plan.

"... Sully?"

Balls.

“Heyyyy, what’s up guys,” said Sully, his voice hitting a little higher as he sucked in the awkwardness. He coughed, returning the bass to his voice.“Yeah, great to see you too. You all bail on your, uh, high school reunion to eat some wings and see some boobs too? Wait, please tell me Kash ain’t working here to pay her way through med school. Kash! Hey, Kash! Look there is nothing wrong with it if you are, but there’s this website on the Internet called O-oh shit!”

Kashmira wasn’t helping Jess up. She was healing her. Sully completely turned his back on his Covenmates, jogged past the Greenwood Coven, and squatted down next to Kashmira as he pulled his bag off of his shoulder.

“Need a hand, Doc?” said Sully, ready to pull the Chalice out and offer it to Jess as Kash’s go. He turned back and hollered at Pearl and Amelia. “What the heck happened here?”

Recollections: Under The Sycamore Tree Part. 1 [Cancelled]

Interactions: Drake@Punished GN, Luca@Fernstone
Flowers and Canvases

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Sloane continued to stare at her unflinching reflection in Greyson’s aviators, worried he’d worm away if she broke eye contact for even a second. Her left hand remained outstretched, as still as a sculpture, and her lips drew thin as Jack and Finn offered their support of her. The ruckus caused by Stormy’s arrival—the shouting, the static charge that filled the air when Lux was manipulated, Auri proving why she was an ineffective leader, sorry, “guide and mediator” for a second time that night—caused Sloane to snap her eyes away for just a second. Greyson even remained a blurry presence in her periphery, which made what she saw even more startling when she refocused on him. Her hand snapped back to her chest as if she’d just touched a hot stove.

He was crying. Why was he crying? She looked at him as if he were an alien stepping out of the light pouring from his ship or a sideshow exhibition she’d spent a nickel to see, alarmed but incapable of looking away. She could hardly process his justification, let alone think of a way to refute his ideas, as he immediately began acting like he was the victim here. She could see a way that he was, actually, or at the very least understand why he felt that way. The Coven had always assumed the worst out of Greyson and now she had too. Her mouth ran dry. Perhaps she had been a little too harsh, but she couldn’t take back what she’d said. An apology felt performative if it was in front of a crowd, as if saying sorry was really to boost likability among peers instead of actually meaning it, but she could catch him after.

Still, could he wipe the tears away? She wasn’t against men showing emotion, it was just uncomfortable seeing anyone cry. Go to the bathroom. Hide in a car. Hell, hide behind one of Auri’s stupid ferns, judging by the withered plants Sloane had seen they could clearly do with some more water.

“I'll just remove myself. “

Good.

Shit.

No, wait.

Her hand reached out to grab at Greyson as he walked by, her fingers nearly brushing the fabric of his clothes. She hesitated and in that moment he was out of reach. She put her hands in her pockets, hiding away her Channeler, and cleared her throat. She heard her name and turned to see Linqian rolling her eyes. In her pocket, her hand clenched itself into a fist. Years ago, Sloane and Linqian had an unspoken competition regarding who could act more inconvenienced by the other's existence. Sloane assumed that eye roll was the first serve of their first set, and she was ready to volley back except Linqian immediately chucked her racket and left the tennis court to chase after Greyson, leaving Sloane to clean up so the next singles match could start.

“Aw man, there goes another. We haven’t even moved the chairs to open up the dance floor yet,” she heard Sully joke.

His booming voice scared her migraine out of the bushes where it had been foraging and chasing it right back into her skull. Sloane looked at the door, checked her watch, and looked back at the door. Sully was right: the meeting was hemorrhaging people. She caught sight of Drake helping Luca, could read his antsy ‘let’s go’ energy from here, and then looked around at the people who remained. She heard Linqian’s ‘fuck off’ echo through her throbbing head. What Sloane had mistaken for the typical classless vulgarity that came from a stupid fucking bitch like Linqian had actually been sound advice. Yeah, if Drake was about to bounce then it was definitely time to fuck off.

“Oh good, you’re offering,” said Sloane, practically materializing besides Drake. She didn’t move to help him with Luca’s belongings, although it was obvious that she stole a glance at the prescription bottles. Her eyes settled back on Drake. “I think we have a lot to discuss before we make our next move, don’t you? I’ll buy you dinner seeing as how Auri’s caterer fell through.” Sloane gestured towards the snack table, empty save for the hardly touched charcuterie Simone had proved. “Yours too, Luca. I’d value your input on a few things.

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Interactions: Stormy@Blizz Flowers and Canvases

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The relief that washed over Sully when they voted to keep Kali on the island was second only to the relief he felt when Britney stepped through the door. He hadn’t been around when the truth came out, hearing about it instead from Ashely. She had been pretty angry about it at first, although not nearly as angry as the people Britney had hooked up with Apparitions, until Sully came to Britney’s defense with one single question. He’d said, How many of our friends and family would be alive if they had been a, what’s the word, an Abbreviation?” There was no more room for moral debate. It was simple. She’d saved people. End of story.

As he slowly moved to give Britney a proper greeting Sully felt a warm tingling in his head that wasn’t his Sully Sense going off. He paused, trying to figure out what it was. It was the kid who desperately wanted to be popular just for the sake of being popular walking up to his lunch table and laughing at the joke he definitely hadn’t heard. It was the annoying little brother he never had hovering outside of his closed bedroom while he and his friends were inside playing Gamecube. It was the fly buzzing around the room that survived a million swats. It was annoying. Of course it was Greyson.

Sully almost jumped in the dogpile before Stormy basically kicked in the door and proceeded to call Britney out like they were about to have a scrap. Auri was quick to intervene, and Sully moved to back her up. Auri was a good egg, she probably would be able to win Stormy over anyway, but Sully always found that the presence of a tall, broad shoulder, rakishly handsome three hundred pound dude made it easier to convince people to take the path of nonviolence. Sully patted Britney on the shoulder as he passed and smiled widely as he stepped over to Stormy. However, as he smiled he also squared up, making himself appear even taller than he already was.

“Stormy! What are you doing here?” said Sully with genuine excitement that shifted to include a little bit of mustard as he continued. “See that’s how you say it without being dick. Look man I’m glad you’re here so listen: we’re all on the same team. Why don’t you put those lights away, man? People are already on edge enough as it is.”

Sully turned and looked to the group, his welcoming smile faltering for a second as he watched Linqian leave. Greyson had been no big loss, but he had hated seeing Tayla leave and Linqian going hit just the same.

“Aw man, there goes another. We haven’t even moved the chairs to open up the dance floor yet,” said Sully, trying to crack a joke to keep the tension low. The shop felt hot. Maybe Auri had to keep the temperature high like a greenhouse. He opened his arms up wide to offer Stormy a hug. “C’mon man, drop that shit and bring it in.”

Recollections: Under The Sycamore Tree Part. 1 [Cancelled]

Interactions: Edict @AtomicEmperor, Anyone but Britney
Flowers and Canvases

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Sloane had a migraine. It had started as a probing pin in the back of her eye as Kali flashed his badge, flared as Drake pulled a lightning blade on Jack for upstaging everyone’s entrance, and exploded into a jackhammer pounding at the back of her skull by the time the gun had come into play. The only thing that kept Sloane from flopping down in a chair and groaning in agony was a stubborn refusal to allow any of these people see even the slightest crack in her veneer and the preemptive dose of extra strength aspirin she’d popped on the car ride here. She’d anticipated a number of terrible scenarios for this evening ever since Auri had called but witnessing someone being held at gunpoint had not been envisioned. Name calling, scab picking, dick swinging, fist flying, and a few rogue spells, a couple of bloody noses, some bruised egos? Absolutely. A missed opportunity finally coming together and eventually spiraling into a toxic relationship? Slim, but possible. The whole thing being a massive ruse by Father Wolf to get everyone together in one place to wipe them out and wipe them all out in a massacre? Not very likely, but she’d considered it.

Somebody blowing someone’s brains out after they offered up their own gun? No, she hadn’t been stupid enough to consider it.

It had played out the best way possible—with the gun eventually taken out of play and whatever Kali had inside of his head in place of a brain still there. It was almost upsetting. Fancy for a moment an alternative ending: Everleigh grabs the gun with not intention to murder but every intention to showboat, Kali had been incorrect about a round not being chambered and the safety being on, her hand slips, he flinches too hard, an attempt to intervene goes array, and bang. At least in this scenario Everleigh learned that no amount of Kool-Aid poured from Sullivan’s Chalice would ever fix the leak in the middle of someone’s forehead and Kali would never needlessly share information, or anything, ever again. Instead, the way it had panned out would only further fuel the irresponsibility of the two.

Relax, nothing went wrong Karen.

Yeah Sloane, don’t sweat it. It’s not like it matters if I’m killed, even though if I do die it immediately burns everyone in the room and the full force of the FBI will be up everybody’s ass by breakfast.

Allegedly, anyway.

The fluorescents were starting to hurt so bad that they were blinding. Sloane closed her eyes as she listened to Auri attempt to turn the meeting away from the dramatics. She focused in on the conversation, trying to ignore the sharp throb in her head, but becoming distracted when the pain mixed with something else. Something soothing. It was like the night tide had come in on a warm tropical breeze and pulled the migraine away into the Caribbean Sea. Sloane opened her eyes and hazarded a glance at Greyson. She saw him discard his Spirit Halloween priest costume, the same place Kali had picked up his badge perhaps, and shift back into the Corey Hart sleazebag she’d known as a teen.

He wasn’t looking at her in the flower shop, too busy flirting with Eve and Kali, but she could feel him watching her stare out at the sea as pink tendrils caught her migraine and drowned it in the undertow. He’d stopped right at the edge of the boardwalk, blocked by a rope and a sign that said ‘Private Beach’, his hands occupied by a pair of tiki drinks topped with tiny colorful umbrellas. She could let him in. All she had to do was lift the rope. She wouldn’t have to be alone on her little beach. There could be someone with her who knew what she was feeling without her having to say or explain anything. Somebody who just got it. An instant connection without the struggle of heaving emotional baggage over conversational hurdles. Sloane was surprised by how strong of a temptation it was; she felt her mental self peek over her shoulder with an acknowledging look.

"Hey guys." The sea breeze died; her headache emerged on the crest of a tidal wave and crashed down on her. "It's been a while, hasn't it?"

As Greyson’s tendrils pushed back out he would no longer find his foot tapping on the boardwalk at the edge of her beach. He’d find that Sloane had disappeared behind the Iron Curtain and he was being roughly patted down at a security checkpoint with contraband in his pocket, spotlights and sniper scopes trained on him from the top of towers, with a razor-wire wall before him and nothing but a minefield and a killzone behind him, and a doberman growling at his crotch. No sign this time asking for privacy. It was clear enough that he’d fucked it. Back in the flower shop, Sloane slipped a card from out of her jacket and walked across the room with purpose. Her approach was covered by the arrival of Britney, the departure of Tayla, and Luca’s fumble.

Sloane was likely unnoticed until she emerged from the group to step between Greyson and Britney. Sloane didn’t welcome Britney, because she wasn’t. She didn’t acknowledge her with a look or a nod. She just turned her back, focused on Greyson. Sloane looked up at him, catching her reflection in his sunglasses. She didn’t appear angry or annoyed. She just looked bored, as if she was flipping through a catalog to choose which color of off-white paint she was going to pick solely just to watch it dry. Perhaps a little more tired than usual, too. In her right hand she held her Channeler, a faded and folded tarot card with the image of a woman sitting on a throne with a sword in her right hand and her left hand raised to receive.

“Do you still think we are a bunch of stupid children who have no clue what they are doing, Greyson, or is it you that hasn’t changed? I could see how a couple of us may have given you that impression,” she said without looking away from the glasses. Her voice was calm and measured, loud enough to be heard by the group but soft enough they’d have to strain if they wanted to catch it all. “Maybe you just felt left out. Everybody else was throwing magic around without care. Still. It doesn’t justify the choice you just made. You have another choice now Greyson. Two, actually.”

She held up one finger.

“Option one: you allow me to modify your Channeler so it breaks when you cast a spell on any of us currently present in the shop, the mark in a place so obvious that anyone could tell if you undo it.”

She held up a second finger.

“Option two: you explain to us what value there is to allow you to cast your spells on the group because, as far as I can tell, they have none."

She raised her left hand, mirroring the woman on the card, “Your choice.”

Recollections: Under The Sycamore Tree Part. 1 [Cancelled]

Taking a play from Fern, I'm also sharing the relation sheets for Sloane and Sully if anything needs changed.

Sloane's Notes on People of Potential Interest

Britney.Williams
"Monster." _______________________________________________ ...................................................................	Irredeemable. Failed to see consequences of actions that led to future crises. Seeks forgiveness only because she cannot stand being disliked. Probably working an angle. Must be monitored. Do not trust. She will only make things worse. I respected you. You taught me so much. I fear that I’m making the same mistakes. How could I be so stupid?
Drake.Blackmore
“Ally." _______________________________________________ ...................................................................	Useful. Trusted. Dependable until recently, but blameless for change. Things feel different since Jade’s death. Don’t understand why—grief is shared. Needs guidance, just don’t push too hard. More fragile than he seems. Reckless. Keep him close. I’m sorry for how I treated you. At first I didn’t get what Jade saw in you. I get it now. I’ll keep you safe.
Alizée.Altieri
"Puppet." _______________________________________________ ...................................................................	Suspicious. Volatile. Could be a victim, could be an accomplice. That apparition is dangerous. Should be sealed. Keep watch on. Might need handling. Last resort only. Owe her that. It was unfair how they treated you. You needed our help. I should’ve spoken up. I worry that we made another enemy.
Eksa.Thresh
”Craven." _______________________________________________ ...................................................................	Coward. False martyr. Not the only one to give the ultimate sacrifice. Should’ve come back sooner. Waste of talent. Think drug pushing saves lives? Only here to save her own skin. Selfish. Unforgivable. Who isn’t? I thought we were friends. I should’ve called. I was too afraid. Now you’re just another stranger.
Linqian.Han
"Bitch." _______________________________________________ ...................................................................	Unstable. Unreliable. Says one thing, does the other. Self-centered quitter. Any wonder she’s single? Learn to commit. Unlikable. Unimportant. It should have been her. Damn it, it should have been her. I don’t mean it. You know I don’t mean it. I’m sorry. My efforts to impress him were at your expense. God, I didn’t even call when I found out he...
Luca.Oliviera
"Victim." _______________________________________________ ...................................................................	Pitiable. Unfortunate. Don’t go easy on her. Why didn’t Ashley help? So many questions. It’s like he doesn’t really want help. It’s like he wants an excuse not to help. How bad can it be? Could want people to feel sorry for him. Disgusting, then. Truly rotten. I don’t know what you were going through. How could I, you never told me? How could I, I never asked? I owe you more apologies than I’ll ever know.
Tayla.Choi
"Wretch." _______________________________________________ ...................................................................	Quitter. Junkie loser. She dishonors his memory. Too scared to seek help from those who could give it. Probably shouldn’t even be here. A liability. Dead weight. I’m so sorry. I didn’t see how much pain you were in until it was too late. I’m a horrible friend. I didn’t know how to help. I don’t think I really could.
Finn.Reid
"Artifice." _______________________________________________ ...................................................................	Curious. Oddity. Not feeling like a human feels pretty human. Difficult to read. Difficult to believe. Spy for Sebastian? Nobody can hide forever. More danger than he’s worth. Being too harsh? Doesn’t deserve it. What do you want to hear? That I’m afraid of you? That if someone as kind and caring as you is considered subhuman, I lose sleep over what they think I would be?
"Edict".Devola
”Counterpart." _______________________________________________ ...................................................................	Bizarrely similar. Family first. A legacy of liars and thieves, apples stuck in the knotted roots. Crimes second. Wrongly kicked out. Innocent until proven guilty. Dead if true. Careers swapped. Heard he’s legit now. So he could’ve been fixed this whole time? I feel bad for you. Too busy abusing that Warm Little Center you never realized how many of us wanted to be around you for you. I doubt they would think the same of me. One way we differ, I guess.
Kali.Mahendra
"Enigma." _______________________________________________ ...................................................................	Out of nowhere. A ghost. A mystery. Would he even know if he was the real deal? Vanished. Another runaway abandoning a city that needed him. So he’s a fed now? Hard to believe. Harder to trust. Makes everything muddy. I don’t think you’re the same person I knew. Actually, I don’t think I ever really knew you. Was that my fault? Should I’ve been more open?
Simone.Le.Fay
"Soloist." _______________________________________________ ...................................................................	Above it all, yet strangely curious. Couldn’t get a conversation in with Britney without her being there. Her accomplice? Doubtful. Gone as soon as the going got rough, another fairweather friend. Quit her band almost as quickly. Good to see some traits were consistent. Of course she’d come back now. Just like the rest. I’ll admit it now, I was intimidated by you. I saw one of your shows recently—left before you noticed, I think. I can see why you want to perform, but it doesn’t change a thing. You should’ve stayed. They would’ve listened.
Jack.Hawthorne
"Liar." _______________________________________________ ...................................................................	The king of cowards. The worst of them all. Said they should protect St. Portwell then left their entire reality behind. For what? To hide under the blanket of shadows? Because of a whim? Ten years without a word. Suddenly he’s back. He could be useful, but what’s stopping him from just leaving again? A couple more dead bodies? A close call? I’m doing the thing you said we should do. Where were you?
"Sully".McPherson
"Imbecile." _______________________________________________ ...................................................................	Enabler. Distracting dimwit. Thanks for the recruitment but he’d actually be forgiven if he retired. Defended the undefendable. The Chalice would be better in literally any other hands but his own. Whatever. It’s not like he’s going to stick around this time either. Just leave the Chalice by the door. I can’t believe I gave it back to him, but I’m glad I did. You and Auri could help me get a few of them back, but I’m too embarrassed to let any of them know what happened. I’ll find another way.
Everleigh.Thorn
"Traitor." _______________________________________________ ...................................................................	Unrecognizable. Left without a word. Unbelievable. Shows up working for Emily? Unforgivable. Just a different person now. Basically a stranger. Shouldn’t even be here. Abandoning the 8th now that she doesn’t feel safe? Good to see the disloyalty wasn’t personal but a personality flaw. Expressed radical ideas back in the day. Scary thoughts. Someone to watch. I don’t understand what happened. You were one of the few that could always make me smile. Where’d Eve go?

Sully’s Corners the Squad at the Bar

Britney.Williams
"A strong herbal tea with just a splash of bourbon." _______________________________________________ ...................................................................	Look, I get it—everybody’s all aboard the fuck Britney Express these days. All my homies hate Britney. Well I’m gonna go ahead, stand my ground, and date myself when I say, “Leave Britney alone!” Without Britney and her spooky knowledge I’d be dead. If you didn't do the things you did to those people they’d probably have been dead too. Think about it, without it they wouldn’t have any of those, uh, emo fields to protect the big snake dick from fucking with their brains. Sure, look, I’ll agree: the no consent part was way uncool, but it beats being dead. Britney, you’re part of the team, and even if you fumble every now and again know that I got your back.
Drake.Blackmore
"Bro, you know it’s time for jagerbombs!" _______________________________________________ ...................................................................	It’s like nothing ever changed. Your like a brother to me, but like in that way where you’re both old enough to realize that each of you is kind of a cool person and not in that way where one of you gives the other one a wedgie so bad it rips your underwear. Which, to be clear, is something that has never happened to me, shut up, we’re talking about you, Drake. It’s so good to be around this guy. It feels like the best years of our life were frozen in place and comes unfrozen when we’re together. You were always so fun. Usually, anyway. Real, um, real damn shame about Jade. Look, bro, if you wanna track this fucker down and do some street justice I’m one hundred percent behind you all the way. You’re Michael Jordan, I’m Tom Brady. I know they didn’t play together and it was totally different sports, but what I’m trying to say is that we’re money.
Alizée.Altieri
"A gin and tonic for the young lady with a fresh squeeze of lime. Huh? Oh yeah I totally put my heart and soul into this one ." _______________________________________________ ...................................................................	Okay, okay, okay, okay. Let’s just take a moment right now and lay down a couple of ground rules. As we already discussed earlier, ignoring consent is something ol’ Sullybobs here isn’t gonna be cool with. Alizée, girl, like I get you got this Void thingy attached to you and it needs to feed on life energy or something but…okay. I’ll admit. I don’t get it. I got a magical cup. Why don’t you just get a magical cup? Take that Void thing, stir it up real nice, find yourself a glass, and put it in that glass. Boom. Problem solved. At the very least if you’re gonna go about sucking strangers dry just dig through some forums and find the people looking for that kind of experience. They’re out there. Probably. I wouldn’t know. What I do know is that if you wanna play on this Coven, you gotta leave those normies alone. .
Eksa.Thresh
”Guiness, obviously. Ow, ow, I’m joking! I’m joking. Some unpronounceable scotch with a splash of water to open it up, just the way grandpappy drank it." _______________________________________________ ...................................................................	Eska, I want you to know before I say anything else that I am trying my best. You know I respect you, you know, as a bi woman, as a black woman, as a Scottish woman, as a credit to her industry whatever…whatever it is that you actually do there. It’s all a bit too complicated for me. But I’m sure you can explain it to me because you were always so kind and patient with my dumb American ass and I just gotta say how proud I was to share the field with someone as brave and as strong as you. If you ever need anything just give Sully here a call. Eska, darling I guess what I’m trying to say is that I would always, always, always be there to give you a hand. Fuck, no, I didn’t mean it like that! Eska! I swear! That one wasn’t on purpose this time!
Linqian.Han
"Here’s my Bud Light buddy! Oh, right, you’re my Miller girl now. Sorry, Henikenen? Right yeah, fuck that shit, Pabst Blue Ribbon it is!" _______________________________________________ ...................................................................	Ayyyyy, alright, let’s go let’s go! I don’t care what the haters say, Linqian is one of the funnest gals in the Coven. I mean, she can absolutely go from zero to fuck you in no time flat. Some people say that’s a bad thing, I say that’s exciting. Keeps the dynamic fresh. You know, just try to keep the hair pulling and eye scratching to a minimum, it does kind of send a bad message to the new recruits. But they just don’t know you like I do. You know, get a couple drinks in and she just lets the fun social butterfly side out and everything’s cool. So glad you made it back. Sorry, uh, sorry I didn’t make it to the funeral. Work’s been, you know, um…anyway...how about a drink?
Luca.Oliviera
"Luca’s turn! Someone get the beer bong, my mom’s gonna kill me if I ruin another varsity jacket. " _______________________________________________ ...................................................................	You know you’re fantastic, Luca. A positive attitude is the one thing I think that we can always use more of, and you got that shit in droves. Now I know that I kinda left you all high and dry after the battle with the Stygian Snake, but that doesn’t mean you can’t rely on Sully. If there’s anything, anything, anything ever casting a dark cloud over that sunny disposition just let me know and we’ll come up with a way to make it go away. Air hug, brother! By the way, do you know if Olivia is coming back? I figure you’d be the one to know. She’s a real sweetheart.
Sloane.Faris
“Nothing? Really?" _______________________________________________ ...................................................................	Look, Sloane, I get it, you didn’t like how lightly I treated the situation but look, if you want Serious Sullivan you got Serious Sullivan right here: those people could not have done what they did if all they ever had was doom and gloom. Now, I’m not saying we gotta sugarcoat things, but a little bit of levity helps way more than a whole shitton of evidence saying that we’re screwed. Now I appreciate what you did for us but you gotta stop pretending like being a cheerleader is a bad thing. People need light to get through the dark. Now c’mon on, put your hand in and give me a “Go team!” just this one time. I won’t tell a soul.
Tayla.Choi
"Can I mix it with what? Um, yeah, next round. Right now you look like you need a water." _______________________________________________ ...................................................................	Tayla you were hands down one of the wildest partiers in the good old days. Like you always amplified that bitch up to eleven and, honestly, I’m not gonna lie you even out partied me sometimes. Like, look, I don’t wanna get all afterschool special with you, but I heard about the shit you got into after I left and, I don’t know man, it just kind of broke my heart. You know obviously I’m happy you ended up getting your shit together, but I really wish you’d talked to one of us about it. We’re a family, you know. Me casa is our problems, or however it goes. Now you better bring that daughter around to meet Uncle Sully. You know I’m great with kids!
Finn.Reid
"Motor oil. Just kidding, I know you like gasoline. Oh c’mon Bella, it’s a joke. We’re having fun! Bella! Bella c’mon!" _______________________________________________ ...................................................................	Look, Finn, buddy, I think I owe you a bit of an apology man. Back then I was under the impression that we were just playing around with all the robot jokes and the beep boops and, you know, I thought you were in on it. Having done a little growing and maturing of my own, I realize now that we may have taken things too far. Dude, I just want you to know that it doesn’t matter, you’re part of the team no matter what. So now that we buried that, I always wondered…you and Bella, like, you guys did right? Because I’ve seen some convincing documentaries on the internet about step siblings and…
"Edict".Devola
”Vodka tonic but it’s actually just soda water, right? Go ahead, buddy. Don’t worry. It’s definitely not Everclear. " _______________________________________________ ...................................................................	Oh, mister wise guy here! Mister smooth operator here! Gotta say, bro, it was a pretty confusing time of my life and having you stir around my emotions like it's a martini didn’t really help. Honestly, I just think you’re kind of a creep and while I’ll still acknowledge that you were a valuable member of a team you definitely still give vibes of being the weirdo that chooses to wear the mascot costume because it lets him hang out with the cheerleaders. And like we all know you did it so dude, just do yourself a favor and admit it. It’s water under the bridge anyway, so stop pretending like you’re something you’re not.
Kali.Mahendra
"What Greyson had? Okay man, but fair warning, it’s straight Everclear." _______________________________________________ ...................................................................	Kali, Kali, Kali…oh right, Kali. Yeah man, no I remembered you, of course I did, you were, uh, definitely there. Totally there. Hey look bud, I mean we can reminisce about all the good times we had together that I one hundred percent remember but really I wanna talk about you right now. Because you’re saying some stuff and doing some stuff that makes me think that maybe, right now, you just need someone to be a friend and listen to you. So, you know, if there’s anything you need to get off your chest, I’m your guy. Oh, yeah, cool, you’re with the FBI? Oh interesting. Okay, well, anyway, like I said, it was nice meeting you. .
Simone.Le.Fay
"Alright, finally somebody is going to margaritaville. Frozen, I know. Soothes the throat." _______________________________________________ ...................................................................	Simone, you expanded my taste in music by like a thousand percent but I said it before and I’ll say it again, T-Pain has the best singing voice on this earth. Period. Don’t let the autotune blind you. I’ve seen footage, it is a fact! But if I’m being honest, it kind of felt like it didn’t matter what I thought. I’m not trying to start anything, like you’re entitled to your own opinion and allowed to do you own thing, but it felt like you never really wanted to be part of the group. Now I value what you did and I do think of you as family, but sometimes you gotta horse around with the others a bit to really build up that feeling of comradery. You know, crack a towel on someone’s ass or smack someone in the balls–metaphorically speaking. You know what I mean? You know what I mean.
Jack.Hawthorne
"A dark ‘n’ stormy? Dude, nobody’s watching. You can drop the bit." _______________________________________________ ...................................................................	Look, Jackie Boy, I get it man. Magic’s real and all and that’s totally awesome but you know what’s also pretty powerful? Catching the rays of a beautiful sunshine, tossing a ball around with a couple of buddies, cracking open a few cold ones. What I’m trying to say man is you’re too focused. You need to diversify. I’mma break it to you right now, bro, because I think you’re one of those dudes who thinks jocks and nerds are different, but man, jocks and nerds are exactly the same: they hyperfocus on one thing and that alienates those around them. But that’s important man. You cover one side, I got the other. Still, like, I don’t know man, let’s go for a hike, maybe do a little fishing, and you can tell me about whatever the hell this The…Thel…The-Llama thing is?
"Everleigh".Thorn
"Pick your poison. Arsenic? Ha ha, good one. No really, what do you want to drink?” “What do you mean it’d be like Jonestown?" _______________________________________________ ...................................................................	Okay, Eve, this is getting a little too intense for my blood right now. Listen, I really dug the old peace, love, and understanding girl I used to party with. You always had some of the best bud. Honestly, I can even kinda gel with the whole fuck-the-man, fight-the-system style we’re working with these days but man, you’re kinda scaring the shit outta me right now. It feels like you drew a line and then just yeeted yourself a mile over it so like, what if maybe we were to redraw the line, stop it just short of complete and utter anarchy, maybe dial the extremism back down to just around “kinda passionate”, and like, set that as the new standard. Like, let’s at least have the protest first before we go off and start a purge, okay?

Recollections: Under The Sycamore Tree Part. 1 [Cancelled]

Days Earlier...

---

Dirty boots splashed through a crystal clear brook as the sun peeked through the boughs of massive evergreens. Sully heard nothing more than his own heavy, labored breaths, the soft babbling of water over stones, and the chirping of birds too stubborn to migrate south. There was a pain in the side of his ribs that wasn’t wholly unpleasant. How long had it been since he’d pushed himself like this? College? High school? He pushed the past out of his head and focused on the path before him. Nothing mattered more but the sticks, stones, and leaves on the ground before him and the destination he had in mind. Just another two miles. Two miles was nothing. But when he factored in the distance he’d already gone, and the distance he’d have to go to get back, it made him pause. The Spring Maiden had said it was an awesome view, but a view couldn’t really be worth all this effort, could it?

He heard his dad’s voice on the wind whisper to him to push on and so he did. Each step was heavy, like the mud around his boots had turned into concrete. The fire in his side spread to his lungs, the gasps for air becoming pained. He remembered how Coach barked at him and the other boys, pushing them until some of the boys were bent over on the ground and heaving up their breakfast. He’d probably laughed, not in a mean-spirited way but in a way that said not to worry about it, everybody made an ass of themselves at practice, and then gave them a hand up. He was happy there wasn’t anyone out here now to watch him struggle, although he would’ve taken a shoulder to lean on. He settled on a tree instead, letting the mountain air cool his lungs down.

The Chalice felt heavy in his backpack. Sully knew he could just reach back, undo the zipper, take a big swig of its elixir, and be ready to keep pushing on. He didn’t. The reward at the end of the trail was amplified by the struggle. He leaned back against the tree and groaned, staring up at the branches overhead, the world a swirl of colors. He closed his eyes and listened to the nature around him as his breathing slowed. The reward at the end? He was already being rewarded with this moment away from everything: away from the city, away from the pollution, away from the dead-end jobs and neverending distractions and obligations. A moment of peace, a second of clarity.

Ashley was being buried today. Sully was supposed to be at the funeral, supposed to give a speech, even had it jotted down on a crumpled piece of paper in his pocket. He’d be expected to lighten up the mood, make everyone leave feeling slightly better then when they had arrived, leave them thinking that they’d all gathered here today not because of one senseless death but because of one magnificent life. He couldn’t do it. He couldn’t lie to those people. He couldn’t lie to himself. It had been a pointless death piled on top of other pointless deaths: Jade, Ripley, Lionel, Kura, Sam, Elsa, Kari, Jin, Bella. He felt his legs grow weak. Sully let himself sink down to the dirt, buried his head in his arm, let his shoulders heave. He wasn’t making it to the summit. He wasn’t going to the funeral. Maybe he’d just stay lost here in the middle forever.

---

with Auri Auclair and Sloane Faris

Interactions: Kali @Damycles Finn @Theyra, Drake@Punished GN
Flowers and Canvases.

---

Sully may not have made it to the funeral, but he was happy he’d come for the reunion. Even if all he actually committed to the group was letting one more of the witches forget that there were consequences to her actions it still meant he was of some relevance. He patted her—Everleigh, Eve—on the shoulder as she latched onto his other arm, polite code for ‘alright, let the fuck go’. She eventually took the hint. Sully turned to Eve’s crutch and clapped him lightly on the back.

“Good to see you too, Finn. Where’s—” Sully stopped himself. He’d almost stupidly asked about Bella. “Sorry. Dark times, man, dark times. Bella was a good egg. How you holding—” "SULLY, YOOOOOOOOO!" “AYYYYYYYYYYYY, LOOK WHO FINALLY CAUGHT UP! DRAKEY BABY!”

Sully left Finn hanging, as thankful that Drake had pulled him out of an awkward moment as he was that he’d put away that lightning sword. Something about Drake yelling the Beer Chalice triggered a devolution in Sully, further reverting him into a simple meathead. He let out a valiant cheer of his own and scooped Drake up like he’d just scored the game winning goal in a mighty bear hug, complete with a full spin. He was about to holler for someone to bring him some solo cups when Auri and Kali ended their seven minutes in heaven with about four minutes to spare. Auri shouted so loudly at Eve for smoking in her store that Sully felt like he was guilty by association for not saying anything.

He set Drake down, patted him on the shoulder, and found himself a chair as Kali took the floor. Everybody was talking over one another, seemingly in protest of something Kali had done. Sully had the sinking feeling between showing up late and spinning Drake like a ballerina he’d missed something massively important. Nevertheless, Sully knitted his brow and rubbed his chin as he pretended like he was following along as Kali showed off a picture of a wolf carving. “Right, the Russians,” he muttered, suddenly feeling like he was being held hostage at the Thanksgiving table by the weird uncle who’d already shown up to dinner six jack and cokes deep. As with Uncle Jim, he just nodded along. Mhm, yeah, NSA, yeah, totally. Oh, you need help cleaning the dishes?

Sully shifted in his chair uncomfortably. Surely, someone would speak up and put an end to this unhinged speech. Kali was always one of the quieter members of the Coven. Not necessarily a bad dude, maybe a little weird, but nothing like this. This guy seemed completely incoherent. This was cruising past the lands of uncomfortable straight down the highway to depressing with a brick tapped to the gas pedal. And then the gun came out. Sully tensed up in his seat as the air sucked out of the room. His eyes darted across the room towards the others, trying to gauge their reaction, trying to judge the distance between himself and Kali if he needed to tackle the man. He watched Everleigh move towards Kali, saw the look in her eyes, the signal from his brains to his legs firing too slowly as he made the connection. Sully stood up too slowly for his own likely, the metal legs of his chair screeching against the floor as it slid back. Eve had already closed the distance. His pupils dilated as she pushed the gun against Kali’s head.

“Hey, wait—” His voice broke, his throat running dry. Ancient shadows of limp bodies too close to the end to drink from the Chalice flashed on the walls as Sully braced himself to watch yet another person die right in front of his very own eyes. Oh God. Everleigh tucked the gun away. Sully heaved out a loud sigh mixed with a ‘what the fuck’ as he began to pace with his hands on his head. Eve proposed they continued with a vote. Sully stopped, still unaware of the full situation, and exploded on an assumption, “Jesus fucking Christ, I’m not voting on a public execution!”

“We’re just voting on whether or not to crowd-surf Kali out the door!” clarified Auri.

“Oh man, what the hell you guys,” said Sully, wiping his hands across his face with relief and sinking back down into a chair. He looked at Kali. The man seemed unstable, unwell. He’d offered to let them kill him and had hardly even flinched when Eve grabbed the gun. It’d be uncomfortable to keep him around, but throwing him out in the cold would likely mean it was the last they’d ever see of the guy. He’d been part of their team once. They couldn’t do that to him. Even if Sully had been fully caught up to speed, his decision would have remained the same. “I mean, let the guy stay right? He said he still cares. I still care about you too, dude.” Sully gestured towards Kali. “So, like, no more Russian Roulette and I think we’re good.”

“A vote where the final call is made by the one with a gun doesn’t seem very democratic,” said Sloane. “I abstain.”

Recollections: Under The Sycamore Tree Part. 1 [Cancelled]

Interactions: Everleigh @LanaStorm
Flowers and Canvases

---

Sloane’s eyes were hollow shells as they fell upon the priest that had come to “Sister Auclair’s” defense. She knew well enough that guilt was the preferred tool of the cloth when it came to manipulation, yet it was so wonderfully wielded that for a moment Sloane actually almost felt something. Then she realized that the master manipulator was none other than Greyson Devola. Fitting that the man raised in one “legitimate business” would find himself involved in another. She sniffed at his closing statement. Sloane tried to hang on to the idea of being innocent until proven guilty. The evidence back then had only been circumstantial, Greyson’s verdict little more than the unfair results of a bunch of witches on a witch hunt. She’d dealt with similar accusations. Had that been a confession, or was he so full of fire and brimstone these days that all he could blow was hot air?

Sloane tugged at her collar as Auri admitted to not inviting Emily. She might’ve been an absolute bitch, but she had been one of them. Emily and her toady at the very least deserved to know that they were being hunted. She gave Auri a slight head tilt as Auri recruited Sloane and two others to the welcome wagon without even asking. Sloane guessed that being less of a dictatorship didn’t necessarily equate to a lack of dictates. She wouldn’t fight if it meant they got to the meat of the subject: Father Wolf, Judas, head of a gang called the Wolfpack. Auri wanted them to go talk to a stripper at the club the Wolfpack frequented. Maybe one or two of them would be able to follow the lead. Sloane’s clothes were too nice to get covered in glitter and cheap lipstick.

“Mayb—”

She was cut off by the door opening and a man dressed for a funeral stumbled in. She didn’t immediately recognize him until she glanced towards the others and saw him as a blur in her periphery: Kali. It was unusual for him to make himself the center of attention. Before he’d come in through the door she would’ve believed that he was already there, tucked behind the leaves of an oversized house plant. Sloane felt her heart rate spike as Kali pulled out his badge and declared himself with the FBI. Obeying the law and doing the right thing weren’t always one in the same. She didn’t seem to be the only one uneasy by the presence of the feds—Alizée bolted the second Auri pulled Kali into another room. Not suspicious at all.

Jack’s appearance from the Void was odd in how calming its familiarity was, having quite the opposite effect of Kali’s badge pull. Finn had quietly snuck in before him, soon joined by a woman latching on to his shoulder for balance and looking like absolute shit. Jesus, was that Eve? Sloane was so distracted by how badly battered she hardly had time to bristle about her smoking inside. She nearly cringed at the mention of their healer. Sully was skilled at becoming a ghost the moment someone needed him, and Jade was…Sloane stole a look towards Drake, trying to get a read on him. Her eyes shot to Luca as he started mentioning some heavy duty painkillers. She didn’t need to look at Tayla to feel her getting tense.

“Let’s j—”

“So y’all think they’re making out in there or what?” boomed a rich voice from the doorway. Sully McPherson stood in the door, taking up much of the frame, a heavy knit blue cardigan tight on his large frame. He beamed a massive smile which drew away from his eyes that were red and puffy. He carefully squeezed past the other newcomers, his hand deftly reaching back to catch his backpack before it swung into Finn. “Why you all blocking the door, damn?”

“Always wanted to have a reunion. Kinda wish it was under better circumstances, but it’s good to see all your bright, beautiful faces! Except you, Drake. You still ugly as fuck, bro,” he said with a loud laugh as he took a chair, spun it around, and sat down with his hands folded over the headrest. Sloane inhaled and stared up at the fluorescents. “So what’s everybody been up to? Kill any other ancient, world-devouring monsters? Fuck up and have a kid? Dude, you’re a priest? How did—”

“We were discussing how to capture Ashley’s murderer,” interjected Sloane in an attempt to turn things back on track. “We’ve tracked him to a stripclub.”

“Oh, great, yeah, let’s go serve some justice and see some titties. Can’t really have a party in a flower shop any…” Sloane traced his eyes to Eve. “...way. Holy shit. Why didn’t you ask for a healer? It’s cool, girl, I got the medicine.”

Sully rummaged around in his pack and produced a silver cup in the shape of a wine glass. Sloane shifted at how haphazardly Sully treated the artifact The Chalice looked small in his hands as he popped up from his seat and took a slow stride over to Eve. He held the cup up to the woman, the empty vessel filling with a shimmering red liquid as his thumb traced the runes on the outside of the Chalice. One solid drink was all Eve needed to heal all of those cuts and bruises. Sully nodded in encouragement.

“To your health.”

Recollections: Under The Sycamore Tree Part. 1 [Cancelled]

You know I said two so now I've done two and now you gotta judge number two. @Punished GN

Sully McPherson

"What kind of person wouldn’t protect what they care about?"

_______________________________________________ Sullivan Nicholas McPherson He/Him| 28 | Irish American| 6’5” | 300 lbs _______________________________________________ Abandon _______________________________________________ Skills & Talents "What is it? Jack of all trades, master of being a good-for-nothing?" ___________________________________ [+] [Raw Strength] ⫻ Sully was a linebacker in high school, and while his dreams of going pro have long faded years of working construction and odd jobs has seen his strength linger on. Although he can’t hold a candle to professional strongmen, he’s almost always the strongest person in the room. He can easily heft up heavy loads with hardly a sweat and it would require a gang to keep him down on the ground. [Intimidation] ⫻ Those who know Sully are aware that he’s about as dangerous as a newborn kitten, but it doesn’t change the fact that if he wants to he can look like a tough son of a bitch who can make someone eat their own teeth with just one hit. He actually uses this to dissuade violence, as he detests physical altercations. [DIY] ⫻ Sully has a knack for fixing, tinkering, and crafting. This can range from simple quick repairs that require little more than some tape and elbow grease, to complex mechanical projects that are just shy of requiring an extensive engineering degree, to uncharacteristic like being able to hem a dress or build a computer. He can even perform some rough first aid, although some might be squeamish about his methods. [Woodsman] ⫻ Sully isn’t a full blown survivalist, but he spent his youth camping, hunting, and fishing with his father and has grown to appreciate the outdoors. He feels most at home in nature and can rattle off facts about flora and fauna with ease. [Iron Stomach] ⫻ The man is a bottomless pit, casually able to crush local food competitions and drink anybody under the table. His social media feed is a horror show of gluttony and alcohol abuse, but on the brightside he did win a $100 gift card to a local wing place once.

Appearance ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ "Yeah, I’m pretty hard to miss." Sully isn’t just a big man, he’s a landmark, a lighthouse guiding people towards safety where they can hide in the protective presence of his shadow. His face is an open book, his emotive blue eyes betraying any feelings he might try to keep beneath the surface. He hides the softness of his jawline and the doubling of his chin beneath a short, well-maintained and oiled beard. His brown hair is cut short and has started to thin out in the back. His skin is well moisturized and he always smells faintly of the woods mixed with a good bourbon. He’s a massive man and is almost always the largest guy in the room. He used to be absolutely shredded, but an overly indulgent lifestyle has softened his muscles and rounded out his gut. However, he is still quite strong thanks to him mostly performing physical labor and he holds his weight pretty well. His hands are notably rough, often coated with fresh scratches from screwing around with some kind of household repairs. Sully dresses in flattering if simple clothes, sticking to the traditional look of the local foresters and fishers with his flannel shirts or cardigan sweaters, straight legged jeans, and well-worn boots. Sully knows that almost nobody will be able to see his bald spot, but he’s still too young to learn to accept it. Instead he always wears some kind of hat, sticking with knit beanies in the fall and winter and switching it up for a baseball cap in the warmer seasons. Sully has a welcoming, teddy bear air about him that makes him seem extremely approachable despite his size. His voice is deep and warm, with a rich laugh that is easy to entice out of the man. He’s prone to staring off into the distance as if his eyes are trying to catch up to his wandering mind, yet despite this apparent flightiness he never seems to miss the thread of the conversation. Sully has a tendency to keep his hands in his pockets and moves with all the speed of a tortoise frozen inside of a glacier.

_{Psychology
^{▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔}}
"Just trying to do something with my life. Nothing more."

MAIN GOAL ⫻ Back in the day Sully had big dreams of being a pro football player. He was so committed to chasing those dreams that even a dimension devouring serpent couldn’t stop them. Nowadays Sully dreams much smaller, visions of making rent and not moving back in with his mom dancing in his head. Really he is just focusing on working on himself at this time, doing what he can to get out of the rut he feels like he has been stuck in since he dropped out of college.

PHILOSOPHY ⫻ Try to make things better, and if you can’t do that, at least remember that the last thing the world needs is another asshole. Sully always tried to treat everyone with kindness and respect even if they did not show him the same, adhering to the old adage that you never know what people are going through or where they came from. While he might not agree with certain people, he often tries to understand the whys behind their beliefs while others might rightfully write them off as simply being wrong. Also, while Sully feels that the world is largely full of assholes, he believes that almost none of them are beyond redemption. He’s known to be too forgiving of people to the point of destructive naivety.

SECRETS ⫻ A large number of “workplace accidents” caused by Sully that ruined expensive construction or logging equipment and would wind up getting him sacked from the job were intentional. In fact, over the years Sully has gotten away with causing a significant amount of property damage in the name of environmentalism and, as of lately, the Greenwood Coven. Sully aligns neatly with many of their beliefs and he’s happy to be part of another team, although he has yet to be fully admitted into the Greenwood Coven.

SEXUALITY ⫻ Sully is gay. Although he had confided this to a few close friends while in high school, he did not fully come out until after he’d quit his college football team.

FEARS ⫻ Being inadequate. Sully fears that he is destined to be one of those guys who peaked in highschool. It’s already the case for him with football, and topping the Stygian Snake is a tall order—especially when he firmly believes that the Coven would’ve beaten the beast without him.

REPUTATION IN OLD COVEN ⫻ Largely well-liked. Having been lifelong friends and neighbors with Ashley, Sully was in pretty early with the Coven. Ashley might’ve been the one cheerleading when he was playing football, but Sully was essentially the cheerleader when it came to the Coven. He was always friendly and welcoming to the new members, often going above and beyond to make sure that they felt comfortable with their transition to the paranormal world and the nightmare that was battling the Stygian Snake. He was also seen as an apologist for Ashley’s temperamental behavior and a bit too sympathetic when it came to dealing with Britney. Still, Sully was the one that always got the Coven beer, so if he occasionally sidled with the wrong person it never really mattered to the group.

ROLE IN THE BATTLE AGAINST THE STYGIAN SNAKE ⫻ Sully, like Britney, served as a recruiter for the Coven. Unlike Britney his methods were above board, typically working with other members of the Coven to patrol St. Portwell and rescue anyone targeted by the Stygian Snake’s minions. During the final fight against the Stygian Snake, Sully worked alongside Jade to keep the Coven on their feet with his healing magic.

FLAWS ⫻ Sully is reliably unreliable and is horrible at making commitments. He has never been early to anything before in his life and ‘on time’ loosely translates to ‘within the first thirty minutes’. He often agrees to plans solely because he doesn’t like turning people down and then either forgets or cancels moments before it starts. If Sully ever has to make a choice on his own it is often an agonizing experience. He typically latches onto the first idea someone gives to him, fully championing it up until the moment someone presents a counter argument. Then, he can be easily ping-ponged for eternally between the two options until one of the others eventually backs down.

_{Backstory
^{▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔}}
"Kind of hard to top these results."

Sully had a fantastic childhood. He grew up in a small two-bedroom home in St. Portwell where he shared a bunk bed with his older brother Sammy. His mom worked part time as a grocer while his dad was often away for weeks at a time working on a crabbing vessel. Sully lived for the time whenever his dad returned, because it typically meant the family was going to spend the weekend camping. His dad would teach him how to fish and hunt and kayak. His dad would also tell him stories of the sea. Later on Sully would realize his dad had just been pulling his leg, but as a kid he was amazed by the sea creatures pops had to do battle with just so he could bring home some dough for his family. Mostly, however, mostly his dad just taught Sully how to slow down and appreciate the world around him, stopping their hikes to breathe in deep and say cheesy dad stuff like, “Wow. This is it, isn’t it kiddo?”

Sully grew up next door to Ashley Stone. The two would go around riding their bikes, skipping stones on the river, and, when they were a little bit older, finding a hidden spot to smoke cigarettes that Ashley had swiped from her mom or drink beers that Sully had gotten from his brother. He doesn’t remember how they became friends. His mom had pictures on the fridge of them as kindergartners holding hands while waiting for the bus, of them as toddlers covered in mud, of them as babies laying on a carpet. They would go to the same high school together and had the same group of friends. Ashley would go on to become a cheerleader. Sullivan would play football.

Football is where Sully would fall in love—not with Ashley, gross man, she was like a sister. He fell in love with being on a team. The comradery, the shared emotions, the shoulder to lean on or the hand to help you up. Plus, the team was pretty good—state champions during Sully’s second and third year. It was always when playing football that Sully began to come to terms with the feelings he had towards the kicker, as well as realizing that while St. Portwell was overall fairly friendly towards gay men, it still wasn’t something that one could share with a highschool boys’ locker room. He came out to Ashley instead, who was a good enough friend to keep the “Oh, I already knew” to herself.

The summer before his senior year was going to be perfect: parties, road trips, and romantic flings. It started with a massive beach bonfire with plenty of booze and drugs to go around. Sully stumbled away from the party to answer nature’s call and walked out to the ocean. After he finished up he stubbed his toe against what he at first thought was a rock, but as he grabbed it to chuck it into the water he realized it was an old cup. No, not just any old cup, his drunken brain told him—it was the king’s cup! He rinsed the sand off of it with beer, filled it up with cheap whiskey, returned to the group, and declared himself king of the beach. “And when the king of the beach drinks from the king’s cup, all drink with him!” was his first royal decree and the last thing he remembered from that night.

During that summer wherever Sully went to party the “king’s cup” came too. It became a running goof amongst his friends to bet how many drinks until Sully would pull the stupid glass out and declare himself king of the party. One party near the end of summer Britney Williams grabbed Sully and dragged him away from the party when he produced the cup, with the two of them getting hooted and hollered at as he proclaimed, “She wants to be with the king!” She did not. She wanted to know how he got his hands on the Chalice. She wanted to know if he was the Cupbearer. She kept saying weird things, about a snake, about how he needed to drink his own blood, creepy shit. She, Sully thought at the time, was clearly high.

Then, life became a nightmare. The Stygian Snake attacked his neighborhood shortly thereafter. His house got destroyed but his family was away. He, however, was inside. Ashley, covered in blood that wasn’t her own, found him under a pile of debris with a metal pipe speared through his stomach. He was going to die, but he remembered what Britney had said and, well, a massive fucking snake destroying his house made him a believer. Ashley thought he was losing it when she told him to grab the cup, one final bit before he bit the dust, but she did so anyway. Together they pulled the pipe out. Then Sully had Ashley pool his blood into the cup and he drank. And, just like Britney had said he would, he lived.

Everything was a whirlwind after that. Ashley formed the Coven and Sully tagged along, dreaming of the one day the world would return to normalcy. Somehow, it did—the Coven defeated the Stygian Snake and saved his hometown. He remained with them through the rest of the school year and following summer, playing peacemaker and throwing raucous parties in their hideout when Ashley would allow him, but being a witch wasn’t really his scene. He still dreamed of being a pro athlete, so when the time came he headed off to a state college. The king’s cup, or the Chalice as Britney insisted on him calling it, stayed in St. Portwell at the request of Sloane Faris. She insisted that if was abandoning the duties, whatever the fuck that meant, then the least he could do was ensure that the Chalice remained with someone who would keep it safe. He obliged and went on to achieve his dreams.

Assuming, that is, if his dreams were to gain a shit ton of weight, develop a drinking problem, drop out of college, and move back to his hometown without a dime to his name or a future ahead of him. Let’s face it, Sully partied too much and worked too little and at the end of the day he just wasn’t good enough to compete on a collegiate level. He was benched and when his grades or his focus on the field didn’t improve he was cut. His dad was able to get him some blue collar work around town, but none of the jobs ever really panned out.

He spiraled into a funk, feeling like a total loser and struggling to find a reason to get out of bed in the morning. His depression was only deepened when his dad passed away. Lung cancer. His dad hadn’t smoked a day in his life. The doctors said it was possibly aggravated by some of the chemicals used on the crabbing vessels. At the time Sully was working on a logging crew. He watched as thousands of trees were chopped down, the same trees that he and his dad would hike through, the same trees that made his dad stop and look in awe, and something inside of Sully snapped.

After the workday ended Sully went home, got his tools, and returned. He dismantled the equipment. When he arrived at work the next day he was frustrated to find out that the logging company had easily fixed his sabotage. His coworkers laughed about how the tree huggers always thought a monkey wrench was enough to get between them and a job. Sully reached out to Sloane, asking if he could have the Chalice back. He was able to toe her line of questioning, promising her that it was for a good purpose. She eventually relented, claiming that she was only holding it for him anyway.

Sully snuck back to work after acquiring the Chalice. Loosened bolts and jammed cogs weren’t enough to stop the logging equipment, but corrosive acid would eat enough through enough of the mechanics to call the thing a total loss. Little did he know he was being watched. As he went back to his truck he was approached by a group of cloaked figures with their faces hidden by masks. The tension eased as Sully chatted with the Greenwood Coven, discovering that they shared a common mindset. He accepted an invitation back to their camp, and by the morning it felt like he had found a potential new team.

Sully was fully ready to give himself completely over to the Greenwood Coven, but they were a little skeptical about accepting new members until they proved himself. They said they would call him the next time they needed help. In a way, Sully found himself once again benched. It was nearly a month after meeting them that Sully got the call, and immediately after he got news that one of his friends had been murdered. Sully bailed on the Greenwood Coven, but he was able to get back in their good graces after explaining the situation and promising them he’d help another time.

When Ashley died, Sully became unreachable as he tried to find the bottom of the Chalice. A voicemail was left by Auri Auclair to no response.

_{Paranormal-Abilities
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"Who wants a drink?"

TYPE ⫻ Aberration (Agent)

ABSTRACTION ⫻ The Chalice, an artifact that can produce a never ending amount of any kind of liquid including a healing elixir.

ABSTRACTION DESCRIPTION ⫻ The Chalice is an artifact that has been around since ancient times, held by kings, messiahs, and so-called god and known by many other names. It somehow became lost, spurring many seekers of its powers to quest for it but never find it. Eventually, the Chalice became little more than a myth, believed to be little more than a flowery metaphor written down by a poet of yore and misinterpreted by the simple masses of days gone by. In reality, the Chalice somehow ended up being discovered by a jock in Oregon.

The Chalice is a large, empty silver goblet that is covered with runic symbols; the inside is stained a brownish red. The Chalice is a normal cup unless it is held by the Cupbearer, who is the only person able to activate its magical properties. A small blood offering is required to become the Cupbearer—about 3 drops in the goblet—and they are able to use the Chalice until another person performs the ritual. The Chalice cannot be damaged by normal means or by the contents summoned by the Cupbearer.

The Cupbearer can fill the Chalice with an endless supply of whatever liquid they want. This can range from mundane uses, like creating water or wine to drink, to dangerous, like calling forth lava or acid and splashing it upon a foe. The most notable liquid the Chalice can produce is an elixir, a magical concoction that can heal recent wounds and restore energy if drank. It’s worth noting that the Chalice is “self-cleaning” in the sense that creating another liquid obliterates whatever of the previous liquid was left in the cup. This also happens when the Cupbearer stops touching the Chalice. Therefore, the Cupbearer cannot accidentally poison others or unintentionally cause chemical reactions.

How much liquid appears is dependent on the wishes of the Cupbearer. Typically, one cupful is what is summoned on each use, but they could continue to call forth more liquid as long as they remain in contact with the Chalice.

LIMITS ⫻The Chalice produces liquid one cup at a time, so while theoretically someone could use it to flood an area it would take an excruciating amount of time. The normal liquid created by the Chalice disappears after a day unless it was consumed by a living creature, so it cannot be used to create stockpiles. Likewise, the healing elixir created by the Chalice becomes benign within a few minutes, so it cannot be used to create potions.

The healing offered by the Chalice is strong but it is not absolute. It is capable of closing any wound and reversing life-threatening injuries, as well as counteracting and eliminating infectious diseases. However, it cannot be used to end curses, it cannot regrow or reattach lost limbs, and it cannot prevent the effects of aging or natural diseases such as cancer or heart disease. As well, the elixir only works if the recipient is capable of drinking it—pouring the elixir on an unconscious person will only result in getting them wet.

WEAKNESSES ⫻ Sully has to live with the knowledge that the Chalice is also a Cum Chalice and a Piss Chalice. Sully possesses no special resistances to what he summons so he can easily injure himself by summoning lava and acid.

^{Other
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"Why do I let myself be held back?"

Recollections: Under The Sycamore Tree Part. 1 [Cancelled]

Earlier...

---

The shadows of the tombstones grew long against the setting sun as dead leaves danced on the wind. A woman in a long black coat stepped softly between the rows while her shadow, a large man in a fitted suit and too much hair gel, waited by the car. She slowed her steps so she could read the epitaphs as she passed, entire lives boiled down to a relationship, a religion, or one final chance to prove to the world that they had half a wit. The woman stopped before a fresh grave, the wilting bouquets of flowers and lace still another day or two away from being composited by the groundskeeper. She stared down at the grave with a slight frown and tucked a loose strand of graying hair behind her ear. She had imagined it would be bigger. Back in the day, Ashley had always been the center of attention. It felt odd to find her tucked away on the fringe, shoved off to the side. Odd, but not necessarily bad.

Sloane folded her arms over her chest and nudged a bouquet with her foot. Just a couple of weeks ago Sloane had found herself sitting about six feet away from Ashley, arguing with her at Ashley’s kitchen table. Ashley had refused to see how illogical it was for her to keep holding on to the Apparition Killer if she didn’t have a means to protect herself. Inevitably she resorted to hurling accusations at Sloane, calling her power hungry and irresponsible. At the time it had seemed like Ashley had won the argument, but now Sloane took a moment to reconsider. Yes, obviously, Ashley had been right and Sloane would be more careful with her toys the next time, but now that there was six feet of dirt separating the two Sloane felt pretty justified in her desire to take the artifact off of Ashley’s hands. The extra earth also made it more difficult to throw mud, so instead Sloane thought she should come clean.

“I’ve always hated you, Ashley Stone,” said Sloane matter-of-factly. “I hated your speeches and how you always turned them into a dumb cheer. I hated how you used your mother to garner sympathy like you were the only victim. I hated how you always took the good artifacts and gave them to your inner ring, leaving the cheap knock offs for the rest of us losers. I hated how you treated everyone like they were garbage compared to the great Ashley Stone. I hated how you allowed your friends to use and turn on one another. I hated how you quit. I hated how you didn’t seem to care.”

“But more than anything, I hated how you occupied my mind for the past ten years. I hated how I was always afraid that somebody would come for you so that they could steal the Apparition Killer. I hate that I was right. I feel like now that you’re dead I should be able to forgive you now that I never have to worry about you ever again, only…” Sloane shut her eyes with a tight squeeze and swallowed in disgust. “You have a daughter. I will never forgive you for doing this to her.”

She leaned forward and spat on the grave.

“You fucking coward.”

---

Flowers and Canvases.

---

“This could take anywhere from five minutes to five hours. If I’m not out in thirty, feel free to take off for the night. I’ll be fine,” said Sloane from the backseat of the car, barely looking up from her phone.

“As you wish, Ms. Faris,” asked her driver.

The black Mercedes-Benz pulled up to Flowers and Canvases right on time. Sloane’s driver, the same large man standing overwatch in the cemetery, hopped out of the vehicle and opened Sloane’s door for her. She stepped out, still dressed in her expensive black overcoat that covered her white blouse and gray slacks, and gave the outside of the building an unimpressed once-over. She wondered how much the rent was. The building was a little bigger than Sloane’s antique shop, but Auri probably only had one store. Sloane took what could be her final breath of uncrowded, non-hostile air and entered the store. A few others had already arrived, and Auri was perched on her chair ready to assault Sloane with an annoyingly chipper greeting. Sloane gave her a curt nod, thankful that others were still arriving so they could distract Auri before Sloane was sucked into a conversation.

She took the time before the meeting to wander the store and try to ignore Auri’s stupid butterflies that kept following after her. She ran her finger along a shelf of succulents and checked it for dust. Nearly spotless. She admired a few of the hung paintings, noting the good brushstrokes and complimentary colors, and frowned at the signature signed by Auri Auclair. Auri had a basic, boring subject matter but the talent was unfortunately there. Sloane could see someone hanging one of these photos above a toilet to brighten up their bathroom or to cover up a hole punched in a wall following a domestic dispute. Still, the store was annoyingly nice. Sloane had hoped for—she paused, finally finding what she had been hoping to see.

Sloane took a quickened step over to a row of arrangements whose flowers had started to wilt. She breathed deeply and held back a smirk, delicately lifting a wilting flower with her fingertips to create an approximation of how it should have stood. “Hmm. What a pity,” she muttered, feeling a deep sense of satisfaction. She moved her fingers and allowed the flower to violently drop and slam against the side of the pot. Fulfilled, Sloane made her way back to the ring of chairs. She refused to take a seat, choosing instead to stand off to the side with her arms crossed. She immediately looked down at her watch when Auri began the meeting. When Auri tried to make eye contact with Sloane a few moments later she looked at the time again instead of returning the gaze.

“...Remember, we are not a Coven; we are a family.”

“Jesus Christ,” muttered Sloane under her breath as she rolled her eyes. She could see Auri giving her employees this same kind of shitty line to justify paying them minimum wage to sell her pedestrian paintings. Sloane wanted to get Father Wolf for her own reason: he likely had the Apparition Killer and, given the coincidental timing, could be connected to the theft of her property. If she had wanted a family she would’ve had her driver take her to an Olive Garden, because that family came with unlimited breadsticks as opposed to endless migraines and bottomless bitching.

But Sloane had a family before and they had been awful. As if cued by Auri’s closing statement, the Coven began to shift back into their old ways. Luca immediately began bringing up the past and Alizée began arguing with him over a person that likely wouldn’t even show. Tayla—Sloane hadn’t recognized her at first, but she was pretty sure that woman was Tayla—took a couple of well-deserved jabs at Auri before Linqian jumped in to deliver a suplex. Some of the others like Eksa and Simone shifted uncomfortably in their seats, probably questioning themselves for why they even came. Sloane shook her head. These people were awful to be around. Maybe Auri was right. Maybe they were like a family after all.

Sloane cleared her throat.

“They’re right, Auri. Let’s talk about the man who has murdered about a dozen of our peers, then we can discuss setting up Luca’s GoFundMe,” said Sloane. If she was being sarcastic it was impossible to tell; she sounded as if she was being forced to read a passage from a boring textbook aloud for the class. “I believe Father Wolf stole the Apparition Killer from Ashley, but theft doesn’t seem to be the primary motivation unless the others were robbed. You already seem confident that they’re just one man and not a group or some kind of Apparition. Unless you were just making assumptions based upon a name?”

Recollections: Under The Sycamore Tree Part. 1 [Cancelled]

Sloane Faris

"We have a responsibility."

_______________________________________________ Sloane Aiesha Faris She/Her| 27 | Syrian American| 5’2” | 105 lbs _______________________________________________ Severe _______________________________________________ Skills & Talents "Not everything I do is work." ___________________________________ [+] [Sailing] ⫻ Sloane was never too far from the harbor growing up with her parents sharing their passion for sailing with their child. She knows how to pilot and maintain most civilian level sea vessels, and is above average when it comes to navigating, knot tying, fishing, and elbow rubbing the rich douchebags sipping back martinis at the yacht club. [Cardio] ⫻ Sloane has woken up and gone for a jog almost every day since she was thirteen years old, excluding that awkward time in her life where the world was kind of ending. She could not only get up and run a marathon this moment, but she would probably finish close to first. [Fencing] ⫻ A newer hobby of Sloane’s that she has only taken up in the past couple of years. She isn’t the greatest fencer in the Oregon scene by any means, but she has yet to hit her ceiling. [Antiquarian] ⫻ The woman has always been fascinated with history, and there is nothing that interests her more than an old object with a high price tag. Sloane is not only good at identifying vintage antiques from counterfeits, but she has a knack for finding the rare, expensive collectibles her discerning customers ask her to acquire. Sloane currently owns two antique stores: a high-end, expensive place Faris Imports catering to the wealthier clientele, whom she is excruciating picky with when it comes to who she’ll deal with, and a tourist trap in the mall called Curious Curios where she offloads bad incense, packs of tarot cards, and bins upon bins of “haunted” dolls. [Cartomancy] ⫻ It’s a little insane not to believe in the power of the occult or the existence of fortune telling after you’ve seen the things Sloane has seen. While Sloane dabbles in astrology and other pseudosciences to help determine the right path, her preferred method of divination is through tarot reading.

Appearance ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ "Clients expect a professional. I dress to meet expectations." Sloane is composed almost entirely out of sharp angles, crossed arms, and huffed sighs. Her face appears to be carved from granite with pronounced cheekbones, a pointed nose, a cleft chin, and a jawline so strong it could crack diamonds. She puts a clear effort into her appearance, plucking her eyebrows to perfection and picking shades of shadow to accent her dark eyes. Her olive tone skin is healthy and hydrated. Her ears are pierced with tasteful and expensive earrings that are hidden behind her straight hair, which is long and black with faint streaks of premature grays running through it. She’s petite but holds herself with a quiet intensity that makes her feel more imposing than she actually ever could be. Sloane has decent curves and is overall fairly fit, but it isn’t her physique that makes her stand out from the crowd and turn heads: it’s what she’s wearing. Sloane has an impeccable fashion sense, shunning the latest flash-in-the-pan trends and instead committing to a timeless look with tailored clothes made to work with her small frame. She leans heavily on sophisticated sweaters, simple button-ups, wide leg trousers, and long coats to fill out her silhouette. She also typically has some type of gloves close on hand. Sloane almost exclusively sticks with a mix of black and white, but if she’s feeling especially wild she might pull out something beige, brown, or, if she’s feeling real frisky, navy. She keeps the jewelry to a minimum but always wears an old, expensive wristwatch on her right wrist that hides an old burn, the face rotated around to her inner wrist to protect it from scratches. Sloane overall appears very stoic and unflappable, but she doesn’t always look unemotional. In fact, she has perfectly mastered expressing not just one but two emotions: bored, her go to default for most occasions, and annoyed, which is just her bored face but with more rolling her eyes up to the ceiling. Her smiles are a thing of rarity and a popular game amongst the Coven after the defeat of the Stygian Snake was seeing if anyone could make Sloane laugh harder than a sharp breathing out of the nose and a soft hmph. When she speaks, Sloane has as much charm and inflection as an early text-to-speech program.

_{Psychology
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"I don’t need to do everything myself. I just like seeing things get done right."

MAIN GOAL ⫻ Sloane believes it's her responsibility to protect the people of St. Portwell. While she would coordinate with people who hunted rogue Apparitions, Sloane focused less on combating paranormal beings and more on control and prevention. Sloane is working to keep artifacts and Apparitions out of the hands of people she deemed too dangerous to have them, which is essentially anybody who is not her, and hopes to mass a collection of Artifacts and sealed Apparitions she can distribute as needed whenever St. Portwell faces another Stygian Snake level of crisis. Although her intentions are well-meant, there is little denying that she is basically seeking to hoard power.

PHILOSOPHY ⫻ Sloane was raised on the principle of noblesse oblige, the idea that because she has privilege and power she is required to use it for the greater good. She wholeheartedly believes in annoying little ideas like duty, honor, and morality. She was harshly critical of the Coven members who severed their Lux or sealed away their Apparitions, as she saw it as an act of cowardice. Frustratingly enough, Sloane falls into the same trap plaguing privileged people before, believing that her good intentions justify a hunger for power and a demand for respect.

SECRETS ⫻ Sloane stays fairly hush-hush about essentially being little more than a paranormal cat burglar, even if she is only stealing artifacts from people that she believes have ill will towards St. Portwell. Likewise, she has yet to inform any of the old Coven members that her collection of sealed Apparitions and magical artifacts has been stolen.

She also highly resented Ashley, Daisy, and Auri during her time in the Coven and was jealous of them. Sloane was potentially one of the final members to see Ashley alive, having gone to visit the woman the same week she had been murdered and ending the visit in an argument regarding how Ashley should no longer be the one to keep the Apparition Killer.

SEXUALITY ⫻ Sloane is a straight and currently shifting through the cesspool that is dating apps because, as it turns out, not a lot of eligible bachelors are into antiquing and too many “totally separated” men are into sailing.

FEARS ⫻ Vulnerability. The idea that showing vulnerability is a sign of weakness and that if she is weak then she has no value is rooted deeply inside of Sloane’s brain. The task of showing any emotional intimacy to people, even those that are close to her, is herculean. She is so afraid of being open that even other people being candid about themselves and expressing their feelings makes her uncomfortable.

REPUTATION IN OLD COVEN ⫻ Opinions about Sloane are mixed, but everyone would agree on one thing: Sloane needed to lighten up. Her seriousness was appreciated during their conflict with the Stygian Snake, but Sloane proved to be a wet blanket when it came to the Coven trying to enjoy the life they’d earned. Some members would remember the good in her: she was clearly devoted to the group, helped when she could, refused to play favoritism by serving as a neutral party when it came to votes, and kept their hideout tidy and stocked with snacks. Others only recall the negative: she demanded respect but rarely returned it, would huff and roll her eyes when the Coven would squabble but almost never do anything to stop it, and held members to unachievable standards. It was clear to everybody that Sloane thought she should lead the Coven, but she was smart enough to realize that she wouldn’t win the popular vote.

ROLE IN THE BATTLE AGAINST THE STYGIAN SNAKE ⫻ Sloane believes that she was useless because her spellbook was limited at the time. However, just because she wasn’t dishing out the damage to the Stygian Snake or its minions did not mean that she didn’t help. Her eventual creation of a cursed lie detecting ring allowed the Coven to fight back against the doubts and mistrust the Stygian Snake had snuck into their minds, allowing the Coven to work together more cohesively. In the final fight she served as a distraction for the Coven by carrying a fake version of the Apparition Killer to draw the Stygian Snake’s focus away from Ashley, a ploy that nearly got Sloane killed if it were not for Jade’s healing.

FLAWS ⫻ Sloane’s aloof and typically detached behavior firmly shifts her from the camp of ‘all business’ to the fortified castle of ‘seriously stuck-up bitch’. Perhaps it wouldn’t be so bad if Sloane was just always distant and stayed firmly in the territory of acting like she was better than everyone because then it could at least be ignored. Unfortunately, Sloane feels compelled to speak up when someone says or does something that either fails to meet or goes against her standards. Often she wields her critiques with the same delicacy and gentleness of a baseball bat covered in bent nails being swung straight at a skull. To put it plainly, Sloane is simply harsh.

_{Backstory
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"History is what gives something value."

Sloane’s parents were exorbitantly wealthy art and antique dealers. They gave her everything: a private education with the best tutors, a trust fund ensuring that she was set for life from the day of her birth, and a daily flurry of reprimands reminding her exactly how a daughter of theirs should act and that everything they do must be for the greater good. Yet more often than not her parents were background characters, showing up only to take her on the occasional sailing trip, with the role of mommy and daddy played by nannies, butlers, and drivers. She was raised to be prim, proper, and puppeted, her sole purpose on this Earth to serve as the legacy of her mother and father. Sloane was the final piece of art they could offer to the world after they passed, and perhaps she could offer up a spare kidney if one of her parents were to fail before that time came. Despite their distance, Sloane could never claim to hate them, because to hate them she’d have to know them.

Sloane was shifted from private tutelage to public education after elementary school. She imagined her parents thought it would be best for her to know how other people lived. Sloane immediately slid into the role of an outsider, because as it turned out spending her entire childhood only surrounded by other adults meant she didn’t know how to connect with other kids. Apparently most twelve year olds didn’t have an interest in abstract expressionist paintings or pottery from the Qing Dynasty. In high school she’d eventually find a social refuge amongst the goth kids, who could at the very least appreciate the intense sadness of 19th century Russian literature and teach her the ways of mocking the jocks like Sully McPherson and the cheerleaders like Ashley Stone that, in retrospect, never were as truly awful to her friends as her friends were to them.

The Stygian Snake showed itself to Sloane on the day she went shopping with her friends for tarot cards at the Coastal Harbor Mall. Violent crimes were on the rise the days leading up to their little shopping trip, and while the squares hid inside her friends had all joked that it’d be pretty cool to witness a stabbing. As it turns out, getting stabbed might’ve been preferable. Instead, Sloane had the horrifying experience that still haunts teens to this day—seeing her mom and dad out in public while with her friends. While she was balking at the idea of her folks suddenly wanting to get more involved in her life, her parents dragged her into a family restroom where her mother reached forward, touched a mirror, and opened up a portal back to their estate.

Sloane underwent a Kindling Event as her parents pushed her through the portal. She saw visions of ancient ancestors, the supposed noble warriors, kings, and queens her parents claimed they had in their blood. She didn’t see any heroes. She saw poisoners, killers, and thieves. She saw them summoning ghouls and demons out of blue portals and unleashing them upon foreign kingdoms in foreign worlds, she saw them wielding weapons of blinding orange light as they ransacked tombs and castles and cut down any who got in their path. She saw her parents using magic to counterfeit art, steal from museums, and curse any who question them. She saw them sealing strange creatures inside of objects and then selling the items to dictators, insurgents, and CEOs.

Sloane saw her parents' hypocrisy and then they showed her their cowardice. Something bad was going to happen to their city and they were going to run. They didn’t care about the greater good, they cared about their own: anything was okay as long as it benefited her family. Sloane came back to the sound of a gunshot, screaming at the sight of their family butler Warren lying on the ground as blood pooled out around him, her father holding the gun. Her father gathered some bags as her mother tried to convince Sloane that it was okay, Warren wasn’t special like them. He would’ve died no matter what. The staff, her teachers, her friends, they would all die, but Sloane would be okay because she had the same magic her parents did.

Her father returned with the bags, her mother opened another mirrorway, and her parents passed through. Sloane hesitated and as her father turned to pull her through she lashed out and touched the frame of the mirror and cast her first hex. Blue and orange flames wreathed around her wrist and boiled her flesh as the mirror glowed and then shattered upon a second touch, her parents separated from her within a blink of an eye with the exception of four bloody fingertips lying on the floor. She fled her house and searched for her friends. Her parents never even attempted to look for her.

She was too late when she arrived, the mall a scene of chaos by the time she returned. A shooting, as she was told by onlookers behind police barricades while she stared in horror at the wriggling mass of shadows obscured behind the buildings. Sloane was pulled from the crowd by Sully McPherson as one of the policemen turned on the onlookers and opened fire. Sully introduced Sloane to the Coven after she kept asking him if he’d seen whatever that shadow thing was, and when Ashley explained everything to her Sloane did not even hesitate to accept. Her parents might’ve been liars, but that didn’t change the fact that they’d surrounded her by common people whom she’d been led to believe that they were doing a great service to by providing them with something they would otherwise not have. If being part of the Coven could actually help people unlike that trickle down bullshit then she was in without question.

Sloane once again felt like she was the outsider while inside the Coven. The leaders were made up almost exclusively of the types of kids her friends used to make fun of, causing Sloane to be uncomfortable and quiet around the others as she realized that most of the people they’d shitted on were a lot like them. She also felt an intense drive to make up for the selfish actions of her family, fully committing herself to the cause with a zealot’s devotion. Sloane helped where she could, slowly learning how to craft cursed counterfeit items with her abilities to help the Coven and volunteering herself for any and all things when given the opportunity.

Her dedication nearly got her killed, saved only by Jade finding her before she bled out after the final confrontation with the Stygian Snake. Sloane tried to make the Coven work after their common enemy had been defeated, but it’s quite possible that her over dedication to the cause might’ve led to the Coven collapsing sooner rather than later. Her open criticism of people who wanted to leave, sever their Lux, or seal away the thing that made them Aberrations drove wedges between friends and drew lines in the sand.

However, nothing was more damaging to the group than the lie detecting ring she’d created, lovingly referred to as the Bullshit Ring by the Coven. What had once been used to counteract the mind games played by the Stygian Snake was now used in misguided attempts to solve disputes and squash beefs. As it turned out, sometimes a little bit of dishonesty was better for team spirit than the reality of harsh truths. It was hard to like anyone when you could immediately demand they give you their honest opinions and assume the worst if they refused. Sloane had offered to find a way to destroy the ring but the idea was met, as with every idea in the Coven those days, with divisiveness. She retracted her offer, but a day later the ring was stolen.

Sloane should’ve left after she became the main suspect for the theft, but instead she stuck around until they eventually voted her out. She swallowed her bitterness and anger, instead using the energy to focus on continually protecting St. Portwell by herself. She knew she couldn’t go toe-to-toe with Apparitions like Drake or Lionel, but she could still do some good by going after the kind of people her parents had been wheeling and dealing with. She used her inheritance to start an antique empire, luring and stealing from those who desired to abuse the power of Apparitions and artifacts, all the while learning new spells and curses she could use to defend her city.

Yet Sloane knew she could not trap that many insects in her web if she only had just one thread. Over the years she kept in touch with the like-minded individuals of her former Coven, reaching out to provide them with information regarding dangerous Apparitions that were a bit too hot for her to handle. Likewise, she would contact members who had quit, especially those that had been Agents, starting under the pretense that she just wanted to reconnect before revealing her hand and asking for them to hand over their artifact, willingly of course. Despite what the Coven thought, she was not her parents. She might’ve been a thief, but she didn’t steal from her friends.

The past year has been particularly busy for Sloane, who after a chance run-in with her mother became aware of an organization called the Elite. Despite her parents' efforts to sabotage her, she had almost found a way to infiltrate the group when a massive heist derailed Sloane’s efforts. The woman had discretely acquired a small collection of magical artifacts and sealed apparitions which she had kept safely vaulted away from the world. The collection was spread out between hidden safes in her high rise condo, highly secured cases at her business, and bank safety deposit boxes kept behind massive vault doors. All of them had been taken without a trace, the thief completely avoiding curses, cameras, and eye witnesses.

Before she had a chance to track down her missing artifacts she received word that a friend of hers had been murdered. And then another, and another, and another until she received the call from Auri. The two had never been close, Sloane’s serious gloom clashing heavily with Auri’s cheerful sunshine and she did not like how plastic the girl felt, but she knew exactly why Auri had called. She answered the phone by saying she was in before Auri even had a chance to give her spiel. A brief conversation about their lost friends followed, and by the time they had said goodbye Sloane was beginning to reconsider her opinion of Auri when the girl sliced open an old wound as, right before she hung up, said: “Bring the ring.”

_{Abstraction
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"Possessions can become quite the burden."

TYPE ⫻ Adept

ABSTRACTION ⫻ Blue and Orange Lux. Sloane’s channeler is a faded Queen of Swords card from an antique tarot deck.

ABSTRACTION DESCRIPTION ⫻ Sloane exclusively blends her Blue and Orange Lux together with affinity for cursing inanimate objects. The complexity of weaving the two divergent Luxes together makes it quite difficult for Sloane to develop or learn new spells, but she has remained dedicated to her craft over the past decade.

Hexmark ⫻ Sloane curses an object to malfunction by touching it and marking it with her Channeler. Sloane weaves the how and when the object breaks in the casting of the spell, allowing her to make the breaking of an object appear to be purely accidental. A blue circle crossed by an orange X mark appears on the hexed object, invisible to the Blind. The size of the mark depends upon the size of the object, ranging from being as tiny as a pea to as large as an area rug. Sloane has variations of this spell depending upon the object. The bigger the mark the longer it takes her to cast the spell as she has to draw it with her Channeler. The curse can be broken by purifying the mark with either salt, fire, or holy water. She has three variants of the curse:

• Fragile: A basic version of her Hexmark, Sloane curses an object to become brittle. The object breaks upon usage, triggered simply by touch and often shattering into several pieces. Casting Fragile on large objects is a bit complicated, as the spell specifically targets the part and not the whole. For example, casting Fragile on a car might make the door handle break or the entire door to crumble to pieces but it wouldn’t completely trash the car.
• Glitched : A more advanced version of her Hexmark, Sloane curses an object to function improperly. The object breaks depending on a trigger set by Sloane, be it immediately, when someone observes it, etc. Sloane also determines how it breaks. For example, a Glitched car might not start, or might constantly honk and flash the lights and scan for stations, or might do something as extreme as ignite the gasoline tank and eventually explode.
• Possessed: The most advanced version of her Hexmark, Sloane curses an object to behave impossibly. The object acts as if it were haunted, such as turning on when it's unplugged, functioning by itself, or even throwing itself through the air assuming it would be light enough to be thrown by a person. Sloane can directly manipulate a Possessed object, allowing for precise control over how it behaves, but she must be able to see the item to control it.

Object of Obsession ⫻ Sloane quickly infuses a mundane object with Blue Lux by touching it with her Channeler, shifting its appearance to make it look more esoteric and turning it into a cursed item. Once released from her hands the curse activates, causing any being to lay eyes on it to become obsessed with the object. Alternatively, she can alter the spell to target only one individual. They are compelled to pursue the object and pick it up, carefully cradling it in their hands. Once one being picks up the object all others immediately lose their obsession with the object. However, the holder refuses to drop the object for as long as the curse lasts.

Creatures without an Emotional Field are immediately enthralled by the object, incapable of doing anything but sitting, breathing, observing its beauty, and mumbling about how great their new toy is if anyone questions them. They will even ignore the need to eat or sleep; all they want to do is to look at the object. Creatures with an Emotional Field can fight off these urges, or temporarily succumb to the object to sate their obsession for a moment and then function almost like normal. Still, even if they become aware of being cursed by the object they will continue to refuse to put it down.

The curse is simply broken by letting go of the object. However, this usually requires another person to come by and struggle to get the object out of the hands of the cursed. Once the object is removed it returns to its mundane self.

Counterfeit ⫻ Sloane crafts a convincing duplicate of a mundane or magical item out of Orange Lux that is either cursed or capable of cursing. During crafting she must be able to touch the original piece with her Channeler. The Counterfeit is so well made that most forms of magical detection will falsely identify the item as the original. A mundane Counterfeit can only be cursed with one of her Hexmarks or a variation of her Object of Obsession curse: it does not compel anyone to grab it, but the person who grabs it is subjected to the same crippling obsession. It takes up to a handful of minutes to Counterfeit a mundane object, but a magical item can take several hours, days, weeks, or even months of channeling Lux to make a proper Counterfeit depending upon the complexity. However, magical Counterfeits acquire unique curses specific to that item.

Sloane has crafted a few of these Unique Counterfeits, but currently is in possession of none.

Examples of Stolen Goods

• The Aspiration Killer: A Counterfeit of the Apparition Killer, the Aspiration Killer shifts its appearance to match the wielder and cannot physically damage humans, instead phasing through their flesh. Unlike the Apparition Killer, this weapon can be wielded by Apparitions, does not harm Apparitions, and in fact only harms the psyche of humans. Victims cut by the Aspiration Killer are cursed to experience a loss of hope and ambition. In normal humans this can make them immediately lose interest in their current goal and eventually lead to a complete mental shutdown that ultimately renders them in a permanent state of stupor within a few weeks. Paranormal humans cut by the blade are immune to the complete erasure of their drive. Instead, their Emotional-Field begins to greatly weaken overtime, allowing them to become more and more susceptible to other Abstractions.
  Cursed victims appear to have a black branding on where the blade cut them, but the mark is painless. Certain spells can counter the effects of the curse on people, and experiencing a Recollection focused on the victim before they were cursed will completely reverse the effects. When wielded by Sloane, the Aspiration Killer looks like a gold fencing foil. She can use her Channeler to transform the appearance of the weapon, often hiding it on her person as a gold wristwatch. The Aspiration Killer was stolen from her wall safe.
  

  ---

• The Phony Club: A Counterfeit of the Oni’s Club, the wielder of the club can set their eyes on a victim and summon three club-wielding demons to torment them. The demons are merely illusions, visible only to the victim and the wielder of the club, but the victim will react to any of their attacks as if they were actually hurt. For example, if one of the phonies “crushed” the hand of a person, they would act like they couldn’t use that hand until the curse ended. The phonies are mindless illusions and thus must be constantly conducted by the wielder of the club or they will only stand their ground. Their appearances often change to some kind of bastardized mockery of their target.
  The club has the unfortunate side effect of cursing the wielder as well. As long as the phonies are summoned the wielder can only see their victim, their summons, and themselves. Otherwise, the world around them is covered in smoke as if they were in the center of a raging fire looking out. Likewise, they cannot hear anything but the roar of burning flames. The curse ends for both the victim and the wielder when the wielder lets go of the club. The Phony Club was stolen from her work vault.
  

  ---

• The Chrysalis Staff: A Counterfeit of the Butterfly Staff, the wielder of the staff can target their victim and curse them to begin to transform. While transforming, the victim's skin hardens and they start to lose the ability to move their body, eventually turning them into a colorful and unmoving chrysalis. This chrysalis protects the victim from any physical harm, but most Abstractions can pierce through the shell. It can of course be resisted by Emotional Fields but if a victim wills it they can force the transformation to be immediate, allowing the Chrysalis Staff to defend them. If the wielder attempts to protect themselves with the staff they will permanently be stuck in the Chrysalis, as they will be unable to move their arm to stop targeting themselves.
  The curse is only temporary. Once the wielder points the staff away from the victim the chrysalis around them rapidly begins to fade, returning motor functions to them within less than a minute. The Chrysalis Staff was stolen from her work vault.
  

  ---

• The BS Ring: A Counterfeit of the Bull’s Ring, the ring was cursed to glow red hot and burn the wielder whenever they were directly dishonest. The ring would then lock on to the wielder’s finger and continue burning the victim until they spoke a true statement. As this was Sloane’s first Counterfeit there is a flaw in the design: the curse only activates when the wielder is intentionally lying, so they will not be burnt if what they believe is true turns out to actually be false or if they had lied by omission, and the burning would stop if they say any true statement. Also, the curse of the ring could easily be mitigated by removing the ring before lying or simply not answering.
  The ring allowed the Coven to fight back against the seeds of doubt planted by the Stygian Snake, but soon proved to be problematic after the defeat of their enemy. Sloane had originally called it the Covenant Ring, but gave up trying to correct people after everyone in the Coven started to only call it the Bullshit Ring. The BS Ring was stolen around the time the Coven collapsed, and Sloane never was able to recreate another before Daisy went missing.
  

  ---

• The Sluice: A Counterfeit of the Chalice, the Sluice appears to be little more than a silver goblet covered in runic symbols. However, looking inside of the cup reveals the bottom of the glass to be a bottomless void that can be activated by tracing the runic symbols with a small sacrifice of blood. Once activated the Sluice acts as a vacuum and will drain any liquid filled into the vessel, depositing it who knows where, until the Sluice’s Cupbearer lets go of the cup. It even draws the moisture out of the air around it, acting as a magical dehumidifier, but it cannot do something like remove all the air from a room.
  However, the Sluice becomes truly horrific if a person were to ever drink from it. A normal human would find the moisture begin to be sucked out of their body unless they were able to get the Cupbearer to let go of the Sluice. A paranormal being is unaffected by this due to the nature of Emotional Fields. However, if the Cupbearer were ever foolish enough to drink from the Sluice they have essentially signed their own death regardless of the strength of their Emotional Field, as the Sluice will remain latched to their lips and drain them until they are rendered as a mummified husk. The only way to prevent this is for another to sacrifice their blood to the outer ring of the cup and pull it free from the victim. The Sluice was stolen from her work vault, kept in the case where Sloane had originally held the Chalice. The thief left the warning sign of how it was not to be used as a drinking vessel behind.
  

  ---

• The Triplicate Ring: A Counterfeit of the Trinity Ring, the Triplicate Ring allows the user to create two additional copies of themselves, no more, no less. The copies can be manifested anywhere within five meters of them as long as they can see the location, and once manifested they are free to be as far away from one another as they want. The copies enter the world in the same state as the user, so if the user is bleeding out their copies would be bleeding out too. Items being worn or held when the Triplicate Ring is used are also copied.
  The trio can both operate independently or act as a hivemind, capable of mentally communicating with one another or sharing their senses. This can be somewhat suppressed to give each other privacy, with the exception of pain: if one copy feels pain, the other two also feel pain. Death of a copy can be quite incapacitating.Once the Triplicate Ring is used, everyone in the trio has their own version of the Triplicate Ring and everyone in the trio exists in a nebulous state where they are both the original user of the ring and a copy created by it.
  If any of the trio remove the ring, thus deactivating the abstraction, they become the original and the other two copies vanish along with any items copied when they were created. If any of the trio try to use their abstraction then that one becomes the original and the Triplicate Ring deactivates, erasing the other two. If any of the trio try to use an artifact that was copied when they used the Triplicate Ring, or if they give someone the artifact and that person tries to use it, then the Triplicate Ring also deactivates. If any of the trio are killed and another one still lives, that version who is killed is always a copy and vanishes quickly upon death. The Triplicate Ring was stolen from Sloane’s wall safe.

LIMITS ⫻ All of Sloane’s spells require her to make some kind of physical contact with the object she is targeting. Hexmark requires Sloane to “draw” the magic symbol upon the object. Larger objects require larger symbols, while more powerful or intricate hexes require the symbol to be tweaked by drawing additional runes. This means that the casting time of Hexmark can fluctuate, with quick Fragile spells on something small requiring just a second or two while detailed Glitched spells taking upwards of a minute to cast. Recasting Object of Obsession immediately ends the prior instance of the spell, excluding objects cursed by her Counterfeit spell.

As previously mentioned, Counterfeit takes several minutes for Sloane just to create a cursed copy of a mundane object while Counterfeiting something magical can take up to weeks or months to complete. The time it takes is greatly shortened if she has previously Counterfeited the object but still significant. While creating a Counterfeit magical object Sloane begins to develop an idea of the abilities and curses the item will have, but she is incapable of changing them. She is less of a designer and more of a conduit. Once a Counterfeit is in the stage of being crafted, that is the only form it will ever take—for example, anytime she Counterfeits the Apparition Killer she will only ever produce an Aspiration Killer. Only one Counterfeit of a specific object can exist at a time, with the previous Counterfeit turning into dust. Due to this, Counterfeits cannot produce more Counterfeits.

WEAKNESSES ⫻

Hexmark ⫻ The Curse can be broken by throwing salt, fire, or holy water onto the cursed object. While casting the Spell, Sloane is left vulnerable and is not wise to use this Spell in a fight.

Object of Obsession ⫻ There are no weaknesses or drawbacks of note.

Counterfeit ⫻ There are no weaknesses or drawbacks of note.

^{Other
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"Theft will be punished."

Currently I don't have anything planned for the Coven's precious Bullshit Ring, so I'm open for ideas.

Sully McPherson

"What kind of person wouldn’t protect what they care about?"

_______________________________________________ Sullivan Nicholas McPherson He/Him| 28 | Irish American| 6’5” | 300 lbs _______________________________________________ Abandon _______________________________________________ Skills & Talents "What is it? Jack of all trades, master of being a good-for-nothing?" ___________________________________ [+] [Raw Strength] ⫻ Sully was a linebacker in high school, and while his dreams of going pro have long faded years of working construction and odd jobs has seen his strength linger on. Although he can’t hold a candle to professional strongmen, he’s almost always the strongest person in the room. He can easily heft up heavy loads with hardly a sweat and it would require a gang to keep him down on the ground. [Intimidation] ⫻ Those who know Sully are aware that he’s about as dangerous as a newborn kitten, but it doesn’t change the fact that if he wants to he can look like a tough son of a bitch who can make someone eat their own teeth with just one hit. He actually uses this to dissuade violence, as he detests physical altercations. [DIY] ⫻ Sully has a knack for fixing, tinkering, and crafting. This can range from simple quick repairs that require little more than some tape and elbow grease, to complex mechanical projects that are just shy of requiring an extensive engineering degree, to uncharacteristic like being able to hem a dress or build a computer. He can even perform some rough first aid, although some might be squeamish about his methods. [Woodsman] ⫻ Sully isn’t a full blown survivalist, but he spent his youth camping, hunting, and fishing with his father and has grown to appreciate the outdoors. He feels most at home in nature and can rattle off facts about flora and fauna with ease. [Iron Stomach] ⫻ The man is a bottomless pit, casually able to crush local food competitions and drink anybody under the table. His social media feed is a horror show of gluttony and alcohol abuse, but on the brightside he did win a $100 gift card to a local wing place once.

Appearance ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ "Yeah, I’m pretty hard to miss." Sully isn’t just a big man, he’s a landmark, a lighthouse guiding people towards safety where they can hide in the protective presence of his shadow. His face is an open book, his emotive blue eyes betraying any feelings he might try to keep beneath the surface. He hides the softness of his jawline and the doubling of his chin beneath a short, well-maintained and oiled beard. His brown hair is cut short and has started to thin out in the back. His skin is well moisturized and he always smells faintly of the woods mixed with a good bourbon. He’s a massive man and is almost always the largest guy in the room. He used to be absolutely shredded, but an overly indulgent lifestyle has softened his muscles and rounded out his gut. However, he is still quite strong thanks to him mostly performing physical labor and he holds his weight pretty well. His hands are notably rough, often coated with fresh scratches from screwing around with some kind of household repairs. Sully dresses in flattering if simple clothes, sticking to the traditional look of the local foresters and fishers with his flannel shirts or cardigan sweaters, straight legged jeans, and well-worn boots. Sully knows that almost nobody will be able to see his bald spot, but he’s still too young to learn to accept it. Instead he always wears some kind of hat, sticking with knit beanies in the fall and winter and switching it up for a baseball cap in the warmer seasons. Sully has a welcoming, teddy bear air about him that makes him seem extremely approachable despite his size. His voice is deep and warm, with a rich laugh that is easy to entice out of the man. He’s prone to staring off into the distance as if his eyes are trying to catch up to his wandering mind, yet despite this apparent flightiness he never seems to miss the thread of the conversation. Sully has a tendency to keep his hands in his pockets and moves with all the speed of a tortoise frozen inside of a glacier.

_{Psychology
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"Just trying to do something with my life. Nothing more."

MAIN GOAL ⫻ Back in the day Sully had big dreams of being a pro football player. He was so committed to chasing those dreams that even a dimension devouring serpent couldn’t stop them. Nowadays Sully dreams much smaller, visions of making rent and not moving back in with his mom dancing in his head. Really he is just focusing on working on himself at this time, doing what he can to get out of the rut he feels like he has been stuck in since he dropped out of college.

PHILOSOPHY ⫻ Try to make things better, and if you can’t do that, at least remember that the last thing the world needs is another asshole. Sully always tried to treat everyone with kindness and respect even if they did not show him the same, adhering to the old adage that you never know what people are going through or where they came from. While he might not agree with certain people, he often tries to understand the whys behind their beliefs while others might rightfully write them off as simply being wrong. Also, while Sully feels that the world is largely full of assholes, he believes that almost none of them are beyond redemption. He’s known to be too forgiving of people to the point of destructive naivety.

SECRETS ⫻ A large number of “workplace accidents” caused by Sully that ruined expensive construction or logging equipment and would wind up getting him sacked from the job were intentional. In fact, over the years Sully has gotten away with causing a significant amount of property damage in the name of environmentalism and, as of lately, the Greenwood Coven. Sully aligns neatly with many of their beliefs and he’s happy to be part of another team, although he has yet to be fully admitted into the Greenwood Coven.

SEXUALITY ⫻ Sully is gay. Although he had confided this to a few close friends while in high school, he did not fully come out until after he’d quit his college football team.

FEARS ⫻ Being inadequate. Sully fears that he is destined to be one of those guys who peaked in highschool. It’s already the case for him with football, and topping the Stygian Snake is a tall order—especially when he firmly believes that the Coven would’ve beaten the beast without him.

REPUTATION IN OLD COVEN ⫻ Largely well-liked. Having been lifelong friends and neighbors with Ashley, Sully was in pretty early with the Coven. Ashley might’ve been the one cheerleading when he was playing football, but Sully was essentially the cheerleader when it came to the Coven. He was always friendly and welcoming to the new members, often going above and beyond to make sure that they felt comfortable with their transition to the paranormal world and the nightmare that was battling the Stygian Snake. He was also seen as an apologist for Ashley’s temperamental behavior and a bit too sympathetic when it came to dealing with Britney. Still, Sully was the one that always got the Coven beer, so if he occasionally sidled with the wrong person it never really mattered to the group.

ROLE IN THE BATTLE AGAINST THE STYGIAN SNAKE ⫻ Sully, like Britney, served as a recruiter for the Coven. Unlike Britney his methods were above board, typically working with other members of the Coven to patrol St. Portwell and rescue anyone targeted by the Stygian Snake’s minions. During the final fight against the Stygian Snake, Sully worked alongside Jade to keep the Coven on their feet with his healing magic.

FLAWS ⫻ Sully is reliably unreliable and is horrible at making commitments. He has never been early to anything before in his life and ‘on time’ loosely translates to ‘within the first thirty minutes’. He often agrees to plans solely because he doesn’t like turning people down and then either forgets or cancels moments before it starts. If Sully ever has to make a choice on his own it is often an agonizing experience. He typically latches onto the first idea someone gives to him, fully championing it up until the moment someone presents a counter argument. Then, he can be easily ping-ponged for eternally between the two options until one of the others eventually backs down.

_{Backstory
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"Kind of hard to top these results."

Sully had a fantastic childhood. He grew up in a small two-bedroom home in St. Portwell where he shared a bunk bed with his older brother Sammy. His mom worked part time as a grocer while his dad was often away for weeks at a time working on a crabbing vessel. Sully lived for the time whenever his dad returned, because it typically meant the family was going to spend the weekend camping. His dad would teach him how to fish and hunt and kayak. His dad would also tell him stories of the sea. Later on Sully would realize his dad had just been pulling his leg, but as a kid he was amazed by the sea creatures pops had to do battle with just so he could bring home some dough for his family. Mostly, however, mostly his dad just taught Sully how to slow down and appreciate the world around him, stopping their hikes to breathe in deep and say cheesy dad stuff like, “Wow. This is it, isn’t it kiddo?”

Sully grew up next door to Ashley Stone. The two would go around riding their bikes, skipping stones on the river, and, when they were a little bit older, finding a hidden spot to smoke cigarettes that Ashley had swiped from her mom or drink beers that Sully had gotten from his brother. He doesn’t remember how they became friends. His mom had pictures on the fridge of them as kindergartners holding hands while waiting for the bus, of them as toddlers covered in mud, of them as babies laying on a carpet. They would go to the same high school together and had the same group of friends. Ashley would go on to become a cheerleader. Sullivan would play football.

Football is where Sully would fall in love—not with Ashley, gross man, she was like a sister. He fell in love with being on a team. The comradery, the shared emotions, the shoulder to lean on or the hand to help you up. Plus, the team was pretty good—state champions during Sully’s second and third year. It was always when playing football that Sully began to come to terms with the feelings he had towards the kicker, as well as realizing that while St. Portwell was overall fairly friendly towards gay men, it still wasn’t something that one could share with a highschool boys’ locker room. He came out to Ashley instead, who was a good enough friend to keep the “Oh, I already knew” to herself.

The summer before his senior year was going to be perfect: parties, road trips, and romantic flings. It started with a massive beach bonfire with plenty of booze and drugs to go around. Sully stumbled away from the party to answer nature’s call and walked out to the ocean. After he finished up he stubbed his toe against what he at first thought was a rock, but as he grabbed it to chuck it into the water he realized it was an old cup. No, not just any old cup, his drunken brain told him—it was the king’s cup! He rinsed the sand off of it with beer, filled it up with cheap whiskey, returned to the group, and declared himself king of the beach. “And when the king of the beach drinks from the king’s cup, all drink with him!” was his first royal decree and the last thing he remembered from that night.

During that summer wherever Sully went to party the “king’s cup” came too. It became a running goof amongst his friends to bet how many drinks until Sully would pull the stupid glass out and declare himself king of the party. One party near the end of summer Britney Williams grabbed Sully and dragged him away from the party when he produced the cup, with the two of them getting hooted and hollered at as he proclaimed, “She wants to be with the king!” She did not. She wanted to know how he got his hands on the Chalice. She wanted to know if he was the Cupbearer. She kept saying weird things, about a snake, about how he needed to drink his own blood, creepy shit. She, Sully thought at the time, was clearly high.

Then, life became a nightmare. The Stygian Snake attacked his neighborhood shortly thereafter. His house got destroyed but his family was away. He, however, was inside. Ashley, covered in blood that wasn’t her own, found him under a pile of debris with a metal pipe speared through his stomach. He was going to die, but he remembered what Britney had said and, well, a massive fucking snake destroying his house made him a believer. Ashley thought he was losing it when she told him to grab the cup, one final bit before he bit the dust, but she did so anyway. Together they pulled the pipe out. Then Sully had Ashley pool his blood into the cup and he drank. And, just like Britney had said he would, he lived.

Everything was a whirlwind after that. Ashley formed the Coven and Sully tagged along, dreaming of the one day the world would return to normalcy. Somehow, it did—the Coven defeated the Stygian Snake and saved his hometown. He remained with them through the rest of the school year and following summer, playing peacemaker and throwing raucous parties in their hideout when Ashley would allow him, but being a witch wasn’t really his scene. He still dreamed of being a pro athlete, so when the time came he headed off to a state college. The king’s cup, or the Chalice as Britney insisted on him calling it, stayed in St. Portwell at the request of Sloane Faris. She insisted that if was abandoning the duties, whatever the fuck that meant, then the least he could do was ensure that the Chalice remained with someone who would keep it safe. He obliged and went on to achieve his dreams.

Assuming, that is, if his dreams were to gain a shit ton of weight, develop a drinking problem, drop out of college, and move back to his hometown without a dime to his name or a future ahead of him. Let’s face it, Sully partied too much and worked too little and at the end of the day he just wasn’t good enough to compete on a collegiate level. He was benched and when his grades or his focus on the field didn’t improve he was cut. His dad was able to get him some blue collar work around town, but none of the jobs ever really panned out.

He spiraled into a funk, feeling like a total loser and struggling to find a reason to get out of bed in the morning. His depression was only deepened when his dad passed away. Lung cancer. His dad hadn’t smoked a day in his life. The doctors said it was possibly aggravated by some of the chemicals used on the crabbing vessels. At the time Sully was working on a logging crew. He watched as thousands of trees were chopped down, the same trees that he and his dad would hike through, the same trees that made his dad stop and look in awe, and something inside of Sully snapped.

After the workday ended Sully went home, got his tools, and returned. He dismantled the equipment. When he arrived at work the next day he was frustrated to find out that the logging company had easily fixed his sabotage. His coworkers laughed about how the tree huggers always thought a monkey wrench was enough to get between them and a job. Sully reached out to Sloane, asking if he could have the Chalice back. He was able to toe her line of questioning, promising her that it was for a good purpose. She eventually relented, claiming that she was only holding it for him anyway.

Sully snuck back to work after acquiring the Chalice. Loosened bolts and jammed cogs weren’t enough to stop the logging equipment, but corrosive acid would eat enough through enough of the mechanics to call the thing a total loss. Little did he know he was being watched. As he went back to his truck he was approached by a group of cloaked figures with their faces hidden by masks. The tension eased as Sully chatted with the Greenwood Coven, discovering that they shared a common mindset. He accepted an invitation back to their camp, and by the morning it felt like he had found a potential new team.

Sully was fully ready to give himself completely over to the Greenwood Coven, but they were a little skeptical about accepting new members until they proved himself. They said they would call him the next time they needed help. In a way, Sully found himself once again benched. It was nearly a month after meeting them that Sully got the call, and immediately after he got news that one of his friends had been murdered. Sully bailed on the Greenwood Coven, but he was able to get back in their good graces after explaining the situation and promising them he’d help another time.

When Ashley died, Sully became unreachable as he tried to find the bottom of the Chalice. A voicemail was left by Auri Auclair to no response.

_{Paranormal-Abilities
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"Who wants a drink?"

TYPE ⫻ Aberration (Agent)

ABSTRACTION ⫻ The Chalice, an artifact that can produce a never ending amount of any kind of liquid including a healing elixir.

ABSTRACTION DESCRIPTION ⫻ The Chalice is an artifact that has been around since ancient times, held by kings, messiahs, and so-called god and known by many other names. It somehow became lost, spurring many seekers of its powers to quest for it but never find it. Eventually, the Chalice became little more than a myth, believed to be little more than a flowery metaphor written down by a poet of yore and misinterpreted by the simple masses of days gone by. In reality, the Chalice somehow ended up being discovered by a jock in Oregon.

The Chalice is a large, empty silver goblet that is covered with runic symbols; the inside is stained a brownish red. The Chalice is a normal cup unless it is held by the Cupbearer, who is the only person able to activate its magical properties. A small blood offering is required to become the Cupbearer—about 3 drops in the goblet—and they are able to use the Chalice until another person performs the ritual. The Chalice cannot be damaged by normal means or by the contents summoned by the Cupbearer.

The Cupbearer can fill the Chalice with an endless supply of whatever liquid they want. This can range from mundane uses, like creating water or wine to drink, to dangerous, like calling forth lava or acid and splashing it upon a foe. The most notable liquid the Chalice can produce is an elixir, a magical concoction that can heal recent wounds and restore energy if drank. It’s worth noting that the Chalice is “self-cleaning” in the sense that creating another liquid obliterates whatever of the previous liquid was left in the cup. This also happens when the Cupbearer stops touching the Chalice. Therefore, the Cupbearer cannot accidentally poison others or unintentionally cause chemical reactions.

How much liquid appears is dependent on the wishes of the Cupbearer. Typically, one cupful is what is summoned on each use, but they could continue to call forth more liquid as long as they remain in contact with the Chalice.

LIMITS ⫻The Chalice produces liquid one cup at a time, so while theoretically someone could use it to flood an area it would take an excruciating amount of time. The normal liquid created by the Chalice disappears after a day unless it was consumed by a living creature, so it cannot be used to create stockpiles. Likewise, the healing elixir created by the Chalice becomes benign within a few minutes, so it cannot be used to create potions.

The healing offered by the Chalice is strong but it is not absolute. It is capable of closing any wound and reversing life-threatening injuries, as well as counteracting and eliminating infectious diseases. However, it cannot be used to end curses, it cannot regrow or reattach lost limbs, and it cannot prevent the effects of aging or natural diseases such as cancer or heart disease. As well, the elixir only works if the recipient is capable of drinking it—pouring the elixir on an unconscious person will only result in getting them wet.

WEAKNESSES ⫻ Sully has to live with the knowledge that the Chalice is also a Cum Chalice and a Piss Chalice. Sully possesses no special resistances to what he summons so he can easily injure himself by summoning lava and acid.

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"Why do I let myself be held back?"

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Sloane's Notes on People of Potential Interest

Britney.Williams
"Monster." _______________________________________________ ...................................................................	Irredeemable. Failed to see consequences of actions that led to future crises. Seeks forgiveness only because she cannot stand being disliked. Probably working an angle. Must be monitored. Do not trust. She will only make things worse. I respected you. You taught me so much. I fear that I’m making the same mistakes. How could I be so stupid?
Drake.Blackmore
“Bastard." _______________________________________________ ...................................................................	Useful. Trusted. Dependable until recently, but blameless for change. Things feel different since Jade’s death. Don’t understand why, grief is shared. Needs guidance, just don’t push too hard. More fragile than he seems. Reckless. Keep him close. Unhinged. Needlessly causes harm to others. Has always been like this. People don't change. He's as responsible as Father Wolf is for Jade's death. Am I to blame for this? No. You should know me better. I thought we were friends.
Alizée.Altieri
"Puppet." _______________________________________________ ...................................................................	Suspicious. Volatile. Could be a victim, could be an accomplice. That apparition is dangerous. Should be sealed. Keep watch on. Might need handling. Last resort only. Owe her that. It was unfair how they treated you. You needed our help. I should’ve spoken up. I worry that we made another enemy.
Eksa.Thresh
”Craven." _______________________________________________ ...................................................................	Coward. False martyr. Not the only one to give the ultimate sacrifice. Should’ve come back sooner. Waste of talent. Think drug pushing saves lives? Only here to save her own skin. Selfish. Unforgivable. Who isn’t? I thought we were friends. I should’ve called. I was too afraid. Now you’re just another stranger.
Linqian.Han
"Bitch." _______________________________________________ ...................................................................	Unstable. Unreliable. Says one thing, does the other. Self-centered quitter. Any wonder she’s single? Learn to commit. Unlikable. Unimportant. It should have been her. Damn it, it should have been her. I don’t mean it. You know I don’t mean it. I’m sorry. My efforts to impress him were at your expense. God, I didn’t even call when I found out he...
Luca.Oliviera
"Victim." _______________________________________________ ...................................................................	Pitiable. Unfortunate. Don’t go easy on her. Why didn’t Ashley help? So many questions. It’s like he doesn’t really want help. It’s like he wants an excuse not to help. How bad can it be? Could want people to feel sorry for him. Disgusting, then. Truly rotten. Impressively committed if this is just an act. Need to find out more. Try to be gentle. I don’t know what you were going through. How could I, you never told me? How could I, I never asked? I owe you more apologies than I’ll ever know.
Tayla.Choi
"Wretch." _______________________________________________ ...................................................................	Quitter. Junkie loser. She dishonors his memory. Too scared to seek help from those who could give it. Probably shouldn’t even be here. A liability. Dead weight. I’m so sorry. I didn’t see how much pain you were in until it was too late. I’m a horrible friend. I didn’t know how to help. I don’t think I really could.
Finn.Reid
"Artifice." _______________________________________________ ...................................................................	Curious. Oddity. Not feeling like a human feels pretty human. Difficult to read. Difficult to believe. Spy for Sebastian? Nobody can hide forever. More danger than he’s worth. Being too harsh? Doesn’t deserve it. What do you want to hear? That I’m afraid of you? That if someone as kind and caring as you is considered subhuman, I lose sleep over what they think I would be?
"Edict".Devola
”Counterpart." _______________________________________________ ...................................................................	Bizarrely similar. Family first. A legacy of liars and thieves, apples stuck in the knotted roots. Crimes second. Wrongly kicked out. Innocent until proven guilty. Dead if true. Careers swapped. Heard he’s legit now. So he could’ve been fixed this whole time? I feel bad for you. Too busy abusing that Warm Little Center you never realized how many of us wanted to be around you for you. I doubt they would think the same of me. One way we differ, I guess.
Kali.Mahendra
"Enigma." _______________________________________________ ...................................................................	Out of nowhere. A ghost. A mystery. Would he even know if he was the real deal? Vanished. Another runaway abandoning a city that needed him. So he’s a fed now? Hard to believe. Harder to trust. Makes everything muddy. I don’t think you’re the same person I knew. Actually, I don’t think I ever really knew you. Was that my fault? Should I’ve been more open?
Simone.Le.Fay
"Soloist." _______________________________________________ ...................................................................	Above it all, yet strangely curious. Couldn’t get a conversation in with Britney without her being there. Her accomplice? Doubtful. Gone as soon as the going got rough, another fairweather friend. Quit her band almost as quickly. Good to see some traits were consistent. Of course she’d come back now. Just like the rest. I’ll admit it now, I was intimidated by you. I saw one of your shows recently—left before you noticed, I think. I can see why you want to perform, but it doesn’t change a thing. You should’ve stayed. They would’ve listened.
Clancy.Patrick
"Who?" _______________________________________________ ...................................................................	I'm no good around kids. All my toys are too expensive to play with.
Jack.Hawthorne
"Redeemable." _______________________________________________ ...................................................................	The king of cowards. The worst of them all. Said they should protect St. Portwell then left their entire reality behind. For what? To hide under the blanket of shadows? Because of a whim? Ten years without a word. Suddenly he’s back. He could be useful, but what’s stopping him from just leaving again? A couple more dead bodies? A close call? Perhaps he deserves more credit. More sensible than some people. Maybe I felt betrayed when you left us. Misjudged you because of it. We could've used you then, but thank you for being here now.
"Sully".McPherson
"Imbecile." _______________________________________________ ...................................................................	Enabler. Distracting dimwit. Thanks for the recruitment but he’d actually be forgiven if he retired. Defended the undefendable. The Chalice would be better in literally any other hands but his own. Whatever. It’s not like he’s going to stick around this time either. Just leave the Chalice by the door. I can’t believe I gave it back to him, but I’m glad I did. You and Auri could help me get a few of them back, but I’m too embarrassed to let any of them know what happened. I’ll find another way.
Everleigh.Thorn
"Traitor." _______________________________________________ ...................................................................	Unrecognizable. Left without a word. Unbelievable. Shows up working for Emily? Unforgivable. Just a different person now. Basically a stranger. Shouldn’t even be here. Abandoning the 8th now that she doesn’t feel safe? Good to see the disloyalty wasn’t personal but a personality flaw. Expressed radical ideas back in the day. Scary thoughts. Someone to watch. I don’t understand what happened. You were one of the few that could always make me smile. Where’d Eve go?
Leon.Richoux
"Mutt." _______________________________________________ ...................................................................	Wasted potential. Bad luck? Bad luck is just bad planning. Daisy was to blame, but the blood is on his hands. Sounds like he's still trying to protect the city. Definitely needs proper guidance. Could he be made to heel? Doubtful. Probably too much of a pig to see the pearl before him. I know I should forgive you. How could you have any idea? But what bridge would I even be trying to repair? I was too distant. Jealousy, I guess.
Stormy.Carson
"Keeper." _______________________________________________ ...................................................................	Dependable. Steadfast. He is owed respect. Sadly a reactionary; would do better as a revolutionary. Couldn’t see the Coven for the failure it was. Could’ve helped defend the city without it. More forgivable than the others, but still left. Another hypocrite after all. Everybody disappoints in the end. Get used to it. Relying on him now would be stupid. If I had reached out would you have come running to help? I imagine you would. Don’t know why I didn’t. Maybe I’m stubborn too.
"Lyss".Burns
"Scion." _______________________________________________ ...................................................................	Distant. Standoffish. Little more than a surname. Similar in that regard. Also where it stops. She left like the rest. Abandoned her city. Abandoned her duty. Could’ve righted her family’s wrongs. Could’ve been something. About as useful as a corpse, all things considered. I was always too harsh on you. I couldn’t stand how much you loved your family. I wanted to know what that felt like.
Anya.Baksh
"Sister." _______________________________________________ ...................................................................	Rival. Companion. Best Friend. Undeniable. Undefinable. Undoubtedly perfect. Understatement of the year. I know how it makes you feel because it makes me feel the same way so I’ll never say it outloud, but I love you. You feel like the sister I never had, only you’re better than anything my parents ever made—myself included. I fondly remember practicing spells and interpreting dreams, discussing business and practicing divination. Your intelligence and determination motivates me when I am feeling weak, which I fear is an almost daily occasion, and I admire your way to not be afraid of celebrating your accomplishments or caring about what other people think. In all honesty, I wish I was more like you. After Jade passed there weren't many people I felt like I could still talk to. I’m so happy that we’re friends. I don’t know how I’d go on if I lost you, too.
Adora.Phoenix-Prescott
"Weakling." _______________________________________________ ...................................................................	Pathetic. Crybaby. Should’ve been smarter. Enjoys wallowing in misery. Learn to accept responsibility and move on. What else would’ve happened? The last hold out. Actively harming the city by doing so. Was, anyway. Good thing she has her. Doesn’t matter. Still unbelievably self-centered. Quits and then thinks things can go back to how they were? Pathetic. Should’ve died in Lisa’s place. For your own sake, you need to move on. You’re the only one who can forgive yourself, because you’re the only one blaming yourself. I know it wasn’t your fault. I shouldn’t have said it was.
Layla.Hyacinthus
"Burden." _______________________________________________ ...................................................................	Quiet kid. Useless child. Why’d they let her fight? First red flag for the Coven. Don’t know why she stayed, don’t know what happened when she left. Traumatized, probably. Hopefully okay. Not like it matters. I ignored you then. I’m ignoring you now. I should reach out, make sure you’re alright. I know I won’t.
Evelynn.Serenelight
"Fraud." _______________________________________________ ...................................................................	Showoff. Grandstander. Just wanted to be popular. So tired of hearing about “visions”—who’s the real cursed ones? Unreliable abstraction, untrustworthy user. Could’ve been a horoscope in a newspaper. Rather rely on the cards, thanks. Didn’t think to warn us of what was to come? Guess nobody does like the bearer of bad news. Total trash. It’s unfair how much I blame you. I know it is. I know you couldn’t have seen this coming. I just need someone to be angry at. I’m sorry.
Lila.Blackwood
"Lackey." _______________________________________________ ...................................................................	Gutless. Voiceless. Followed after the flock, never brave enough to soar alone. Helped sometimes around the hideout. Not utterly useless. Some people are born to kneel. Seems different now. Don’t mean the obvious. More driven. Crows are often misinterpreted to be bad omens. Sometimes they’re signs of good changes. Usually they’re just birds. I never tried to get to know you. I just always assumed the worst. I know, I should do better.

Sully’s Corners the Squad at the Bar

Britney.Williams
"A strong herbal tea with just a splash of bourbon." _______________________________________________ ...................................................................	Look, I get it—everybody’s all aboard the fuck Britney Express these days. All my homies hate Britney. Well I’m gonna go ahead, stand my ground, and date myself when I say, “Leave Britney alone!” Without Britney and her spooky knowledge I’d be dead. If you didn't do the things you did to those people they’d probably have been dead too. Think about it, without it they wouldn’t have any of those, uh, emo fields to protect the big snake dick from fucking with their brains. Sure, look, I’ll agree: the no consent part was way uncool, but it beats being dead. Britney, you’re part of the team, and even if you fumble every now and again know that I got your back.
Drake.Blackmore
"Bro, you know it’s time for jagerbombs!" _______________________________________________ ...................................................................	It’s like nothing ever changed. Your like a brother to me, but like in that way where you’re both old enough to realize that each of you is kind of a cool person and not in that way where one of you gives the other one a wedgie so bad it rips your underwear. Which, to be clear, is something that has never happened to me, shut up, we’re talking about you, Drake. It’s so good to be around this guy. It feels like the best years of our life were frozen in place and comes unfrozen when we’re together. You were always so fun. Usually, anyway. Real, um, real damn shame about Jade. Look, bro, if you wanna track this fucker down and do some street justice I’m one hundred percent behind you all the way. You’re Michael Jordan, I’m Tom Brady. I know they didn’t play together and it was totally different sports, but what I’m trying to say is that we’re money.
Alizée.Altieri
"A gin and tonic for the young lady with a fresh squeeze of lime. Huh? Oh yeah I totally put my heart and soul into this one ." _______________________________________________ ...................................................................	Okay, okay, okay, okay. Let’s just take a moment right now and lay down a couple of ground rules. As we already discussed earlier, ignoring consent is something ol’ Sullybobs here isn’t gonna be cool with. Alizée, girl, like I get you got this Void thingy attached to you and it needs to feed on life energy or something but…okay. I’ll admit. I don’t get it. I got a magical cup. Why don’t you just get a magical cup? Take that Void thing, stir it up real nice, find yourself a glass, and put it in that glass. Boom. Problem solved. At the very least if you’re gonna go about sucking strangers dry just dig through some forums and find the people looking for that kind of experience. They’re out there. Probably. I wouldn’t know. What I do know is that if you wanna play on this Coven, you gotta leave those normies alone. .
Eksa.Thresh
”Guiness, obviously. Ow, ow, I’m joking! I’m joking. Some unpronounceable scotch with a splash of water to open it up, just the way grandpappy drank it." _______________________________________________ ...................................................................	Eksa, I want you to know before I say anything else that I am trying my best. You know I respect you, you know, as a bi woman, as a black woman, as a Scottish woman, as a credit to her industry whatever…whatever it is that you actually do there. It’s all a bit too complicated for me. But I’m sure you can explain it to me because you were always so kind and patient with my dumb American ass and I just gotta say how proud I was to share the field with someone as brave and as strong as you. If you ever need anything just give Sully here a call. Eksa, darling I guess what I’m trying to say is that I would always, always, always be there to give you a hand. Fuck, no, I didn’t mean it like that! Eska! I swear! That one wasn’t on purpose this time!
Linqian.Han
"Here’s my Bud Light buddy! Oh, right, you’re my Miller girl now. Sorry, Henikenen? Right yeah, fuck that shit, Pabst Blue Ribbon it is!" _______________________________________________ ...................................................................	Ayyyyy, alright, let’s go let’s go! I don’t care what the haters say, Linqian is one of the funnest gals in the Coven. I mean, she can absolutely go from zero to fuck you in no time flat. Some people say that’s a bad thing, I say that’s exciting. Keeps the dynamic fresh. You know, just try to keep the hair pulling and eye scratching to a minimum, it does kind of send a bad message to the new recruits. But they just don’t know you like I do. You know, get a couple drinks in and she just lets the fun social butterfly side out and everything’s cool. So glad you made it back. Sorry, uh, sorry I didn’t make it to the funeral. Work’s been, you know, um…anyway...how about a drink?
Luca.Oliviera
"Luca’s turn! Someone get the beer bong, my mom’s gonna kill me if I ruin another varsity jacket. " _______________________________________________ ...................................................................	You know you’re fantastic, Luca. A positive attitude is the one thing I think that we can always use more of, and you got that shit in droves. Now I know that I kinda left you all high and dry after the battle with the Stygian Snake, but that doesn’t mean you can’t rely on Sully. If there’s anything, anything, anything ever casting a dark cloud over that sunny disposition just let me know and we’ll come up with a way to make it go away. Air hug, brother! By the way, do you know if Olivia is coming back? I figure you’d be the one to know. She’s a real sweetheart.
Sloane.Faris
“Nothing? Really?" _______________________________________________ ...................................................................	Look, Sloane, I get it, you didn’t like how lightly I treated the situation but look, if you want Serious Sullivan you got Serious Sullivan right here: those people could not have done what they did if all they ever had was doom and gloom. Now, I’m not saying we gotta sugarcoat things, but a little bit of levity helps way more than a whole shitton of evidence saying that we’re screwed. Now I appreciate what you did for us but you gotta stop pretending like being a cheerleader is a bad thing. People need light to get through the dark. Now c’mon on, put your hand in and give me a “Go team!” just this one time. I won’t tell a soul.
Tayla.Choi
"Can I mix it with what? Um, yeah, next round. Right now you look like you need a water." _______________________________________________ ...................................................................	Tayla you were hands down one of the wildest partiers in the good old days. Like you always amplified that bitch up to eleven and, honestly, I’m not gonna lie you even out partied me sometimes. Like, look, I don’t wanna get all afterschool special with you, but I heard about the shit you got into after I left and, I don’t know man, it just kind of broke my heart. You know obviously I’m happy you ended up getting your shit together, but I really wish you’d talked to one of us about it. We’re a family, you know. Me casa is our problems, or however it goes. Now you better bring that daughter around to meet Uncle Sully. You know I’m great with kids!
Finn.Reid
"Motor oil. Just kidding, I know you like gasoline. Oh c’mon Bella, it’s a joke. We’re having fun! Bella! Bella c’mon!" _______________________________________________ ...................................................................	Look, Finn, buddy, I think I owe you a bit of an apology man. Back then I was under the impression that we were just playing around with all the robot jokes and the beep boops and, you know, I thought you were in on it. Having done a little growing and maturing of my own, I realize now that we may have taken things too far. Dude, I just want you to know that it doesn’t matter, you’re part of the team no matter what. So now that we buried that, I always wondered…you and Bella, like, you guys did right? Because I’ve seen some convincing documentaries on the internet about step siblings and…
"Edict".Devola
”Vodka tonic but it’s actually just soda water, right? Go ahead, buddy. Don’t worry. It’s definitely not Everclear. " _______________________________________________ ...................................................................	Oh, mister wise guy here! Mister smooth operator here! Gotta say, bro, it was a pretty confusing time of my life and having you stir around my emotions like it's a martini didn’t really help. Honestly, I just think you’re kind of a creep and while I’ll still acknowledge that you were a valuable member of a team you definitely still give vibes of being the weirdo that chooses to wear the mascot costume because it lets him hang out with the cheerleaders. And like we all know you did it so dude, just do yourself a favor and admit it. It’s water under the bridge anyway, so stop pretending like you’re something you’re not.
Kali.Mahendra
"What Greyson had? Okay man, but fair warning, it’s straight Everclear." _______________________________________________ ...................................................................	Kali, Kali, Kali…oh right, Kali. Yeah man, no I remembered you, of course I did, you were, uh, definitely there. Totally there. Hey look bud, I mean we can reminisce about all the good times we had together that I one hundred percent remember but really I wanna talk about you right now. Because you’re saying some stuff and doing some stuff that makes me think that maybe, right now, you just need someone to be a friend and listen to you. So, you know, if there’s anything you need to get off your chest, I’m your guy. Oh, yeah, cool, you’re with the FBI? Oh interesting. Okay, well, anyway, like I said, it was nice meeting you. .
Simone.Le.Fay
"Alright, finally somebody is going to margaritaville. Frozen, I know. Soothes the throat." _______________________________________________ ...................................................................	Simone, you expanded my taste in music by like a thousand percent but I said it before and I’ll say it again, T-Pain has the best singing voice on this earth. Period. Don’t let the autotune blind you. I’ve seen footage, it is a fact! But if I’m being honest, it kind of felt like it didn’t matter what I thought. I’m not trying to start anything, like you’re entitled to your own opinion and allowed to do you own thing, but it felt like you never really wanted to be part of the group. Now I value what you did and I do think of you as family, but sometimes you gotta horse around with the others a bit to really build up that feeling of comradery. You know, crack a towel on someone’s ass or smack someone in the balls–metaphorically speaking. You know what I mean? You know what I mean.
Clancy.Patrick
"Hey kid, want a soda?" _______________________________________________ ...................................................................	You say Ashely is family, kid? Well hell, the way I see it makes us family. Forget the soda. You want a beer?
Jack.Hawthorne
"A dark ‘n’ stormy? Dude, nobody’s watching. You can drop the bit." _______________________________________________ ...................................................................	Look, Jackie Boy, I get it man. Magic’s real and all and that’s totally awesome but you know what’s also pretty powerful? Catching the rays of a beautiful sunshine, tossing a ball around with a couple of buddies, cracking open a few cold ones. What I’m trying to say man is you’re too focused. You need to diversify. I’mma break it to you right now, bro, because I think you’re one of those dudes who thinks jocks and nerds are different, but man, jocks and nerds are exactly the same: they hyperfocus on one thing and that alienates those around them. But that’s important man. You cover one side, I got the other. Still, like, I don’t know man, let’s go for a hike, maybe do a little fishing, and you can tell me about whatever the hell this The…Thel…The-Llama thing is?
"Everleigh".Thorn
"Pick your poison. Arsenic? Ha ha, good one. No really, what do you want to drink?” “What do you mean it’d be like Jonestown?" _______________________________________________ ...................................................................	Okay, Eve, this is getting a little too intense for my blood right now. Listen, I really dug the old peace, love, and understanding girl I used to party with. You always had some of the best bud. Honestly, I can even kinda gel with the whole fuck-the-man, fight-the-system style we’re working with these days but man, you’re kinda scaring the shit outta me right now. It feels like you drew a line and then just yeeted yourself a mile over it so like, what if maybe we were to redraw the line, stop it just short of complete and utter anarchy, maybe dial the extremism back down to just around “kinda passionate”, and like, set that as the new standard. Like, let’s at least have the protest first before we go off and start a purge, okay?
Leon.Richoux
"Straight whiskey? Damn straight! Ruff ruff, that’s what these big dogs do!" _______________________________________________ ...................................................................	Leon, you are straight up just the coolest dude I know, man. Back in the day you were like my idol, my mentor even, guiding me at the gym, at school, and on the field. I feel like it’s because of cool people like you that I didn’t fall into the shortcomings of becoming that asshole, bully jock by showing me that you could both be popular, be on the team, and still be your own damn person. Now I know that it’s been a while since we really hung out, with you getting a little too busy to kick it with the old crew these days, but I ain’t mad. Yeah, no, I’m real happy for you, yeah, you know, cool to see the gym’s doing well, the boxing career is stellar. Yeah, it’s just, you know, for me like sports kinda just became whatever, right? You know, like I’m busy with other stuff now. But I am really glad you’re hanging around again, you know I love you, man. Plus you got a hot mom, bro. Look, I don’t even swing that way, but for Lynette? Shiiiiiit, oui oui, mon ami, you might have to start calling me Pops.
Stormy.Carson
"Another seltzer water for my DD! You do have my keys, right? What’re ya talking about? Who the heck did I give them to, then?" _______________________________________________ ...................................................................	Look, man, look, I get it, you’re in the right, you’re always in the right, there isn’t anybody I know who has never been more in the right almost all of the time besides you, Stormy. So know that when I say this, it comes out of a place of respect as your friend: you gotta accept that sometimes it’s okay for something to go wrong. Losing ain’t a bad thing; it’s motivation. It’s what keeps us hungry, keeps us feasting. Now I know you’re a beautiful, tough son of a bitch, but you will be beaten down sometimes. And when that happens, I’ll be right there for you to lean on because I know you’d do the same for me. But you gotta give Britney a break, okay?
"Lyss".Burns
“See, like I said, you aren’t the only one capable of making zombies." _______________________________________________ ...................................................................	You know, I just gotta say it was really refreshing having someone come find me for once asking to join the Coven. Honestly, just nice to not have to give the spiel again. Look, now I could go on and on with praise for how you coached your little undead players or how you gave it 110% when it came to that final tussle with the big bad evil snake guy, but Lyss, I gotta bone to pick with you. I do. No, really, this is serious, dead serious. Look, it’s because of you that I gotta lie directly to my mom’s face, telling her that she makes the best meatloaf when you and I both fucking know that ain’t true. Compared to that final meal you made for all of us my mom’s meatloaf is like eating a damn hockey puck. I’m having dinner with her Sunday. I can’t keep up this charade. Please, give her some recipes, please. You need me to beg? I’ll beg. Name your price. Whatever.
Anya.Baksh
"Anya. Anya! Anya, Anya, Anya! Where are you going? We’re getting blitzed! Anya! Hey, Anya! Huh, maybe she didn’t hear me." _______________________________________________ ...................................................................	Anya you ever notice how weird it is that we didn’t hang out more? Like, if I didn’t know any better I would think that you didn’t even like being around me. Look, it’s cool if you don’t wanna party with the crowd or don’t enjoy getting shitfaced, but there’s nothing wrong with a little relaxation. You can’t always be about business and magic all of the time. I mean, look at me, I’m about neither of those things and I’m still making it in this world. Kinda. But what I do know is that nobody makes it without having a team behind their back. Like, you can be the star player, but if you don’t have a true squad watching your six it doesn’t matter how much of an ace you are. So come on, play with us. I’m sure you can have some fun.
Adora.Phoenix-Prescott
"Right, I got my dudes, you got your bitches, and this puppy is full of Bud Light. We’re finally doing this: FLIP CUP CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH RIGHT NOW!" _______________________________________________ ...................................................................	I feel like you and I are cut from the same cloth, girl. But listen, you gotta take a second and be more considerate before you start running your mouth or you’re really no better than the bullies we tried to shut down. Still, I gotta respect the teamwork and hustle you displayed with Vanessa and Clementine, and I really appreciate you watching out for Lisa and bringing her out of her shell. Man, I still can’t believe she’s gone. If I’m being honest, I sometimes feel like it’s my fault that she died. If I had been in better positioning I could’ve been there to heal her with the Chalice. Like, that shit eats me up some nights. Still, we gotta keep pushing on for them, you know?
Layla.Hyacinthus
"Hey, kiddo, how about we just start off with a nice protein shake?" _______________________________________________ ...................................................................	Look, Layla, now I appreciate anyone who wants to be part of the team, but you gotta understand that there’s nothing shameful about cheering from the sidelines. In fact, it’s the voices from the sideline that gives us on the field motivation to push on when we’re feeling defeated, no matter how quiet and small that voice might think it is. Now it might sound like what I’m saying is that I think you should stay out of the way, but that totally isn’t it. In fact, I have an idea—Stormy’s a good guy but he’s a little thickheaded and tends to get in too deep. Would you mind watching his six so old Sully here doesn’t have to keep running back and forth to heal his ass?
Evelynn.Serenelight
"Hold on, hold on, I’m getting a message from the spirits. They’re saying…Long Island iced tea? H’okay, just be careful. They’re stronger than they taste." _______________________________________________ ...................................................................	Lynn, I just gotta give it up to you—you’re the unsung hero of the Coven. Everybody always wants to give it up to the main players for why the team is doing good, but I know that it’s the people coordinating things from the side that really shaped our victory. We couldn’t have done it without you. Plus, your indecisiveness gives me confidence when it comes to my own inability to make up my damn mind. Like, shit, Lynn can’t even pick an option and she can see the future, so it ain’t so bad if I waffle for a little bit longer, know what I mean? Anyway, I don’t need a fortune teller to tell me that there are bright things in store for us now that you’re back with the squad, buddy. Need me to top off that flask?
Lila.Blackwood
"Oh sorry, didn’t see you there. Here bro, finish this for me? I shouldn't have gone one-for-one with everybody…" _______________________________________________ ...................................................................	Hey I don’t think my opinion here really matters or not but I just wanna say that I’m happy for you, Lila. Like obviously it’s not a one-to-one comparison, but as a gay dude who spent longer than he should’ve in the closet and still feels pressure to present as if they’re a straight man in certain company it’s nice knowing somebody who’s so open about this stuff. However, this doesn’t take back how I felt about all the bird shit there used to be on my truck back in the day. Like goddamn, that bitch was almost white after every meet-up. All those years of becoming a vet better have taught you how to put a diaper on those birds, Lila, or I’m gonna recruit you for scraping duties. Still, shit aside, I’m glad we got to you before the Snake’s cronies could back in the day. Good to have you back.

Recollections: Under The Sycamore Tree Part. 1 [Cancelled]

First character of...two? Two. Two I think.

Sloane Faris

"We have a responsibility."

_______________________________________________ Sloane Aiesha Faris She/Her| 27 | Syrian American| 5’2” | 105 lbs _______________________________________________ Severe _______________________________________________ Skills & Talents "Not everything I do is work." ___________________________________ [+] [Sailing] ⫻ Sloane was never too far from the harbor growing up with her parents sharing their passion for sailing with their child. She knows how to pilot and maintain most civilian level sea vessels, and is above average when it comes to navigating, knot tying, fishing, and elbow rubbing the rich douchebags sipping back martinis at the yacht club. [Cardio] ⫻ Sloane has woken up and gone for a jog almost every day since she was thirteen years old, excluding that awkward time in her life where the world was kind of ending. She could not only get up and run a marathon this moment, but she would probably finish close to first. [Fencing] ⫻ A newer hobby of Sloane’s that she has only taken up in the past couple of years. She isn’t the greatest fencer in the Oregon scene by any means, but she has yet to hit her ceiling. [Antiquarian] ⫻ The woman has always been fascinated with history, and there is nothing that interests her more than an old object with a high price tag. Sloane is not only good at identifying vintage antiques from counterfeits, but she has a knack for finding the rare, expensive collectibles her discerning customers ask her to acquire. Sloane currently owns two antique stores: a high-end, expensive place Faris Imports catering to the wealthier clientele, whom she is excruciating picky with when it comes to who she’ll deal with, and a tourist trap in the mall called Curious Curios where she offloads bad incense, packs of tarot cards, and bins upon bins of “haunted” dolls. [Cartomancy] ⫻ It’s a little insane not to believe in the power of the occult or the existence of fortune telling after you’ve seen the things Sloane has seen. While Sloane dabbles in astrology and other pseudosciences to help determine the right path, her preferred method of divination is through tarot reading.

Appearance ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ "Clients expect a professional. I dress to meet expectations." Sloane is composed almost entirely out of sharp angles, crossed arms, and huffed sighs. Her face appears to be carved from granite with pronounced cheekbones, a pointed nose, a cleft chin, and a jawline so strong it could crack diamonds. She puts a clear effort into her appearance, plucking her eyebrows to perfection and picking shades of shadow to accent her dark eyes. Her olive tone skin is healthy and hydrated. Her ears are pierced with tasteful and expensive earrings that are hidden behind her straight hair, which is long and black with faint streaks of premature grays running through it. She’s petite but holds herself with a quiet intensity that makes her feel more imposing than she actually ever could be. Sloane has decent curves and is overall fairly fit, but it isn’t her physique that makes her stand out from the crowd and turn heads: it’s what she’s wearing. Sloane has an impeccable fashion sense, shunning the latest flash-in-the-pan trends and instead committing to a timeless look with tailored clothes made to work with her small frame. She leans heavily on sophisticated sweaters, simple button-ups, wide leg trousers, and long coats to fill out her silhouette. She also typically has some type of gloves close on hand. Sloane almost exclusively sticks with a mix of black and white, but if she’s feeling especially wild she might pull out something beige, brown, or, if she’s feeling real frisky, navy. She keeps the jewelry to a minimum but always wears an old, expensive wristwatch on her right wrist that hides an old burn, the face rotated around to her inner wrist to protect it from scratches. Sloane overall appears very stoic and unflappable, but she doesn’t always look unemotional. In fact, she has perfectly mastered expressing not just one but two emotions: bored, her go to default for most occasions, and annoyed, which is just her bored face but with more rolling her eyes up to the ceiling. Her smiles are a thing of rarity and a popular game amongst the Coven after the defeat of the Stygian Snake was seeing if anyone could make Sloane laugh harder than a sharp breathing out of the nose and a soft hmph. When she speaks, Sloane has as much charm and inflection as an early text-to-speech program.

_{Psychology
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"I don’t need to do everything myself. I just like seeing things get done right."

MAIN GOAL ⫻ Sloane believes it's her responsibility to protect the people of St. Portwell. While she would coordinate with people who hunted rogue Apparitions, Sloane focused less on combating paranormal beings and more on control and prevention. Sloane is working to keep artifacts and Apparitions out of the hands of people she deemed too dangerous to have them, which is essentially anybody who is not her, and hopes to mass a collection of Artifacts and sealed Apparitions she can distribute as needed whenever St. Portwell faces another Stygian Snake level of crisis. Although her intentions are well-meant, there is little denying that she is basically seeking to hoard power.

PHILOSOPHY ⫻ Sloane was raised on the principle of noblesse oblige, the idea that because she has privilege and power she is required to use it for the greater good. She wholeheartedly believes in annoying little ideas like duty, honor, and morality. She was harshly critical of the Coven members who severed their Lux or sealed away their Apparitions, as she saw it as an act of cowardice. Frustratingly enough, Sloane falls into the same trap plaguing privileged people before, believing that her good intentions justify a hunger for power and a demand for respect.

SECRETS ⫻ Sloane stays fairly hush-hush about essentially being little more than a paranormal cat burglar, even if she is only stealing artifacts from people that she believes have ill will towards St. Portwell. Likewise, she has yet to inform any of the old Coven members that her collection of sealed Apparitions and magical artifacts has been stolen.

She also highly resented Ashley, Daisy, and Auri during her time in the Coven and was jealous of them. Sloane was potentially one of the final members to see Ashley alive, having gone to visit the woman the same week she had been murdered and ending the visit in an argument regarding how Ashley should no longer be the one to keep the Apparition Killer.

SEXUALITY ⫻ Sloane is a straight and currently shifting through the cesspool that is dating apps because, as it turns out, not a lot of eligible bachelors are into antiquing and too many “totally separated” men are into sailing.

FEARS ⫻ Vulnerability. The idea that showing vulnerability is a sign of weakness and that if she is weak then she has no value is rooted deeply inside of Sloane’s brain. The task of showing any emotional intimacy to people, even those that are close to her, is herculean. She is so afraid of being open that even other people being candid about themselves and expressing their feelings makes her uncomfortable.

REPUTATION IN OLD COVEN ⫻ Opinions about Sloane are mixed, but everyone would agree on one thing: Sloane needed to lighten up. Her seriousness was appreciated during their conflict with the Stygian Snake, but Sloane proved to be a wet blanket when it came to the Coven trying to enjoy the life they’d earned. Some members would remember the good in her: she was clearly devoted to the group, helped when she could, refused to play favoritism by serving as a neutral party when it came to votes, and kept their hideout tidy and stocked with snacks. Others only recall the negative: she demanded respect but rarely returned it, would huff and roll her eyes when the Coven would squabble but almost never do anything to stop it, and held members to unachievable standards. It was clear to everybody that Sloane thought she should lead the Coven, but she was smart enough to realize that she wouldn’t win the popular vote.

ROLE IN THE BATTLE AGAINST THE STYGIAN SNAKE ⫻ Sloane believes that she was useless because her spellbook was limited at the time. However, just because she wasn’t dishing out the damage to the Stygian Snake or its minions did not mean that she didn’t help. Her eventual creation of a cursed lie detecting ring allowed the Coven to fight back against the doubts and mistrust the Stygian Snake had snuck into their minds, allowing the Coven to work together more cohesively. In the final fight she served as a distraction for the Coven by carrying a fake version of the Apparition Killer to draw the Stygian Snake’s focus away from Ashley, a ploy that nearly got Sloane killed if it were not for Jade’s healing.

FLAWS ⫻ Sloane’s aloof and typically detached behavior firmly shifts her from the camp of ‘all business’ to the fortified castle of ‘seriously stuck-up bitch’. Perhaps it wouldn’t be so bad if Sloane was just always distant and stayed firmly in the territory of acting like she was better than everyone because then it could at least be ignored. Unfortunately, Sloane feels compelled to speak up when someone says or does something that either fails to meet or goes against her standards. Often she wields her critiques with the same delicacy and gentleness of a baseball bat covered in bent nails being swung straight at a skull. To put it plainly, Sloane is simply harsh.

_{Backstory
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"History is what gives something value."

Sloane’s parents were exorbitantly wealthy art and antique dealers. They gave her everything: a private education with the best tutors, a trust fund ensuring that she was set for life from the day of her birth, and a daily flurry of reprimands reminding her exactly how a daughter of theirs should act and that everything they do must be for the greater good. Yet more often than not her parents were background characters, showing up only to take her on the occasional sailing trip, with the role of mommy and daddy played by nannies, butlers, and drivers. She was raised to be prim, proper, and puppeted, her sole purpose on this Earth to serve as the legacy of her mother and father. Sloane was the final piece of art they could offer to the world after they passed, and perhaps she could offer up a spare kidney if one of her parents were to fail before that time came. Despite their distance, Sloane could never claim to hate them, because to hate them she’d have to know them.

Sloane was shifted from private tutelage to public education after elementary school. She imagined her parents thought it would be best for her to know how other people lived. Sloane immediately slid into the role of an outsider, because as it turned out spending her entire childhood only surrounded by other adults meant she didn’t know how to connect with other kids. Apparently most twelve year olds didn’t have an interest in abstract expressionist paintings or pottery from the Qing Dynasty. In high school she’d eventually find a social refuge amongst the goth kids, who could at the very least appreciate the intense sadness of 19th century Russian literature and teach her the ways of mocking the jocks like Sully McPherson and the cheerleaders like Ashley Stone that, in retrospect, never were as truly awful to her friends as her friends were to them.

The Stygian Snake showed itself to Sloane on the day she went shopping with her friends for tarot cards at the Coastal Harbor Mall. Violent crimes were on the rise the days leading up to their little shopping trip, and while the squares hid inside her friends had all joked that it’d be pretty cool to witness a stabbing. As it turns out, getting stabbed might’ve been preferable. Instead, Sloane had the horrifying experience that still haunts teens to this day—seeing her mom and dad out in public while with her friends. While she was balking at the idea of her folks suddenly wanting to get more involved in her life, her parents dragged her into a family restroom where her mother reached forward, touched a mirror, and opened up a portal back to their estate.

Sloane underwent a Kindling Event as her parents pushed her through the portal. She saw visions of ancient ancestors, the supposed noble warriors, kings, and queens her parents claimed they had in their blood. She didn’t see any heroes. She saw poisoners, killers, and thieves. She saw them summoning ghouls and demons out of blue portals and unleashing them upon foreign kingdoms in foreign worlds, she saw them wielding weapons of blinding orange light as they ransacked tombs and castles and cut down any who got in their path. She saw her parents using magic to counterfeit art, steal from museums, and curse any who question them. She saw them sealing strange creatures inside of objects and then selling the items to dictators, insurgents, and CEOs.

Sloane saw her parents' hypocrisy and then they showed her their cowardice. Something bad was going to happen to their city and they were going to run. They didn’t care about the greater good, they cared about their own: anything was okay as long as it benefited her family. Sloane came back to the sound of a gunshot, screaming at the sight of their family butler Warren lying on the ground as blood pooled out around him, her father holding the gun. Her father gathered some bags as her mother tried to convince Sloane that it was okay, Warren wasn’t special like them. He would’ve died no matter what. The staff, her teachers, her friends, they would all die, but Sloane would be okay because she had the same magic her parents did.

Her father returned with the bags, her mother opened another mirrorway, and her parents passed through. Sloane hesitated and as her father turned to pull her through she lashed out and touched the frame of the mirror and cast her first hex. Blue and orange flames wreathed around her wrist and boiled her flesh as the mirror glowed and then shattered upon a second touch, her parents separated from her within a blink of an eye with the exception of four bloody fingertips lying on the floor. She fled her house and searched for her friends. Her parents never even attempted to look for her.

She was too late when she arrived, the mall a scene of chaos by the time she returned. A shooting, as she was told by onlookers behind police barricades while she stared in horror at the wriggling mass of shadows obscured behind the buildings. Sloane was pulled from the crowd by Sully McPherson as one of the policemen turned on the onlookers and opened fire. Sully introduced Sloane to the Coven after she kept asking him if he’d seen whatever that shadow thing was, and when Ashley explained everything to her Sloane did not even hesitate to accept. Her parents might’ve been liars, but that didn’t change the fact that they’d surrounded her by common people whom she’d been led to believe that they were doing a great service to by providing them with something they would otherwise not have. If being part of the Coven could actually help people unlike that trickle down bullshit then she was in without question.

Sloane once again felt like she was the outsider while inside the Coven. The leaders were made up almost exclusively of the types of kids her friends used to make fun of, causing Sloane to be uncomfortable and quiet around the others as she realized that most of the people they’d shitted on were a lot like them. She also felt an intense drive to make up for the selfish actions of her family, fully committing herself to the cause with a zealot’s devotion. Sloane helped where she could, slowly learning how to craft cursed counterfeit items with her abilities to help the Coven and volunteering herself for any and all things when given the opportunity.

Her dedication nearly got her killed, saved only by Jade finding her before she bled out after the final confrontation with the Stygian Snake. Sloane tried to make the Coven work after their common enemy had been defeated, but it’s quite possible that her over dedication to the cause might’ve led to the Coven collapsing sooner rather than later. Her open criticism of people who wanted to leave, sever their Lux, or seal away the thing that made them Aberrations drove wedges between friends and drew lines in the sand.

However, nothing was more damaging to the group than the lie detecting ring she’d created, lovingly referred to as the Bullshit Ring by the Coven. What had once been used to counteract the mind games played by the Stygian Snake was now used in misguided attempts to solve disputes and squash beefs. As it turned out, sometimes a little bit of dishonesty was better for team spirit than the reality of harsh truths. It was hard to like anyone when you could immediately demand they give you their honest opinions and assume the worst if they refused. Sloane had offered to find a way to destroy the ring but the idea was met, as with every idea in the Coven those days, with divisiveness. She retracted her offer, but a day later the ring was stolen.

Sloane should’ve left after she became the main suspect for the theft, but instead she stuck around until they eventually voted her out. She swallowed her bitterness and anger, instead using the energy to focus on continually protecting St. Portwell by herself. She knew she couldn’t go toe-to-toe with Apparitions like Drake or Lionel, but she could still do some good by going after the kind of people her parents had been wheeling and dealing with. She used her inheritance to start an antique empire, luring and stealing from those who desired to abuse the power of Apparitions and artifacts, all the while learning new spells and curses she could use to defend her city.

Yet Sloane knew she could not trap that many insects in her web if she only had just one thread. Over the years she kept in touch with the like-minded individuals of her former Coven, reaching out to provide them with information regarding dangerous Apparitions that were a bit too hot for her to handle. Likewise, she would contact members who had quit, especially those that had been Agents, starting under the pretense that she just wanted to reconnect before revealing her hand and asking for them to hand over their artifact, willingly of course. Despite what the Coven thought, she was not her parents. She might’ve been a thief, but she didn’t steal from her friends.

The past year has been particularly busy for Sloane, who after a chance run-in with her mother became aware of an organization called the Elite. Despite her parents' efforts to sabotage her, she had almost found a way to infiltrate the group when a massive heist derailed Sloane’s efforts. The woman had discretely acquired a small collection of magical artifacts and sealed apparitions which she had kept safely vaulted away from the world. The collection was spread out between hidden safes in her high rise condo, highly secured cases at her business, and bank safety deposit boxes kept behind massive vault doors. All of them had been taken without a trace, the thief completely avoiding curses, cameras, and eye witnesses.

Before she had a chance to track down her missing artifacts she received word that a friend of hers had been murdered. And then another, and another, and another until she received the call from Auri. The two had never been close, Sloane’s serious gloom clashing heavily with Auri’s cheerful sunshine and she did not like how plastic the girl felt, but she knew exactly why Auri had called. She answered the phone by saying she was in before Auri even had a chance to give her spiel. A brief conversation about their lost friends followed, and by the time they had said goodbye Sloane was beginning to reconsider her opinion of Auri when the girl sliced open an old wound as, right before she hung up, said: “Bring the ring.”

_{Abstraction
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"Possessions can become quite the burden."

TYPE ⫻ Adept

ABSTRACTION ⫻ Blue and Orange Lux. Sloane’s channeler is a faded Queen of Swords card from an antique tarot deck.

ABSTRACTION DESCRIPTION ⫻ Sloane exclusively blends her Blue and Orange Lux together with affinity for cursing inanimate objects. The complexity of weaving the two divergent Luxes together makes it quite difficult for Sloane to develop or learn new spells, but she has remained dedicated to her craft over the past decade.

Hexmark ⫻ Sloane curses an object to malfunction by touching it and marking it with her Channeler. Sloane weaves the how and when the object breaks in the casting of the spell, allowing her to make the breaking of an object appear to be purely accidental. A blue circle crossed by an orange X mark appears on the hexed object, invisible to the Blind. The size of the mark depends upon the size of the object, ranging from being as tiny as a pea to as large as an area rug. Sloane has variations of this spell depending upon the object. The bigger the mark the longer it takes her to cast the spell as she has to draw it with her Channeler. The curse can be broken by purifying the mark with either salt, fire, or holy water. She has three variants of the curse:

• Fragile: A basic version of her Hexmark, Sloane curses an object to become brittle. The object breaks upon usage, triggered simply by touch and often shattering into several pieces. Casting Fragile on large objects is a bit complicated, as the spell specifically targets the part and not the whole. For example, casting Fragile on a car might make the door handle break or the entire door to crumble to pieces but it wouldn’t completely trash the car.
• Glitched : A more advanced version of her Hexmark, Sloane curses an object to function improperly. The object breaks depending on a trigger set by Sloane, be it immediately, when someone observes it, etc. Sloane also determines how it breaks. For example, a Glitched car might not start, or might constantly honk and flash the lights and scan for stations, or might do something as extreme as ignite the gasoline tank and eventually explode.
• Possessed: The most advanced version of her Hexmark, Sloane curses an object to behave impossibly. The object acts as if it were haunted, such as turning on when it's unplugged, functioning by itself, or even throwing itself through the air assuming it would be light enough to be thrown by a person. Sloane can directly manipulate a Possessed object, allowing for precise control over how it behaves, but she must be able to see the item to control it.

Object of Obsession ⫻ Sloane quickly infuses a mundane object with Blue Lux by touching it with her Channeler, shifting its appearance to make it look more esoteric and turning it into a cursed item. Once released from her hands the curse activates, causing any being to lay eyes on it to become obsessed with the object. Alternatively, she can alter the spell to target only one individual. They are compelled to pursue the object and pick it up, carefully cradling it in their hands. Once one being picks up the object all others immediately lose their obsession with the object. However, the holder refuses to drop the object for as long as the curse lasts.

Creatures without an Emotional Field are immediately enthralled by the object, incapable of doing anything but sitting, breathing, observing its beauty, and mumbling about how great their new toy is if anyone questions them. They will even ignore the need to eat or sleep; all they want to do is to look at the object. Creatures with an Emotional Field can fight off these urges, or temporarily succumb to the object to sate their obsession for a moment and then function almost like normal. Still, even if they become aware of being cursed by the object they will continue to refuse to put it down.

The curse is simply broken by letting go of the object. However, this usually requires another person to come by and struggle to get the object out of the hands of the cursed. Once the object is removed it returns to its mundane self.

Counterfeit ⫻ Sloane crafts a convincing duplicate of a mundane or magical item out of Orange Lux that is either cursed or capable of cursing. During crafting she must be able to touch the original piece with her Channeler. The Counterfeit is so well made that most forms of magical detection will falsely identify the item as the original. A mundane Counterfeit can only be cursed with one of her Hexmarks or a variation of her Object of Obsession curse: it does not compel anyone to grab it, but the person who grabs it is subjected to the same crippling obsession. It takes up to a handful of minutes to Counterfeit a mundane object, but a magical item can take several hours, days, weeks, or even months of channeling Lux to make a proper Counterfeit depending upon the complexity. However, magical Counterfeits acquire unique curses specific to that item.

Sloane has crafted a few of these Unique Counterfeits, but currently is in possession of none.

Examples of Stolen Goods

• Aspiration Killer: A Counterfeit of the Apparition Killer, the Aspiration Killer shifts its appearance to match the wielder and cannot physically damage humans, instead phasing through their flesh. Unlike the Apparition Killer, this weapon can be wielded by Apparitions, does not harm Apparitions, and in fact only harms the psyche of humans. Victims cut by the Aspiration Killer are cursed to experience a loss of hope and ambition. In normal humans this can make them immediately lose interest in their current goal and eventually lead to a complete mental shutdown that ultimately renders them in a permanent state of stupor within a few weeks. Paranormal humans cut by the blade are immune to the complete erasure of their drive. Instead, their Emotional-Field begins to greatly weaken overtime, allowing them to become more and more susceptible to other Abstractions.
  Cursed victims appear to have a black branding on where the blade cut them, but the mark is painless. Certain spells can counter the effects of the curse on people, and experiencing a Recollection focused on the victim before they were cursed will completely reverse the effects. When wielded by Sloane, the Aspiration Killer looks like a gold fencing foil. She can use her Channeler to transform the appearance of the weapon, often hiding it on her person as a gold wristwatch. The Aspiration Killer was stolen from her wall safe.
• Phony Club: A Counterfeit of the Oni’s Club, the wielder of the club can set their eyes on a victim and summon three club-wielding demons to torment them. The demons are merely illusions, visible only to the victim and the wielder of the club, but the victim will react to any of their attacks as if they were actually hurt. For example, if one of the phonies “crushed” the hand of a person, they would act like they couldn’t use that hand until the curse ended. The phonies are mindless illusions and thus must be constantly conducted by the wielder of the club or they will only stand their ground. Their appearances often change to some kind of bastardized mockery of their target.
  The club has the unfortunate side effect of cursing the wielder as well. As long as the phonies are summoned the wielder can only see their victim, their summons, and themselves. Otherwise, the world around them is covered in smoke as if they were in the center of a raging fire looking out. Likewise, they cannot hear anything but the roar of burning flames. The curse ends for both the victim and the wielder when the wielder lets go of the club. The Phony Club was stolen from her work vault.
• Chrysalis Staff: A Counterfeit of the Butterfly Staff, the wielder of the staff can target their victim and curse them to begin to transform. While transforming, the victim's skin hardens and they start to lose the ability to move their body, eventually turning them into a colorful and unmoving chrysalis. This chrysalis protects the victim from any physical harm, but most Abstractions can pierce through the shell. It can of course be resisted by Emotional Fields but if a victim wills it they can force the transformation to be immediate, allowing the Chrysalis Staff to defend them. If the wielder attempts to protect themselves with the staff they will permanently be stuck in the Chrysalis, as they will be unable to move their arm to stop targeting themselves.
  The curse is only temporary. Once the wielder points the staff away from the victim the chrysalis around them rapidly begins to fade, returning motor functions to them within less than a minute. The Chrysalis Staff was stolen from her work vault.
• BS Ring: A Counterfeit of the Bull’s Ring, the ring was cursed to glow red hot and burn the wielder whenever they were directly dishonest. The ring would then lock on to the wielder’s finger and continue burning the victim until they spoke a true statement. As this was Sloane’s first Counterfeit there is a flaw in the design: the curse only activates when the wielder is intentionally lying, so they will not be burnt if what they believe is true turns out to actually be false or if they had lied by omission, and the burning would stop if they say any true statement. Also, the curse of the ring could easily be mitigated by removing the ring before lying or simply not answering.
  The ring allowed the Coven to fight back against the seeds of doubt planted by the Stygian Snake, but soon proved to be problematic after the defeat of their enemy. Sloane had originally called it the Covenant Ring, but gave up trying to correct people after everyone in the Coven started to only call it the Bullshit Ring. The BS Ring was stolen around the time the Coven collapsed, and Sloane never was able to recreate another before Daisy went missing.

LIMITS ⫻ All of Sloane’s spells require her to make some kind of physical contact with the object she is targeting. Hexmark requires Sloane to “draw” the magic symbol upon the object. Larger objects require larger symbols, while more powerful or intricate hexes require the symbol to be tweaked by drawing additional runes. This means that the casting time of Hexmark can fluctuate, with quick Fragile spells on something small requiring just a second or two while detailed Glitched spells taking upwards of a minute to cast. Recasting Object of Obsession immediately ends the prior instance of the spell, excluding objects cursed by her Counterfeit spell.

As previously mentioned, Counterfeit takes several minutes for Sloane just to create a cursed copy of a mundane object while Counterfeiting something magical can take up to weeks or months to complete. The time it takes is greatly shortened if she has previously Counterfeited the object but still significant. While creating a Counterfeit magical object Sloane begins to develop an idea of the abilities and curses the item will have, but she is incapable of changing them. She is less of a designer and more of a conduit. Once a Counterfeit is in the stage of being crafted, that is the only form it will ever take—for example, anytime she Counterfeits the Apparition Killer she will only ever produce an Aspiration Killer. Only one Counterfeit of a specific object can exist at a time, with the previous Counterfeit turning into dust. Due to this, Counterfeits cannot produce more Counterfeits.

WEAKNESSES ⫻

Hexmark ⫻ The Curse can be broken by throwing salt, fire, or holy water onto the cursed object. While casting the Spell, Sloane is left vulnerable and is not wise to use this Spell in a fight.

Object of Obsession ⫻ There are no weaknesses or drawbacks of note.

Counterfeit ⫻ There are no weaknesses or drawbacks of note.

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"Theft will be punished."

Currently I don't have anything planned for the Coven's precious Bullshit Ring, so I'm open for ideas.