Interactions: Kali (@Damycles) Flowers and Canvasses
Eksa disagreed with her… Or at least, wanted to hear Kali out. Linqian rolled her eyes as she suggested he didn’t have to be there as an FBI agent. Right, cause that was possible. If Kali had wanted that he could have just not told them. Then this meeting would’ve been a lot faster.
At least Drake agreed. One more person on the sensible side… Even if he’d damn near destroyed her eardrums a moment before. Maybe it would’ve been better if he did, cause then she wouldn’t have to hear all the bullshit Kali was spewing.
Offering to let them kill him was new, though. The whole thing, mentioning Russians, tracking them all and using mafia style concrete barrels on Father Wolf, was so ridiculous that it dampened Linqian’s anger. She was still irritated, but she was also insanely miffed. Did this guy even hear himself? Had he taken lessons in speeches from a right wing politician?
”You’re talking circles… The feds don’t know about us, but they were going to use us as bait? Really? Do you think we’re stupid?” It didn’t take a genius to tell most of what he was saying was bullshit. Too many contradictions. Sure, Linqian didn’t have her brother’s brain. But she had a healthy dose of scepticism and was far too disagreeable to just accept what someone said. ”If you’re really FBI, you’re real bad at your job. Could’ve just led with the whole wanting to keep everyone alive thing and left the rest out. Or better, just kept quiet like you used to.”
Linqian shrugged. The whole thing was stupid to her now that he’d given an incredibly long, inane speech, and her anger had gone away as quickly as it came. She was just bored now, and her remaining annoyance was mostly about how much bullshit she’d had to listen to.
”I vote to kick him out, without murder, but I don’t really care as long as he isn’t going to tell us what to do.” Linqian glanced at Eve. ”He isn’t the only dangerous one anyway.”
”Oh, and thank you so much for not spying on our phones, by the way. You really saved some poor underling from browsing my porn history,” Linqian added as an afterthought, the corners of her lips twitching up into an almost smirk. ”You should consider yourself lucky.”
Interactions: Eve (@LanaStorm), Everyone Flowers and Canvasses
”Hey let’s not jump the-” Gun. Yeah, ironic. Luca was out of his seat the moment Kali pulled out the gun. Seriously, what the fuck. This whole FBI thing went completely over Luca’s head, and he really didn’t care either way, but offering to let people shoot you went too far. He wasn’t fast enough, though, barely standing when Everleigh had already grasped the gun.
She wasn’t actually going to shoot him, right?
Luca hesitated, smile dropping from his lips. What would be faster, Eve pulling the trigger or him running over there? Definitely Eve, with his knee acting up. There was a risk of touching Eve as well if he tried to grab the gun.
He let out a breath he hadn’t even realised he was holding when Eve lowered the gun, almost as quickly as she’d put it to Kali’s head. Luca kept his eye on it as Eve decided it was hers… Which he didn’t really feel comfortable with either. Really, he’d rather there was no gun at all. Sure, they all had various paranormal abilities, but resistance to bullets wasn’t a shared trait. He did wonder if a bullet starting to rust once it got near him would slow it down… He didn’t want to test that out, though.
”Maybe no one should have a gun?” Luca suggested, glancing at Auri. He was sure the last thing she wanted was someone dead in her flower shop… Which somehow everyone else had destroyed a lot more than he had. ”Let’s not start killing each other too.”
He shook his head. Not like anyone, especially Eve, would listen to him on that. Whatever. No point dwelling on the possibility of being shot! Best to stay positive and assume everyone would make it out of here alive!
Including Kali. Honestly, Luca wasn't so bothered either way about the whole FBI thing… If it was true. On one hand, he'd count Kali as a friend. He trusted him. But on the other, a lot of what they did wasn't going to work under government watch. If Luca slipped up, touching someone and rotting their skin off, would he suddenly find himself in jail?
That would be an incredibly depressing last few years. But he also really doubted Kali would do that to him. Yeah, trust definitely won out. Kali was a good, if weird, guy. And Luca could understand why he was like that, just a bit.
”I vote to let Kali stay,” Luca said with a far too relaxed smile, finally sitting back down. “He’s just here like everyone else.” If you ignored him announcing that he was FBI. ”And it’s better to have someone who knows what he’s doing, right? Everyone’s jumping to the worst case scenario, when it’ll probably be better to have his help! I mean, this whole thing could’ve been prevented if he didn’t tell us in the first place, but whatever! He was just being honest.”
Luca clapped his hands together, expression unwavering even as the fraying gloves on his hands completely disintegrated. It was fine, they’d lasted a good amount of time! He had plenty more in his bag.
”We did agree to move on from past issues, so why don’t we count this as in the past too and move on?”
Sharing Linqian's relationships here before I add em to her sheet, in case anyone wants anything changed... Since I mostly arbitrarily decided them without discussion
Drake.Blackmore
"He realllyyy hated Jinhai, but we got on well enough I could ignore that." _______________________________________________
Drake is one of the few that Linqian can actually say she got on with, what with them messing well on a lot of levels. Though, he did hate her brother… Which she didn’t particularly like, being super close to him, but it was fair when she hated his older sister just as much. Even though Jinhai disapproved of it, Linqian kept in contact with Drake after the coven (unlike most everyone else, who she never wanted to talk to again). She didn’t know Jade well, but was sad to hear she was a victim of Father Wolf… another thing that now had in common, if much more depressing.
Britney.Williams
"Jinhai thought highly of her, so she can’t be that bad." _______________________________________________
Most of Linqian’s feelings towards Britney aren’t her own, but rather based off Jinhai’s. Jinhai held good opinions about Britney, even after it was revealed what she was doing. Jinhai didn’t condone it openly but he didn’t condemn it either. Linqian’s opinion of Britney is relatively neutral, helped by the fact Britney’s relationship with her brother seemed to be mostly “work” (coven wise) based.
Alizée.Altieri
"Keep her away from me." _______________________________________________
Linqian finds Alizée creepy. She felt this before finding out about her night-stalking, and the feeling is even stronger after, because what the fuck?! Linqian avoided and ignored Alizée on good days, and was outright hostile to her on bad ones. She doesn't really want to see her again.
Eksa.Thresh
"She’s still alive? I’m shocked." _______________________________________________
Linqian got on with Eksa, for the most part. It was hard not to when she was so friendly. Any issues were because Linqian took something she said as a slight, when it was never meant that way, and gave her the cold shoulder… But they mostly got on. When Eksa disappeared, Linqian didn’t give her much thought anymore.
Linqian honestly doesn’t remember Luca. She can’t really be expected to remember everyone who was in the coven, right? Luca joined so late, and didn’t participate much in arguments, so she barely remembers him. Remembering people was her brother’s job anyway.
Sloane.Faris
"I wonder if she finally got that stick out her ass." _______________________________________________
Linqian doesn’t hate Sloane. In fact, she tried to get on with her ten years ago… Primarily because Jinhai got on with her. But Linqian just couldn’t. She was way too stuck up, didn’t know how to have fun and constantly dishing out critiques that Linqian didn’t want to hear. A fair amount of the times Linqian lost her temper were because of Sloane. If Jinhai hadn’t been there to drag her away Linqian probably would’ve gotten into a physical fight with her once or twice.
Tayla.Choi
"I hardly recognise her." _______________________________________________
Linqian got on well with Tayla, most of the time. She was a lot of fun to be around, and when Linqian wasn’t randomly giving her the cold shoulder they got along well. Of course then her partner tragically died in the fight with the Stygian Snake, and she basically disappeared. Linqian hasn’t heard of or thought of her since.
Finn.Reid
"He should grow a spine. Wait, can he do that?" _______________________________________________
To be honest, Linqian couldn’t give less of a fuck about Finn. In her opinion he hardly had a personality worth caring about, and the whole being an abominable thing was weird to her. Jinhai found it interesting, in the same way a scientist finds an experiment interesting, and didn’t really see Finn as a human. His opinion coloured Linqian’s when they were younger, and now that she’s grown up she’s completely ambivalent towards Finn. The empathic part of her is sympathetic about him losing his only family, but otherwise… she just doesn’t care.
"Edict".Devola
"Does he really think we’ll believe he’s a priest now? No way he’s found God or whatever." _______________________________________________
Linqian really didn’t care about where Greyson got his money from, or the fact he might’ve stolen a bunch of artifacts off other coven members. After all, it didn’t directly affect her. Linqian actually quite liked Greyson, because he wasn’t stuck up like so many of the other members and she could actually have fun with him (even if he also annoyed her a lot). Apart from when he tried to use his lux on her… She absolutely fucking hated that, and wouldn’t hold back in ripping into him (verbally) when he did. Still, she’s kind of looking forward to seeing him again.
Linqian didn’t have much of a relationship with Kali in the past, and she quickly forgot him. After all, he was always in the background, which meant Linqian never paid attention to him. She has very few feelings towards him.
Simone.Le.Fay
"She should’ve stayed away from my brother." _______________________________________________
Linqian dislikes Simone. This isn’t because of anything Simone did, really, but rather because she was good friends with Jinhai. It was an irrational jealousy and fear that the other woman, much smarter and capable than Linqian herself, would somehow steal her twin. Her distaste towards Simone has reduced over the years, but never gone away, even with Jinhai no longer being around. Simone brings out a lot of Linqian’s insecurities that she’ll never admit to having. She's not particularly happy about having to see her again with everything that's happened.
Jack.Hawthorne
"Another one that got on better with my brother than me." _______________________________________________
Linqian didn’t interact much with Jack, because he was a nerd and she very much was not. Her brother got on with him, but Linqian really couldn’t stand the guy. Mostly because he wasn’t only a nerd, but he was kinda edgy. The fact he knew so much just annoyed her far more than it should’ve. She’s surprised he’s not actually dead, going by what her brother told her about the void.
"Sully".McPherson
"If I missed anything about the coven, it was the beer Sully provided." _______________________________________________
Sully provided an endless supply of beer, so of course Linqian got on with him. It was easy when someone was providing free booze. Any issues she had with him, which she had with everyone, were easily forgotten over a drink. It helped that he tolerated all of her problems as well. She can't wait to drink away her problems without having to pay a cent.
@Punished GNFinally wrote the NPC sheet for Luca's missing friend (who's definitely not missing instead of dead because her apparition took her body when she was murdered)
Olivia.Ruiz
27 | Olivia Chloe Ruiz | She/Her"A little kindness can go a long way."
Description:
Olivia was a sweet girl, filled with kindness and constantly helping others. During the Stygian Snake’s rampage she was hurt protecting a stranger from an apparition, being one eye open at the time, and it was then that she had her life saved by Britney Williams… and bound to an apparition somehow. The stranger she defended was Luca Oliviera, who was also unknowingly adjoined with an apparition. She helped the coven defeat the Stygian Snake, and tried to stick with it afterwards. She didn’t particularly want to continue participating in the world of the paranormal, but had no choice while she was still adjoined. Even when it came to light that Britney was the one who had forcefully adjoined them, Olivia didn’t hold it against her like most others. She was hurt, but understood.
When the coven dissolved Olivia followed Luca, who she’d formed a close friendship with, to join the 8th Street Coven. Then she followed them when they left. They lived together for a short while in St Portwell, trying to find a way to free themselves from their apparitions. Hers didn’t harm her as actively, so she had learned to live with the voice in her head, and eventually they went their separate ways when she decided to move with her family to the other side of the country. They kept in touch, calling each other almost every week, until one week ago when she completely vanished.
Abstraction: Adjoined - The Black Rose Killer
Olivia is adjoined with an apparition that formed on the death of a serial killer (& kidnapper), a piece of leftover consciousness born from the strong emotions felt upon his untimely death. It gave her the ability to bind people with vines, and to create a large prison out of thick rose vines. The apparition was malevolent, and constantly trying to force its twisted wants on Olivia.
Luca was glad that nobody questioned his sudden offer of a shit ton of painkillers (yet), cause he hadn't really wanted to deal with giving out answers. And Sully came in just in time to save the day, by healing Everleigh and saving Luca a bit of money on the meds he would've given away. Perfect.
"Hey, wait," Luca jumped out of his chair when Drake pulled out a sword right in Jack's face. His knee buckled underneath him and he had to grab the back of the chair to not fall over, concentrating on not destroying it and grimacing at the waves of pain radiating from his left leg. Ah, fuck. He really shouldn't just jump up like that. And Simone already had it sorted. What had he even been planning to do?
Pretending nothing had happened, Luca sat back down... Just in time for Kali and Auri to reappear. He gave Kali a cheerful wave and grin.
When Kali and Auri walked in, Linqian looked up and finally stopped ignoring everyone else. She was still on the edge, and the reappearance of Kali's smug face (in her vision, he wasn't actually looking smug at all) had her clenching her hands into the rough material of her trousers. The irritation, bordering into anger, that she'd just gotten under control flared up again. He had a lot to explain now rather than later, as if he was already running the show. Yes, he had a lot to explain, but Linqian doubted it was going to be what actually came out of her mouth.
Hopefully Drake would turn his blade on Kali next.
"Never thought I'd say this, but Everleigh's right." Linqian fixed Kali with a sharp glare, arms crossed over her chest. "I don't want to hear his bullshit explanation, unless it includes why he should even stay. Why is he even still here? Does anyone want government oversight? I don't fucking think so. Y'know, maybe this'll be the first thing we'll all agree on." Her heated gaze moved to Auri. "Or were all your words about coven not being a dictatorship bullshit? Cause 'heading the investigation here' is just a nice way of Kali saying he's going to be in charge this time."
She gritted her teeth, tone growing sharper with every word. She knew it wasn't Auri's fault, she'd been taken by surprise like the rest of them, but that didn't stop her from getting in the line of fire. Linqian's mind was filled with the anger she’d been trying to hold in, trying to push down by pretending she was more mature than she used to be. Kali hadn’t even said anything yet, but every move of his ticked her off, pushing her over the edge. Jinhai wasn’t here to hold her back. He wasn’t here at all, and this piece of shit wanted her to hand over the reins and let him take charge finding who’d done it. Fuck that. The temperature in the room ticked up, slowly, almost imperceptibly.
"I don't even care if you threaten us. You can send your other fucking agents after me, you can throw me in jail after, I don't give a fuck. I have nothing left to lose. I’m here to avenge my brother, and I won’t let anyone get in the way."
"...So, let her have her time to speak and explain properly, rather than quickly!"
"Oh for fucks sake, Greyson," Linqian rolled her eyes, jerking her head back to look at him. She'd actually gotten on alright with him back in the day... Till she'd not. As was the case with most people and Linqian. She liked them, then she didn't. A constant cycle of friendliness and coldness. To be fair, Greyson had done plenty to piss her (and everyone else) off. "You think just cause you're playing priest we'll gladly listen to you preaching?"
The wolf pack sounded... Fun. Linqian had heard of them, of course. She'd only been back a short while, but people were loose lipped at the bar she worked. It was easy to listen in on conversations from middle aged men drinking for most of the day - it wouldve been more surprising if she'd never heard of them at all. Though she hadn't known much beyond them being a criminal gang till now.
A strip club, though, sounded like an actually good time. Not that they were there for a good time, danger and all, but what was the harm in enjoying the sights while there.
She fucking needed it.
Linqian opened her mouth, ready to agree to going (danger be damned), when Kali walked in. Same as always, staring at them like they were a terrifying exhibition, stuttering over his words. She rolled her eyes again, starting to zone him out. Nothing he had to say was interesting.
Until suddenly it was. Holy shit. Linqian was unable to keep the shock of her face, usual scowl morphed into parted lips and wide eyes. Kali, FBI? What the fuck had gone on in the last ten years. Sure, everyone had changed, but this was extreme. Admittedly, Linqian had barely paid attention to him during the old days of the coven. He barely talked, hardly did anything of interest, so she had no inclination to be friendly with him.
"The fucking FBI," Linqian stifled a laugh, shaking her head in disbelief. "I can't believe the feds are interested in our old catch-up. Well since they're involved, we don't have to worry, right?"
She spoke sarcastically, of course. Linqian didn't trust government agents, formed coven members or not, to actually figure out this shit. How many more of them would die first? And what, they'd give Father Wolf a slap on the wrist and call it a day. She might not have had much experience with them herself, be she heard things, and dealing with the police when Jinhai was murdered had been more than enough to lower her already bad opinion. They'd been useless. Sure, maybe the FBI would be better than the police. But she doubted it.
Linqian rolled her eyes as Greyson started up again, filling the peppy void that Auri had left when she dragged away their resident wallflower turned government spy.
"I'm coming to the strip club," Linqian raised her eyebrow at Greyson, who was spouting off nonsense again. "Are you sure they'll let you in, Father Devola? Going into a strip club isn't a very good look for a priest. Is that even allowed?"
Not that Linqian believed he was actually a priest. There was no way. Even if he actually was, didn't exactly make the way he was talking any less annoying. If anything, it'd make her lose the little respect she'd had for him.
The sudden thump of Jack's boots against the floor made Linqian jump, almost getting to her feet. She covered it up with a heated glared at him. Did he have to do that in here? Could he not have made his weird portal outside and walking in the door like everyone else? She was already on edge, lack of sleep after her brothers death combined with seeing all these people making an even tetchier than normal Linqian. "Can you not appear out of fucking thin air?!"
She ignored everything else. She was too busy trying to suppress her temper, which had been simmering under the surface since she'd arrived and was triggered by the sudden appearance of Jack out of thin air. Linqian gritted her teeth. This was fine. It wasn't an attack, and nothing had been directed at her. It was just Jack, the edgy piece of shit. Not a threat.
Didn't stop her feeling pissed off, but it stopped her from snapping.
Flowers and Canvases.
Drake was right. They had voted Britney out of the group, and it didn't look like she was showing up today. Good. Sure Luca didn't hate her, not like people probably expected him to, but that didn't mean he wanted to see her. Hating her took too much energy he didn't have, and forced him to dwell on the negatives. Seeing her would be the same. He didn't have the time to waste on her.
"Well, as long as she isn't here, we're all good."
"I can see when my advice isn't appreciated. But I will say this: you're asking the wrong question..."
Luca shrugged, offering Alizee a slight smile, though she didn't get to finish what she was saying. She was right, he was asking the wrong question. But what would the right question be? A question needed an answer, didn't if, and he didn't really think there was an answer to his problem.
Not truly.
Though if she considered that advice, she really needed to work on helping others. She'd basically just told him to suck it up in nicer words. Which, yeah, he was doing pretty well, actually. Didn't stop him from wanting to find a solution.
It seemed like everything was moving on. The first lead would take them to a strip club... Which Luca definitely couldn't go into. Sure, he wouldn't kill anyone unless he touched them (which was a risk). But just being in his presence was enough to hurt people. There was no avoiding that in somewhere so crowded. It was a kind of pain he knew too well, after all, and didn't want to inflict on others. Shame. It sounded fun.
Luca's attention quickly shifted to Kali's attention, sending a bright smile and a wave his way. He was just about the only one he'd kept in contact with after the coven dissolved, outside of Olivia, so he'd count him as a friend. Probably one of his only friends, sad as it was to say that. His little peculiarities had never bothered Luca, who had plenty of his own, except-
Kali, with the feds? That shocked Luca. He hadn't let it slip once, even when they'd seen each other occasionally the last few years. Perhaps he'd been saving it for a time like this, when he could dramatically announce it. Or more likely cause it wasn't exactly something you went around bragging about.
"What have I missed?"
Ignoring the aggression coming from certain people in the group (Linqian), Luca actually answered his question.
"What haven't you missed?" He began counting things off his fingers. "We're moving on from past issues, the leader of a criminal group seems to have the same name as our murderer, and Kali's with the FBI. I think that's the important points. Oh, and the strip club, of course. Very important, since that's where we'll find our information."
Luca sighed, leaning back in his chair. He immediately regretted it, hearing the poor thing creak underneath him, and swung back forward so it had all four legs on the floor.
"Much as I'd love to come along I don't think I can. Too many people and risk." He shrugged. He appeared unbothered by his circumstances, his smile genuine and eyes slightly creased. "Nothing quite kills the mood like crippling pain. Wouldn't want to ruin that for everyone... I can stay outside as backup, though."
Then there was another late surprise appearance... Everleigh, Luca vaguely remembered. People really couldn't turn up on time, huh. Maybe being late was fashionable.
She looked an absolute mess.
"If you want some painkillers I got some," Luca offered, against his better judgment. Should he be offering his prescription painkillers (the only good thing to come out of his doctors appointment, if expensive) to someone he barely remembered? Probably not. Would it make him look like a drug dealer? Probably. Would explaining why he had them all on him be a pain? Definitely. They didn't just hand out strong stuff to anyone with chronic pain. But, it was fine. Anything to ease some suffering. "I got the normal over the counter stuff, then there's some codeine as well... Got some low dose morphine tablets too. What do you want?"
He also had stronger morphine tablets, but those were sustained release (according to the doctors) and only there in case he was still out at the time he had to take it. Not that it helped loads, the whole rotting thing really reduce the effectiveness of medication. He definitely wasn't offering it to anyone else... And it'd only cause more questions. That one was harder to explain.
Not that his list of drugs wasn't already suspicious.
It was fine. Surely something else dramatic would happen before anyone has a chance to question him about it.
Linqian had expected it, since the only people in a bar before 6pm on a Monday were old retired men and college students skipping classes to get pissed. She was only in at all, working a half shift, because she really needed the money.
And the distraction.
At least she had a job at all. She’d only moved back to St. Portwell half a week ago, thankful that Jinhai had the foresight to keep their parent’s old home even if it was expensive - and that he hadn’t sold it like she’d tried to convince him to when the last renters moved out a year ago. She’d needed to get away from their apartment... Even if her parent’s place didn’t exactly fill her with joy. It felt even emptier.
At least it wasn’t a crime scene. It wasn’t where her twin had been killed (as much as she still didn’t quite believe he was gone).
She glanced at her phone. 6:30pm… She should be able to get out of work soon, then get to that stupid coven meeting. The only reason she was going was because of Jinhai. If he was still here, if that… fucker hadn’t killed him, she wouldn’t even bother. It was a group from the past she didn’t particularly want to revisit.
Hopefully her ex wouldn’t be there.
Either way, it didn’t matter. She was just going there for revenge, not to revisit old friendships.
Flowers and Canvases.
Linqian walked into Flowers and Canvases a bit late thanks to work running over, just in time for Auri to name the man who’d killed Jinhai. Her immediate interest quickly waned when Auri started doing all the positivity crap that had been so pervasive in the old coven.
Linqian scowled, glancing around everyone who was there while trying to strategically decide where to sit. Simone? Absolutely not, she’d been too friendly with Jinhai for her liking back in the day. Tayla had sat in the front row, and Linqian wasn’t going to sit in the front row. Luca had given everyone a wide berth, which was very telling. Alizée? She’d rather stand. Eksa wasn’t too bad… But again, giving everyone a wide berth. It was like everyone wanted nothing to do with each other.
They probably didn’t. Linqian disliked a fair few… But she didn’t have her brother with her anymore. Being a lone wolf really wasn’t her style. Sighing, Linqian took a seat next to Drake. He was the best, somehow, out of seriously lacking options. They didn’t have any issues with each other that she could remember.
Linqian’s eyebrow raised at Auri’s suggestion that they all move on. Well fine by her with all the people here. Honestly, any ‘past transgressions’ were already forgotten. All that was left was a vague memory of her feelings towards each person. Mostly ambivalence. Jinhai would’ve remembered more.
She couldn’t care less about what Britney had done, because it didn’t affect her.
”I agree with… Tayla,” Linqian spoke up, hoping she’d remember her name correctly. It’d been ten years and all, she hadn’t exactly kept in touch with these people, and Tayla was one of those she didn’t have strong feelings towards. ”I already have a family, thank you… And Father Wolf killed one of them.”
Linqian’s voice was cold, as if she wasn’t talking about the twin brother she was so close to. Of course her grief ran deep, but right now she felt very little. Completely numb. It was easy to talk about it because it still didn’t feel real. A tiny voice in the back of her mind told her that this wasn’t real, and she’d go home to Jinhai, alive and well. She knew that voice was wrong, she’d seen his body, but she hadn’t quite accepted it yet. ”Enough with inspirational bullshit. You said you don’t know where Father Wolf is, but you’ll get to it. Well get to it now, cause it's all I care about, and I'm sure everyone else agrees.”
She fixed Auri with a sharp glare, lips pulled into a thin line. She couldn’t give less of a fuck about not repeating the mistakes of the past. They’d stayed together long enough to defeat the Stygian Snake, right? That’s all they needed to do now. Deal with Father Wolf then get on with their lives.
Flowers and Canvases.
"Sacre bleu, would you give Brittany a rest? I'd dare to say the experience of being adjoined is good for you...Give you some perspective."
Luca snorted, lips curving into a lazy smile, completely unbothered by the apparition staring at them. He vaguely remembered her. Adjoined too, obvious with the apparition floating at her shoulder, but not by Britney. Luca didn’t know her circumstances, just as she didn’t know his, so he wasn’t particularly bothered by her words.
”She’s right,” the Rot whispered in his mind. ”I am the best thing that happened to you.”
Luca rolled his eyes, ignoring it. The sudden, burning pain in his elbow was more difficult to ignore, his smile wavering, but he was also used to that. It would pass, or move onto another body part. His whole body was rotting away, after all. That didn’t come without pain.
”You think I should give Britney a rest? Well, that’s fine, are you offering to help me instead? You see, since being adjoined with my apparition, I’ve ended up with quite the spending problem. Maybe you can start by helping me pay for my next phone. After all,” he reached into his bag, pulling out his phone. It began to corrode where his bare fingertips touched it, outer case cracking and the electronic insides turning brown with rust. Within seconds it had turned to rust coloured dust. ”I just keep destroying them. You’re not wrong, though, it has been good for me. It’s really beneficial not getting attached to material belongings.”
Luca shrugged. Of course he had another two phones in his bag, just as cheap as this one, because he was used to this. He just wanted to make a point. He always remained positive about his own situation, but Alizée’s comment had rubbed him the wrong way.
Accepting that he was stuck with it didn’t mean pretending it hadn’t been preventable in the first place.
Luca groaned, rolling over and hitting the button on the top of his cheap alarm… only to have it crumble under his fingers. Well, that was one way to shut it up. He rolled out of his bed, which was really just a decaying and worn mattress, and threw off the threadbare blanket. He’d have to replace them soon. With a yawn, he scrambled for his phone, concentrating on not destroying it.
6pm. Not bad, if he got up and left now he’d make it in time to the coven meeting. His limbs still ached, but it was better than before he’d taken a nap. At least his mind wasn’t so foggy. The Rot was silent, for once.
He shoved his phone in a worn bag (which was only a few days old) before his concentration slipped and he eroded it. Again.
Luca traipsed over to his wardrobe, or at least what was left of it, quickly pulling on a pair of baggy, light blue trousers and a white t-shirt. He perused through his button down shirts with a light hum. What would be best for this meeting? Plain and simple, or his brighter shirts. Perhaps one of the nicer ones would make a better impression… He picked out a long sleeved, navy button down shirt with small maroon stars all over it. It was one he rarely wore because it was made of natural fibres, so it wouldn’t last more than a few days, but- his concentration slipped and the material under his fingers disintegrated, remnants of the shirt floating to the ground.
“Ah fuck, that was my favourite shirt.”
Oh well, it was his fault for not wearing his normal gloves. Shrugging it off, because it was just another occurrence, Luca grabbed a simpler white and green shirt. Yeah, this one looked good too. Perfect. On his way out Luca grabbed a pair of cheap cycling gloves and pulled them on.
It wasn’t a perfect fix, but it at least stopped him from destroying anything he touched. Which was more than good enough.
Flowers and Canvases.
Luca was one of the first to arrive. His worst nightmare was arriving late and having to sit somewhere close to other people, or flowers. Not that there was any avoiding it… It was a fucking flower shop. This was the last place Luca should ever be! And it was small. There was no avoiding plant life!
Trying to keep his nerves, mostly about ruining Auri’s whole business, in check, Luca quickly entered the shop. He sped down the rows of neatly arranged flowers, wincing as the ones closest to him started to wilt. He grabbed a metal chair, glad that his gloves were still mostly there - they were starting to disintegrate away at the fingertips, but he probably had an hour left till he had to replace them with one of the many pairs he had in his ragged backpack.
Luca guessed he should be thankful the more powerful part of his abstraction was restricted to his hands. How awkward would it be if he had to change his clothes in the middle of the meeting.
He dragged the chair away from the others, leaving a gap the size of at least two chairs between him and the rest… As well as trying to avoid flowers as best as possible. Now that he wasn’t so worried about everything, he grinned and waved at everyone who’d already arrived. It was nice to see familiar faces after so long.
”I’m doing well!” Luca chirped up as enough people arrived, and Auri decided to start. He was sure most here weren’t doing too good, either losing people or fearing for their lives. He was worried about Olivia too, but it was easier to smile and say it was all alright. He didn’t feel like it wasn’t, anyway. ”It’s nice to see everyone.”
He leaned back in his chair to listen to the rest… Which was sounding a bit culty. Didn’t cults normally say they were family? Maybe it was like this when the coven first formed. He wasn’t sure, since he wasn’t there.
”I’m fine with moving forward, but-” He tilted his head, flashing the whole group a smile. ”For some of us it isn’t all in the past. I’m not talking about the petty fights we had, but what Britney did… I know she’s not here yet. Some of us are still living with that. Case in point,” he pointed to the flakes of rust starting to form on the chair he was on with a light laugh. Of course, he’d have to sit on it for at least a day for it to completely corrode, but the effects were already obvious. ”Sorry, Auri, hope you didn’t need to keep these in perfect condition.”
As if the worst thing about it was eroding a chair.
”I don’t want it to be like it used to be… With everyone blaming her and that. I’m past that. All I’m asking is when all’s said and done with Father Wolf, as a coven- family, whatever, we try and help those of us that still need it.”
It was fine if they couldn’t help him in the end, anyway. He’d accepted that. While he hadn’t forgiven Britney, and would never give her that relief from any guilt she may still feel, he’d moved on a long time ago. Holding onto the anger he’d felt at first was just as damaging for him. While he didn’t plan to vocally forgive her, even if she apologised when she arrived, he also didn’t plan to tell her exactly what his abstraction was doing to him. Or anyone, for that matter.
”Oh, also, can we hold meetings somewhere that isn’t a flower shop? The place is lovely, Auri, and I really don’t want to ruin it. Otherwise, all good with me.”
Second character whoo, I will finish an NPC sheet for Olivia tomorrow... (need to figure out her abstraction / adjoined apparition)
"Why wouldn’t I use the time I have left to help?"
_______________________________________________ Luciano “Luca” Manuel Alves Oliviera
He/They | 25 | Brazilian | 5’3” | 105lbs _______________________________________________ Positivity _______________________________________________ Skills & Talents "I had to give up a lot of what I was good at when it attached itself to me. Maybe one day I’ll be able to play soccer again…" ___________________________________
Information Gathering ⫻ Luca has spent most of the last ten years researching a way to remove the apparition attached to their soul, jumping from paranormal group to paranormal group and finding as many materials they can on the subject. While they haven’t found much to help out they’ve gotten very good at searching for information, whether it's from talking to people or reading books.
Optimism ⫻ Luca likes to think his optimistic thinking, always looking on the bright side, is a talent. No matter the bad news or the difficulties he will keep going. He’s very resilient.
Wood Carving ⫻ Though he doesn’t do it as much as he did as a teenager, Luca is good at carving figures out of wood. He mostly does animals, and sometimes the paranormal creatures he’s seen. He can only do it for a short period of time at once, otherwise he’ll start rotting the wood, but it’s the one hobby from before he got his abstraction he’s managed to keep up.
Appearance ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ "Huh, I’m bleeding? It’s bad? Don’t worry, this happens a lot."
With noticeable dark bags under his eyes, Luciano looks perpetually tired. Dull brown eyes peer out from behind sweeping curtain bangs that they’re constantly having to move to keep them from restricting their vision. Their hair is thick and dark brown, falling in a smooth curve past his eyes and in shorter, light curls at the back of his neck. Their skin is a warm tan, slightly rough. They’re rarely found without at least earrings, often wearing a simple stud in one ear and a hanging one in the other. Their earrings are most commonly made of titanium, which is resistant to rusting. All of their jewellery, which they enjoy wearing, is made of this or other pure metals - anything mixed with iron won’t last long near them.
Luca isn’t particularly short for who he was born as, but his small stature is something that annoys him. It makes it more difficult to pass, and their parents weren’t even that short! So why did he get the short end of the stick? Luca is slender, too - currently still a healthy weight, but at risk of becoming underweight. He’s physically weak, though he tries to hide this as best as he can. He has curved scars under his chest from top surgery. He has multiple smaller scars across his body, most of which he can’t remember where he got them from. Most of the time Luca has at least one, if not multiple, open wounds or cuts.
Luca is always found with a button down shirt on. They vary from the occasional bright, bold patterns to more lowkey neutrals, sometimes tucked into a pair of baggy trousers and sometimes open over a tank top, but always there. Their favoured colours tend to be shades of green, brown, white and navy blue in striped patterns apart from “special occasions” (days they’re feeling like brightening everything up). Their shirts are normally paired with wide legged trousers, with a white or black top underneath. They tend to cover up, whether it's wearing a long sleeved t-shirt with a short sleeved button down, or a long sleeved button down. Most of their clothes are made of synthetic fibres, polyester or nylon, because it degrades slower and thus he doesn’t have to replace them as frequently. He’s never found without a pair of black, polyester-lycra gloves on. Luca is bright and cheerful, often smiling or chatting. He is generally very expressive, with an inability to keep his immediate reactions off his face. The only expressions he rarely has are those of sadness, the one thing he keeps locked deep down.
Psychology ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ "I want everyone to remember me as someone who never gave up. I want them to remember my positivity.”
MAIN GOAL ⫻ To be free of the apparition he’s adjoined to. After that he just wants to live his life, enjoying all the things he was unable to - spending time with his family, playing soccer again and just using a phone without worrying that he’ll destroy it.
PHILOSOPHY ⫻ Live life as if everyday could be your last. Luca has always focused on living life to the fullest, without getting dragged down by the small things. This has only grown stronger when they realised how short their life might be. They believe in focusing on the good and in enjoying himself, rather than the inevitable end. Because everyone dies eventually, some just sooner than others.
SECRETS ⫻ Luca’s biggest secret is his shortened lifespan, and how ill his abstraction has made him. He keeps on a strong front as if it isn’t slowly eating him from the inside. He hasn’t told any of his family, because how could he even begin to explain it? He also hides that sometimes he feels that it's all pointless. This is a feeling he tries to hide from even himself, shoving it deep down everytime it rears its ugly head.
SEXUALITY ⫻ Probably attracted to men, but Luca has never had the chance to be in a relationship. When he was younger he was struggling with his gender, and now he can’t get physically close to anyone without hurting them.
FEARS ⫻ The Rot possessing them. They can constantly feel it prodding their mind, looking for a weak spot to take advantage of. They fear it more than dying, though they also fear dying like most people do. They also fear harming their loved ones, especially their family.
REPUTATION IN OLD COVEN ⫻ Neutral, or slightly positive. Luca joined the coven late, a short time before the final battle. He was helpful and friendly which would’ve given the others a good impression of him but also standoffish as he learned the effects of his abstraction. He stuck with the old coven until it dissolved and while he wasn’t contributing to the petty squabbles his attempted positivity didn’t help towards the end.
ROLE IN THE BATTLE AGAINST THE STYGIAN SNAKE ⫻ Luca joined the coven late, but from then he was very useful in the battle against the Stygian Snake. His abstraction was one that allowed him to directly weaken the emotions fueling apparitions and the Stygian Snake itself through touching them. With this he was able to help them defeat and seal the Stygian Snake on the day of the eclipse.
FLAWS ⫻ Luca has absolutely no filter. He says what he thinks, whether positive or negative. This can come across as blunt and is incredibly tactless. He hurts others often because of this, regardless of his intentions. He is almost toxically positive. Luca hides difficult emotions from even himself, burying them deep down so he doesn’t have to think about them, ignoring all his problems. He can often invalidate others emotions because he doesn’t understand why they’d dwell on the negative. As he’s grown older Luca has become more self sacrificial, and become worse at looking after himself. He’ll neglect his health frequently and in a situation where sacrificing himself would save others, he’d probably do it. While generally optimistic and cheerful, Luca can be somewhat erratic thanks to the apparition adjoined to him that’s constantly trying to corrupt him mentally. This mostly manifests in sudden mood swings and acting outside of his normal, especially under stressful situations since he’s essentially always under mental stress.
Backstory ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ "My life was completely normal till she attached this fucking thing to me."
Luca was born in Brazil, but his parents moved to St Portwell, and the USA, when he was only two for work. Luca has very little memory of his home country, and has only visited a couple of times as a child.
From a young age, Luca knew that he wasn’t who he was born as. His parents called him Isabela, but that wasn’t right. He didn’t have the language to explain it then so he settled for being a tomboy, refusing to wear anything girly and making everyone call him El - it was slightly less feminine, at least. It wasn’t until his teenagers that he began to figure it all out. He wasn’t a girl like everyone thought he was. He wasn’t really a boy either, but he was closer to that than a girl. He settled on somewhere in between and the name Luca. Just, he didn’t have the confidence to tell anyone.
Luca was fifteen when the Stygian Snake’s rampage began, something he was very unaware about until a week before the eclipse. It was just another day for Luca, heading home from school, when he was attacked by a group of Apparitions. He was thrown to the ground and almost killed there but a girl from a few years above him tried to defend him… Before getting injured herself. Both Luca and this girl, Olivia Ruiz, were saved by Britney Williams. Luca passed out from shock.
When he woke up, his entire world had changed. There was something else inside of him, whispering to him. When he grabbed his phone it turned to dust in his hands. Good, goaded the voice in Luca’s head. Destroy everything. Confused and scared, Luca managed to find the girl, Britney, who had saved him. She explained everything to him - that magic existed, that she was part of a coven protecting the city and that a thing called an apparition (which called itself the rot) had adjoined itself to him while he was injured. She invited him to join the Sycamore Tree coven, to help defeat the Stygian Snake that was attacking the city. Partly out of gratitude, and partly out of not knowing what else to do, Luca joined the Sycamore Tree coven. It was the first place he could truly be himself - being Luca, not a girl, from the start.
In the short time he was part of the coven, Luca threw himself into helping. He learned his abstraction quickly, figuring out that he could weaken apparitions and destroy abominables, though he wasn’t sure why. He didn’t dwell too much on anything outside of using it to help the coven and on the day of the eclipse he used his abstraction to weaken the Stygian Snake so that Ashley could stab it with the Apparition Killer. He had his memory wiped with everyone else, and was glad it was over.
He could live peacefully now, right? Except he still had an apparition attached to him - one constantly trying to get into his mind and whispering to him. The uncontrollable nature of his abstraction was more obvious too. He destroyed everything he touched, and everything around him slowly decayed. He felt weaker too, but he put that down to exhaustion.
Luca couldn’t exactly live a normal life like this.
So he stuck with the coven, hoping they could help him. He grew closer with Olivia, the girl who’d defended him what had felt like a very long time ago, who was now in a similar situation to him. They had a shared goal of splitting from their aberrations, though hers wasn’t as debilitating.
Luca was enraged when he found out that Britney was the one who’d forcibly adjoined him. It could hardly be called saving him with the life he had now. Luca didn’t treat her as badly as some of the others - instead he just didn’t talk to her at all. He stuck with the coven till it dissolved, hoping against hope that they’d help him instead of squabbling. But they didn’t. Luca was disappointed when it ended, but it was fine. He’d find another way. There was no point in dwelling in the negativity, as much of it as there was.
So he moved on, deciding to try and figure out how to get rid of his apparition. Olivia followed him, the only person he had left for him - he’d cut himself off from his family out of necessity, as painful as it was. Just being near him would kill them. He took some online courses at college while trying to research the paranormal as much as possible.
Then Olivia found out, through going to the same college, that Emily had formed her own coven. Luca didn’t particularly like Emily (not many did), but his need to get rid of the rot was stronger. He managed to convince them to let him join a seemingly all woman coven… And it was good, at first. They were learning about magic, and with that making progress in understanding adjoined. But it didn’t last. 8th Street’s agenda changed, and Luca couldn’t stay for it.
So they went back to just the two of them trying to figure it out, back to what it had been like just after the Sycamore Tree coven dissolved. At this point he hardly left the apartment he and Olivia shared. Every outing was a risk of hurting someone. He threw himself into research in his spare time, trying to find everything he could, while working a completely remote job. He managed to figure out a setup that worked for him - a desktop and large screen far enough away to not be affected by his abstraction, and a pile of cheap keyboards and mice on hand for when the ones he was using were destroyed. He gained more control over his decaying touch, learning how to turn it off… Even if it exhausted him. It was difficult, but that was fine. It wouldn’t be like this forever. He stayed optimistic and focused on the positives.
After a year of almost no results, Olivia decided to call it quits. Her family was moving to the other side of the country and she wanted to go with them. There were no hard feelings between them when she left, and they promised to keep in touch.
Luca’s life continued much the same. He found joy in the little things - his weekly calls with Olivia, the days where he could control his abstraction enough to do some wood carving without instantly destroying the wood in his hands, and the late night research that seemed to be getting him somewhere. He would go on walks late at night when very little else (human at least) was outside. He tried to meet with other paranormal, or ex-coven members - just anyone who could resist his abstraction a bit. It was relatively peaceful, if a bit lonely.
Of course, there were so many negatives. He never really got a peaceful moment, with an apparition inside of him constantly trying to erode at his mental state so that it could take over. He’d just gotten good at blocking it out and thinking positively. He was also growing weaker and weaker, struggling to walk around the block on some days. It was as if his muscles were wasting away. It was terrifying, and he had no one to talk to.
Finally, a year ago, it got bad enough that he went to a hospital. His uncontrollable aura wasn’t strong enough to destroy anything instantly, and as long as he didn’t touch anything it would be fine. He felt bad for putting the doctors and nurse through the pain of it, but he needed checked. What had started as occasional exhaustion and weakness had grown worse, and he was constantly in pain. Somewhere always hurt. The doctors ran their tests, so many of them, and took his blood.
The results weren’t good. They’d never seen what was happening to him, so they couldn’t give him a diagnosis, but it was as if his entire body was slowly decaying. A new kind of degenerative disease they’d never seen before. The outcomes didn’t look good. At this rate he probably had a few years left. If he was lucky he’d reach thirty. They said they could recommend him to a more cutting edge hospital that would research it and work with him, but Luca declined. He took a prescription of strong painkillers and went home.
After all, he knew the cause. Normal medicine wouldn’t help. He needed to get rid of his abstraction first before it could be treated.
Luca continued trying to find a way, speeding it up. He tried to talk to some of the paranormal groups in St Portwell, namely the Elite, Greenwood Coven and 8th Street again. The Elite was useless, 8th street was concentrating on its new ventures and the Greenwood coven didn’t take too kindly to Luca… after all his abstraction was one of the many destroying nature, even if he couldn’t control it. It was fine. He resigned himself to never getting rid of it, and resolved to enjoy the rest of his life. No point dwelling on what was out of his control, after all! He’d do what he could and that would be enough.
Then he heard that ex-coven members were dying. Then Olivia went missing. There was no news of her death, but she wouldn’t pick up his calls and wasn’t at home. Luca didn’t know what he could do, until he got contacted by Auri. It was an easy decision to join again. Maybe they could help him get rid of this abstraction that was eating him away, and if not, why wouldn’t he use the time he had left to help save others?
Paranormal-Abilities ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ "I wish I’d never gotten it. But I can’t change the past, so I might as well use it for something good before it kills me."
TYPE ⫻ Aberration - Adjoined
ABSTRACTION ⫻ Rotting Decay, the ability to decay and damage all living things, to corrode and weaken non organic materials and to decay the emotions that fuel magic.
ABSTRACTION DESCRIPTION ⫻
Aura of Decay ⫻ Luca has a permanent, but weak, aura of decay around him. This aura spreads out about an arms length around him. It slowly decays everything around him, with results and speed varying by what’s being exposed and the size of it. For organic materials, it will take an hour to completely rot something weak such as a flower or grass. For something stronger, such as a tree, it would take days - but it will kill leaves or flowers on the tree. For human flesh it will hurt immediately, then damage the outer layer of skin within an hour, but would take weeks to rot through the bone. For inorganic objects, the aura works best on metals, which it will oxidise and then corrode in days. The effect on emotions is minimal - in the aura, people will perhaps feel their emotions slightly dimmed, but little else.
Decaying Touch ⫻ More powerful than the constant aura, Luca can touch something and instantly cause it to decay. The effect varies by what is being touched. The flesh of the blind would be rotted instantly, and within minutes whatever he is touching would disintegrate and die. The paranormal are more resistant, but initial touch would cause intense pain and eventually decay, then disintegration. It affects apparitions, by decaying the emotion that fuels them and thus weakening them. For nonorganic objects it will take moments to corrode something small - a cup, or a mobile phone. It would start to crumble a brick but take minutes to properly destroy it, and something larger would take hours.
LIMITS ⫻
Aura of Decay ⫻ The aura is too weak to affect apparitions at all, and hardly affects those with Emotional-Fields. They will feel pain, more intense the longer they are in it, but it won’t cause decay. It is limited size wise, only spreading an arms length around Luca. It's always on, so they can’t control it at all. The stronger and larger something is, the longer it will take to decay.
Decaying Touch ⫻ There is no range to the touch. Luca must touch whatever is to be affected with one of his hands. It is only his hands that can be used. The decay only happens in the immediate area touched and doesn’t spread. It can’t straight up kill those with emotional-fields, and can only weaken apparitions or those without substance. It would take minutes of touching to start properly decaying any with defences. The longer he touches something and uses the abstraction the more he will strain himself, physically and mentally, and start damaging him too. While he could technically do it for hours, it would likely destroy him too. This ability is normally on, and he has to be actively concentrating to turn it off. This concentration includes ignoring the apparition itself, which constantly wants him to decay and destroy everything around him.
WEAKNESSES ⫻
The Aura of Decay is always active, and Luca is unable to turn it off, which means he will cause objects that he doesn't intend to decay and rot away. He's used to throwing beds away and replacing his cell phone. The Decaying touch is also consistently active and requires him to consciously turn it off and expend energy to not rot objects away. However, the most debilitating weakness of all is that the Abstraction is causing him to rot away. It's slowly eroding at his skin, organs, and bones, weakening his body, and will eventually induce organ shutdown... or worse if that doesn't happen first. The Power of Decay makes Luca more frail, his skin will tear easier and his bones are way easier to break.
Other ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ "It would've been nice to see everyone again, if the circumstances were different."
Luca has no preference between he or they pronouns. Luca is mostly fluent in Portuguese. Luca has a box filled with cheap phones in his apartment because he has to constantly replace them. In fact most of his salary (after essentials) goes into replacing all the items that he destroys with his abstraction.
The.Rot
Very Old | The Rot | It/Its"̶̥͈̙̗̔͒̎̀̈́͜È̷̻͔̞͓̜̊v̵͎̠̪͓̅͌ę̷̛͖͇̊ṙ̷͎͗͐y̷̭̗̜͊͝t̷͕̣͖̍͗̚h̶̳̺̍̽ȋ̸̜ṅ̷̗̖̥̤̝̃͐ǵ̷̟̣͛̋̏ ̷̛̘͈͙̬̀̽̈́ẘ̸͔̖̞̥̞̀́i̶̱̖̳̱̦͆͒̓̀l̶̝͙̖͌̚ͅl̴̟̻̱̤͚̓̄̀̆ ̵̫̐̽̀̇͘r̷̢̰̝̹̤̀̃̇̏̿ò̸̠̱̝̦̮̏̚ẗ̸̥͈̜̱̑͘͝ͅ"̸̞̠̯͕̙̔̍
Description:
The Rot came to be in this dimension centuries ago, born from the intense desire for destruction from humans waging in petty wars and the corruption of many. All it wants is destruction, to rot everything away until no life is left. It has destroyed towns and cities, feeding off the flesh of poor humans unable to flee from its path. It has corrupted the minds of those that are weak to aid in its path of destruction. However its influence and power was short reaching, and its movement restricted. It could not go to places completely free from corruption and corrosion.
Hundreds of years ago the Rot was sealed, the object it was sealed in then lost and forgotten. Until ten years ago, when Britney Williams freed it and adjoined it with Luca Oliviera to help defeat the Stygian Snake. After the Stygian Snake Luca wanted rid of the rot, but it refused to leave him - why would it, when it finally had the perfect vessel to cause destruction from? Luca wasn’t limited like it is. Instead it is constantly trying to corrupt and weaken his mind, so one day it can push out his soul and abscise his body. Occasionally it succeeds in temporary possession, but it has yet to gain complete control. The Rot always remains inside Luca, but it will talk to him from within when it benefits it.
Abstraction: Apparition - Decay of All Things
The Rot allows Luca to use most of its abstraction - the ability to cause physical and emotional decay. It has another ability it has not given Luca - mental decay. This can completely corrupt or destroy the minds of the blind. It can leave them as empty shells of themselves, or corrupt them to become the worst of humanity and help it succeed in its goal. Those with Emotional-Fields are resistant but not immune. It can slowly plant the seeds of destruction within them, whittling away until it succeeds. It has been doing it with its host ever since they were adjoined.
"If the worst hadn’t already happened there’s no way I’d be back here with these people."
_______________________________________________ Linqian Han
She/Her | 26 | Chinese-Congolese | 5’6” | 124lbs _______________________________________________ Fickle _______________________________________________ Skills & Talents "My brother stole all the brains in the womb, hah." ___________________________________
Languages ⫻ Chinese is Linqian’s first language, and the one that was primarily spoken in her household and with her two brothers. She is fluent in it and prefers it over English. She also speaks Kituba, taught by her mother and used in the few years they lived in the Republic of Congo, though she can't read or write in it. She can speak very basic conversational French.
Cooking ⫻ Linqian learned to cook from both her parents, and is the only one in her remaining family with any skill for it (her brothers burn most things they cook). She is surprisingly talented at it, going beyond cooking out of necessity to being able to cook fancy meals (when she feels up to it).
Bartending ⫻ Linqian has worked in bars since she was legally able to, to help keep her family afloat. She’s good at making drinks, and passable at service - with time, she’s gotten better at keeping control of her emotions in front of customers, at least.
Appearance ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ "Don’t look too hard."
The first thing noticeable about Linqian is that she has a resting bitch face, eyes slightly narrowed and lips turned down. The second is that she’s clearly mixed, between her coily hair and hooded eyes. She’s a bit taller than average - though where she’s originally from in China, she’d be counted as tall. She’s relatively slim thanks to working on her feet and cutting costs by cutting down on the meals she eats. Her body is pear shaped, with a relatively flat chest but more curves towards her hips and legs.
Linqian’s hair is formed in tight coils that fall just below her shoulders. She styles it in a few ways, most often a bun or low ponytail, but quite often will leave it loose. She used to straighten it, but has stopped since she grew to love her hair type more. Linqian’s eyes are round, with a gentle upturn at the outer corner. They are dark brown in colour with a hooded, double eyelid. The bottom lid creases up when she smiles, making her eyes much narrower - she looks prettier when she smiles than when she doesn’t (there just isn’t much to smile about right now). Overall, though, she views herself as attractive (and she is) - even if not conventionally.
Clothes wise, Linqian will normally wear tight shirts tucked into waist high shorts or loose trousers. When it’s colder she’ll wear a thick fleece jacket over the top. She enjoys wearing dresses and skirts, but rarely finds an occasion to. She dressed mainly in shades of blue, black and white with the occasional brighter colour thrown in - namely red, orange or yellow. She has her ears pierced, but doesn’t always wear earrings. On her right hand she has always wears a pair of wedding rings. Linqian also needs glasses, due to being a bit short sighted, but she almost always wears contact lenses when she goes out or doesn't bother.
Psychology ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ "I never said I’d keep liking you.”
MAIN GOAL ⫻ Linqian’s primary long term goal has always been to fall in love and start her own family (surprising many, as she isn’t particularly maternal or even nice) eventually - though right now the thought of settling down terrifies her. Her shorter term goal is to see her younger brother through college and into independence before she can concentrate on her own life. Currently, her goal is to destroy the piece of shit that killed her twin brother.
PHILOSOPHY ⫻ Family is more important than anything else. Linqian believes in always prioritising her family over any other relationships and sometimes herself. The bond between close family is incredibly important in her eyes - but she also doesn’t believe it extends to distant relatives. She also thinks that others opinions (outside of family) don’t mean shit, if they disapprove of what you do then fuck them. People that hate you are just jealous, and if anyone causes you problems you should just cut them out.
SECRETS ⫻ How she always felt inadequate next to her much smarter twin brother. Sometimes she resented him. She has insecurities that come from this, deep down not feeling good enough, but she’d never let anyone know that.
SEXUALITY ⫻ Bisexual, with commitment issues. Linqian had a difficult breakup with a former coven member, which was the breaking point for her leaving the coven, and then was cheated on by her next partner. She tends to keep things casual nowadays, and has slept around quite a lot the last few years - but never with the same person twice. Her preference is probably slightly towards women when it comes to romantic attractions. While she does want to start a family, recently she's been figuring out she's probably polyamorous - it doesn't conflict with her goals, it just means her future family might be unconventional... like it always has been.
FEARS ⫻ Linqian’s worst fear has already come true - losing her twin brother. Second to this is losing the only family she has left, her younger brother. She’s scared of commitment. She also has a much more mundane fear of dogs.
REPUTATION IN OLD COVEN ⫻ Linqian’s reputation was mixed. On one hand, she was friendly and charming, especially when she first joined the coven. On the other hand she was fickle, quick to decide she disliked someone, and incredibly argumentative. There are plenty of members she got into heated fights with, and others that she gave the cold shoulder for seemingly no reason. While some might have neutral or positive opinions on her, there aren’t any that saw her as a close friend - any friendships she had were surface level only. Linqian left the coven explosively after being broken up with by her partner of the time. She wasn’t there when it dissolved, but caused enough fights after the battle that she definitely had a hand in it.
ROLE IN THE BATTLE AGAINST THE STYGIAN SNAKE ⫻ Linqian fought against the Stygian Snake’s minions, and the apparition itself, from relatively early on. While she was nowhere near the strongest, she’d had her abstraction long enough to know how to use it and help. In the final battle she helped weaken it, lowering her body temperatures to deadly levels and using that to damage and fight its darkness constructs.
FLAWS ⫻ Linqian is quick to change her opinions, especially in relation to other people or her emotions. One day she can be incredibly nice to someone, the next giving them the cold shoulder due to some perceived slight. She’s incredibly ‘hot and cold’ when it comes to relationships outside of her family. She also doesn’t hold back her opinions, often being quite blunt and harsh. She won’t back down on her opinions and is incredibly argumentative if someone disagrees with her. Once she loses her cool it's difficult for her to see reason, and normally it was her twin brother who reeled her in. For all she would deny it, she was incredibly dependent on her twin, and now that she’s gone it’s left her struggling.
Backstory ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ "Only one thing’s ever been constant in my life… Now he’s gone. Fuck."
Linqian was born in Tangshan, China just ten minutes after her twin brother, Jinhai. She spent the first seven years of her life there, relatively peacefully - until suddenly her dad had a falling out with his parents, cutting off all contact. Their family moved to Pointe-Noire, in the Republic of Congo, where her mum’s family was. The sudden move was a shock to Linqian and not one she took well, being in a different country speaking a language she struggled with, surrounded by family members she’d never met. Her and Jinhai grew even closer than before, practically becoming inseparable.
Half a year later her younger brother was born, then less than two years later they were moving again. This time to St Portwell in the USA. Yet another new country and language, but this time it was only their family of five. It took a while to settle in, and for a long time Linqian missed her original home, but eventually she managed and all was peaceful again.
Then at age fifteen Jinhai had his kindling event - and immediately after it he used his abstraction to freeze Linqian’s hair when she’d just come out of a shower, triggering her kindling event. It was fucking weird talking to a great grandmother she’d never met, who was convinced that she should already know about Lux and how their family line could use it. Unlike Jinhai, who’d taken to it easily, Linqian was freaked out and confronted her parents over it. If she should know, they should too, right?
Turned out, both her mum and dad came from a long line of Adepts - in fact, it was because of this their dad had cut off his family and thus been severed from his lux. His parents believed in the purity of their line, trying to keep marriage between those of red lux only. On the other hand, her mum’s family was much more relaxed - most of her relatives were green lux but there were a few mixed just like Linqing and Jinhai. For some reason they’d made the decision to not teach their children about this, even though their mum still had her abstraction. So suddenly Linqing was not only in the midst of puberty and petty highschool drama, but she also had magic. Her and Jinhai started practising together whenever they had time - frustratingly, as with all things, he was better than her.
Then, the Stygian Snake appeared. Linqian’s dad, who was only one-eye-open now, was enthralled by it and tried to kill the rest of his family. Her mother used her abstraction to stop him, sacrificing herself in the process so Linqian and her brothers could get away. While fleeing they bumped into a group called the Sycamore Tree coven. Jinhai made the decision there and then to join, which Linqian followed (reluctantly). Their brother, only one eye open and eight years old, was sent to temporarily live with a distant relative in a different city.
Linqian used her abstraction to participate in each battle with the Stygian Snake and its apparitions, primarily focusing on taking out the apparitions and thralls it created. She was always in a group with Jinhai - and always following his decisions over others. He was intelligent, and one of the group members who took part in planning with the information provided by those more knowledgeable about magic (namely Britney). Linqian, on the other hand, was there to help with the fight and cause unnecessary problems.
Somehow, in amongst all this Linqian managed to find love with another coven member. She started to drift from Jinhai, spending time with her partner in the small moments in between battling the Stygian Snake’s minions. It was her first relationship and she fell hard very quickly. It caused tension in her relationship with her brother, which they resolved after multiple arguments and before the final battle.
On the day of the eclipse Linqian helped defeat the Stygian Snake by manipulating her body temperature to deadly cold levels, using this to distract and weaken it to help Ashley deal the finishing blow, even when it required her to get close enough to touch it - sustaining injuries in the process. She was drained and hurt after the battle, barely aware of the apparition being sealed and agreeing to have her memory wiped. Then, she joined the brand new coven afterwards.
Linqian played a big part in the petty arguments and fights the coven members had afterwards, and had no interest in going after other apparitions. They’d already done enough, surely? Honestly, she was only still there because of her partner and her brother still holding some interest in it.
Then, her partner suddenly broke up with her - over text on the day of a meeting no less. Angrier than she’d been in a long time Linqian confronted them when the coven met up, and what started out as petty insults and angry words turned into her being practically dragged out by Jinhai when she tried to use her abstraction to burn her ex. She never went back. She probably would’ve been kicked out anyway, and the coven dissolved only a month later.
Linqian moved on - well, as much as she could when her parents had died. She dropped out of highschool to start working, first in supermarkets then in bars when she was old enough. Together her and Jinhai moved for his college, and their younger brother moved back in with them now that they were legal adults. It was difficult, but between her job and Jinhai working part time around his degree they made it work.
Finally, after years of being the main breadwinner of the family, her brother graduated his law degree and passed his bar exam. Her younger brother was finally in college too. From now on things would be easier for Linqian. She wouldn’t have to work herself to the bone. The night after her brother got a job at a well known law firm she went to work with this knowledge, more relaxed than she had been for a long time, and looking forward to a drink with him once she was done.
Instead she came home to his unmoving body in their living room, blood staining the ugly cream carpet. He had been stabbed to death, and the only pointer towards who’d done it was a wolf idol she found hidden in his bedroom.
Linqian lived in a daze for a week after that, sorting out everything that needed to be done when someone died, and continuing as if she hadn’t lost one of the most important people in her life. It was as if she wasn’t quite there. She felt emotionally numb, but also incredibly volatile at the same time.
When Auri reached out to her about the string of murders that were happening - murders including her brother - Linqian didn’t hesitate to return. Under any other circumstance she’d decline (especially with the risk of seeing her ex again), but not for this. She needed to find whatever had done this, and make sure it died just like her brother had.
Paranormal-Abilities ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ "You think I’m hot? Well, you’re not wrong."
TYPE ⫻ Adept
ABSTRACTION ⫻Red & Green Lux. Channeler: her mother’s wedding ring
ABSTRACTION DESCRIPTION ⫻ Linqian is a relatively experienced red and green lux user, with a specialisation towards temperature manipulation. However she’s not been able to spend much time on her spells the past ten years due to looking after her family. She has a still undiscovered affinity towards fire and more advanced self transformation, which she’s only touched the surface of.
火, Fire Phase ⫻ Linqian's primary discipline, which encompasses both her main speciality - temperature manipulation - and future fire related spells.
Thermomancy ⫻ Linqian's primary spell specialty that allows her to manipulate and control both external and internal temperatures, and weaponise it. This contains her spells that combine both heat and cold, along with her sole heat spells.
Body Temperature Manipulation ⫻ The spell Linqian is most skilled with, she can manipulate her own body temperature to deadly levels. This results in her touch being damaging. Along with this it means her body radiates heat or the cold. This change is visible, causing her to glow orange if she heats herself up or to get paler if she cools herself down. Her own body temperature can go up to over 1400°C - hot enough to melt metal. It can go down to -100°C, which is cold enough to make steel brittle. With more concentration she can change the temperature of specific body parts, rather than her whole body.
Air Temperature Manipulation ⫻ Linqian can cause change the air temperature in a radius around her. She can increase it up to 40°C (104°F), a heat which other humans can survive but that can also cause hyperthermia. She can decrease the air temperature around her to around -15°C (5°F), a survivable but possible dangerous temperature and can cause hypothermia. She can control what temperature she manipulates it to, to a certain degree (she will never know the exact temperature but could roughly guess by making it from “somewhat hot” to “extremely hot”).
Super Heated Self Heal ⫻ Combining her Red and Green Lux, Linqian can use heat to heal herself. She superheats any wounds (to well about a thousand degrees), with the ability to do multiple at once, and this heals them. However before they heal this superheating causes her excrutiating pain which she has to suffer through to heal. If she can tolerate that, she can heal from almost any wound that wouldn't kill her within a few minutes.
Temperature Beam ⫻ A spell that Linqian is currently working on after getting shot at, the aim is to have a focused beam of incredibly high or low temperature that she can shoot from a finger at a range. Currently she's only been able to get it up to 30°C and down to -5°C... which is basically useless. Its basically hitting people with a pinpoint hair dryer or piece of ice.
木, Wood Phase ⫻ A discipline in relation to 木, this currently contains floramancy spells taught to Linqian by Britney Williams.
Floral Transformation ⫻ Taught to her by Britney Williams, this spell is Linqian's own floramancy where she combines red and green lux to transform into plantlife. At the moment, this is more limited in form. She can only transform her arms. They primarily turn into vines, or can turn into bark like tree trunks - which is a more limited but defensive form. She can shape the vines into anything she wants within reason, growing flowers along their length or making them covered in spikes. These can extend out about 2 metres, and can split into up to five different vines parts which she can manipulate seperately. Their tips can be blunt, for manipulation, or sharp to use as a weapon.
Flaming Flora ⫻ A dangerous but potent combination of her floral transformation and body heat manipulation. When transformed into floral form, Linqian heats herself up to extreme degrees. This sets the vines on fire, giving her a flaming weapon she can completely manipulate. However, the longer it burns the more it will hurt her, and she can only use it for a short period before having transform back.
水, Water Phase ⫻ A discipline containing Linqian's sole cold spells, along with ice related spell taught to her by Jinhai - which she has little affinity with.
Cryomancy ⫻
Frozen Wall ⫻ Linqian can cool down her skin to between 0 and -50°C, using the coldness to physically toughen and enhance her skin. This allows her to dampen the damage of attacks. It doesn't completely tank or negate any damage, but can dampen the effect of moderately strong magical or physical attacks. Stronger magical attacks will completely get through the enhanced durability. It's now stable, and she can keep it up throughout a series of attacks, but eventually something will get through it. Like her body temperature manipulation, her body is cold enough to be damaging. At the lowest limit she quickly causes frostbite, and eventually hypothermia.
Ice Hands ⫻ Taught to her by Jinhai, Linqian can turn her hands into ice and manipulate them. She’s not very good at this spell, as she doesn’t have much of an affinity with it.
金, Metal Phase ⫻ A discipline currently containing spells related to lightning, with the future possibility of spells in relation to metal and magentism.
Lightning Dildo ⫻ Based on Drake's lightning arsenal which he taught her, sixteen year old Linqian developed the lightning dildo spell because it seemed like a great and hilarious idea. Just as the name says, Linqian can create a semi-solid dildo made out of lightning. She can technically hit enemies with it or throw it, and it'll shock on contact. Unlike Drake's lightning weapons, it's pretty fucking useless in battle. But also she's not a sword wielding nerd.
變化 [Bianhua], Metamorphosis ⫻ A series of spells Linqian has started developing, originally stemming from her want to fix how she looked easily. This is green lux focused and she hasn't put much work into it. They focus around manipulating her own appearance. Currently she can mainly fix her appearance, and hasn't worked much on anything that properly changes it.
Self Fix ⫻ The only spell Linqian has properly developed, this is a basic appearance manipulation spell. It allows Linqian to 'fix' parts of her appearance - removing a blemish, tidying her hair when it's a mess, lightening dark eye bags. She can only do it one issue at a time and its a temporary fix.
Hair Style ⫻ A spell that allows Linqian to control her hair and style it. She's currently not very good at it, and it takes longer than doing it manually. Her aim is for it to eventually be instantaneous, saving her a lot of time.
太阳, Sun Phase ⫻ Less a discipline (and not named after one of the five phases, technically), rather all the joint casts Linqian has.
Too Hot To Handle ⫻ A joint-cast between Linqian and Aryin Thorne, which turns the two of them into super-heated, super-durable fighting machines. They both punch each other in the gut, at the exact same time, to combine their green lux to like physical walls that can tank near any hit. At the same time, Linqian infuses them both with her red lux to turn them super hot - so hot they glow as if they were made of magma. They're hot enough to melt metals, and durable enough to tank physical and magical hits... While also being burning hot to touch. This makes them both incredibly dangerous, in both offensive, magma hot punches and wall like defence. This spell does burn of their clothes.
LIMITS ⫻
Fire Phase ⫻ These spells are all limited by what temperature she can achieve, and with each spell she can either only make it hot or cold (but she can combine it between the spells).
Body Temperature Manipulation ⫻ She’s limited by temperature, between ~1400°C and -100°C. This isn’t precise, Linqian can't choose be to 102 degrees say. She can only keep her temperature outside of normal for thirty minutes, then needs to rest for at least five. She can push herself to do it longer, but it will start damaging her. Due to emotional fields she can’t just kill other paranormal beings by, say, boiling their blood (though she can damage them). She can’t heat up one body part and cool down another at the same time. Also if she gets too hot it'll start affecting her clothes - at ~400°C any natural fibres will set on fire, and 500°C for non natural fibres.
Air Temperature Manipulation ⫻ She can change the temperature from -15°C (5°F) to 40°C (104°F), and this isn’t precise. The radius is limited to five metres around her, and it will always be the whole radius. Like above, emotional fields dampen the effect of this. She can hold the temperature for about twenty minutes at a time.
Frozen Wall ⫻ Linqian is more limited in the cold temperatures she can use with this spell - going between 0 and -50°C, rather than the much lower ones she can go to with her generic body temperature manipulation (but still damaging and possibly deadly). She can't use any spells that depend on heat while using this one. She can't use this on a specific body part, it's all or nothing. She can keep this up for thirty minutes before needing to wait another thirty to use it again. Eventually, enough attacks will start to 'crack' her enhanced skin.
Super Heated Self Heal ⫻ The larger or deeper damage is, the longer it will take Linqian to heal. She can stabilise any wound within five minutes, so she won't die unless its near instantaneous. Small things will heal in seconds, larger minutes, and something that would kill her could take ten minutes or more. Since she has to heat up the wound to an extreme degree, anything near the area will be burnt away. She can't use any spells that depend on cold while healing. The more she's healing at once, the longer it takes. Until she truly wants to live for herself, she won't be able to use it without experiencing the pain of her flesh being burned before its healed.
Temperature Beam ⫻ Right now this spell can only go between 30°C and down to -5°C. It has a range of 20m, but its useless until she improves the temperatures.
Wood Phase ⫻
Floral Transformation ⫻ At the moment, Linqian can only transform her arms. They transform into vines specifically which can then be manipulated into different types of flora. They can extend out an extra two metres beyond where her arm normally would go. She can't use it along with any extreme temperature changes- as it would kill the plant life, or set it on fire.
Flaming Flora ⫻ She can only sustain this spell for a short period of time, before it starts to hurt her. She can't manipulate the vine as easily as when it's not on fire, and it exerts much more energy to use.
Metamorphosis ⫻ Linqian's self fix take a few seconds to come into affect, and she can only fix one thing at a time. She's limited in how much she can fix and keep fixed at a time - one large thing (so if she has to properly fix her hair, thats it) or multiple smaller things. It takes a bit of energy to do. Her hair styling takes about as long as it would manually, if not longer. Both only last up to eight hours.
Ice Hands ⫻ If the ice her hands turn into is damaged, her actual hands are also damaged. She can only do it for five minutes at a time.
Lightning Dildo ⫻ This takes a few moments to create and is pretty fragile. Plus, it's a fucking dildo. There's not much you can do with a dildo made out of lightning.
Too Hot To Handle ⫻ Aryin and Linqian can keep up this spell for about fifteen minutes total. Their body temperatures go up to about to about 1200°C (melts most metals). While they can tank most hits, something can eventually get through. The heat is solely dependent on Linqian's red lux, if she's taken out that aspect is removed. Aryin can't store energy from hits taken in this state. Linqian can't use her air temperature manipulation for cold temperatures in this state.
WEAKNESSES ⫻
Thermomancy ⫻ While heated up via Body-Temperature Manipulation, Linqian is more susceptible to water and other factors that would cool her down. While cooled, it's vice-versa; she is far weaker against fire and the heat. She's not entirely immune to the effects of heat/cold, and going too hard in one direction can cause injuries. This does not differentiate between friend and foe; she can accidentally burn or freeze a friend touching her. If Linqian quickly shifts from one temperature to another, she can induce thermal shock in herself and possibly die. These Spells do not differentiate between friend and foe and can be risky during team-based combat. If she uses Air-Temperature Manipulation with her Body-Temperature manipulation spells, they can also cause her to overheat/freeze faster.
Metamorphosis ⫻ No weaknesses to note.
Ice Hands ⫻ This Spell weakens her against fire/heat-based attacks and can cause her actual flesh to melt (not pretty).
Lightning-Dildo ⫻ The Spell provides no resistance to electricity, and Linqian can still electrocute herself with it. If she's touching water or exposed to water while using it, then she can short-circuit.
Too Hot To Handle ⫻ By activating Too Hot to Handle, Linqian and Aryin's movement speed is slowed to a crawl, and they can only accomplish a leisurely walk. By glowing hot like magma, the two make themselves a very bright and noticeable target. The spell's super-heated state makes it highly vulnerable to cooling effects like water, ice, or cold/water magic - which can lower the heat and effectiveness of their durability. The Spell also doesn't differentiate between friend and foe, and can easily injure friends or disrupt their magic just as well as the enemies. Too Hot to Handle also poses a significant stamina drain, and can leave the two exhausted afterwards.
Other ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ "I never wanted to see these people again."
Nothing
Britney.Williams
"She stopped me from getting mobbed by a bunch of cultists, that counts for something." _______________________________________________
x years ago… ”What? Why the fuck are you asking about Britney? Fucking hell, its been years.”
”I contacted her today.”
”... So? Why the fuck would I care?”
”Because you got pissy that I contacted Sloane, Qian-er. I don’t want to deal with that again.”
”Fuck off, Jinhai, I barely know Britney! Talk to her, don’t talk to her, I don’t care. You’re close, you like her, you think she’s oh so smart even after all she fucking did. I don’t care. Don’t talk like I’m fucking controlling or anything.”
”Well, you did-”
”Nope, stop right there. I have no opinions about her, okay? Happy. Let’s end this fucking conversation.” current day… ”It’s funny, Hai-er, but I think that me and Britney might be starting to become friends… Strange how things work, isn’t it? She’s helped me a few times now… And I’m confident she’ll have my back. I’ll have hers, too, and not just because of the whole… situation with Greyson. I like her. I can see why you were friends. I really do. I’m glad that we’re growing closer. I still don’t entirely trust her, but who do I fucking trust? Not a lot of people. I do get the feeling she looks down on me… but that’s fine. She’s probably right to. In what world do I live up to you? I’ll accept being the inferior version, always.”
Drake.Blackmore
"He realllyyy hated Jinhai, but we got on so well I had to ignore it." _______________________________________________
”Huh? I’m not just allowed to crack open a fucking beer without it being for something?”
”... It’s a Wednesday night.”
”Fucking- stop with the judgement. I was just remembering shit, okay. All those parties we used to have with the coven… Made me want a beer. Shit isn’t as interesting here, though. There used to be all sorts of shit to watch- like whenever Drake would get smashed and start fights. Fuck, I remember one time when he was going on a proper rampage against anyone who pissed him off.”
”We remember that very differently. I was one of the people he was pissed off at.”
”... Yeah, that was why it was so fun to watch.” current day… ”Drake hasn’t changed. You wouldn’t be surprised. Bet you would be all snobby about him punching Sloane in the face, saying something about how ‘you always knew he was the type to hit women.’ I think she fucking deserved it, fucking bitch… But I get it. He hated you, like I hated Victoria, and you didn’t like him. But he’s my friend, whatever you think. Thought. Fuck. He’s lost someone too. Jade was… well, I imagine he’s feeling the same as me. His future, gone. Fucking suck. But we’ll make him pay. I swear, we’ll fuck him so hard with a lightning dildo that he’ll wish we’d killed him right away.”
”One of Britney’s victims. Quite curious, actually, what he was adjoined with. Could rot near anything away. Would solve a fair few problems we have with plastic waste… Perhaps I should see if I can get in contact with him.”
”... you know what, I don’t care.”
Sloane.Faris
"Well, she still has a massive stick up her ass." _______________________________________________
”I think that Sloane has something important to tell me. Her texts have been a bit odd lately.”
”So? Why the fuck would I care?”
”Oh, I can’t talk to you about my concerns? Why don’t I go talk to someone else, then, like Anya-”
”Fuck no, you promised you wouldn’t contact that bitch…its been ten fucking years. Alright. What’re you so concerned about?”
”It’s just interesting. Maybe it's about the murders, or all those artifacts she’s been hoarding.”
”Hahaha, that’s boring shit, why wouldn’t she just come out with it? Maybe- maybe she’s going to fucking confess to you. Imagine that, emotionless Sloane having fucking feelings!”
”You might be onto something... It’s not a surprise, with looks and brains like mine. Anyone would want to date me. So many did during college, it was a real pain to turn them all down.”
”Oh shut up, there’s no fucking way. It's been ten years- and even if she did, you wouldn’t say yes, would you? Fuck, have some standards, Jinhai.” current day… ”You know who else hasn’t changed? Sloane. She’s still just as stuck up as she was ten years ago. With that fucking boring expression and constant judgments. The other day, she told me that I had to take responsibility for how fucked up my life was. Hah. I’d like to see her live a day in my shoes, do a day of actual fucking work. But you know what? She backed off when I said you’re- you’re- well, you know. She offered to pay for the funeral. I accepted, because it’s not about me. It’s about you. Giving you the goodbye you deserve the… fuck. I don’t want to. I’m glad that even though she’s the worst, she values your friendship. Most of your other friends didn’t, fucking assholes. I still don’t like Sloane, but she’s slightly less shit. It is still so fucking hard to not slap her. You aren’t even here to stop me, but I’ve fucking managed it- better than Drake, hah. But she needs to fucking watch herself… because I can only hold myself back so much.”
Linqian really didn’t get on with Sloane, and that hasn’t changed. She did try to get on with her ten years ago, because Jinhai did, but she just couldn’t. Sloane was stuck up, ruined everything fun with her permanently dead facial expressions and dished out constant critiques towards Linqian and many others. The arguments between the two of them were some of the fiercest, because Sloane was a constant fucking inconvenience to Linqian’s life. She seemed to take issue with Linqian just existing, and Linqian took great issue with her attitude. A fair few times it almost devolved into a physical fight (on Linqian’s half, at least), and the only thing that stopped it was Jinhai physically dragging her away.
Tayla.Choi
"Hey, want to grab another drink? Just us this time, I promise." _______________________________________________
current day… ”Fuck, Tayla’s changed a lot. You’d hardly recognise her. She’s been through some shit… I don’t know the half of it, but I can see why she’s fucked up if what Greyson brought up is part of it. She even has a kid now- he’s super cute, honestly, made me miss when Yi-er wasn’t a fucking nightmare. We’re similar, cause we’ve got a lot to fucking protect and we’ve lost so much shit… I feel bad for taking Greyson’s side, sorta, when shit happened. I mean, he was just being his normal dickish self and she tried to fucking smash a bottle over his head. Fucking hell, it was bad… Hopefully that shit just blows over. Course I’ll choose Greyson- he’s my friend and fucking paying me- but I don’t want Tayla to get hurt. Her kid doesn’t deserve that… she doesn’t deserve that. I’ll make sure she survives, if I can.”
"Edict".Devola
"How the fuck does he keep pulling out more stacks of cash from his pockets." _______________________________________________
10 years ago, post leaving the coven… ”What the fuck is this?”
”An agreement that you won’t contact Greyson now that we’ve left Sycamore.”
”Are you fucking with me? You wrote a whole legal agreement shit- I already agreed not to, can’t you take my word for it? Fucking hell- what is your fucking problem with Greyson? I get that you hate him, but this shit is going too far, Jinhai. He’s not even that bad!”
”And that’s the fucking problem, Linqian. You don’t think he’s that bad. He’s a criminal who can get inside your mind. But you just see him as some fun friend - one that you can hook up with now that Bianca’s out of the picture.”
”Keep Bianca fucking out of this, Jinhai.”
”I’m not wrong. I’m being pretty reasonable, letting you keep in contact with people almost as bad. But Greyson- Greyson’s a dangerous creep. I don’t want you around him.”
”’Let me’? You’ll let me, will you? Just like I let you be around Sloane and Anya and all those other fake bitches- I’m not stupid. I know what he’s like. Why the fuck would I even sign this?”
”Perhaps I’ll finally ask Anya out for dinner like I was considering… I’m sure you’d love to have her in your life more, right, Meimei? Or, I never see her again.”
”Knock it off with the ‘meimei’ shit, you ass, I’m minutes younger… Fine. Fine! You don’t see Anya, I don’t see Greyson. None of that shit you’re worried about would happen, but whatever. Even if I wanted to, I don’t have the fucking time to see him right now… And you’re wasting my precious time off with this shit. Just give me the pen.” current day… ”If you were here, you’d be so fucking pissed at me. I mean, if you were here this wouldn’t even be happening… Haha. I’m hanging around Greyson again. Well, more than that- yes we finally fucked, I can tell you’re judging from up there, fuck off, Jinhai- but I’m also working for him. Look. I need the money, he has the money. No, I don’t fucking trust him completely. But he’s my friend as well as my boss, technically. Would’ve still been all these years if you hadn’t fucking- well, whatever. He can take all the shit I throw and throw it back. I like that. It’s not fun being around people who just get upset when I’m a bit mean to them, or get pissy over all the little shit. He gives back as good as he gets, y’know? I can actually fucking relax a bit around him, which I need. I feel a little more like someone with their own fucking life when we hang out… I can forget about all the shit responsibilities a bit even without letting him in my brain. Sure, he’s a dick, but so am I. You know how many people can put up with me? It’s not fucking many. And he’s good company. You’re not here to stop me anyway.
But don’t worry. I’ll keep him away from Yi-er.”
Jack.Hawthorne
"Another one that got on better with my brother than me." _______________________________________________
”I can’t believe he actually did it. He’s insane.”
”Huh, who?”
”Jack. He went into the Void… he’s basically throwing his life away.”
”Oh yeah, that’s fucked- what’s the void again?”
”... It’s a space outside of reality, between different universes. Filled with horrors that make the apparitions we fought look tame. Going into it is an awful idea. It’s suicidal.”
”So we won’t see him again? Oh well… he was fucking edgy anyway. I don’t know why you’re so bothered by it, he chose to do it. Let him die in the fucking Void or whatever.”
”Do I look bothered? I just think he’s out of his mind, but if he dies, well…”
”His own fucking fault, right?”
”Exactly”
current day… ”Jack’s still edgy as shit, but he’s more tolerable now. That’s growth for you- which one of us grew, who knows. Also he made it back from the Void! I know you were fucking convinced he’d died... But he did it. Survived and all that. He’s going around checking on us daily and shit. We still don't have a lot in common, and he’s friends with Sloane and Anya but… I don’t care as long as he helps me kill the fucker the killed you.”
"Sully".McPherson
"If I missed anything about the coven, it was the beer Sully provided. Well, Sully too." _______________________________________________
x years ago ”You know who I miss from the Coven? Sully. Fuck, that free beer… Shit’s so expensive.”
”You got these for free from work, didn’t you?”
”Yeah but its like piss water- fucking flavourless, barely any alcohol… I want the good shit, but we can’t fucking afford it! Didn’t have to worry about that with Sully around. I can’t believe we could drink more easily as teens… fuck.”
”Yeah, shit was pretty wild then… But at least Sully was there to stop you killing anyone when drunk.”
”I never tried to kill anyone- punch them, yeah, but I didn’t try fucking murder.”
”But you might have if Sully wasn’t there to stop you when I couldn’t, right? Hey, hey, stop heating up, you really can’t take a joke anymore, Qian-er. You’ll ruin your beer… Look, I’ll get you a nice one with my next paycheck, alright?”
current day… ”Fucking hell, I haven’t had the chance to talk to Sully cause shit keeps happening. First, we all got shot- I was seriously considering risking my life for that guy, cause he was in a bad spot… But then, next time I see him he throws a fucking toga in my face! You should’ve seen it, a whole fucking toga conga line. It was embarrassing as hell- and Sully tried to throw me right in the middle of it. With, guess who, Vashti fucking Nour! She’s kinda- no, fuck, I’m not talking to you about that shit. When there’s the chance, I need to drag him out for a drink and actually catch up… not fucking togas or conga lines, just a shit ton of free booze. I’ve fucking missed that.“
Leon.Richoux
"As long as he keeps his wolf form and his cult away from me, we’re good." _______________________________________________
current day… ”Hai-er, you might really judge me for saying this… but… I just can’t keep it from you… Leon’s mom is really fucking hot. Soooo fucking hot, I almost joined their cult- that’s a joke, I’d never join a fucking cult. Did you know Leon’s family ran one? Of course not, you would’ve told me… it was fucking weird. Makes me want to be around Leon even less. At least he replaced the car he destroyed! I’ll be fucking civil, because he’s strong which we need… if only he wasn’t such a stuck up asshole. Fuck, I think he’s worse from before. He fucking lectured me over shouting at him- yeah, I know, gotta work on my temper, fuck off- as if he hadn’t just nearly crushed my car. With how his mom is no wonder he feels so fucking superior- that cult gave weird vibes. I ain’t going near that again.”
Stormy.Carson
"Not sure I can talk to a college professor." _______________________________________________
”Ah, Qian-er, before I forget - do you want to sign this card I got?”
”Huh? What’s the occasion?”
”Stormy just became a Professor. It’s quite a competitive role, you know. I figured it would be a nice gesture to send him a congratulations card. He did so much for us all, after all.”
”Fuck off, you just want to stay in his good books in case there’s something else like the Stygian Snake so you can hide behind his shields.”
”You know I never got close enough to the fight to need his shields.”
”Course you fucking didn’t… but don’t think I can’t see you, Han Jinhai. You can’t hide your shit from me.”
”Think whatever you want, Meimei. Are you signing or not?”
”... Sign for me. My handwriting’s awful.” current day… ”Stormy’s still the same, I think. I didn’t really know him that well. He absolutely went for Britney when he first arrived, which fucking hell… not the time. But he’s still doing all he can to protect us, I guess. His shields certainly haven’t changed! But fuck, he’s too smart for me. I’m sure you guys would get along more now… Well, he’s fine.”
Anya.Baksh
"She won’t feel superior when I burn her face off." _______________________________________________
x years ago ”Hai-er, be honest with me, you’re still in touch with Anya, aren’t you?”
”No. I signed the same contract you did, do you really think I’d break it? Here, check my phone if you want to be sure.”
”I know there won’t be anything fucking there- in dreams! You can talk in fucking dreams!”
”We don’t… What brought this on? It’s been years.”
”Because my dreams have been fucked recently, and I can tell she’s fucking taunting me. It’s shit with you and Yi-er- fuck she was in them once too! It was a fucking nightmare! I hadn’t even thought about how she could just jump in them, and how you could be getting around that fucking contract you made me sign… which i still think is fucking ridiculous, you could’ve trusted me, but fuck- You really aren’t? If I find out she’s in your dreams, I swear, I’ll fucking end both of you.”
”I’m really not, I swear. Trust me.”
current day… ”Fuck, I was so happy when Anya didn’t turn up to the first meeting… but then she fucking turned up to the second one! Dealing with Sloane was bad enough, but both of them? Fuck, I hate her so much. She’s so much fucking worse than Sloane- at least Sloane argues with me. Anya just fucking ignores me. She treats me like I’m nothing. I can’t believe you were friends with her. At least Sloane is doing something for that. But Anya? She’s done fuck all. Hasn’t said a word to me, that bitch.”
current day… ”I can’t- I fucking can’t. It’s so fucking hard to say to you, fuck… Evelynn, that fucking bitch, I hate her guts. She said- fuck- she said that I deserved to lose you… That you deserved to fucking die. You didn’t deserve it. Fuck, maybe I deserve the worst, but you don’t. You should still be fucking alive- I fucking hate her. She’s the fucking worst, the next time I see her I’m going to make her wish she was dead. She’ll be in so much pain that she won’t be able to move, all she’ll be able to do is beg for me to put her out of her misery and I fucking won’t. I’ll make her regret it. Fuck, I can’t believe she said that… I hate her. I hate her so fucking much. You didn’t deserve it. If anyone deserved it, it was me. I don’t care what people say about me, but you? You were fucking everything… But she used you to hurt me. She fucking trampled all over your memory. I’m barely fucking holding on, Ge. I think I might fucking kill her… And I wouldn’t regret it. She’d deserve it. Fuck…”
current day… ”You know who’s grown a fucking backbone? Lila! Uh- you know, kid with the crows. I’m not an asshole, I won’t use her old name. Fuck, she’s changed so much… She was one of the only ones with the balls to tell Meifeng to go fuck herself. The PRA leader- absolute bitch. There’s a shit ton more crows now, though… I sure hope they don’t shit on me. I don’t have the time to clean the shit out.”
Jasper.Wilde
"Man, anyone can tell you have the hots for Luca. Don’t deny it." _______________________________________________
x years ago ”Ohhhh shit! Jasper’s got a proper exhibition now! With some fucking, I dunno, art gallery in St Portwell? I don’t fucking know- but it looks cool.”
”Let me see- oh, you’re right. The art they’ve chosen has quite the melancholic feel to it… The tragic artist, I suppose. Have you been in touch with him lately?”
”No- and I don’t understand any of that shit. Art is art, all I see is some fucking cool colours. You smart types can talk about that shit without involving me. Maybe I should text him, it’s been a while… He was always so chill. I miss bitching about Sloane with him, cause you won’t fucking do it with me.”
”You’ve never tried. There’s plenty about Sloane I could bitch about, even if we’re friends. But if you want hatred… You’ll have to go to Jasper.”
”Heh, yeah, he really goes above and beyond with that! Fuck, some of the things he said… When I get time I’ll shoot him a text.”
Adora.Phoenix-Prescott
"You’re not special because you lost something. The rest of us just had to get on with it because we didn’t have any choice." _______________________________________________
current day… ”Adora came back, what a fucking surprise. I thought she’d be hiding away somewhere, cause we all bring back bad memories or something… Whatever. I’m willing to put it all to the side. Sure, we fought all the fucking time before, because she was a judgmental bitch. When she called you a coward… Fuck, I was ready to burn her skin off. But as long as she doesn’t act like that, I’ll be civil. We both got bigger fucking problems to deal with. I don’t have time to deal with her problems, because I’ve lost you… Fuck, at least I’m not making it everyone else’s problem, too.”
Layla.Hyacinthus
"She’s fucking latched onto me now, hasn’t she?" _______________________________________________
current day… ”That little asshole, Yi-er, tried to teach Layla to say Jiejie when we were partying… If you heard how she was saying it you’d hate it just as much as I do. She butchers it so badly… I don’t even want to be around her. She’s annoying and whiney, but she’s latched onto Britney and Greyson is doing some mind shit on her so now I’m also stuck with her. So got really fucking clingy, too, what if she’s attached? I don’t have the energy to deal with another young adult, especially if she wants support. I can’t deal with that shit right now.”
Clancy.Patrick
"Wasn’t this kid shot?!" _______________________________________________
current day… ”You’re not going to fucking believe this, Hai-er… Ashley had a cousin! He’s like, ten or something! Cute little kid if you ignore him surviving being shot… But fuck, I’m not sure how to feel about a kid hanging around with us. We’re not exactly good influences. Eh, he seemed like he could handle himself. I’m sure it’ll be fine.”
”I think Kenshiro’s starting to get used to America more…”
”Course he is! I’ve been doing my fucking hardest to help him with the culture differences… I took him out for some proper, shit fast food burgers yesterday. Dunno how they’re still running with the Stygian Snake destroying the place.”
”Heh, of course they’re still open. There’s still a few difficulties when we’re planning… People say things he doesn’t quite understand, but I’ve always managed to smooth it over.”
”You always fucking do. Y’know, he’s wayyy better at explaining magic than you are. I’m actually getting better- which you didn’t help with at all!”
”There’s only so much I can do for a student as bad as you…”
current day… ”Fuck, Kenshiro’s gotten more dramatic… He’s lost a lot, I guess. Honestly, I was kind of jealous when he just started crying over Kari. I wish I could do that. I don’t have the time to cry over you. But, he was still the same Ken in a way, speaking way too fast about shit I didn’t understand. I kinda missed it.”
Aaron/Aryin.Thorne
"The fuck, you’ve gone all artsy and shit? Oh, you were always artsy and shit? Can you still take a punch, then?" _______________________________________________
3 years ago… ”Fuck, you know what Aryin just texted me- and it’s definitely Aryin, cause Aaron doesn’t fucking shit talk like this.”
”Yeah?”
”’Seven fucking years. Seven…fucking…years. That’s how long I’ve had the displeasure of knowing you. From the day we met I knew we’d never be friends. I made sure of that when I pushed back and forced you to fight me-”
”Fuck, how long is this?”
”Shut up- ‘Some would say I won that fight, some would say we tied, but you know what I’d say? I think that you fucking lost that fight but won the war because I fucking love you bro. Seven fucking years, here’s to seven fucking more.’ This fucking bitch, I didn’t lose the fucking fight! When are we next going to St Portwell, I need to beat her fucking ass.”
”You can just say you miss her, Qian-er, it’s alright, I won’t judge you for going soft.”
”Oh fuck you, Jinhai.”
”I think it’s sweet. All your other ‘friends’ from Sycamore barely- Alright, cool down, I won’t shit talk them. But you can actually depend on them.”
”Yeah, yeah, you’re right… I do trust that fucker more than I do anyone else. Don’t tell them I said that.”
”Heh, I’ll consider it… Well, what did you do for your ‘friend anniversary’ or whatever this is.”
”I sent them a letter.”
”... Wow, I’m surprised, you can still write?”
”You fucking- yes I can. All it said was, ‘seven years, fuck you’ with a heart, anyway.” current day… ”You were right, y’know. Well… you were always right. But I can depend on Aryin… Aaron too, obviously. Fuck, y’know I wasn’t sure because they’ve been so fucking busy since I came back. But as soon as I saw them again, that was it. Like ten fucking years hadn’t passed. I need someone I can actually trust, because you’re not- fuck. I just can’t trust anyone else right now. They’d be fine around Yi-er, too- and you now how much I don’t want fucking coven members around him. You were the same, even with your friends… Whatever. I know they’ll have my back without any fucking conditions. Maybe it’ll be the same for Britney… and Greyson. But I can depend on them. Fuck, it really is good to see them again. They actually fucking understand shit! Not that I’m unloading all my problems on them- you know I can’t do that- but they get the money shit. Fucking sucks. I forgot how strong Aryin’s punch was after ten years of texting and calls… Fuck, I think it might bruise. Definitely don’t tell them- oh. You can’t. Haha. Well, don’t worry. With this bitch on my side, I won’t be joining you anytime soon.”
Amara.King
"She keeps giving me this flirty look… Sorry, you don’t have a chance. Go fuck Bianca or something." _______________________________________________
”So I heard the strangest thing about you, Bianca and Amara…”
”Huh?”
”Supposedly the three of you… had a bit of fun-”
”Stop right there. Who the fuck told you that?”
”Amara herself was bragging about it.”
”That fucking- I’m going to fucking end her. Nothing happened! Fuck. That bitch. Don’t listen to anything she says about us, okay! Fucking telling my brother… bitch… ugh…”
”Luna”.Inoue
"I don’t give a fuck about the whole mafia thing, I dislike her as a person. She’s fucking boring." _______________________________________________
”I always knew there was something suspicious about Luna… But trying to get people to join her mafia group? I couldn’t have guessed it was something so stupid.”
”Heh, funny story…”
”What?”
”A couple of days ago she tried to approach me with that. She was going on about how she could give me another family and some shit about money, I don’t remember. It was boring as fuck. I just told her to fuck right off… I don’t want to join some shitty mafia. If I was going to it would be Grey- well, I wouldn’t, obviously. I didn’t bother saying cause it didn’t seem important.”
”Are you fucking with me, Linqian? You didn’t think it seemed important? That someone tried to get you to join a mafia.”
”Tried. As if she could make me. She ran away soon as I told her too, fucking coward.”
”I’m going to kill her.”
”Oh c’mon, Ge, stop being so dramatic. She didn’t do shit, and she’s gone now. Chill- heh, ironic I’m telling you that. You get real pissed when it comes to this kinda shit with me, don’t you? Don’t worry, if I see her again, I’ll kick her ass.”
Aislin.Rose
"Start talking about dreams again and I’ll show you my fucking dreams." _______________________________________________
Current day… ”So, Aislin came back too. She’s… the exact fucking same. It didn’t bother me as much back then, cause I was a teen without all this shit on me. But now it fucking pissed me off. I live in the real world with a shit ton of responsibilities, and she’s out here smoking fucking weed while we trying to find the person who killed you. Next thing she’ll be talking about how we should forgive and forget or some other fucking shit. Idealism doesn’t get you anywhere. I can’t eat dreams and good karma for dinner. Fuck, I’m getting more pissed off just thinking about it… I don’t have time for her idealistic shit.”
Bé.Rochefoucauld
"I’m glad he’s not come back." _______________________________________________
x years ago… ”Are you still in touch with Bé?” ”... Why are you asking now?” ”Cause I was thinking about the coven and I just remembered that asshole. You used to be friendly with and, fuck, I wanted to make sure I won’t have to see him again.” ”We’re not. We lost contact a few years ago… But Sloane’s still in contact with him, I can get his number from-” ”Don’t you fucking dare. Hearing about her is already bad enough.”
"If the worst hadn’t already happened there’s no way I’d be back here with these people."
_______________________________________________ Linqian Han
She/Her | 26 | Chinese-Congolese | 5’6” | 126lbs _______________________________________________ Fickle _______________________________________________ Skills & Talents "My brother stole all the brains in the womb, hah." ___________________________________
Chinese & Kituba ⫻ Chinese is Linqian’s first language, and the one that was primarily spoken in her household and with her two brothers. She is fluent in speaking and reading, but not so much in writing. She also speaks conversational Kituba, taught by her mother and used in the few years they lived in the Republic of Congo.
Cooking ⫻ Linqian learned to cook from both her parents, and is the only one in her remaining family with any skill for it (her brothers burn most things they cook). She is surprisingly talented at it, going beyond cooking out of necessity to being able to cook fancy meals (when she feels up to it).
Bartending ⫻ Linqian has worked in bars since she was legally able to, to help keep her family afloat. She’s good at making drinks, and passable at service - with time, she’s gotten better at keeping control of her emotions in front of customers, at least.
Appearance ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ "Don’t look too hard."
The first thing noticeable about Linqian is that she has a resting bitch face, eyes slightly narrowed and lips turned down. The second is that she’s clearly mixed, between her coily hair and hooded eyes. She’s a bit taller than average - though where she’s originally from in China, she’d be counted as tall. She’s relatively slim thanks to working on her feet and cutting costs by cutting down on the meals she eats. Her body is pear shaped, with a relatively flat chest but more curves towards her hips and legs.
Linqian’s hair is formed in tight coils that fall just below her shoulders. She styles it in a few ways, most often a bun or low ponytail, but quite often will leave it loose. She used to straighten it, but has stopped since she grew to love her hair type more. Linqian’s eyes are round, with a gentle upturn at the outer corner. They are dark brown in colour with a hooded, double eyelid. The bottom lid creases up when she smiles, making her eyes much narrower - she looks prettier when she smiles than when she doesn’t (there just isn’t much to smile about right now). Overall, though, she views herself as attractive (and she is) - even if not conventionally.
Clothes wise, Linqian will normally wear tight shirts tucked into waist high shorts or loose trousers. When it’s colder she’ll wear a thick fleece jacket over the top. She enjoys wearing dresses and skirts, but rarely finds an occasion to. She dressed mainly in shades of blue, black and white with the occasional brighter colour thrown in - namely red, orange or yellow. She has her ears pierced, but doesn’t always wear earrings. On her right hand she has always wears a pair of wedding rings.
Psychology ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ "I never said I’d keep liking you.”
MAIN GOAL ⫻ Linqian’s primary long term goal has always been to fall in love and start her own family (surprising many, as she isn’t particularly maternal or even nice) eventually - though right now the thought of settling down terrifies her. Her shorter term goal is to see her younger brother through college and into independence before she can concentrate on her own life. Currently, her goal is to destroy the piece of shit that killed her twin brother.
PHILOSOPHY ⫻ Family is more important than anything else. Linqian believes in always prioritising her family over any other relationships and sometimes herself. The bond between close family is incredibly important in her eyes - but she also doesn’t believe it extends to distant relatives. She also thinks that others opinions (outside of family) don’t mean shit, if they disapprove of what you do then fuck them. People that hate you are just jealous, and if anyone causes you problems you should just cut them out.
SECRETS ⫻ How she always felt inadequate next to her much smarter twin brother. Sometimes she resented him. She has insecurities that come from this, deep down not feeling good enough, but she’d never let anyone know that.
SEXUALITY ⫻ Pansexual, with commitment issues. Linqian had a difficult breakup with a former coven member, which was the breaking point for her leaving the coven, and then was cheated on by her next partner. She tends to keep things casual nowadays, and has slept around quite a lot the last few years - but never with the same person twice.
FEARS ⫻ Linqian’s worst fear has already come true - losing her twin brother. Second to this is losing the only family she has left, her younger brother. She’s scared of commitment. She also has a much more mundane fear of dogs.
REPUTATION IN OLD COVEN ⫻ Linqian’s reputation was mixed. On one hand, she was friendly and charming, especially when she first joined the coven. On the other hand she was fickle, quick to decide she disliked someone, and incredibly argumentative. There are plenty of members she got into heated fights with, and others that she gave the cold shoulder for seemingly no reason. While some might have neutral or positive opinions on her, there aren’t any that saw her as a close friend - any friendships she had were surface level only. Linqian left the coven explosively after being broken up with by her partner of the time. She wasn’t there when it dissolved, but caused enough fights after the battle that she definitely had a hand in it.
ROLE IN THE BATTLE AGAINST THE STYGIAN SNAKE ⫻ Linqian fought against the Stygian Snake’s minions, and the apparition itself, from relatively early on. While she was nowhere near the strongest, she’d had her abstraction long enough to know how to use it and help. In the final battle she helped weaken it, lowering her body temperatures to deadly levels and using that to damage and fight its darkness constructs.
FLAWS ⫻ Linqian is quick to change her opinions, especially in relation to other people or her emotions. One day she can be incredibly nice to someone, the next giving them the cold shoulder due to some perceived slight. She’s incredibly ‘hot and cold’ when it comes to relationships outside of her family. She also doesn’t hold back her opinions, often being quite blunt and harsh. She won’t back down on her opinions and is incredibly argumentative if someone disagrees with her. Once she loses her cool it's difficult for her to see reason, and normally it was her twin brother who reeled her in. For all she would deny it, she was incredibly dependent on her twin, and now that she’s gone it’s left her struggling.
Backstory ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ "Only one thing’s ever been constant in my life… Now he’s gone. Fuck."
Linqian was born in Tangshan, China just ten minutes after her twin brother, Jinhai. She spent the first seven years of her life there, relatively peacefully - until suddenly her dad had a falling out with his parents, cutting off all contact. Their family moved to Pointe-Noire, in the Republic of Congo, where her mum’s family was. The sudden move was a shock to Linqian and not one she took well, being in a different country speaking a language she struggled with, surrounded by family members she’d never met. Her and Jinhai grew even closer than before, practically becoming inseparable.
Half a year later her younger brother was born, then less than two years later they were moving again. This time to St Portwell in the USA. Yet another new country and language, but this time it was only their family of five. It took a while to settle in, and for a long time Linqian missed her original home, but eventually she managed and all was peaceful again.
Then at age fifteen Jinhai had his kindling event - and immediately after it he used his abstraction to freeze Linqian’s hair when she’d just come out of a shower, triggering her kindling event. It was fucking weird talking to a great grandmother she’d never met, who was convinced that she should already know about Lux and how their family line could use it. Unlike Jinhai, who’d taken to it easily, Linqian was freaked out and confronted her parents over it. If she should know, they should too, right?
Turned out, both her mum and dad came from a long line of Adepts - in fact, it was because of this their dad had cut off his family and thus been severed from his lux. His parents believed in the purity of their line, trying to keep marriage between those of red lux only. On the other hand, her mum’s family was much more relaxed - most of her relatives were green lux but there were a few mixed just like Linqing and Jinhai. For some reason they’d made the decision to not teach their children about this, even though their mum still had her abstraction. So suddenly Linqing was not only in the midst of puberty and petty highschool drama, but she also had magic. Her and Jinhai started practising together whenever they had time - frustratingly, as with all things, he was better than her.
Then, the Stygian Snake appeared. Linqian’s dad, who was only one-eye-open now, was enthralled by it and tried to kill the rest of his family. Her mother used her abstraction to stop him, sacrificing herself in the process so Linqian and her brothers could get away. While fleeing they bumped into a group called the Sycamore Tree coven. Jinhai made the decision there and then to join, which Linqian followed (reluctantly). Their brother, only one eye open and eight years old, was sent to temporarily live with a distant relative in a different city.
Linqian used her abstraction to participate in each battle with the Stygian Snake and its apparitions, primarily focusing on taking out the apparitions and thralls it created. She was always in a group with Jinhai - and always following his decisions over others. He was intelligent, and one of the group members who took part in planning with the information provided by those more knowledgeable about magic (namely Britney). Linqian, on the other hand, was there to help with the fight and cause unnecessary problems.
Somehow, in amongst all this Linqian managed to find love with another coven member. She started to drift from Jinhai, spending time with her partner in the small moments in between battling the Stygian Snake’s minions. It was her first relationship and she fell hard very quickly. It caused tension in her relationship with her brother, which they resolved after multiple arguments and before the final battle.
On the day of the eclipse Linqian helped defeat the Stygian Snake by manipulating her body temperature to deadly cold levels, using this to distract and weaken it to help Ashley deal the finishing blow, even when it required her to get close enough to touch it - sustaining injuries in the process. She was drained and hurt after the battle, barely aware of the apparition being sealed and agreeing to have her memory wiped. Then, she joined the brand new coven afterwards.
Linqian played a big part in the petty arguments and fights the coven members had afterwards, and had no interest in going after other apparitions. They’d already done enough, surely? Honestly, she was only still there because of her partner and her brother still holding some interest in it.
Then, her partner suddenly broke up with her - over text on the day of a meeting no less. Angrier than she’d been in a long time Linqian confronted them when the coven met up, and what started out as petty insults and angry words turned into her being practically dragged out by Jinhai when she tried to use her abstraction to burn her ex. She never went back. She probably would’ve been kicked out anyway, and the coven dissolved only a month later.
Linqian moved on - well, as much as she could when her parents had died. She dropped out of highschool to start working, first in supermarkets then in bars when she was old enough. Together her and Jinhai moved for his college, and their younger brother moved back in with them now that they were legal adults. It was difficult, but between her job and Jinhai working part time around his degree they made it work.
Finally, after years of being the main breadwinner of the family, her brother graduated his law degree and passed his bar exam. Her younger brother was finally in college too. From now on things would be easier for Linqian. She wouldn’t have to work herself to the bone. The night after her brother got a job at a well known law firm she went to work with this knowledge, more relaxed than she had been for a long time, and looking forward to a drink with him once she was done.
Instead she came home to his unmoving body in their living room, blood staining the ugly cream carpet. He had been stabbed to death, and the only pointer towards who’d done it was a wolf idol she found hidden in his bedroom.
Linqian lived in a daze for a week after that, sorting out everything that needed to be done when someone died, and continuing as if she hadn’t lost one of the most important people in her life. It was as if she wasn’t quite there. She felt emotionally numb, but also incredibly volatile at the same time.
When Auri reached out to her about the string of murders that were happening - murders including her brother - Linqian didn’t hesitate to return. Under any other circumstance she’d decline (especially with the risk of seeing her ex again), but not for this. She needed to find whatever had done this, and make sure it died just like her brother had.
Paranormal-Abilities ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ "You think I’m hot? Well, you’re not wrong."
TYPE ⫻ Adept
ABSTRACTION ⫻Red & Green Lux. Channeler: her mother’s wedding ring
ABSTRACTION DESCRIPTION ⫻ Linqian has a primary affinity towards thermokinesis, especially of her own body. She also has an affinity towards fire and transformation, which she hasn’t discovered due to not exploring outside of her primary affinity.
Body Temperature Manipulation ⫻ The spell Linqian is most skilled with, she can manipulate her own body temperature to harmful and possibly deadly levels. This results in her touch being damaging. Along with this it means her body radiates heat or the cold. This change is visible, causing her to glow orange if she heats herself up or to get paler if she cools herself down. Her own body temperature can go up to 100°C and down to -30°C. With more concentration she can change the temperature of specific body parts, rather than her whole body.
Heat Manipulation ⫻ Linqian can cause the air temperature in a radius around her to increase up to 40°C (104°F), a heat which other humans can survive but that can also cause hyperthermia. She can control what temperature she manipulates it to, to a certain degree (she will never know the exact temperature but could roughly guess by making it from “somewhat hot” to “extremely hot”).
Cold Manipulation ⫻ Her cold manipulation is similar to heat manipulation, with different temperatures. She can decrease the air temperature around her to around -15°C (5°F), a survivable but possible dangerous temperature and can cause hypothermia.
Ice Hands ⫻ Taught to her by Jinhua, Linqian can turn her hands into ice and manipulate them. She’s not very good at this spell, as she doesn’t have much of an affinity with it.
LIMITS ⫻
Body Temperature Manipulation ⫻ She’s limited by temperature, between 100°C and -30°C. This isn’t exactly precise, Linqian can control from deadly hot to deadly cold and some variety in between but not specification temperatures. She can only keep her temperature outside of normal for ten minutes, then needs to rest for at least five. She can push herself to do it longer, but it will start damaging her. Due to emotional fields she can’t just kill other paranormal beings by, say, boiling their blood (though she can damage them). She can’t heat up one body part and cool down another at the same time.
Heat & Cold Manipulation ⫻ She can change the temperature from -15°C (5°F) to 40°C (104°F), and this isn’t precise. The radius is limited to five metres around her, and it will always be the whole radius. Like above, emotional fields dampen the effect of this. She can hold the temperature for about twenty minutes at a time.
Ice Hands ⫻ If the ice her hands turn into is damaged, her actual hands are also damaged. She can only do it for five minutes at a time.
WEAKNESSES ⫻ (DO NOT FILL THIS OUT, I WILL PROVIDE IT FOR YOU)
Other ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ "I never wanted to see these people again."
Nothing
And her dead brother's NPC sheet
Jinhai.Han
26 | Jinhai Han | He/Him "You’re just my stepping stone to success."
Description:
Linqian’s (slightly older) twin brother, Jinhai was the self proclaimed leader of the Han siblings (something Linqian protested, even though she always ended up following him). He was very, intensely, close to Linqian. Jinhai was charming and diplomatic on the outside, incredibly intelligent and well spoken. However this was only on a surface level - Jinhai was incredibly self serving, forming only superficial relationships for his own benefit outside of the few he was close to (his sister, younger brother and a few friends). He was a natural leader, arrogant and proud along with it, which led to him clashing with other coven members frequently. But he knew how to smooth things over, and was often the one stopping Linqian from causing a scene.
Jinhai joined the Sycamore Tree coven along with Linqian after their parents were killed during its rampage, and the two of them along with their younger brother barely escaped. He was the one that made the decision to join the coven. With his people skills, ability to plan and abstraction he helped bring the Stygian Snake down… But he made sure not to put himself at risk. People had mixed opinions of him thanks to this, and he left the coven when Linqian chose to over a breakup. He moved on and went to college, aiming to become a Lawyer. He had just passed his bar exam when he was killed by the Stygian Snake.
Abstraction: Adept - Green & Red Lux. Channeler: His Father’s Wedding Ring
Ice Transformation: Jinhai could turn himself into ice - this could be localised, such as just his hands, or his entire body. He could control the ice that was part of his body and could freeze things by touching them, but he couldn’t control external ice.
Thermal Resistance: A spell Jinhai had to develop purely to avoid boiling or freezing in his sister’s company. It allowed him to resist extreme temperatures, both natural and unnatural, so that he would barely feel the changes in temperature.
Self-healing: Due to his selfish desire to protect himself above all else, Jinhai could heal himself slowly - he would recover from most wounds, as long as they weren’t serious enough to cause him to bleed out in minutes.
Haven't decided yet if I'll make her ex-partner dead, a not rejoining NPC, or my other character (tbh its also open if anyone wants some fun past dramatic character relationships)
[center][img]http://i.imgur.com/uUydHWE.png[/img]
[color=SeaGreen]They/He|UK(GMT)
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Mid 20s. Been here a long time, generally only join friend's rps. Constantly tired. Masc nonbinary, preference for they pronouns but he are ok too!
<div style="white-space:pre-wrap;"><div class="bb-center"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/uUydHWE.png" /><br><font color="seagreen">They/He|UK(GMT)</font><br><a href="https://www.roleplayerguild.com/topics/162255-fernstones-character-archive/ooc"><font color="mediumseagreen">Character Archive</font></a></div><hr class="bb-hr"><hr class="bb-hr"><br>Mid 20s. Been here a long time, generally only join friend's rps. Constantly tired. Masc nonbinary, preference for they pronouns but he are ok too!<br><br></div>
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