Stitches

Tales of Anvellor

Also interested! Bringing a friend with me.

Recollections: The Fourth Seal [Mystery/Urban-Fantasy/Horror RP]

Abigail moved with measured purpose. She cast a brief look over her shoulder at Tristan calling after her but, still bewildered, she hurriedly ignored his calling. Her trainers crunched under the gravel of the empty lot just outside of the warehouse and onto the path, then the tarmac of the road. She heard another voice - another man - call disapprovingly against her behaviour. She exhaled sharply through her nostrils and tugged on the hem of her jacket and walked a little brisker as it became increasingly apparent that she was less worried about what was out there...and more afraid of the warehouse and its inhabitants. Especially after she flinched when David’s camera shutter went off and went just a little faster.

Nobody had yet jogged up to her level and Abigail hid her discomfort by sort of hunching her shoulders as she walked, behaving defensively. She could hear the footfalls of other people following her as she crested the hill. Her pace slowed and stopped as she reached the chasm, staying a good few feet away from it, peering down at it as she took a shaky breath and exhaled. Jaden, Tristan and David had caught up to her. She was quiet for a while then loosely gestured to the vertical buildings. “My, uh. My carers are down there,” she offered up to nobody in particular, as if vocalising it would magically procure a solution.

When that didn’t happen and she heard David’s shutter snap shut, she jolted again and wheeled onto him in moments. “Okay-no. No, stop doing that.” Her hand half-raised to push the camera away from her until he dropped it. “No more pictures of me, okay? Delete any you took of me just now. It’s fucking-...I’m sixteen. Can put you in jail for it. Shhhit,” she hissed the last curse under her breath as her head jerked back to the sudden drop. She stood and stared. She kicked a little piece of gravel off the precipice and listened to it bounce and rattle as it cracked against walls and porches.

“Fuckin’...Silent Hill piece’ashit…” Abigail muttered under her breath as she fumbled in her jacket pocket and pulled out a half-empty carton of Newports and a pink zippo lighter. Her hands were disgusting; her nails were markedly shorter and the fingertips all frayed, peeling and scabby. Her thumb still held the smear of congealed blood where she had chewed it earlier. It took her several attempts to light her menthol because her hands were trembling so much. Abigail took a long drag and exhaled a plume of minty tobacco smoke, squinting up at the plummeting sun with apprehension. She wiped her eyes with her free hand and looked around at the gathering, on the brink of tears. “M’not staying round here when it gets dark,” she shakily declared, and started traipsing down the hill again at a brisk pace to hide the odd tear or two rolling down her cheeks. Once she reached the warehouse front again she turned a corner and leant against one of its walls to finish her cigarette, cracking the capsule between her fingers. After a second or two she slowly slid down the wall and drew her knees to her chest, breathily sobbing into her free hand, the cigarette dangling loosely out of the other as she went through the motions of processing what’s happened to her.

Recollections: The Fourth Seal [Mystery/Urban-Fantasy/Horror RP]

Abigail lay quite still and listened to the voices of the other people, her forearm still covering her face as she breathed deeply. It was only when she heard footsteps approach and felt something nudge her in the ribs that she removed her forearm and found herself staring up the nostrils of a man she'd never seen before. She blinked a few times. "Yo, wake up," he said to her as she sat up and looked around the building with a grimace. Her gaze slipped from person to person with growing bewilderment as she stood, stumbling a little to collect her balance, and dusted off her jacket. Instead of sticking around to make conversation Abigail hurried for the exit and stepped out, crossing the threshold to try and seek out a path or a road to follow.

Recollections: The Fourth Seal [Mystery/Urban-Fantasy/Horror RP]

Abigail chewed the end of her pen thoughtfully and stood up. It was one of those nights; ones where you were only assigned questions one to four, but each had subsequent questions that lettered up to G. It was also one of those nights. She sat under the fluorescent bulb of the kitchen light, tense and staring with disinterest at a point just beyond her textbooks as her ears strained to hear what was going on upstairs. Her stomach growled and she pushed her feet into her trainers. She glanced once, twice at the ceiling as her features crumpled up with disgust. Her fingers found the end of her jacket sleeves and then ran through the seams of her pockets, checking for her things. She crossed the threshold from the kitchen to the living room and up the stairs. Oliver and Isaac were out, Joseph wouldn't be home till seven. She made a deliberate effort to land on the creaky step with some weight but it didn't muffle the choked sobs, so she stamped a little as she went down the corridor and knocked on a plain wooden door.

"Tyler, would you like me to heat dinner?" Abigail called out with trepidation.

Silence.

"...Tyler? It's in the fridge. You don't have to do anything…"

"...Y-you go on ahead, sweetheart. I'm not hungry right now," came a wobbly voice from the master bedroom. Abigail stood outside the door, her thumb worming between her lips as she gnashed her teeth on the stub of the nail. Her gaze went from the door to the landing and back at the door again.

"You sure?" She offered hopefully.

"Yeah. It's okay."

Abigail exhaled and went back down the stairs, again making an effort to hit the creaky step. She pulled out a greasy tupperware box from the top drawer of the fridge and her fingers hovered over the rim of the coke can in one of the shelves for a second or two before her shoulders sank and she shut the door, cracking the lid of the tupperware open and putting it - loudly - into the microwave. Her gaze slipped up to the ceiling. The sobbing had started again. She licked the blood off her thumb and punched in a few numbers into the keypad.

Whilst the microwave buzzed and spun Abigail regarded her homework with a furrowed brow and then stumbled slightly as a great cracking rumble shook the foundations of the house itself. All the windows lit up with purple light. "...Tyler?" She called out, watching the purple line get bigger. Her eyes widened. "Fuck--Tyler!" A lot happened in a couple of seconds. Disregarding her own safety, Abigail raced up the stairs to get her guardian out of the house. As she took the stairs two at a time, Tyler burst out of the door to run down the corridor. Abigail slipped on the landing and the purple glow engulfed her and took the floor clear out from underneath her. She flailed and inhaled sharply as her stomach dropped…

Concrete was not a particularly forgiving surface to land on, especially at speed. Abigail landed on her side but her head bounced shortly after, knocking the wind out and briefly stunning the girl as she rolled confusedly onto her back and covered her eyes with her forearm. It took her a while to get her breath back and even longer to bother moving, partially paralysed with fear and pinned to the floor by the disorienting spinning sensation that inevitably followed such a knock.

Recollections: The Fourth Seal [Mystery/Urban-Fantasy/Horror RP]

Abigail Harlow

Abigail Harlow

╚══════════════╝

"Weird flex, but ok."

[ 16 | 5’3 | Caucasian | She/Her | 102lbs ]

[Lost]

APPEARANCE

"Could be worse, right?"

She's short and lanky, with knobbly joints, an upturned nose and snaggly teeth. Often has a spot or two on her face. Dark blonde greasy hair which she either wears loose, covers with an equally greasy baseball cap or ties up into an unappealingly tight ponytail. She wears thrift shop fashion or sports gear. Often smells of teenage BO and cheap deodorant. On her tongue is a black tattoo, resembling an oval with ornate patterns surrounding its edge.

PSYCHOLOGY

"Look, I’m trying my best."

MAIN GOAL ⫻ Financial Independence.

PHILOSOPHY ⫻ That everything’s going a bit too fast all at once, but she has to prove to herself and the people around her that she’s got the integrity and gumption to separate herself from her biological parents.

SECRETS ⫻ Most of the time, the name and location of her biological mother. She’s still in contact with her mother but that’s only to keep her away from her.

SEXUALITY ⫻ Asexual/Aromantic.

FEARS ⫻ Failure. There’s a lot riding on her grades. She’s two years from aging out of the system and from there on, she’s basically on her own.

REPUTATION ⫻ Abigail is a silent presence in the city’s community. She switches up her study locations with frequency and is often outdoors with her books or plodding behind a group of teens with the half-hearted interest of someone who’d rather be somewhere else. It’s likely that people have seen her before once or twice, but unlikely that she’s said or done anything to really stick. Certain 24hr cafés, the city library staff and the faculty of the local high school are the most likely to know her by name and have seen her regularly enough.

QUIRKS ⫻ She chews her nails. As in, really chows down on those suckers. It’s a nervous tic that shines through when she’s stressed and her fingers are all frayed and scabby from it.

FLAWS ⫻ Abigail is extremely mistrustful of women. She struggles to make proper relationships with other people, with her attempts at getting to know someone either fuelled by an ulterior motive or a nagging feeling she ought to be trying. This ends up with her lingering around too long or using people for her benefit.

BACKSTORY

"At the end of the day, I think everything's turning out okay."

Abigail started off life as a bright and inquisitive young girl in a very stressed household. She used to be from Missouri but her parents were going through a rough patch in their marriage that was, in part, spurred on by the fact her father didn’t really want kids and Abigail was an accident. There were other factors at play that she wasn’t made aware of, but unfortunately that little tidbit of information stuck and shaped who she thought she was from there on out. Her parents divorced when she was quite young with her mother moving to Pennsylvania in order to get away from all the scandal surrounding it as well as giving herself a new start. There, Abigail started to really invest in school as a means of distracting herself from her turbulent childhood. She was sharp, intelligent and driven by a need for escapism. It played out in her advantage and formed a coping mechanism that, whilst unhealthy, could have turned a lot worse. It was here that her nail-biting habit began.

Abigail was eventually taken from her mother by CPS and put into a state-funded foster scheme from age 8. What had started as a positive start quickly devolved into the stresses and quiet terrors of being a single mother estranged from her own family, which then manifested in meth addiction. CPS got involved after Abigail’s obsession with school suddenly turned into apathy and the signs of neglect became increasingly apparent. This was also around the time of her awakening, though it went largely unnoticed in all of the chaos. Her mother did not take the split well at all, and made frequent attempts to ‘get her baby back’, which resulted in three separate foster home changes until Abigail landed in Araminta. Attempts to get her father to adopt her were unsuccessful; she found out that he voluntarily terminated his parental rights a few years after the divorce to allow her mother to find a new partner and make a new family. He had no interest or desire to take her in but worked with her foster carers to terminate the parental rights of his ex-wife. Aside from the odd text message or letter, and yearly allowances to build up a savings account for the girl to live off of when she ages out of the system, Abigail doesn’t have a fatherly relationship with him anymore. As for her mother, Abigail does talk to her frequently but never discloses any personal information to avoid any more ‘rescue attempts’. The court proceedings finished when she was around 14, meaning that for the past two years she has been a ward of the state.

Abigail’s awakening and subsequent abstraction came from the trauma of her early childhood. At first she thought she was incredibly good at impersonating her mother’s voice once she was separated from her, but then found she could take on her appearance after a very awkward shower. Even at a young age she realised this was something that, under any circumstance, must be kept a secret, but she’s used it to find out where her mom was. She’s only experimented with it a few times a year using foster kids or people she hung out with, learning to copy their habits and voices with extra-normal precision. She’s impersonated her fellow foster-siblings once or twice to get away with breaking house rules but puts a lot of planning and preparation into the use of it to prevent detection. Since it’s a skill that needs to be activated, she’s pretty much ignored it unless she had a spare moment and the inclination to experiment.

Socially, Abigail’s stints in foster homes have alienated her from healthy relationships. The constant looming threat of her addict mother hunting her down forced Abigail to be distant with her peers and legal guardians, half-expecting the need to move again. Her mother’s unpredictable behaviour has mixed with Abigail’s teenage hormones to mistakenly give her the impression that all women were hysterical, emotional and unpredictable - herself included. The sense of abandonment from her father hit her self-esteem, turning her into a reserved ‘background-presence’ in most of the friend groups she tagged along with. Furthermore, her obsession with passing her classes and excelling in her education has barred her from plenty of parties and opportunities to get to know her peers properly. Now that she’s feeling the sudden pressure of aging out of the foster system, Abigail is trying to build up a support network to catch her financially as she gains independence but lacks the sincerity and emotional connections to really make it work. She’s taken to observing the people she wants to connect with and making concerted efforts to please them, which comes off as forced or unnerving. The stress of it is compounded on top of her academia and fretful home life, so she often takes her things outside to find a place to disconnect and work by herself.

SKILLS & TALENTS

"I think I’m pretty good at watching from afar."

Academic ⫻ Abigail’s got the self-discipline required to study, the intelligence to quickly grasp unknown concepts, and the drive to succeed. She also retains a lot of information and can be organised when she needs to be.

Athletic ⫻ One of Abigail’s other coping mechanisms (and perhaps one of her favourite hobbies) is jogging and working out, but the lack of available equipment has impeded her progress. She does a lot of body weight exercises to make up for it.

Fleet-footed ⫻ Abigail learnt from a very early age to be neither seen nor heard, and she uses these skills to keep herself out of the way from other people.

People-Watcher ⫻ Abigail learnt very quickly how to watch people for subtler body language, emotional cues, nervous tics and anything that might betray their attitude towards her. Since her mother’s mood was unpredictable and abusive, and her litany of legal guardians afterwards didn’t disclose much information to her, Abigail has learnt to watch for these unspoken truths and turn them to her advantage.

ABSTRACTION

"Nobody needs to know."

TYPE ⫻ Awakened

ABSTRACTION ⫻ Mimickry

ABSTRACTION DESCRIPTION ⫻ Abigail can morph her body into a precise replica of another human being. The accuracy of this replication depends on how much time she’s had to study her target; the absolute minimum is a brief glimpse of them in a gas station or a photo of them in a book to get the physical appearance down precisely, but without any knowledge of their voice, body language or demeanor the facade can be seen through quite quickly. The longer she spends time with people, the more accurate her impersonations get; part of her abstraction heightens her ability to pick up on and replicate other people’s behavior. She cannot, however, change her clothes or aura.

Partial Mimickry: A less taxing but more complex facet of her abstraction is Abigail’s ability to change some parts of her body to replicate another person’s, but it’s restricted exclusively to studied facets of the person. For example, if given a recording of another person that she can listen to over and over, she can replicate their vocal chords only. If she’s given time to examine a body part such as one’s fingertips, she can change her own to match theirs.

AURA SENSING ⫻ Abigail can sense the aura of the person she is copying, extra-normal or otherwise. This reading can reach incredible distances but the shape and precision of it is vague, more of an indistinct humanoid blob that Abigail can constantly detect.

LIMITS ⫻ Because Abigail cannot change her aura or clothes, certain Abstractions will completely bypass her disguise. Other than that her abstraction has no limits and she can maintain a disguise for hours.

WEAKNESSES ⫻ Because of the lower-powered nature of the abstraction it has no weaknesses. However, it comes with an identity loss side-effect; the longer Abigail stays in one form the more these people's features will start to appear on her true self. It'll start with her nose changing a bit to her skin color completely changing. And she could even end up a different gender. The only way to off-set this is not to use her abstraction.

OTHER

"I wouldn’t really...bother with them, if I were you."

Abigail’s foster family is one of the largest ones in the city. Her caretakers, Joseph and Tyler Rhodes, look after five other kids including her. Two of these are juvenile offenders and one has recently gone missing after the Horde attacks, meaning that Abigail’s fallen under the radar.

Relationship Table

Character name	Opinion
Tyler Rhodes	”She’s a nice lady, but I don’t think she’s cut out for the foster life. It feels like she pushed her husband into taking in too many kids and now she’s dealing with the consequences.”
Joseph Rhodes	“I rarely see him these days. He’s sort of the bread-winner in this house, so I try to avoid asking for too much especially since he’s getting the boys out of jail.”
Isaac Toussaint	“Jesus. I get why he does it, but I really don’t like him. He takes his anger out on me and Oliver if he gets the chance.”
Oliver Lambern	“I like to help him out with schoolwork but he’s so obsessed with making himself look cool that it’s hard to talk to him.”
Emily Privett	“She was a new arrival. I think she’s pulled a runner, but I hope she’s doing okay.”

Joseph Rhodes

[47 | Joseph Rhodes | Male]

Description:
A worn-out agnostic banker looking to make a difference in the world by rearing up foster children. Tends to take on the older ones, but with it comes a slew of problems. Two of his wards, Isaac and Oliver, have been caught in possession of narcotics and are going through legal proceedings with him which is putting a strain on his finances. He's distraught about the missing Emily, only twelve, who disappeared shortly after The Horde began attacking.

Extra-Normal Ability:
N/A

Tyler Rhodes

[44 | Tyler Rhodes | Female]

Description:
Stay-at-home ‘mom’ for six foster children. She’s doing her best to hold together the family but the emotional strain of being rejected by Isaac, ‘failing’ to keep Oliver from the mounting drug crisis in the city and losing track of Emily is starting to make her reconsider the fostering business - if she’s even going to be allowed to look after kids once they find the girl.

Extra-Normal Ability:
N/A

Isaac Toussaint

[15 | Isaac Toussaint | Male]

Description:
A disillusioned young boy who was put into the foster system three years ago after withstanding an abusive household. Has turned to weed and selling drugs as both a coping mechanism and a way to make money before he ages out of the system, though he’s recently been caught with possession of marajuana and is going through the court proceedings for it.

Extra-Normal Ability:
N/A

Oliver Lambern

[15 | Oliver Lambern | Male]

Description:
A shy young boy who wanted to fit in and make friends in his new foster home. Ended up hanging out with the wrong people and being in the wrong place at the wrong time, which has roped him into possession of marajuana charges. He’s extremely fearful of how this will impact his future careers.

Extra-Normal Ability:
N/A

Emily Privett

[12 | Emily Privett | Female]

Description:
Given up for adoption as a baby, Emily’s grown in foster homes. She recently moved into the Rhodes household but within a month or two, suddenly disappeared without a trace.

Extra-Normal Ability:
N/A

Recollections: The Fourth Seal [Mystery/Urban-Fantasy/Horror RP]

Everbody is always sceptical of the age thing until I like...actually put consequences into it, dw. Like there's plenty to play with, which is why I gave you all the NPCs - she's on school registrations, she's got foster carers who are keeping tabs on her, she's definitely NOT going to be as strong/smart/composed as a regular adult would be. I didn't know I shouldn't put NPCs in there but I thought it was a good way to establish Abi's connection to them for you

Also for the identity loss, just how much use of her power are we talking here before effects start to be extended/permanent?

(and does that mean I'm accepted?)

Recollections: The Fourth Seal [Mystery/Urban-Fantasy/Horror RP]

Abigail Harlow

Abigail Harlow

╚══════════════╝

"Weird flex, but ok."

[ 16 | 5’3 | Caucasian | She/Her | 102lbs ]

[Lost]

APPEARANCE

"Could be worse, right?"

She's short and lanky, with knobbly joints, an upturned nose and snaggly teeth. Often has a spot or two on her face. Dark blonde greasy hair which she either wears loose, covers with an equally greasy baseball cap or ties up into an unappealingly tight ponytail. She wears thrift shop fashion or sports gear. Often smells of teenage BO and cheap deodorant.

PSYCHOLOGY

"Look, I’m trying my best."

MAIN GOAL ⫻ Financial Independence.

PHILOSOPHY ⫻ That everything’s going a bit too fast all at once, but she has to prove to herself and the people around her that she’s got the integrity and gumption to separate herself from her biological parents.

SECRETS ⫻ Most of the time, the name and location of her biological mother. She’s still in contact with her mother but that’s only to keep her away from her.

SEXUALITY ⫻ Asexual/Aromantic.

FEARS ⫻ Failure. There’s a lot riding on her grades. She’s two years from aging out of the system and from there on, she’s basically on her own.

REPUTATION ⫻ Abigail is a silent presence in the city’s community. She switches up her study locations with frequency and is often outdoors with her books or plodding behind a group of teens with the half-hearted interest of someone who’d rather be somewhere else. It’s likely that people have seen her before once or twice, but unlikely that she’s said or done anything to really stick. Certain 24hr cafés, the city library staff and the faculty of the local high school are the most likely to know her by name and have seen her regularly enough.

QUIRKS ⫻ She chews her nails. As in, really chows down on those suckers. It’s a nervous tic that shines through when she’s stressed and her fingers are all frayed and scabby from it.

FLAWS ⫻ Abigail is extremely mistrustful of women. She struggles to make proper relationships with other people, with her attempts at getting to know someone either fuelled by an ulterior motive or a nagging feeling she ought to be trying. This ends up with her lingering around too long or using people for her benefit.

BACKSTORY

"At the end of the day, I think everything's turning out okay."

Abigail started off life as a bright and inquisitive young girl in a very stressed household. She used to be from Missouri but her parents were going through a rough patch in their marriage that was, in part, spurred on by the fact her father didn’t really want kids and Abigail was an accident. There were other factors at play that she wasn’t made aware of, but unfortunately that little tidbit of information stuck and shaped who she thought she was from there on out. Her parents divorced when she was quite young with her mother moving to Pennsylvania in order to get away from all the scandal surrounding it as well as giving herself a new start. There, Abigail started to really invest in school as a means of distracting herself from her turbulent childhood. She was sharp, intelligent and driven by a need for escapism. It played out in her advantage and formed a coping mechanism that, whilst unhealthy, could have turned a lot worse. It was here that her nail-biting habit began.

Abigail was eventually taken from her mother by CPS and put into a state-funded foster scheme from age 8. What had started as a positive start quickly devolved into the stresses and quiet terrors of being a single mother estranged from her own family, which then manifested in meth addiction. CPS got involved after Abigail’s obsession with school suddenly turned into apathy and the signs of neglect became increasingly apparent. This was also around the time of her awakening, though it went largely unnoticed in all of the chaos. Her mother did not take the split well at all, and made frequent attempts to ‘get her baby back’, which resulted in three separate foster home changes until Abigail landed in Araminta. Attempts to get her father to adopt her were unsuccessful; she found out that he voluntarily terminated his parental rights a few years after the divorce to allow her mother to find a new partner and make a new family. He had no interest or desire to take her in but worked with her foster carers to terminate the parental rights of his ex-wife. Aside from the odd text message or letter, and yearly allowances to build up a savings account for the girl to live off of when she ages out of the system, Abigail doesn’t have a fatherly relationship with him anymore. As for her mother, Abigail does talk to her frequently but never discloses any personal information to avoid any more ‘rescue attempts’. The court proceedings finished when she was around 14, meaning that for the past two years she has been a ward of the state.

Abigail’s awakening and subsequent abstraction came from the trauma of her early childhood. At first she thought she was incredibly good at impersonating her mother’s voice once she was separated from her, but then found she could take on her appearance after a very awkward shower. Even at a young age she realised this was something that, under any circumstance, must be kept a secret, but she’s used it to find out where her mom was. She’s only experimented with it a few times a year using foster kids or people she hung out with, learning to copy their habits and voices with extra-normal precision. She’s impersonated her fellow foster-siblings once or twice to get away with breaking house rules but puts a lot of planning and preparation into the use of it to prevent detection. Since it’s a skill that needs to be activated, she’s pretty much ignored it unless she had a spare moment and the inclination to experiment.

Socially, Abigail’s stints in foster homes have alienated her from healthy relationships. The constant looming threat of her addict mother hunting her down forced Abigail to be distant with her peers and legal guardians, half-expecting the need to move again. Her mother’s unpredictable behaviour has mixed with Abigail’s teenage hormones to mistakenly give her the impression that all women were hysterical, emotional and unpredictable - herself included. The sense of abandonment from her father hit her self-esteem, turning her into a reserved ‘background-presence’ in most of the friend groups she tagged along with. Furthermore, her obsession with passing her classes and excelling in her education has barred her from plenty of parties and opportunities to get to know her peers properly. Now that she’s feeling the sudden pressure of aging out of the foster system, Abigail is trying to build up a support network to catch her financially as she gains independence but lacks the sincerity and emotional connections to really make it work. She’s taken to observing the people she wants to connect with and making concerted efforts to please them, which comes off as forced or unnerving. The stress of it is compounded on top of her academia and fretful home life, so she often takes her things outside to find a place to disconnect and work by herself.

SKILLS & TALENTS

"I think I’m pretty good at watching from afar."

Academic ⫻ Abigail’s got the self-discipline required to study, the intelligence to quickly grasp unknown concepts, and the drive to succeed. She also retains a lot of information and can be organised when she needs to be.

Athletic ⫻ One of Abigail’s other coping mechanisms (and perhaps one of her favourite hobbies) is jogging and working out, but the lack of available equipment has impeded her progress. She does a lot of body weight exercises to make up for it.

Fleet-footed ⫻ Abigail learnt from a very early age to be neither seen nor heard, and she uses these skills to keep herself out of the way from other people.

People-Watcher ⫻ Abigail learnt very quickly how to watch people for subtler body language, emotional cues, nervous tics and anything that might betray their attitude towards her. Since her mother’s mood was unpredictable and abusive, and her litany of legal guardians afterwards didn’t disclose much information to her, Abigail has learnt to watch for these unspoken truths and turn them to her advantage.

ABSTRACTION

"Nobody needs to know."

TYPE ⫻ Awakened

ABSTRACTION ⫻ Mimickry

ABSTRACTION DESCRIPTION ⫻ Abigail can morph her body into a precise replica of another human being. The accuracy of this replication depends on how much time she’s had to study her target; the absolute minimum is a brief glimpse of them in a gas station or a photo of them in a book to get the physical appearance down precisely, but without any knowledge of their voice, body language or demeanor the facade can be seen through quite quickly. The longer she spends time with people, the more accurate her impersonations get; part of her abstraction heightens her ability to pick up on and replicate other people’s behavior. She cannot, however, change her clothes or aura.

Partial Mimickry: A less taxing but more complex facet of her abstraction is Abigail’s ability to change some parts of her body to replicate another person’s, but it’s restricted exclusively to studied facets of the person. For example, if given a recording of another person that she can listen to over and over, she can replicate their vocal chords only. If she’s given time to examine a body part such as one’s fingertips, she can change her own to match theirs.

AURA SENSING ⫻ Abigail can sense the aura of the person she is copying, extra-normal or otherwise. This reading can reach incredible distances but the shape and precision of it is vague, more of an indistinct humanoid blob that Abigail can constantly detect.

LIMITS ⫻ Because Abigail cannot change her aura or clothes, certain Abstractions will completely bypass her disguise. Other than that her abstraction has no limits and she can maintain a disguise for hours.

WEAKNESSES ⫻ Because of the lower-powered nature of the abstraction it has no weaknesses. However, it comes with an identity loss side-effect; the longer Abigail stays in one form the more these people's features will start to appear on her true self. It'll start with her nose changing a bit to her skin color completely changing. And she could even end up a different gender. The only way to off-set this is not to use her abstraction.

OTHER

"I wouldn’t really...bother with them, if I were you."

Abigail’s foster family is one of the largest ones in the city. Her caretakers, Joseph and Tyler Rhodes, look after five other kids including her. Two of these are juvenile offenders and one has recently gone missing after the Horde attacks, meaning that Abigail’s fallen under the radar.

Relationship Table

Character name	Opinion
Tyler Rhodes	”She’s a nice lady, but I don’t think she’s cut out for the foster life. It feels like she pushed her husband into taking in too many kids and now she’s dealing with the consequences.”
Joseph Rhodes	“I rarely see him these days. He’s sort of the bread-winner in this house, so I try to avoid asking for too much especially since he’s getting the boys out of jail.”
Isaac Toussaint	“Jesus. I get why he does it, but I really don’t like him. He takes his anger out on me and Oliver if he gets the chance.”
Oliver Lambern	“I like to help him out with schoolwork but he’s so obsessed with making himself look cool that it’s hard to talk to him.”
Emily Privett	“She was a new arrival. I think she’s pulled a runner, but I hope she’s doing okay.”

Joseph Rhodes

[47 | Joseph Rhodes | Male]

Description:
A worn-out agnostic banker looking to make a difference in the world by rearing up foster children. Tends to take on the older ones, but with it comes a slew of problems. Two of his wards, Isaac and Oliver, have been caught in possession of narcotics and are going through legal proceedings with him which is putting a strain on his finances. He's distraught about the missing Emily, only twelve, who disappeared shortly after The Horde began attacking.

Extra-Normal Ability:
N/A

Tyler Rhodes

[44 | Tyler Rhodes | Female]

Description:
Stay-at-home ‘mom’ for six foster children. She’s doing her best to hold together the family but the emotional strain of being rejected by Isaac, ‘failing’ to keep Oliver from the mounting drug crisis in the city and losing track of Emily is starting to make her reconsider the fostering business - if she’s even going to be allowed to look after kids once they find the girl.

Extra-Normal Ability:
N/A

Isaac Toussaint

[15 | Isaac Toussaint | Male]

Description:
A disillusioned young boy who was put into the foster system three years ago after withstanding an abusive household. Has turned to weed and selling drugs as both a coping mechanism and a way to make money before he ages out of the system, though he’s recently been caught with possession of marajuana and is going through the court proceedings for it.

Extra-Normal Ability:
N/A

Oliver Lambern

[15 | Oliver Lambern | Male]

Description:
A shy young boy who wanted to fit in and make friends in his new foster home. Ended up hanging out with the wrong people and being in the wrong place at the wrong time, which has roped him into possession of marajuana charges. He’s extremely fearful of how this will impact his future careers.

Extra-Normal Ability:
N/A

Emily Privett

[12 | Emily Privett | Female]

Description:
Given up for adoption as a baby, Emily’s grown in foster homes. She recently moved into the Rhodes household but within a month or two, suddenly disappeared without a trace.

Extra-Normal Ability:
N/A

Cardinal Rift

Victor Moltke, Abigail Harlow and Meredith Shieldbreaker

Location: Balaur, Moltke estate

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The sun shone hot and unforgiving upon the Balaurian soil but the lush and rolling hills of the Moltke family vineyards sucked up all the heat and sunlight in bushel after bushel of fat, ripening grapes. To look upon the flourishing wildlife in these acres and consider that, within the same nation's borders, the lash was cracking upon the spine of a sweatsoaked and grimy slave miner in a pit of gravel and dust was almost maddening. This chunk of southern land was well kept, maintained, and guarded by Victor's small military force as well as his peasantry who found the quantity of produce they were given as payment more than enough to trade and profit from. The place was an oasis in a dystopia, the product of decades of refinement and planning. It was Victor's magnum opus and his testing grounds. And, on this particular afternoon, it was also full of around a dozen yipping little Pomeranians.

Each pom had their own collar with an elaborate name plate studded into the back. Sir Leopold IV was busy relieving himself on the vines whilst Timothy Pilsworth Jr snuffled the overturned turf of a wagon track. A delegation of Pomeranians were also attempting to liberate themselves from their leashes, weaving and twisting them together as Lord Oswald Remington and Lady Welwing-Trillard II gnawed at the leather straps with unruly abandon. Abigail kept trying to disentangle herself from the chaos. A pom was bumping into her heels as she worked the leashes with a sort of frantic fluidity that comes from hastily learning how to deal with a litany of tiny dogs in a short space of time. Several places in front of her, Meredith and Victor strolled the less beaten path and took in the view with an air of quiet reflection.

Meredith actually had to pause for a half-pace as one of the dogs ran in front of her feet to deposit a stick for fetching. She looked at it, ignored it and kept going, which resulted in Abigail getting harangued by yet another tiny dog wanting to play. “One of these days I'll step on your little hounds and it'll cost me a fortune in veterinary bills," bemoaned Meredith to Victor. “Why couldn't you get a real breed of dog? One that's actually useful around a farm."

”Because they always try to prove themselves. It’s almost poetic.” he stared affectionately at one of the many balls of fur scurrying around them, hands still clasped behind his back as he led their afternoon walk onwards amongst the buzzing of distant insects and chatter of his estates labourers.

“Speaking of. Do you think your squire is ready?” Meredith didn't look behind her at Abigail, which was probably for the best as the girl was in the process of unwrapping a leash from around her leg. “It's quite a delicate mission you're sending her on even without the threat of war hanging over us.”

”We were both taught to swim by being thrown into the deep end of the spring. So will she. Delicate, intense planning is just as important to seizing opportunities. Better now then before war comes any closer. Besides, I would rather send someone with complete loyalty to negotiate with people who are technically our enemy.”

Meredith hesitated instead of retorting as she thought about what Victor had said. With some resignation, she exhaled grimly through her nose. “You’re right. Had the peace talk attack never occurred, we wouldn’t be in all of this mess. Best to send her out early and see what she’s made of. I’m more partial to sending you, but we need you here to rally the other knights and nobles.”

”Exactly. We all need to pull our weight moving on from here.”

“When will you be sending her out?”

”Now. Before the conflict escalates into either northern or southern lands. The North can’t afford to lock themselves into another drawn out war so they will most likely act decisively, whether it will be successful is up to them. We however can’t allow ourselves to be dragged into it but also want to be on the winners side.”

”Now?”

The pomeranians were swarming Abigail’s ankles and yapping excitedly because she stopped walking. ”Wuh-...what do you mean now, you mean -now- now? As in, when we get back? B-but I’m not ready yet! I haven’t even packed!” Flustered, Abigail rushed over to the two knights and nearly tripped over a pom in the process.

”I’m not sending you to bear a nobleman's child. I’m sending you to negotiate on my behalf. This won’t be a grand ceremonial visit, it’s the -north- you’re going to. Discretion and speed is our top priority.”

”So no Balaurian colours or anything? I guess I’ll wear some armour-...or at least pack some. What about documentation? What do I bring for paperwork, don’t you think the border controls will be more severe? Do they need anything from the manifesto?” Meredith took the leashes from Abigail almost out of habit as she wrangled the dogs and let the girl speak.

Victor finally turned to rest his gaze on her, ”You’re fearful. Don’t be.” he commented before turning back to continue his walk which was now more of a long thoughtful pace. ”It’s still -just- a diplomatic mission you’re being sent off on, not a bloody assassination. You’ll have a small retinue of guards along with you as well, nothing eye-catching, just enough for your own protection due to the… climate.”

”I’ve never had my own guards before. Do they have to like...sleep in the same room as me? Do they know as much as we do?” Abigail scurried along at Victor’s heels, anxiously fiddling with her hands and fingers now that she didn’t have any dogs to keep a hold of.

”What? They’re not dogs! They’re guards! They’re to follow your orders and keep you safe.” he paused for a bit. ”They -are- like dogs. And if it’s your wish for them to so badly sleep in your room then those are details I ask you -not- to tell me about.”

Meredith laughed loudly as Abigail went beet red and covered her face. ”N-no! Nonono! I’m a professional, I promise! I’ve just never had a guard before, that’s all!”

”You just focus on that wonderful charm of yours and getting our desires across to the houses of the north. Your escorts will worry about actually getting you there, whether that’s us having to go as far as to smuggle you across the border or just pass controls.”

Abigail rubbed her cheeks, still blushing furiously. ”M’not…-charming- anybody. I’m a professional,” she huffed. Desperate to get away from the conversation before Meredith inevitably took a jab at her to freak her out again, Abigail raised herself to her full height. ”Then I’ll have to get back to the estate and pack my things so that you two can check to see if I forgot anything before I leave. If you’ll excuse me...”

They had excused her, for a time. They let Abigail fuss and delay things, pack and re-pack and go around saying her goodbyes well into the afternoon. Yet the oncoming dusk hastened their need to get on the road in order to make some distance before dawn, hopefully using the cover of night to allow Abigail to slip away from the estate largely unnoticed. A trio of soldiers were selected for this task and they were stood - or rather, sat or lounging - by their steeds, lighting a pipe and waiting for the young heiress to finally emerge from her bedroom. Meredith had taken out some paperwork to do, having known around an hour ago that this was inevitable. “You’re going to have to pry her from there,” she warned Victor. “You know she doesn’t want to leave.” Her voice was soft and betrayed her concern for the squire but her actions showed her typical impassiveness to Abigail’s fragile emotions.

”She’s no babe. She will come.”

“The last time she had to leave home she thought she was marrying you. That’s traumatic enough to make her stall.” Meredith offered him a lopsided grin in the half-light of the evening, swatting away an errant firefly.

"No, no, I'm here.” Abigail came out with her pack and her riding gear, pale with her jaw set.

“You look like you're going to be sick,” Meredith commented.

Abigail shot her a look. "In my defence, this is going to be a little bit harder than writing sums and walking dogs,” she retorted, rubbing her forearms as she braced against the cooling night air. She walked past Victor and ignored his studious glare as she saddled Munchkin and made a quick inventory check. The other guards were roused into action, similarly checking the stirrups and girths on their Balaurians to make sure that everything was ready for a long ride.

”The Journey will be long and if all goes to plan many things will have changed here by the time you’re back. Hopefully for the better.” he stood before the girl, hands finally unclasping from behind his back.

”If I make it back at all, that is.” The tone was light-hearted but the expression was uncertain. Abigail clutched onto a stirrup for dear life.

”You will. You are still one of mine.” he reached out to pull her into a deep hug. ”And do not forget that. Do not let anyone talk down upon you, keep your head high no matter how they choose to respond to you.”

Abigail chuckled weakly. ”Even when you're trying to comfort me you still throw in a couple of orders...” but she trailed off, hugging him back tightly and pressing her face into his chest. Her shoulders shook for a brief moment but she regained her composure and finally let go. Mounting her pony, Abigail took one last look at the sprawling hills of the Moltke estate and trotted down the path onto the main road, heading northward for a long and arduous journey.

The Rotting Harvest (Sci-Fi Horror Action)

Hey there, I might be able to bring in my friend to join this too as we usually RP together but we've got a couple questions:

- how OP do we have to be? We're not really a fan of making very unique/powerful characters but it feels like there has to be a certain level of strength and skill to qualify. As in...if we didn't have to be part of the Bloodhound Elite and humans weren't systematically inferior to everything else in the setting, we would've probably made normal people.

- how much of the setting will we explore in the plot? It seems like a massive waste to have all these places, people and things to do but just get tunnel visioned into stopping Imhotep.

- How dark and edgy do you expect the RP to get? I especially prefer playing lighthearted characters so if you're planning on killing people off and putting in loads of torture that might be a no-go from me

(Edit) - The Bloodhound Elite seems like a very restrictive organisation to RP in, how open are you to changing parts of it?

No rush to reply btw, we're still mulling it over, it's just your answers will help us make our decision. It is a damn good setting tho

Night of the Hunt - a Bloodborne RP

Got it, I can work with that. Thank you!