ghostmagnet | App for In The Night

PLAYER INFO

Player Name:d Emily
Player Contact: hoopskirts
Character(s) In-Game:

CHARACTER INFO

Character Name: Cassandra Palmer - Cassie for short
Age: 24
Canon: The Cassandra Palmer Series

World Description: Cassandra comes from a world filled with supernatural beings. There's order amongst them, called M.A.G.I.C., that houses the North American Vampire Senate, the werewolves, the Fey, and the Silver Circle. Within the Silver Circle, there are War Mages who are basically the supernatural police force. This all operates parallel to the "normal" world, in the 2010s. The supernatural world, however, is kept quiet and out of the public eye. They have ways of covering up incidents that might expose them and don't take lightly to someone intentionally trying to expose them. Each group has its own individual social struture/hierarchy for ruling. Many of the vampires own businesses, some of which are casinos located in Vegas, and certian level Master Vampires have courts of their own that all answer to the Vampire Senate. There are 6 Vampire Senates around the world ruled by a Consul and a panel of first level Master Vampires. The Pythia has her own court with its own rules and initiates, and she acts as the final judge in disagreements within the supernatural community and protector of the timeline.

History: wiki 1 | wiki 2

CRAU: N/A

Death: She was ripped apart when trying to come back from her time jump back to the 1300s after she used the excess power from the exchange with Pritkin to rip a hole in space and release thousands of spirits to help kill Ares and Apollo. Traveling back that far in time is basically impossible and she did it knowing full well it might kill her.

What are your plans for this character in-game? My goals for Cassie in game would be to find power within herself and true independence without the weight of the world on her shoulders. She's spent so much of her life either protected or around people. She's never truly been alone because she has a ghostly best friend that she can summon whenever she might be in need. She was raised in a vampire household and after being on the run with Billy (the ghost), she once again either had bodyguards or vampires with her once she became Pythia. Cassie also having no responsibilities for a little while/not having responsibilities thrown on her without her permission would be something rad to play out.

What aspects of this game and/or its setting are you most interested in having this character engage with? The survival aspect. It's been awhile since she's had to fend for herself, and I think it'll be really interesting to throw her into eternal darkness trying to survive the afterlife.

How does your character generally get along with other people? Cassie has gotten a lot better at trusting people right off the bat, especially when faced with a similar situation. So, meeting people who also believe they're dead, there's a bonding point. She's pretty nice on the surface, it just might take some work (which is a really awesome longterm CR goal) for her to open up to people and maybe start to work through the idea that there's no coming back from this one.

What is your character's mental state upon entering the game? Cassie is pretty strong as a person, but even the strongest people have their breaking points and her battle for Pritkin's soul got her pretty close to hers already. So, the transition to accepting she's dead will probably take some time including going through the stages of grief. Honestly, she might not even truly believe she's dead and will probably be questioning it for a really long time - holding on to an iddy biddy piece of hope.

Skills/Abilities:
Cassie has visions, usually gruesome, of both the past and future due to being Clairvoyant. Usually, she can tell if an item was likely to trigger a vision before she touched it, normally by the negative psychic vibrations it gave off. It's rare for people to trigger it, but she still avoids shaking hands/physical contact just to be safe. She treats the visions the same way people treat disturbing news reports since she can't normally change the outcome of the vision. In game, I definitely want the physical contact to be nerfed so she can interact with people without learning about their lives. If an event were to maybe bring either the physical contact or visions into play or tie into some form of paranoia about it, I'm totally down.

Cassie can also sense imprints in the world around her: "Imprints are like a supernatural theater that shows the same movie over and over until you want to scream. Since it's usually something traumatic, running into one isn't fun. I'd spent my free time for a couple of months after I moved in learning the streets in the area, and one of the main things I'd been looking for was imprint zones. I'd found about fifty dealing with the burning of the city during the Civil War, but most were too weak to cause me more than a twinge. But there was a big one between my apartment and the agency... I started taking the long way around after I got caught in it one day. I have a lot of memories I'd just as soon forget; I don't need other people's nightmares." In game, it would be super cool for her to be able to have some access to this power perhaps during an event where it might be relevant.

She can see and interact with Ghosts - an ability she got from her father (who was a Necromancer). In her necklace, there's actually a spell that captured the spirit of a 19th century gambler named Billy Joe that's been her companion since she picked it up in a pawn shop at young teenager as a gift for Nanny. As I understand through game mechanics, she wouldn't be able to have Billy Joe here unless he was apped (as he has enough canon/personality to be appable/playable).

Pythia: "The Pythia was the name of the ancient seer of Delphi. Apollo's greatest temple. For two thousand years, the women selected for the position were considered the oracle of the world, with kings and emperors deciding policy based on their advice. The position lapsed with the decline of Greece, but the term is still used out of respect. It is the title of the world's chief seer, a strong ally of the Circle. She is one of our chief assets, since nonhumans do not have the gift." With this position, she is responsible for maintaining the timeline by shifting back in time to stop people from changing history.

She can shift through time and space, though for the game I would assume time shifting is not something she'll be able to do unless it could somehow help/tie into an event with MASSIVE mod permission. One ability I would like for her to be able to keep within this, and it's fine if it's nerfed (because it has the capability to be broken), is her ability to create time bubbles. She can capture someone or something in a time bubble. For example, she can hold an apple seed in a time bubble and take it through its entire life cycle both ways in a matter of moments. She does also have the capability to freeze time in a small area - though again, I totally understand if this is completely nerfed or seriously reduced. Spacial shifting would also be limited as per the FAQ to places she can either see or very near by.

She's a Sensitive due to having Necromancer Magic: can feel when vampires are around - it's like when someone walks over their grave - kind of a shiver down the spine combined with a feeling of something being wrong; never feels that around ghosts. She has no training, however, with her Necromancy as that's still a revelation to her.

Power Word: Cassie knows one power word that was designed to add stamina in times of emergency by drawing on the body's reserves — all its reserves. It's dangerous to use, since if the power it gave ran out before the threat was over, she'd be completely useless and vulnerable once caught. She used once to reinforce Pritkin's shields with Billy Joe's help in an extreme case. In game, I'd still like her to be able to keep this as its something she's only used once in canon and knows how incredibly dangerous it can be, meaning she probably wouldn't use it unless it was a dire situation - and again, mod approval to use it is totally fine.

Flaws/Weaknesses:
In her life before taking the Chief Seer office, the only people she really trusted 100% were already dead. Ghosts, one in particular named Billy Joe, were her network to stay safe and a means of self-defense. Paranoia tends to be a default setting for her, along with generally being cautious - even when she's surrounded by Vampire bodyguards. It's something that came with having been on the run, that need to look over her shoulder and question the intentions everyone she meets. It's easier to run without making lasting ties, just like it's easier to not be betrayed by someone who can't be whammied by a Master Vamp to spill their deepest secrets.

"I’d learned not to want things, not to try to hold on to anything, because if I got used to it being there, it would be that much harder when I had to let it go. I’d watched person after person with paranoid eyes, keeping them all — potential friends, enemies, lovers — at a safe, painful distance. And all the while, the hunger grew, for someone who would stay, someone permanent, someone mine."

Emotional distancing, facing the heavy shit. She uses sarcasm as a protective barrier between herself and things that might be uncomfortable or painful. She's quick to put it all off to be dealt with later, because for her... later always tends to be too busy to stop moving. She also grew up at a Vampire Master's court and emotions + vampires aren't a thing that really mix. So, she'd learned from a young age to keep herself distance and in check because at court, expressing strong emotions was a sign of weakness and therefore dangerous.

"I was tops at the Scarlet O'Hara school of emotional distancing. I always thought about the uncomfortable stuff tomorrow, and, as everyone knows, tomorrow never comes."

Putting herself in harm's way to save someone else, no matter the personal cost. She's a reluctant hero type that's quick to sacrifice herself rather than see them get hurt. Especially if it's kids or teenagers. She went through a lot in her childhood and teenage years and she has a soft spot for the more vulnerable of the population. Especially since she knows what kind of things go bump in the night in her world. It makes it an exceptionally hard job for her bodyguards to keep her safe when she constantly is disappearing or actively running away from them and head first towards danger.

"I’m trying to remember all the reasons you are indispensable and can’t be killed slowly and painfully."

Cassie tends to hold a grudge. Usually not for the little stuff, but things like betrayal tend to bubble beneath the surface like a festering wound until she deals with it. She'd run away from the court she was housed at when she was 14, after finding out Tony (the vampire who'd taken her in after her parents died) had her parents killed so he could control and use Cassie and her growing powers. She'd later returned to court only to bring him down by providing evidence to the FBI of tax evasion and smuggling since the Vampire Senate wouldn't do anything to punish him for killing her parents since they hadn't been vampires. She risked exposing the supernatural world to the human community because she was beyond pissed off and wanting justice.

Loss. This is something Cassie's intimately familiar with. She's lost so many people and been so close to her own deaths so many times, she's almost got it down to a system. There's just one problem - no matter how many times she goes through it, it never gets easier. Some deaths haunt her, like that of her Governess - Eugenie, her parents, a retired Warmage/Wardsmith and friend of Pritkin's named Mac who sacrificed himself for her in Faerie, and Pritkin himself... Though she did manage to get him back from Hell.

"The worst part was the silence. Death was supposed to be loud — gunshots, explosions, screams, and thunder. Not this eerie quiet that wrapped around me like a shroud."

Personality: Cassie, in a word, is weird. She never asked for most of the crap that landed in her lap and yet she found a way to get through it and accept herself for what she was. Mostly. Thinking outside of the box isn't too much to ask considering she'd been able to see and interact with ghosts from a very young age - a gift she inherited from her father. She was also raised at a Vampire's court, the diverse raising helping her find ways to not question what was in front of her, to just accept it and move on. That aspect of herself translates fairly well into adulthood as things continued to get crazier for her.

She's also very much a reluctant hero. She'd found a way to accept and work around the beginning of her powers, but with every new thing landing on her shoulders, it gets harder. It doesn't stop her from adjusting, though, and adapting to the new situations. She's very quick on her feet, something that's helped her stay alive this long. She trusts her instincts and does her best to roll with the punches when they land. Because of this, she does have a bit of a wall built up around her. It's hard to get close to her, actually close, because she's learned through life experiences that people close to her tend to get hurt. However, on the flipside of that, people she lets in and trusts are people she will be loyal to until the end.

Items: A linen haltered shift with blood, soot, and mud from running through 13th century Wales with a member of Arthur's court while fighting Gods and Elemental Fae armies. She would also be wearing her dagger bracelet. The tiny silver daggers have a mind of their own and attack when the wearer feels threatened. She's unable to remove it. I'm 100% fine with them being inert while she's in game, only becoming active with mod permission or not at all.

SAMPLES

Log Sample: Link to a locked post transferred to my journal.
Network Sample: TDM with log and network sample