Shining Lotus Sage
Avatar of Vanity
- Name: Cassandra Zabadou
Age: 19
Height: 5'6"
Weight: 120 lbs.
Concept: Unwitting priestess
Allegiances: None, and most that develop will be to individual people.
Appearance: Not quite this, but not quite not this. Short hair. Frequently with noise-cancelling headphones that she's not technically allowed to have, for safety reasons.
Motivation is easy: Thrill.
Probable complications: Compulsive theft. Prone to risk-taking behavior. Gets coldly furious when underestimated. Occasionally attracts the attention of Elder Gods. Hates having to cover her feet or hands for any reason. Losing her blindfold is potentially debilitating.
Point Total: 153 / Unused: 0 - Cassandra was the Brooklyn-born daughter of Greek immigrants. She was only ten when her mother succumbed to breast cancer, and her father, a cab driver, had very little time to supervise her. Low expectations at the local schools left her consistently bored and more than a little hostile to authority. She grew impatient and disrespectful, and her teachers struggled to keep her attention. Petty theft, vandalism, and other mischief occupied most of her youthful free time, but at least it kept her from getting into -real- trouble.
Those low expectations, and Cassandra's excellent recall, led to her graduation at fifteen. Her father, while initially bursting with pride, absolutely did not approve of the way she carried on from there. Over the next year, she turned her hobbyist pickpocketing into a real profession. Cleaning out wallets covered her expenses, and she shoplifted nearly her whole wardrobe. A mild initial interest in street art blossomed into openly seditious—and often beautifully rendered—graffiti. Things got interesting the next winter, when she swiped what appeared to be gaudy stage jewelry and a few ornate pottery pieces from a curio shop in Chinatown. When she reached privacy and handled the objects to appraise her take, she was immediately confronted by memories of things that never actually happened. Well, not to her, anyway. The dreams came not long after that, of grand cities full of impossible angles and people who had the wrong number of limbs and spoke to each other of her past and her future. Assuming the stress of skirting law enforcement was causing her to crack, she vowed to go straight and enrolled at SUNY, much to mister Zabados' relief.
At college, Cassandra enrolled in a History degree, but rarely attended classes. She was an exceptionally quick study, and had no interest in what she viewed as nothing more than sitting around, waiting for everyone else to catch up. Her grades hovered around a C level as a result, much to the annoyance of professors who chided her for wasting so much potential. Her test scores, when she bothered to show up for them, were uniformly stellar. Meanwhile, her strange dreams had stopped, only to be replaced by stranger visions throughout the day. She increasingly suffered episodes of deja vu, hallucinations in any and every sense, disordered thinking, and an absolute shit relationship with
sequence and time. Obviously, this didn't help with her studies much.
She never really went straight, either. Whatever theory of mind and behavior you favor, Cassandra had caught the bug, and couldn't restrain her sticky fingers for more than a few days at a time. Raiding the shops in the Student Union building kept the edge off, and her progressive dementia did slow her some, but she just couldn't avoid taking on more significant challenges. Campus security finally caught up to her after two years and more than two dozen stolen computers, music players, and cell phones. No one had even reported the text books missing from the bookstore, yet, but they brought the total high enough for Grand Theft. She wasn't too old for juvie yet, but a few bad character witnesses saw her tried as an adult. When she loudly announced to her public defender during his closing arguments that the jury had already made up their minds, she prompted them to do exactly that.
The letter to the judge came just before her sentencing hearing. Whether the woman owed some powerful favors, or the ink was enchanted, or something even stranger is not clear. Regardless of the method, no one present at that hearing knew of it anyway, only that Cassandra's three to five would be commuted if she agreed to spend the time at DFMA, a Delta front organization.
Over two years, now, since the "Incident", everything has gone loopy for Cassandra. Her senses, much sharper than they used to be, are all scrambled into one another. She can hear with her fingertips and taste the sound of voices, but the smell of seeing is so intense she can no longer stand to open her eyes. She keeps them, riding the line between Hope and Denial, but keeps them securely covered. On the bright side, her unused vision is filled with information that people would normally call a "sixth sense". The near future is plain as day behind her blindfold, and with some effort, she can slide that focus up and down the timeline to an amazing degree. Along with clear knowledge of the future, she has also gained the insight to adjust it to her needs. Oracle's prophecies always come true, even if she has to make them happen, herself. - Cassandra has some rare receptivity or vulnerability to the effects of contact with some extradimensional forces or intelligences, and she has the almost unheard of capacity to actually restrain those effects. Most people who receive input with the places from out of time and space wind up being misdiagnosed with schizophrenia or worse. She... actually had the capacity to contain that input, though not without straining her fragile 3D meatbrain to near its breaking point. Her synaesthesia is the result of trying to pack seven or eight senses into the experience-space of the normal human five, and forcefully. Not because something was necessarily trying to force the matter, but because the Causal Principle is so fucking pervasive that the whole world contributes to that force at once.
Imagine a million leaves floating on the surface of an infinite ocean that is always rising rapidly. None of them ever notices the rise, it just carries them upward. They have no other frame of reference. Nothing is not rising, and nothing is really off the surface. Now one leaf bumps into a stone pillar as the ocean rises past it. The pillar isn't even real to the other leaves, but the force tears the struck one to tatters and makes it forever aware of a new frame of reference. That leaf, having been pulled below the surface briefly, is now wet on both sides. It knows there is water. It has seen the water move.
Cassandra bumped that pillar, a once-in-a-generation accident, and survived, a once-in-an-era feat. Her frame of reference is no longer fixed to the present, and therefore not to time as an eternal present. Her material self is still subject to all those rules, but something about her mind exists ex temporis, though it can rarely wander far from that air-water boundary. She sees time flow from an outside perspective, though only partially. And she can just barely glimpse the things that naturally reside outside it. They're unlikely to notice her unless she really shakes something up, since she's only a human. But their movements are a source of information about what time Was and Will Be that might as well be prophesy, it's so alien to ordinary experience.
Note: +8 Attack cap, +12 DC cap, +14 Defense cap, +6 Toughness cap
Abilities, 28pp total
Str: 8 (-1)
Dex: 18 (+4)
Con: 10 (+0)
Int: 22 (+6)
Wis: 20 (+5)
Cha: 10 (+0)
Combat, 16pp total
Atk: +1 = 1
Def: +6 = 16
Toughness: = 0
Fortitude: +2 = 2
Reflex: = 4
Will: = 5
Skills, 20pp total
Acrobatics: +2 = 6
Bluff: +5 = 5
Climb: = -1
Computers: +1 = 7
Concentration: +9 = 14
Craft
Painting: +2 = 8
Electronic: +1 = 7
Diplomacy: = 0
Disable Device: +5 = 11
Disguise: = 0
Drive: NA
Escape Artist: +3 = 7
Gather Info: = 0
Handle Animal: = 0
Intimidate: = 0
Investigate: NA
Knowledge:
Behavioral +1 = 7
Earth Sci +1 = 7
History +4 = 10
Popular +3 = 9
Street +5 = 11
Technology +1 = 7
Theology +1 = 7
Language:
Greek
Sumerian
Indo-European
Qin-era Mandarin
Early Hellenic
Medicine: NA
Notice: +7 = 12
Perform
Breakdance: +4 = 4
Pilot: NA
Profession: NA
Ride: NA
Search: +5 = 11
Sense Motive: +8 = 13
Sleight: +4 = 8
Stealth: +3 = 7
Survival: = 5
Swim: = -1
Feats, 11pp total
Assessment
Attractive
Beginner's Luck
Blind-Fight
Defensive Roll 3
Eidetic Memory
Evasion 2
Teamwork
Powers, 78pp total
- Immunity Aging = 1pp
- Time-bending, Array, 50pp total
Desc: Time, Causality, Things Beyond The World, Waves of effect, As Above So Within, Expressive, Evocation, Willful
- Bullet Time, 11 ranks
Desc: Hasten Self, Unravel Fate, Movement, Evasive, Know Future
BASE: Deflect fast & slow 2ppr
(Half effect vs. fast, round down -½ppr)
Actn: Standard -> Free +2ppr
Feat: Interpose +1pp
Feat: Precise +1pp
3½ppr+2 = 41pp
- Sluggard's Lash, 9 ranks
Desc: Slow Other, Twist Fate, Attach to target, Chaotic, Friction, Encourage Present
BASE: Drain all speeds (not the Power) 3ppr
Area: Shapeable, Targeted +1ppr
Feat: Progression (Bigger) +1pp
Feat: 2x Slow Fade +2pp
Save: Reflex +0pp
Feat: Reversible +1pp
4ppr+5 = 41pp
- Stasis Field, 7 Ranks
Desc: Stop Region, Knot Fate, Tug-of-war, Nosebleed-level strain, Enforce Present
BASE: Paralyze 2ppr
Rng: Touch -> Normal +1ppr
Dur: Instant -> Conc. +1ppr
Area: Burst, General +1ppr
Save: None +2ppr
Affects Objects +1ppr
Distracting -1ppr
Tiring -1ppr
Full Power -1pp
6ppr-1= 41pp
- Celerity, 10 ranks
Desc: Hasten Self, Grease Fate, Movement, Encourage Future
BASE: Quickness 1ppr
+BASE: Speed +1ppr
Feat: Moving Feint +1pp
+BASE: Improved Initiative (+4/rank) +1ppr
3ppr+1 = 31pp
- Jitterblessing, 12 ranks
Desc: Hasten Other, Loosen Fate, Movement, Separation, Attach to target, Identify with target, Ignore Present
BASE: Boost all speeds (not the Power) 3ppr
Others Only -1ppr
Feat: Split Attack +1pp
Feat: Subtle +1pp
Save: Reflex, Harmless +0pp
2ppr+2 = 26pp
- Zing, 12 ranks
Desc: Hasten Object, Ballistic Damage, Movement, Speed, Imply Future
BASE: Damage 1ppr
Autofire +1ppr
Feat: Thrown +1pp
Feat: 2x Accurate +2pp
2ppr+3 = 27pp
- Immanentize the Inevitable, 12 ranks
Desc: Hasten Object and Other, Aging, Entropy, Weathering, Enforce Future
BASE: RAW: Corrosion 3ppr
Actn: Standard -> Full -1pp
3ppr-1 = 38pp
Feat: Dynamic +1pp
Feat: 2x Affects Immaterial +2pp
Feat: 6x Alternative Power +6pp
Total Array points: 41. All powers use this amount or fewer.
- Bullet Time, 11 ranks
- Crippling Synaesthesia, 4 ranks, 8pp
Desc: Shared sensations, Unintelligible, Overwhelming
BASE: Nauseate 2ppr
Mental Aura +1ppr
Permanent -1ppr
Save: Will +0ppr
2ppr
- Scrambled Senses, 13 ranks, 6pp
BASE: Super-Sense 1ppr
New: Danger Sense(Causality) 1r
New: Time Sense 1r
New: Detect spatiotemporal disruption 2r
New: RAW: Tremorsense 3r
Actn: Free -> Move -1pp
Mod: Tactile -> Analytical 2r
Mod: Hearing -> Analytical 1r
Mod: Taste -> Acute 1r
+BASE Enhanced Traits 1ppr
Feat: Uncanny Dodge(Causality) 1r
Feat: Defensive Roll 1r
Feat: Innate +1pp
DAdv: Vision lost, others improved -4pp
DAdv: All senses Dazzle DC +50% -3pp
1ppr-7
- Time Senses, Array, 13pp total
- Look Forward, 7 ranks
BASE: Super-Sense 1ppr
New: Precognition 4r
Counters Illusion 2r
Tracking 1r
1ppr = 7pp
- Psychometry, 2 ranks
BASE: Comprehension 2ppr
Objects 2r
Affects Others +1ppr
3x Rapid +3pp
3ppr+3 = 9pp
- Live for Today, 11 ranks
BASE: Super-Sense 1ppr
New: Concealment Awareness 1r
+BASE: Enhanced traits 1ppr
Feat: Elusive Target
2x Reflex Save +2r
2x Dexterity +2r
2x Wisdom +2r
1x Acrobatics +1/4r
2x Notice +½r
2x Sleight +½r
1x Stealth +1/4r
4x Perform: Breakdance +1r
2x Search +½r
1ppr = 11pp
Feat: 2x Alternative Power +2pp
Total Array points: 11pp. All powers use this amount or fewer.
- Look Forward, 7 ranks
- Immunity Aging = 1pp
Italic notes derive from powers that are not permanent, mostly Live For Today. Bold notes include innate powers, specifically Scrambled Senses.
Abilities
Str: 8 (-1)
Dex: 18 (+4) /
20 (+5)
Con: 10 (+0)
Int: 22 (+6)
Wis: 20 (+5) /
22 (+6)
Cha: 10 (+0)
Combat
Atk: 1 /
Zing is 5
Def: 16
Toughness: 0,
4 when able to dodge
Fortitude: 2
Reflex: 4 /
7
Will: 5 /
6
Skills
Acrobatics: 6 /
8
Bluff: 5
Climb: -1
Computers: 7
Concentration: 14 /
15
Craft
Painting: 8,
but with DC penalties
Electronic: 7
Diplomacy: 0
Disable Device: 11 /
12
Disguise: 0
Escape Artist: 7 /
8
Gather Info: 0
Handle Animal: 0
Intimidate: 0
Knowledge:
Behavioral 7
Earth Sci 7
History 10
Popular 9
Street 11
Technology 7
Theology 7
All others 6
Language:
Greek
Sumerian
Indo-European
Qin-era Mandarin
Early Hellenic
Notice: 12 /
15
Perform
Breakdance: 4 /
8
Search: 11 /
13
Sense Motive: 13 /
14
Sleight: 8 /
11
Stealth: 7 /
8
Survival: 5 /
6
Swim: -1
Feats
Assessment
Attractive
Beginner's Luck
Blind-Fight
Defensive Roll
4
Eidetic Memory
Evasion 2
Teamwork
Uncanny Dodge(Causality)
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