cukoolanded

This is a gift, it comes with a price

PLAYER
Name - Taylor!
E-Mail - polkadotsandtea@gmail.com
Plurk - NA
AIM - beyondspareoom
Who invited you? Vin, but I should be very said if you don't all want me here. 8^8

CHARACTER

Name - Ashlin "Ash" Thomas
Fandom - OC
Canon Point - NA
Age - 23
Gender - Female

Appearance -
Ashlin is on the petite side (at only 5'2" and 105Ibs) with long curly, blond hair that is forever sticking out in odd places. While she prefers to wear it down (usually with a hat or headband of some type) she will put it into a bun or pony tail when working to keep it out of the way. Ashlin has a number of freckles, mostly across the bridge of her nose though she has three on her left shoulder, and large blue eyes. In addition to her freckles she has a birthmark on her left hip in the shape of Abraham Lincoln's head.

Ash tends to forgo makeup, but favors a loose, feminine style of dress. Her favorite thing to wear is overly large sweaters with a pair of leggings. Her favorites leggins are an old electric blue pair that have begun to rip in places. As her favorite leggings might suggest Ash likes bright colors and her clothing reflects that. Her outfits are an explosion of different bright colors, and her socks never match (in a quite obvious manner at that.) It's a little quirky but cute, and most people would describe her style as neon hipster. She would describe it with a shrug.

Personality -
At first glance Ashlin seems to be little more than your typical cloud cukoolander. She is forever spouting off random, seemingly unrelated comments, and appears lost in her own world. Ash has a slightly sideways way of looking at the world, but there is a method to the madness. Seemingly random comments always have a follow-able if somewhat unusual train of logic, and just as Ashlin regularly confuses those around her she is confused by them. She tends to take things litterally and so sarcasm goes right over her head.

At least partially because of her connection of the spirit plane Ash feels things very deeply, and has trouble hiding her emotions. This will manifest in rather apparent mood swings. She can find herself feeling intense sadness over things that bothers others very little, but can be cheered up again with minimal effort. In general Ash is an excitable and bubbly person that could best be compared to a large labrador puppy.

What other may perceive as a natural obliviousness to the world around her is actually years of learning to tune out the world, a defensive response to the years of bullying she suffered. Ashlin is perfectly capable of paying attention, her default is simply not to because it is less painful. Because of this it's very hard to distract Ashlin once she's interested in something or chooses to focus on a project. She regularly gets so wrapped up in her experiments that she'll forget to eat without Bo-Bo's intervention, and will abandon other, less interesting, tasks at the drop of a hat when inspiration strikes. In a way Ashlin's ability to focus is a study in extremes; while she can go through most of her day to day in a rather dream like state the minute she commits to something she's an unshakable force.

While Ashlin would very much like to have friends (or at least a friend) who don't look at her like she's crazy she doesn't actually believe she can have that. The psychologists weren't wrong when they said Ashlin had a fear of abandonment, and though Ashlin knows she isn't really (as) crazy as people think she is she is often haunted by the belief that there is something fundamentally wrong with her. It is this wrongness, she fears, that makes others not want to stay with her. She feels like everyone who gets close to her will eventually see whatever this wrongness is that made her parents give her up, and her peers ostracize her, and leave. Her fear does nothing to help matters as she already has trouble connecting with people. She is used to being on the outside, being an observer, and isn't sure how to interact with people in a long term way. The truth is Ashlin is incredibly lonely, though even she doesn't realize just how deep the feeling runs as she has nothing else to compare it to. For almost as long as she can remember no one has looked at her like she wasn't crazy.

Ashlin has a severe phobia of doctors, and hospitals. Discovering that she is in a presence of a doctor will send her into a severe panic and she will do everything her power to escape their presence (including but not limited to climbing large pieces of furniture like bookcases, or hiding.) She has been known to take unsafe risks in her attempts to flee from doctors or hospitals. If she somehow finds herself inside a hospital she will react as a cornered animal does, fighting desperately to escape even if it means her own injury. In such a case she is more than likely to lash out with Bo-Bo (who's first instinct is to protect his human) or physical attacks. If she discovers someone is a doctor she will be immediately distrustful of them, even if previously she liked them. Additionally she refuses to take any kind of medication, not even a simple Advil. This phobia is due to a childhood trauma involving the doctors her parents took her to after they began worrying about her "seeing things." For a similar reason she does not like rooms with a large amount of white in the decor (white walls especially concern her, though she's fine with a few pieces of white furniture.) As long as there is something colorful in the room she can focus on though this isn't a huge problem.

History -

The World
In Ashlin's world all humans are born connected to a spirit creature known as a Shadow or Soul. While most people go through life completely unaware of these beings existence they are what give people those little burst of intuition. While the Shadows exist in a plane parallel to ours they are unable to interact with the physical plane except through the aforementioned feelings to their bonded human though there are exceptions to this rule. While most are unaware of it there are in fact seven designations of humans in Ashlin's world.

Blanks: Ordinary, nonpowered humans.
Ciphers: Those who can see the Shadows that are connected to all humans. They have a particularly strong connection to their own Shadow, and this allows their Shadow to interact with the physical plane.
Telekinetics: Those with the ability to move things with their minds. Though they cannot see Shadows their ability is rooted in the fact that they are allowing their shadow to interact with the physical plane. They tend to have stronger gut instincts than Blanks.
Precogs: Those who can see the future to varying degrees. As the future is fluid their visions are not guaranteed to come true. They see what could happen should the current course of action be continued, but not necessarily what will happen. This designation can occur in tandem with Postcog.
Postcogs: Those who can perceive events unrelated to themselves that have already occurred. Usually these visions are triggered by touching some kind of "keystone." This designation can occur in tandem with Precog.
Psychics: Those with the ability to see not only Shadows but also the spirits of deceased humans.
Perceptives: Those with an almost unnatural degree of gut instinct. Their ability is comparable to a "spider-sense" for both good and bad events (including the ability to distinguish between the "good feelings" and "bad feelings") This is due to a higher connection with their Shadow. It is also the hardest designation to pinpoint, and for this reason Perceptives are often mistaken for Blanks.

While anyone can learn magic Ciphers and Perceptives have the easiest time with it. It is even technically possible for Blanks to learn magic, but they have such a difficult time with it that it is commonly believed impossible for them to learn. As most Blanks are unaware that magic is real to begin with there is a rather small subject pool to disprove this belief.

Personal History

Ashlin never knew her biological parents. Her mother had gotten pregnant as a teenager, the result of a summer fling. Having parted from Ashlin's father before discovering her state and with no way to contact him made the decision to give up her child for adoption. Though there seems to be some genetic link to the abilities of ciphers and psychics it never occurred to the teen that her child might be born with abilities, implying that her powers came from her father's side of the family. It was a closed adoption.

Ashlin’s adopted parents loved her a great deal, and did their best to provide for her. Still despite their best efforts Ashlin was a bit . . . odd. For as long as she could remember she could see strange creatures that were attached to everyone around her. When Ash asked her parents about them they were indulgent, believing Ashlin to have an active imagination and merely making up a story as young children are known to do. Though she couldn’t talk to these creatures in the traditional sense she had an almost deeper level of connection to her own spirit creature. She named him Bowen, Bo-Bo for short, when she was just a few years old. Despite the fact that Bo-Bo could interact with the physical plane as he pleased, Bo-Bo would avoid picking things up when others were around. When Ash tried to ask him why she would always just get a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach, the same feeling she got whenever Bo-Bo was trying to warn her that something was a bad idea. This didn’t stop Ash from talking about her constant companion though. Ash’s parents assumed Bo-Bo was her imaginary friend, and didn’t feel there was any cause for concern. Lots of children had imaginary friends after all. But when at ten Ash was still talking about Bo-Bo they began to worry.

Ashlin saw psychologist after psychologist, about her “seeing things.” At first she was honest and told them all about the spirits she saw, and about Bo-Bo. She quickly learned that this was a bad idea. She stopped talking about the creatures, and began to imply that it was just a game though she could never bring herself to outright deny Bo-Bo's existence. It seemed Luckily for Ashlin the psychologists decided that she was not schizophrenic or any number of other things. Instead they concluded that she had a severe fear of abandonment due to her birth parents giving her up when she was a baby (something her parents had never kept a secret from her.) She was an imaginative child, they explained, and had thus created these creatures that were always with you to combat her fear of being alone. The Thomases were relived to hear that there was nothing actually wrong with their daughter and tried their best to always be supportive of their daughter, hoping this would help alleviate her fears. This all had taken time though and Ashlin had ended up being put on various medications at certain points of her treatment. There had even been talk once of twice of the possibility that she might need to be put somewhere for her own safety. Ashlin wasn't suppose to know about those conversations though, and so she kept her knowledge a secret. The entire thing left Ashlin very wary of authority figures and with a fear of hospitals and medication (to this day she can't even bring herself to take a dayquill.)

School was always difficult for Ashlin socially though not academically. Ash was very intelligent for her age and was a good problem solver with her out of the box ideas. Her biggest problem was always conforming. She had trouble with assignments where something had to be done a certain way to be marked correct, and she had trouble fitting in with her peers. For most of elementary school Ashlin was accepted easily enough, though she was close to no one in particular. However as the children began to “grow up” Ashlin was ostracized. As far as they could tell Ashlin was still playing pretend with her imaginary friend, talking to thin air while the rest of them had already left such nonsense behind. Middle school escalated the situation into outright bullying, and the wariness created by her interactions with the psychologists kept Ashlin from going to the teachers for help. It all came to a head in the eighth grade when the bullies cornered her after school one day. What started out as just another round of name calling and shoving somehow turned violent, and Bo-Bo would not stand for that. None of the children who went after Ashlin that day were exactly sure what happened next, one minute they had been in control and the next things were moving on their own and the bullies were being thrown away from their target. What they were sure of though was that whatever had happened was terrifying. Because of Bo-Bo’s actions the bullying stopped, but people began to do everything in their power to avoid Ashlin. She had never really had any friends, but this was different. She was left alone completely by her peers; no one bullied her but no one wanted to get with in five feet of her either.

After her parents had started sending her to the psychologists Ashlin realized that conventional science had no explanation for the things she could see. She herself might have begun to believe she really was crazy if she hadn’t seen Bo-Bo affect the physical world in ways others could see as well. Ashlin spent years trying to find an answer to what she was seeing and why she could see it. Her searches lead her to the world of paranormal. Though she could never find anything concrete there seemed to be whispers and allusions to the things that she saw, things that implied she might not be the only one out there who could see them. A side effect of her searches was Ashlin discovering the runic magic that some members of the paranormal community seemed to practice. At first it seemed to Ashlin that it was just another dead end, a silly made up thing for people who wanted to pretend. With a little help and guidance from Bo-Bo though, Ash was able to sort out the real from the fake, and began to experiment with runic magic.

By the time Ashlin had graduated high school she had a basic understanding of runic magic (though she had a tendency to mix up her runes, which lead to some interesting results) and had taken up various hobbies (she had become quite good with various kinds of power tools, and had a rather extensive stamp collection) but had hit a dead end with her search for answers. At first her parents were dismayed when Ashlin choose to backpack around the world instead of go to college. She was a smart girl and had been accepted to good schools, but she knew college wasn’t for her. There wasn’t a college to learn the things she wanted to know, and beyond her search for answers she had no ambitions to follow. Ashlin spent the next five years traveling the world. She learned a lot in her travels, but never what she really wanted to know. There were those who could teach her more about runic magic, and those who could teach her to open her mind further to Bo-Bo and the spirit creatures she saw, but none who could teach her what those creatures were or why she could see them. After five years Ashlin returned from her travels wiser, but still without the answers she'd left searching for. Ashlin's parents were happy to have her home, but Ash felt antsy. She loved her parents but the house she'd grown up in no longer felt quite like "home."

Skills/Abilities/Powers -
Ashlin is a Cipher. This means she can see and touch creatures in her world known as Shadows or Souls. Because Ashlin is a cipher her Shadow, Bo-Bo can also touch the physical plane. Bo-Bo's being is best describe as a kind of solid smoke creature and so he can manipulate his form in various ways such as turning his tendrils into hands or becoming a pair of wings that can be wrapped around Ash's body.

Ashlin is practicer of Runic magic though she has a terrible habit of mixing up her runes (especially when she get the urge to experiment) and accidentally doing thing like burn off her eyebrows, cover herself in rainbow polka dots, or turn her hair purple for a week.

Runes can be divided into 5 categories:

Season (Winter, Fall, Spring, Summer)
Foci (Light, Darkness, Love, Female, Male, Time, Warrior, Hope, Mother, Father, Family, Luck, Death, Choas, Serenity)

Element (Air, Water, Fire, Earth)
Numeric (0-9)

Alphabet (A-Z)

For larger, more complex spells a ritual circle is required. Spell circles are composed of one rune of from each of the first four categories (these act as the anchor runes) while the rest of the spell is written out using the runic alphabet. For safety purposes anchor runes are typically carved into stones so that they can quickly be removed to break the spell if needed. If even one rune is misdrawn in a spell circle the spell can fail and cause unexpected effects (such as the ones mentioned earlier that Ashlin has experienced.) Simpler spells can be created using a Foci rune on its own or in conjunction with one or two other runes. These spells typically lack the power and specificity rune circles produce, but they are faster to create as rune circles are somewhat time consuming to draw.

As far as Ashlin's actual knowledge of spell work goes she tends to focus on theory and experimentation. She knows a few low level defense spells, and can summon up a small-medium sized fire in a pinch but most of what she can do is related to rather inane, or mundane tasks (the magic equivalent of a gps, spells to make bags larger on the inside and understand other languages, ect.) She relies on Bo-Bo for protection, and has never been particularly confrontational so she sees no reason to look into combat magics.

As for mundane skills: Ash can weld, is a passable mechanic, can sew well enough that the things she patches won't fall apart, and can fall asleep literally anywhere.

Power Restrictions -
Most of Ash's ability ends up being a moot point in-game to begin with, given that the creatures she has the ability to see are something unique to her world. Bo-Bo will still be with her since the nature of the human-Shadow relationship means they are connected from birth to death. However Bo-Bo's powers will be limited in that if he attempts to touch the gate to the carnival, or get's too close to the perimeter in general his tendril will seem to blow away like smoke in the wind until he gets away from it again. He will not have problems passing through the gate when it is open though.

While runes can be written in any medium, including marker or pencil (though there is a requirement of some kind of casting intent, so writing runes in a book or working out a possible rune circle on paper won't cast unless one is thinking about the casting too hard) in-game they will require Ashlin to use her own blood to activate them. This is to establish a connection to the caster that would usually be established through the spirit plane (without the caster's knowledge) in Ashlin's world (this is also why ciphers, psychics, and telekinetics have an easier time learning magic than a blank aka a normal human.) She will have to discover this for herself. Active runes that were created in Ashlin's world will not require this blood price (in this case just her bag's expansion spell) while passive spells will (her bag's lock, the point me spell) will. In Ashlin's world much of a spell's power was drawn from the surroundings and the spirit plane, but in-game the power for such spells will come completely from Ashlin. The power drain will occur at the time when the blood price is payed and will act almost as a turbo kick start to Ashlin's metabolism. Casting will leave Ash both incredibly hungry, and tired. If she casts too much without taking the proper time to eat and rest her body will begin to turn on itself in a manner similar to those who have been starved, breaking down body fat and muscle for the required energy.

Location scyring will go haywire inside the carnival if Ashlin tries to locate somewhere that does not exist within the carnival itself, and attempting it will cause Ashlin to black out briefly. Any spell effect that attempts to touch the gate will, much like Bo-Bo break down before getting within even a foot of it, as if all the magic has been drained from the spell.

Job - Entertainer/Magician: Parlor tricks

Between her invisible friend, and her runic magic Ash can put on a pretty impressive magic show with tricks including but not limited to: guessing your card, levitation, hands free juggling, and pulling increasingly large animals out of hats.

Mark Location - Wrapped around her wrist

SAMPLES

First Person Sample (Communicator, Bulletin, or Mirror) -

[Notice posted on the bulletin board, some of the text has been scratched out but is still legible.]

Lost: 1 blue pendent, glass tearshaped. If found please bring to [insert tent here] look for Ashlin

Thank You!

Never mind, I found it! It seems someone was just cross I wouldn't let him have anymore sugar and decided to hide my things.

[Underneather this is a doodle of what looks like an octopus wearing a masquerade mask mocking a figure behind their back. For have been paying attention more text appears bellow the picture later that day.]

Oh really now that's just rude, I was being perfectly truthful, you did hide my things.

Third Person Sample (Log)

Ashlin sighed happily as she leaned back against the tree trunk. She could just barely feel the rough bark through the thick sweater she was wearing, and it was more a comfort than an annoyance. It felt familiar, more familiar than anything else had since she'd gotten back. It wasn't that she wasn't glad to be back, she'd most certainly missed her parents but it was just..it was just that this place didn't feel like home anymore. Not that there was somewhere else that did precisisely, but she was certain she remembered home having a distinctly home-y feeling to it that it just... didn't anymore.

So now she was not-home and answerless and rather unsure where to go from here. Leaning her head back further she could feel the bark scratching against her scalp and distantly noted she'd have to brush the tree bark from her hair later. As if sensing her unease her constant compain trilled softly beside her. It was a tone she knew well by now and she shook her head at him. "I'm fine" she said, smiling softly in hopes of reassuring him "just thinking too many big sort of thoughts. It's making my head rather heavy."

"Come on let's go back." she said jumping from her perch. Something crumpled beneath her foot, a brightly colored flier on the ground. 'The Carnival of Rust' Ashlin read, looking it over curiously; it looked like it was going on tonight too. "Actually, do you want to go to the carnival?" she asked, looking up at her smoke like companion. Ashlin had spent most of her time traveling alone, back packing wasn't exactly something that lended itself to running into people, and so she had gotten used to talking to Bo-Bo at all hours of the day without bothering to check if she was alone. Had anyone else actually been around they would have seen a petite blond woman talking to what appeared to be thin air. In all fairness though Ashlin was so used to people thinking her crazy that to add another to that list would be expected if still disappointing. "I'm sure they'll have cotton candy." she added after a moment.

Bo-Bo trilled excitedly at that, the idea of being able to eat a treat of pure sugar was incredibly appealing to the orange, and white shadow. "Alright, alright!" she laughed as Bo-Bo pulled her forward, a tendril wrapped around her wrist.

Wandering into the carnival Ashlin was surprised to see that there did not seem to be many people here. She didn't think she'd stayed out that late. Before she could find a cotton candy stand and leave (Bo-Bo would be insufferable if he didn't get his sugar now) a game stand caught her eye. She thought it might have been the swirls on the plates that did it. They were entrancing somehow, drawing you in. They looked rather like a large lollipop actually. She'd had a lollipop like that once, it had been rather good, but when she wasn't looking Bo-Bo had taken a whole bite out of it. She wondered sometimes where he put all the sugar he ate, what with his lack of a consistent solid body. Ashlin should find that cotton candy stand now, she realized, it looked like they were closing up. Maybe she could play just one game first though.

What could it hurt after all?

Any Other Details We Should Know -

Inventory:

Satchel
multiple leather bound notebooks
an aluminum water bottle
gel pens
markers (red, light blue, orange, lime green, pink)
band aids
a bag of gummy candies
a slinky
a sheet of stickers
small rubber bouncy ball (the kind you get from grocery store vending machines)
a mysterious looking bottle of herbs sealed with a cork (actually just some green tea with spearmint and lemongrass)
iPhone 5C (yellow) & headphones
wallet

Clothing on her person: