Christine McAbee

Spheres:Correspondence: * * (focus: shiny things)

Entropy: * * * (focus: broken stuff)

Forces: * * (focus: broken lighter)

Life:

Mind: * * * (focus: liquids)

Matter:

Prime: * * (focus: music)

Spirit: * * * (focus obsidian shard bracelet)

Time: * * * (random items)

Backgrounds: Avatar * * * (Sybil of Cumae)

Talisman *

Contact * * * (Vampire Prince of New York)

Resonance: Unsettling coincidence/déjà vu

Flaws:

Nightmares

Short Fuse

Bards Tongue

Amnesiac – While now mostly recovered from Amnesia as a Paradox flaw, Christine still has no recall of the 2 year period immediately after her Awakening up until she left Gotham for New York (pregnant). She has no idea who the father of her daughter is and does not recall the circumstances under which she became pregnant.

Addiction (nicotine – no longer a smoker, chews nicotine gum)

Addiction (alcohol – although is now a mostly reformed alcoholic)

Addiction (vitae – a former ghoul, Christine is no longer an addict. A relic of this era of her life (before Awakening) is that Christine has no issues about consorting with vampires and actually feels entirely comfortable in vampire society – although, obviously, wary, cautious and very, very careful in her dealings with them. )

Ward: daughter, Lily McAbee,

Arete: * * * *

Fate:

Willpower: * * * * * *

XP: 0 (last updated 31/7/13)

DESCRIPTION: Short, slim, dresses down (jeans, t-shirt, sneakers) late twenties/early thirties. Has distinctive short red hair, hazel eyes with green and gold flecks, pale-skinned, Scots ancestry but actually from Oregon, friendly but a little reserved and occasionally spooky. Has a temper – you have been warned

BACKGROUND:

Christine prefers to forget her early life but as her paradox–induced amnesia is slowly retreating, can actually now remember growing up in a small, rural community in Oregon. Both her father, Paul McAbee, and mother, Julie Mackenzie, were born in Scotland. Paul’s unstable mental health was self-medicated with alcohol, leading to a violent and abusive domestic environment. Paul died when Christine was 13 and she left home at 16 after an intensely ugly argument with her mother about her choice of second husband. Christine migrated to the big city, Portland, where she attempted to obtain high school and further qualifications, by putting herself through college working several waitress jobs.

Although rebellious and temperamental, Christine partially achieved her ambition to study for Law under her own steam due to her gritted-teeth determination not to become a victim like her mother. Her efforts were given a considerable boost when she managed to secure a job at a Portland law firm, Legal Services. Christine started as a secretary within this small public-service legal firm but due to her diligence, energy and a (sometimes misplaced) fiery zeal to take down abusers, she caught the eye of senior partner, Mara Ravenclaw. Under the mentorship of Ms Ravenclaw, Christine was able to graduate from secretary to trainee legal assistant. Her total hero-worship of her mentor, Mara, transmuted into passionate devotion when their professional and personal relationships merged.

Christine was mortally injured protecting Mara during a murderous assault at the Legal Services offices. Mara reluctantly ghouled Christine to save her life. Christine, unaware until this point that her idol was actually a vampire, initially rejected both Mara and ghouldom. However, now dependent on vitae, Christine eventually succumbed to the inevitable, resumed her role as Mara’s legal assistant, fac totem, lover and added ghoul and vampire servitor to her list of roles.

When Mara was sent to establish an associate legal office in Gotham, Christine accompanied her. Shortly after arrival in that notorious city, Christine - through a bizarre and seemingly random chain of events – fully Awakened to her powerful and long ignored gift of prophecy and True Sight. The already volatile relationship between Christine and Mara imploded under the strain of this further complication and former Domitor and ghoul parted ways for good.

[Source Game: Sodium Noir]

This much Christine remembers of her early life and of her migration to Gotham. The rest of her Gotham years remain a blank. Christine uneasily assumes that this is probably for the best and has hypothesized that somehow she cast some extremely powerful, destructive magicks, which caused her to become persona non grata among former friends and associates in Gotham. She has been told that she spent several months in Arkham Asylum in a catatonic state of Quiet, presumably abandoned to that fate by former associates. Her former Domitor and lover, Mara, arranged for her release from Arkham and packed her off, amnesiac and a month pregnant, to a vampire ally in New York.

In New York, Christine, found gainful employment and shelter at a Vampire Elysium, a club called the Nevermore. She made her abilities as a Seer available to anyone seeking this service. She was discovered in New York by a former Gotham friend and employer, Sandra Scoland, a Bastet antiquities dealer who rehired her to the NY offices of Scoland Antiquities Ltd. Christine met fellow Orphan Mages James Howard and Ellie Rowan in New York along with Nephandus (on the path of redemption), Nicholas Fraser. Already a PI and Nephandus hunter, Ellie joined forces with Messers Howard and Fraser to create Rowan & Associates Private Investigations. Christine is friends with and often consults for ‘Monsters Inc’, as she has flippantly dubbed the Nephandus Investigating trio. Christine’s daughter Lily was born in New York, a difficult birth of an Awakened baby that was assisted by James Howard, also an ex-Verbena Life specialist. James is Lily’s godfather.

[Source Game: Puzzles of Darkness]

A month or so ago, Christine began to suffer violent and disturbing prophetic visions of a coming cataclysm that she believes has its origins in Phoenix, Arizona. Although both she and James have some acquaintance with Mages at the Phoenix Rising Chantry, they have come to Phoenix incognito, with Lily, to investigate.

Christine is already acquainted with Michelle Wu, Professor Nicholas Mathewson’s apprentice. She is also acquainted with another resident of the Phoenix Rising Chantry, although she is not aware of this. Christine met Drusus Julius Marcellus in New York shortly after her arrival. The Undying recognised a reincarnation of the ancient Cumaean Sybil, who he had had dealings with nearly two millennia previously. This odd New York encounter occurred before Marcellus’ decision to assist the Phoenix Rising Mages, adding his extensive knowledge and skills to the endeavours of the Chantry.

Personal Effects:

cell phone

bracelet (talisman) made of ugly chunk of obsidian woven into a leather thong. This never leaves Christine’s wrist. It was the trigger for her Awakening, causing all vitae to be expelled from her body – a spectacularly bloody event. The shard came from a Aztec totem, The Obsidian Canes, the focus for dark, sacrificial magics, Spirit flavoured, from a very bloody era.

plastic cigarette lighter - focus for Forces magick. This is not a unique item. Christine picks up broken/spent disposable lighters if she sees them on the street and discards her old one, replacing it with her new find.

Note on foci/magickal items

Most of Christine’s foci are random street finds. As an Orphan, her magick is usually improvised and often relies on random foci, frequently street-found. The only bone fide ritual/magickal focus she uses is a broken shard of obsidian from an ancient Central American sacrificial totem but she barely understands what this is and knows next to nothing about its dark history or provenance. She came upon it as part of a ‘random’ series of events.