Name: Hubert 'Hu' Mansfield
Race: Cult of Ecstasy
General information:
Description: Hu is a lean man, 5'7" tall, in his early twenties with an amiable smile and a tendency to dress in bright colours. His hair is cut stylishly short, often teased into spikes, a rich chestnut brown in colour which gleams with red highlights in the right light (and looks just drab brown in the wrong). His eyes are grey, constantly in motion, taking in his surroundings. His skin is pale save for the multitude of freckles that cover him everywhere.
Background
Hu's life began the day he died. At the age of sixteen, during a school camping trip he fell into the river and drowned. Since then nothing's been quite the same.
The death that triggered his awakening has left him with a foot in both the worlds of the living and dead. He sees ghosts and with that sight comes an obligation to help them whether they wish to be helped or not. It's something he feels he has to do, to help them pass over, to bring peace. But that foot in the world of the dead comes with a price. He has no natural healing ability, even the slightest of scratches require life magics to heal them and he's yet to be able to be able to learn that sphere.
Whilst the Euthanatos may have seemed the more likely fit for him, due to his connections with death it was the Cult of Ecstasy that found and apprenticed him. Their way helps him feel alive, which is absolutely essential for him. He couldn't imagine belonging anywhere else.
He bounces through life with all the passion he has, determined to get everything he can out of it, never to turn down any new experiences. He's a risk-taker, a dare-devil and utterly convinced of his own indestructibility. Throughout his apprenticeship he nearly killed himself multiple times in the pursuit of some new adrenaline rush and that drive to remind himself that he is, indeed, still alive. His mentor claimed he had no common sense which may indeed have been true. It took a motorcycle crash whilst he was trying to perform some stupid trick for things to change. Instead of healing him, like he had every single other time, his mentor just left him to face the consequences of his actions. He spent months crippled, in absolute agony most of the time without the aid of any magical healing for him to finally begin to learn some responsibility.
Life, just after his awakening was absolutely horrendous, though it's not something he dwells on now. His sight was tainted with visions of death everywhere and he was unable to filter between the worlds of the living and dead. It was through photography, seeing the world as it really is, that allowed him to block out the horrific sights and gain some control over his abilities and his life. Even now he knows it's there, lingering on the edge of his vision and that if he doesn't keep reminding himself that he is alive things will slip back to what they were.
The photography's opened up a whole new area of interest for Hu and not just in that it grounds him in reality. He never goes anywhere without his camera. There's an indescribable thrill for him in capturing perfect moments on film. Well not film since he prefers the digital medium. He photographs pretty much everything that catches his interest. They say the camera never lies. Hu loves using the camera to find the hidden truths in people, to capture their images and show them off at their best, helped with a little digital manipulation. Show people their true potentials, how they look in his world, turn the plain beautiful by just highlighting what they already have.
The ghosts are another matter. He's never been successful in blocking them out, quite likely because he doesn't truly want to. He has little knowledge about them though, save for what he's learned from them personally, as well as what's been picked up through occult books and movies.
Goals
- Learn Life. Hu's inability to heal is problematic and it's compounded by his inability to learn life magic.
- Learn more about dealing with the dead and help them however he can.
- Find a cure. Hu wants to heal once more and to feel truly alive.
- Seeking. He'll undoubtedly have to come to some sort of understanding with his avatar first. Hu's avatar terrifies him.
- Teach Corey. Somehow Hu's ended up with Corey as an apprentice.
Merits:
Medium: Hu's first death left him with a foot in both worlds; able to both see and interact with the dead. While he was brought back to life, he wasn't brought back quite right. His foot in the world of ghosts almost drove him mad and he's still extremely lacking in his knowledge about them.
Daredevil: Hu is extremely lucky when it comes to taking insane risks. Sometimes he claims that he's unable to die. That's not actually the case, he's just been very lucky in not doing so yet.
Oracular Ability: It's probably the whole death thing again, but Hu has a certain natural gift for divination. He's not fully aware of it yet and not all that great at actually interpretting the signs he sees. Whenever your storyteller feels you are in a position to see a sign or a portent, you may make a perception+awareness roll. with a difficult relative to how well the omen is concealed. If successful you may roll intelligence+occult to interpret what you've seen. Your difficulty with all divination magic (typically with time) is reduced by 2.
Dream 5: With the Dream Background, your character has the ability to meditate and tap into the wealth of information carried within the universal mind. She must focus on a particular problem while meditating, and the amount of time it takes her to glean the information will vary based on its complexity. This process has is drawbacks. She may not get exactly what she wanted, but instead may find herself possessing an intuitive understanding that she didn't expect. The universal mind knows better than she does what will help her, but that doesn't mean she'll figure out why this particular bit of information applies to her dilemma. Furthermore, she only has access to the information until she sleeps again. Once she sleeps, the knowledge flies out of her mind and she loses access to it. Your Storyteller may ask you to roll Perception + Dream to see how well your character can focus and reach a meditative state. Each character will have her own unique way of bringing forth the dream. It doesn't have to be sitting in a full lotus with incense burning. Some take long walks by the beach or vegetate to rock music. Whatever method your character uses, she must have no interruptions for the amount of time the Storyteller determines necessary. The information your character receives isn't concrete information, but rather an intuitive, guiding sense about something. She can't find a person's address this way, but she can sense that the person probably lives near the river, for example. Roll your character's Perception + Dream (difficulty 6) to determine to what extent the information she receives is helpful. Once per day, after your character has meditated successfully, you can substitute her Dream score for an Ability in a dice roll pertaining to the topic of her meditation. This applies whether she has the Ability or not. For example, if she's seeking some insight into her friend's emotions, you can roll Intelligence + Dream instead of Intelligence + Alertness, even if your character has no Alertness score. If she does have an Alertness score, you can substitute, if you choose. However, you can't add her Dream and Alertness scores. You roll either one or the other.
Flaws
Degeneration: Hu died and whilst he was brought back that death which triggered his awakening has left him permanantly marked. He can't heal without magic and so far he's been unable to grasp even the very basics of life magic. He's totally reliant on others for even the slightest of scratches which is inconvenient to say the least. His attempts to find a method of learning either life magic, or getting his body to heal on its own, have all ended in failure so far.
Unsettling Effect: Whenever Hu uses the spirit sphere his entire form drains of colour, the air chills, and he looks more ghost-like and there's an innate sense of wrongness about him.
Offensive to Animals: Animals can sense that there is something wrong with Hu and do not like him. Dogs growl at him, cats hiss, etc.
Key Stats
Alertness, Awareness, Photography, Athletics, Occult, Drive, Investigation.
Spheres
Correspondence 2, Entropy 2, Mind 2, Prime 1, Spirit 2, Time 2
NPC Relationships
- April April is one of Hu's Dallas friends. She's a journalist who often calls on him and his camera to accompany her on stories.
- Darian Hu's mentor and ex-cabalmate.
- Princess Hu's best friend and his ex-cabalmate.
- Doctor Destiny Hu's former cabalmate.