Shannon Travers (Prototype)
Shannon Travers was born with a foot in two worlds. Her father was a British minerals company employee who often spent his months in northwestern Quebec sourcing sites and working with the Native population, while her mother was a local environmentalist and member of the local Mohawk tribe. The relationship didn't last, but Shannon remained a legacy of their time together. Her father's promotion to an executive position and the educational opportunities offered to her as a consequence meant that she spent her youth traveling a lot between her father's hometown of Birmingham and her mother's new workplace in Montreal, where she'd taken a teaching position.
Growing up wasn't too hard, and she lived conformable with either of her parents. Her native relatives were kind, but distant- all too aware that she wouldn't be allowed to stay on the reservation due to failing the blood quotients, but still welcoming. In particular, she had many fond memories of her grandparents, especially her grandmother who many referred to as a wise woman and shaman, and a grandfather who didn't mind her poking around and helping out while he repaired car engines at his mechanic shop. Her father's family spoiled her, though she managed to avoid becoming a problem child- somehow.
She awakened spontaneously, after a boating accident sent her tumbling into a canal. Her impassioned pleas for rescue were met by the city spirit of Montreal, which buoyed her to the bank and drew the ambulances to her with little tricks. After that incident, they spoke many times both in dreams- often about the corruption in the world and the malaise that many of the new cities suffered as a consequence of the frailties of their youth and the mass produced buildings that filled them. The discussions shaped Shannon more than anything else, and motivated her to pull on her father's connections to enter a university in London after she graduated.
Her goals were twofold: first to meet the legendary city spirit of once the greatest city in the world, and second to learn architecture, city planning and civil engineering, what she considered to be the new arts of geomancy. Meeting Electra Stephens while studying, she fell in with the Idol House almost without noticing it, and became their defacto mechanic, carpenter, interior decorator, architect and easily a dozen other things.
Vital Statistics
- Name// Shannon Travers
- Concept// Spirit Smith who wants to heal the urban world.
- Image Song// Thousand Bells, Yonderboi
- Nature// Architect - Soulful Modernity
- Demeanor// Bon Vivant - "We can make the world beautiful."
- Essence// Questing - The Alleycat
- Chantry// Idol House
Things to Track
Willpower// 7
Temporary Willpower// 7
Health Levels// -0 x 1, -1 x 2, -2 x 2, -5 x 1, Incapacitated
- Current Damage// -
Quintessence// 4/4
Paradox// 0
Attributes
- Strength// 2
- Dexterity// 2
- Stamina// 2
- Perception// 3
- Intelligence// 3
- Wits// 2
- Charisma 4 (Enthralling)
- Manipulation 2
- Appearance 4 (Radiant)
Abilities
SKILLS/ 13 +1
- Craft// 4 (Spirit Housings)
- Drive// 3
- Etiquette// 2
- Performance (Singing)// 2
- Technology// 3
TALENTS/ 9
- Alertness// 1
- Awareness// 3
- Expression// 2
- Intuition// 3
KNOWLEDGES/ 5
- Computer// 1
- Cosmology// 2
- Occult// 3
Paradigm
Shannon's paradigm is as herself- a foot in two worlds. She looks to the past as a classical Dreamspeaker who desires to restore a certain balance to the world, but she realizes that the modern world cannot be unmade and does not oppose it. Like many modern technoshamans, she studies the new spirits of machines, concrete structures and mass production goods that the Technocracy has made so common in the world. Magick is a jazz- there is no one right way of doing any single thing, but sense that things work best if the willworker works with, rather than against the rhythm of the moment.
Despite using many common Dreamspeaker foci like sacred bodypaints, oils and engraved baubles, Shannon is a thorough dabbler. Modern spirits have largely vindicated her beliefs by being responsive to her overtures anyway, so she has no reason to settle too strongly into a single style of shamanry. The soul of a car can be placated directly by giving it a fresh coat of paint and natural oil rather than using those same materials in a protracted one-day ritual (although that works too). She enjoys cross-applying competencies as well, negotiating with a car to get it to work or stepping into the Umbra to fix (or build) metaphysical machinery and improve living conditions for spirits. Sometimes she even sings, figuring there isn't an older language that is genuinely universal (since you don't see New Yorkers speaking in Enochian, Lemurian or Hyborean) and capable of touching the soul the same.
Shannon trusts in the power of spirits and does her best to parlay well with them. Sometimes you don't need words of power to do something, just good care in your daily life and the help of your friends on the other side.
Foci and Spheres
- All of the Above and Bellow// Spirit 4 - Paint/engraving, tools, singing, .
- The Spirit of Each Thing// Matter 3 - Paint/engraving, tools, custom parts.
- The Great Spirits// Prime 2 - Paint/engraving, tools, singing, custom parts.
Rotes
- See the Unseen// Spirit 1, Matter 1
- As much as she's content to make people think they do nothing, Shannon's goggles serve a purpose in allowing her to simultaneously gaze through the material and Umbral realms, allowing to look through walls, gauge discrepancies between reality and the other side and detect possessions. The goggles have numerous slides that have had their rims engraved in patterns that resonate sympathetically with a certain kind of spirit to help her scry, allowing her to shut off different kinds of sight or see different things through either eye.
- Spirit Tracks// Spirit 3
- The bread-and-butter of any technoshaman, this is an extended ritual that involves coaxing the spirit of an inanimate thing to full awakening. Because most modern items are too bland and mundane to awaken, Shannon's rituals are often labors of customization (with new parts, custom housings, paint, carved sigils) and extensive usage to build up the requisite history so that it can form an identity for itself.
- Phantasmal Panoply// Spirit 3, Matter 2 or Prime 2
- This rote depends on the way the Umbra naturally reveals certain truths that are concealed within the base matter of reality. In effect, it turns any well-made effigy of an item into a real masterwork once it is brought into the Umbra. It serves no purpose other than making valuables to give to the locals, although it could theoretically be used to make weapons and armor for travel there.
- Bottled Guardian// Matter 3, Spirit 2, Prime 2
- An incredibly vulgar rote that involves creating a miniature shrine inside of a can of spraypaint can to house a spirit, usually a guard dog of some sort that has the proper instincts and can be educated to protect her. When sprayed on a hard, paintable surface a simulacra of the spirit's actual shape emerges from the substance, armored up and prepared for combat.
- Teflon Screws// Matter 3
- The name of this rote is something of a misnomer, as it rarely makes use of teflon or screws, but instead depends on cajoling a certain surface into becoming impossibly smooth so much so that the possibility of friction acting upon it is nil. Having spent plenty of time in the Canadian countryside, Shannon regularly invokes it by noticing a given ice patch with her goggles, although she regularly installs oil slicks on her cars to get the same effect in the seasons where there is no ice.
- Nails and Grit// Matter 3
- The reverse of Teflon Screws is often Shannon's most useful magical effect against Technocrats and certain kinds of undead, an effect which involves acquiring the services of a decay spirit from a graveyard and placing it into a container similar to that created with Bottled Guardian, and then filling it with a rusting agent in aerosol (saltwater is preferred over the various acids of the fluorine group). When weapons are pointed at her or she needs to stealthily sabotage a piece of technology, she sprays them down and allows the spirit to rust their guns shut and cyberlimbs into painful immobility (hence the name). A meaner version of this involves using aerosol paints or cleaners that tend to harm clothing or brick structures.
Backgrounds
- Avatar 4 - The Alleycat is not all that it seems to be.
- Contacts 1 - Father is an energy company exec, mother is a university professor.
- Resources 3 - Works as a mechanic and metalworking artist, gets a nice stipend from both her parents.
Merits and Flaws
- MERITS/
- Crack Driver (1) - In the past, some Dreamspeaker horseback riders were preternaturally skilled at communicating and controlling their mounts. Shannon is part of- or destroying- a proud tradition. -2 Dif on all rolls relating to the operation of a motor vehicle.
- Mechanical Aptitude (1) - Being able to communicate with even dormant spirits of technology has certain benefits. -2 Dif on all rolls relating to technology.
- Spirit Magnet (7) - Shannon seems to draw a lot of attention from helpful spirits, notably on the very occasion when the City Spirit of Montreal rescued her and she awakened.
- FLAWS/
- Echoes - Catus Carnival (2) - Shannon tends to cause some weird happenings by being in a certain place. Cats often crowd her and tend to be affectionate while dogs exhibit stranger interests (as dogs tend to vis a vis cats). She is also bothered by water if put into it against her will, taking a -1 penalty to all actions if doused by surprise.
- Phobia - Drowning (3) - Shannon has yet to cope with her traumatic near-drowning incident, and has been deathly afraid of large bodies of water ever since. She can still bathe or traipse in relatively shallow waters, but going over rivers and lakes- let alone swimming is a mortifying enough experience that she takes a -2 difficulty penalty on all actions while this is happening, with the above penalty from being wet stacking if she didn't go in of her own will.
- Primal Marks - The Alleycat (2) - Shannon has a number of catlike mannerisms that her friends write off as quirks, such as saying the words 'mew' ironically, rubbing her face with the back of her hand or stretching like a cat. Some people have occasionally seen her with cat ears, only to blink and not see them anymore. The Umbra has temporarily made these traits more apparent.
- Spirit-Trained - Concordia Salus (1) - Shannon was awakened and trained by the city spirit of Montreal, and only has her background in Mohawk traditions and myth to complement this. This has given her a far more technomagical conception of spirit bargaining that might set her at odds with other Dreamspeakers and make her seem weird to technomages.
XP and Background
Freebie Points
Freebie Points 22/22
- Primal Marks (-2)
- Phobia: (-2)
- Echoes (-2)
- Spirit-Trained (-1)
- Willpower (2)
- Prime 2 (10)
- Mechanical Aptitude (1)
- Crack Driver (1)
- Spirit Magnet (7)
- Craft 4 (2)
- Avatar 4 (1)
XP
- Session 1 (6): Grave goods let you fill equipment gaps in the Umbra.
- Session 2 (6): My player should remember to set his alarm.
- Session 3 (12): Spirits are not better than humans. Only different, and sometimes in horrifying ways.
- Spirit 4 (-24: 0)
- Session 4 (8): The seemingly dangerous and unstable members of the chantry are the most reliable to date.