Post by Tempest on Nov 3, 2013 18:55:51 GMT -5
Name: Kestrel Lenore Harris (and Andras)
Gender: Female (the demon identifies as male)
Age: 25 (the demon is ancient- and there’s no real record of when he was brought forth)
Power(optional): Kestrel herself lacks overt powers (though she is more and more likely to develop something unholy the longer she plays host to Andras). No, what sets Kestrel apart is the fact that she has a parasite inside her that has a demon bound to it. The presence of this demon gives her occasional access to stores of knowledge that she wouldn’t normally get access to, as well as a particular gift for understanding both sides of the Gifted/Normal relation issue. Her connection with Andras also gives her exceptional night vision.
That’s it, though she worries that continued coexistence with her demonic parasite will change her permanently.
Desired Class/Desired Position: Coexisting/Public Relations, Art
Personality: Kestrel is exceedingly laid-back when it comes to her classroom management style. She doesn’t allow rule-breaking in her class, but she understands that kids are kids and there’s a large gray area where they should be allowed to make their own mistakes. She has a talent for making anybody talking to her feel as though they are the most important thing on her mind at the moment, asking intelligent questions and thinking before she contributes to the conversation. The woman is smart, but lacks the ambition to do anything more than art. She loves her field too much to go after bigger and better things.
She has many hobbies, but art and bird-watching are the two she does consistently, despite the weather and the time. Kestrel is also pretty big into the distance-running circuit, having trained to run ultra-marathons before. She enjoys different kinds of art projects, but what she is up to depends on her mood and the phase she is going through. Kestrel’s had found object sculptural projects for months on end.
It can be very difficult to make her angry in most cases, but some things will tick her off pretty quickly. She doesn’t approve of people making blanket judgments or picking on others. She’s a fervent believer of not falling prey to bystander effect, and she can get passionate about certain movements. Her primary method for dealing with things she doesn’t like is to discuss them, presenting her case with a mixture of logic and passion.
Andras, on the other hand, is an angry soul underneath all of the dry (and often inappropriate) humor. He is a lonely fellow, since he spends most of his time locked away in Kestrel. He can pull off charming facades, especially if he thinks that they’ll help him get his way, but only a fool would believe him without checking things out first. He has his moments of helpfulness, but they usually come at a price for somebody.
He often makes it difficult for Kestrel to focus as much as she would like to at tasks or conversations. When he’s quiet, she can easily tune out everything but the person she’s talking to. When he’s making snarky comments in the back of her mind, she can sometimes lose focus. Kestrel doesn’t tell normal people about Andras, but she doesn’t mind if Gifteds know.
Naturally, Andras is a very frustrated demon. When killing the person who put the binding on him didn’t work to free him, he had to come to terms with his very limited existence. Sometimes, it feels like he never truly accepted it. He isn’t good, so he often differs in opinion from Kestrel. He doesn’t think she needs to work as hard as she has, or does, he doesn’t see the point in art, and he doesn’t believe in the things she believes in.
Appearance: .x. .x.
Kestrel is quite tall, about 5’10”, with short sandy-blonde hair and gray-green eyes. She is wiry, built for running, with long arms and legs. She leans to casual clothing, even at work since she teaches art and her other class on the same day. Her button-ups shirts usually have long sleeves and paint or ink stains somewhere on them. When working, she wears khakis or trousers in order to be professional, but she prefers jeans. She hates dresses and skirts, as well as high heels. However, she can occasionally be persuaded to don a dress if the situation calls for it. Heels, however, are right out.
Her face is a perfect oval, with high cheekbones and smooth skin. She gets enough sun during her runs and bird walks to tan nicely, and remain about the same level of tan throughout the year. Her lips are full and her brow smooth. She rarely wears makeup, and she tends to wear the bare minimum when she has to. She smiles often and easily, and her usual good mood carries into her bearing as well. Her short hair is easily styled and her tastes vary from day to day. Some days, she rocks the faux-hawk, sometimes she combs it nicely to the side. Sometimes, she runs some product in there and lets it do whatever it wants. Regardless, the style is usually pretty flattering.
She can sometimes be found wearing running clothes, especially if she finds time between classes.
Right now, Andras is bound into the form of a filarial worm. In his true form, he looks like a very tall man (6’5”) with the head and wings of a barn owl and medium-dark skin.
Weaknesses: Kestrel cannot partake of alcohol or drugs without risking Andras taking over her body via their mental connection. Her relationship with her demon only goes so far, and the longer it lasts, the more likely she is to change for the weirder. If Andras were to get free, the parasite in her body would start acting like a normal parasite and she’d have some health problems she currently doesn’t have to contend with. She can’t kill Andras in this form because he has somehow made the parasite resistant to any sort of anti-filarial medication. Andras himself is distracting.
Strengths:
Kestrel knows who she is with very little doubt. This is good in the face of an entity that would most definitely take over her body if given a chance. Her connection with Andras is a double-edged sword that she takes advantage of when she gets the opportunity. She can use Andras’s knowledge of poisons, history, and other things to her advantage. Andras’s influence allows her to see in the dark very well. As somebody who spent most of her life not actually part of the Gifted community, she understands normal people and their misgivings very well. Her well-rounded interests make it easy for her to make friends.
History:
Andras: Having risen through the ranks of Hell to the rank of Marquis, Andras once commanded thirty legions of demons. His favorite thing to do was to stir up dissension and he was considered to be highly dangerous to summon. Unfortunately, his image in Hell has been tarnished by the mere fact that somebody bound him into the form of a filarial parasite. Specifically, that of Onchocerca volvulus, a roundworm that causes river blindness and other complaints.
Long story short, this immortal nematode wound up in the body of Kestrel Harris and settled in right next to her heart. Being so close to his host gives him some leeway in terms of communication. A telepathic link, if you will. Drugs would make it easier, of course.
Kestrel Harris was not the best student by any means, but she graduated high school and college. As she worked on her Masters degree, she spent her summers volunteering overseas. During a trip to Nigeria, she contracted Onchocerciasis. One of the worms that invaded her system was inhabited by Andras. When she took the medication to get rid of the worms, Andras remained. His presence in her body was minimal at first, as he wandered around, looking for a location to stay.
He settled next to her heart and that’s when things started to get really strange really quickly. His voice invaded her dreams, whispering to her between moments of unconsciousness. His influence grew and grew and he became known to her when a psychic out on the streets began to wig out when Kestrel wandered past. Kestrel didn’t know if she was relieved that the voices were not insanity or worried that she now carried a demon within her.
She discovered the problem with being Andras’s host when he took over her body to exact revenge on the person who bound him. She made the mistake of having a couple of drinks with some colleagues one Friday after she’d finished grading papers. Three months later, she broke through with blood drying on her hands and a very melancholy demon still connected to her telepathically.
Realizing that she needed to be around others with strange talents and abilities (and because she was fired for disappearing for three months), Kestrel sent her portfolio to Foresta for review.
Gender: Female (the demon identifies as male)
Age: 25 (the demon is ancient- and there’s no real record of when he was brought forth)
Power(optional): Kestrel herself lacks overt powers (though she is more and more likely to develop something unholy the longer she plays host to Andras). No, what sets Kestrel apart is the fact that she has a parasite inside her that has a demon bound to it. The presence of this demon gives her occasional access to stores of knowledge that she wouldn’t normally get access to, as well as a particular gift for understanding both sides of the Gifted/Normal relation issue. Her connection with Andras also gives her exceptional night vision.
That’s it, though she worries that continued coexistence with her demonic parasite will change her permanently.
Desired Class/Desired Position: Coexisting/Public Relations, Art
Personality: Kestrel is exceedingly laid-back when it comes to her classroom management style. She doesn’t allow rule-breaking in her class, but she understands that kids are kids and there’s a large gray area where they should be allowed to make their own mistakes. She has a talent for making anybody talking to her feel as though they are the most important thing on her mind at the moment, asking intelligent questions and thinking before she contributes to the conversation. The woman is smart, but lacks the ambition to do anything more than art. She loves her field too much to go after bigger and better things.
She has many hobbies, but art and bird-watching are the two she does consistently, despite the weather and the time. Kestrel is also pretty big into the distance-running circuit, having trained to run ultra-marathons before. She enjoys different kinds of art projects, but what she is up to depends on her mood and the phase she is going through. Kestrel’s had found object sculptural projects for months on end.
It can be very difficult to make her angry in most cases, but some things will tick her off pretty quickly. She doesn’t approve of people making blanket judgments or picking on others. She’s a fervent believer of not falling prey to bystander effect, and she can get passionate about certain movements. Her primary method for dealing with things she doesn’t like is to discuss them, presenting her case with a mixture of logic and passion.
Andras, on the other hand, is an angry soul underneath all of the dry (and often inappropriate) humor. He is a lonely fellow, since he spends most of his time locked away in Kestrel. He can pull off charming facades, especially if he thinks that they’ll help him get his way, but only a fool would believe him without checking things out first. He has his moments of helpfulness, but they usually come at a price for somebody.
He often makes it difficult for Kestrel to focus as much as she would like to at tasks or conversations. When he’s quiet, she can easily tune out everything but the person she’s talking to. When he’s making snarky comments in the back of her mind, she can sometimes lose focus. Kestrel doesn’t tell normal people about Andras, but she doesn’t mind if Gifteds know.
Naturally, Andras is a very frustrated demon. When killing the person who put the binding on him didn’t work to free him, he had to come to terms with his very limited existence. Sometimes, it feels like he never truly accepted it. He isn’t good, so he often differs in opinion from Kestrel. He doesn’t think she needs to work as hard as she has, or does, he doesn’t see the point in art, and he doesn’t believe in the things she believes in.
Appearance: .x. .x.
Kestrel is quite tall, about 5’10”, with short sandy-blonde hair and gray-green eyes. She is wiry, built for running, with long arms and legs. She leans to casual clothing, even at work since she teaches art and her other class on the same day. Her button-ups shirts usually have long sleeves and paint or ink stains somewhere on them. When working, she wears khakis or trousers in order to be professional, but she prefers jeans. She hates dresses and skirts, as well as high heels. However, she can occasionally be persuaded to don a dress if the situation calls for it. Heels, however, are right out.
Her face is a perfect oval, with high cheekbones and smooth skin. She gets enough sun during her runs and bird walks to tan nicely, and remain about the same level of tan throughout the year. Her lips are full and her brow smooth. She rarely wears makeup, and she tends to wear the bare minimum when she has to. She smiles often and easily, and her usual good mood carries into her bearing as well. Her short hair is easily styled and her tastes vary from day to day. Some days, she rocks the faux-hawk, sometimes she combs it nicely to the side. Sometimes, she runs some product in there and lets it do whatever it wants. Regardless, the style is usually pretty flattering.
She can sometimes be found wearing running clothes, especially if she finds time between classes.
Right now, Andras is bound into the form of a filarial worm. In his true form, he looks like a very tall man (6’5”) with the head and wings of a barn owl and medium-dark skin.
Weaknesses: Kestrel cannot partake of alcohol or drugs without risking Andras taking over her body via their mental connection. Her relationship with her demon only goes so far, and the longer it lasts, the more likely she is to change for the weirder. If Andras were to get free, the parasite in her body would start acting like a normal parasite and she’d have some health problems she currently doesn’t have to contend with. She can’t kill Andras in this form because he has somehow made the parasite resistant to any sort of anti-filarial medication. Andras himself is distracting.
Strengths:
Kestrel knows who she is with very little doubt. This is good in the face of an entity that would most definitely take over her body if given a chance. Her connection with Andras is a double-edged sword that she takes advantage of when she gets the opportunity. She can use Andras’s knowledge of poisons, history, and other things to her advantage. Andras’s influence allows her to see in the dark very well. As somebody who spent most of her life not actually part of the Gifted community, she understands normal people and their misgivings very well. Her well-rounded interests make it easy for her to make friends.
History:
Andras: Having risen through the ranks of Hell to the rank of Marquis, Andras once commanded thirty legions of demons. His favorite thing to do was to stir up dissension and he was considered to be highly dangerous to summon. Unfortunately, his image in Hell has been tarnished by the mere fact that somebody bound him into the form of a filarial parasite. Specifically, that of Onchocerca volvulus, a roundworm that causes river blindness and other complaints.
Long story short, this immortal nematode wound up in the body of Kestrel Harris and settled in right next to her heart. Being so close to his host gives him some leeway in terms of communication. A telepathic link, if you will. Drugs would make it easier, of course.
Kestrel Harris was not the best student by any means, but she graduated high school and college. As she worked on her Masters degree, she spent her summers volunteering overseas. During a trip to Nigeria, she contracted Onchocerciasis. One of the worms that invaded her system was inhabited by Andras. When she took the medication to get rid of the worms, Andras remained. His presence in her body was minimal at first, as he wandered around, looking for a location to stay.
He settled next to her heart and that’s when things started to get really strange really quickly. His voice invaded her dreams, whispering to her between moments of unconsciousness. His influence grew and grew and he became known to her when a psychic out on the streets began to wig out when Kestrel wandered past. Kestrel didn’t know if she was relieved that the voices were not insanity or worried that she now carried a demon within her.
She discovered the problem with being Andras’s host when he took over her body to exact revenge on the person who bound him. She made the mistake of having a couple of drinks with some colleagues one Friday after she’d finished grading papers. Three months later, she broke through with blood drying on her hands and a very melancholy demon still connected to her telepathically.
Realizing that she needed to be around others with strange talents and abilities (and because she was fired for disappearing for three months), Kestrel sent her portfolio to Foresta for review.