Yusra’s lament is that life is more complicated than most people care to realise. They want it simple. They invent this simplicity in the way they explain things to themselves: if you achieve this one thing you’ll finally be fulfilled, this one group is the enemy and are responsible for all you problems, this one way is the path to a good life. These stories are too simple, too one-note, they don’t hit all the right narrative beats and encapsulate the necessary rise and fall for real resolution. They beget crippling mediocrity. She figures she can change that, one story at a time.
Yusra grew up feeling like the Other. She emigrated from Pakistan to the United States with her parents when she was six and they didn’t settle in the most migrant-friendly town. She has a lot of unpleasant memories of that time. Yusra grew up friendless, even after they moved again the damage had already been done, and instead used movies to fill the social gap. Yusra developed a natural facility with the structure of narrative before she even had the words to properly express it. Comparing it to her observations of the real-world, the real-world's deficiency was obvious.
Things started off small in high-school, little interferences meant to stir complexity into people’s stories. These were unsatisfying squibs. Undaunted, Yusra ramped up her efforts again and again. She was absolutely sure she had it right, she just needed to find the correct formula. This culminated in a campaign of harassment against another girl that lead through a maze of suspects, involved the police and school faculty, the classmate’s kidnapping and rescue and finally the denouement that another student - Yusra’s patsy - had been responsible for all of it, over a years old grudge.
When the boy was led away in handcuffs Yusra felt a rush like she never had before. It was revelation, she had crafted her plot masterfully and given the girl a story that made real sense of her life. The girl went on to campaign and champion for better social and legal protections against stalking and harassment, eventually ending up with a storied career in the state legislature. The major charge Yusra received for her efforts, at the birth of her cinemancy, made that possible.
Over the years Yusra has refined her technique. At any time she has up to a dozen candidates she observes through her daily routine, stalking their social media and their real life movements to judge whether any of them need to be broken free from the mold of too simple a story. Once she sees something she thinks she can work with she zeroes in and comes up with a new narrative for them, storyboarding it on the wall of her apartment. While this is going on she builds her charges, minors by workshopping hypotheticals and plot points with bemused strangers on buses and in parks and sigs by her use of disguises to gather more information. Bag lady is her favourite for being invisible.
When she is ready to strike it is thorough and unpredictable with contingencies for almost any situation and magick for those she hasn’t anticipated. She might insert herself into her target’s life in a constructed persona, she might remain an invisible presence. Her use of proxies to play supporting roles is a recurring tactic. What is consistent is that the target’s life gets very interesting, very quickly and always along the lines of her constructed narrative. It’s not a wholesale hosing. Yusra doesn’t want to destroy anybody so she’ll let up when necessary, but she does want to inspire a particular course. To shape and grow a person by breaking them loose. It just so happens that antagonist is always the best role for her in this arrangement.
If she fails she regretfully retreats, telling herself that her special touch is not for everyone and that some will have to lead unworthy lives. If she succeeds the resulting major charge is her gift to them, spending it she ensures that her victory is something that never leaves them.
STATS
Personality: Inquisitive to the point of being snoopy and calculatingly opinionated. Capable of being both very socially adept and obliviously awkward. Very loose grasp of morality.
Rage: Unwarranted persecution. Yusra is of a mind that some people deserve it but resents the mob mentality that goes off half-cocked.
Noble: Giving to others what she feels she can never have.
Fear: Prison. Yusra does a lot of illegal things but she’s never been arrested, her mental image of incarceration terrifies her (Helplessness).
Obsession: Correct people’s lives by giving them the right story.
Wound Threshold: 50.
Cinemancy 60%* (Adept, Casts Rituals, Use Gutter Magick.)
Voyeuristic Antagonist 60% (Substitutes for Notice, Substitutes for Secrecy, Substitutes for Lie.)
Shock Gauges
Notches
|
Violence
|
Unnatural
|
Helplessness
|
Isolation
|
Self
|
Hardened
|
2
|
4
|
2
|
4
|
3
|
Failed
|
0
|
0
|
2
|
1
|
1
|
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