Difference between revisions of "Vagabond"

"Learn how to see. Realize that everything connects to everything else. We're a collective consciousness."

ORIGIN STORY

Serenity Barrington was born on the 18th of June, 1984, to a house-cleaning mother and construction-worker father in Fells, Mississippi. It was a decently sized city, tucked in between the Lauderdale and Jasper County. Serenity was raised around the occult and fetishes as her mother was a devoted Wiccan, carrying over the traditional religion and values passed down the family for the past three generations. Despite this, and being an only child, she was not isolated or separated from other children. In fact, she was a very outgoing, social, and charismatic young woman.

As Serenity began to come of age, she had learned the ins and outs of their families religion, to the point that she developed her own perception of its doctrines and practices. Though she never fully committed to Wicca, she held it's teachings close to the chest. Stemming from this was where she learned to not only be universally accepting of life, but also retain the mindset that not all secrets and knowledge should be presented freely. Everything had become normal and there was no bias towards either good or evil.

It wasn't until the year 2002 that things changed. Serenity as an eighteen year old senior in high-school, socially accepted by her peers and generally had some value or impact in most people she touched. She became part of the Fells High Cheer-leading squad, started to date the running-back of the football team, was well on her way to becoming the potential Prom Queen, and had won 'Best Personality' in her high school senior year-book. Life couldn't be more perfect for the petite, porcelain skinned young woman. All the way up to this point, life was a bright, optimistic reality where magic was not but novelty. Little did she know the darker side of things - yet.

On a winter Thursday night, the pivotal moment that changed Serenity's life forever struck itself into reality. She came home to see things amiss with her home after her time with boyfriend after school, inevitably leading up to finding her mother murdered through the use of knife. It wasn't until much later in the evening that the one who committed the crime came back for her. There she came face to face with the pastor to the Fell's Catholic Church, a man who she once respected to be a devout and almost humble old man. Fearing for her life after escaping her first kiss of death, she turned her back on her former life and hitch-hiked her way to New Orleans, Louisiana.

With a new perspective and reduced to a wandering homeless young woman, she was found by a man who presented himself a friend of her mothers. He claimed that he was sent to find her after he received word from Serenity's mother just before the murder. Weeks passed, and Serenity struggled to fight every urge compelling her to return home. She wanted answers and the man who had taken her under his wing for safety had none. Like him, she was barely getting by before a golden opportunity came to them. The job honestly sounded too good to be true. It was a simple delivery job of some crates to El Salvador. The reward would set them up for years financially. The risks? Entering the highest crime rate country in the world.

During the drive into the smallest country in Central America, they had a long series of dangers and challenges before them, so the man who took her under his wing decided to teach her how to defend herself. As his family had been taught for generations, he was trained in the ways of Apache knife-fighting and delivered the same teachings onto Serenity. Eventually, they came to their destination where the end and beginning of this chapter of her life closed. The delivery was of something they only knew to be called 'Wander', an imported 'psychadelic drug' rumored to carry people into a dream-like state. In reality, it rendered those under it's influence into a half-consciousness where one was easier prey for atavisms to feast and grow stronger. The product of a man Serenity would meet shortly.

The police had squatted in on the entire illicit exchange and burst into the building it had taken place. The criminal drug lord who had ordered the trade assumed it was fault of Serenity and her companion, which earned the latter's death before much reaction could happen. Serenity ran for cover, knowing what knowledge she had in knife fighting would not do her any good against firearms. By the end of this, the drug lord, her companions, most of the criminals, and some cops had been killed while Serenity was taken into custody by the El Salvador police.

Little did the police know, Serenity had inhaled quite a bit of the drug within it's powdery cloud during the firefight when some of the bags burst from the impacts of bullets. She was half-drifting between the Material plane and the Astral. While most of her focus was in the Astral, she came face to face with a masculine figured draped in a white thick robe which held it's arm out for her. He introduced himself as 'The Architect', and said he had a job proposition for her. Taking the offer, the police only saw the petite young woman's body slowly fade to an intangible gray-scaled replica before disappearing entirely.

PERSONALITY

Serenity, above all else, has stuck to being a pragmatic woman when approaching situations. This has led others into believing she is either more intelligent than her appearance and personality suggests or she is incredibly jaded due to lack of idealistic views. Another defining trait that stands out more on the surface is her welcoming and social disposition. To others, this makes her highly approachable, easy to hold a conversation with, and receptive to saying things in more confidence to receiving positive response.

Beyond this, Serenity is irrationally skeptical about giving information out in the same confidence. Be it driven through paranoia or a natural eccentric personality, she is very "close to the chest" about her personal details. Being self-aware of this habit, she has developed a cunning and exploitative method to her social life. In turn this has left her very capable of abusing trust against her enemies while keeping herself 'morally just' in the eyes of her peers. This is performed through the use of cold-reading brilliance, locating fallacies and contradictions, and the exhibition of "confidence tricks"

Due to a contract with an entity of the Netherworld during her days as a smuggler to escape an unwanted fate, Serenity is not only confident about her appearance, she is also narcissistic. An arrogant egotistical sense of pride can be observed in her actions, manner of speech, and the lengths of which she will go to maintain a perfect physical appearance. As a mystic and a Wiccan, she holds no real prejudices towards any particular group, with the exception of angelic beings (not their respective 'gods'). This stems from an unfortunate chain of events resulting in her holding angel-kind in incredibly low regard, going so far as to demean and become derisive when their presence is noticed.

As an occultist, Serenity believes that not all knowledge should be provided freely and that most knowledge should remain hidden and kept esoteric. It is also why she approaches investigations or other problems from a practical or scientific manner first before switching into a mystical one. To anyone that asks about magic or criticizes her belief as one, she will feed a compromising method as to not show favor towards either side of the ever-present debate.

APPEARANCE

Standing at 5'2", the twenty nine year old woman is eccentric in her appearance as personality. Her hair is constantly bleached in terms of color, but always features neon pink highlighted bangs. It is usually styled to form around her facial structure and provide an optical illusion that makes her sky-blue eyes stand out more. Her hair is unfortunately thick, but is decently taken care of. Her make-up theme presents a Gothic yet colorful display, featuring bright neon or pastel blue and pink lips or blush, wispy pitch-black eyelashes, and darkened thick eye-shadow. This, combined with her porcelain baby-smooth skin, and petite size merely accentuates a youthful and delightful face. Below the neck is a very lithe, small, and petite woman, but not devoid of her proportionate share of figure. Absent of any real physical musculature or physical scarring, Serenity seems to retain an unblemished skin conditioning. She has one tattoo however, seen on her lower back with a pentagram as the center piece with the words 'Collective Conscious' on each side.

This feature of Serenity, however, is kept from easy view due to her style of clothing. To go along with her youthful and cute appearance, Serenity Barrington chooses a specific set of clothing during her outings as a Magus. A mix of contemporary and Victorian, she follows a certain Gothic style known as ‘Candy-Goth’, hence one of her nicknames. It all starts with a black, button-up shirts, whose buttons are of a shiny white, and fastened all the way up. Next is a pair of equally black briefs, with fishnets of the very same color covering the rest of her legs. This together forms the very base of her outfit, but more comes over to form a more intricate outfit.

Black thighs high boots decorated by pink lacing, fastened tightly to sculpt her legs in an appealing manner, with the few inches of boosting heels to boot. Of course, one could not go about her without noticing the white frills emerging from the hem of the boots! Over the button up shirt comes a pink, sleeveless vest hugging her form. The vest itself has six white buttons; they come in pairs, horizontally one besides the other, to form three pairs of buttons from top to bottom of the vest. Two pockets along the waist are covered by a small black flap of fabric, and the same could be said about the breast pocket, for a total of three pockets. The Candy-Goth Magus has her hands covered in baby blue fingerless gloves, contrasting greatly with the pink of her other articles of clothing. The same could be said about the same colored ruffles attached to her neck and descending upon the upper region of her chest and collarbones.

Around her hips, a black leather belt with a big, metallic gray buckle comes to secure her briefs into place, which also comes over her button-up shirt and vest. Another article of dark color comes attached to this belt; a flapped pouch. What is inside, however, will remain as mysterious as the woman wearing it… To finalize her looks, Serenity Barrington wears a long coat made out of leather, also black colored, which she wears opened. Popping out from the sleeves of the jacket and around her delicate wrists were of course – a second pair of white ruffles!