Emily Ross, psychic ex-waitress
ST: 9 [-10] -- Swing 1d-1, Thrust 1d-2
DX: 10 [0] -- Move 5, Speed 5, Dodge 5
IQ: 12 [20]
HT: 10 [0]
Point Total: 30
Advantages: ESP Power 7 [21]
Disadvantages: Callous [-6]; Delusion (going insane) [-10]; Loner [-5]; Voices [-10]
Quirks: Won't eat food she has cooked if possible; Will sometimes talk about living people in the past-tense
Skills: Accounting-9 [0.5]; Area Knowledge (Chicago)-12 [1]; Bartender-11 [1]; Calligraphy-9 [1]; Carousing-8* [2]; Cooking-12 [2]; Dancing-10 [2]; Driving-9 [1]; First Aid-11 [0.5]; Fortune Telling-11 [1]; Literature (Poetry)-15/9 [1]; Poetry-11 [1]; Professional Skill (Waitress)-12 [2]; Theology (Baptist)-10 [1]
* includes -2 penalty from Callous
Psi Skills: Mind Block-11 [2]; Precognition-14 [8]; Psychometry-11 [2]; Seekersense-11 [2]
Equipment:
Emily wears a black, high-neck sweater, black pants and black boots. She also wears a yellow 'half skirt' that mainly covers her right hip. On her left hip she wears a pager and cellphone. Also see the picture on p.P85 (remove the shoulder patch).
Appearance:
Emily is 5'7", 120 lbs, with shoulder-length blonde hair, ice-blue eyes and is 22 years old. See above for clothing.
Biography
Emily Ross was born into a working-class home in eastern Mississippi. She realized at an early age that she was different from other children when, every now and then, she would see a glimpse of an even before it happened. As she grew other, she began to realize that her father could do the same thing. Unfortunately for Emily, her mother was a simple woman who considered any sign of psychic ability a mark of the Devil. Her father had hidden his ability as long as he could, not revealing it until he noticed his daughter also possessed the same gift. Shortly afterwards, Emily's mother left, only to return one more time.
For several years, Emily and her father lived along, but not happily. She discovered that he was also prone to hearing voices and his sanity started to deteriorate rapidly after his wife left. Frequently, he would turn and start talking, then stop, realizing no one was there. This was quickly followed with him going on long drinking binges, being fired from jobs after only a few weeks andlead, finally, to him killing himself.
For the first time in several years, Emily's mother returned. She packed up her daughter's possessions and took her to an aunt and uncle across the state. Emily's mother left the next day and she has not seen her since. Unfortunately for Emily, several things transpired during her first few months at her new home to make the next few years the worst of her life. She started to enter puberty and, within a week, began hearing people whispering when no one was around. As terrified as this made her, she dared not tell her relatives. She did, however, make the mistake of telling her uncle that a friend he was about refuse to lend money to would end up being killed attepting to rob a grocery store. She was soundly beaten both for using the power of the Devil and speaking badly about a familiy friend. Several days later, when the death came to pass, she was beaten even more severely, for 'making' the event happen as revenge.
Over the next several years, she would periodically and randomly be beaten, as her aunt and uncle put it, 'for her own good, to drive the Devil out.' One once occasion they even brought in a priest to perform an exorcism. Of course, it failed to work, but she managed to get out a rather dire and graphic prediction directed towards everyone involved before she was beaten again for somehow resufing to cooperate.
Shortly after she turned 17, Emily ran away. While her aunt and uncle did report her missing, they did little to try to find her, as they were glad that she was gone. For the next four years she worked in diners and bars. At first for fun, and later for cash, she would try to tell the future of patrons or to guess at their personal lives by handling some item they owned. Usually, she just made up predictions (especially for drunken bar customers), but sometimes she would have a true insight and tell it, no matter how bad it was. She was fired more than once for delivering death-related news (her bosses thought she was using a rather tactless and offensive way of telling paying cutomers to stop drinking).
One day, when she was working as a waitress in an all-night diner, a couple whose child had been found dead came in with one of her toys, found where she had vanished but dismissed as evidence by the police, asking her to see if she could do anything. At first, Emily could read nothing useful, but then she was shocked by the image of a police officer taking the toy away from their son and setting it down.
The couple went back to the police, screaming that the department was protecting a child killer. The police chief ordered his officers to start leaning on Emily, supposedly because she was seen as interfering with the investigation. Eventually, when she refused to recant her vision, she was arrested as a suspect in the boy's murder. A few days latter, the police chief's brother, in a stolen uniform, was caught trying to lure another boy away from a playground. Emily was quetly released, the chief resigned and the brother killed himself before he could stand trial.
A wealthy occultist named Martin J. Reid learned of Ross though several newspaper accounts of the incident. Although he had found and currently employed several psis, he was especially interested in her due to her background (his other Esper was from an upper-class family). In order to better research her powers, and allowing her the chance to develop them, he hired her to work at his foundation in Chigago.
Emily has now been working for the Foundation for nearly two years. She still does not like people, or care to be around them, but Reid feels that progress is being made. She is, however, extremely freightened by the voices she continues to hear, stronger than ever now. Some of Reid's scientists believe it is a flawed and uncontrollable version of Astral Projection.
Encountered
Emily Ross is normally found on the grounds of the Chicago branch of Reid's foundation, dividing her time between a sensory deprevation tank in the basement to aid her psi abilities during investigations and being studied (and studying) in one of the labs. She will sometimes go into the field and has made a few trips to the Boston and San Francisco branches of the foundation.
What If?
Emily, with little difficulty, can be placed anywhere in North America and most countries in Europe within the past hundred years. She could just as easily fit into a cyberpunk or near-future science-fiction setting.
Emily can easily be used in a higher-point campaign by raising her ESP power level and/or the levels of her psionic skills.
Campaign Uses
If the PCs work for the Martin J. Reid Foundation (either full-time or on a part-time basis), they will interact with Emily quite often. The party may also run into her if their Paton sends them on a job that has also attracted the attention of the MJR Foundation. GMs could also introduce her before she left Mississippi.