Jessica Casabien

<infobox layout="stacked">

 <title source="Name">
   <default>Jessica Casabien</default>
 </title>
 <image source="Image">
 </image>
 
 <title source="title">
 </title>
 
   <label>Alias</label>
 
 
 
 
   <label>Age</label>
 
 
   <label>Gender</label>
 
 
   <label>Status</label>
 
 
   <label>Type</label>
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
   <label>Classification</label>
 
 
 
 
 
 
   <label>Affiliation</label>
 
 
 
 
 
 
   <label>Family</label>
 
 
 
 
 
 
   <label>Occupation</label>
 
 
 
 
 
 
   <label>First Appearance</label>
 

</infobox>

Jessica Casabien is a student at the Blue Heron Institute.

Personality

She's noted that she doesn't especially like her chosen field of The Ruins.<ref>“I was always terrible at English class, and so much of this stuff is like being asked to read something and figure out what it really means,” Avery noted, as she wrote.  “But I like puzzles, and figuring stuff out.  It’s why I like the Path stuff.  As scary as a lot of it is.”

“I don’t really ‘like’ the stuff I do.  This.”  Jessica indicated the walls and the rain. - Excerpt from Leaving a Mark 4.7</ref>

Lucy noted that she seemed cold, hard to read.<ref>Jessica watched the exchange between Bristow and Alexander with a level stare.  It seemed to occupy her enough that she didn’t seem to notice or care about their whispers.

Very cold, very hard to read.  The most she’d talked had been about the Ruins. - Excerpt from Leaving a Mark 4.6</ref>

She believes that every community has a roughly similar ratio of bad to good people, mostly bad, and it's important to pick out the good people and surround yourself with a core of them.<ref name=":4">“Any advice?” Lucy asked.

Jessica turned, and gave her a serious look.  Jessica’s eyes flashed, actually flashed, in the midst of turning dark, like Alpeana’s were.  The look faded, and she looked over Lucy again.

“I find,” Jessica said, “the proportion of bad people remains roughly the same.  If ten percent of people are assholes, they’re going to be assholes whether you’re in a big school or here, or in the city or a town like mine.”

“Where are you from?” Avery asked.

“Pic River.”

“I haven’t heard of Pic River.”

“Reservation.  Five hundred people.  Anishinaabe, or Ojibwe.”

[...]

“The proportions may remain the same, but the smaller the group, the harder it is to find the necessary number of people to surround yourself with, and the harder it is to avoid the monsters who are not Other.”

“I think maybe we’ve seen some small glimpses of the monsters here,” Lucy observed.

“Maybe.  In Pic River, the good people there are some of the best people I know.  I think you have to find a family, found family or blood, and I don’t think Zed, I, Eloise, Ulysse, or Amine can be yours.” - Excerpt from Leaving a Mark 4.6</ref>

Relationships

She sometimes works alongside her fellow students at the Institute. Like them, she is presumably bound not to harm anyone associated with the Institute.

She's deeply dedicated to seeking an an Echo in the Ruins that has "fragmented" from her relative.<ref name=":5">"I lost someone important to me, and I went chasing after his echo, to try to bring it back somehow.”

“I’m sorry.  It’s been a while?  Does it get harder as time passes?”

Jessica looked up at the ritual circle that floated in the air.  “Yes.  But I was going in circles before I was invited here.”

[...]

“Good luck, anyway, with your cousin.  I hope you can resurrect him soon or whatever.  However that works.”

“Not a resurrection,” Jessica said, leaning back.  She sat on the bench behind Avery, and Avery could feel Jessica propping up a foot on the back of the bench.

“Not a-?”

“He’s not dead.  Something happened, and a piece of him broke away.  I need to get it back.” - Excerpt from Leaving a Mark 4.7</ref>

From the Pic River reservation. She has a good relationship with her community (or at least a close core of family and friends) and practices some of their religious rituals, but hasn't inherited any magical knowledge from them.<ref>“Did you get into it because of… family, or Anshi- I forget how to say it.”

“You can say Ojibwe.  We call ourselves Anishinaabe in Pic River, at least, because it’s, hm, encompassing.  The good people.  Most tribes around here are Anishinaabe.”

“Like I call myself a Ontarioian and a Canadian, but…” Avery hesitated as she saw Jessica’s expression change.  “I feel like it’s more profound for you?”

“You can just say Ojibwe,” Jessica said, more curt than before.  “And no, they didn’t teach me.  I’ve used some ceremonies and things my grandfather taught me before going on an expedition, but that was for me, more than it was the practice.”

Avery nodded.

“Mostly they don’t understand, but they support me. - excerpt from Leaving a Mark 4.7  </ref><ref name=":3">>SAY “He’s a bit of a prat though. Um. Jessica is more of a generalist. Went into the Ruins to look for a family member. We ran afoul of her twice before we convinced her to join up. Younger.”
Ray: The Pic River girl?   
>SAY “Yeah. - Bonus Content: SunnyDay Logs</ref><ref name=":4" />

Gay, with a girlfriend<ref name=":6">That wasn’t wrong, but… it was frustrating, and it was that frustration that seemed to extend from Jessica.  Because Jessica was queer and casually cool, and she explored places.  And she was harder to engage with than the weird magic circle with the fish skeleton.  And when Avery tried to reach across that gap, which was a lot of reaching, then Lucy told her she needed to wind it back.  And Zed was saying, straight-up, that Jessica wasn’t good friendship material?

And like, okay, Jessica had a girlfriend and she was a few years older, and maybe that got a bit weird, so she was off limits relationship-wise, which just hammered home how small the number of available, eligible girlfriends was, and that sucked, especially when people in that small number could so easily not match Avery in personality, or life, or whatever.

But she just wanted a friend and it was this hard? - Excerpt from Leaving a Mark 4.7</ref> who lives in Pic River.<ref name=":8">“My friend Jessica,” Zed said.  “She has a girlfriend.  She spends about half her time here, and half her time at the reserve, staying with her.  Before, I was going to suggest people you could trust or befriend.  And I got stuck.  Jessica can be trusted, if you need to talk to someone you haven’t…”

[...]

“So this Jessica, she can be trusted, but she can’t be befriended?” Avery asked.

“Jessica has a lot on her plate.  I wouldn’t want to tell you you can be her friend, only for her to brush you off.  I’d be lying in that case.”

“She lost a cousin and the way she’s going looking for them, the loss stays fresh.  When she’s not here, she’s searching in some pretty rough places, or recuperating emotionally, taking a weekend or a week with her girlfriend,” Zed said. - Excerpt from Leaving a Mark 4.5</ref>

Avery has tried to reach out to her but found her standoffish.<ref name=":6" />

She's no fan of Alexander Belanger and doesn't care if he knows it.<ref>“And Alexander?”

“I don’t know.  He bothers me more than the other two,” Jessica said.  She leaned back, taking the book.  “When I look at Canada’s government and what it’s done over the last one hundred and fifty years, or when I look at police, education, business, any of that, and think of what’s wrong there, and how much awful there is, I imagine the awful comes from people who resemble Alexander.”

“Heavy,” Avery said.

“Except I think the people who I imagine being awful there are only halfway to being what Alexander is.  Or two-thirds of the way, at most.”

“He can, um, hear you, can’t he?  Alexander listens in?”

“Zed says so.  I believe him.  I don’t care.” - Excerpt from Leaving a Mark 4.7</ref> She especially wanted to avoid getting tangled up in any political power plays in the school.

Appearance

Dark-skinned, with narrow eyes, thin lips, and high cheekbones.<ref name=":0">Jessica had deep brown skin, narrow eyes, thin lips, and upswept cheekbones. Her raincoat was heavy duty, yellow, but rare in how much abuse it had taken. The yellow was cracked, and the cracks were almost a style of their own, and the shoulders of the coat had been battered down to meet the shape of her narrow shoulders. - Excerpt from Out on a Limb 3.z</ref> Her hair is chin-length with a longer braid at the back, black. She has a checkerboard tattoo encircling one bicep.<ref>Lucy turned her head and recognized Jessica, who was one of four people of color Lucy had seen at the school.  The girl who worked in the Ruins, Zed’s friend.  She’d taken a seat near them.

“Jessica, right?” Lucy asked.

“Yeah.  We talked last night.”

Their ‘talk’ had been about five seconds long.  Jessica had grabbed pizza and left pretty much after Zed had introduced them.  The girl had hair that was thick, black, and wavy-straight, chin-length except for the part at the back that she’d braided.  She wore a button-up blouse without sleeves, jeans, and sandals, with a weather-worn yellow raincoat tied around her waist.  A dense checkerboard tattoo encircled one bicep.  It made Lucy think of a loon. - Excerpt from Leaving a Mark 4.6</ref>

Generally wearing or holding her Implement, a heavy, extremely worn yellow raincoat.<ref name=":0" /> It sometimes gives off gold sparks.<ref name=":7">Jessica shifted position, untying the heavy yellow raincoat with the cracked exterior, and pulling it on.  Gold light flashed out from the cracks as she finished zipping it up.

[...]

“Your raincoat?”

“Yeah.  A few months ago, I did the ritual.”

“The item we choose is indicative of a lot about who we are.  How we approach the world.  It’s a decision we make only once, one object that can be held in our hands and comfortably lifted, and it works better if it’s not already magic.  Would you care to talk about yours?”

“It protects me.”

“Every object has a function.  Choose a shield as an implement, and it will tend to gather any benefits and spirits that gather around you, to better serve its function of protecting you from harm. The shield offers a different kind of protection than the raincoat.” - Excerpt from Leaving a Mark 4.7</ref>

In the Spirit World she appears to be covered in moisture and crying silver tears,<ref>The room’s appearance shifted, to become something very much like the spirit world Lucy had visited together with Verona and Avery.  The floor was covered in an inch of water, littered with flower petals.  She could see the nose of the ‘mask’ she wore in spirit, and her hair was far longer, pale pink tendrils blowing across her shoulder.

Other students changed as well.  Avery had the deer mask.  Jessica had two silver lines running down from her eyes, her skin and hair beaded with moisture.  Dom, Talia, and Jorja weren’t as affected as some, but Lucy could see how Dom’s hands were paler.  Talia resembled her doll and her doll resembled her.  Jorja had little pastel pellets littering her hair and shoulders, in stark contrast to how dark her clothes and hair were, and how grim her expression was. - Excerpt from Leaving a Mark 4.6 </ref> presumably the mark of the Ruins on her.

Abilities and Art

Specializes in The Ruins,<ref name=":1">“Jessica-”

“What do you need?” she asked.

“Perimeter?  And warding our immediate vicinity?  Ray and I are doing some of it, but if you could keep outside interference at bay, and layer our defenses?  The closest realm to the Devouring Song is the Ruins, and that’s your specialty.”

“Sure.” - Excerpt from Out on a Limb 3.z</ref> but a generalist.

She's able to construct wards<ref name=":1" /> by drawing protective circles on the ground in chalk.<ref>Jessica went to get more stuff for drawing lines on the ground in chalk. - excerpt from Out on a Limb 3.z</ref><ref name=":2">He handed out the walkie-talkies.

“You guys were using these when you came to get me in the Ruins,” Jessica said. She was drawing out a circle. Essential things had already been gathered within.

“They work anywhere.”

She nodded.

“Hey,” Nicolette said, joining the conversation by sidling up to Zed, her shoulder touching his.  She seemed happy, in the midst of all of this.  Her best self.  She looked in the direction of Brie, who was dealing with the four participants.  “What’s up with you and her?  Are you a pair?”

Jessica snorted, then bailed from the conversation. - Excerpt from Out on a Limb 3.z</ref> She has little wooden animal figurines that power or are otherwise linked to her diagrams.<ref>Children advanced, touching and pressing against the invisible wall that extended up from the circle that Jessica had drawn out.

Jessica held out a string with a wooden owl figurine on the end.  The string was fraying visibly.  She held up another, this one with a frog.  Same thing, but slower.  “Both wards are getting chewed up.  Outside barrier is going fast.  She’s bringing in help.” - Excerpt from Out on a Limb 3.z</ref>

She was also able to draw out temporary bindings in her own blood to hold the Hungry Choir inside Brie.<ref>Jessica reached them first.  Zed pointed at Brie, and Jessica began using blood from her own wounds to make lines on Brie’s skin.  A temporary thing.  She’d need something more lasting. - excerpt from Out on a Limb 3.z</ref>

She was able to cure a snakebite somehow.<ref>It took four and a half hours to get sorted out at the emergency room.  Eloise hadn’t been a huge help during the event, but in a situation like this, she was in her element, manipulating connections and smoothing things over.  It helped to ensure the hospital staff didn’t ask too many questions about the people with all the bite marks, blood loss, the various venoms running through them… it had only been a few poisonous snakes, and Jessica had been able to help with that.  The benefit of having a wide knowledge base. - Excerpt from Out on a Limb 3.z</ref>

She can make her eyes flash and turn pure black,<ref name=":4" /> presumably the appearance of her Sight to the awakened. Her Sight doesn't dramatically transform the world for her, since it's important for her to see the world as it is.<ref>“Yeah.  I’ve heard people theorize that the Sight might lean on these sorts of things, depending on who we are.  Desolate ruins for anger, darkness for fear and apprehension.  Cold for mourning.”
“I See the world as dark with laser outlines,” Zed said.
“I see the world the Hungry Choir brought me into,” Brie said.
“Yeah,” Jessica replied.  “I don’t see anything too different.  I needed clear vision, going in.”
- excerpt from Vanishing Points 8.3</ref>

She explores deep parts of the ruins that involve leaving her body behind, braving the dangers that place carries for immaterial beings.<ref>“I’m surprised you’re in the beginner class,” Lucy said.

“I have a very piecemeal education.  More piecemeal because I’m not always here.  I was self-taught, until recently.”

“The Ruins, right?” Avery asked.  “Or is that insensitive?”

“The Ruins, yes.  Insensitive, not too much.”

[...]

“If your body is physical, then the Abyss is… deeply unpleasant.  And the Ruins are like…”

“A walk in the rain?” Avery asked.  “In a creepy place?”

“If you say so.  Sometimes dangerous, but mostly wearying, nothing more.”

“Right.”

“But if your body isn’t physical, if you’re a ghost, a spirit, or if you’re astrally projecting, the Abyss is little more than a dismal sightseeing tour, and the Ruins are like trying to walk on the tongue of a giant who is trying to eat you, starting from the soul, then moving to the heart.  To get where I have to go looking, I must leave my body behind.” - Excerpt from Leaving a Mark 4.6</ref> She can use this to travel. The experience is stressful and feels like an eternity, and requires some recuperation afterwards, but takes only a short time.<ref>“Is it a long trip?  Going back and forth?” Avery asked.

“Yes and no.  Yes, because I go through the Ruins and every minute can feel like months.  No, because I leave at lunch and arrive before dinner.  Then I recuperate.” - Excerpt from Leaving a Mark 4.6 </ref><ref name=":8" />

She's able to create a blue fire that's powered by mostly forgotten positive emotions that can keep negative Echoes away,<ref>She stood by a small blue fire.
...
“Can I share your fire?”
The girl studied her. “If you fuel it.”
“With?”
“Here? Good, mostly-forgotten memories. You reach out to the fire, push it out-”
...
The echos were staying out of the fire’s light, gathering in a mass at the edges.- Excerpt from Let Slip 20.1</ref> and presumably vice versa.

Basics

Her Implement is a heavy, extremely worn yellow raincoat. It has some protective effects.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":7" /> She can "lose track" of the snacks she keeps in it's pockets, so they never run out.<ref name="7.9e1" />

Tools

She collects treasures from the Ruins as part of her work. She has a glow-bug in a jar that can drive away Ruins denizens for a short time with it's light.<ref>Snow was pointing at a distant house.  Where every other place seemed so dim, unlit within, there was a warm red light glowing within that place, to the point it lit up the exterior walls.

“In nearly any other circumstance, I’d go there,” Jessica stated, staring.

“What is it?”

“Treasure.  Distilled power.  Echoes and things shuck off goodness, joy, and serenity here, and those things are pushed away by the grief, sadness, and despair.  Those scraps gather and concentrate in a hallow, which pulls in more.  Most are small.  An apple that glows with a light within, in a dark part of the Ruins, or a small mouse that warms like a fireside without burning flesh.  Even those are valuable.”

“That doesn’t look small,” Avery noted.

“No.  Which makes me think it’s bait.” - Ecerpt from Vanishing Points 8.3</ref><ref>“Rough patch ahead,” Jessica announced.

She could talk in the midst of all of this?

Jessica reached into a pocket, then lifted up a bottle with what looked like a firefly within.

It flashed, flickered, then glowed, shedding a broad orange light.

Echoes scampered out of the way.  Four, five, or six indistinct shapes, slick and fishlike, pulled away from the gloom.  Avery hadn’t even seen them.

“Hurry.  Go, go, before it dims,” Jessica told them. - excerpt from Leaving a Mark 4.10</ref><ref name="7.9e1">“When I get a chance to learn or do something new, I start with the essentials.  Stuff that lets me stay in the Ruins longer.  Because not much ruins my day more than seeing a glimpse of what I’m after and then having to leave it behind because I have to come up for air.  Or food.  Or light. [...] Power concentrates, down there.  You might see something bright or something that still glimmers, when so little can.  Sometimes that’s an echo, or a bird in a rusty birdcage that some skinny guy is carting around.  The trick that lets me ‘lose count’ of my snacks and never run out was one of those things.” - excerpt from Gone Ahead 7.9</ref>

=Spells, Rituals, and other Feats

• Saving her Cousin - Part of why she became a practitioner was to retrieve a vital echo that her cousin lost after his persecution by authorities. After nearly a year she succeeded.

Weaknesses

Has noted that she doesn't have much power to spend on potent rituals.<ref>“Have you done a ritual like this?”

“No.  There are other ways.  I don’t really have that kind of power to push into rituals or anything.” - Excerpt from Leaving a Mark 4.7</ref>

History

Before the Story

She came to the Practice on her own, developing her own techniques while tracking Echo in the Ruins<ref>Jessica Casabien

Jessica found the practice on her own, following an echo into the Ruins, and figuting out her own means of delving deeper. She agreed to lend her knowledge and expertise in exchange for lessons. She attends intermediate classes, and is frequently away on her expeditions. - Bonus Material: Student Guide</ref> that had "fragmented" from her cousin.<ref name=":5" />

First encountered the BHI crew in the Ruins,<ref name=":2" /> looking for her brother. Initially their interactions were hostile but on the third encounter they convinced her to join them.<ref name=":3" />

She did the Implement ritual in 2020, a few months before the summer term at the BHI started.<ref name=":7" />

References

<references/>