Keira

Keira Sullivan

Fae - Sluagh

female

homoflexible, but usually more of a loner (technically she's Grey-A, with homoflexible inclinations but Sluagh being a very private and reserved group of fae, don't often think about sexuality or relationships)

• Hester: ghost she's been friends with since childhood (anchored to her doll)
• Granmè & Granpè: two older Sluagh who raised her back home in New Orleans, the former runs a tea house and the latter runs a curio shop in the same building; she's worked for both of them in the past.

Mortal Appearance:

Keira has a defect that occasionally happens in some fae where her fae appearance bleeds into her human appearance, making her somewhat obvious to anyone familiar with fae/changeling lore.

When she's not utilizing her skills as a former model to cover what she can of her fae nature, she's pale and willowy, with wild black hair and black nails, and looks a solid 5 years older than the 25 her ID card states.

The most telling bleedthrough of her fae form, though are her eyes: they're midnight purple up close.

Keira tends to most often wear vintage clothing, often long-sleeved dresses in somber colors. She has a few outfits that are Victorian/Gothic styles which are very common among the Sluagh fae, but she's also expanded into more recent vintage outfits with a considerable portion of her closet being prarie-style dresses from the 70s. (She does have a few items of modern clothing, but it's pretty clear her preference is for the vintage items in her closet.)

Magical Sight/Fae Appearance:

To other fae/those with magical sight (or when she's using her own magical abilities), her fae form is a much more pronounced variation of her mortal form without makeup.

She's very pale, and looks much older than she is chronologically. Her midnight purple eyes appear more sunken, with dark circles and she has long black nails. The biggest and most pronounced difference between her mortal appearance and her fae appearance, though, is that her fae form is toothless.

Additionally, Sluagh in their fae form tend to smell like old or decaying things. Keira in particular gives off the bruised apple smell of a wine beginning to turn bad.

Species/Magical Abilities

• Acute Senses - good listener and observer. Is uncomfortable in loud and bright settings, due to these heightened senses.
• Ghost Whisperer - can see/hear ghosts
• Squirm - can shift form to escape from traps if given enough time, though this is also a somewhat painful process
• Shadow Puppet - a magic ability that allows her to control and manipulate shadows close to her [she uses it as a scare tactic]
• Garbage Disposal - [diet] can eat anything past its expiration date and actually has a preference for it

More Mundane Talents

• vintage modeling/make-up
• investigative reporting
• writing

• small basement apartment
• vintage clothing and some fashion curios (predominantly dresses from the 70s or older, but also has a couple victorian-styled outfits and some more recent finds)
• a few floppy/brimmed hats and a parasol
• a vintage doll with blonde hair and blue eyes dressed up as a nun [anchor for Hester, a ghost she's been friends with since childhood]
• one smartphone with two communication assistance applications (one text only, and one text-to-speech) enabled for when she's stuck in loud crowds plus an EVP app
• runs a blog under the name “Haunted Whisperer Press” that's a mix of citizen journalism and what might be stories she's gotten from ghosts who have contacted her (mostly Hester, but possibly others)
• also has a simple page website under the name “The Haunted Whisperer” for mediumship/ghosthunting services, she references Hester specifically on this site as a member of her team, though she doesn't clarify that Hester is herself a ghost
• citizen journalist press pass
• reporters notebook, pen
• a cheap digital recorder
• a homemade pendulum and an embroidered velvet pendulum mat
• a tea set that was a gift from Granmè before she left

Likes: history, information, abandoned/haunted places, vintage fashion and curios

Dislikes: fighting, misinformation, broad daylight (limits vision), loud crowds

Humans and fae society used to live alongside each other, each inspiring the other. But when human society began drifting toward science and logic as a means to explain the world, the fae got left behind and mostly forgotten. Unable to use the humans they used to use to stay alive and be inspired the way they used to, fae began to reincarnate their souls into human bodies, often remaining dormant for varying lengths of time depending on the accompanying human soul in question (some never awaken, some awaken early, some awaken very late). Once a fae awakens, there's a burst of magical energy that usually attracts the attention of other fae in the area and if the parents of the newly awakened fae are both human, often these other fae will step in to foster and guide the fae through their new identity. There are a wide variety of types of fae in existence, with differing histories, appearances and abilities across a variety of different human cultures.

Sluagh, in particular, were originally old Slavic spirits that were born out of the stories told about the creaking and scratching scary noises old houses made, gradually turned into watchful lurking fae who punished bad boys and girls by scaring them straight. Legend has it that the Sluagh used to wail and howl quite frighteningly once upon a time, but at some point they lost this ability to shriek and now are cursed to forever Whisper – the Sluagh claim this was the result of a Scaring gone terribly wrong, the other fae claim it was punishment for a broken oath to the higher society of fae. The Sluagh because of this stereotype as well as their fascination for secrets and the darker things of life, and their gradual withdrawal from the high society of fae, are generally considered outcasts within the wider community of fae. In fact, most other fae seem to think of the Sluagh as evil, regardless of their actual morality. The Sluagh generally see it more as “We do what we must to survive.” Sluagh also don't generally see themselves as having one person of more importance than another (though some DO get involved in higher fae society); an old legend says that one Sluagh described their community as a spiderweb: “we're all individual threads, but all connected; no one of us has jurisdiction over the other”. Sluagh are reserved and private fae, attracted to old things and older ettiquettes, as a result, many Sluagh retain a fascination for the Victorian era with its emphasis formality and privacy.

Originally from New Orleans, Keira was born to two human parents. When she awakened to her fae nature at 5, she was fostered by two local Sluagh elders, Granmè and Granpè. The former is an activist and medium-seer who owns a very well-known tea house. The latter is an antiquarian who collects, restores and sells vintage clothing and curios in exchange for either coin, other antiquities, or stories.

Granmè noting Keira's natural talent at mediumship as well as her tendencies to both show-off and be wildly curious, brought her on frequent trips to the hidden cemeteries of the French Quarter to practice her skills at communicating with ghosts. When she was 10, on one particular trip, she caught the attention of a guilt-ridden ghost who called herself Hester, who followed Keira and Granmè home. Granmè, noting the initial bond between the two, showed Keira how to anchor the spirit to a doll of a nun that Granpè had in the curio shop and encouraged her to continue to talk to the ghost.

When Keira was in high school, she discovered that the likely reason Hester was drawn to her was her own past life memory as a member of an old Sluagh order that served as sort-of moral Robin Hoods in the church community – “haunting” church communities to punish greedy monks and priests. But, Hester didn't know how she had died, even though she knew why she was stuck, and Keira figured by that point, after several years of companionship, that it probably wasn't worth it to push the matter of “what do you remember about when you died” to her ghost friend, despite her curiosity.

By late high school, Keira and Hester were close friends each of them using the other for their purposes: Keira utilizing Hester as a tool both for investigative reporting and in her mediumship/ghosthunting services side hustle as a partner; Hester using Keira as a surrogate voice for her own vision of True Faith and Service.

In college, Keira studied Interdisciplinary Studies with a focus on Social Action in History and Leadership with a minor in English focusing on Journalism and Regional Literature. She stayed for a few years post-graduation continuing to work for both Granmè and Granpè, as a medium in Granmè's tea shop and as a vintage clothing model in Granpè's store, while establishing her blog and her independent mediumship/ghosthunting services side hustle.

When Don Hopkins was elected and Lake Harmony's newly elected vampire mayor declared his attempt to make the city a model Sanctuary city, Keira, curious as ever, volunteered to go investigate Lake Harmony.