Flower Power

In the Victorian language of flowers, blue delphiniums, or larkspurs, symbolise levity, swiftness and inconstancy, while casablanca lilies stand for celebration and (as all lilies do) majesty, purity and modesty. While technically they bestow different abilities, North only rarely uses them seperately and therefore makes no distinction between them.

North can dampen or enhance magical powers by simply touching the holder. The ability is generally nulled within a few seconds once skin-to-skin contact is no longer present, though they have once previously "cursed" someone so their powers would fluctuate erratically, rendering them effectively unusable despite the user's intact magical potential. North's touch works on non-FMN supernatural beings, though only insofar as mental powers go (empathy, telekinesis, mind-reading etc) and not at all on CDs; they once saw a werewolf through their transformation by holding their hand to calm their blood-rage. When activating their power on FMNs, North has a fixed ability score modifier of x4 - contrast the effect of holding extra flowers of the same type, which has a 2ⁿ modifier.

For example, the flower power associated with the genus Aster is not particularly powerful on its own, allowing a FMN to become invisible and intangible for a brief period of time. With North, however, Theo can make herself and others undetectable by magical means for much longer durations without much effort (2² x 4 = x16). As these modifiers stack, the extra power can leak out of them and cause unintended side effects. (In this case, North prefers to focus on either effectiveness or range to avoid mishaps.) Their eyes glow solid blue upon channeling significant power, while the subject's eyes glowing signifies that their power is beyond North's capacity to handle and will likely overflow if not terminated immediately. However, this rarely if ever happens, if only because FMNs with more than three identical flowers are quite rare; North has only ever met one with four, and never one with five or more.

North's presence is two-sided, depending on their mood. They can heighten the positive energy in a room so that anxious or withdrawn individuals are more inclined to loosen up and have fun and the already sociable find themselves in their most welcoming mood - or they can do the opposite, amplifying negative feelings such as guilt, fear or anger. Perhaps appropriately, North's powers are linked to their state of mind: when they're assured, people are naturally more receptive and open to discussion, but they worsen tensions and infighting when upset or agitated, creating an unfortunate feedback loop.

Behavior

North is most composed and confident when working; they're uninterested in casual social interaction, as what little they get out of it is usually overshadowed by either their social anxiety or need for privacy. They can discuss the Sanctuary's problems for hours, but try to get them to talk about themselves and they'll shut down. The very, very few people who've actually met them find it difficult to reconcile the responsive administrator they know with the cold, distantly polite person they are in real life. While North is aware of this, they don't care enough to do anything about it besides not meeting with others as much as possible.

Intensely private, North takes many precautions to make sure they're untracable. Their existence is an open secret, as they themselves encourages the idea that the current "North" is an alias for many different administrators: but if you're determined to talk to them and happen to know a founding member of the Network, they can get you in touch. In real life, on the other hand, North actively discourages visitors by refusing to answer the door for anyone they don't already know.

North is very, very, very uncomfortable with praise or being singled out for any reason, looking away and fiddling reflexively with their sleeve until the spotlight moves off of them. On a similar note, they absolutely can't stand sympathy, especially if they're feeling vulnerable; a worried question will have them deflecting furiously and fleeing, whereas an offer of help in a clinical, disinterested tone can bring them out of a stressed froth.

North goes by a different name every time they go out. Personal questions while making small talk ("What do you do?" "Do you have any hobbies?" "Who's your favorite ____?") are answered with half-truths or outright lies; they're so disconnected from society that they often wouldn't be able to give a real answer anyway.

As a a neighbor, the easiest way to get North to open up is asking them for help, as they'll do their best to assist you out of civic duty. Though odds are they'll immediately want nothing to do with you once the whole affair is over, they can then be lured into the home by offerings of pastries, hot tea, or by telling them things that you're having trouble with in class - as long as you don't expect them to say much back, you may even end up with a study partner for an hour or so every week, as happened with the cheerful fifth-grader who lived on North's street back in '83 before moving away two years later.

Early Life (1956 - 1975)

They were born to a Filipino nurse and an US soldier, the third of four children, to a household fraught with conflict; their mother unapologetically favored her oldest son and maintained a vicious battle of wills with her rebellious second daughter, causing intense and often physical fights to break out between them almost daily. (Their father, though often absent, truly loved his wife, and turned a blind eye to what was going on in the house.) They learned to be quiet and obedient in response to the infighting, occasionally finding an ally in their younger sister but otherwise keeping to themselves. When their sister ran away to elope with her boyfriend, their mother's frustrations turned to the other two. She belittled and nagged endlessly, trying to regain some sense of the control she had lost, and her iron grip only tightened when they started college - neither could go anywhere without telling her where they were going and when they were coming back, and if they were even a minute late they would be banned from leaving the house. They seethed silently under this control, unable to contest or voice it, but when she forbade them from going to a convention they had won a scholarship for the dam broke. In fury, they seized a knife from the kitchen counter and slashed at themselves before fleeing the house. Unable to stand the thought of going to a hospital, they hid in an alley and slowly bled to death, delirious and in pain until their very last moments.

After Death (1980 - 2004)

The first thing it did was stumble out of the alleyway and go home; but someone else answered when it knocked, which is how it knew something was wrong. It went to the library and asked for the day, then the year, and then took advantage of its newfound invisibility by hiding in one of the aisles and reading five years' worth of newspapers until dawn. It stayed at the library for a few months, and would have for longer, if it hadn't raised its eyes from a book one day and directly into the gaze of someone who was just like it. It bombarded him with questions, though he stayed silent all the way back to his home, which is when he told it that it was an forget me not angel, and that he would tell it more if it helped him. It agreed.

The man was a forger of all things - financial documents, legal papers, passports, even bills and bonds. This didn't bother it overmuch, and in fact it became avidly interested in the processes involved. After a period of time, the man started taking it to his business negotiations, and after each successful agreement he would sit down with it and teach it a part of his work. It was a quick learner, though it hid the extent of what it knew from the man, and for three years it learned all he knew in this way. When it had finished, it decided there was nothing left for it here, and so during a lull in the man's "business" it left and didn't look back.

Using one of many different sets of documents it had made during its stint with the man, it assumed someone else's identity. Then it began a long, painstaking search for a estate agent it knew wouldn't ask too many questions. As it waited in a tavern in lower San Francisco, it met many other FMNs, most young with no means and eager to hold onto a familiar face. It offered advice and assistance where it could, and briefly considered asking them all to move into the house it would purchase, but the sheer number would mean that some would be left homeless eventually. Undaunted, it decided to set up a system to sponsor other FMNs with accumulated funds of its own, with those too young or in need of social support housing with established FMNs, as it had.

It called its old mentor to ask him if he'd be willing to take in some pupils now that it had left. To its surprise he agreed, and even offered to contact some fellow FMN friends of his that would be willing to help. So it was that it sent more than a dozen FMNs to their new homes before its housing contract had even been agreed on, and the most productive years of its life began. The FMNetwork, as it was named, was an open line to all FMNs; most fledgling members went through life-changing events and reincarnated, but the few remaining sent the ones they found to it, and it would place them with fellow FMNs or house them at its own mansion. It spent more than two hectic decades setting up the foundation for what would later be redefined as the Sanctuary, by all accounts the happiest and most well-spent years of its existence.

Present Day (2004 - 2014)

The FMNetwork's community had grown very large, over the years, with a network of local and international contacts and many outgroups under different names, which would be collectively known as the Sanctuary. The burgeoning accessibility of the Internet let "North" stay in contact with their fellow administrators without leaving home, and with no need to interact personally with their wards any longer they increasingly withdrew from the world. The official reason given for their reclusiveness was to avoid the possibility of being reincarnated, but really they just didn't care to meet people unless there was reason for it - a pity, as they were slightly less likely to work themselves to death with someone around to care for.

North found themselves increasingly drifting away from the Sanctuary as the original founders moved on and the new generation proved themselves quite capable of managing their own communities. At their Victorian house, long-since renovated into a private atheneum and officially listed as the property of a distant cousin of the one who had first purchased it, they focused on bettering themselves. In the late 1990s they had spent nearly five years engrossed in the electronic stock market as a young and promising entrepreneur, gathering management funds for the Sanctuary with Ilumna's assistance - now they posed as a student to attend classes at a local university (though they later dropped out to study at home), accumulating a eclectic combination of skills including emergency surgery, three different coding languages and how to repair just about anything.