"Reflections of an unfamiliar face"

Ex-Nun with a grudge against the church. She acts as Aloysius's inside man at the Vatican willing to do their dirty work for her own personal gain.

Her stand Broken Mirrors creates sentient reflections in surfaces made to panic the target. The more scared they are, the more real the reflections become, soon able to take form and crawl out on their own. In this state they're able to physically attack and overwhelm the person, usually through suffocation.

An additonal ability, Sanity, allows Broken Mirrors to attach itself to anyone it's physically injured if they get away. When attached, it traps the person in a void-like place inside their mind when they next sleep, further feeding on their fears and draining their life. It's a much more slow attack, but those afflicted by Sanity are usually in too weak a state to fight back.

(Secondary Antagonist in a Hot Pants focused Post-SBR fic I'm working on.)

Cicely has a very short temper and is easily provoked. When upset, she's quick to turn to violence, especially in her own defense. Before joining the church, this temperment was still there, but her experiences there greatly exasperated it.

Broken Mirrors

Namesake: Broken Mirrors, Rise Against

Broken Mirrors is a largely automatic stand that feeds on the fears of it's opponents through sentient reflections (in things like mirrors, windows, etc.). These reflections take the form of things personal to the opponent, be that a loved one to create a false sense of security, or something stemming from their fears. It is a physically weak stand, it's strengths lying in it's range and lasting power, focusing on psychological attacks. It's able to affect people en mass within said range, or cater it's effort to a select target (or targets).

The stand gets stronger the more afraid its opponent(s) is, eventually allowing the reflections to manifest through different stages. The first stage is strictly sound based, allowing the reflections to respectively tempt or taunt its target. The next stage allows them to take a physical form and crawl out of the reflective surface. In this state, it's main goal will be to attack and overwhelm the opponent, usually via suffocation. Closer to death, the reflections may lose some of their personal touch, instead appearing more as an amorphous black blob filling the room as they claw to get over each other and toward the target.

Cicely manifested her stand when she was at her lowest point in the convent and fueled by her rage. Consequently, it's abilities are deeply rooted in psychological trauma and torment. It's violent nature is a direct reflection of Cicely's disposition toward life.

Sanity

Namesake: Sanity, Paramore

Sanity occurs when a victim to Broken Mirrors has been completely overtaken by the reflections and loses consciousness. It is a suspended dream state while they are attacked in the real world. It takes the form of an endless void, though what manifests in it is uniquely tailored to the person afflicted. The deeper into their maze, the deeper the cut. Everything they see becomes more and more personal and as a result more and more effective for breaking them down and emotionally exhausting them.

Sanity's effects persist even if the target is outside of Broken Mirror's range as long as it had landed a physical attack before they lost consciousness. An affected person’s physical body gets weaker the longer they’re held in the state as well, losing the tether to its consciousness. Sanity is near impossible to escape without mental fortitude, but usually those it has it claws in are already too beaten down.

Appearance

The stand's physical form is only visible in reflections or within Sanity's dream state. It's body closely resembles that of a centipede, with each segment of it's body made of an unclear inky substance and spanning 5 1/2 meters (18 feet). The skull of it's exoskeleton and legs are made up of bone. A golden crest fits between the points of the skull, holding a small mirror mimicking the one Cicely wears herself. A gold star pattern repeats down the back of the shell similar to the crest. The entirety of it's underbelly also acts as as a mirror.

Cicely Kramer is a former nun with the Sisters of Mercy, harbouring deep feelings of resentment towards the Catholic church as a whole after the treatment she recieved as a sister. Now she is working with Aloysius against Hot Pants and co. to steal the Holy Corpse from the Vatican each for their own selfish reasons. Aloysius is in it for money and money alone, Cicely for the satisfaction of stealing something of meaning from the church.

The two meet by chance, but a partnership is quick to bloom when Aloysius realizes just how useful Cicely could be to her, becoming a vital part of her plan. Cicely forges a letter from the Vatican for Aloysius, one that requests Hot Pants' immediate presence due to concerns about the Holy Corpse. The original plan calls for the two of them to use Hot Pants as a guide to the corpse's direct location, bypassing any security measures in place.

History

At age 19 Cicely joins the Sisters of Mercy out of a genuine love for her faith and a desire to serve God. Notoriously, sisters hold very little footing in the church though, a fact that greatly upsets her. It's not that she strives for power as much as she does not want to be seen as less or unfit to share her faith because she is a woman. She tries to combat that feeling by shadowing under figures of authority at the convent, often doing what she can to help Mother Superior and their local priest.

It would be meeting that priest that marked the downward spiral in her life. He took advantage of her willingness to serve God and by extension the authorities of the church, abusing her in secret knowing she would not speak up in fear of how she was taught her sisters would see her. The escalation in severity is so subtle she doesn't realize how serious it is until far too late.

Amongst everything, she still tries to live her life normally, attending to her chores, maintaing her relationships with the other sisters. She spends more and more time in the convent's garden as the years go on. It's a safe space, a sanctuary of sorts, where she can retreat inside her head and feel at peace. These years in the convent are when she becomes aware of Hot Pants. Though the two of them never spoke, let alone made an effort to, the pink haired woman certainly held a place in her memory. It's also in these months that she learns of the existence of the Holy Corpse through conversations she should not be privy to. Its identity is unknown to her, but it's of clear importance to her superiors. She leaves the convent before there are any plans in place to seek it out.

When finally mustering the courage to come forward with her story, she seeks out Mother Superior hoping for understanding. Instead her worst fears come true, and the case as a whole is swept under the rug. The priest in question recieves no reprecussions in the slightest, not even being transferred to a new locale away from any potential controversies.

The disregard for her wellbeing and the potential safety of the other sisters was the final straw for her. She denounces her faith and claiming her superiors only use it to justify their horrible actions. She demands a dispertion of vows and is instead coerced (read: forced) into a year away from the convent to "think it through" and "truly be sure this was what she wanted". She has no choice but to comply, though has no intention to come back after this year is up.

Her last night at the convent she sneaks into the priest's quarters, using her recently manifested stand Broken Mirrors to psychologically (and physically) torture him. She hopes to inflict at least a fracture of the suffering he did to her as a form of personal justice. His body is found the next morning after she's made her leave, cause of death unclear. The crime scene is in no way modest. The news of his passing doesn't make it outside of the convent, wanting to keep a low profile for the sisters' way of life.

At the age of 23, Cicely no longer considers herself a Sister of Mercy, starting the new chapter of her life as she struggles to balance her disgust towards the Catholic church and its disciples with the devotion to those same ideals that she can't let go off. America is a breath of fresh air where she is free from the reminders of what her life used to be. Talk of the Steel Ball Run Race picques her interest though never enough to push to join herself.

At 24 she meets Aloysius fresh off their fight with Hot Pants and Diego and in seek of a partner. The two of them feed into each other's selfish desires and form a formidable team.

Broken Mirrors Arc

(These scenes span quite a bit in their respective chapters of the fic, so consider these more a very condensed summary than anything.)

Cicely intercepts Hot Pants and her older self (for clarity's sake, sometimes refered to as "Mama Pants") on their way to the Vatican, ambushing them on the train after knocking out the conductor. She attacks in the middle of the night, Hot Pants singled out having woken up from a nightmare. She lures the other woman in with the visage of her brother beckoning her to follow, but quickly that devolves into her reliving the bear attack from her childhood, and eventually preys on her guilt for letting Diego near die during their fight with Valentine. Consciousness fading in and out, nearly sucumbing to the attack, she's pulled out by her older self and thought to be safe. In their roommette, Mama Pants tends to her wounds and leaves to find the enemy stand user herself. Without her, Hot Pants passes out and falls victim to Sanity as she limps through a timeline of her life.

Mama Pants is less susceptible to Broken Mirrors' manipulation knowing how it works, but still struggles to keep the reflections at bay. Eventually she finds Cicely waiting for her in the conductor's car. She tries to offer her an opportunity for redemption, making it clear that though how she was treated by the church was never okay and she's allowed to be upset, stealing the corpse and giving it to Valentine is not the solution. Cicely refuses to hear her out, blinded by the rage that's motivated her for so long. She views Hot Pants with distaste to ever ally with the church despite how they treated all the sisters.

Cicely meets her end after a long struggle when Mama Pants quite literally shoves Cream Starter down her throat and sprays, drowning on the goopy flesh substance pooling in her lungs.