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Cain [WIP]


 

Do I perform tarot readings on myself? Ahaha, I used to-- but there are only so many times you can pull The Tower before you start to take the hint...

-- Cain

 

 

Known locally as "The Psychic" (complete with capital 'T' and 'P' to match his showman persona), Cain is the sole owner of The Hourglass, a small shop chock full of mystic and magic wares-- and his personal psychic services. Unbeknownst to the general public, however, his act as a psychic is just that: an act. He has not a single iota of psychic power; everything he passes off as psychic abilities is either smoke and mirrors, observation, sleight of hand, misdirection, cold reading, or just plain theatrics.

 

 

Table of Contents
  1. Backstory

  2. Personality

  3. Abilities

  4. Job & Skills

  5. Location

  6. Gallery

  7. Author's Notes

 

Backstory


Cain has been living in Crossroads for about a decade now, having hailed from... well, somewhere else. He doesn't really talk much about where he's from, his family, or his past prior to showing up in Crossroads, but word around town is he's let a few tidbits slip after a couple drinks: he allegedly mentioned that he "learned his trade from his parents" but had to "move to a city to find any success in it", apparently adding that he sends the majority of his money back to his family for reasons yet unspecified.

 

Unbeknownst to anyone in Crossroads (sans perhaps The God Eater herself), 'Cain' is not his real name. If you wanted to find out what his real name actually is... well, you'd have one hell of a time coaxing that out of him; Cain is incredibly guarded with that information.

 

Along the way, even prior to arriving in Crossroads, Cain acquired a steep debt to an impatient and unforgiving debtor. While it seems that he owes money, he's never actually stated that money was what he owed-- only that whatever it is was "too much". Trying to get more information out of him about it is nigh impossible. It's likely that revealing too much would incur the ire of this already ruthless debtor. What is clear, however, is that he's been set up to fail: the interest climbs ever higher, and it looks as though Cain will be in debt for the rest of his (self-proclaimed "short") life.

 

Personality


✦ The Façade

Ever the showman, Cain is exceedingly charming and personable, able to gracefully maneuver his way through conversations with even the toughest of personalities. He has the ability to entertain, coerce, and convince most to whatever it is he may be trying to peddle (or glean) at the moment, all of which comes quite in handy as a salesman. Keenly observant while also empathetic, Cain is able to combine both traits to understand how others may think or feel, using that sense to manipulate situations toward the outcomes he desires; both traits also help him with his "psychic" services (which is to say, as a professional liar). Confident, charismatic, congenial; Cain is either well-liked or detested, there is rarely any middling indifference to how others feel about him.

 

A few more notes about Cain with his façade:

  • Life of the party
  • Probably an ENTP-esque personality
    • Minus the obsession with debating
  • Rolls with "Yes and-"
  • Chameleon
    • Will literally alter his own voice/accent to appeal to someone
    • Appears well-off
  • Very skilled liar
    • Though ironically doesn't enjoy lying

 

✧ Under The Façade

Rather surprisingly, Cain is actually reserved and quiet deep down, not at all a showman by nature. For reasons he has not yet revealed, before moving to Crossroads, he forced himself outside of his comfort zone and learned how to play the role of the entertainer. While the extroverted charm is manufactured, his keen senses of observation and empathy are true to his core, leaving him frequently laden with a deep guilt due to lying being part of his current livelihood. As such, even while Cain is still technically lying for certain psychic services (such as séances, for example), his end goal is still to help his clients, and will therefore do every ounce of research he can in preparation and suss out what is the best possible thing (in his opinion) for his client to hear. In a way, he's a bit of an unintentional life coach-- just with a lot of theatrics thrown in. Hidden under that extroverted façade, Cain is simply a lonely depressed man who feels trapped in his circumstance.

 

A few more notes about Cain's true self, under the façade:

  • Guilted and lonely
    • Doesn't really believe he deserves happiness
  • INTJ-esque personality
  • Poor
    • Has the one nice outfit that he's learned to repair/tailor himself
    • Basically starves himself to save funds (hence being so thin)
  • Depressed

 

✦ Socializing & Relationships

Charming as all hell, Cain can be very suave and smooth when socializing-- and he has a knack for making it convincingly genuine under normal circumstances.

 

Despite his secret financial hardship, Cain takes pride in his appearance and tries to look good regardless of his circumstances. A good example of this is in the one nice outfit he owns: unable to afford any additional expensive outfits or to have the one he has repaired by a professional, Cain has learned to repair and tailor it himself as needed. Not too overblown, he has a healthy amount of vanity. Dress the part and fake it 'til you make it, he tells himself.

 

No rancid skeezy car salesman vibes here; even when he is trying to sell a product or an act, Cain holds having satisfied customers in high priority. In fact, should any typical client walk away feeling unsatisfied with a psychic service from him, he will unquestionably issue a refund. There are exceptions to this, however. While thankfully not common, any client that Cain can discern is (or recognizes as) up to no good, a deplorable person, or otherwise someone he distinctly dislikes, will not be issued any refunds-- and Cain is not above being smug about it, should the client be an especially deserving piece of work. This, of course, doesn't always work out so well for him, sometimes leading into the client becoming heated (or worse). In the face of a threat, Cain will always attempt to charm, outwit, or simply talk his way out of the situation. Should those methods fail and a physical altercation occurs, he will try to use his agility and dexterity to attempt an escape rather than fight back as he is painfully aware that he has very little in the way of strength or fighting skills.

 

Despite it seeming like Cain loves to socialize, he genuinely finds it exhausting and often sticks to himself when he doesn't have to interact with others. It's a complicated issue, mainly due to how draining it is to constantly keep up the act. An introvert pretending to be an extrovert is strenuous. It isn't helped by his guilt and self-loathing either, causing him to believe he doesn't deserve any sort of happiness via relationships. There's also a practical reason: the longer he's around someone, the higher the chance increases that his secret could be discovered. The complication really becomes obvious in the fact that Cain is also lonely and dislikes being so alone, even if it's of his own doing.

 

Relationships are a thing Cain typically has tried to avoid for various reasons, some of which have been already mentioned. While there are others he considers his friends, he still tends to keep his distance, even from them. When it comes to romance, however, Cain has never had any romantic partner, ever. Just as with platonic relationships, he doesn't believe he deserves that happiness-- let alone thinking he'd just end up accidentally ruining that person's life. This doesn't mean he can't end up with a romantic partner eventually, though. While it wouldn't be easy, someone could get him to push past his fears and allow himself to fall in love.

 

With that in mind, it should be noted that while Cain can flirt expertly, it is entirely manufactured and not at all genuine.

 

That being said, if someone wanted to instantly and undeniably destroy his façade, there is not a more surefire way to ensure that than to make the flirting become more real, aka: getting physically intimate with him, showing genuine love and desire to form a romantic relationship with him, etc. Taking it beyond simply flirting will cause Cain to suddenly become nervous and nonplussed, rendering him unable to hold up his flirtatious act convincingly. He'll then try his best to talk his way out of whatever the flirting is turning into or find an escape as subtly as he can-- either way, it'll be a struggle for him to hide the sudden anxiety and fear, but he'll certainly try.

 

Cain's likes:
  • Cats
  • Mysteries
  • Lo-fi music (to decompress)
  • Coffee
  • Sleeping
  • Eavesdropping
  • Cleanliness & looking nice
  • Smores Pop-Tarts
  • Helping others (subtle)
  • Cooking (when he has the extra funds)

 

Cain's dislikes:
  • Lying
  • Organized religion
  • Debt collectors
  • Imbroglio
  • Physically fighting
  • Any form of teleportation (nausea)
  • Being alone (especially with his Thoughts™)
  • Deep ocean (thalassophobia)
  • Fatalism
  • Prejudices

 

[Possible expression sketches to be added]

 

Cain
cain sloct holder image.png

Aliases/Nickname(s)

"The Psychic"

Profile Data

Race

Human

Pronouns | Gender | Sex | Sexuality

He/Him | Cis | Male | Pansexual

Age

28

Weight | Height | Build

110 | 5'7" | Slim/Underweight

Hair | Eye | Skin Color

Black | Gold | White

Distinguishing Features

✦ Gold eyes

✦ Quite thin

Job

"Psychic" | Shopkeeper

Hobbies

Cooking, card tricks, illusions, petting cats, sleeping, reading detective novels

Creator
ElectricEidolon

The Hourglass


Cain's shop of mystic wares-- and where he provides his psychic services-- is called The Hourglass. It is a small hole-in-the-wall located deep within The Business District.

With a large catalog of inventory coming from a wide array of ethical sources, he has quite a lot to offer. Whether or not everything in his stock actually works as intended (or at all), however, is a bit of a mystery; most of the time, the only way to find out the efficacy of an item from The Hourglass is to purchase and try it.

As for the offered psychic services, most are walk-in welcome-- with the hard exception of Mediumship.

✦ Items For Purchase:
The Hourglass inventory that your OCs can procure:
  • Health & Healing Items
    • Potions of healing, antidotes for toxins/poisons, elixirs of magic/power regen, powders of revival, medicines & herbs for most major ailments/status conditions 
  • Luck Charms
    • Both good luck [bless] & bad luck [curse]
      • Efficacy uncertain, highly subjective
  • Crystals & Gems
    • For focus, spellcasting, positive/negative vibes, aura control, decoration, etc
      • Authenticity and effectiveness are based on type and goal
  • Buffing & Debuffing Items
    • Come in various forms including but not limited to: rings, bracers, sigils/charms, jewelry, food/candy, clothing, powders, crystals/gems, etc
      • 75% reliability
  • Books, Scrolls, & Tomes
    • Vast and varied selection, including but not limited to: countless types of spells, ancient & modern information on a wide variety of creatures/lore/myths/legends, various magic & magic-adjacent research, etc
      • Arguably all genuine, but vary wildly in accuracy or efficiency
  • Trinkets & Curios
  • Divination Tools
  • Ritual Tools
  • Candles & Incense
  • Art & Statuary
  • Summons & Familiars

 

  • SECRET ITEM: Information

[section still a WIP]

✦ Psychic Services:
Psychic services your OCs may hire Cain for:
  • Cartomancy (Tarot Reading)
    • The art of fortune-telling and divination through the use of cards
    • Probably the most popular psychic service he offers, cartomancy-- or more specifically: tarot reading-- is a means by which Cain may foretell a client's future by using a deck of cards. His preferred method is via tarot cards, but he is also able to utilize typical playing cards to the same degree. His tool of choice is a well-used tarot deck that seems very sentimental to him. Cain offers several different types of spreads based on what area of your life you might be aiming to focus on: love, success, spiritual, career, or any other manner of specific request
      • Available via appointment and walk-in
  • Clairsentience
    • The power to perceive emotional or psychic energy that is imperceptible to the five standard senses
    • Similar to clairvoyance, Cain offers the ability to discern various types of information through use of his extrasensory perception-- the key difference being that he receives the information via psychic feelings rather than psychic visions. He can't always guarantee what exactly he will sense as this power can yield a vast array of results and depends heavily on many different variables, but he can attempt to hone in on specific subjects of interest. The psychic feelings can also manifest themselves in three completely different ways: precognition (pertaining to the future), retrocognition (pertaining to the past), and pericognition (pertaining to the current moment)
      • Available via appointment and walk-in
  • Palmistry (Palm Reading)
    • The reading of character and divination by interpretation of lines and undulations on the palm of the hand
    • Another popular psychic service, through palmistry Cain can read a client's palm (or equivalent thereof) to glean attributes of their character, personality, and experiences. He can also read their future, which is the more common request, particularly with the focus on personal relationships and length of life
      • Available via appointment and walk-in
  • Psychometry
    • The ability to discern facts or impressions about an object (or its owner) through physical contact
    • With psychometry, a client can bring an object to Cain (or bring Cain to an object) that he can then touch and tap into images or visions that will appear in his mind corresponding to the life of the subject that the object is associated with. Cain will require time with the object to better solidify the visions as they typically appear slowly and with incomprehensible definition; over time (which varies), he is able to bring the visions into focus and make more sense of the information presented in them. Very rarely can he instantly glean clear visuals and information from the initial touch
      • Available via appointment and walk-in
  • Mediumship (Séance)
    • The practice of mediating communication between familiar spirits or spirits of the dead and the living
    • Via what is commonly known as a séance, Cain offers clients the opportunity to communicate with the deceased through the use of himself as a medium. This psychic service costs the most and is often the most demanding of him-- but it is also the only service that tends to yield paranormal occurrences perceivable to the naked eye. Séances have very specific time, place, and ritualistic demands of Cain, and thus can ONLY be via appointment. Unlike any of his other psychic services, hiring Cain's mediumship requires scheduling ahead of time and the addition of at least one preliminary meeting with the client prior, in order to allow Cain to properly prepare for a connection with the correct spirit
      • Available via appointment ONLY

Abilities


✦ Deduction

Being inherently keenly observant, Cain's greatest strength comes in the form of his deductive skills. He is very perceptive, able to pick up on details and clues around him that the average person would completely overlook or disregard. Reason, intuition, and logic are his tools of instinct. All of this combined with his sense of empathy gives Cain an almost inhuman ability to accurately read and understand others-- something that plays directly into his fake psychic charade. He can pick up on nearly imperceptible tells and micro-expressions, allowing him to deduce his way through cold reading others; ironically, this also makes him quite good at detecting lies and deception.

✦ Charm

For all intents and purposes, charm almost rivals deduction for Cain's maxed out skill, falling short due to being a learned trait rather than one that came naturally. This isn't to say Cain isn't a charming person under the act, but it certainly isn't the same as the sharpened persuasive silver-tongued ability he taught himself over many years. Using charm, he is able to entertain, tap into humor and quick wit, make snap judgments, exude trustworthiness, persuade (and manipulate, if the ends justify the means), lie convincingly, and typically win most people over-- the exceptions being individuals that distinctly dislike him, find his type of personality irritating, or can somehow perceive that it is an act. His charm is a key factor in his ability to ascertain desirable information from around Crossroads.

✦ Sleight of Hand

Like one might expect, Cain's sleight of hand skill involves quick, clever, and dexterous movements of his hands utilized namely to deceive spectators and/or manipulate objects. This is an ability he has honed for many years, making him slick and very adept with using it in various situations. His card tricks and illusions benefit substantially from this ability, making them seem like legitimate magic to all but the most acutely perspicacious (who know what to look for). Other uses for sleight of hand include misdirection, lock-picking (his hair stick is multi-purpose in that regard), stealing/pickpocketing (though he'd only ever do either if it was a justifiable means to an end, never just for himself), cheating (especially in card games), theatrics (particularly with 'psychic acts'), and entertainment.

 

Job & Skills


Outside of running his shop, the main occupation and skillset that most others associate with Cain is that of a working psychic. In addition to the services he offers normally, his ability as a psychic has also been called upon from time to time by authorities, such as a consultant in missing persons cases or in helping solve particularly stumping mysteries.

Truthfully, however, Cain's status as a working psychic is secretly a complete farce. Cain actually doesn't have any powers at all whatsoever; he is not a real psychic.

The success Cain finds under the guise of being a psychic is actually achieved through deduction, research, intuition, and theatrics. For example: when the authorities believe they are hiring a consulting psychic, they are actually hiring a highly intuitive detective pretending to make discoveries through use of psychic abilities. When Cain is able to make [seemingly] very specific and accurate readings, it is actually through use of subtle cognitive tricks such as Barnum statements, reading tells and micro-expressions, prior secret research, etc. When paranormal events seem to occur during a séance Cain is conducting, it is actually due to hidden smoke-and-mirror tricks and rigging he'd already have set up in preparation.

All in all, while Cain is absolutely not a real psychic, he still tries to (and typically manages to) get the results he is hired for-- it's all simply presented under the guise of having been gained through psychic methods.

Deconstruction of Cain's psychic skills:
  • Cartomancy
  • Clairvoyance
  • Palmistry
  • Mediumship
  • Psychometry

[section still a WIP]

    ✦ Strengths
    ✧ Weaknesses
    • Observant & perceptive
    • Reading others
    • Agile & quick
    • Sneaky
    • Silver-tongue
    • Improvisation & thinking on the fly
    • Dexterous
    • Persistent
    • Every normal human weakness
    • Self-loathing & guilt-ridden
    • Low stamina
    • No magic, no powers, no extra-human anything
    • Physically weak in strength & defense
    • Weighs very little
    • Stubborn
    • Loner
    ✦ Psychological Stats ✦
    Charisma ✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦ Kindness ✦✦✦✦✦✦✧✧✧✧
    Patience ✦✦✦✦✧✧✧✧✧✧ Intelligence ✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✧✧✧
    Confidence ✦✦✦✦✦✧✧✧✧✧ Perception ✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦
    Discipline ✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✧✧✧ Psych stamina ✦✦✦✦✦✦✧✧✧✧
    Courage ✦✦✦✧✧✧✧✧✧✧ Caution ✦✦✦✦✦✧✧✧✧✧
    Honesty ✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧ Loyalty ✦✦✦✧✧✧✧✧✧✧
    Maturity ✦✦✦✦✦✦✧✧✧✧ Creativity ✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✧✧
    Cleanliness ✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✧✧✧ Work ethic ✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✧✧
    ✧ Physical Stats ✧
    Physical Strength 
    ✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧
    Speed 
    ✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✧✧✧
    Magical Strength 
    ✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧
    Constitution 
    ✦✦✦✦✧✧✧✧✧✧
    Physical Defense 
    ✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧
    Dexterity 
    ✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦
    Magical Defense 
    ✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧
    Stamina 
    ✦✦✦✧✧✧✧✧✧✧

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    [chibi to be added] [item description] [item description]

    Free-to-use Assets

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    Cain's pantleg design, with gradient

    judgecain_leftpantlegdesign_nogradient.png

    Cain's pantleg design, without gradient

    judgecain_shirtdesign_full pattern.png

    Cain's shirt pattern, full sheet

    Author's Notes


    ✦ Cain is pansexual/panromantic; if you would like to ship him with your OC, feel free to.

    ✦ Cain's voice claim is Billy Kametz, à la his voice for Macaque of Monkie Kid (which also includes the current VA for that character who is matching Billy's work, Alejandro Saab). Click here for a few voice claim audio examples.

    ✦ Cain's overall backstory details have been left intentionally vague for flexibility of your storytelling needs. Please feel free to fill in those gaps in such a way that best fits your plot-- after all, he is a set piece for your use in this OCT.