in his coat and his hat

and his blackheart machine

Name: Laith
Age: Early 30s
Pronouns: He/him
Pitch: A spy/saboteur-for-hire and an empath (in the magic sense, not the sensitive soul sense) who uses his powers for good or for evil, your choice, so long as he gets paid.

World

(cw for human sacrifice, self-harm, and child harm mentions.)

A theocratic society currently in an era of vaguely Jazz Age inspired technology and culture, repressive in its public spheres with a joyfully seedy underbelly. Magical gifts are commonplace but larger acts of power require bargains, oaths, and sacrifice — something that used to be the expected horror show. But they're a good millennia of religious reformation and scientific advancement beyond the point of routine human sacrifice to prevent droughts. Nowadays most sacrifice is consensual (to the extent participation in the state ever is), systemic, personal and/or commodified. Sacrificing a whole life is rare except in the case of criminals and "criminals". The religious order who've all gouged their own eyes out for the sake of the national defense volunteered, families in need of a good turn can promise a child to state service rather than tossing them into a fire, and the self-denial of forgoing a cigarette even though he really, really wants it is enough to give Laith a little something extra to work with.

Demeanor

Somewhat a chameleon, but when he's not acting with any particular purpose, he's friendly and inquisitive in a distinctly unthreatening way. Good at reminding people of their brothers, sons, or fathers, becoming a confidante and someone you know you can ask for an embarrassing favor without him making it weird. Maintains a good-humored blend of cynicism and optimism — everything's terrible and everyone's going to die, but in the meantime isn't this wine fantastic? — that is in fact the mark of someone who thinks it's chic to be a pessimist but has a fundamental belief things will work out for him personally either way. Generally agreeable and unambitious. Nearly always lying.

Abilities

Laith has innate magical empathy that is always present in a mild form and can be amplified through sacrifice/oaths/etc. Without amplification he's limited to passively picking up on the strongly felt emotions of people in his immediate vicinity, such as the sadness of someone sobbing next to him on the train. Or its absence, if they're faking. With amplification, he can reach further and delve deeper for finite periods of time.

Forcibly altering anyone's emotions is beyond his capabilities unless there's some substantial external power behind it and would in any case be temporary. He's not about to cut off his hand just to make someone calm down for a minute, so outside of dire or unusual circumstances, his access is read-only.

In conjunction with the magic, however, he's quite good at following the threads of people's emotional reactions to suss out info and manipulating them in more mundane ways. He also has an assortment of skills useful for a spy in a computer-free world: acting, mimcry, disguises, breaking and entering, safecracking, knowing where all the exits are, the rare unfortunate self-preservational close-quarters fight, etc. He can shuffle cards the fancy ways, plays a few instruments, and loves to dance.

persimmons