seer

Name: Juan

Age: 26

Gender: female

Type: Aspect

Appearance:

Juan’s looks are true to her heritage, though she has cheekbones that almost hint of something else. She’s still Chinese enough to blend in Chinatown, or she could if that was what she wanted. The oddities of her personality though, leeches in to her looks and her clothes, while not terribly nice tend to make her stand out. They don’t seem to always match, and sometimes it’s an elegant dress when a dress isn’t needed, or another day she’ll done men’s clothes and tuck her hair up in a hat, almost passing for a young man in a quick glance.

Her hair is long and dark, worn below her shoulders, but the style changing depending on her mood. Paired with dark eyes and shadowed look her, which gives off the impression that she’s far more dangerous than she really is.

Her back is adorned with an extensive scape of birds that have been tattooed there. It starts on her lower back working its way up to her shoulder as the birds come towards the foreground as if traveling closer to her.

Personality:

Juan is as odd as they come. Interaction with her can sometimes be trying, especially since she never really seems there, or like she’s paying attention to something past what’s in front of her. It doesn’t change as people get to know her, she’s always a little softer spoken, the type to point out obvious or obscure things.

Rumors and superstition about what she can do have been accentuated by her attitude. Whether people kept their distance before she started reading fortunes or after, it didn’t matter. It happened. In a way she’s isolated, but not because she doesn’t care for people. In fact she finds them rather curious, which causes her to stare more than she should, delay answers as if she didn’t hear them when they were asked and overall act like someone who just isn’t with it.

But she is with it. She sees more than most, picks up on aspects of people that give away their character and lend to the fortunes she gives.

She’s drawn to things she finds pretty or lovely, and tends to either collect them or in the case of people, follow them. It’s completely reasonable for her to trail after something she finds pretty, trying to find the source.

Sexuality:

pansexual

Constants:

~The Oracle of Delphi~

Able to enthrall the the masses - Juan’s ‘clients’ come from all around. At first it was just those in Chinatown, but as time went on, the rumor spread and soon even people were braving the borders of Chinatown to find her, ask her questions. Even some of the well-to-do find in the city their ways into her shop and as a result her prices tend to act on a sliding scale.

Rarely Doubted - Some part of how Juan’s mind thinks leads her to giving strange and sometimes slightly cryptic answers to fortunes that can be flexed to meet the needs of the oncoming situations. The moments where people come back, accusing her of giving them false hope, are few and far between and even then easily written away.

Power from belief - No one is entirely sure if Juan can do anything she claims to do. Sure she always seems to give good answers, but it’s not like anyone can prove if she can see the future or curse people as the rumors seem to say. As a result, she’s avoided and revered in her own way. Safe was always better than sorry.

City History:

Throughout her whole life Juan had always been odd. While it wasn’t intentional, her mother used to say that the girl was fated for the life given the meaning of her name. She should have known that while Juan had the grace of a little bird, she was just as nuts as the cuckoo bird itself. It wasn’t something she comment on for long, not when both Juan’s parents died not long after her seventh birthday.

That left the girl to be raised by her grandmother, another seer of her community who had run a similar shop back in China before immigrating. The older woman set up the shop in Chinatown, teaching her granddaughter how to read tea leaves and using her as a translator as the old woman refused to speak English. She understood it well enough but wouldn’t utter the words.

They kept up the shop together for a long time, most people leaving the old woman alone out of fear. As less and less of the members of Chinatown understood her murmured and slurred Chinese, more and more started to believe that the old woman was just some crack fortune teller. Rumor circulated that she was far more, something more dangerous and not to be trifled with. The rumor kept Juan safe, out of schools and learning from her grandmother instead, and out of the reach of the Jade Lotus. They were brave, but they weren’t brave enough to toil with a witch.

When her grandmother died though, the fifteen year old Juan lost her protection. The Jade Lotus saw a chance to step in and take the shop away from her. They wanted what they believed was rightfully theirs, not some small girl’s. What they hadn’t expected though was that while Juan was lovely, she was just as off-putting as her grandmother, maybe more. The odd girl had grown into a very odd young woman. Superstitious as they were, they made another deal to keep her happy out of fear that she’d followed in her grandmother’s footsteps. Yes, they’d still extort her for part of her profits, they had to if she was going to be allowed to run the shop at such a young age, but she’d be one of theirs, under their protection and, should they need a witch of their own, do their bidding.

Juan had little interest in the Lotus and their plans to take over the city, but she knew she was vulnerable. Her strangeness might protect her in a way, but she had little else. So she agreed, provided they left her alone, which, outside of taking their money? They did. No one wanted to cross her.

She’d lived that solitary life for another few years, until the blond upper class girl had wandered into her shop. Stasia was different than she was used to, but not because of her beauty or her status. It was just her that appealed to Juan in some way. Personal relationships weren’t something she understood, but Stasia had guided her through most of it and now the other woman was a fixture in her life. It was reasonable to find her in Juan’s apartment at the end of the day or just as reasonable for Juan to find her way to Stasia’s. They had little in common, but somehow understood each other that it worked.

The Jade Lotus is still there. They might still avoid her and send rookies and underlings into her shop to take what’s theirs, her donation to the cause, but the are still there. The threat of what they might want from her is still there. There’s also the threat of them pulling their protection and where that leaves Juan. While Stasia is an ally, there’s little the woman could do against the Lotus.

Special Skills and Abilities:

Fortune teller (Tea Leaves) and believed to a be a witch.

Weaknesses:

Weird - Juan is just odd. There’s nothing about her that isn’t odd. She speaks slowly, as if she’s not always ‘there’, she tends to stare too much and even the show she runs just seems slightly eerie. She’s not mean, but people don’t always get past that first impression.

Questionable Skills - Is she really a fortune teller? Are they even real? No one is sure, which means she could be lying to some very powerful people. If they found out? She runs the risk of serious trouble.

Improperly Educated - Juan never went to school properly and was raised by her grandmother who did most of her schooling. She can read and write, both English and Chinese, and muster through enough math to run the shop, but that’s about where it ends. What she did learn was a variety of other things, though traditional knowledge is beyond her.

Poor Relationship Skills - Having grown up outside of schools and secluded in her own little world with her grandmother, Juan never really developed proper relationship skills. She doesn’t understand what’s always required of her, or often what it all means.

Unable to Defend Herself - Juan has no grounds or means to defend herself. While she has the connection with Stasia, she doesn’t actually believe that the girl could protect her from anything. If someone were to decide that she’d done them wrong or worse, the Jade Lotus turned on her, she’d be dead for the hour was through.

Strengths:

Fear and Superstition - Fear goes a long way and a history of superstition goes even farther. Thankfully the culture of Chinatown is deep-seeded in superstition and it creates a nice little barrier between Juan and the things that would likely get her killed.

Family or Connections:

Stasia, old friend

Residence:

small studio apartment above her fortune teller shop

Career:

Fortune Teller

PB: Eugenia Mandzhieva

Other Information:

Those who come by her shop can get their fortune told as well as purchase charms to either help their good fortune, or ward off bad ones.