Sarah Kain
Sarah Kain
Jodelleferland.jpg
Portrayed By Jodelle Ferland
Gender Female
Date of Birth October 31, 1994
Age 13
Zodiac Sign Libra
Aliases None
Place of Birth Mhainsa, UT, USA
Current Location New York City, NY, USA
Occupation N/A
Known Relatives Janise White (mother; deceased), Joshua Kain (father)
Significant Other None
Known Abilities Nightmarish illusions
First Appearance Spooked
Other Characters Gabrielle (Alt), Alfons (Alt)

Sarah is a girl born in Utah, who has left a trail of shattered lives and minds in her wake as she moves through her self-centered existence. She cares little for others and even less for people who annoy her. Willing to use her ability to manifest fear and nightmares realistically in the waking world on anyone who she deems a 'bad person', with no regard for what suffering they may go through, Sarah is one messed up child. Her father is Joshua Kain, a wealthy business man, and owner of oil fields. Sarah and Mr. Kain have recently moved to New York to escape those Sarah grew up with.

History

Sarah's mother, Janise, had originally been a maid in the house of Joshua Kain, but they had married when it was determined that Janise was pregnant. Born in Utah, in a town called Mhainsa, Sarah was originally a healthy infant. However, soon after leaving the hospital, and going home with her mother and father, to their mansion on a hill in the center of town, she fell ill. She grew slowly, and was physically weak. Doctors told Sarah's parents that she was exhausted, apparently suffering from insomnia, and a lack of sleep. When sedatives were used to force Sarah to sleep, medical equipment showed that her heart rate, and blood pressure, were running at nearly deadly speeds. When Sarah's heart stopped, and had to be restarted again by electric shock, it was decided not to risk sedatives again.

Sarah's health continued to decline steadily, as she grew emaciated, refused to eat, and barely even moved. It was feared that she would soon die. Janise had tried to deal with some of her concern for her daughter by putting together a stuffed rabbit with her sewing skills. When it was completed it was placed in Sarah's crib. The next morning, Joshua found his wife dead on the floor of his daughter's room, and his daughter sleeping peacefully with her rabbit.

From that point forward, Sarah's health returned to her, and she grew to the age of six with little incident. She was always pale and a bit frail, but she was in better condition than she had been as an infant. As long as she was left alone, and was allowed to retain her constant hold on the rabbit her mother made her, she appeared to be happy. When she was sent to pre-school, however, some of Sarah's… 'Uniqueness' became apparent. At first, Sarah was glad to have the company of other children. But when she experienced bullying for the first time, things degenerated swiftly.

Sarah Kain had a special talent. She could make the nightmares and deepest fears of others become physical reality. And when she was treated cruelly by one of the other children, that child wound up hospitalized for trying to impale himself through the heart with a sharpened stick. When questioned, the bully claimed that he had been bitten by Dracula, and was trying to kill himself before he could become a vampire himself. The boy had since been institutionalized, both for his general wasting away physically, and his multiple attempts to attack and drink the blood of others.

Once she was moved to a new pre-school, every day that Sarah was there, one of the other children was traumatized by the end of the day, when their parents came to pick them up. Some of them sported physical injuries, self-inflicted, or inflicted by other children, and most had wild claims of seeing and experiencing impossible things, but all were simply terrified out of their minds. Stories quickly spread about Sarah scaring other children, of something being wrong with her, both among the kids, and among adults.

Eventually, no more pre-schools or babysitters or daycares would take care of Sarah. Joshua Kain was a busy businessman, and was unable to watch over his daughter during the day. In addition, the pain of loss from his wife dying was eating at him, making him that much more reluctant to be around the girl. He began simply leaving her home alone. When she was old enough, she began attending elementary school. The same cycle of events as with the pre-schools occurred, but this time, Sarah learned to conceal her hand in things, only using her ability when no one was around to see, and only on those who picked on her, or otherwise displeased her.

She expanded her attacks to adults when she overheard a few teachers speaking poorly of her father. She had been cautious about attacking adults before, seeing them as her superiors. When she realizes that adults were just as full of fear and uncertainty as children, she knew she had no more limits.

After hearing about the events and stories coming out of the school, Joshua Kain simply began leaving Sarah at home again. Now 12, she spent much of her time in the town library, reading up on disturbing bits of history, and dark fiction literature. Joshua became unwilling to leave Sarah alone at home, however, when the police picked Sarah up at Hillside Cemetery, the town's graveyard. She told police, and her father, that she was 'trying to glean that fearful symmetry of the edge between wakefulness and dream, from the eternal sleep of the dead'. This sudden preoccupation with death, and horror stories, was disturbing on a number of levels, and Joshua Kain wound up leaving town, and moving to New York, where no one knew him or his daughter on the personal level, and where a 'specialist' could be found to watch over Sarah.

Timeline

  • 1994 - Sarah is born.
  • 1995 - Sarah is hospitalized. Upon returning home, her mother dies under mysterious circumstances.
  • 2000 - Sarah begins pre-school. Has first encounter with bullying.
  • 2002 - Sarah begins elementary school. Discovers she can use her powers on adults as well as other children.
  • 2004 - Sarah is pulled out of public school. It is "requested" by the town's authorities that Sarah submit to testing for any "abnormalities". Joshua Kain refuses.
  • January 28th, 2007 - Sarah arrives in New York with her father.
  • February 3rd, 2007 - Joshua Kain approaches Benjamin about doing his taxes, taking Sarah along to the meeting.
  • February 4th, 2007 - Sarah goes to Common Grounds and harasses a salesperson there. Various other people are present, some Evolved, some not. Relevant Log: Spooked
  • February 8th, 2007 - Sarah visits Nancy Parker, an Executive of Kain Petroleum. The visit results in Miss Parker's death, via inhalation of insecticide.
  • February 9th, 2007 - Kidnappers attempt to abduct Sarah. Their car goes off the Brooklyn Bridge, but not before Sarah escapes.
  • February 17th, 2007 - Sarah goes to Central Park during the evening, looking for trouble. She interrupts an attempted murder, and meets Jack and Tamara. Relevant Log: The Darkness That Lurks In Our Minds
  • April 16th, 2007 - Sarah wanders late at night, looking for trouble once more. She finds another Evolved in the form of Erica and nearly has bad stuff happen to her at the hands of a would-be attacker. The man that was going to attack Sarah probably wishes he'd stayed in his alleyway now. Relevant Log: A Stray Child

Ability

Nightmarish Illusions

Nightmarish Illusions is the ability to delve into an individual's mind, and cause the most terrifying experiences and images, real or imaginary, to manifest temporarily in the real world. They are illusions in so much as they do not permanently exist, and do not have a true physical presence, but they are real enough to those that experience them, to the point that people may inflict physical harm on themselves or others as a result of their belief in the horrors presented them. Less tangible fears, as well as physical ones, often inflict dramatic psychological damages. The manifestation of nightmares and fears can be drawn from any person. A particular fear can be kept 'in memory' by Sarah as long as she wishes, and used at her discretion. Previously, once they had been used up, unless they were from her own mind originally, she had to find the victim she took the image from originally, or else the fear construct was lost. But recently she has gained the ability to retain and duplicate fears she has leeched with Phobia Leech regardless of how many times she uses them. She can use images drawn from her own mind, or someone else's, against others.

Nightmarish Illusions function, technically speaking, by a form of invasive telepathy that robs an individual of the psychic energy produced by their brain, and then uses the energy and the imagery accompanying it, to create realistic hallucinations and illusions, of the fear-filled thoughts and dreams stolen.

The Fear Constructs/Images, whether they be individuals, multiple beings, or even places, can be experienced by multiple people at once, or only one person. The Nightmare itself can occur whether awake or asleep. It can be interacted with physically to the perception of those experiencing it, even though there is nothing solid in the real world, but is difficult to disrupt or negate, requiring either an immense exertion of willpower, or the use of other psychic-related powers (such as telepathy, and empathy) to reveal the truth, or fight back.

If a Nightmare is fully disrupted, it places Sarah into a state of 'ability-shock', which prevents her using her powers again for at least a few days, and as long as a few weeks, depending on the mental strain.

Sarah MUST either be physically present, or be able to see the subject she wishes to inflict her powers upon, with her own eyes (a pair of binoculars, or a telescope would work. A mirror or even a real-time television broadcast would not), from her present position. If she can't see who she's attacking, or doesn't know EXACTLY where they are (ie. If Joe is under the bed, and Sarah knows he is there. 'Joe, who I know is around here somewhere' would not work) she cannot attack them.

If Sarah loses her stuffed rabbit, which she uses as a psychological and emotional crutch, she will lapse into a state in which she cannot use her powers on others, and will suffer horrible nightmares anytime she tries to sleep. This would render her an exhausted insomniac until she recovers the toy.

Stunts

  • Fear Factor - Sarah can generate a lesser version of a Stock Nightmare which is not a true attack on another person. It is a minor effect such as altering her appearance or making her appear to have vanished by replacing the view of herself with a creepy image of darkness or a statue or otherwise distracting people from noticing her by placing an illusion in plain sight which would catch the attention of others and so forth. Fear Factor is essentially for cosmetic changes only and does not count as an attack against others. It can effect multiple individuals at a time. Sarah only needs to roll an Average or higher to succeed but Fear Factor's illusion MUST be at least creepy in nature if not outright frightening. It cannot be used for anything pleasant or good-natured.
  • Fearful Symmetry - Sarah has recently gained the ability to sense the minds of others in her vicinity. This is not always accurate when dealing with people who are awake but tells Sarah whether people are nearby who are asleep fairly easily. If someone is asleep and within about 100 yards of Sarah she can tell both the fact they are asleep and their general location on a roll of Average or higher. To detect someone who is awake and within 50 yards she must roll a Good or higher and only has a general idea what direction they are in if she succeeds.
  • Nightmare Attack - This represents when Sarah is intentionally trying to make a victim or victims believe they are suffering physical harm from a Nightmare or to cause them to possibly inflict real physical harm on themselves in the process of reacting to the Nightmare. She cannot directly damage a person's body under most circumstances with just her powers. But someone who believes they are feeling pain from illusionary injuries may succumb to the imaginary pain and eventually pass out or even go into a coma from shock if they believe they have been killed. The latter would be an exceptionally rare occurrence. Once an individual is no longer consciously perceiving a Nightmare all physical reactions to it cease. If they are ASLEEP prior to Sarah attacking them, NOT simply unconscious, their dreams can be manipulated by Sarah until they either wake up, or go into a coma. So if someone believes they are drowning and passes out because they stopped breathing for several minutes then they would resume breathing once they were unconscious. If they are asleep, however, they would remain vulnerable to Sarah until they woke up, or succumbed to the Nightmare Attack. Victims must +roll Willpower against Sarah's +roll Nightmare Attack to fend off the attack. If they fail they must +roll Stamina equal to or higher than the Nightmare Attack +roll or else they suffer imaginary damage equal to the difference between their roll and the Nightmare Attack roll. Suffering a 5 or higher in terms of Damage from a Nightmare Attack results in being knocked directly into a coma-like state from the victim believing they have died.
  • Phobia Leech - In order to obtain a person's deepest fear, for use in a Tailored Nightmare, Sarah must first invade a person's mind. She cannot read their thoughts or influence their behavior or anything similar while inside someone else's mind. She can only try to copy their fears to memory. +roll Phobia Leech can be defended against if the victim is aware of Sarah, or is expecting her mental attack, with +roll Willpower. If Sarah succeeds with a Great or higher she obtains ALL of the victim's fears and remembers them perfectly from then on. If Sarah succeeds with an Average or Good then she copies only the most potent fear of the individual. Mediocre results in obtaining only one minor fear. Poor results in NO fears being copied. Lower than Poor means she makes a mistake and copies something that the person isn't afraid of at all. A passing thought or concern but not anything truly feared.
  • Stock Nightmare - Sarah uses a 'stock' Nightmare — a scenario or apparent illusionary threat which is commonly fear-inducing in most human beings regardless of their particular strongest fears. This can be insects or wild animals or being trapped in an enclosed space or drowning or darkness or walls of flame and so forth. It may be less effective because it isn't tailored specifically to the individual but there is the chance it may be effective regardless. It all depends on the victim and thus is a bit more uncertain in terms of success. Sarah must make a +roll Stock Nightmare to affect the victim and make the Nightmare suitably realistic. The victim may +roll Willpower initially to resist the Nightmare's fear causing and realize it is an illusion. Sarah must succeed by 1 or more levels to properly plant the Nightmare. If she rolls equal to the victim then it may cause fear but can be dispelled with a +roll Perception in following rounds. If she rolls 1 less or lower than the victim then the Nightmare either fails to appear or fades quickly.
  • Tailored Nightmare - Tailored Nightmares are Nightmarish Illusions which have been custom crafted for a specific individual. They may effect more than one person but the effect on the others will be at the same level as a Stock Nightmare or possibly completely ineffective. The greatest effect will be on the person the Nightmare was constructed for. Sarah must first successfully use Phobia Leech to obtain an individual's deepest fear or else Tailored Nightmare cannot work on them. If Phobia Leech is successful she now has that person's fear 'stored' in memory and can attempt a Tailored Nightmare. A Tailored Nightmare is defended against by the victim it was crafted for with +roll Willpower+Penalty. Everyone else +rolls Willpower with an effective level 1 higher than what they actually +roll to represent that the Tailored Nightmare may not be effective against them.

Quotes

  • "Here is a hundred dollars. Keep the change and buy yourself some common sense."
  • "Who am I? No one. No one at all… Just the DEVIL!"
  • "Fear is only useful when controlled. Revealing to the lower-life that we exist would cause more fear than even I could manage…"

Trivia

  • Has been practicing using her powers since age six, and thus has a slightly greater degree of skill with them than many adults who are just discovering their powers.
  • Can't stand pickles.
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