The Shadow

Although it's still frightening, you've learned how to co-exist with the unnerving sentience that inhabits - or is - your own shadow. It is willful, twisted, oftentimes cruel, but it has saved your life more times than you can count. In the world of colour and sound, people fear you, and they've hunted you. It's hard sometimes, to hold onto the hope that this world is warmer than the cold-edged place where your shadow dwells.

Long Description: It happened when you hit puberty. One night you were staring up at the middle distance, letting your eyes unfocus. Sleep beckoned. The only candle in the room was almost out, it's wax burned low, its long flame flickering. It cast long, drunken shadows that lurched over the walls like trolls. But the one above you on the ceiling, your own shadow, barely moved.

Sleep was just there on the edge. Your limbs were already dreaming, the world growing soft, your belly warm and your mouth falling slack as you sunk through the layers and moved down into the intimate privacy of the dark behind your eyelids. You felt yourself dropping. Then: three things happened in very, very quick succession.

Cold air: it hit you, in the face, across the throat, as if you'd just opened a door and stepped outside. The next: a sense of vertigo, because your back had left the bed. Your shoulders were thrown backwards since they were lighter than your body which was even now, you realise in one shocking second that woke you up entirely - bolt awake - falling through air. Falling downwards.

The bed rushed up and met you. You fell straight onto it, your breath blown right out. Rumpled sheets and adrenaline zero to sixty - instantly.

But there's nothing in the room. You looked around, wide-eyed and muscles locked rigid. Nothing to explain the incident, as you pushed upright. You'd fallen onto your bed. From the -  ceiling. Above was only your shadow, flickering in the low light.

It happened a week later. You began, too, to see things out of the corner of your eye.

It started off with delays in your reflection: you'd blink and your smile wouldn't be there, your gaze staring fixedly back; you'd pull a boot off and stand, but your shadow would not, it would stay hunkered down, unmoving for a second too long. Each time - heart stops, your breath catches and a wrong sense of panic floods you. But it would be back to normal in seconds, standing with you.

One night, the night that you will remember for the rest of your life, it spoke to you.

After that, everything changed.

((Content warning for this human’s brief: sexual content, exploratory masturbation.))

Mechanics: You can see in total darkness, including darkness generated by any supernatural powers.

By grasping another and holding them close, you can shelter up to two conscious, willing individuals of any species within the cold of your shadow's world. From this place, you can move between shadows in our world and pass real world distances to escape situations. You must be in a shadow to activate this power, a shadow large enough to cover you and any intended travelling allies.

Allies feel frozen to the bone coming out of the shadow's world, and the longer they stay in there, the worse is the chill. Longer than ten minutes inside there and you might fear for their life; that world seems to sap the life out of anyone who isn't you. Vampires are exempt from this hindrance, though they must be in contact with you like any human passing into your shadow world, and use the same rules of transport.

While within the shadow's world your ally is protected from all Physical attacks, and cannot physically attack others. Should they lose physical contact with you before you step out of the shadow's world with them, they are ejected from that dimension with immense pain, and cannot re-enter for one hour. While in the shadow's world they (and you) are invisible by all accounts to anyone who does not possess the vampiric Discipline "Obtenebration" to an elder's degree of sophistication; elder Lasombra, if focussing, can sense your essence in some way, but they cannot follow you or tell how many people are with you. A particularly gifted elder Lasombra might - if they are standing very close or in the shadow you inhabit - be able to sense your general direction enough to launch a clumsy, wide-reaching attack with their own shadow powers, but they will immediately find themselves facing a greater threat from somewhere rather familiar to them.

You can use the shadow's world to hide, and stay entirely still in it as easily as move around. You are aware of any sound that is occurring beyond you in the world of colour, but you can only vaguely see outlines in it, and with little resolution. Real people look like blurry shadows while this power is active and you are hidden.