| Jackie Testerman |
 |
| Allison Mack as Jackie Testerman |
| Name | Jackie Testerman |
| Status | Alive |
| Age | 23 |
| Occupation | Academic/Monster Hunter |
| Place of Origin | Brighton, UK |
| Date of Birth | November 5, 1988 |
| Player | DamnedScholar |
| Timezone | Central US |
| Notes | Notes for Jackie Testerman |
A young girl from Brighton thrust into the supernatural world without warning, Jackie has wound up on the edge of something she barely understands, carrying an otherworldly weapon and surrounded by very strange individuals. What she does know for sure is that there's no turning back.
Background
Jackie was a normal teenage Brighton girl - a cheerleader, a frequent volunteer at homeless shelters, and a girl on the arm of one of the dreamier guys in her class - right up until the summer before university. She and her friends were having a camp-out in the countryside. She didn't know it yet, but her boyfriend was one of the Touched, and he had attracted the interest of a tall, dark Other in a long coat. When night fell, the Other began picking off the campers, allowing the survivors to find the bodies so as to cultivate a heightened atmosphere of fear. One after another they fell, until Jackie and her boyfriend were the only ones left. He hid her in the car while he stood his ground. Jackie watched as her boyfriend grew scales and claws and threw himself at the figure, but that knife carved through scales as easily as through flesh. In desperation, Jackie slammed the headlights on bright and drove the car into the figure and her boyfriend's body. This gambit dazed the Other long enough for her to take its knife and its head. She should have cast the knife aside, but instead she figured it might be useful in case there was anything else out there like the killer, or whatever her boyfriend had been.
Everything has its needs. The knife needs to be used. Once Jackie went to university, it was a relatively simple thing for the knife to help her find a couple of monsters to slay. Things would have ended badly for her if the Watch hadn't tracked her down before the police did. Under the Watch's guidance (and a little coercion) she was able to withhold using the knife until she had some more training under her belt. That was the price for not getting turned in to the government-appointed authorities. While she worked on her degree in social psychology, she was also busy learning about the Gloom and the Others. This blend of studies, and her own history, contributed to a particular interest in studying how people cope with the supernatural, the Gloom and its effects on people.
During her time training with the Brighton Watch, Jackie got a significant amount of experience working with other normal people in proximity to the supernatural world. Sometimes she consoled them and helped them cope, and sometimes she covered it up and persuaded people that what they thought they saw was just in their heads.
Personality
Bubbly when happy and pitiful when sad, Jackie has a wide range of emotions and shows every one of them. She's a bit of a nosy person, too, but has the good sense to not ask certain questions, at least of the people the questions are about, when said questions could end up with her getting punched. She's generally good enough at being cute and sympathetic to avoid people wanting to hurt her in the first place, though sometimes she tries to play that card a little too aggressively and ends up causing offense.
When carrying the knife, Jackie becomes somewhat less emotive and significantly more focused on the task at hand. She's not the brooding type of person, but when holding her weapon, her usual standard cheerfulness is supplanted by a grim, goal-oriented attitude.
Paranormal Abilities
Jackie has not an ounce of the supernatural in her. She possesses an artifact from the Gloom, however, which is composed of the same nightmarish substance and monstrous sentience as the Others. It's a knife, about eight inches long and in the shape of a hunting knife, though its appearance undergoes subtle shifts from time to time and depending on who's holding it. People who can see Others and Touched for what they are will note the way shadows cling to the blade, as well as a general feeling that the blade is hungry.
The knife is at its most powerful in darkness. When the lights are out, it can "see" clearly, cuts true regardless of the skill of its user and possesses a razor edge. Interior light or exterior shadow bright enough to see clearly blinds the knife and renders it barely more deadly than a standard combat knife. The direct light of the sun, or of fire, causes the knife to wither, becoming brittle and dull until it can return to darkness and regain its strength.
The weapon possesses a sort of sentience, though calling it intelligence might be a stretch. It knows what its purpose is and shies away from those things that can diminish it. It has no ability to move on its own, but it can communicate empathically with the one it recognizes as its bearer. In dark areas, the knife can lend its sight to its bearer when its bearer wills it to, allowing its wielder to see in darkness as in daylight at the cost of being blinded by light. Being Other, the knife can see Others and Touched for what they are. There's another downside to borrowing the knife's sight, too: the bearer's vision is being filtered through it, and all it sees are enemies. When using the blade's senses, it's very hard to tell friend from foe, and requires focus and concentration to filter out what's really going on from what the blade's deranged "mind" thinks is happening. When the bearer is under the influence of strong emotions such as fear or anger, the hallucinations become stronger and it becomes harder to give up the knife's vision.
As it was born of the Gloom, the weapon possesses its full strength in that realm regardless of how bright the surroundings are. Its vision also grows stronger, at times even alerting the user of threats before they appear, but it becomes less reliable as the hallucinations grow stronger. It takes a disciplined mind to tell apart the occasional glimpses of the future from the knife's derangement.
Most dangerous of all, the knife doesn't really care whom it kills. It can kill Others as easily as it can kill innocents, or its owner. Jackie earned the ownership of it by using it to kill its previous bearer, and the knife could just as easily be turned on her.
Skills
Blonde Sometimes: Jackie's not a ditz, but she can play the part really well (a throwback due to a time in school where being smart was uncool). On the occasion that she has to pretend that she doesn't know as much as she knows, it's really easy for her to convince onlookers that there's not much between her ears.
High School Athletics: Jackie was a cheerleader in high school, and since then has tried to keep herself fit. She's not the strongest, but she's agile, still remembers some of her gymnastic training, and is very good at running away.
Knife Fighting: Jackie's experience with knives is pretty much limited to one specific weapon. Other knives don't have nearly the supernatural edge that hers does, but some of the experience translates and she's not horrible at fighting with knives in general.
Mental Discipline: Jackie freaks out as easily as the next girl, but she also understands in her head why the monsters freak her out and can often work through her fear to get a grip over her emotions and keep her head in stressful situations. Often, not always.
Moral Support: As a cheerleader, and then as a student of social psychology, Jackie has gotten pretty damn good at knowing what to say in order to cheer people up and bolster their morale. An inspiring leader, she is not, but a bright spot in a depressing world? That, she can be. She's also gotten a fair amount of experience at lying to make people feel better.
Social Psychology: Jackie has a bachelor's in social psych, and while she hasn't studied much beyond that, she's in the interesting position of being able to study the effects of the Gloom on people and communities. Now if only she could find a university where she could make that a thesis without getting sent to Bedlam.