Name: Cerise Ducasse Occupation: Florist Age: 52 (but she swears she's 43) Sexuality: Lesbian Species: Witch Coven: Circle of the Phial Hometown: Bordeaux, France Relationship Status: Single Personality Traits: Obsessive, unfeeling, opportunistic, helpful, engaged, a great listener, perceptive.
When she was younger, Cerise loved love. It gave off the brightest aura of all the emotions the young witch could sense. It was a powerful, precious resource, seemingly infinite under the right conditions. With empathic abilities and a knack for transmuting the chemical and metaphysical elements of emotion into alchemical components for spells and tinctures, Cerise couldn't help but feel things strongly and constantly.
The heart was, after all, the center of a witch's magic. Intent and emotion, drive, desire, and hunger beyond the physical body were the very basis of every potion, guiding its purpose.
Blue sorrow was most useful in healing draughts. Green envy, for revenge hexes. The deeper the red of love, the more potent its properties ranging from strength and vigor to protection against all ills. Every emotion varied in its intensity and origin, carefully cultivated for its intended purpose. With the right blend of herbs and flowers, Cerise could make a potion for just about any occasion.
Her studies and whims took her to Port Leiry in the year 2000 where she discovered the Circle of the Phial, as well as a city swirling with unique energies and emotions -- a hub of supernatural activity, rife with complex feelings across species lines. But still, vampires, werewolves, and witches are not immune to the effects of love, hate, joy, and sorrow.
That is, until Cerise finds herself unable to feel anything at all.
It happened 14 years after moving to Port Leiry (roughly 10 years from the present). A lover of love, she fell in deep and found one day that the person she had most trusted her heart with had taken it and fled, leaving a gaping hole where that precious organ once beat within her. Whether they took it for power, for pain, or simply because they could, Cerise still cannot say for certain.
The good news is that somehow she's able to survive without it -- likely by magical means but she's never bothered to test the methodology -- but the bad news is that her world suddenly lacks the very thing that makes it all worth living. Cerise knows what things should feel like -- the joy of a sunny day, the mirth of a clever joke, a craving for a favorite food. She cannot even find it within her to feel sadness or anger for the turn of events, although she knows what anger looks like, what sorrow sounds like. So she's able to imitate it well enough to convince herself it might be real.
Obsession crawls into the cavity in her chest in place of love. It festers in her mind and tears her focus -- she wants her heart back. She wants the feeling back. And until that day comes, she's dead set on ensuring others around her understand and experience the full spectrum of their emotions -- because she believes that all feeling is good feeling, even if it doesn't feel good. It's the truest sign of being alive. To keep one's feelings bottled up is to deny your very personhood. So weep, laugh, scream, lust -- Cerise needs you to feel for her until she finds her heart again.
AT A GLANCE:
FACE CLAIM: Bridget Regan
PRONOUNS: She/Her/Hers
HEIGHT: 5'9"
PHYSICAL APPEARANCE: Green eyes, wavy red hair, fair complexion. Physically fit but not overly toned, Ectomorph body type. Keeps well-manicured.
NOTABLE INJURIES/MARKS: Small birthmark on her right collarbone. Gaping hole in her chest where her heart used to be, nbd. (She often glamours over this/covers it in public.)
LOOKING HER AGE: A spell gone awry was intended to restore her heart, but instead it physically glamoured her to look as she did before her heart was taken without actually fixing her physical form. So some know she's older than she is, but Cerise is happy to play along with the lie for those who think she's younger.
BIRTHDAY: November 1
ZODIAC SIGN: Scorpio
HER MAGIC:
Cerise's primary method of magic is potion and poultice making. She grows a variety of herbs in her home and sources rarer ones from Laure's gardens when possible. However, one unique component to her spellcasting is the addition of crystallized emotions which she is able to harvest. Each emotion has its own uses dependent on the context.
The most potent emotions are the ones that are directed at her by others -- from the relationships she is immediately responsible for maintaining and cultivating. Love her or hate her, she's going to use it in her magic.
She cannot harvest emotions that are unnaturally influenced by magic or forces such as vampire compulsion. However, werewolves' heightened natural emotions are usable sources.
She can siphon emotions from others when she's not directly involved, but they're not as potent unless given with consent and intent by parties involved. Other perceptive magic users may be able to sense when she's leeching off their emotions.
Because intent/desire is key in magic and spellcasting, lacking her heart means by default her current concoctions are void of the witch's guidance. While she still follows formulas and general guidelines to objectively achieve her ends, potions and tinctures may not have the full desired effect or may be influenced by factors she cannot account for. Proceed with caution.
She can still see auras and knows how to read the emotions of others, even if she cannot feel or really be influenced by them.
Cerise talks to her plants and can influence their growth and usefulness depending on the tone in which she speaks with them. Plants that are told secrets make good truth serums, plants that are verbally abused are great for curses, and those which are praised have more versatile, robust applications.
Other details and specifics are plot dependent and open to discussion on a story-needed basis.
FAMILIAR:
Cerise’s familiar is called Brindille [braun-DEE], a small white ferret.
Also called Dee, Brawn, or Bibi.
She is capable of assisting Cerise in her magic, knows the distinction between numerous herbs, and the witch has a way of communicating with the creature privately.
WANTED CONNECTIONS:
The One Who Took Her Heart (Female, Age 40-60, FC/Identity UTP, Imagined as Human Origin/Witch or Turned Potential)
Why was her heart taken, and what power did you gain from it? And why would you ever show your face to her again? Cerise only wants to see you if you intend to restore her strength and beg for your life for the hurt you've caused her. (If she could feel hurt, exactly.)
People Who Knew Her Before She Lost Her Heart
Cerise has been in Port Leiry long enough that longtime allies and friends would have noticed the distinct change in her outlook and ability. Do you like her better this way, or do you want to help restore her former strength?
Customers/Other Witches Seeking Her Services
Does what it says on the tin. She mostly does potions by commission these days, as specific emotions have to be brought to her -- but be warned, without her ability to guide the intent of a spell, there may be unintended outcomes. Additionally, Cerise is happy to give curious witches and other individuals a dose of unfeeling advice from her unique, heartless perspective.


















