Leonard Ephesian's ghost

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IamLEAM1983
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Leonard Ephesian's ghost

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Name: Leonard Ephesian
Age: 69 years old (deceased)
Gender: male
Species: anthro goat, ghost

Strengths: in normal circumstances, ghosts residing in the Shadowlands must survive off a diet of their surroundings' contained empathic energies. The stronger the output generated by living or mortal creatures in the physical plane, the more potent the spirits become. Normally, it falls on the spirits to generate the emotional states that will lead to these powerful surges. Without much surprise, fear often becomes the usual main course for departed souls.

Leonard, however, is an exception to this rule. Having found no home in all planes of the Hereafter, his plight caught the attention of Melmoth, the Infernal Broker. Using powerful spells known only to angels and demons, the Broker bent the empathic flow around the goat's spirit, allowing him to feed off of his own emotions. Considering how traumatic his death was and how he feels it robbed him of a chance to close his books and right his wrongs, Leonard is now especially fuelled by his own dedication. The end result is a surprisingly corporeal specter, essentially a Ghoul without the physical caveats and an entirely different set of weaknesses.

Able to vary the level at which he appears on the corporeal spectrum, the lawyer is now free to let harmful objects pass through him if he sees them coming in time, just as he still can be counted on to offer firm and entirely physical handshakes. Locked doors and walls are of no consequence to him, and it stands to reason that he could choose whether or not to obey gravity as a general concept.

Being a snapshot of the man he was on the day of his death, Ephesian is now freed from all mortal constraints, such as hunger or exhaustion. His physical limits also no longer apply, with his cane now being an aesthetic leftover rather than a needed means of physical assistance. His appearance is similarly malleable, placing him into the same category as more protean variations on Theriomorphs. That makes a potential short-term plant out of him, as he no longer is locked to the distinguished old ungulate he used to be. Leonard could be whatever Shield's investigations or his own pursuits would require, from a human child to a female senior anthro from an altogether different species from his own.

Most importantly, however, Ephesian can now investigate in corners which no living or immortal individual could truly perceive. Able to peel back the layers of the Shadowlands and to see Hope in all of its past shades, crime scenes essentially become live-action video tapes he is free to rewind and fast-forward as often as he needs. Being nothing more than an etheric construct at his most tangible, contaminating evidence no longer is of any concern to him. Leaving no fingerprints, footprints or any other forms of physical residue, he can manipulate evidence pieces without any risk of altering them.

When diffused or otherwise imperceptible, an effort of will allows him to exert hex-like effects on surrounding mechanics and electronics, or to slip inside someone else's mind in a passive form of possession. If he needs to remain unseen, Leonard can easily flit from host to host and exert minor levels of mental or emotional suggestion by forcing certain memories or emotional states forward. That allows him to access documents in areas in which the dead lawyer can't be seen, or to talk to people who need to believe him to still be alive. It also allows him to interact with others in a reduced fashion in the very same room his possessed body might be occupying.
Weaknesses: while the goat is now fairly difficult to kill, any severe forms of physical harm would be sufficient to disrupt the physical form he'll have constructed for himself. Pain, oddly enough, seems to be an extremely sharp sensation for ghosts – especially pain brought about by someone or something that actively wishes harm to them. Severe discomfort cuts through the modicum of focus required to remain physically perceptible, disrupting their integrity at the very least – or their sanity at its worst.

Technically, Leonard would be able to exert fairly godly abilities, as his physical attributes are now directly tied to his perception of himself. If he desires to be able to run fast enough to catch a speeding car, he can. If he needs to lift a boulder off of an ally, he can simply convince himself that he possesses the required strength, in order to actually have it. That, unfortunately, is the exact road that leads down to a generalized loss of Self. If it takes place over millennia, the ghost might eventually shift into a godlike entity actively revered by one or more religions, as is the case with Baron Samedi. The catch is that the more Ephesian strays from the mortal he used to be, the less of that shade remains.

Underneath that dedication of his are buried sorrow towards his own fate as well as his inability to interact with his son and grandchildren in any satisfactory manner. Anger, if not outright rage towards the demon that stole his body and is progressively destroying it is also a constant. In his pursuit of vengeance or retribution, chances are he might permanently destroy what he's trying to reclaim, or lose his Self and turn into something that we might consider to be objectively worse than the Master of Sabbaths' own casual evildoing. As absolute power corrupts absolutely, the goat's professional grasp on legal and ethical ramifications need to be maintained and strengthened. Apart from those legal constructs in which he believed in life, his personal morals are all that's stopping him from turning into a truly tormented shade.

On most days, he'll appear to be perfectly stable and has always been rather good at seeming contented or placid when his mind is anything but. His main triggers, without much surprise, are seeing his former cabinet being warped out of shape, as well as his former body.

Not having a haunt of his own or a specific fetter, Leonard needs to periodically reduce his active use of stored emotional potential by returning to the Shadowlands. As he's begun working for Shield, he's invested one of the past configurations for Bagley's room. The more he does in the physical plane, the longer he'll need to stay in the past's spiritual reflections, in order to recharge. Melmoth's proviso only goes so far and doesn't quite free him from the forms of exhaustion spirits are acquainted with. He simply has more to go before he devolves into a mere shadow or an errant whisper.

Appearance: technically, Leonard remains as he's always been. A finely-cultivated billy goat, he won't surprise anyone by manifesting as the exact mirror image of his still-living body. His eyes, however, are almost imperceptibly different. They glint with a harder edge than the demon's fairly honeyed and obsequious looks – the old Southern charm riding in the back seat of something that appears to be dreadfully serious. In an odd twist, it feels as though the ghost has more in common with his own living son's equally determined looks than with his own body's sometimes despicable airs of superiority.

He'll still smile, of course, he'll still appear gracious and casual and, well, as Leonard-like as you'd expect – but this variation on the old goat is carrying something potent; something most still-living people can relate with all too well. This lawyer's got a grudge, and one of fairly supernatural proportions.

In some ways, that's altered the way he moves. Where the demon altered his obtained shell with chemicals and implants in order to recover some sort of youthful spring, there's something unmistakably natural in the way the ghostly attorney straightens his spine and quickens his pace. His wrinkles are slightly muted, as though anger had dialed his biological clock back ten years, and he doesn't so much exude supernatural power as raw willpower. It isn't all that surprising, considering how ghosts technically aren't much more but willpower proper, lashed around a bit of via. His gait is more assured and less affected, while he leaves most cane twirls to his usurping demon of a nemesis. He still might gesture with it, of course, but there's the definite sense that this length of wood and brass is a lot more than an accessory, now. Like most other ghosts, Leonard carried his personal effects with him to the Shadowlands and the Afterlife, his cane now being as much a part of him as his arms or legs. In some ways, this means he'll use it to perform feats no length of polished and lacquered wood should have been put to use for, such as a way to block incoming blows or as a lever, when something needs to be pried loose or pushed away. Being as resistant as his mind decides it'll be, this classy accessory can output as much torque as your average crowbar or hit as hard as any mêlée weapon you could think of.

Of course, his physical attributes being tied to his mind now means that he's far less set in stone than most living individuals, while still carrying some supernatural elements of permanence. The more upper body strength he requires, the more you'll see his chest, arms and shoulders – suit included – warp and twist in order to accommodate the sort of brawn he'd have required as a living individual. The more stamina he requires, the more you'll see his thighs and calves grow defined under the pants' legs. At all times, these alterations are smoothly reversed once the job's done, Leonard being unwilling to maintain these affectations. His sense of Self including his age and lack of musculature, he can't picture himself as anything other than an aged anthro goat for any prolonged length of time. Having been briefed by Melmoth on the dangers of straying too far from who he used to be, he seems to be in no hurry to try and reshape himself into a seniors' Chippendale or a close cousin to the Gruffs.

He might no longer need to eat or sleep, but his mind remembers these activities as being cornerstones of any mortal existence. Being unable to digest physical food, he's forced to more or less seperate a part of his own ectoplasm from himself and to shape it in the guise of whatever it is he'd feel like eating. As he's essentially seperating and then re-ingesting a part of himself, he'll unfortunately have no nourishment to derive from the experience – but no limits on the quantities he'll be able to swallow. Not that he can be expected to conjure up Roman orgies for himself, but he can be trusted to more or less follow his colleagues or companions through whatever meal they might be having.

Sleeping, on the other hand, is something he now prefers to reserve for honest down-times. Being freed from physical exhaustion means he can pull as many all-nighters as he wishes or even literally work round-the clock; but you'll still occasionally catch a more translucent billy on the Hall's second floor, clad in the old pajamas and bed robe he used to cherish. Cases of bed-head don't need much more than a stray thought to be banished, and looking bedraggled is more an aesthetic choice rather than any reflection of a poor night.
Behavior: as explained above, there's something cold and hard, even downright glacial at times, underneath the “fine as cream gravy” affectations he still loves to blanket himself in. While alive, Leonard acted like nothing was of any concern in order to placate sometimes anxious clients in need of a bulwark of sorts. Always calm, always civil, always pleased to be of assistance, he did everything in his power in order to appear to be the best legal representative his scumbag clients could have obtained.

The demon sticks to the same routine, but comparatively slathers it with contempt that only extremely perceptive people realize to be otherwordly in nature. The ghost, on the other hand, looks far less pleasingly subservient and much more likely to set down his own rules. As nice and cordial as he is, there's a kind of immediate ruthlessness to what he does. He doesn't seem too concerned with ruffling anyone's feathers anymore, the old Southern graces putting a velvet sheen over a steely resolve.

In a sense, it seems as though Leonard's come to terms with his own son's uncompromising devotion to Justice, the father learning from his progeny rather than the other way around. If he only needs to ply Holden Hall's offered resources as their on-site legal advisor, then he'll stop there. If more muscled approaches are required, however, he finds himself free to tag along – and potentially surprise those very same people he used to defend with his now widened physical abilities and rediscovered moral compass.

He's defended outright scumbags in his days, and now finds himself free to express all the disgust, all the loathing he used to bottle away. The smooth and elderly features can sometimes stretch and bulge, irises turning into pinpricks of absolute rage as he plies both his legal skills and supernatural abilities in order to exercise the kind of lawful retribution he should have facilitated while alive.

There's nothing he likes more, now, than finding out that one of his former clients is tied to one of his new, er, cabinet's investigations... If anyone's died by the hands of that client of his, all he has to do is reach back into the Shadowlands and convince all the related tortured souls he can possibly reach into coming forth for an impromptu visit. Justice and the law are his primary weapons, but there's something to be said for seeing a despicable man scream and snivel at the sight of his victims, brought forth from beyond the pale of death...

As is fitting any ghost with a defined purpose, Ephesian is without mercy toward those who he feels deserve his wrath. Packing enough personal torment for a rather fierce poltergeist, he's much more dangerous than his reedy and gentlemanly physique could suggest – while still paling in comparison to the demon possessing his former corporeal shell.

When he isn't dealing retribution or sleuthing for the Hall's benefit, however, you can expect him to be surprisingly well-adjusted, a handy quality most sane ghosts possess. Sanity is a concept that feels somewhat less rigidly defined for them, so seeing him moving from a disproportionately reedy and bulging grotesquerie of an anthro to a suddenly self-conscious and smartly-dressed old billy shouldn't be too surprising. Only the deserving get to see him exert his skills as judge, jury and occasional executioner, while the innocent who can be trusted to the secret of his existence won't see much more than the same old genteel and casual man – who he used to be before the lord of the Pit set his eyes on his shell.

Goals: to right all his wrongs and reverse the injustice he suffered as a price for his mortal obliviousness. Should he prove unable to reclaim his body in time, then he'll wish to be able to say his goodbyes to his family. Operating as Shield's resident snoop in the Afterlife has only ever been a temporary arrangement, as he understands that the natural order of things demands that he eventually reach his final resting place. Melmoth has made it clear Ephesian has all the time he needs – but that doesn't include the remainder of the city's existence, much less an actual eternity.

History: death is only the beginning, if you believe certain circles.

First, he came to Father Curran for help. His nights were fraught with terror and his mind was unable to settle. Whispers came to him in quiet places, murmurs that made him fear for his sanity. One night spent in exile was all the pastor needed to realize his old acquaintance was being hunted by some foul being, and a call was made to the Archdiocese the very next day. Leonard had never been a believer, but he'd been raised in the decayed and genteel South. Louisiana was his cradle, and that patch of land buzzed with over a dozen faiths and almost as many via wells – more than enough to feed one of the largest supernatural populations in America.

Help, unfortunately, didn't arrive as expected. A high-profile client was flying in from New York, and Leonard was still without assurance of being freed from demonic intervention. He prayed in the days that preceded his last attended trial, but no angel came to his defense. Nothing came forth to save him. Desperate, he turned to Cody Tanner, an old friend – and Shield.

A one-shot bodyguard contract was elaborated, acquainting Aidan Drake and the others with the rigors of covert VIP protection. They were all physical, however – and some more secular than others. With no strong net or webwork of faith to protect them and very little in terms of prior research in demonology, they could only be expected to do so much. They could only be expected to operate physically.

The Lord of Sabbaths took advantage of this, leaving his last physical shell and assaulting Leonard's body at its most vulnerable. The goat's mind, his soul, was dislodged and cast away, pushed into Hell where his obliviously authorized misdeeds would weigh him down.

Leonard the demon had expected oblivious sin to be sufficient a set of weights and chains – but he was wrong. The Pit couldn't swallow the old goat, not when he had four reasons to keep fighting, two of which handn't even entered preschool. Freed of his aging body, Leonard could fight like the twenty year-old he'd once been – and fight he did.

After what felt like an eternity in the Pit, he was pulled free by one of the Sammaelites and taken to Pandemonium, where it was made clear that he honestly didn't need any assistance in being shown the error of his ways. He knew all that he'd done – and especially that he'd closed his eyes on deals and machinations that had taken lives or ruined careers. He didn't fit in Heaven, either, being weighed down by his guilt and his refusal to simply let go of his mortal coil. He was given residence in the Infernal City in a rather grudging fashion, where his lack of focus landed him in trouble with the least peaceful inhabitants. Unable to fight his own battles, he seemed to lose himself in looking for other fights to take on, either through words or rediscovered physical potency.

In Hell, saying you broke a Luftwaffe soldier's nose doesn't amount to much, not when said nose never stays broken. Passing one-man judgments doesn't amount to much either, not when you aren't one of the Sammaelites or an officially-sanctioned Heavenly visitor or observer. So, having riled up too many authority figures in his pursuit of terrestrial justice, he was tossed back into the Pit.

This time, however, Ephesian was dragged off by one of Melmoth's wranglers, his feisty nature being misinterpreted for a solid net worth in wrongdoing. Finding out that his newest catch had only been guilty of enabling various atrocities, he'd initially planned on releasing him into the Infernal wilds. When Melmoth heard Leonard claim that his long-time rival had stolen his corporeal shell for some unknown ends, however, he changed his mind. Choosing to listen to the billy, Melmoth realized he was facing another instance where it'd be more profitable to toss his support in with the mortal plane's inhabitants by helping this tortured soul on its journey.

In normal circumstances, the Broker would have catapulted Leonard back into his decaying body, creating a Ghoul in the process. As the body was walking around with a Vice pulling its strings, however, the next best thing involved leading Ephesian to the Shadowlands' most recent layer – with a special tweak applied for good measure.

As payment, he demanded that Ephesian use his renewed time on the mortal plane to farm souls for him; to send those he'd previously defended to him, for assessment. Leonard had assisted Grade-A scumbags in his time, and short-sighted idiocy of that calibre had to weigh rather heavily on the Karmic scale... The dirtier the bastards, the more his approach to Damnation was worth more than the Sabbatic Goat's. The ghost would be serving mortal justice on the one hand, and would grease Hell's economy in the same process. This striking him as fair, the former lawyer agreed to these terms.

It didn't take him much to realize he was different, however. All of Hope was his to explore, both in terms of distance and time. All the shades he crossed were tied to people, places or objects, and all had a limited radius in which they could operate. He was his own fetter, he soon realized, and was essentially tied to his own grisly fate. To him, that damned bathroom in the city's courtroom would always glow red, a reflection of what he hadn't been able to see even as his own hands closed off his windpipe and impossibly lifted him off the ground.

He couldn't show himself to Thomas or to his grandkids, and especially not to Cordatus. They were interacting with the fiend riding his body, and making himself manifest would only have endangered them all. Instead, he spent a few weeks haunting his last clients, slowly learning the ropes of his newfound state of being. From Shield's point of view, it seemed as though a particularly harrowing vigilante was slowly pushing people in Ephesian Legal Services' Rolodexes to rather violent suicides. It would take some time for Archie and his collaborators to realize a specific ghost was wreaking havoc with its previous clients, in-between attempts to manifest back at the Hall. A measure of Divination was required for Ephesian to realize he could harness his own surety of purpose into a physically perceptible self, at which point he finally appeared before the city's sanctioned vigilantes.

As he'd expected, he was first met with skepticism. The demon that wore his face had quite a few tricks up its sleeves, and this could've been another attempt at deception. Aislinn was the first to be able to see him in the Shadowlands proper, quelling any doubts they might have had. This was Thomas Ephesian's father, and he'd somehow died in that bathroom, even while his body was walking around.

Having broken through, Leonard pleaded for their assistance, promising he'd be able to put his professional skills and supernatural abilities to good use. He couldn't be mentioned, couldn't be seen or otherwise felt as an influence of some kind by anyone outside of the Hall, as the demon had to remain unawares if they had any chance of exploiting his resources safely. With some intercession from Aldergard, an alias was put in place for a rather faceless “legal consultant” that was said to be limited to exclusive on-site work. Publicly, Aldergard declared that Katherine's workload was big enough to to justify the hiring of extra hands, while the truth was that the ghost obviously didn't work in quite the same spheres of influence as the German girl.

Now attuned to the Shadowlands and able to work with tools he is all-too-familiar with while tapping into Wyvern's logistics, Leonard's ghost just might be the world's first legal defense attorney for those who've already passed outside of the reach of common Justice. Word is spreading quickly in the Shadowlands, the more lucid shades across all ages of the city's history flocking to what is likely the world's first and only lawyer for ghosts...
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