background

life

Not much is known about Emily's life before she died. It's known that she had intense attachment issues and paranoia likely stemming from previous abandonment. She lived in an apartment with her romantic partner as a housewife, though the two weren't formally married. She cared heavily about her appearance and ran in several health circles, but she was smart enough to know the difference between useful tips and fraudulent or even harmful claims. She was a manipulative person, but it is unknown whether she was this way on purpose or not.

life after death

After Emily discovered her live-in partner's plans to leave her, Emily began to gradually poison both of them by combining apricot seeds into the health shakes she made for breakfast. Her original plan was that once they both died they could be together forever in the afterlife, where her partner wouldn't be able to leave her behind because she could simply follow them wherever they went. When they died, however, her partner peacefully moved on to their next life with the Guide and left Emily alone. Her religious beliefs and the true nature of the afterlife didn't line up, thus thwarting her plan. As a wrathful poltergeist she lost most of her cognition and began desperately seeking out her partner, subsequently killing anyone that reminded her of them in order to set her plan back into motion. Seth is her most recent target.

personality

Though seemingly capable of coherent conversation, Emily is only a one-dimensional shell of her former self. She has one goal and will do anything to achieve it, completely unaware of all the people she hurts along the way. She is aware that she is dead, but isn't aware that Seth isn't the person that she's looking for. She's violent and typically will not address Seth before trying to kill rain. Her cunning nature persists and shows through in her tendency to use the environment to her advantage to take Seth by surprise, but the closer rai gets to severing her tether the less subtle she becomes.

relationships

seth rioux❤❤❤❤❤

Seth is Emily's primary target over the course of the story. Though she doesn't understand how Seth avoids dying, she is willing to kill rain as many times as necessary to bring rain to her side. She's quite confused, however, and typically calls Seth by her old partner's name and pronouns. She's willing to speak with rain, but gets agitated if rai does so for too long.

the guide♡♡♡♡♡

Emily blames the Guide for her problems, especially since she does remember her partner going with him. When she sees him with Seth, she believes that he's trying to take rain away too. She's also shown to be somewhat scared of the Guide, flinching or fleeing whenever he reaches out to her.

marlowe tanner❤❤❤❤❤

Marlowe is Emily's ex partner, and they look very similar to Seth. In death Emily seems to have forgotten any sort of strife she had with Marlowe and has instead elevated them into an idol position. When asked about Marlowe directly, however, she cannot recall anything in particular about them other than the fact they look like Seth and she loved them once.

relevant world lore

ghosts

Souls that live in the realm of the dead can interact with the realm of the living in limited capacities. Their interactions can include lifting objects, breaking objects, and even powering electrical appliances via touch. Ghosts that died particularly traumatically are influenced by their deaths. This can provide additional interactions with the realm of the living, but it's usually just for flavor. Though humans cannot directly see them, some ghosts have very detectible presences such as Emily's apricot scent. While poltergeists exist, most ghosts are simply peaceful spectators to life that haven't moved on to their next path yet.

poltergeists

Ghosts that extensively mess around with objects in the realm of the living are considered poltergeists. These ghosts have a lot of physical strength and are capable of breaking durable materials through sheer force of will. Poltergeists tend to be spiteful spirits that are unhappy with some aspect of their death and are characterized by their refusal to go peacefully into their next life until either their previous life's wrongs are righted or they are forced to depart via destroying an object that they are 'tethered' to. Though they are more physically present than other ghosts, they tend to be less mentally present and may even think they're still alive or mistake living people for people they knew in their own life. They are not be visible to living humans aside from the objects they move around, but sometimes they can be heard unlike non-poltergeist type ghosts. Sounds the ghost makes like slamming its body into a surface or even laughing may be audible to the living, but their words are not clear unless the human in question is extremely perceptive. Audio recordings don't typically pick up ghostly voices either, but humans like to pretend they do.

links

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trivia

• Emily's partner was originally named Mark (he/him).
• In the original short story for my creative writing class, Emily was the only ghost Seth faced.
• Due to a misunderstanding on my part insofar as how cyanide works, Emily's original design resembled a victim of strangulation without any bruises.
• If even one of Emily's victims had decided to stay with her after she killed them she would have stopped her violent hauntings. They would be miserable, however.
• Emily deliberately wore a cocktail dress while poisoning herself because it was what she wanted to wear in Hell.
• Emily is Christian, but has a poor understanding of the Bible and hasn't gone to church in years.
• Emily cannot legally drive and was fully dependant on her partner.
• Emily has no living friends or relatives.

gallery images

by me

by others

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