So Once Was I

Chapter DLC

The Presence

Táng Mingxia
Mingxia was never what most would consider “popular”. She sat alone during lunch, didn’t really talk to anyone, and left school without any goodbyes. Sadly, her unusual behavior made her a target for the school bullies. A group of three girls in particular would single her out, calling her names and harassing her for fun. Mingxia never responded, she didn’t even seem to acknowledge anything that was outside of her routine. This made the bullies resort to more and more extreme ways to get a reaction out of Mingxia.

But eventually they went too far. They had invited Mingxia to a party at one of the girl’s houses, saying they wish to make amends. Much to their surprise, she agreed. They had expected her to simply ignore them as usual, it almost made them feel bad for doing this. Still, they went on with it.

On the night of the so called “party” Mingxia arrived, only to be greeted by the girls aggressive hands dragging her up the stairs. They threw her in a bedroom, inside was one of the football players for the school. She recognised him as the boyfriend of the head of the girls, Xǔ Hualing. She heard her call out to him, “She’s all yours for the night, have fun!”

The screams and cries echoed through the night. But Mingxia left the house drenched in blood, not tears. Those screams weren’t hers.

When Mingxia finally found the group of girls, they were huddled by a tree in the park. They were discussing what to do next, what was going on at the house, so on so forth. She took them by surprise, she charged after Hualing with a palette knife taken from the school’s art room, plunging it deep into her gut over and over. Hualing fell over, dead.

The other two grabbed onto her and attacked, knocking the palette knife out of her hand and mercilessly beating her in a fit of rage. They punched, kicked, screamed, cursed, and did just about anything they could do given their setting. Eventually, Mingxia stopped crying out. She stopped moving. Her breaths grew so shallow, that the girls believed her dead.

They dumped her in a ditch and covered her body with dirt, fearing jail time if anyone discovered what they had done. They agreed to act like they knew nothing about the death of Hualing or Mingxia, and left without another word.

But Mingxia wasn’t dead. She tried to break out of her earthen prison, but found no possible exit. She was starting to suffocate, her vision grew weak, he attempts to break out slowed. Eventually, she felt the ground beneath her start to give way.

She didn’t know how long she was down there, but when she opened her eyes, she wasn’t underground anymore. She was somewhere new, a place with all new surroundings. While her body was rotten and emaciated, she could tell she had a newfound purpose. New bullies. New tormentors. New people that need to be punished.

Gripping her knife tight, she steadily marched into the fog.

Palette Knife - A sharpened spatula-like tool once used to spread paints, now used to spread bloodshed.
After a successful hit, the Presence will rub her hand across the knife, and rub her fingers together.

Speed: 110% (120% in the spirit realm)
Size: Around the pig, with head always facing downwards.
Lunge: Average
Terror Radius: 24 meters

Wrath of the Dead

A frightening connection to the spirit world granted by her brief brush with death, allowing her to enter the spirit realm and pull at the minds of her unfortunate victims.
Wrath of the Dead is the Presence’s main power, allowing her to enter the spirit realm through chests and lockers, granting her access to the souls and minds of unaware survivors.

• The Presence is able to enter the spirit realm by climbing in chests and lockers. The transition takes 5 seconds.
• While outside of the spirit realm, the Presence acts as a normal chase killer.
• While in the spirit realm, the Presence moves faster and has no terror radius. The Presence is imperceivable to survivors, and cannot attack them normally while in the spirit realm.
• While in the spirit realm, using the RMB, the Presence can possess survivors.
• Survivors don’t know they’re possessed until the Presence takes any action.
• While possessing a survivor, you have full control over their movement, and your perspective is switched to theirs.
• If no survivors are within 24 meters of the possessed survivor, the auras of all survivors outside of 24 meters of the possessed survivor are revealed to you.
• Attacking while possessing a survivor will cause an apparition of yourself to lunge in front of the possessed survivor, injuring any survivor it hits. The trajectory of the lunge is controlled by you.
• Hitting a survivor with your apparition will cause the possession to jump to them, returning all control to the previous survivor and taking control of the new one. Survivors in the dying state cannot be possessed.
• While possessed, the survivor can resist. Resisting survivors will sway your movement moderately, 25% more strong than carrying a survivor. If a survivor fills their Resist meter, you are forced back to the locker/chest you entered from.
• The Resist meter takes 15 seconds to fill.
• Survivors are given skill checks while resisting. Failing these skill checks causes the Resist meter to regress and the Presence to giggle.
• At any time while possessing a survivor, you may use the RMB to exorcise yourself from them, removing your control over the survivor.
• At any time while in the spirit realm, you may go to the nearest locker or chest to re-materialize back into the physical realm. The transition takes about five seconds.
• You cannot possess the same survivor twice within 60 seconds. This does not apply to apparition transfers.
• Your body remains in the last place you entered the spirit realm from. You are immediately pulled back and forced to re-materialize if a survivor finds your body while you are in the spirit realm.

Essentially, this power would be used to find survivors and turn them against each other. You could use your spirit realm travel to find people, then re-materialize nearby to surprise them. Or you could use the spirit realm to possess lone wolves, find the location of far away survivors, and go surprise them. Or possess a survivor, stick with them a bit without revealing yourself, and sneak attack other survivors when they least expect it. There are many ways to play this power

MORI

The Presence looms over the survivor as they turn over. She suddenly twitches forward, knife pressed against their neck, before gently pulling back, and tapping on their chest. Suddenly, the survivor starts sinking into the ground as the Presence giggles. The survivor sticks their hand up as they gasp for air, sinking into the floor entirely.

Perks

Tormented Empathy

You are enraged by those who exploit others for their own gain. While in a chase, if the survivor you are chasing goes within 3/5/8 meters of another survivor, gain a 15/20/25% boost to your lunge range. You gain bonus bloodpoints for hitting the survivor you originally started the chase with.

“I become distraught when I see my fellow students being tormented. It makes me feel… and feeling is not something I often do.” - Diary of Táng Mingxia

Foul Stench

Your rotten odor permeates all organic matter, weakening vital defenses for your victims. While in a chase, pallets that are fast vaulted over 4/3/2 times by survivors will automatically break.

HEX: Stuck in Their Ways

A hex rooting its power in change. Survivors who start running or crouching cannot stop for 30 seconds/60 seconds/Until this hex is cleansed. Stopping an action is delayed for 3/4/5 seconds unless the action is completed or interrupted. Injuring a survivor will reset this effect on them.
Survivors stuck running can still stop moving at any time, but they cannot walk.

“One thing I’ve learned through the years is that people never change. If you don’t like the way someone is, you have to eliminate them yourself.” - Diary of Táng Mingxia

Frederick Wentz

The Paranoid Conspiracist.
Frederick was no stranger to strangeness. In fact, he sought it out. Frederick was what some would call, “Eccentric”. He believed in every conspiracy theory in the book. Did he think the Moon-landing was fake? Yes. Did he believe the government was watching our every move? Obviously. Did he believe in aliens? Most certainly. But his inquisitive nature is what would be his downfall.

After being informed about a series of odd disappearances that seemed to be related, Frederick was on high alert. He began researching into these cases, trying to tie them together. Eventually, he had a whole corkboard with all of the victims, intertwined with red lace. He believed the government was kidnapping them for experiments, brainwashing them or something of that nature. He would soon come to realize just how far off he was.

He was startled awake by a loud noise coming from outside. It sounded… animalistic. He grabbed his camera and marched outside.
No one ever saw Frederick after that. Everyone thought him a loon, so they just assumed he gotten himself lost in the woods. All that remained of him was the shattered camera left on his front yard.

Perks

Incognito

You have some knowledge on how to cover your tracks. While not in a chase, the radius that your footstep marks are created is tightened by 4/6/8 meters. While in a chase, it is widened by 4/6/8 meters.
“Conceal, divert, erase. That’s all you gotta do to stay hidden.” - Fred Wentz

Desperate Strength

While the killer’s obsession, pallet stuns performed by you stun the killer for 15/20/25 % longer, and disable the killer’s active power for 1/2/3 seconds afterwards. Pallets dropped by you while in a chase break instantly upon falling.

When not the killer’s obsession, pallet stuns performed by you stun the killer for 30/40/50 % longer. Pallets dropped by you while in a chase are broken 30/40/50 % faster.
“I gotta get out of here, before that thing gets back up!” - Fred Wentz

Self Preservation

You’ve avoided danger long enough to predict its movements. Subjects of failed skill checks within 24/32/Unlimited meter range of you have their auras revealed to you for 2/3/4 seconds.
“I’ll let them handle that, I’m sure they can take care of themselves.” - Fred Wentz