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[didisaywitch]

WORK IN PROGRESS. FULL OF PLACEHOLDER INFORMATION FOR NOW.

NAME: Chelsea Collins CANON: The Covenant (AU) AGE: 18 BIRTH DATE: July 14 GENDER: Female SEXUALITY: Opportunistic HEIGHT: 5'4" BUILD: Slender, with lean muscle APPEARANCE: Fairly 'conventionally' attractive, with fair skin, wavy brown hair in a bob-and-bangs cut, and blue eyes. She has a smallish frame, but keeps fit through swimming, dance, and other extracurricular activities. She tends to favor on-trend clothing, and there's general a low-key 'gothic' style incorporated into her look. PB: Annabel Scholey (c. Being Human) background; A Rule 63 AU of The Covenant. Rather than the Power being restricted solely to the first-born son of any family with magic in the bloodline, it is instead granted to the first-born child, regardless of sex. However, the Five Families of Ipswich-- Danvers, Parry, Garwin, Simms, and Putnam-- were an anomaly, in that the Power would only ever come to the first-born sons... At least until John Putnam's bastard descendant had a bastard daughter who was also gifted with the Power. Essentially, in this AU, everything about most of the characters of The Covenant-- their backstories, personalities, relationships-- is the same as they are in the beginning of the movie. The only character that's changed is Chase. (My regular, canon-flavored Chase journal can be found here.) history; The Power has passed through certain families for countless centuries, granting the first-born child of each bloodline with nearly unlimited magical potential-- manifesting, first, on their thirteenth birthday, with a taste of what the Power is like. Once they Ascend on their eighteenth birthday, the witches in these bloodlines reach their full strength and potential, but they begin to pay a price for using: the more Power they use, the more it drains away their life, aging those without the self-control and discipline to moderate their use of magic to decrepitude and an early death. Unfortunately, those with the Power have been, throughout history, persecuted as witches. In the 17th century, many fled Europe and settled in colonial Massachusetts. Of course, that didn't work out too well for them, either, since a little thing called the Salem Witch Trials happened in the 1690s. At the time, there were five families in Ipswich with the Power: Danvers, Simms, Parry, Garwin, and Putnam. While the rest wanted to practice discretion so they wouldn't get, you know, murdered by Puritans, John Putnam was a pretty big asshole who liked to flaunt and abuse his power. So, the other four families banished him from their circle, and he was ultimately tried as a witch and executed. Presumably, this wiped out the entire Putnam line, as he had no heirs, and the surviving families formed a "Covenant of Silence," vowing to keep their abilities a secret from all outsiders. Unbeknownst to everyone, shortly before he'd been tried for witchcraft, John Putnam decided to pay a visit to the recently-widowed Agnes Goodwin Pope, in the form of an incubus, because that's not gross or creepy or anything. Anyway, as a result of that midnight "visit," Agnes found herself pregnant with John Putnam's bastard son, who she named Hagen. And so, the Putnam line continued, totally under the radar of the other four families. Way to go, guys. Chelsea Elizabeth Goodwin Pope was born in Haversfield, New Hampshire, on July 14th, 1988, to Theresa Buckley, an 18-year-old (possibly high school, possibly college) student who'd been knocked up by Gervais Goodwin Pope, a 20-year-old college student. Gervais had no involvement in his daughter's upbringing, and though he's listed on her birth certificate, he never married Theresa or had anything to do with Chelsea, choosing instead to bail on them. By the time Chelsea was two years old, her mother died in a car wreck, leaving her an orphan. Luckily, she was adopted by Gillian and Arthur Collins, a wealthy, prominent Haversfield couple. The Collins gave her everything she could've wanted, and for a while, things were pretty good for Chelsea. She excelled in school, probably had quite a few friends, and was, for the most part, a normal, happy kid. Knowing that she was adopted did give her some feelings of alienation and confusion from time to time, but they weren't all that dire. On Chelsea's 13th birthday, everything changed. She gained access to the Power, abilities that had been granted to the first-born sons in her family for countless generations. Chelsea would be the first daughter of the Putnam line to be granted the Power. Of course, being adopted and never knowing her birth father, who could've given her answers, Chelsea had absolutely no idea what her new powers were, and they terrified her. Although she kept up a normal facade, Chelsea began to emotionally withdraw from others, seeing herself as something apart from them. While her powers frightened her, she grew to develop them in secret, and eventually, she retreated into them. They became her only solace, and eventually, they turned into an obsession. Unfortunately, since nobody was around to teach the girl anything about her powers, she was unaware of the fact that they were completely addictive. So, as she grew older, she became hooked on them. And then, when she turned 18, she Ascended, with the Power becoming her entire life at that point. On the day of her Ascension, her adoptive parents died in a horrific car crash (poetically, on the same stretch of highway that killed her birth mother), caused by Chelsea. It's hard to say if it was an accident or if she really just decided to kill them right at that moment. Likely, they witnessed her Ascending, and she decided she needed to eliminate them to keep her secret. In any case, after the Collins died, two things happened: Chelsea inherited the family fortune, and she managed to find her birth father. By the time she met her father, the old man was, well, really old and bitter, too decrepit for someone who hadn't even hit 40 yet. Finally, her father gave him all the answers she sought, about the Power, about her family history, about the other four founding families of Ipswich, who'd banished their bloodline long ago. Chelsea convinced her father to will her the remainder of his Power so that she could seek out revenge against the other families, and her father did, dying upon giving up his Power to the daughter he'd abandoned. From there, Chelsea obsessively researched her targets and donated a chunk of her family trust to Spenser Academy in Ipswich, Massachusetts, allowing her to transfer to the prestigious boarding school. Fueled by a sense of having been wronged by the other families of Ipswich, and a fear of deteriorating like her father, she came up with a plan that would grant her both revenge and another's Power, which she felt would stave off the physical effects of her addiction. And then the events of the movie happen. NOTE: FIGURE OUT HOW CANON WOULD'VE UNFOLDED DIFFERENTLY. (Note: Much of the background information on her birth parents and early background are pulled from photos and set props that detail extra information that didn't fully make it into the film.) personality; KEY TRAITS » Power-hungry » "Friendly" » Outgoing » Drama Queen » Irreverent » Spiteful » Aggressive » Cutthroat STRENGTHS » Clever » Powerful » Talented actress » Athletic » Confident » Overachiever WEAKNESSES » Arrogant » Unstable » Corruptible » Addiction » Can be annoying » Makes awful puns » Occasionally homicidal LIKES/DISLIKES ❤ Herself ❤ Power ❤ Spiders ❤ Brad Pitt ❤ Being rich and awesome ❤ Throwing boys around ❤/❌ Caleb ❌ Sons of Ipswich ❌ Aging ❌ Vulnerability ❌ Romance (grossss) ❌ Most people ❌ Abandonment Chase is a nasty piece of work-- a killer, a manipulator, and a ridiculously powerful witch who just so happens to be addicted to magic. Most people, however, wouldn't know it by just meeting him. Chase typically comes across as a nice, charming, and mostly harmless fellow, and he duplicitously uses these traits to weasel his way into the good graces of others. Not everyone actually buys his crap-- Pogue didn't, although it's hard to say how much of that was influenced by his jealousy towards Chase-- but for the most part, Chase tends to get by pretty smoothly on his charm and pleasant demeanor, very quickly working his way into a friendship with Kate and Sarah, and, to a lesser extent, Caleb. Underneath his pleasant exterior, Chase is an asshole. He generally doesn't care about anybody but himself, and all he wants for himself is to gain as much power as possible, so that he can attempt to avoid his father's fate (and the fate of most of the "Sons of Ipswich" past) of premature aging brought on by excessive magic use. If he has to kill anyone who stands in his way, then so be it. According to Chase, he has an aptitude for killing; before the start of the film, he kills all three of his then-living parents -- his adoptive parents in a car crash on the day of his 18th birthday, and his birth father in a sort of "assisted suicide" situation where he convinced his daddy to will him the remainder of his powers (thus killing his father and giving Chase MORE POWERRRR) in order to seek revenge on the Covenant. He also kills some random student because the guy was asking too many questions about his magic. For all of these deaths, Chase shows no remorse or concern, and in some cases, even seems proud of it. Chase sees most people as either obstacles to overcome or a means to get what he wants. He has no real friends, and he doesn't seem to have any desire to honestly get close with anybody. He uses people to get what he wants, even if it means nearly killing them (Kate, Pogue, Sarah) just to get Caleb's attention and manipulate him (or strong-arm him) into doing what Chase wants. He threatens Caleb's closest friends and family in an attempt to get Caleb to martyr himself by willing Chase his powers upon his 18th birthday (the day that he "Ascends" into a full-fledged superwitch), and if he hadn't been stopped, there's nothing to suggest that he certainly wouldn't have gone through with his threats. Chase's threats, when he has the power to back them up, are certainly not empty. Chase is also pretty sassy. It's hard to actually call him "witty" when he says things like "I'll make you my weeyotch," but he can be pretty irreverent about just about everything, taking very little seriously. The only thing he really seems to care about his magic, which, thanks to its addictive properties, is both killing him and acting like a drug to him. He takes great pleasure in using his powers... constantly... Not only does he like using them, but he seems to genuinely enjoy lording his power over others. While his powers were initially a source of great confusion and fear, he's learned to embrace them without the support of a covenant like the other four had. Still, despite his ability to take pride in something that he once feared, Chase still bears a load of resentment towards the Sons of Ipswich for having each other while he had no answers or support, since his family was "banished" centuries ago. In any case, when Chase isn't putting on his nice guy demeanor, he can be a hugely campy drama queen. Actually, even when he's pretending to be nice, there are glimpses of the troll that he is. When he first encounters Aaron and Kira, two jerks who'd taken to hassling Caleb and Sarah, he jumps in to tell Kira: "You were being kind of bitchy." The way he says it is totally matter-of-fact, maybe even teasing, but it shows that he's willing to cut right past the awkward posturing of the others and just say what everyone's already thinking. Later, when Aaron calls him a homophobic slur in the locker room, accusing Chase of checking him out, Chase just smirks and says that he totally was checking him out-- then makes fun of his tiny dick. Even when he gets punched in the face for this, he seems to enjoy just getting a reaction out of Aaron. And, once Chase decides to go for his big villain reveal, he's pretty much chewing the scenery nonstop from that point on. He mockingly recites nursery rhymes, makes dramatic gestures with his hands, says all of his lines with total relish, and does the whole "cackling villain" thing, even when Caleb starts to actually land some hits on him. Thanks to his magic, Chase is power tripping something fierce. He uses it when he doesn't even need to, just to show what he's capable of (like when he uses magic while swimming to go faster than Caleb, or when he throws Caleb around repeatedly just to show he can). The way he uses magic reveals something of a sadistic streak in Chase. It's not enough to just strong-arm Caleb into doing what he wants; he decides to harm and torment his loved ones, too, and he takes great pleasure in doing it. He's practically gleeful and giggly when he's using his powers to hurt others, and he, like so many villains, always makes a little bit of time to mock and gloat at his enemies. However, his "sadism" is really more in-line with an entitled bully than, say, a Ted Bundy in training. It's worth noting that despite his nastiness, Chase is, at heart, closer to an angry, isolated teenager lashing out from desperation than the Machiavellian chess master he seems to want Caleb to think he is. Even though the Collins family has raised him since he was two, he only ever refers to them as his "adoptive" parents, rather than just his parents, indicating that they probably didn't have the closest relationship-- or, at the very least, that he didn't really feel like part of the family. This feeling of alienation probably extended to his social life, as well. Although it's possible he was popular at his old school (Hastings), given his friendly, personable demeanor, good looks and athleticism, Chase doesn't give off the impression that he's ever belonged to any group, and it's doubtful he ever had any true, close friends. He felt isolated by his secret abilities, and spent many years confused and afraid because of them. He didn't have a special little "club" like the Sons of Ipswich, and as a result, he harbors both anger and jealousy towards them for having the support that he lacked. This confusion and fear probably helped to twist him into the person he ultimately became. Little is known about the type of person Chase was before he gained access to the Power at thirteen, but he was probably a pretty normal kid. At the very least, the Collins gave him everything he wanted, but not everything he felt he needed, i.e. guidance and answers. When one is frightened by something strange and new going on with their body (oh god, it's a metaphor for puberty), and there's nobody around to explain what's happening, it can have long-lasting effects on that person. In Chase's case, he retreated into his powers, and eventually, they became an obsession, one of the few things to truly matter to him. When he Ascended, he was consumed by the amount of power he had. Imagine, going from a frightened boy to somebody with nearly godlike abilities-- it's enough to make one who isn't prepared for it, who hasn't been raised to take to his gifts with responsibility, go mad with power. By the time we see him in canon, he's allowed these powers to define him. And yet, he's still afraid of his powers on some level, even if he won't outright admit it. He says that he doesn't want anything-- he has everything he could want-- but he needs to find a loophole, a way to keep his powers from utterly destroying him. Chase is driven by this desperation to avoid his father's fate. Despite having never been around in Chase's life until Chase finds him at 17/18, his birth father seems to be one of the few people Chase has any feelings for, and even then, he generally talks about him with the same smirking irreverence as he approaches everything else. Still, Chase seems to feel a connection to him on some level, due to their shared abilities and their bitterness towards those who banished their family, those whose descendants were given all the answers and support that Chase desperately wanted growing up. Although his father is implied to be not the greatest guy-- given that he encourages vengeance and essentially commits suicide so that Chase can destroy the Sons of Ipswich (plus there's the fact that he abandoned Chase and his mother and is described as being a bitter person)-- it's possible that Chase might have been an entirely different person if his father had stuck around to raise him, rather than leaving his mother to do it alone before she died. After all, when he finds his father, he finally finds the understanding and the answers that he so desperately craves. When Caleb tells Chase that his father clearly found out the consequences of using the Power the hard way, Chase shows some real emotion, quickly growing angry and defensive, indicating that although he barely knew his father, he clearly feels some kinship towards him. The friendly demeanor that he tends to display probably isn't 100% false. While he's certainly putting on an act with Caleb and company, it probably didn't come from nowhere, and is instead, a glimpse into who he was before he became warped and completely power-hungry. There's a certain ease in which he interacts with people, which is at odds with how not terribly convincing his later lying to the provost is. Not that he doesn't get away with his lie about not knowing the kid he murdered, but the denials come across as a bit forced in that scene, whereas his interactions with Sarah, Kate and Caleb are much more smooth, indicating that they do come from some place of authenticity. He easily jokes with them, teasingly pranks Kate (and... picks spiders off of her, how sweet), and stands up for Sarah and Caleb when they need it. It's easy to see how he can be so quickly accepted into their social circle, because he has a way of very naturally easing his way into positive social situations. No, he doesn't really care for these people, but in another life, he could've. It's hard to say if Chase genuinely enjoys spending time with the other characters, if he likes swimming or playing foosball with the boys or watching Brad Pitt movies with Kate, but he seems to enjoy himself well enough. Although he sees himself as superior to everybody else, it must be a source of some relaxation and comfort to just act his age sometimes. After all, he is only 18, and while that may legally make him an adult, he's still quite young. Sometimes he does just need to goof off with other teenagers. His natural irreverence for everything comes through when he's worming his way into Caleb's social circle, albeit in a much more friendly and benign way than when he's mocking people while throwing them around. He's playful with Kate, sarcastic against bullies, and doesn't seem to take Pogue's constant rejections of him too seriously (sure, he later pummels Pogue, but he would've done that regardless of how Pogue treated him). If he wasn't so desperate to avoid his father's fate, it's possible Chase could've found the acceptance and support he's always wanted at Spenser. Although he crows about his aptitude for murder and violence, Chase isn't a frothing maniac who'll kill willy nilly. His reasons for murdering his adoptive parents are unclear, but it's possible he only did it in a calculated effort to gain control of the family funds and transfer himself into Spenser in his quest for revenge. It's also possible that it was an accident, brought on by his Ascension, and that he only made it sound premeditated later in an attempt to talk himself up. After all, the timing of their deaths-- right on his 18th birthday-- makes it seem as if he might've simply had no idea how to control his strengthened powers. With the student he kills, it was an act of self preservation, an attempt to not get discovered or outed before he was ready to reveal himself. And, with Kate and Pogue and Sarah, it's worth noting that Chase only harms them; he doesn't kill them, even though he could've done it easily to make the same point: that he has the power here, not Caleb. Chase does have a few moments that show he's not a total monster. First, he elects not to kill Kate to draw Pogue out, even though he could have and it would've made no difference to his plan whatsoever. He doesn't kill Pogue, either, but rather injures him instead to send a message. When Caleb asks Chase not to leave Sarah under the curse/spell that Chase put her under, Chase releases her from it, even though he really has nothing to gain from listening to Caleb. And, in the beginning of the film, he stands up for Sarah against a snobby girl, and gets between Aaron and Caleb when they're about to throw down, risking getting into a fight, himself. He even offers to help the boys out when Aaron tries to start a fight at the bar. And, while Chase certainly has an ulterior motive behind all of these actions, it still shows that he's very much capable of doing things that aren't 100% terrible. All in all, Chase is somebody who wants to be seen as the monster under the bed, when in fact, he's really the one running away from his own perceived "monsters," i.e. addiction, and the depletion of his life force/rapid aging that he knows will be his fate. He's lashing out, because he feels like he's helpless to avoid his fate if he doesn't steal Caleb's powers, and so he compensates by becoming a monster. After all, by the time he learned his powers were addictive, that they were connected to his very life, which would drain the more he used them, he was already hooked on them. Attempting to overcome his addiction doesn't even cross Chase's mind; it's just not an option that's on the table for him. He doesn't have Caleb's willpower nor his reservations, and instead, Chase wants to have his cake and eat it, too. He wants to survive, but he's not willing to give up the power he has in order to do it. Since Chase's primary target is Caleb, and Caleb's really the only person he has prolonged interactions with in the film, it's worth going into their relationship. Although Chase primarily sees him as a means to an end, a way to prolong his own life, he clearly has some jealousy and anger behind his actions. It's not enough for Chase to try to kill Caleb; he wants to torment him before he does it. He's resentful of Caleb for having a nice, mostly-normal life with supportive friends-- "brothers," even. He looks down on the others as cannon fodder and tools to get to Caleb, but there's also a part of him that seems to want what they have. When Caleb says the other Sons of Ipswich are basically like his brothers, having grown up together, Chase sort of wistfully says it must've been nice. He tends to contemptuously refer to Caleb as a golden boy, a sacrificial lamb, a hero, etc. It's apparent that Chase basically sees Caleb as holding values he considers stupid or a waste of time, such as heroism and restraint. Caleb and Chase are basically foils for each other; Chase is a person who gives in to his indulgences and cravings, where Caleb practices moderation and self control. Chase is a twisted, angry loner, where Caleb is a leader. It's also worth noting that Chase has a tendency to fixate on certain things at the expense of... logic. He comes up with what he thinks is a solution to his premature aging predicament-- take Caleb's power-- and he decides to go through with it even after Caleb points out that it doesn't work like that and it won't fix anything. Chase doesn't even miss a beat, really; he doesn't even consider Caleb's rightness; he just goes "OH WELL, BE AT THE BARN SO I CAN KILL YOU" instead, as if Caleb's words haven't even made a dent in his insane plan. Once he sets his sights on something, he follows through until he gets what he wants. powers; In canon, Chase has "the Power," which is nearly unlimited magical potential that is tied to his life "essence," for lack of a better word-- the more he uses it, the more life it drains. Prolonged, persistent overuse of magic leads to premature aging. However, judging by the amount of magic Chase uses in the movie with no actual, visible ill-effects on himself, it's likely that it takes a while for the Power to start actually causing aging. Likely, it's something that builds up slowly, then compounds rapidly after a certain point. With the Power, Chase can do just about anything he wills to happen, including: telekinesis (and related abilities, such as levitation and telekinesis-fueled "blasts"), glamour/illusion, summoning "darklings" (spooky spirits that take on the form of the deceased, but don't seem to actually... do anything...), summoning/controlling spiders (from one spider to a horde), giving people nightmares, pyrokinesis, teleportation, astral projection, and potentially atmokinesis (it's debatable if Chase is really the reason why the weather is constantly terrible in the film).

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