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History - Wikipedia link - A few things that the link does not clarify: In the event ten years ago, when Yomiel was killed (well, all-but-killed) by the meteorite fragment, he came around (as an immortal) to find a homeless, adolescent kitten curled up against him. He adopted the kitten, naming him Sissel, and kept Sissel as his constant companion. Hence it was that Sissel was in the carrier that took the first shot from Yomiel-possessed Lynne, killing him. When Sissel, Yomiel, and Missile (along with Jowd) went back to that event ten years ago and prevented Yomiel's death (he survived and was arrested instead, hence just getting out of jail in the "present day" of the new timeline), the stray fragment happened to strike and all-but-kill Sissel instead, making him the immortal with the original ghost powers to come out of that event.
NOTE - For RP purposes, Sissel is able to shift his shell's form at will between cat and human. He's seen enough of humans to know that their clothes are not part of them like a cat's fur is. He can physically change clothes in human form...just that he will always have the red suit and sunglasses on when he first shifts to human form. If he then changes clothes, the original clothes will remain where he leaves them (as will the sunglasses if he takes them off) and will last for as long as he's in human form, vanishing the first time he goes back to cat form.
Appearance - Sissel's true appearance is that of a black cat, perpetually a kitten at the adolescent stage, with striking yellow eyes and wearing a red scarf. No matter how old he gets (he's currently ten years old), he will always have the body of a teenage kitten.
As a human, he takes the form of the man he'd thought so powerfully and intimately was him for the majority of one fateful night - his owner and friend in another timeline, Yomiel. In Yomiel's form, he's a tall, very slim man in a red suit, with blond hair swept back and up to a high peak, and wearing sunglasses. (Behind the sunglasses, Sissel's eyes are the same striking yellow.)
Mundane Abilities - Sissel is a cat with human-level intelligence who's observed humans, especially one human family, for the past ten years. He also possesses the memories of another timeline where things were VERY different for those same ten years of his life up until one fateful night. So there's a lot that he's learned and has come to understand about humans and the world in general that most cats never would. But there's also a lot that he doesn't know or understand. He's only nominally learned to read, for example (Jowd has been teaching him as best he can). And there are many human concepts, institutions, etc, that if he has any concept at all, he'd only have a vague understanding because he's not had much if any exposure. Also, he can't speak aloud in cat form (except to make the noises a normal cat can) and can only write if he takes human form or possesses a typewriter/computer/cell phone/ etc as a ghost (see "Manipulating objects" below).
Powers - Sissel's body (in both cat and human forms) is a shell of sorts, something that he's still bound to enough that he's able to possess and manipulate it (something he can't do with any other living or once-living thing), but not so bound that his spirit can't leave it. He can jump out of it as easily as someone would exit a car to go take care of business and return to slip back into when he's done.
The shell is effectively immortal, not alive technically but not dead either, caught in a perpetual loop of being restored to a specific instant in time (just before death). The body has no particular special powers otherwise. It can't run faster than a normal cat/human, or jump higher or lift/carry greater weight, or speak in human terms (in cat form), etc. However, it will never age, does not need to breathe/eat/drink, cannot feel pain, and will instantly heal any damage done to it . . . so long as the meteorite fragment embedded in its body stays put. The body also is surrounded by a field of low-level radiation from that fragment, of a form not known on Earth. Oh, yeah, and if anyone dies in close proximity to the body? That person's or animal's spirit will develop special powers much like Sissel's, called "ghost tricks".
"Ghost tricks" are also called "powers of the dead", though again, only someone who dies within the radiation field of the Temsik meteorite or any fragment of it (such as the one embedded in Sissel's body) will develop them, specifically because of that exposure at the point of death. All spirits with "ghost tricks" can:
** See and possess the "cores" of inanimate objects - This is a ghost's mode of travel, to "hop" his spirit energy from the energy core of object to object. The catch is that not every object has an energy core (and there's no rhyme or reason to what does or doesn't), and those that do have to be close enough together to be reached. Some ghosts can stretch their energy out farther than others. Sissel's reach is only about 3-4 feet. (To compare, his friend Missile's reach is closer to 7-8 feet.) If he's not careful, Sissel can get himself stuck, unable to move until some outside force acts on the object he's in to move it for him, or moves another object within reach for him to continue on through. Also, there's no just cancelling his power and be bounced back to his shell if he's stranded. He has to be able to "physically" hop objects to get there. That said, it can be a great way to get around, invisible and undetectable, and he's still fully aware of his surroundings, able to "see" and "hear" as if he had the organs to do so. It's functionally instantaneous, too, as he has to shift from the Living World to the Ghost World to do so, where time for the living stands still. He does, of course, have to shift back to the Living World to observe or manipulate anything, and he can't see more than a few yards around (less in the Ghost World) . . . but he can see, even in total darkness in the Living World, the Ghost World cast in monochromatic blood red regardless of the lighting in the Living World.
** See and connect with the "core" in a body that has recently died - 'Recently' being under 24 hrs. If the spirit of the deceased is still present (not an issue if the death just happened) and has regained consciousness (so to speak), the ghost with the tricks can talk to them. Even animals and humans will understand each other.
** Travel through phone lines - Entering and exiting with a telephone as a beginning or end point (a ghost can't start from a phone pole, for example). The phone must have a working line. Sissel can travel to any phone he's previously been to, or he can get to a new phone if he's been on the line during an active call between his current phone and the new phone. He can do so either during that call or any time after. Also, during an active call, Sissel can "see" both ends of the call at the same time - the people on the phone and their immediate surroundings. During the "four-minute past" (more below), however, phone lines are inactive (unless someone makes a call during that time) and Sissel is not able to travel along them (unless there's an active call during that time and then only to the other end of the line, not to any other ends he's previously traced).
Beyond that, ghost tricks manifest differently for different spirits. Sissel's individual powers are:
** Manipulating objects - Sissel can't make an object do something it's not designed to do, but he can make it do something it is. He can't make a basket fall apart, or throw itself, or fold up into another shape, but if it has a round bottom, he can make it rock and tip. Levers can be pulled up and down (activating whatever they're meant to activate), valves can be turned, candle flames can burn a little higher, control panels can be operated (though more times than not, he has no idea what he's doing till something happens to give him a clue what he just did), lights can be turned on/off, fans can be made to run faster or swings to swing higher, a tshirt on a clothes line can be made to scrunch and stretch to inch its way along the line. If it's within the capabilities of an object (and it has a core to begin with, as mentioned above), he can make the object do it. He does, however, also have a weight limit...an extremely low one, less than a pound or two. He can't open a heavy dictionary nor make a large wrench leaned on a table leg fall over, for example. (In canon, having only had the powers for a few hours, he didn't have the fine dexterity to just open the dictionary's front cover and then flip deeper in a few pages at a time. Having lived with his powers for ten years now in this new timeline - and it's canon that one's powers change over time - he likely has developed that level of control now.)
These are things he can do both in the present and in the four-minute past (more on that below). He is, however, restricted to inanimate objects, nothing living. The one exception is he cannot manipulate corpses, since they were once living even though they're not any longer. And, again, the one exception to that is that he can possess and manipulate his own body/shell, since it's not technically a corpse, having not fully died and therefore his earthly tie to it wasn't fully severed.
** Rewind time - If Sissel connects with a recent corpse, he can travel back in time to four minutes before that person's or animal's death to both witness the events and attempt to change them, ideally with the goal of preventing the death. His only means of doing so, of course, is by hopping between and manipulating objects, just as he does in the present time, flipping back and forth between the Living and Ghost Worlds. If the dead person's spirit regains consciousness before he rewinds time, he can/will take that person back with him. However, unless that person died in close proximity to Sissel's shell, that spirit will have no powers of his/her own and will not be able to help affect their own fate. Sissel can rewind time as many times as he needs/wants in order to prevent the death, but he's restricted to those four minutes, and only until he does in fact prevent the death. At that time, he's kicked back into the Ghost World and can only exit into the new present, the moment he departed from. (So, for example, the death happened an hour before he found the body - he goes back an hour and four minutes, takes four minutes or fewer to prevent the death, then goes back to his present, skipping ahead that hour from the now-prevented death.)
As mentioned above, telephone travel is restricted to the two ends of an active call within those four minutes, and otherwise telephone paths are closed to him. Also, his entry point to the four-minute past is wherever the body ended up, so if the action took place elsewhere, he has to first find a path there before he can start trying to change the outcome of that action. For example, a young woman was killed in a junkyard with two levels, her body dumped on the lower level. However, when Sissel traveled back, he was down where her body (was) would be, while the woman and her assassin were on the upper level. He had first hop and manipulate objects just to get up there before he could try to prevent her death.
If Sissel prevents someone's death, and that person's spirit regained consciousness before he did so, the now-formerly-deceased will retain the memories of the death and whatever prevented/reversed it. Plus, he/she will continue to have a core that the ghost-tricking spirit can connect with to communicate. (If Sissel prevents a death and the person's spirit never regained consciousness first, he/she will not have a core going forward in the new present time nor have any memory of the other brief, and now defunct, timeline.)
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History - Wikipedia link - A few things that the link does not clarify: In the event ten years ago, when Yomiel was killed (well, all-but-killed) by the meteorite fragment, he came around (as an immortal) to find a homeless, adolescent kitten curled up against him. He adopted the kitten, naming him Sissel, and kept Sissel as his constant companion. Hence it was that Sissel was in the carrier that took the first shot from Yomiel-possessed Lynne, killing him. When Sissel, Yomiel, and Missile (along with Jowd) went back to that event ten years ago and prevented Yomiel's death (he survived and was arrested instead, hence just getting out of jail in the "present day" of the new timeline), the stray fragment happened to strike and all-but-kill Sissel instead, making him the immortal with the original ghost powers to come out of that event.
NOTE - For RP purposes, Sissel is able to shift his shell's form at will between cat and human. He's seen enough of humans to know that their clothes are not part of them like a cat's fur is. He can physically change clothes in human form...just that he will always have the red suit and sunglasses on when he first shifts to human form. If he then changes clothes, the original clothes will remain where he leaves them (as will the sunglasses if he takes them off) and will last for as long as he's in human form, vanishing the first time he goes back to cat form.
Appearance - Sissel's true appearance is that of a black cat, perpetually a kitten at the adolescent stage, with striking yellow eyes and wearing a red scarf. No matter how old he gets (he's currently ten years old), he will always have the body of a teenage kitten.
As a human, he takes the form of the man he'd thought so powerfully and intimately was him for the majority of one fateful night - his owner and friend in another timeline, Yomiel. In Yomiel's form, he's a tall, very slim man in a red suit, with blond hair swept back and up to a high peak, and wearing sunglasses. (Behind the sunglasses, Sissel's eyes are the same striking yellow.)
Mundane Abilities - Sissel is a cat with human-level intelligence who's observed humans, especially one human family, for the past ten years. He also possesses the memories of another timeline where things were VERY different for those same ten years of his life up until one fateful night. So there's a lot that he's learned and has come to understand about humans and the world in general that most cats never would. But there's also a lot that he doesn't know or understand. He's only nominally learned to read, for example (Jowd has been teaching him as best he can). And there are many human concepts, institutions, etc, that if he has any concept at all, he'd only have a vague understanding because he's not had much if any exposure. Also, he can't speak aloud in cat form (except to make the noises a normal cat can) and can only write if he takes human form or possesses a typewriter/computer/cell phone/ etc as a ghost (see "Manipulating objects" below).
Powers - Sissel's body (in both cat and human forms) is a shell of sorts, something that he's still bound to enough that he's able to possess and manipulate it (something he can't do with any other living or once-living thing), but not so bound that his spirit can't leave it. He can jump out of it as easily as someone would exit a car to go take care of business and return to slip back into when he's done.
The shell is effectively immortal, not alive technically but not dead either, caught in a perpetual loop of being restored to a specific instant in time (just before death). The body has no particular special powers otherwise. It can't run faster than a normal cat/human, or jump higher or lift/carry greater weight, or speak in human terms (in cat form), etc. However, it will never age, does not need to breathe/eat/drink, cannot feel pain, and will instantly heal any damage done to it . . . so long as the meteorite fragment embedded in its body stays put. The body also is surrounded by a field of low-level radiation from that fragment, of a form not known on Earth. Oh, yeah, and if anyone dies in close proximity to the body? That person's or animal's spirit will develop special powers much like Sissel's, called "ghost tricks".
"Ghost tricks" are also called "powers of the dead", though again, only someone who dies within the radiation field of the Temsik meteorite or any fragment of it (such as the one embedded in Sissel's body) will develop them, specifically because of that exposure at the point of death. All spirits with "ghost tricks" can:
** See and possess the "cores" of inanimate objects - This is a ghost's mode of travel, to "hop" his spirit energy from the energy core of object to object. The catch is that not every object has an energy core (and there's no rhyme or reason to what does or doesn't), and those that do have to be close enough together to be reached. Some ghosts can stretch their energy out farther than others. Sissel's reach is only about 3-4 feet. (To compare, his friend Missile's reach is closer to 7-8 feet.) If he's not careful, Sissel can get himself stuck, unable to move until some outside force acts on the object he's in to move it for him, or moves another object within reach for him to continue on through. Also, there's no just cancelling his power and be bounced back to his shell if he's stranded. He has to be able to "physically" hop objects to get there. That said, it can be a great way to get around, invisible and undetectable, and he's still fully aware of his surroundings, able to "see" and "hear" as if he had the organs to do so. It's functionally instantaneous, too, as he has to shift from the Living World to the Ghost World to do so, where time for the living stands still. He does, of course, have to shift back to the Living World to observe or manipulate anything, and he can't see more than a few yards around (less in the Ghost World) . . . but he can see, even in total darkness in the Living World, the Ghost World cast in monochromatic blood red regardless of the lighting in the Living World.
** See and connect with the "core" in a body that has recently died - 'Recently' being under 24 hrs. If the spirit of the deceased is still present (not an issue if the death just happened) and has regained consciousness (so to speak), the ghost with the tricks can talk to them. Even animals and humans will understand each other.
** Travel through phone lines - Entering and exiting with a telephone as a beginning or end point (a ghost can't start from a phone pole, for example). The phone must have a working line. Sissel can travel to any phone he's previously been to, or he can get to a new phone if he's been on the line during an active call between his current phone and the new phone. He can do so either during that call or any time after. Also, during an active call, Sissel can "see" both ends of the call at the same time - the people on the phone and their immediate surroundings. During the "four-minute past" (more below), however, phone lines are inactive (unless someone makes a call during that time) and Sissel is not able to travel along them (unless there's an active call during that time and then only to the other end of the line, not to any other ends he's previously traced).
Beyond that, ghost tricks manifest differently for different spirits. Sissel's individual powers are:
** Manipulating objects - Sissel can't make an object do something it's not designed to do, but he can make it do something it is. He can't make a basket fall apart, or throw itself, or fold up into another shape, but if it has a round bottom, he can make it rock and tip. Levers can be pulled up and down (activating whatever they're meant to activate), valves can be turned, candle flames can burn a little higher, control panels can be operated (though more times than not, he has no idea what he's doing till something happens to give him a clue what he just did), lights can be turned on/off, fans can be made to run faster or swings to swing higher, a tshirt on a clothes line can be made to scrunch and stretch to inch its way along the line. If it's within the capabilities of an object (and it has a core to begin with, as mentioned above), he can make the object do it. He does, however, also have a weight limit...an extremely low one, less than a pound or two. He can't open a heavy dictionary nor make a large wrench leaned on a table leg fall over, for example. (In canon, having only had the powers for a few hours, he didn't have the fine dexterity to just open the dictionary's front cover and then flip deeper in a few pages at a time. Having lived with his powers for ten years now in this new timeline - and it's canon that one's powers change over time - he likely has developed that level of control now.)
These are things he can do both in the present and in the four-minute past (more on that below). He is, however, restricted to inanimate objects, nothing living. The one exception is he cannot manipulate corpses, since they were once living even though they're not any longer. And, again, the one exception to that is that he can possess and manipulate his own body/shell, since it's not technically a corpse, having not fully died and therefore his earthly tie to it wasn't fully severed.
** Rewind time - If Sissel connects with a recent corpse, he can travel back in time to four minutes before that person's or animal's death to both witness the events and attempt to change them, ideally with the goal of preventing the death. His only means of doing so, of course, is by hopping between and manipulating objects, just as he does in the present time, flipping back and forth between the Living and Ghost Worlds. If the dead person's spirit regains consciousness before he rewinds time, he can/will take that person back with him. However, unless that person died in close proximity to Sissel's shell, that spirit will have no powers of his/her own and will not be able to help affect their own fate. Sissel can rewind time as many times as he needs/wants in order to prevent the death, but he's restricted to those four minutes, and only until he does in fact prevent the death. At that time, he's kicked back into the Ghost World and can only exit into the new present, the moment he departed from. (So, for example, the death happened an hour before he found the body - he goes back an hour and four minutes, takes four minutes or fewer to prevent the death, then goes back to his present, skipping ahead that hour from the now-prevented death.)
As mentioned above, telephone travel is restricted to the two ends of an active call within those four minutes, and otherwise telephone paths are closed to him. Also, his entry point to the four-minute past is wherever the body ended up, so if the action took place elsewhere, he has to first find a path there before he can start trying to change the outcome of that action. For example, a young woman was killed in a junkyard with two levels, her body dumped on the lower level. However, when Sissel traveled back, he was down where her body (was) would be, while the woman and her assassin were on the upper level. He had first hop and manipulate objects just to get up there before he could try to prevent her death.
If Sissel prevents someone's death, and that person's spirit regained consciousness before he did so, the now-formerly-deceased will retain the memories of the death and whatever prevented/reversed it. Plus, he/she will continue to have a core that the ghost-tricking spirit can connect with to communicate. (If Sissel prevents a death and the person's spirit never regained consciousness first, he/she will not have a core going forward in the new present time nor have any memory of the other brief, and now defunct, timeline.)
