Picture Perfect
Majesty is one of the Daeva’s great gifts: the ability to make mortals want to come to them. Even its most basic power, Awe, is such an effective social tool that some young Daeva don’t even realize they’re using it. They’ll lock eyes with someone across a crowded room and just feel a click as they become the mortal’s whole world. Obfuscate, meanwhile, is a Discipline that the Daeva can learn only through difficult practice. The benefits usually run counter to those of Majesty, offering concealment instead of adoration. Yet, when a vampire learns the Familiar Stranger, she becomes able to pose as anyone her victims know and expect.
A certain Daeva south of the California Mission was always better at hiding out than turning minds. Over time, she fused her mastery of Obfuscate with her rudimentary (and, she believed, innate) capacity to Awe mortals. After many hungry and difficult years, she learned to be recognized as anyone... and then she learned to be recognized as herself, with the benefits of Majesty. From there, she was able to pass the effect on to photographs taken of her. Photographs that could spread her image and her Awe throughout mortal society, without her having to interact directly with her future victims.
She created the Picture Perfect Devotion, which allows a vampire to extend her Awe effect through photographs, and triggers it once again when the subject meets the vampire face to face.
A certain Daeva south of the California Mission was always better at hiding out than turning minds. Over time, she fused her mastery of Obfuscate with her rudimentary (and, she believed, innate) capacity to Awe mortals. After many hungry and difficult years, she learned to be recognized as anyone... and then she learned to be recognized as herself, with the benefits of Majesty. From there, she was able to pass the effect on to photographs taken of her. Photographs that could spread her image and her Awe throughout mortal society, without her having to interact directly with her future victims.
She created the Picture Perfect Devotion, which allows a vampire to extend her Awe effect through photographs, and triggers it once again when the subject meets the vampire face to face.
Effect
While being photographed, the vampire must successfully Awe the photographer. If the vampire succeeds, any pictures of the vampire made from the negatives or digital images taken by the affected photographer carry the Picture Perfect effect. (The photograph must be taken by a character who is a valid subject for Awe: not the vampire herself, nor an automated system.)
Picture Perfect activates once in each scene a character (a “target”) views an image created with the Devotion. At Storyteller discretion, it may also activate when a target views an image painted, sculpted or drawn by an artist under the effects of the Picture Perfect Devotion. The first time a target encounters a Picture Perfect image, they are affected as if the vampire had used Awe upon them. Subsequent viewings of the same image do not create the same effect supernaturally, but the target is unlikely to change his overall opinion of the picture. Viewings of further Picture Perfect images in the same scene are affected by the initial Awe, but do not have a supernatural effect of their own. They may, however, have that effect when viewed in subsequent scenes.
Later, when a target encounters the vampire or someone closely resembling her, he is overwhelmed by familiarity and affected by Awe again. The effect feels like meeting someone you’ve always wanted to, or seeing a deeply held fantasy come to life. As with the initial exposure to the photograph, the effect automatically succeeds. This occurs once per scene, up to the maximum number of Picture Perfect images that have affected the target.
No vampire may be affected by an image in which she appears, since it is not possible for a character to invoke Awe on themselves. Characters present when the picture was taken, but who were not targets of the initial Awe effect, are unaffected by the image. The image may be altered and retain its effect, so long as it remains recognizably the vampire or someone who closely resembles her. Sufficient alterations may create an effectively new image and allow the Picture Perfect effect to occur again, at the Storyteller’s discretion.
Picture Perfect activates once in each scene a character (a “target”) views an image created with the Devotion. At Storyteller discretion, it may also activate when a target views an image painted, sculpted or drawn by an artist under the effects of the Picture Perfect Devotion. The first time a target encounters a Picture Perfect image, they are affected as if the vampire had used Awe upon them. Subsequent viewings of the same image do not create the same effect supernaturally, but the target is unlikely to change his overall opinion of the picture. Viewings of further Picture Perfect images in the same scene are affected by the initial Awe, but do not have a supernatural effect of their own. They may, however, have that effect when viewed in subsequent scenes.
Later, when a target encounters the vampire or someone closely resembling her, he is overwhelmed by familiarity and affected by Awe again. The effect feels like meeting someone you’ve always wanted to, or seeing a deeply held fantasy come to life. As with the initial exposure to the photograph, the effect automatically succeeds. This occurs once per scene, up to the maximum number of Picture Perfect images that have affected the target.
No vampire may be affected by an image in which she appears, since it is not possible for a character to invoke Awe on themselves. Characters present when the picture was taken, but who were not targets of the initial Awe effect, are unaffected by the image. The image may be altered and retain its effect, so long as it remains recognizably the vampire or someone who closely resembles her. Sufficient alterations may create an effectively new image and allow the Picture Perfect effect to occur again, at the Storyteller’s discretion.