"GEORGE! OVER HERE! I LOOOOOOOVE YOOOOOUUUUUU!!!!"
The actor looked up, as the voice seemed to stand out from the clamor of photographers and fans gathered at the Planet Hollywood event. Perhaps he sensed there was something different about the speaker, or maybe intuition connected the sudden screech with the obsessive, unsettling letters and phone calls he'd been getting. He looked across the crowd, but couldn't pick anyone out with all the camera flashes going off in his face. Shuddering, he smiled, waved, and hurried inside.
There were too many people Othoros crooned to her host. Of course he couldn't stop and talk to you. But he heard you. You saw how he looked right at you?
The pimply-faced woman nodded to herself, agreeing with the thoughts she thought were her own. He knew. As soon as she could meet him face to face, everything would be perfect. He'd realize what a special relationship they had, and they would be together forever, just like she'd always dreamed. She didn't worry about how they'd get rid of that slut the tabloids had been connecting romantically with her man. She knew he was only with the bimbo for the publicity.
It would all work out. The voices told her so. George said so, in her dreams, and then last night right while she was watching him on TV! Soon they'd be together forever.
Corporeal Forces -- 2
Strength 4 Agility 4 Ethereal Forces -- 3
Intelligence 6 Precision 6 Celestial Forces -- 5
Will 10 Perception 10
Word Forces: 5
Servant: Obsessed Fan/6
Songs: Attraction (Ethereal/6), Charm (Celestial/2), Dreams (Corporeal/3, Celestial/2), Form (Ethereal/4, Celestial/3), Shields (Celestial/2)
Skills: Climbing/3, Computer Operation/2, Driving/1, Fast-Talk/4, Knowledge (Celebrities/6), Lying/3, Ranged Weapon (Pistol/3), Savoir-Faire/1, Small Weapon (Knife/2)
Attunements: Balseraph of the Media, Shedite of the Media, Subliminal, the Demon of Celebrity Stalkers (see below)
Special Attunement: As the Demon of Celebrity Stalkers, Othoros's victims get no daily Perception roll to realize they are not in control so long as they are obsessed with a celebrity. Also, Othoros only needs to win one daily contest of Wills as she urges her host to go further in his or her obsession -- so long as the acts she forces are in pursuit of that obsession, she does not need to win a contest of Wills for every other evil act that day. Nybbas has also made special arrangements with her as to her servant (see below).
Special Rites: Othoros gains an extra point of Essence each day a celebrity whom her host is stalking is in the news as a result of that stalking -- or each day the stalker is in the news. If she was responsible for the incident, she continues to gain Essence even after she has left the host!
Othoros has led a charmed life. A very young demon, not long on Earth, she narrowly avoided destruction at the hands of her wrathful Prince and gained a Word before she gained her first additional Force. All as a result of one extraordinary event that she blithely planned and executed without ever dreaming what consequences it would reap.
In 1980, Othoros was just another Shedite of the Media, newly arrived on Earth. Like most Shedim of the Media, she was expected to make people famous for doing awful things, generating more media coverage of social deviants and horrible tragedies. It was pure chance (unless you talk to Kronos) that caused her to cross paths with Mark David Chapman.
When she stumbled upon the disturbed and obsessive young man, she knew she had material with which to engineer a major media event. What better way to make someone famous than by getting him to kill someone famous?
She (and Mark) considered and rejected numerous celebrities before settling on John Lennon. On December 8, 1980, Mark David Chapman shot and killed the former Beatles member outside his apartment in New York City.
Nybbas was not exactly pleased with what his Servitor had done. In fact, "not pleased" would be an understatement. She escaped immediate destruction only because Nybbas threw her back to Hell while thinking about exactly what punishment would be appropriate. John Lennon had been one of his favorites, and what the Hell good was a dead celebrity?
But then his minions reported a curious phenomenon to him -- Mark David Chapman, in custody, was becoming a major celebrity himself. People were sneaking into the hospital where he'd been temporarily incarcerated, and even conspired to slip him fraudulent documents to sign, just so they could get his autograph! Kronos dropped a note to the Prince of the Media, saying "Well done, I see good things coming from this."
And then Othoros, imprisoned in Perdition and anxiously awaiting her Superior's return (whereupon he would probably televise her execution), received a visit from Lucifer. He was just passing through, as he does in every Principality every so often, and he chose that time to take notice of the quivering young Shedite and grant her a boon.
Most diabolicals in her situation would probably have asked the Darkest of Dark Lords to put in a good word for her with her Prince, or just transfer her to another Prince's service outright and spare her life. Instead, Othoros asked for a Word.
Lucifer laughed. A demon so brash as to think she'd done the right thing despite the fact that her Prince was about to obliterate her for it -- and who dared to ask him for a Word after just one (seemingly botched) assignment on Earth! -- deserved a chance to prove herself. He granted her the Word of Celebrity Stalkers.
Of course Lucifer made no promises as to her disposition by Nybbas, and the Prince of the Media was still fully within his rights if he wanted to make Othoros's Word the shortest-lived ever. But he didn't.
Impressed by the attention Chapman was receiving as a result of her stunt, and perhaps thinking that if Kronos and Lucifer were both pleased, she might have something there, Nybbas not only let Othoros live, but sent her back to Earth to continue propagating her Word -- with strict instructions that in the future, she was not to kill any celebrities without his approval!
Celebrity stalking is now an ever-increasing phenomenon. Mark David Chapman literally started a trend, as many other famous celebrity stalkers (including John Hinkley) have been found to have been inspired by him. Hollywood stars complain constantly about their lack of privacy, even as they continue basking in the limelight and pull outrageous stunts to get more attention. They decry tabloids while catering to the most banal media organs, and the public decries tabloids while buying them in record numbers. Furthermore, as media figures increase their personal security for fear of stalkers, they become more isolated within the celebrity world, putting up more and more barriers between the rich and famous and everyone else. This appeals to Nybbas very much.
Still, he hasn't quite forgiven Othoros for killing his favorite drug-addicted rock star, and all of his other Servitors resent her, for doing something so blatantly incautious and ill-advised and not only getting away with it, but coming out of it with a Word, after less than a year on Earth. Then there is the fact that the more Othoros succeeds in encouraging borderline personalities with low self-esteem to begin stalking their favorite star, the more unpredictable loonies there are out there, stalking Nybbas's prime talent. Othoros certainly can't control them all -- whomever she is possessing might not kill their fixation (she often pushes them to suicide, or to kill someone else, as a final act, abandoning the host just before the trigger is pulled), but all the other mortals out there acting of their own free will might. So while so far Othoros's Word has benefited Nybbas, he remains suspicious, and Othoros has remained at the bottom end of Word-bound Servitors.
Fearful of a disaster that will provoke Nybbas to eliminate her, Othoros has begun taking advice, albeit grudgingly, from Grengarl, the Demon of Stalking. Their Words overlap, and Grengarl has a lot more experience, and much to teach her. However, the Shedite is naturally loathe to work with a Djinn, and Grengarl barely conceals his contempt for her. They have a most unusual relationship, two vastly different Servitors from opposing Bands and unfriendly Princes. The only thing they have in common is a pair of closely-connected Words -- if the Word of one wanes, it will probably reflect on the other.
The recent Princess Diana tragedy was not of Othoros's making, though it put a terrible fright into her -- she was afraid Nybbas would blame her. Mortals often connect paparazzi and stalkers, but the Demon of Paparazzi was not a friend of Othoros. They should have been allied, considering how much they could have helped one another, but like most of Nybbas' Servitors, he resented the young Shedite and shunned her. In light of what happened to that hapless demon after that car crash in Paris, Othoros counted herself lucky he did.
Nybbas granted Othoros a twist on the usual Shedite of the Media attunement: instead of having one constant servant, she gets to pick someone who already has an obsession on a celebrity. If she succeeds in her initial possession attempt, that person becomes her servant for as long as she is engineering the person's downward slide. When she's finished, she can discard that victim and find a new one. Her servants must already have an obsession which they developed on their own, though it can be a minor one that without her aggravation would never amount to more than buying every Franklin Mint commemorative item featuring the person they adore.