Asher's job, such as it is, is illusory magic. He'll get you past the security cameras or create a distraction to get the guards out of the way. This, to his chagrin, mainly requires him to be out in the field because long-distance magic is much, much more difficult and fragile.
He is reluctant to share details of his previous life, where his experiences as a mid-level thief and con man got him in an awful lot of trouble, and got the people he worked with and cared about in even more. He's "reformed."
Asher carries in him a curse that, among other things, lets him only get enough sleep to keep him alive and functional, and never more. It's laid into his skin like a poisoned tattoo; he can eradicate it piece by piece with acts of selflessness and charity, with a catch -- if his motivation is selfish (say, getting rid of a curse), nothing will happen. If he acts selfishly, the tattoos tingle or even burn. If he acts with "true evil" in his heart, the tattoo spreads.
He does not talk about this curse. It's a sensitive subject.
One's first impression of Asher may just be, "That man looks tired." His dark, curly hair is reasonably styled and he puts some effort into his appearance, but it's not enough to cut through his circled, defeated eyes and generally exhausted demeanor. He nearly always wears long sleeves, even on the hottest days. These cover the serpentine tattoos resulting from his curse. He does not let them show because he does not want them to invite questions.
abilities
background
Asher's parents were both members of a secretive, distrusting coven called Circle Sylvan. While they have members all over the world, their primary home is Rochester, New York, where Asher spent most of his childhood.
Circle Sylvan did not get on with other covens, refusing to share spells or magical resources and isolating themselves further and further away from other magical entities. They focused on blending in to the mundane world (but with a sense that they were, of course, above it all.) Asher was an only child, and did not learn to share well or get along with other kids. His coven focused his specialization in magic from a very young age, and he often used his illusions to play pranks on anyone he felt slighted him. It also let him get away with a lot his strict parents would not have approved of, if they'd known.
College was finally an opportunity for Asher to learn just how much more there was to the magical world. He rebelled and rejected a lot of his early way of life (though the secrecy and arrogance it instilled in him from a young age never really went away). He fell in with other discontents and never formally 'graduated' per se, but creates beautiful illusory diplomas for himself when he feels like he needs one.
Illusionary magic, as it turned out, did not set Asher up for an honest life. He found little thrill in simple theft or basic cons, though they got him through the day or week. He escalated, more for the challenge than for any basic need, and began working for hire in various crimes and misdemeanors. Asher believed he was keeping his hands mostly clean; after all, he was never doing the dirtiest work himself. He avoided jobs that planned too much violence from the start (though, of course, sometimes violence happened anyway.) He considered himself something of a gentleman thief.
The biggest job of his career, the one they all could have retired on but for the thrill of the chase, was, of course, the job that ruined his life. There were four of them on the team, and not one of them needed this job to survive, or to pay for a daughter's surgery, or some other noble but misguided act. They all just wanted the money. But Asher's research failed them, and they wildly underestimated the old druid's power.
Two of his companions were killed outright; Asher and their getaway flyer, a fae called Dorr, were captured and cursed for their selfishness. Within a month, Dorr was dead too; her erratic attempts at a shortcut to a cure got an innocent person killed, and the curse took Dorr with them. Asher learned.
The curse cannot be forgiven or cured by external means. It curls around his skin like ivy branching out from his chest; if one looks close enough, they can see the tiny Gaelic script that makes up each vine. The curse grows or retracts based on Asher's actions, or more truly, the motivation behind his actions. When he causes harm to others for his own gain, new branches sprout; when he sacrifices to help others, they fade away.
In the year since this curse began, Asher has drifted, unwilling or unable to make new connections. He has found a balance; a holding pattern that lets him keep existing without making things worse for himself. But without a reliable source of income (or marketable skills for non-crime related jobs), it's been a difficult existence. And in his heart, he knows that without this curse, he would fall right back into his old ways.
miscellaneous trivia
Asher has an enormous aversion of any kind of fortune telling. It's not that he distrusts it; if anything, he absolutely believes. He believes the mere act of looking sets events on a course of action that will inevitably bring that fate about, and therefore, they should be avoided like shellfish.
Severely allergic to shellfish.
Has a bit of a gambling problem, exacerbated by the fact that he's actually quite skilled at cards. It gives him a false sense of security. (Could he cheat? Sure, easily. But unfortunately for him, cheating is a thing that exacerbates his curse.)
Sometimes gets caught in a good deed day where he'll go around and just do nice things for people. He doesn't want you to make a big deal out of it? It's totally normal and definitely not an effort to un-curse himself, shut up?
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