Characteristic

Cost

END

Cost

4

Cost

3

3

0

3

3

2

3

3

3

3

3

15

20

5

Emily is something of an enigma. Having been born in Barstow, “the gateway” to Las Vegas, she dreamed of becoming a Vegas showgirl. These were not really high aspirations, but in the pit of Barstow, it was like eventually having the unheard of vertical mobility of some forgotten royalty. It didn't matter that she scored the highest grades in school and was at the top of her class; all her parents could see was the external beauty she offered to any who gazed at her. Surely, they thought, she couldn't possibly be as smart as her teachers always insisted. “The girl has a gift,” they would say, “and it's staring you in the face. It's not her brains that will get her through life, but her well-rounded hourglass figure and her comely face.” Consequently, through this somewhat backward thinking, her parents influenced and encouraged her in her chosen profession. They scraped together what money they could and sent her to gymnastic and dance lessons. After all, what more could they imagine for their lovely daughter?

You see, they weren't exactly the stereotypical family. They lived in a rundown trailer park, where even the dogs sat around whining hopelessly at their pitiful surroundings. No hope for any brighter future could survive in the desolate Barstow trailer park. Emily was the brightest thing any of those poor folk had ever seen. She was like a bright, colorful spot of vivacious life in the midst of the dreary browns and grays that characterize the desolate Barstow desert landscape. Of course, it also helped that Emily was an incurable gossip and often people would throng around her just to hear what new snippet was happening in the park and at school. Her fast tongue was an asset at times and a deadly fault at others.

Once, she had heard a rumor about a prominent figure in her high school, and she had repeated it, adding embellishments here and there to make the story more interesting to any she talked to. Once the gossip mill was sprung, the story changed even from her telling of it. Needless to say, she wound up in a big pile of trouble. She had found out that the school counselor was having an affair with the principal's wife. That in itself was not illegal, but once the gossip got going, it turned into a game of “telephone” and the story changed. The situation ended with the counselor getting arrested for statutory rape, and the principal getting divorced. Emily had to come forward and clear the counselor's name, for he had only fooled with the wife, not anyone underage. Thank goodness she had only a week left before graduation.

Once she graduated from high school, Emily said goodbye to Barstow and the scandal and headed for Las Vegas with only a few hundred dollars to sustain her until she found her big break into Las Vegas show business. Surprisingly, she found a job rather quickly as a Marilyn Monroe impersonator. You see, she was a bit too voluptuous for the main showgirl scene. She brought to mind the old Hollywood starlets--Jane Mansfield, Marilyn Monroe, and Mae West, to name a few. It was a classic beauty she possessed, not the modern svelte, athletic, boyish body most adored by Americans in the twenty-first century. Her full-breasted body that narrowed to a slim waist and then flared again to full hips and thighs seemed best suited to…well, to a not-so-glamorous exotic dancer. Yes, all her training amounted to a cheap job in some rundown strip joint called “Flashes from the Past.”

It took only a few months for Emily to tire of her not-so-glamorous “profession”: There are only so many innuendoes one girl can take. After being asked for the umpteenth time if she would do more than strip, she threw her arms up in the air and quit her job. She had enough savings to last until she found some other job, hopefully in the entertainment industry as well. It was only a few days after she quit that the strip joint was shut down. It seemed that some gossip had made it to the police that it was secretly a brothel. Emily felt responsible, for it was probably her fault, she had told an acquaintance about the “offers” she was receiving, and that the management didn't do anything about it. Seems her tongue got the people around her in trouble yet again (although perhaps this time the people around her had deserved to get in trouble). Nevertheless, she vowed to never let her tongue wag loosely again and set off to find another job.

A week after she quit Flashes from the Past, Emily applied for a job advertised in the local paper. The ad said simply, “Wanted: Female Magician's Assistant, flexible hours and reasonable pay.” That ad would change her life. That was when she met Myles, a second-rate Houdini-like mentalist. Like her, he had ambitions to “make it big” someday. The interview was unlike any she had ever endured. He seemed to enjoy asking trick questions, like he was looking for some flaw in her mental capabilities. He saw some quality about her during the interview that he instantly liked, and hired her--eventually--after a long and drawn-out verbal contest of wits. She had to admit that she had found their verbal sparring intriguing. No man had ever treated her like that before, like she would understand his less-than-understandable logic. He treated her like she had a brain to equal her beauty. She fell almost instantly in love with him; sadly, he would never learn this fact. Even though he was a bit quick witted, he was also as thick as a brick when it came to the attentions of the fairer sex. He seemed oblivious to her eventual feelings for him.

They worked well together, and she learned the magic routine rather quickly. Her looks complemented his Old World-style show. For the first time, she was actually content, if not happy. The show did okay in her mind. They made enough to live off of, and someday they both would get the big break they wanted. Then one day, Miles came to the office in a better mood than usual. He had gotten a big break: Some network was going to run a special on ghosts and needed his particular brand of talent. He was somewhat psychic, and they needed a “specialist.” Emily had misgivings about this situation immediately. She knew he was talented, but in no way was he an “expert” on the supernatural forces. She was afraid that he was getting himself into a bad situation. However, trying to be the friend she thought he needed, she only cautioned him gently; she didn't want to push him, lest he believe she were “jealous” of his “big break.” However, she was relieved when she learned she was also invited to the show--only as a spectator, though. She would have to remain offstage, but at least she would be there if anything went wrong.

Boy, did things go wrong. There was an explosion and Miles was caught in it. She went frantic, but the security team kept her to the side. Only when she had seen Myles walk unsteadily off the stage did she calm down. The medical response was quick, and before she could get close enough to Myles to assure herself of his safety, he was whisked away on a gurney.

When she was finally able to see Myles, she was shocked into silence. He had changed: His skin was white as bleached linen, his hair just as colorless. There also seemed to be a new aura about him, as if his very substance had shifted. Things between them shifted after that. He was even more melancholy than usual, slyly trying to hide his feelings beneath the nineteenth-century charm he tried to project. She knew better. Ever the loyal assistant, she stayed with him even though their jobs dwindled to nothingness. Then suddenly he became a hero when he thwarted a robbery at a bank. She was not involved with that particular “trick” and so didn't experience its aftermath, meaning she wasn't offered the great job at some amusement park. Their two-person team was split, and Myles went on to be on some “special” force, one that she could not be a part of. However, he did promise to put in a good word for her, and maybe she could get a job as an actress in the park. Miles was true to his word, and just a few weeks later, she landed a job as a fairytale princess. Mentally grinning, she thought about this strange twist of fate. Being a mythical princess was a far cry from being a “Flash from the Past” At least this way she could somehow maneuver herself closer to Myles, and someday he would realize what a princess he had right under his nose.

Created by RJ Haas, Roland Renhack, Jim Diel

Emily is a skilled dancer, singer, and actress. Her work with Myles has given her insight into the world of professional stage magic, and she can manage passably at sleight of hand and other magic tricks. She is intelligent, shrewd, and more worldly than she lets on.

Emily is a beautiful Caucasian woman, about five and a half feet tall with a very striking figure. Her red hair and sparkling green eyes tend to draw the eye, and she is the very picture of a storybook princess when costumed for her work.