The Orphan Of Ages:PCs:Nathan Stone
Dr Nathan Stone[edit]
Player: MixterAsh
Backstory[edit]
When Nathan was young his mother was seldom around. That wasn't to say she wasn't important. She'd visit every season. Sometimes for a few days, sometimes a whole week, and when she was there it was the best part of his life. She radiated love and warmth.
The rest of the time, Nathan was watched by his aunt and uncle. They loved him, but not like his mother did.
And, of course, when his mother was gone, he would dream of her. They happened often, maybe even every night but he couldn't always remember them on waking. There were dreams of his mother in strange places talking about things he couldn't understand with strange people, taking long drives, and once shooting a screaming man in the head. Mostly, however, she was just sleeping in the dreams. It may be strange to dream of your mom sleeping, but it was comforting somehow. Certainly better than the time the horrible skittering things came after her in another dream.
The last time Nathan saw his mother was when he was eleven. The dreams stopped a few weeks later.
His aunt and uncle didn't know what happened to his mother. They continued to raise him and love him, and everything became normal. His mother had left money behind, so Nathan could go to college where he studied psychology and got shot dead by a maladjusted young man going through a violent breakdown. The shooter injured eight people and killed three people, the last being himself. Nathan was the only one of the three to come back from the dead.
Nathan wished he could remember what he saw while the bullet was in his heart. He couldn't remember anything, because his brain wasn't working during those three minutes and thirty three seconds. But he knows something happened. Sometimes he thinks he can remember horrible things... and his mother. His mother pulling him back.
A month later a woman found him. She was followed by a dozen people, ranging from children clinging to her dress to scary young people hanging back and watching with hands close to hidden weapons. The woman radiated love, like his mother had. He hadn't felt it in so long. She brushed his cheek and everything for a moment was fine, all the fear, all the confusion, all the doubt gone. She introduced herself as Simone and spoke with a french accent: "For now on I am here for you child. You are reborn, and so you are mine, as I promised your mother." She kissed him on the forehead. Anointing him, he realized. She told him that his mother had died in 2007, said that she chose death so that her children might live. She sounded horribly sad.
"Children? As in... plural?" Nathan said.
The woman smiled, "It was not safe to keep you together. Perhaps now..." she trailed off wistfully, then shook her head. Her hand reached to the child hiding behind her skirts without looking or apparently thinking, and tousled her hair. "You will find each other if you're meant to."
Nathan felt like he was standing at the edge of a precipice, and something strange and chaotic waited below. He knew his mother was strange, he had known that since he was little... but everything was stranger now.
The woman left with a promise to keep in touch and keep an eye on him.
The dreams started again that night. No longer about his mother, but about strangers. Men and women he had never met... again, they were mostly sleeping in the dreams, but sometimes they were out on late nights... or up late fucking. It all felt too real to be a dream, and left Nathan feeling like a voyeur. But it was better than the other dreams... the one's where he woke up screaming and couldn't remember why. He still had those sometimes. He also sometimes saw figures that he was sure were ghosts, or perhaps something darker.
Simone and her entourage came on occasion, to check on him. Whenever he asked to know more, however, Simone shook her head and said, "It was your mother's wish that you be safe. I would have you make your own choices, and your own pursuits, but I will not break my promise to her."
Things reached some kind of normality. Life went on. Nathan graduated, began to practice, and the strange woman who knew his mother became an acquaintance who occasionally provided wisdom and comfort, and frustration whenever he wanted answers. At least she told him about his mother. Not what she did or about her other children, but who she was as a person. Then, five years ago, a woman calling herself Echidna showed up asking for his cooperation in something and/or his blood. She was clearly a madwoman, but she also knew things about his mother. Not much, but she knew people who knew more. The exchange became simple: cooperation in this madness for answers.
So it was that Nathan found himself breaking into a holy site in Washington DC with a group of women calling themselves the Daughters of Gaia, led by a woman called Rhea who supposedly knew his mother, to help bury a set of bones that were supposedly his mother's. It got weirder when they cut open his left nipple to bleed on the bones while chanting something in Greek. He wasn't the only one to pour nipple blood on the bones. There was a woman maybe six years younger than him covered in tattoos and piercings. Nathan had seen her in his dreams, and she was supposedly his sister. Or half-sister, maybe. Nathan's mom apparently had at least a dozen children, probably more, probably by different fathers. Even Rhea had never met any of the supposed fathers. It was an... awkward way to meet a sibling. Worse is that he'd dreamed about her fucking more than once. But, it was a start. It turned out that Rhea had dreamed of him too, ever since she died from a heroine overdose, came back and was visited by a strange woman named Simone.
And Rhea answered their questions, and the world opened up...
Short version: Nathan's mother was the Godwalker before she did something (even her old acolytes seem unclear on exactly what) that killed her... but guaranteed the survival of her children (at least once... no one has tried for a second one). And ever since that power took effect, he's been having weird dreams connecting to other children, and seeing entities from the otherworld. One of his mother's former acolytes takes a protective role, and the other drags him into crazy.
Concept – Occultist psychiatrist
Age – 35
Unnatural Trigger – Literally came back from the dead.
Cabal Relation - Guru
Wound Threshold – 50
Clout - Son of a Godwalker, Resurrected, Black Market Shrink (resources/contacts).
Appearance - Nathan is a conventionally attractive white man. 6'1", athletic build, dresses well, wears thick-rimmed glasses. Scar on chest from a bloodletting ritual. Recent ex-smoker, so fidgets with his hands a lot.
Stats[edit]
Obsession: Fully understand mother and her legacy
Rage: Violence toward the vulnerable
Fear: Losing grip on reality (Self)
Noble: Mending broken relationships
| Notches | Upbeat | Downbeat | Relationship | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Helplessness | 3H, 1 F | Fitness 50 | Dodge 30 | Protege: N/A |
| Isolation | 4H, 1F | Status 40 | Pursuit 40 | Favorite: Erica 40 |
| Self | 4H, 1F | Knowledge 40 | Lie 40 | Responsibility: N/A |
| Unnatural | 2H, 1F | Notice 55 | Secrets 25 | Guru: Simone 55 |
| Violence | 5H, 2 F | Connect 35 | Struggle 45 | Mentor: Rhea 45 |
| Score | Of course I can... | Features | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Repressed Psychiatrist | 70 | ...keep a secret ... fit into a medical environment |
Subs for: Knowledge Feature: Therapeutic |
| Back from the Dead | 40 | Supernatural |
Vague Information |
| Matrilineal Cultist | 50 |
... Get help from one of my Sisters |
Subs for: Status |
| * Obsession Skill | |||
