Editing Stephen "Titivillus" Markowicz (section)

====HISTORY====
Steven Markowicz’s life had followed the familiar course of many other young, middle-class Americans: he’d gone to school, gotten a solid liberal arts education, and, like many of his peers, developed an active interest in social and political issues. He became involved with a group of students pursuing somewhat radical liberal ideals; there were many such organizations on campus, and on the surface this one didn’t seem especially unusual. 

But this particular group, Steven soon discovered, espoused a much more activist approach to bringing about their proposed social reforms – threatening letters to police and government officials, bricks through windows, and finally, the incident at the rally before city hall. Steven doesn’t know who struck the first blow, but before he knew what was happening, tear gas had filled the air and black batons were raining down upon his associates’ skulls.

The scene took on a surreal, distant quality for Steven, as if it were a choreographed performance being acted out for his benefit. The riot police seemed positively demonic in aspect, and the whole atmosphere evocative of punishment, repression, and the threat of torture. Disoriented and terrified, Steven somehow made his way out of the fray to an alley, where he concealed himself, shaking, behind a reeking dumpster. Only later would it be explained to him that he had just undergone his Mystery Play, and glimpsed Pandemonium superimposed on the Fallen World.

The very next day, locked in his apartment and convinced that it was only a matter of time before the authorities came to consign him to whatever fate had met his friends, Steven had a visitor who, from outside his still-locked door, persuaded him that there were people who could offer him protection and, perhaps more important to the confused young man, answers. Steven looks back on that day as his formal induction into the Guardians of the Veil.

It was also the day when he left his old life behind him. He has severed all contact with friends and family – proximity to the world of invisible dangers and manipulations he has entered would only endanger them, he realizes. He now applies his sociological training as a staunch Guardian, analyzing dozens of media outlets and making use of his magical talents to keep watch for supernatural threats and influences within Sleeper groups and institutions. Steven has developed a somewhat voyeuristic personality complex, increasingly obsessed with self-concealment and omniscient knowledge of others’ activities. 

While his training with the Guardians has, in fact, answered many of his questions, it has only increased his paranoia - although he can’t prove it, Steven has the growing suspicion that the activist group he had joined was, in reality, part of the Guardians’ Labyrinth, a front designed to test the conviction and resolve of potential recruits. The implication of this possibility – that the Guardians themselves are responsible for forcing him into this new life – weighs heavily upon his mind.