[Cam Stuff] Oh Now It's On :)
This is a quick email to let you know that the following changes have just been made on your application for Legacy Membership - Uncrowned Kings for Thomas Stiles/Charon: Status set to Approved
John Allen was born to a lower middle class family in Warez, New Mexico. His Father was second generation army, and almost never at home. He didn’t mind that fact all that much really, his mother always seemed just a bit happier when he was overseas. His older brother, Michael, always seemed to be the better adjusted of the two when they were children. When they started school John found himself for the first time inspired. He found that life was about more than watching TV, it was truly a novel concept.
John was given the option to skip the fifth grade, which his mother thought was a wonderful idea. Nothing seemed all that different until John was in the 8th grade. When again he was given the option of skipping a grade. This time his mother didn’t let him, though he was allowed to take a few higher level classes, she didn’t think that another grade jump would be good for him socially. John resented this for many years, it drove him in school and on into life. He never really got over the fact that his own mother didn’t think he was good enough to cut it. He is totally blinded to the good reasons she had for her choice, after all it’s not like he had many friends as it was, what was a few fewer.
College at 17, it was quite a shock. All his mother could afford after the divorce was Eastern New Mexico University, which wasn’t his first choice. Making the best of a bad situation he found that chemistry with a minor in history would prove to those around him that he deserved to be there. He graduated in three years, and made the Dean’s list. His mother was very proud, and she was all but floored when he received scholarship money to attend graduate school.
Graduate school was a beast of it’s own. He enrolled in the University of North Texas in 1992, with a declared major of Masters of Analytical Chemistry. It was during this time that he met Sarah, the first “serious” girlfriend he had. She was at first a student in one of the classes he was a TA for, but she dropped the class after their first date. He really cared for her, so much so that when she broke things off with him he fell into a deep depression. He had no coping devices for such a crushing blow and it almost derailed his entire life. After some time in therapy he was able to beat his depression for the most part, though he always remained afterwards a bit closed off and distant.
After graduating in 1985 he joined the Santa Fe police department as a field technician, he was four months on the job when it happened. He was working the graveyard shift, routine DOA down an alleyway. The shadows jumped, there was a shape pain in his chest. The knife lodged between his ribs and punctured his lung. He felt himself fall to the ground as he yelled for help. The next several minutes are a blur, the flashing lights, the yelling, the cold… bitter cold. His vision became clouded, the world around him went pale as the color washed away from it. A cold wind blew, he found himself walking through a morgue. He saw his body being examined by the ME, he couldn’t escape the metallic taste in his mouth. He tried to swallow, but his mouth was dry. He watched, as he was examined, cleaned, and autopsied. He must have stood there for hours, looking into the depths of his own corpse. Finally it was done, the coroner slid his body into the cooler, closing the polished aluminum door on his life. As he left the room John noticed that his drawer was missing its name card. He found one and wrote his name on it and placed it in the holder on the door.
He woke up, in more than one sense, lying in a hospital bed. He came to find out much later than he had in fact died for almost three minutes. He was released a couple weeks later, only to find people following him. (Leaving this section vague for possible future PC ties) He learned from them about what he had become, what it meant to be a mage. He was invited to join their Order, however failed the one of their first tests. His morals would not let him frame an innocent man for a crime just because he had seen something, something caused by the very people they wished him to be a part of.
In shame he moved, not leaving a trace of himself behind he changed his name. He disconnected himself from his former life, even getting his transcripts officially changed to reflect the new name. Thomas Stiles, he thought it sounded quite professional. He was approached at his home in Boston by an older mage (vague possible PC tie) who offered him the chance to join an order that fed his emotional need for acceptance and his intellectual need to expand his knowledge. He accepted this offer and joined the Mysterium. He was presented to his fellow Mystagoges not as John or as Thomas, but as Charon; the mythical ferryman of the dead. He took the task in his cabal of helping shepherd ghosts across to the underworld, freeing them of their attachment to the world of the living. He usually accomplished this task by clearing up any unfinished business the dead would have had with the world, though there were time that more encouragement was needed. It was also during this time that Thomas started to take up music as an abstract creative outlet. He had been forced to take wood-shop in high school and found that to be another good hobby to distract his mind when a problem seemed insurmountable. Utilizing his creative side opened his mind to more and more mysteries just waiting to be explored.
He all but drowned himself in his new friends and his thirst for knowledge knew few bounds open to him. He finished school with a second Master’s degree. This time he enrolled at Boston College, for a degree in Ancient Studies and Civilization. It was during this time that he met a man who he first knew as a contradiction, a common laborer that carried him self as if he was above the common men around him. His name was Henry and he intrigued Thomas on a very personal level, a rarity among common and “simple” men to Thomas. He had taken that name of the many kings of old in order to reflect them in himself. Henry was Free Council, and once Thomas got through the initial talks of freedom and change, he saw the inward nobility that Henry spoke so candidly about. He taught Thomas how to see himself in his work, to analyze himself in his creations. To find the shards of him self in a piece of music or a turned table leg. To purify the inner soul by affecting the world around yourself, with true effort not only magical knowledge.
Charon took this philosophy to heart and bound himself to Henry as his Tutor, and Thomas took a part time job as a lab tech for the local police department. It was not long before Charon began to see glimmers of his true self in the raw substances that he handled from day to day. He could almost see his unerring straightforwardness in the perfectly mixed batch of fingerprint powder, the custom blend he had used for years. He started to hear himself in the soft notes from his violin, his own resonate touch flowing from the rosin he used on the bow as clearly as the vibrations from the strings.
Henry stressed hard actual work, no cutting corners or shortcuts were tolerated. Thomas respected that about him, he never took short cuts as it was not when it came to his work. His work was his art and it was his soul. The more Thomas was around mages, the more he saw them “cheat” the system, and use their knowledge to avoid having to actually work for a living. This bothered him, something that still does to this day. He has never skated by, never made us of a happy coincidence or windfall to pay his bills. He knows deep in his heart that is because he truly is better than those that have to rely on that to survive because they are too lazy to work or noone would hire them.
Henry took a job as the janitor at the school, to keep tabs on Charon. He found it harder to study the lessons that Henry had to teach than to get a Master’s degree in college, but anything worth doing is worth a bit of effort he thought. As he worked with Henry his knowledge of himself and the world around him almost literally exploded. He took to the Aracanum of Mind like a fish to water. Henry had been the one to teach him the basic principles, but Thomas applied them. He found a true affinity for the cold, unflinching logic of it all. His view of it cast into stark relief by his ties to Stygia. It was during finals after a truly arduous week of studies that he had the second greatest epiphany he had experienced in this life, and his worst setback.
During his exam using the lessons that he achieved a moment of almost pure understanding. He had studied for along time during the week leading up to this test and he felt ready, ready wasn’t event he half of it. His mind opened and from it flowed the answers for his test, like the bursting of a river. He could barely contain his excitement as he took Henry out for a big dinner to celebrate. Thomas had a few beers, and Henry a few more. They talked more and friends than teacher and student, something they didn’t normally do, Thomas rather liked the recognition and respect his tutor was giving him. Thomas drove him home and then went to his own.
It was 5 in the morning when Thomas was awoke with a start, something was wrong. Sweat was rolling off of him and his hands were shaking. His mind was jumbled and confused, but he clearly remembers hearing Herny’s address on his scanner. He jumped up and threw on his clothes, he got in his car and sped all the way there. He saw the fire-trucks before he saw the house, or what was left of it. He searched for Henry’s mind but with no luck. His teacher, his tutor, and most importantly his only real friend was gone.
The fire was ruled an accident, but Charon knows better. He has often searched for the ghost of his teacher, to learn the truth but always to no avail. He knows he is out there somewhere, he figures Henry is locked in a jar because he knows his attacker but he can’t know for sure. More personally, if there is such a thing, he was without a guide. He searched for a time, but came up largely unsuccessful. He still practices what Henry taught him, even as he carries on without him. For now the important work of helping others must come before forging his soul further.
His studies of his order coincided with his last degree from school, his doctorate in criminology from the University of Maryland in 1989. He had chosen the path of soul-guide and took to the souls of victims with a great zeal. He theorizes that with each soul he helps across, with each wrong he helps to write his soul becomes that much more pure and cleansed, and thus easier to forge. Ready for its eventual trip through the underworld, a journey we must all take at some point. Thomas took a job with the Atlantic City crime lab in 1991. His work for the department went more or less unsung and unnoticed, just how he liked it. However he did manage to garner quite a bit of a reputation within the Mysterium as a researcher and field investigator specializing in the work of ghosts and Twilight.. Later in his time in Atlantic City he served as assistant to the curator of the local Athenaeum, he learned quite a bit from (ooc: left open to be a PC in the 4-winds game, otherwise this will get filled in) in their time together. He would have been quite happy to carry on his work there, if not for the unseen forces at work.
Recently he has felt his soul stir or perhaps it wasn’t “his” soul that stirred. Regardless he is being pulled, to a place where his fate seems tied to those he knows only from his dreams. Could this be the journey that takes him closer to the underworld or simply the next evolution in his development? The future has yet to be written it is certain however that he will be there to find the truth when it reveals itself.
PC tie in's are cool, just drop me a comment and we can work something out
John Allen was born to a lower middle class family in Warez, New Mexico. His Father was second generation army, and almost never at home. He didn’t mind that fact all that much really, his mother always seemed just a bit happier when he was overseas. His older brother, Michael, always seemed to be the better adjusted of the two when they were children. When they started school John found himself for the first time inspired. He found that life was about more than watching TV, it was truly a novel concept.
John was given the option to skip the fifth grade, which his mother thought was a wonderful idea. Nothing seemed all that different until John was in the 8th grade. When again he was given the option of skipping a grade. This time his mother didn’t let him, though he was allowed to take a few higher level classes, she didn’t think that another grade jump would be good for him socially. John resented this for many years, it drove him in school and on into life. He never really got over the fact that his own mother didn’t think he was good enough to cut it. He is totally blinded to the good reasons she had for her choice, after all it’s not like he had many friends as it was, what was a few fewer.
College at 17, it was quite a shock. All his mother could afford after the divorce was Eastern New Mexico University, which wasn’t his first choice. Making the best of a bad situation he found that chemistry with a minor in history would prove to those around him that he deserved to be there. He graduated in three years, and made the Dean’s list. His mother was very proud, and she was all but floored when he received scholarship money to attend graduate school.
Graduate school was a beast of it’s own. He enrolled in the University of North Texas in 1992, with a declared major of Masters of Analytical Chemistry. It was during this time that he met Sarah, the first “serious” girlfriend he had. She was at first a student in one of the classes he was a TA for, but she dropped the class after their first date. He really cared for her, so much so that when she broke things off with him he fell into a deep depression. He had no coping devices for such a crushing blow and it almost derailed his entire life. After some time in therapy he was able to beat his depression for the most part, though he always remained afterwards a bit closed off and distant.
After graduating in 1985 he joined the Santa Fe police department as a field technician, he was four months on the job when it happened. He was working the graveyard shift, routine DOA down an alleyway. The shadows jumped, there was a shape pain in his chest. The knife lodged between his ribs and punctured his lung. He felt himself fall to the ground as he yelled for help. The next several minutes are a blur, the flashing lights, the yelling, the cold… bitter cold. His vision became clouded, the world around him went pale as the color washed away from it. A cold wind blew, he found himself walking through a morgue. He saw his body being examined by the ME, he couldn’t escape the metallic taste in his mouth. He tried to swallow, but his mouth was dry. He watched, as he was examined, cleaned, and autopsied. He must have stood there for hours, looking into the depths of his own corpse. Finally it was done, the coroner slid his body into the cooler, closing the polished aluminum door on his life. As he left the room John noticed that his drawer was missing its name card. He found one and wrote his name on it and placed it in the holder on the door.
He woke up, in more than one sense, lying in a hospital bed. He came to find out much later than he had in fact died for almost three minutes. He was released a couple weeks later, only to find people following him. (Leaving this section vague for possible future PC ties) He learned from them about what he had become, what it meant to be a mage. He was invited to join their Order, however failed the one of their first tests. His morals would not let him frame an innocent man for a crime just because he had seen something, something caused by the very people they wished him to be a part of.
In shame he moved, not leaving a trace of himself behind he changed his name. He disconnected himself from his former life, even getting his transcripts officially changed to reflect the new name. Thomas Stiles, he thought it sounded quite professional. He was approached at his home in Boston by an older mage (vague possible PC tie) who offered him the chance to join an order that fed his emotional need for acceptance and his intellectual need to expand his knowledge. He accepted this offer and joined the Mysterium. He was presented to his fellow Mystagoges not as John or as Thomas, but as Charon; the mythical ferryman of the dead. He took the task in his cabal of helping shepherd ghosts across to the underworld, freeing them of their attachment to the world of the living. He usually accomplished this task by clearing up any unfinished business the dead would have had with the world, though there were time that more encouragement was needed. It was also during this time that Thomas started to take up music as an abstract creative outlet. He had been forced to take wood-shop in high school and found that to be another good hobby to distract his mind when a problem seemed insurmountable. Utilizing his creative side opened his mind to more and more mysteries just waiting to be explored.
He all but drowned himself in his new friends and his thirst for knowledge knew few bounds open to him. He finished school with a second Master’s degree. This time he enrolled at Boston College, for a degree in Ancient Studies and Civilization. It was during this time that he met a man who he first knew as a contradiction, a common laborer that carried him self as if he was above the common men around him. His name was Henry and he intrigued Thomas on a very personal level, a rarity among common and “simple” men to Thomas. He had taken that name of the many kings of old in order to reflect them in himself. Henry was Free Council, and once Thomas got through the initial talks of freedom and change, he saw the inward nobility that Henry spoke so candidly about. He taught Thomas how to see himself in his work, to analyze himself in his creations. To find the shards of him self in a piece of music or a turned table leg. To purify the inner soul by affecting the world around yourself, with true effort not only magical knowledge.
Charon took this philosophy to heart and bound himself to Henry as his Tutor, and Thomas took a part time job as a lab tech for the local police department. It was not long before Charon began to see glimmers of his true self in the raw substances that he handled from day to day. He could almost see his unerring straightforwardness in the perfectly mixed batch of fingerprint powder, the custom blend he had used for years. He started to hear himself in the soft notes from his violin, his own resonate touch flowing from the rosin he used on the bow as clearly as the vibrations from the strings.
Henry stressed hard actual work, no cutting corners or shortcuts were tolerated. Thomas respected that about him, he never took short cuts as it was not when it came to his work. His work was his art and it was his soul. The more Thomas was around mages, the more he saw them “cheat” the system, and use their knowledge to avoid having to actually work for a living. This bothered him, something that still does to this day. He has never skated by, never made us of a happy coincidence or windfall to pay his bills. He knows deep in his heart that is because he truly is better than those that have to rely on that to survive because they are too lazy to work or noone would hire them.
Henry took a job as the janitor at the school, to keep tabs on Charon. He found it harder to study the lessons that Henry had to teach than to get a Master’s degree in college, but anything worth doing is worth a bit of effort he thought. As he worked with Henry his knowledge of himself and the world around him almost literally exploded. He took to the Aracanum of Mind like a fish to water. Henry had been the one to teach him the basic principles, but Thomas applied them. He found a true affinity for the cold, unflinching logic of it all. His view of it cast into stark relief by his ties to Stygia. It was during finals after a truly arduous week of studies that he had the second greatest epiphany he had experienced in this life, and his worst setback.
During his exam using the lessons that he achieved a moment of almost pure understanding. He had studied for along time during the week leading up to this test and he felt ready, ready wasn’t event he half of it. His mind opened and from it flowed the answers for his test, like the bursting of a river. He could barely contain his excitement as he took Henry out for a big dinner to celebrate. Thomas had a few beers, and Henry a few more. They talked more and friends than teacher and student, something they didn’t normally do, Thomas rather liked the recognition and respect his tutor was giving him. Thomas drove him home and then went to his own.
It was 5 in the morning when Thomas was awoke with a start, something was wrong. Sweat was rolling off of him and his hands were shaking. His mind was jumbled and confused, but he clearly remembers hearing Herny’s address on his scanner. He jumped up and threw on his clothes, he got in his car and sped all the way there. He saw the fire-trucks before he saw the house, or what was left of it. He searched for Henry’s mind but with no luck. His teacher, his tutor, and most importantly his only real friend was gone.
The fire was ruled an accident, but Charon knows better. He has often searched for the ghost of his teacher, to learn the truth but always to no avail. He knows he is out there somewhere, he figures Henry is locked in a jar because he knows his attacker but he can’t know for sure. More personally, if there is such a thing, he was without a guide. He searched for a time, but came up largely unsuccessful. He still practices what Henry taught him, even as he carries on without him. For now the important work of helping others must come before forging his soul further.
His studies of his order coincided with his last degree from school, his doctorate in criminology from the University of Maryland in 1989. He had chosen the path of soul-guide and took to the souls of victims with a great zeal. He theorizes that with each soul he helps across, with each wrong he helps to write his soul becomes that much more pure and cleansed, and thus easier to forge. Ready for its eventual trip through the underworld, a journey we must all take at some point. Thomas took a job with the Atlantic City crime lab in 1991. His work for the department went more or less unsung and unnoticed, just how he liked it. However he did manage to garner quite a bit of a reputation within the Mysterium as a researcher and field investigator specializing in the work of ghosts and Twilight.. Later in his time in Atlantic City he served as assistant to the curator of the local Athenaeum, he learned quite a bit from (ooc: left open to be a PC in the 4-winds game, otherwise this will get filled in) in their time together. He would have been quite happy to carry on his work there, if not for the unseen forces at work.
Recently he has felt his soul stir or perhaps it wasn’t “his” soul that stirred. Regardless he is being pulled, to a place where his fate seems tied to those he knows only from his dreams. Could this be the journey that takes him closer to the underworld or simply the next evolution in his development? The future has yet to be written it is certain however that he will be there to find the truth when it reveals itself.
PC tie in's are cool, just drop me a comment and we can work something out