For many years Gordon struggled with living life. He had a job, he had a roof over his head and he wasn’t sick, but not struggling didn’t mean that he wasn’t just surviving. He was isolated and fell into bad habits relating to health and hygiene, all his free time was spent in his apartment either watching TV, surfing the internet or sleeping. What made it worse is that Gordon was constantly aware of the possibility to build something else for himself, he craved excitement and it filled him with discontent. He tried. Adopting new hobbies, correcting his exercise and eating habits, a forced march of seeing new places and meeting new people. Except the effort never lasted, Gordon would slack, inevitably fall into old patterns and end up resenting himself for it.
A good therapist or diligent life coach could have solved his problems (he’d tried poor examples of both, fruitlessly), but as luck would have it the occult underground caught up with him. It was his job selling and installing hi-tech industrial equipment that brought him into contact with Harley Bradshaw, avatar of the salesman. The slick and well-dressed older man seemed to take an instant liking to Gordon and calmly but insistently drew him into his life. Unused to the attention, Gordon faltered but felt as though he couldn’t refuse his new friend’s hospitality. It didn’t seem like Harley would let him.
Exposed to an intensely outgoing lifestyle but without the tools or energy to maintain it himself, Gordon became attached and dependant on Harley. In return Harley probed Gordon about his past and - when the moment seemed right - made him an offer. He couldn’t take away the parts of Gordon’s personality that made him that way but he could give him a reason to never fail. He asked if Gordon believed in magick. Gordon chortled but stopped when Harley took a rubber dishwashing glove out of a briefcase, put it on and then pushed his hand through the surface of the coffee table as though it were water.
Two weeks later Gordon had given most of his savings to a man in return for his wanderlust. He didn’t really get what an avatar is (still doesn’t) but he did understand the downside of what he was buying, he was counting on it. Thanks to a curse he inherited in the trade for the other man’s bond to the Explorer archetype, Gordon’s well-being is dependent on maintaining the connection.
It’s like one of those shock collars used to keep dogs in the yard, but inverted. Gordon must constantly explore new things, if he falters then so does his health. Feeling the twinge of terror at his heart failing has been enough to keep him neck deep in a cavalcade of new experiences. As promised, this has solved his problem in a roundabout way. There are times he regrets enslaving himself but mostly he is grateful for the crutch to his shoddy discipline.
Running out of experiences that excite him and bitten by the curiosity bug he’s gone back to Harley to try something else. If there's a power that can do this, then what else is out there? The new focus of Gordon’s explorations has become the occult underground. He is the perpetual tourist, guinea pig and gawker who his older friend is only too happy to pimp out to whichever weirdo will host or take advantage of his mystically-enforced inquisitiveness.
STATS
Personality: An anxious adventurer, Gordon has learned to throw himself wholesale into situations and environments he never would have dreamed of before. In some ways this has helped him grow as a person, in others it has made him worse - the ever ticking hourglass needing to be constantly refilled is a looming nightmare for him. One he doesn’t dare give up.
Rage: Being called lazy.
Noble: Making people feel included.
Fear: That he’ll fall prey to old habits (Self).
Obsession: Keep ahead of the clock and experience new magick.
Wound Threshold: 50 (thanks to the magickal wrangling he was subjected to Gordon’s wound threshold is capped by his avatar identity, if he taboos badly enough to drop below 50% it does too).
Occult Tourist 60% (Substitutes for Fitness, Protects Helplessness, Protects Unnatural).
Avatar: The Explorer 60%* (Avatar, Casts Rituals, Use Gutter Magick).
Shock Gauges
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