Shawn’s parents were Easter and Christmas religious but his grandmother was one of the fire-and-brimstone breed. The old testament stories she filled his head with on their twice yearly homeward pilgrimages during the holidays were both highlights and a source of childhood nightmares for him. Otherwise Shawn grew up comparatively normal.
Never aspiring to much and happy with his lot in life, Shawn batted around a series of dead-end jobs that lasted as long as they were reliable and not especially taxing. Through an ex-girlfriend he became peripherally acquainted with the occult underground, that’s where he discovered a hidden talent: Shawn can detect avatars, the chance result of a one-in-a-billion congenital condition that happens to have also rendered him colour blind. In the right hands it’s an ability that could be worth a fortune, in the hands of a schlub whose biggest concerns were what TV shows were coming out and whether he’d be able to get laid next weekend it probably would have amounted to nothing if he hadn’t also been witness to an ascension.
It didn’t help that the Confessor spoke to him before it happened, Shawn only remembers fragments of the conversation he had with the person who had that odd glow he noticed with people sometimes. The one that shows him colours he can’t usually see. He remembers a sheer and unequivocal unburdening as what he now thinks of as his sins were taken from him. He remembers being asked by them to come to public-access TV recording they were doing the next day, he remembers showing up late, he remembers the light and nothing else.
Shawn is convinced that what he spoke to is an angel. That its job was to secretly collect information on humanity until it could return to heaven and deliver it to divine scrutiny. Pulling from a hundred childhood horror stories he believes it is a sign of the impending time of judgement and looking around himself he’s come to one conclusion: we aren’t ready for it.
Shawn regrets that his first was someone he knew. He knows that if he is ever caught it will be because the Firebrand avatar he hit with a stolen van was a guy who that one ex-girlfriend - the one who led him into the occult underground in the first place - had briefly left him for years before. He had the same funny glow the Confessor had, the shade was a little different is all. Prevented from completing its vital task here on Earth, Shawn believes that by killing these “angels” that walk among us he’s pushing back the end times. He’s technically correct, but not for reasons he’d ever guess or believe.
He’s good at it too. The product of countless hours spent following crime stories in the media, watching police procedurals and making trips to the true crime section of the library, Shawn has discovered a very grisly calling. Without much more than a high school education he’s become a prolific autodidact of murder (not that he thinks of it as murder). Never using the same method twice, carefully covering his tracks and using his power to choose victims with no discernible pattern he’s gotten away with a stupefying amount of horrifying behaviour.
Sometimes Shawn fantasizes about being recruited by a secret society who do what he does so he doesn’t have to go it alone but mostly he thinks that’s stupid, people with co-conspirators get caught. Little does Shawn know that there is just such a group of people - loyal to someone they call Old Mother Apocalypse - who’re big fans of his work and would love to have him. They see the patterns in his killings that no one else has caught on to and when he slips up and they figure out who he is it’ll be them who want to have a chat.
Never aspiring to much and happy with his lot in life, Shawn batted around a series of dead-end jobs that lasted as long as they were reliable and not especially taxing. Through an ex-girlfriend he became peripherally acquainted with the occult underground, that’s where he discovered a hidden talent: Shawn can detect avatars, the chance result of a one-in-a-billion congenital condition that happens to have also rendered him colour blind. In the right hands it’s an ability that could be worth a fortune, in the hands of a schlub whose biggest concerns were what TV shows were coming out and whether he’d be able to get laid next weekend it probably would have amounted to nothing if he hadn’t also been witness to an ascension.
It didn’t help that the Confessor spoke to him before it happened, Shawn only remembers fragments of the conversation he had with the person who had that odd glow he noticed with people sometimes. The one that shows him colours he can’t usually see. He remembers a sheer and unequivocal unburdening as what he now thinks of as his sins were taken from him. He remembers being asked by them to come to public-access TV recording they were doing the next day, he remembers showing up late, he remembers the light and nothing else.
Shawn is convinced that what he spoke to is an angel. That its job was to secretly collect information on humanity until it could return to heaven and deliver it to divine scrutiny. Pulling from a hundred childhood horror stories he believes it is a sign of the impending time of judgement and looking around himself he’s come to one conclusion: we aren’t ready for it.
Shawn regrets that his first was someone he knew. He knows that if he is ever caught it will be because the Firebrand avatar he hit with a stolen van was a guy who that one ex-girlfriend - the one who led him into the occult underground in the first place - had briefly left him for years before. He had the same funny glow the Confessor had, the shade was a little different is all. Prevented from completing its vital task here on Earth, Shawn believes that by killing these “angels” that walk among us he’s pushing back the end times. He’s technically correct, but not for reasons he’d ever guess or believe.
He’s good at it too. The product of countless hours spent following crime stories in the media, watching police procedurals and making trips to the true crime section of the library, Shawn has discovered a very grisly calling. Without much more than a high school education he’s become a prolific autodidact of murder (not that he thinks of it as murder). Never using the same method twice, carefully covering his tracks and using his power to choose victims with no discernible pattern he’s gotten away with a stupefying amount of horrifying behaviour.
Sometimes Shawn fantasizes about being recruited by a secret society who do what he does so he doesn’t have to go it alone but mostly he thinks that’s stupid, people with co-conspirators get caught. Little does Shawn know that there is just such a group of people - loyal to someone they call Old Mother Apocalypse - who’re big fans of his work and would love to have him. They see the patterns in his killings that no one else has caught on to and when he slips up and they figure out who he is it’ll be them who want to have a chat.
STATS
Personality: Quietly grandiose in his obsession, Shawn sees himself as humanities' best chance for survival but part of that belief is the smug surety that he can never share that fact. In all other aspects of his life he’s humble and decent, he doesn’t need to show off or one up people when he’s the secret saviour of mankind. Besides he needs to encourage the best in people for all this sacrifice to be worth it.
Rage: People who underestimate the danger of the supernatural.
Noble: Bringing out the best in others.
Fear: Judgement (Helplessness).
Obsession: Prevent God’s judgement by keeping Earth free of his angel spies.
Wound Threshold: 50.
World-saving Serial Murderer 60%* (Substitutes for Struggle, Substitutes for Secrecy, Protects Violence.)
Superstitious Grocery Clerk 30% (Substitutes for Knowledge, Protects Unnatural, Coerces Unnatural.)
Angel Sight 60% (Specific Information: Identifying Avatars, Casts Rituals, Use Gutter Magick.)
Shock Gauges
Rage: People who underestimate the danger of the supernatural.
Noble: Bringing out the best in others.
Fear: Judgement (Helplessness).
Obsession: Prevent God’s judgement by keeping Earth free of his angel spies.
Wound Threshold: 50.
World-saving Serial Murderer 60%* (Substitutes for Struggle, Substitutes for Secrecy, Protects Violence.)
Superstitious Grocery Clerk 30% (Substitutes for Knowledge, Protects Unnatural, Coerces Unnatural.)
Angel Sight 60% (Specific Information: Identifying Avatars, Casts Rituals, Use Gutter Magick.)
Shock Gauges
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