Gabriel was desperately disappointed to find out magic wasn’t real. A lot of kids were, escapist fantasies of being spirited off to secret schools of witchcraft and wizardry are a multi-billion dollar staple of pop-culture for a reason. He took this obsession further than most, but the standard cure of childhood bullying for being a dork brought him around to socially acceptable conformity. It never quite left him though, became more of an undercurrent.
It’s why he majored in anthropology (later pulling a double doctorate in it alongside psychology), was involved in more than his share of youthful experimentation with ouija boards and poorly translated rituals and wrote his thesis on chaos magic’s roots in 19th century theosophy. The classes Professor Doyle teaches on the subject are exceedingly dry, he’s well respected by his peers as a thoughtful and skeptical mind and his wife and kids will be the first to tell you how little he cleaves to superstition.
You could be forgiven for thinking he’s completely sublimated his earlier passion into something more compatible with the mundane adult world of mortgages and dental bills. Unless you knew about the secret binder he keeps in a locked drawer of his university office. Each page filled with carefully researched and translated rituals from antiquity, a surprising number of them real but all of them tried and failed.
It turns out Gabriel’s childhood dream of being magickally special is true, just not in a way he realises. In the same fashion that minutely considering the individual actions that go into catching a ball thrown at you will cause you to fumble it he can’t get out of his own way long enough to wring some juice out of ‘eye of newt’. Years of frustration and disappointment grinding against undying hope and effort have built up around him like a cloud of chaff. Gabe cancels out magick that would happen where he can see it.
He’d have gone through life ignorant of magick if it hadn’t been for the late-night burglary of his office. No one believes him that there was a second man who disappeared in the moment Gabriel looked away from the door-window to fumble with his keys. This followed by the man’s accomplice jumping out of the window like he expected to step on to solid ground and then plunging six stories into an induced coma in the ICU. They all put it down to the strain of watching a man - clearly on drugs - do that to himself after being surprised by Gabriel’s unexpected return. He would too if it weren’t for the fact that his binder is missing. That he’s started noticing little signs of someone following and watching him.
Gabriel doesn’t understand what’s going on and knows he won’t be taken seriously by the authorities. On the other hand, he’s not sure he wants to involve them. He’s started going back over the research he did to put together his stolen tome, trying to figure out how anyone would know it even existed to steal it and what they might want with it. He’s not sure what he’ll do if he finds out but he’d sure like to know how the missing man escaped a locked room in a heartbeat for starters.
STATS
Personality: Secretive, but in a way that’s embarrassed rather than sly. This conceals a quiet kind of fervent faith in the supernatural that he’ll only admit to anything but an achingly dull professional interest in when he’s had a few.
Rage: Having his integrity questioned. Gabe’s worked hard to be taken seriously.
Noble: Freedom of belief. While he’s never publicly indulged himself he’s also never denigrated the religious or superstitious beliefs that other people hold.
Fear: Premature death. His father died of an early heart attack and Gabe is worried he won’t have enough time (Violence).
Obsession: Finding the secrets of the universe.
Wound Threshold: 50.
Occultist Academic 50%* (Substitutes for Knowledge, Substitutes for Secrecy, Evaluates Unnatural.)
Catapsi 70% (Unique,Casts RItuals, Use Gutter Magick. See below for more details.)
Shock Gauges
Supernatural Identity: Catapsi
Catapsi is the suppression of unnatural powers. In Gabriel’s case it occurs involuntarily within his field of perception: an ability that proves the very thing he is so eager to corner and gain control over but is stubbornly invisible to him. The more he wants it the harder he suppresses. A successful roll under the right conditions opposes the use of a supernatural identity, first-channel avatar power or minor charge-powered adept magick with a roll of equal or lower value. It also opposes gutter magick, minor rituals and minor artifact effects with a similar mechanism. Suppressed magick usually finds a way to divert itself into unnatural phenomenon outside of his perception.
Unnatural phenomenon and entities are impacted subject to GM discretion. Anything powered by significant charges or greater steamrolls Gabe’s powers. So long as it doesn’t outright kill him he’ll probably be delighted.
It turns out Gabriel’s childhood dream of being magickally special is true, just not in a way he realises. In the same fashion that minutely considering the individual actions that go into catching a ball thrown at you will cause you to fumble it he can’t get out of his own way long enough to wring some juice out of ‘eye of newt’. Years of frustration and disappointment grinding against undying hope and effort have built up around him like a cloud of chaff. Gabe cancels out magick that would happen where he can see it.
He’d have gone through life ignorant of magick if it hadn’t been for the late-night burglary of his office. No one believes him that there was a second man who disappeared in the moment Gabriel looked away from the door-window to fumble with his keys. This followed by the man’s accomplice jumping out of the window like he expected to step on to solid ground and then plunging six stories into an induced coma in the ICU. They all put it down to the strain of watching a man - clearly on drugs - do that to himself after being surprised by Gabriel’s unexpected return. He would too if it weren’t for the fact that his binder is missing. That he’s started noticing little signs of someone following and watching him.
Gabriel doesn’t understand what’s going on and knows he won’t be taken seriously by the authorities. On the other hand, he’s not sure he wants to involve them. He’s started going back over the research he did to put together his stolen tome, trying to figure out how anyone would know it even existed to steal it and what they might want with it. He’s not sure what he’ll do if he finds out but he’d sure like to know how the missing man escaped a locked room in a heartbeat for starters.
STATS
Personality: Secretive, but in a way that’s embarrassed rather than sly. This conceals a quiet kind of fervent faith in the supernatural that he’ll only admit to anything but an achingly dull professional interest in when he’s had a few.
Rage: Having his integrity questioned. Gabe’s worked hard to be taken seriously.
Noble: Freedom of belief. While he’s never publicly indulged himself he’s also never denigrated the religious or superstitious beliefs that other people hold.
Fear: Premature death. His father died of an early heart attack and Gabe is worried he won’t have enough time (Violence).
Obsession: Finding the secrets of the universe.
Wound Threshold: 50.
Occultist Academic 50%* (Substitutes for Knowledge, Substitutes for Secrecy, Evaluates Unnatural.)
Catapsi 70% (Unique,
Shock Gauges
Supernatural Identity: Catapsi
Catapsi is the suppression of unnatural powers. In Gabriel’s case it occurs involuntarily within his field of perception: an ability that proves the very thing he is so eager to corner and gain control over but is stubbornly invisible to him. The more he wants it the harder he suppresses. A successful roll under the right conditions opposes the use of a supernatural identity, first-channel avatar power or minor charge-powered adept magick with a roll of equal or lower value. It also opposes gutter magick, minor rituals and minor artifact effects with a similar mechanism. Suppressed magick usually finds a way to divert itself into unnatural phenomenon outside of his perception.
Unnatural phenomenon and entities are impacted subject to GM discretion. Anything powered by significant charges or greater steamrolls Gabe’s powers. So long as it doesn’t outright kill him he’ll probably be delighted.
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