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BACKGROUND. Somewhere in the Midwest, Dr. Douglas Becker and his wife Michelle started a cult simply known as The Family. Owning a significant number of institutions across their state and with influential relations established with select organizations around the world, The Family was largely ruled by Michelle, who — despite taking her husband's last name — was undeniably the matriarch. Self-educated in the occult through stolen knowledge, her research into the arcane led her to discover a language that she believed would enable her and Douglas to create their own apocalypse and take control of the world, born anew. They wouldn't be able to do it on their own, however; an army of supernatural soldiers was needed, bound to Michelle's magic through a ritual that was nearly certain to be fatal: opening up heads to carve specific sigils into the skull, granting them immense power. She knew from the start that she could not risk inflicting such a deadly ritual on the followers that they'd already accrued, let alone trust the survivors with the power granted by the sigils. The solution she and Douglas found was a conspiracy to kidnap newborn babies from several hospitals while telling distraught parents that they had died shortly after birth, bringing them to the compound in order to perform the ritual as early as possible. If the infants died during the ritual, this was just an acceptable loss; if they survived, they were raised as one of Michelle and Douglas' adoptive children. Soon they grew a reputation as philanthropists rescuing babies from dire circumstances, and their children went on to be displayed as wholesome PR for the Beckers and their dutiful community. In total there were 28 survivors of the ritual who, in addition to a unique ability, had enhanced strength and telepathy within their circle and their mother. Michelle — Mother — always made sure her boys and girls had dark hair, dressed and behaved immaculately and, through gruesome practices of education and training to be her personal super-soldiers, as well as gatekept magic, obeyed her unconditionally. Douglas' role became increasingly nebulous in The Family, with some suspecting that he'd been influenced by Michelle's knowledge of the arcane as well. Decades later, the law finally caught up with The Family's litany of illegal practices: a covert investigation resulted in a raid from which every Becker child (most of which were already grown adults) was rescued. Corrupt officials were charged and imprisoned, while Michelle and Douglas Becker, now in their 80s, are still awaiting trial. The full extent of what was done to all the children they kidnapped remains unknown to this day. BIO. By all appearances, Norman is one of the less disturbed of all 28 siblings. He's also one of the oldest, now in his forties, and has a lot more he'd like to forget. Surviving one of the most complicated carvings made him a prized child, but also gave him the hardest power to endure, let alone control. Some would argue that he's the instrument, not the user, of monsters beyond human understanding, and because of that, he was set to inherit the cult and pick up its vision whenever Mother and Father chose to 'ascend'. Without distancing himself from his brothers and sisters, he was the one often called to represent them, and so he got media-training from the moment he could put a full sentence together. The discipline of the cause and the coaching to present it in a palatable way to guests and the media made him the natural leader to all the children. It's not his fault that he left many of them with bad memories and worse scars — not entirely, at least. The trickle-down abuse did not make him unique; it didn't even make him the most hated among his brothers and sisters. Being good at disciplining children and teenagers with violence and fear was never enjoyable, and the only act of rebellion he could get away with was sneaking in small comforts when Mother and Father weren't looking. With Norman being the face of the cult's children, and his sister Robin's potential to create mindless armies out of humans — living or dead — it was decided that the adoptive siblings would one day be married in the cult's own ceremony. Thankfully, that day never came. After the raid, Norman, well over the age of majority, was provided with no help from the government or the public. There were too many secrets and too much paperwork to turn a sheltered adult into an active member of society. The trial was a clear priority to the media and politicians alike. He isn't recognized anymore, provided people haven't watched the countless 30-minute long documentaries online. He changed his name from Ezra Becker to Norman Byrd, told no one, and became a police officer, making his way up to a homicide detective. He's recently been assigned to a case of serial murders where every victim has had their brain removed, but it's only after his brother was murdered by him that the hunt truly began. PERSONALITY. Media training has provided him with the tools to present himself as approachable and reliable, and while he isn't compatible with everyone, he gets along with most personality types, which is often applied to his job, be it to make friends in high places or gain the trust of unlikely sources. Even hostility is met with indifference as long as he isn't being harmed. It's easier to ask questions and maneuver around answers than it is to be fully transparent — people will often look back at conversations and realize that there's very little they can say about him with absolute certainty. This also affects his approach to intimacy: he's good company without getting attached, he's dependable until he's asked to commit. Due to their upbringing, all of Norman's siblings have harmed him and he's harmed them in turn, some to near-death situations. His brother Graham was killed multiple times and others suffered permanent damage from exposure to his powers. Norman's concept of family is completely fucked and he knows it, but he doesn't long for a partner or kids, and he doesn't feel the need to reach out to his brothers and sisters. A mix of guilt and being taught to solve his own problems makes him independent to an extreme, even when it comes to chasing down one of the most disturbing serial killers in the country. Both compartmentalization and depersonalization are coping mechanisms that he uses for his job and to maintain control of his powers. His moral alignment is questionable at best — it's almost by chance that he chose the lawful(ish) route. Having a set of rules and enough room to bend them helps, and he'll turn a blind eye so long as others do the same for him. Violence and gore don't affect him and his motivation is set on seeing a case to its end, not just saving lives. Though he hasn't summoned any entities in a long time, he's used them to his advantage before. POWERS. Enhanced strength — Enough to fight off multiple people at once. He uses it with some frequency, but also tries to keep it discreet. Limited telepathy — Can interact with his siblings from anywhere in the world, provided they don't shut him out. He rarely does this anymore. The Unexplainable — The Unexplainable is the term 'The Family' gave to the carvings in his skull, which created a link to other dimensions from which Norman can draw in otherworldly monsters. (This does not give him the ability to travel to them.) Once they enter his dimension, the entities are weakened to a point where they cannot escape his control, the caveat being that someone with enough knowledge and skill over evocation magic could, at least temporarily, banish them, and return Norman to his normal state. Norman was taught to use The Unexplainable in two ways: Shapeshifting, which comes down to altering his body to become like one of the creatures. His mind is unchanged when he transforms, while everything else becomes unrecognizable. He can be reversed back to human form either by will, or if someone controls the monsters he's borrowing these different forms from. Summoning, with which Norman can use the otherworldly entities independent of his body. Despite his hold on the carving's effects, they can still interfere with his dreams, and sometimes with his perception of reality — namely sight and sound — but he's so accustomed to it that they rarely (if ever) disrupt his daily life. He has more trouble handling animals intelligent enough to know something's very wrong with him. When it's active, his power makes him totally invulnerable. Drop a building on him and he'll come out untouched, if not more inhuman. Otherwise there isn't a lot of consistency to what he can do, and sometimes he feels like the rules are changing and making him adjust the baseline all the time. And finally, getting drunk or high gravely interferes with his ability to maintain control. Collateral damage — Highly dependent on what Norman changes into and how close people are — or if they're his target — it can range from hypothermia to paranoia, sensory overload to melting their insides. Finding out what he can do is an ongoing journey of discovery. Interactions with the supernatural — I'll probably add to this as I go, but there's nothing keeping gifted characters from knowing that he's hiding something, and he has no protections against telepathic powers. He's got enough experience to know when he's being messed with, though. FAMILY. The Beckers. NOTES. Norman is a work in progress, so his information may be subject to change, and I might slip up with inconsistencies here or there. The main plot is centered around chasing down a serial killer, so I'd love subplots that aren't directly related to his job. While he doesn't make use of his powers anymore — for the most part — I'm open to putting him in situations where the creatures come out (on accident or otherwise!). I'm good with most themes, I'd just prefer to avoid romance or smut unless the relationship builds up to it organically.   |
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