Annex

Shadow Name: Annex

Born: 17/1/1986

Age: 30

Various Nicknames and Aliases: N/A

Physical Description: Average height, fairly thin build. Brown hair and beard, neither particularly long. Tends to wear a mix of semi-formal and casual clothes, such as a vest, nice shirt, and jeans.

Nimbus: Looking at him with his Nimbus up is like looking at the world through tilt-shift. Your thoughts seem to echo in your head, and there is a pervading feeling of stillness, almost like that last frozen moment before a drop.

Timeline

Born:17/1/1986, in Armidale

Finished High School: 2004

Started University: 2005

Finished University: 2009

Hired as PI: 2009

Awakening: 2011

Inducted into Guardians of the Veil: 2012

Assigned to X School: 2015

Awakening

Furtive. Shifting. There's a sound like rats scurrying through the walls. A gunshot. Screaming. A chase. Panic - bins tossed over - flight - people flung from the villains path - fight - a crowded alleyway, other end blocked with market stalls. A second shot. Panic. Hysteria. Pandemonium.

Pain.

Shadows leap high above the heads of the terrified masses, monsters of their own minds reaching for them, dragging them into deaths torturous embrace. A door, unnoticed behind the sea of flesh and fabric? Perhaps. So close. Escape? No. Never. Justice? Always. The chase again. The seething morass of bodies surges through the passageway, the crush against his injury is ignored. Put aside. The blood is not. The crowd retreats, flees; they leave the weakest to catch the predators eye, not knowing the truth of prey and pursuer.

The hallway is too long. Too short. Too wide, too narrow, too straight, too twisted, too too too..

They fall, rats off a sinking ship. Screaming, too much screaming. The monsters are real now, and they pluck from the path the tastiest morsels. The young and vital. The old and experienced. The plump and delectable. Gunshots, three, four - six. The chamber clicks empty, the demon laughs, pinpricks of blood drop and the runner screams in pain.

He pushes forwards. He can't help them. Can't save them. But he can stop him. The prey. The hunter gives chase, blood from the leg and blood from the fiend ignored. Put aside.

So few left. The path has branched and the devil sits atop his throne at the end of each of the dozen disparate roads. There, the left-most path. The chase again.

The way is blocked. It is a sluggish, lazy thing. It rests on the path and people pile into its open maw. Not him. Not the prey. They climb. The glutenous flesh a mountain, the horns footholds and spines handholds. One breaks. Catches it. Uses it. Climbs faster. Stab. Stab. Stab. Progress. The prey knows. He flurries and hurries and scurries as best he can.

It is not enough.

He catches up at the peak. The prey runs to the wall. The hunter looms, covered in blood. It is ignored. Put aside.

Stab.

Stab.

Stab.

The movements still. The horn scrapes stone through human flesh, past human bone.

A mark is made.

A deal signed in the depths of an unaware soul.

He wakes up.

He opens his eyes.

He doesn't see the city, or they alley, or the stalls. Not the murderer or the bystanders or the gathering police or arriving ambulance.

He sees a tower, iron raised in a clenched fist. He sees his name, no. He sees his Name, engraved upon the base, alongside countless others, more than could possibly fit.

He is Awake.

Biography

Annex was born to a couple late in their lives. Although doting and caring they were very formal, very set in their ways. He has inherited this pattern of behavior, though to a much lesser extent.

His mother, Alexandria, was a lawyer, and still works the occasional case despite having retired to the coast. His father, Richard, was a historian, and bestowed upon his son a love - and a hate - of the ancient world. Where his father studied Egypt, he took to Greece, despite Richard's distaste for the latters popularity.

In university he studied to be a policeman, though dabbled in history and mythology. It was just before he graduated that he received a job offer that caught his attention and didn't give it back. A local Private Investigator was getting on in years, but his office had been running for over a century and he didn't want it to stop now. With the old guard on the way out he sought out new blood and, through both Richard and Annex's lecturers found out about the young mage-to-be.

After a brutal internship Annex began work as a PI, initially as the assistant to Samuel Morrow, P.I., but eventually taking on cases of his own. His interest in history and mythology led him to take numerous cases dealing in both antiques, and the mystical or occult.

It was while looking into one such case, a group of pagans that where sacrificing, and perhaps stealing, animals, that he heard a gunshot. When he broke into the cultists building he found a fresh corpse and the killer with the smoking gun. Rather than shoot Annex, the murderer fled, and Annex gave chase. When the killer found himself trapped in an alleyway marketplace he fired into the air to scare the crowd away, and things got weird. For Annex at least; for everyone else he just charged the gunman, was lucky enough to only get hit once, and tackled him to the ground.

To Annex though people's fears came to life as shadows, then as he chased the criminal they became demons, embodiment's of the worst humanity has to offer. They ran along twisting, winding, impossible paths, and climbed a mighty mountain of a demon, Annex taking a detached horn and using it to climb, before stabbing the man with it, inadvertently marking the Watchtower the murderer was cowering against.

After coming back to his senses in his office Annex received a phone call from the old P.I. that had hired him, trained him, and retired years ago. The old man said he had a few more things to teach him, like how to read minds and fold space, how to bend the world to his will and shape reality with...

He hung up.

Space ballooned, bubbled, and popped, and suddenly old Samuel Morrow stood before him, a hole in the world leading to places unknown floating in the air behind him.

Samuel Morrow taught Annex how to safely wield magic, but more than that, he taught him why it was so important to do so. He taught him how each and every Paradox widens the gap between the Supernal Realm and the Fallen Realm.

During his training Annex was given a rather difficult task; placate an angry spirit with no capability for using the Spirit Arcanum. With no immediate recourse he fell back on his investigative training, studying the spirit's actions and apparent motivations. He determined it was most likely a spirit of Vigilance, though wasn’t entire sure on that point, and so set about resolving the issues it seemed the spirit was concerned with. Helping a family in an apartment block, driving off drug dealers who were starting to gather in a nearby alley, and a few minor tasks of a similar nature. Over time the spirit seemed to calm and, eventually, appeared to have left.

When reporting this to Samuel Morrow the old man burst out laughing. It seemed Annex had impressed the spirit, and it now followed him around of its own accord. After a Spirit Master acquaintance of Samuel Morrow’s came by the bond between Annex and Lachesis was formed.

On the last day of Annex's training he showed him first hand how dangerous Paradox is, how vital it is to be careful, and cautious, and to watch out for your fellow Mages lest they, in their Hubris, bring Paradox down upon themselves and those around them. The pair hunted a Banisher who had performed such vulgar magics that a creature of the Abyss - a *thing* not of this world - had crossed over. The Banisher was the easy part. The monster? It almost killed Annex. Samuel Morrow stepped in just in time and sent it back outside reality.

He sat with Annex and questioned him; for hours they talked about magic. About Paradox. About anything and everything that came to mind. When both their throats were sore and neither had talked for minutes on end Samuel Morrow pronounced Annex's apprenticeship complete. Later, he introduced him to other Guardians of the Veil, and revealed his final test as an apprentice was also his final entrance test for the Guardians of the Veil.

Annex has worked for them for X years now, and for his latest mission has been sent to X school to watch over and protect a group of student Mages. He's been here for a year now, and as the new school year gets underway is cautiously optimistic about the way things have been going.

Views

In Annex's mind the rules exist to protect people, and so should be protected in turn. He believes in upholding the law, though his Awakening and involvement in the affairs of Mages has led to an acceptance of the need to break mundane laws in order to protect the secrets of magic.

After seeing what happens when Paradox goes unchecked his already firm ideals were stoked into a burning belief that everyone must do what they can to reduce Paradoxes, and the risks of Paradoxes. He considers casting magic with a high chance of Paradox to be foolhardy in the extreme, and is of the opinion that one should always contain the Paradox within oneself, even unto death. He is pragmatic enough that, deep down, he knows this is unlikely to happen, that there will always be reasons and excuses for Mages to risk Paradox, but on the surface he holds strong in the hopes that leading by example might stop just a few Mages from making terrible mistakes, or taking terrible risks.

Annex's time in the Guardians of the Veil shaped him, imbuing him with his strong dislike of Paradox and those who cause it, and opening his mind to the idea that sometimes in order to protect people and uphold the law, sometimes other laws must be broken. He acknowledges that there are reasons to do so, such as maintaining the Veil that hides magic from Sleepers, but doesn't like doing so unless the alternative is unfeasible or would allow harm to come to others.

He believes that there is a degree of karma, or natural (likely even supernatural) justice in the world, but that sometimes it needs to be helped along. The pragmatism of the Guardians of the Veil has led him to see himself as sacrificing his own karma, and inviting justice upon himself, so that others may be protected.

Items of Note

Annex has a cane that has brass fittings he uses as his dedicated tool. The staff has a secret release that allows the handle to be removed and reveal a short blade. He originally used this while recovering from being shot in the thigh during his Awakening, but has continued to carry it even now that his leg has all but completely recovered.

OOC Info

Member Information
Player:	[mailto: Michael]
Number:	AU2016020011
Domain:	Armidale