Oz

Theodore Oswald Carmichael DoB: 11/24/1976

Attributes

Intelligence 2, Wits 3, Resolve 2; Strength 2, Dexterity 3, Stamina 3; Presence 2, Manipulation 2, Composure 2

Skills

Mental: Academics 3 (research), Computer 1, Crafts 2, Investigation 2, Medicine 1, Politics 1 Physical: Athletics 1, Brawl 1, Firearms 2, Larceny 1, Survival 1, Weaponry 3 (swords) Social: Animal Ken 1, Expression 1, Persuasion 2 (salesman)

Merits

Patient, Resources 3, Staff 1 (persuasion), Defensive Combat (weaponry), Armed Defense, Good Time Management, Retainer 1

Advantages

Health: 8, Willpower: 4, Size: 5, Speed: 10, Defense: 4 (6 w/ weapon) (Armor: 1/3, Def=0, Spd=0, Cov=torso), Initiative: 5

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Current Conditions

Narcoleptic (Persistent) Suffer medical condition. In stressful situations, make a Resolve + Composure test, at a penalty equal to how stressful the situation is. Success indicates you fight off the symptoms. Failure inflicts a -2 penalty to all rolls. Dramatic failure results in unconsciousness. Possible Sources: Medical condition. Resolution: Managing a cure. Beats: Penalty causes a failed roll or unconsciousness. Informed Access to a breadth of info on topic; may end condition to upgrade failure to success or success to exceptional. Possible Sources: Exceptional Success on Academics, Investigation, Occult, Science; find excellent source of info on topic. Resolution: Your character uses her research to gain information; the Condition is resolved as described above. Inspired End condition to gain a point of Willpower and reduce exceptional success from 5 succ to 3 when taking an action pertaining to inspiration. Possible Sources: Exceptional Success: Crafts, Expression; Inspiring Merit, mental powers Resolution: You spend inspiration to spur yourself to greater success, resolving the Condition as described above.

Background

Age: 37
Oz was born and raised in Detroit. He owns and manages Paxton & Carmichael's Vintage Emporium and lives in a basement apartment he rents from his grandmother. He has two sisters, one younger and one older with a family of her own, all of whom he sees with fair frequency. His father resides in a psychiatric hospital and his estranged mother lives in Atlanta. Oz is passionate about games of strategy, especially miniature war gaming and war reenactments, though he plays an assortment of other sorts of games and is moderately active in the SCA and larp scene due to friends. He is a regular at the hobby shop, The War Room, where his closest friend "Wookie" works. He maintains a couple of small social circles and gets along well enough with his employees at the antique store. Oz suffers from clinical narcolepsy, generally manifesting as general insomnia, frequent and often unplanned naps and cataplexy when he is stressed. He and his grandmother share custody of nine cats and a pomeranian.
Oz identified himself as being gay when he was about nine years old. His mother was initially scandalized and was probably planning to drown him in the nearest river until Mrs. Danford told her about growing up in the 70's and partying with the gays in Greenwich Village. Afterwards his mother fully embraced him as her gay son and would parade him about like a new trendy fashion accessory so that everyone could see how progressive and open minded she was.

Oz's Journal

Rumors

• Both of his parents are crazy. He's crazy too, it's why he can't drive and has to check in with the psych hospital all the time.
• He's on drugs. He often looks tired or strung out and is always dozing off.
• His younger sister is a cyber-terrorist, probably one of those Anonymous people.
• Oz is gay. Not really much of a rumor, he's been out for nearly 30 years and anyone who knows him can confirm it's true as he's never made a secret of it - but people like to say it like it's gossip.
• Oz's shop is actually owned by the Danford family. He borrowed and owed them too much that he couldn't pay back and now they own him.
• Oz and his exboyfriend Ryan used to do bath salts. They were screaming naked in the yard and tried to kill each other once and their house was a total wreck that they abandoned.
• He almost killed someone at one of those live D&D things where you dress up and pretend. He went crazy and stabbed another guy because he thought it all was real.

Personality

• Virtue: Dedicated
  Always focus on the goal, the goal is Jesus, Starbucks, and your winning lottery ticket. You can't let setbacks and opposition distract you, stick to the plan and if that fails, use a new plan. If you keep on trudging forward, you will succeed.
• Vice: Escapism
  Fuck it. It's too much. I'm done. Done with you, done with this world, done with everything. I'm off to harvest vespene gas with my good buddies Napoleon and Pikachu.
• Aspirations:
  • Photograph/film a monster.
  • Encounter a cryptid.
  • Encounter a demon.
  • Prove the usefulness of the team's new comm gear in the field.
• Integrity: 7
• Breaking Points:
  • Being responsible for another persons grief.
  • Causing physical harm to another.
  • Seeing someone bully or otherwise harm someone weaker than themselves (this includes animals).
  • People who suddenly start acting crazy.
  • Feelings of abandonment.

Equipment

• Possessions: Oz usually carries the following when he's not at home or work: messenger bag, smart phone, Nintendo 3DS, tablet computer, wireless headphones, couple of composition books, pens, pencils, misc. paints, brushes & miniatures, a book or two, wallet, keys, condoms, multi-tool, expandable baton, an assortment of snacks and as many cups of coffee that he can chug while none of his peers can see him. He's recently added to this inventory a silvered saber, a couple plastic bottles of "holy water" he purchased from a guy on the internet, a couple of wooden stakes (the good ones from the armory, he ditched his crappy particle board "stakes"), a crucifix, a thin silver chain, a small mirror, a bag of garlic cloves from the grocery store, a bottle of Aconitum supplements (wolfsbane) from Amazon.com, a GoPro and a head-lamp.
• Weapons: Oz owns a rifle that he keeps in the store and a pistol he keeps at home in his nightstand. There are numerous archaic weapons, from daggers to claymores, crossbows to antique shotguns that are for sale in the store. The only weapons he actively ever has on his person is a small knife (part of his multi-tool, for utility, not violence) and an expandable baton (for trying to reach things he's too lazy to get up for and also for violence). He has recently started carrying a civil war saber that has been given a silvered edge as well (most certainly for violence, specifically of the anti-vampire variety), which he obscures beneath his coat.
  • Model 1860 Light Cavalry Sabre: Damage 2, Initiative -2, Strength 2, Size 2
  • Expandable Baton: Damage 1, Initiative -1, Strength 2, Size 1 or 2
  • Rifle: Damage 4, Ranges 200/400/800, Clip 5+1, Initiative -5, Strength 2, Size 3
  • Pistol, Light: Damage 1, Ranges 20/40/80, Clip 17+1, Initiative 0, Strength 2, Size 1
• Other Notes: X

Flaws

• Flaw: Narcolepsy. While genetic in nature, the origin of its severity is assumed to be rooted in whatever trauma caused him to black out and repress the memories of the night his father went insane when he was a young man. Psychiatrists and neurologists have not made any progress in opening that shut doorway in his memory. He takes medication to ease the symptoms, but too much fear or excitement can cause him to become sluggish and slur his speech due to the onset of cataplexy. He also suffers from the common side effect of chronic insomnia and lives in a constant state of juggling sudden naps and wakefulness, with day and night cycles having far less meaning to him than it does to others.

Merit Details

• Patient: Patience is often a key virtue in pulling off successful strategies in games, performing slow and tedious repairs and restorations on antiques or painting details onto very tiny miniatures. Or binge research cramming on monsters, hoping to uncover some new clue before they eat you.
• Good Time Management: Oz's organization process may look like a hurricane hit at Post-Its warehouse, but there is an undecipherable brilliance to what appears to be random madness in his notes, placement and organization that allows him to make the best of things given any time restraints he must operate under. He totally has one of those supernatural crime photo and yarn mosaic's on his wall now.
• Resources 3: Oz's income comes from the antique shop he owns and operates, "Paxton & Carmichael's Vintage Emporium", or more commonly referred to as "PAC's Emporium". The store has been in his family for several generations when he became a partner alongside his uncle Geoffrey and they added his name to the business. His uncle passed away three years ago from heart failure and Oz has managed the store with a small staff of employees since. The store primarily deals in purchasing and sales of a variety of antiques and oddities, but also offers restoration and refurbishing services, most of which Oz does himself. Oz recently put his business online and sales have increased dramatically. Which is good given his new hobby of monster hunting and documentary editing.
• Staff 1 (Persuasion): The sales and service staff of PAC's Emporium. Most of them were hired by his late uncle and have worked at the store for years. Where they are lacking in genuine knowledge of the merchandise, they make up for it in their charm and absurd ability to convince people that THAT item happens to be the most important thing they do not yet own. Yet.
• Defensive Combat (Weaponry): Sometimes mock battles can get genuinely dangerous and it's best to learn a few moves to keep yourself out of harms way. Also, supremely handy if you live in Detroit. Even more handy if you find yourself fighting off supernatural creatures.
• Armed Defense: It's a cliché for a reason; sometimes the best offense is a good defense. Actually it's just best to run away. Very, very fast. But if you're not an Olympic athlete who can leap over fences (ie, almost everyone who is not Daniel), you may not have that option available to you. I wonder if I can learn parkour. ::One Week Later:: Nope. Parkour is not in my future. Another week of wearing an ankle brace is.

Friends and Family

Family

• Allison Prescott: Mother
  Allison was born to be fabulous, destined for fortune and lived for style. Sebastian was her third husband. She spent more time with her friends than with her family, but when she did it was often as part of a spectacle - to show how lovely and absolutely perfect and picturesque her family was to her peers. Her husband was always working, so she would dress her children up in finery and parade them around like the latest in fashion accessories. As they got older, she became more and more disenchanted with the novelty of family and children, and they saw less of her. Three days after Sebastian became ill, she left. The children received a post card from her a few months later from Florida, it simply said, "It's better this way for all of us." A few years later Jessica oversaw the legal divorce between their parents at her mothers request. She was remarrying soon. They were all invited to the wedding, but only Jessica attended. They talk on the phone occasionally, but Oz and Becca do not communicate with her.
• Sebastian Carmichael: Father
  Sebastian was not a great father, but he was a good father. He cared and provided for his family, he supported his wife, though it was never really enough for her, he worked hard as an investigative reporter for the local paper. He had a pretty good shot at becoming editor one day. He was generally treated as a fond pet by his wife's society peers. Then one night he became forever lost. He entered a police station carrying his unconscious son, they were both bloodied, though neither was injured. He kept repeating a phrase over and over, "I can't find the keys. Find the keys. Can't. Get the keys." He has remained in a similar state ever since, though medication quiets him. When his son awoke, he had no memory of whatever incident had led them to this state, though he would suffer from narcolepsy the rest of his days. Police identified the blood as human, but never found any evidence of an affiliated crime or injury to link the blood to.
• Jessica Carmichael: Sister, Older
  Jessica is 43, married to John Carmichael (she insisted that he change his name to hers), has two daughters, Alicia and Christina, and one son, Sebastian. Jessica is a psychiatrist. Oz and Becca both agree that she was born a shrink and has spent her entire life practicing her craft on her family. She insists that they all stay strong together as a family, especially after their mother left. She hosts family gatherings and commands them all to attend to monthly family visits to their father. She is critical and judging of her siblings lives, which makes for them being less keen on seeing her. She often seems to love the concept of family more than the reality of its parts. Oz has seen her, though, when she thinks no one else is watching, she cries, she worries, she cares.
• Rebecca Carmichael: Sister, Younger
  Becca is 27 years old, wears all black, never smiles, thinks she is smarter than everyone, very likely IS smarter than everyone, she writes code, hacks computers and designs digital viruses for entertainment. She is passionate about her loathing for politicians and government in general. She is the store manager at a Taco Bell in Detroit. Oz and Becca are very fond of each other, though they have little common interests to speak of. Sometimes they just get food together and eat in relative silence, just to be around each other. She gains a great deal of joy in painting his toenails. He refuses to let her pain his fingernails.
• Helena Paxton: Grandmother
  Oz's maternal grandmother and landlady. Oz rents her basement apartment and helps her with various tasks and errands. Helena is a quiet elderly woman, who insists on cooking his dinners for him to this day. She spends most of her time watching a variety of television, but has become enthralled with the advent of reality programs. Oz has lived with his grandmother since his father became ill and mother left when he was in his late teens. Together, they have adopted nine cats and one pomeranian named Boudica.
• Ted "Wookie" Matthews: Platonic Life Partner and The War Room Manager
  Wookie manages the hobby shop that Oz frequents. They met in college, have lived together on and off again, and have maintained their bromantic relationship ever since. Wookie is a fantasy and sci-fi fandom nut, and is responsible for most of Oz's popular geek education, having dragged him off to see countless movies with elves and vulcans. He's a prince or duke or something in the SCA and has a girlfriend in Korea he's never actually met. Oz and Wookie made out once, they were both very drunk. They awkwardly agreed the next morning to never speak of it again and both have held up their side of the agreement, though Wookie has remained inappropriately touchy every since.
  When Oz returned home from the hospital following the vampire church incident, he discovered that Wookie had moved in with him, Wookie's apartment building having been condemned. Oz had been spending a lot of nights over at Mrs. Danford's place anyway, but was pretty content to have someone to sleep next to, especially since both of them were cuddlers. Wookie also keeps the place tidier than Oz ever did and helps with errands. Wookie often says Oz only married him for his car.
  Even though Wookie is one of the most likely in the world to believe him (he seriously believes that aliens killed JFK and that Detroit sits on top of a "hellmouth") Oz hasn't told Wookie the entire truth about what he and the others have been doing. He's essentially told him everything, but more from the standpoint of it being fiction and research for his new online blog and merchandising ideas. He's afraid that if he were to tell him, he'd jump on board without hesitation - and Wookie being in that sort of constant danger terrifies him more than anything he can imagine.
• Eloise Danford: Faerie Godmother
  Oz has never been able to fully understand Mrs. Danford. As a child he and his sisters were convinced that she was a strange fae witch, like Maleficent. As adults, their opinions haven't shifted very far from the original notion. She's an older woman, very posh and adheres to an old school traditional society outlook that simply doesn't exist anymore, especially in Detroit. She was the non-evil version of what his mother had once strove to become. Mrs. Danford and his mother had been very close when he was younger and the family would spend a great deal of time at the Danford House for parties, charity benefits and the like. Oz's younger sister would play with Mrs. Danford's daughter Rebecca and their other playmate, Joe. His older sister would entertain herself by bossing around Mrs. Dandord's staff and other children, while Oz would typically try and find some place to practice invisibility. After their father became ill and their mother left them, Mrs. Danford suddenly stepped in to help in whatever ways she could, much to their grandmother's eternal gratitude, for she barely had enough money to feed and clothe them all. He and his sisters began to refer to her as their Faerie Godmother, but never to her face, she might leave them each spindles in their rooms while they slept. As an adult, Oz is grateful for this odd woman who chose to be there when his family needed help the most. She was a better mother to them than the woman who had given birth to them had ever been. Oz tries to repay her kindness as often as he can, mowing her ridiculously large lawn and helping with other chores and errands as well as selling off some of her possessions through his shop, giving her the full value of the sales without his usual profit margin. His older sister doesn't have anything to do with Mrs. Danford anymore, he suspects their mother put some hateful bug in her ear, but his younger sister still visits her every so often, bringing lunch and always on Rebecca's birthday with a cake that neither of them eat and a bottle of some snobby liquor that they do drink.
  Mrs. Danford's husband had been a monster hunter, along with several others. We discovered an armory and library in her basement that he and his team had used as a headquarters, now it is ours. She is the keeper of our lair, researcher, and driver for our little team. She is also the most well connected of all of us and is planning some charity events to subtly gain us some needed funding.

Hunters

• Robert: Brother of Evil
  Oz and Robert have known each other for years. They knew each other casually from the SCA and festival circuit. After Robert had married Mrs. Danford's daughter and Oz began working at the antique shop, he would contract Robert for his metalworking skill and knowledge. It was during this time period that Oz met Robert's brother Ryan. They had hit it off and started dating. Oz and Ryan moved in together, got a pomeranian and everything was just swell. Six months later, their relationship ended very abruptly, with a great deal of drama, yelling, shattered dishware, curious neighbors, a forfeited rental deposit and Oz's bicycle run over multiple times by a car. Ryan left and kept going, never returning to Michigan. Oz and his little dog moved back in with his grandmother. He and Robert remain good friends, much to Ryan's aggravation.
  Turns out that Rob had been working with Mrs. Danford's husband and Joe and James fathers and some others, supplying them with many of the unusual tools they needed to hunt down the supernatural. He has hesitantly now agreed to start doing the same for our little band.
• Joe Masters: Oz has known Joe most of her life. She was the little girl with pom-pom-pigtails and a squeaky voice that was inseparable from his little sister Becca and Mrs. Danford's daughter, Rebecca. His mother would often send him off to play with the girls, but they were much younger than he was, so he would generally read and ignore them while they delighted in the most inane of girly things. Oz now purchases his firearms from Joe and practices at her firing range in addition to taping her as an occasional professional consultant regarding antique firearms that his shop receives.
  Joe was one of the first on board with this whole monster hunter thing, she's skilled, practical and surprisingly flexible in her ability to adjust to the situation and accept things that I still wrestle with, even having seen it in person - numerous times. Joe is also well connected with the police, which can be quite useful. Her uncle also used to supply her father's group with some of their more unusual ammunition, which will prove very useful for us.
• Daniel Frost: The "Flying Courier"
  Daniel is a courier that Joe had praised and suggested Oz start using for the shop. He's heard he was supposed to be in the Olympics, but was disqualified due to drugs or family or something. Regardless he's a great courier, so Oz continues to hire him.
  Daniel can jump over fences and scale building walls as if he were some sort of super kangaroo-spider hybrid. //shudders// Lets scratch that thought, my life is already too full of horrible monsters that shouldn't be real. Daniel is a fellow monster hunter, bringing near supernatural mobility and an uncanny natural skill with a crossbow to the team.
• James Jacobson: I don't know James very well. He and Joe have some history and I know that he and Mrs. Danford know each other. I've only ever seen him at the War Room, though we've never spoken much. I know he's a big computer and engineering nerd, which has proven very useful on the team. In just a few days, he designed and built a self-loading crossbow, which is insane. We're going to need some special tools for our new line of work, with his brain and Rob's workshop, I image we're going to have all sorts of new goodies, like Batman or James Bond.

Coworkers & Professional Contacts

• Marcus Caine: PAC's Emporium Employee
  Marcus considers himself to be a fashion diva and is always standing tip toe on the top of the mountain of current fashion trends. He generally has a new girlfriend every other week, his interest in each of them expiring as easily as it does with an article of his wardrobe, often BECAUSE of how they clash with his newest designer jacket.
• Krista Smith: PAC's Emporium Employee
  Krista is a mousy little woman in her early 30's who dresses like she's 80. She reads anything and everything, is constantly eating, though due to her humming bird metabolism, she remains as thin as a Tiffany lamp.
• Anton Shields: PAC's Emporium Employee
  Anton reinvents himself frequently. He's a DJ, then a masseuse, then a writer, no, a poet, then he's obsessed with theater, gaming, early childhood education, radio, modeling, last week he wanted to become a part time wedding planner. This week he is writing online reviews for muscle cars. The emporium has always been his safe constant from where he can always reinvent himself.

Old Friends
Oz used to be close to Felicia, Khalida and Abel, though they had all gradually started to drift apart in the past several years. Since Oz put Pax online and started his new supernatural hunter blog and website hobby, the rift continued until their relationship was little more than facebook interactions and birthday texts.

• Felicia Wozniak: Ex-Beard
  Felicia was Oz's high school girlfriend and the first person he had ever come out of the closet to. And he was the first person she ever came out of her closet to, just afterwards - both of them relieved at the mutual revelations. They continued their convenient dating scam until college when they both came out to the world. Felicia is a tattoo artist. Her girlfriend is Satan. Actually her name is Angela, she's a barber, but Satan suites her better. She hates Oz, Felicia loves him. They have agreed to disagree on the matter. Felicia is foul mouthed, hyper, adventurous and high spirited. She will occasionally indulge in some of Oz's more active "nerdy shit", usually live action events and festivals, where his buddy Wookie follows her around like an adoring puppy.
• Khalida Errai: Ex-Coworker
  Quiet, tiny little Khalida worked at Starbucks with Oz before he partnered up with his uncle at the antique store. She says little and listens to everything. She seems to live off of coffee and those little packets of peanut butter or cheese crackers. She likes to watch television or movies in the company of others, but generally remains quiet, expressing herself with so few carefully chosen quiet words. She had a boyfriend for a while, Charles, he was the blackest man Oz had ever seen and stood over seven feet in height. Khalida isn't even five feet tall. He was equally quiet. It was unnerving. No one knows what happened to Charles. He just stopped being around. You learn to accept Khalida as she is, knowing that no wealth of information is likely to be forthcoming.
• Abel Roslyakova: Ex-Boyfriend
  Oz and Abel were together for seven years. They had their ups and downs, both cheated on the other at some point in the relationship, then they opened the relationship, and a year or so later, they concluded it. Oz and Abel remain friends, though Abel was always much more social and outgoing than Oz was, enjoying a more varied and sizable circle of friends, none of which have anything in common with Oz. Abel is fond of hearing himself talk, much more than he enjoys hearing anyone that is not him talking and dominates conversations if given the chance. Felicia isn't very fond of him, but tolerates his annoying overblown ego for Oz's sake. Wookie and Abel generally try to avoid being in the same room as Wookie had put Abel in the hospital when it was discovered he was cheating on Oz.

Lifestyle

A description of your characters day to day life.

• Money: What spare money Oz has he generally sinks into his hobbies. War gaming and reenactment props and costuming tend to be rather expensive, though he is occasionally fortunate that his business manifests things he is looking for.
• Clothing & Jewelry: Practical and comfortable, preferring button up shirts and jeans. He wears glasses, a Fitbit wristband that his sister Jessica got him for Christmas and his fathers wedding ring on a cord around his neck. He does a lot of walking, so he wears practical shoes, which hide his painted toenails that his younger sister finds great delight in maintaining. Oz has recently started wearing a WWII British military era trench coat in order to hide the kevlar vest he's started wearing anytime he goes outside. Now add to this ensemble a military grade radio headset. Odd looks - he gets them.
• Communication: He doesn't like using texting or e-mail outside of business applications, preferring to talk on the phone or in person. Since having become a hunter, Oz has found texting to be a very convenient method of communicating, being able to relay information that would be ill received by others in his proximity if he were saying it out loud.
• Food: Energy bars, coffee (although nearly everyone in his life tries to deny this to him, even his employees!), peanut butter (universal perfect food and condiment), tic-tacs, fast food and Grandma's cooking every night for dinner.
• Housing: Basement apartment he shares with Wookie in his grandmother's home. He also has a small crash space in the back office of the antique shop and a guest room he frequently uses at Mrs. Danford's home.
• Days: Open up the shop and eat horribly, do some work, work on hobbies, do a little more work, spend most of the time on his hobbies and let the staff do the work. Do a little bookkeeping then go home early and let someone else lock up. Hit his favorite hobby shop on the way home. Spend far more time and money there than he intended to. Weekends are largely the same unless there are chores, errands or any festivals or events he is attending, though he accompanies his grandmother to her Mormon church on Sunday mornings.
• Evenings: Eat dinner with Grandma. Work on hobbies, watch a little television, read a book or play games. Wednesdays is game night at the hobby shop. Thursdays he hosts board game night at the psychiatric hospital. Some weekends he has events or festivals. Due to his condition, he doesn't spend a large chunk of time sleeping as it's scattered throughout both day and night, so his activities generally span his conscious time throughout both day and night cycles without prejudice.

Experience

Experiences

• Current Beats: 1 • Unspent Experiences: 0 • Spent Experiences: 4

Practical Experiences

• Current Practical Beats: 3 • Unspent Practical Experiences: 0 • Spent Practical Experiences: 0

Experiences Earned

• 07.03.14: 1 beat (+1 journal) • 07.16.14: 4 beats (+1 journal), 2 practical beats • 07.31.14: 1 beat (+1 journal) • 08.13.14: 2 beats (+1 journal) • 08.27.14: 5 beats (+1 journal) • 09.10.14: 2 beats (+1 journal)

Purchases

• Increased Skill: Weaponry, 2 to 3 (2xp) • Increased Merit: Resources, 2 to 3 (1xp) • Purchased Merit: Retainer, 1 (Wookie) (1xp)