Name: Laine Ezra Stahl Codename: Pagan Date of Birth: February 15, 1984 / Twenty-three Place of Birth: Unknown Race / Nationality: Caucasian / Creole & Irish Sexual Orientation: Bisexual. Marital Status: Single. Occupation: "Herbalist."
Physically just as strong as any other individual in his age, height and weight bracket that is not an athlete, but entertains a healthy lifestyle. -- (in the works)
[[ POWERS / ABILITIES ]]
Psychic - Serves as a medium. Communicates with spirits, perform exorcisms, predicts the future and sees the past. Witch (part) - Ability to sense and command supernatural magic; also cast spells. Half Demon - Intensifies his sensitivity and ability to use magic, makes him a quick study, and gives him a tingly sensation to the supernatural.
Abilities as a result of demonic blood and being a magic practitioner: Divination, Demon summoning, Black Magic Cursing, Spirt Ward Creation, Golemancy, Oclumancy, Necromancy, Illusion, Clairvoyance, Aura Perception, Clearsight, Sanctification, Unholy Taint, Psychometry, Babel, Dowser, Synchronicity Highway/Wave Traveling.
Unlike most comic book magicians, Pagan rarely uses magical spells, unless he really has to, especially in combat. He faces most of his challenges relying primarily on his cunning, his vast knowledge of the occult, manipulation of opponents and allies, and an entourage of powerful allies.
His blood is demonically tainted, apparently there was some truth to his belief of immaculate conception, his father was a demon inhabitant of the body of a drifter, who had intercourse with his mother at one of her beloved Wiccan gatherings. His blood as a result, has been shown to have some healing properties. Immune to most viral combinations, and a fairly gradual recovery rate to wounds that could kill lesser beings. It can also act as a defense mechanism when attacked by vampires and werewolves. However, he cannot in any shape or form, heal another person.
Although Laine will lose most fights against a superior combatant and generally avoids physical battles - he has been known to win fights, either by using a magical weapon or by fighting dirty. Pagan has also exhibited considerable mastery in "stage magic skills" - Hypnosis, Sleight-of-hand and Escaplogy.
[[ PERSONALITY ]]
Out of touch with reality, was one of many phrases to describe Laine. The living and the dead meshing together in shades of gray, instead of remaining separated to their respected parties of black and white. Often he was found talking to thin air, or wrestling with an invisible assailant. The marks on his body, evidence enough to prove that there was such a thing as spirits who refused to pass on to the other side. Mapping their stories upon his scrawny frame in scratches and purpling bruises. Not once did he complain.
The stronger part of himself, the one who acted without hesitation and could look death in the face while chewing bubblegum only made it's appearance when the situation called for it. Laine wasn't a kid with separate souls in one body, who suffered from multiple personalities or anything like that. All it was, is when in the face of danger a certain calmness overcame him. It was afterwards he'd get the shakes and have nightmares. Cyrene said it was because he was a genuinely good person and when faced with evil he knew he had to fight, but afterwards it terrified him to see the wickedness in the world. It was too overwhelming, perhaps she was right. Or maybe he was just a big coward, and had everyone else fooled.
Pagan had been brought up to nourish the light in the world. To preserve and protect it. And that usually meant saving people. There wasn't a selfish bone in his body. But he could bleed the same as anyone else. People like him saw the ugliness and wickedness in the world on a daily basis, and yet they could look past it and see the beauty as well. There was a scant few of them, but they existed. And in his opinion you were one or the other, either the glass was half-empty or half-full.
He rarely gets close to anyone. Physically, mentally or emotionally this boy was an utter virgin. No wonder he still saw the good in everything, he hadn't been tainted by a broken heart.
Burned alive. That is one of Pagan's deepest fears. Drowning, was a close second. Both were extremely painful and could cause a spirit to become restless. However, he didn't want to go peacefully in his sleep either. Then it'd be like life was stolen from him, before he knew what was happening. So, he wanted to know he was dying, preferably moderately instant, so he wouldn't suffer too badly. Yeah, he had this sort of morbid thoughts quite often. What did you expect in his line of work? For him to be fantasizing about ice cream and leap frog?
[[ HISTORY ]]
Laine would never have the pleasure or displeasure of knowing his father. Instead, for as long as he could remember, it was just his mother, and himself. For a very long time, he was under the belief that it was immaculate conception. His mother was of a dying breed, a naturalist that rather live off the land than conform to modernization. Laine's mother was a practitioner of magic, more commonly referred to as a witch, the concubine of the devil. Early life was spent moving from one place to the next, entering a new circle to feed off it's power, before continuing to another.
Eventually, tiring of the burden of her son, she would make a last trip home. Rewarding her patient mother with a grandson, of a mysterious union. Laine would be left behind, with the strange old woman, deep in the belly of the bayous of New Orleans. There would be a near immediate bond between the pair, blood calling blood. Through her, he would learn of his origins, or at least from his mother's side of the family. Cajun blood running hot through his veins, something dark and mysterious that made him far more in touch with the paranormal and forces that be, than the average person.
For a spell, he was a shadow, mimicking the daily routine of his grandmother. Proving to be an apt pupil as he watched her mix herbs, prepare charms and hexes, cast spells, and even consult the departed. It would never occur to him, that he should be participating in normal activities for a boy his age, such as school. Why would it? He had never known anything else, and never would. In time, he would be able to take over the bulk of his grandmother's small business, who provided services to those who still believed in the old ways.
Nothing good last forever, however. His grandmother, having a weak heart would die one evening. But her spirit possessing a strong connection to her grandson was unable to pass on to the other side, refusing to be dead. Bound by love and responsibility, she would look after Laine as she had in her mortal life, and he wouldn't know the difference. He was touched, whether by God or the Devil, to see those trapped in-between this world and the next. However, never encountering a ghost before, or even knowing his grandmother had past, he saw the spirit as plainly as he could see her before. There was no difference.
It would be two years before the corpse of his grandmother would be discovered in the upstairs bedroom, the room stinking of death and decay. This find, would be a grave misfortune for Laine, separated from his home with the cries that she lived, as officers shook their heads in sympathy for the troubled boy. He would be taken to the next city over, and deposited into the state's care. After some psychiatric evaluation, it was believed that the teary boy was out of touch with reality from years spent away from civilization and was placed in an institution for treatment.
Here he would remain until he was eighteen, finally receiving an education that most took for granted. Laine proving to be an agreeable subject, when he wasn't talking to himself. Or at least, that's what the doctors thought he was doing for hours on end. In reality, Laine had met a girl, Shelley, who made the ache within lessen. Unknown to him, she was the ghost of a suicide patient that had died ten years prior in his assigned room. One day, she would disappear, and while he waited patiently for her to return, she never would. He quit talking to himself. Doctors believing that he had found his way out of the woods, would have him released, a bit pleased to have him off their hands.
(More to come.. )
[[ RELATIONSHIPS ]]
Xavier Fletcher - an individual with the power to destroy, who instead tries to save those around him. truly, someone worth calling friend.
Cyrene Baker - the bitch, who made a better friend than most, a person he can count on to have his back.
Brian Taylor - a good friend and confidant, one who understands the inner demons and haunted nights better than anyone.
Belle Miller - the innocent, a constant reminder that there is always someone watching and you should always conduct yourself in an honorable fashion.
Barnaby (NPC'd, Ian Holm) - the watcher, an earthbound spirit that points out the right direction when ever one gets lost.
"Mama Midnight" (NPC'd, Naomie Harris) - mother of the night-life, a jamacian voodoo queen who knows what you need for any situation.
Thalia Hayden - unknown half-sister, reaching out through time and distance. who knows when their destinies will collide?
Johann Alaric - magic fingers man, a new friend, with possibilities for much more.
[[ EXTRA ]]
Quote: Trust, you said, who put the words in your head? Oh how wrong we were to think, that immortality meant neverdying..
Theme(s): Assemblage 23 - Breath of Ghosts the Killers - All These Things That I've Done Placebo - Every You Every Me & Post Blue Excess - Tricky Bright Eyes - How Many Lights Do You See Kill Hannah - Believer Snow Patrol - Signal Fire