Dr. Richard Strand

Richard Strand was not a coward. Not by any stretch of the imagination. He prided himself on being level headed, fearless...in control.

That said? When the soft knock came at his front door, he could have collapsed with relief as he tore it open.

"You're an absolute lifesaver." he breathed, ushering his new hero inside.

Snickering, Ruby Carver slipped inside, carefully balancing a stack of alarmingly small pizza boxes in one hand, a heavy looking shopping bag dangling from her elbow.

"You're a wuss, Dr. Strand." Ruby declared without remorse, shaking her hair over one shoulder. "Here, can you take these? Thanks..."

"Alex won't be back from Arlington for another two hours, and there are just...some parts of handling kids not even Charlie could prepare me for." he insisted. "That said...I did tell you this was a slumber party, right? Third graders?"

"Hence, eight one topping personal pan pizzas, with extra fixings in the bag to customize." Ruby soothed. "Trust me, five bucks says they fall in love with taco pizza, at least try meatball pizza, and the rest will feed the two of us at work for a couple days."

"...are those Barbies in the bag?..."

"Dollar store dolls and outfits, some yarn, glue, craft stuff...shut up, I went down a doll customization rabbit hole on YouTube last week. They're gonna go bananas creating characters from the Hogwarts edition of the Hunger Games and you can finish your lecture without worrying they're gonna do something dangerous like play Monopoly."

Silence ensued. Ruby's eyes went wide.

"Dr. Strand..."

Clearing his throat, Richard turned away from her hastily, calling out to the girls in the living room.

"Brooklyn! Loui--er, Wheezy! Look who just brought dinner over? Put the game away for now, time to eat!"

OOC

Backtagging: Ask? Only so there's no hurt feelings if I can't handle it! I'm a big fan of back tagging.
Threadhopping: Always.
Fourthwalling: No, please.
Offensive subjects: None that I can really think of?

IC

Hugging this character: He says no. I say yes, do it, make him squirm because WHY IS THIS PERSON HUGGING ME
Kissing this character: See above. :P
Flirting with this character: Oh, please! But prepare for him to be reeeeeally dense about it.
Fighting with this character: Physically? Sure! He can take a punch.
Injuring this character: Ask first, for maximum plottage of suffering. :P
Killing this character: Please ask. I'm not opposed, but that'll take planning.
Using telepathy/mind reading abilities on this character: To an extent. Richard does have psychic powers he refuses to acknowledge, so they might interfere. Superficial thoughts, absolutely, but deeper stuff talk to me first.
Anything else: As stated, Richard is psychic, but Repression, Thy Name Is Strand. No mind reading or anything, but he can see demons and has a sixth sense for locating missing people and/or things, and anticipating danger.

Warnings: (Potentially triggering topics or anything else you feel you may need to warn for in regards to your character)

PLAYER INFORMATION

NAME: Liz/EC
AGE: 37 going on 12--at least my sense of humor is
CONTACT: Discord: madwomanwithabox#1521
CHARACTERS PLAYED: Ellis Moorhaven, Tiberius of the Deep, Allison Argent
RESERVED? No.

CHARACTER INFORMATION

NAME: Dr. Richard Strand
CANON: The Black Tapes (Podcast)
CANON POINT: The start of episode 2.12, AXIS MUNDI
AGE: Early to mid forties

HISTORY: Wiki Link

PAST GAME MEMORIES: N/A

PERSONALITY: Richard Strand is defined by his clinical, analytic nature: he's a devout skeptic, his career has been focused on the study of the supernatural to arm himself against charlatans, and his pet project is an academic institute that, while small in operation, has a global reputation for disproving seemingly supernatural occurrences. He prides himself on being a man of science, and is so vehement in his disbelief that those cases he cannot prove to be fiction, he keeps on hand and waits for the day when he can.

However, therein lies his biggest conflict: he's a devout skeptic. He's borderline fanatical in his unwillingness to consider the realities of the paranormal. He's poured so much of his inheritance and personal funds into his quest to debunk all hints of magic or demons in the world that he can no longer back up his global challenge to the masses: a $1 million prize to the first person that can provide empirical evidence that the supernatural is real. Strand is highly intelligent, shrewd, and for all intents and purposes, he worships at the altar of the one god that is completely knowable and omnipresent in all things: science.

For his seemingly impenetrable, impersonal facade, Richard Strand is actually a man of deep passion and immense feeling. He seems willing to shatter the illusions of others, but cannot fully break himself of his own. He holds the world at a distance, but those rare few he cares about, he is loyalty and heart personified, willing to turn his back on his own scientific fervor in the name of helping them.

Faced with the loss of his wife, Strand dropped off the grid hoping to reignite a hint of apparent psychic power he had as a child, hoping it would lead him to her location as it had led him to the corpse of a childhood friend. With the indication that someone might be hunting him, he encouraged his family to reject him, allowing rifts with his daughter and distance from his sister to linger in the name of their safety.

And while opening up to podcast journalist Alex Regan with his feelings was done as a form of subterfuge when both realized they were being observed—there is no denying that engaging in such subterfuge, walking away from her when the people pursuing him grew closer, even asking for her silence initially when he had to explain his departure—these were not the actions of a man simply looking after a colleague, but rather the actions of a man fighting with all his power to protect the life of the woman who has relentlessly placed herself at his side, even when the threat of seeming supernatural attack loomed.

Dr. Richard Strand is a scientist...but despite his best efforts, at the end of the day, he is still just Richard Strand—not a scientist, but a man.

POWERS/ABILITIES:

CLAIRVOYANCE: Richard has a subtle gift for perceiving things beyond the norm. As a young child, Richard has documented proof that he was able to see demons among us, and as an older boy, showed an aptitude for what can only be classified as divining. Through instinct and a sixth sense that defied explanation, Richard was able to discern the location of a child that had vanished, leading his group of friends to the location of the little boy's discarded corpse.

Richard appears to be a savant in using these gifts, accessing them without training, but in adulthood appears to have lost a measure of his natural talent in terms of accessing them--not because he's lost the power, but perhaps more likely because he has denied their presence, rejecting any and all indications that he may be in any way psychically gifted.

SAMPLES:

Richard encounters a faun. So does Alex--and comforting her is a welcome distraction.

Shortly after finding each other, Richard goes to "save" Alex from the dangers of the wilds. It...doesn't work out that way.

ANYTHING ELSE? Anything else that you think is important, that doesn't fall under the above, you can place here.