<br/><strong>John Taylor</strong><br/><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Crunchy Bits</div><div class="spoiler_body"><strong>Supernatural Type:</strong> Purified<br/><strong>Gender:</strong> Male<br/><strong>Age:</strong> 34 apparent, 36 chronological<br/><strong>Height:</strong> 5'11"<br/><strong>Weight:</strong> 233 lbs<br/><strong>Hair:</strong> Brown<br/><strong>Eyes:</strong> Blue<br/><br/><strong>Concept:</strong> Trust Me, I'm A Doctor<br/><strong>Virtue:</strong> Charity<br/><strong>Vice:</strong> Arrogance<br/><br/><span class="bbc_u">Attributes:</span><br/><br/>(Pri)                       (Ter)                 (Sec)<br/>Intelligence 5        Strength 2        Presence 2<br/>Wits 1                   Dexterity 3       Manipulation 2<br/>Resolve 2              Stamina 1        Composure 3<br/><br/><span class="bbc_u">Skills (Men/Soc/Phys):</span><br/><br/>Academics 2<br/>Investigation 2<br/>Medicine 4 (Surgery)<br/>Occult 5 (Spirits)<br/><br/>Athletics 3<br/>Firearms 2 (3)<br/><br/>Empathy 4 (Emotions)<br/>Socialize 4<br/>Streetwise 2<br/><br/><span class="bbc_u">Merits:</span><br/><br/>Ritual Crypt 1<br/>Professional Training 2 - Doctor<br/>Locus 1<br/>Totem 3<br/><br/>Chi: 2 (3 merit points invested)<br/>Essence 9/1<br/><br/>Siddhi:<br/>(1)Spirit Projection<br/><br/>(1)Influence Spirit (Man+Emp+Chi)<br/>(2)Influence Beasts and Mortals (Man+Soc+Chi)<br/><br/>Numina:<br/>Heal (Int+Med+Chi)<br/><br/></div></div><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Background</div><div class="spoiler_body">At the age when most boys dream of being firemen or astronauts or race car drivers, John knew he was set on becoming a doctor. Precocious even for his age group, he threw himself into learning everything he'd need to know early on - other kids thought he was a bit weird for spending break times in the library, but he kept at it. His grades panned out, and he earned a space in a prestigious med school - finding at last a place where obsessive hours pouring over textbooks and journal was the norm, not a bizarre outlier. After graduation, he found work in Chicago, at an overworked inner-city clinic perpetually swamped by underprivileged residents, gang violence, and occasionally stranger things - for the first time in his life, the brilliant young doctor felt overwhelmed. No matter what he did, he couldn't save them all, and he wasn't prepared to accept that. When medical journals gave no answer, he turned to other journals, exploring books of occult and supernatural knowledge; more traditional and rational medical professionals would laugh at such nonsense, but if there was a hope of truth somewhere in the nonsense, John would find it. The notion of a world of spirits, animistic embodiments of the world, resonated best among all the mystic phenomena he researched - they could grant gifts to mortals, and draw power from them. And when he went looking for such creatures, he succeeded.<br/><br/>A spirit of health, of middling power, answered his call, and he was able to bargain terms of mutual benefit. The more he could heal at his clinic, the stronger that spirit would be in sympathy, and so it granted him a fraction of its own power to cure. The change was immediate, and startling - his recovery rates for patients trivial and critical shot through the roof, and it wasn't long before even the other doctors at the clinic started referring to him as having 'the magic touch'. Anyone he put his hands and instruments to, unless on the brink of death already, seemed guaranteed to get better. The tiny, underfunded clinic started getting attention for its turnover numbers, grant applications being accepted and renovations being made. A bright spot of hope in the grunge and grime of the Chicago undercity.<br/><br/>Then it ended, one night, in fire. The sirens woke him at home, and he followed them, but the building was already an inferno when he arrived. A dozen staff and over a hundred patients, many bedridden, had died with it, along with his dreams. It was blatant arson, but the root causes went deeper - on consultation, he learned the arsonist had been a puppet of another spirit, a death-spirit in rivalry to his own patron, who arranged for the clinic's destruction to weaken its opponent's influence in the area. John had thought he was making a difference, but saw he was ultimately just a pawn on a bigger game board, and realized the only way to change that was learn how to become a player of the game instead of a game piece, to stand in the spirit world as an equal.<br/><br/>For six years, he hunted - tracking down books of spirit lore, consulting with weird hermits, joining obscure cults in hope of learning their secrets. He met bizarre creatures, other denizens of the shadow world he sought entry into - sometimes he benefited, but other times he fled for his life. Eventually, he came across a trove of books being sold at auction, the possessions of a shyster psychic and fortuneteller who committed suicide, and scribbled into one of those books, John learned a ritual and elixir that could make him immortal. It took another year to make the preparations, double-check everything, but when the moment came, it worked flawlessly. He died, and returned, cleansed and revived as a being not quite human or spirit but in between. Finally ready to do battle on his own terms, he returned to Chicago, setting up a small private practice not far from his old clinic, and setting to work healing his patients and forging ties of alliance into the spirit world.<br/></div></div><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Totem</div><div class="spoiler_body"><strong>The Mean Streets</strong> - City-Spirit, Greater Gaffling<br/>Power 4<br/>Finesse 2<br/>Resistance 3<br/><br/>Influences:<br/>Man 1<br/>Guns 1<br/><br/>Totem Benefit: <br/>Skills (Pack): Firearms +1 - 3 Totem Points<br/><br/>Totem Ban:<br/>Apply a specific symbol with spray paint to an outdoor wall once per month.<br/><br/>The spiritual world of Chicago is as or more vicious than its mortal counterpart, countless lesser spirits emerging and warring with each other for survival and dominance on a regular basis. The Mean Streets is one that has eked out a temporarily stable position, claiming a few square blocks in the South Side and feeding from the activities of the gangs that live nearby. To broaden its influence, it approached and forged an alliance with John Taylor when he moved into the area, sensing his own power and recognizing a potential ally. His ability to heal and repair mortals without the usual problems of showing up at hospitals with bullet wounds makes him attractive to the gangs and street people TMS draws from; in return, it blesses him with a greater proficiency in guns so that he can better protect himself if things go sour.<br/></div></div><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Answer Me These Questions Five</div><div class="spoiler_body">-<em>Worst Thing He Has Ever Done:</em> John sank pretty deep during his quest for immortality. At one point, he found some old books owned by an elderly man - the man was poor, but the books were an inherited heirloom and he wouldn't sell them. Desperate, John ended up breaking into the house at night and stealing the books.<br/> <strong>Breaking Point:</strong> Stealing someone's personal property.<br/><br/>-<em>Worst Thing He Might Ever Do:</em> Working at the clinic put John face-to-face with some terrible injuries, and some terrible people who only wanted to get out and get their revenge. Against his better judgement, sometimes John found himself taking sides in his mind, either hoping the patient would get their revenge, or feeling like they had gotten what they deserved in the first place, and frequently prayed that he'd never become trapped in that sort of vengeance loop.<br/> <strong>Breaking Point:</strong> Severely harming someone who didn't attack him first.<br/><br/>-<em>Worst Thing Someone Else Might Do:</em> Despite being smack in the middle of the ghetto, the clinic was a little island of cooperation - with so little resources, but a shared desire to help, the clinic staff ignored the usual boundaries of race, class or creed. The squishy bits inside a human body are the same regardless of skin color, religion, or sexual preference, and John still can't understand the mindset of people who pass judgement for these things.<br/> <strong> Breaking Point:</strong> Witnessing a hate crime.<br/><br/>-<em>What Has He Forgotten:</em> The mean streets of Chicago were a breeding ground for violence, often hiding supernatural violence amidst ordinary mortal struggles. Once, early on in his career, a victim was brought in DOA - shot in the head, with a huge part of his skull blown off by the bullet. The corpse went into the morgue - but the next day, the morgue box was empty. It was dismissed as a prank, but John couldn't shake the feeling of seeing that same man walk past him on the street not long afterwards - just his imagination, probably.<br/> <strong>Breaking Point:</strong> Seeing someone survive a seemingly fatal injury.<br/><br/>-<em>What is The Most Traumatic Thing He Ever Experienced:</em> The fiery destruction of the clinic he worked at was devastating to him. He got their too late to help with evacuation or firefighting, but before the people still trapped inside were dead - the screams echoed in his nightmares, the smell of roasting meat still makes him nauseous, and he's uncomfortable around any source of flame larger than a candle.<br/> <strong>Breaking Point:</strong> Being injured by flames or fire damage.<br/></div></div><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Aspirations</div><div class="spoiler_body">Short-Term: Help sick and injured mortals.<br/>Short-Term: Forge positive relations with other supernatural power blocs.<br/>Short-Term: Collect sources of occult and spiritual lore for personal power.<br/><br/>Long-Term: Claim power and authority among spirits in the Shadow Realm.<br/></div></div>