Name: Elijah Uzeyman

Age: 28

Gender: Cisgender Male
Appearance:

Tall and lithe, Eli stands at an impressive 6’3. His earlobes and septum are pierced, and he frequently wears many rings and bracelets on his fingers and wrists. For clothing, he prefers comfortable wear such as hoodies, with neutral, dark or earthy colours. On his back, above his left shoulder-blade and at the base of his neck, he has a black star tattoo, through which cuts a lightning bolt.

Notable habits/speech features: Uses big words often. Relies heavily on nonverbal communication, such as gestures. Twirls his hair as an idle fiddle.

Concept: Paranormal problem solver

Personality:
Eli has always been a bit of an oddball. From an early age, he’s never felt he’s quite fit in, and it’s a mentality that’s chiselled his personality into the analytical, reserved and yet hopelessly awkward and socially inept mess it stands as today.

Eli is clever: He picks up on small details most would gloss over, coming to grips with new concepts with ease and keeping an open mind when it comes to expanding his picture of things. Whereas most frown when they can’t understand something, Eli smiles—he’s a puzzle fiend, craving the satisfaction of solving quandaries that others would shrug at. He asks questions, challenging his own perception regularly and constantly seeking to expand his knowledge.

Eli’s focus on details does, however, come at a detriment. Often, he struggles to see the big picture, fixating on whatever has captured his interest instead. His social skills are certainly lacking, fumbling awkwardly around small talk and tripping over social cues. He can be blunt, eschewing metaphors and clever phrasing that would soften his directness.
Contrary to what initial impressions might imply, he’s actually quite an empathetic person—he cares for the greater wellbeing of others, and can become upset if he is unable to help someone struggling or suffering. However, his inquisitiveness often trumps that empathy, and he can neglect other’s emotional needs not out of malice, but simply out of ignorance or carelessness.

His emotions are also quite unpredictable, despite what his veneer of tired detachment would imply. He can overreact in some situations and underreact in others, never seeming to find that balance. If upset, he will withdraw and act cagey and defensive, shunning sympathy and support in favour of his own company.

Traits: Logical, personable, socially awkward, intelligent, empathetic, focused, mercurial, excitable, passionate, stubborn.

Bio:
Elijah was born to Odette and Antoine Uzeyman, Tutsi people who fled their home of Rwanda to escape the ruinous civil war. Surrounded by extended family, Eli’s birth was heralded as a turn of good fortune for the Uzeyman clan after the heartache they had endured escaping their home. Regrettably, however, their misfortune had only just begun.

The whole Uzeyman family, consisting of Eli’s brothers and sisters, mother and father, aunts and uncles and grandparents, lived in their house—except for one. His grandfather, Antoine's father, was killed in the conflict, spurring the Uzeymans to finally leave. But his body was left desecrated without proper burial, picked at by carrion feeders and left to rot. His spirit could not leave the material world, and so remained in Rwanda where it wandered the bush and stewed in the miserable energy created by the horrors carried out across the country. Mr. Uzeyman became attuned to this energy, and his spirit was transformed into an Obambou: Wraiths of misfortune left behind to curse a family for not honouring their dead.

Once Obambou became tired of their wandering, they return to their relatives to haunt them, bringing misfortune in their wake. And misfortune came to the Uzeymans, who found themselves at the epicentre of paranormal retribution. It began with their family heirloom, a golden mantel clock, passed down through generations. Its glass shattered and its hands stopped, there was no positive energy left, and the wave of bad luck fell upon the Uzeymans. Nothing seemed to go their way, little lights only appearing to soon be snuffed out. Yet they willfully ignored their accidents, their bad luck, the downturns of their personal and professional lives. They had escaped their sadness, left it in Rwanda. They looked at the clock and could not see its broken face or its halted hands, could not see the fracture in their family—the only one who saw the stopped clock was the one Uzeyman who had never set foot on Rwandan soil: Elijah.

Naturally inquisitive and attentive to tiny details, Eli noticed this recurring pattern of misfortune amongst his relatives. Always, it would begin with minor turns of bad luck, which would gradually worsen into a great loss—sometimes material, sometimes personal, always irretrievable. And the cycle would repeat endlessly, and the Uzeymans would turn their eyes to their ghastly patriarch’s influence with a shrug of “that’s life”. Eli poured over every text he could find, combing his library’s local archives and plumbing the depths of the internet. He discovered the world of the unexplained, the supernatural—and was convinced this was his way out. He focused, taught himself the intricacies of the system. It took him years, years of enduring hardship and delving deeper into the studies of the arcane—but finally, he could attune himself to the spiritual.

It was a Sunday night, Eli will always remember. Sunday, September 26th. Eli’s 16th birthday was two weeks away. He had school tomorrow, but there was no time to wait: This was his moment. He reached out into the spirit world, pushing past the miasma of misery that had been blocking his third eye’s sight for so long. He called out into the great beyond, and a voice answered: His grandfather, Mr. Uzeyman.
He appeared in a ghastly shape indeed, gaunt with deep dark pits for eyes and cloaked in a woman’s mushanana dress—in his old-fashioned mind, a symbol of the shame on the Uzeyman name. He could have said many things: He could have cursed his family for abandoning their home and leaving him to rot. He could have laughed at Eli, a skinny, sorry excuse for a man, who had spent the best years of his life away with the fairies studying silly little spells. He could have simply wept, so alone, so cold, never able to see his grandson until now. But instead, he made one request, a request Eli’s research had led him to expect: Mr. Uzeyman asked for a home.

Eli brought the clock into the shed, where he worked tired days and sleepless nights to repair it. With new glass set and the gears replaced, the symbol of the Uzeyman clan began to tick once again. The family could see now it had been broken, could rejoice in it finally being repaired—could feel hope that this truly was a new beginning. The clock became a “fetish”, an object given power by magic or strong emotional energy. Hope flowed through it, and Mr. Uzeyman came to rest within, feeling the positive energy wash over him.
Eli tore the floorboards of the shed away, digging up the dirt and burying the clock six feet—lord, were his arms tired—deep. He gathered some dust from the grave, retrieving the box whittled for the clock for if ever the Uzeymans were to transport it. Today was October 10th, Eli’s birthday—and the day Mr. Uzeyman’s journey to the afterlife would begin.

The Uzeymans danced and sang as they celebrated Eli’s birthday, a vital part of the ritual to free an Obambou. The morning after, Eli arrived at the shed with the box and the smattering of dust he had collected, placing it in the cabinet. With a hammer, he nailed a white cloth to the door—and finally, the ritual was complete. The ties binding Mr. Uzeyman’s spirit were broken, the negative energy cleansed. He had been buried in his own home—the shed—alongside his family. He could finally be at peace; he was so proud of his grandson.

When it was done, Eli wept. There was a sense of emptiness: Eli had devoted much of his life to breaking the Uzeyman’s curse, and now it was done. What was he to do now? Carry on with a normal life, after all the things he had learned? The sights he had seen?
And then a thought occurred to him. The entire family had been under Mr. Uzeyman’s spell. It was only due to the unique circumstances of Eli’s spell that he was able to see past the illusion. How many more people were out there that weren’t so fortunate? How many lived under assault from the spirit world with no way to fight back, or even notice the war going on before their shut eyes? They’d have to live their whole lives in misery and misfortune, and the spirits haunting them would be trapped in an eternity of sadness. Someone had to help them—and who better than Eli? This was it. This was what he’d do: He’d help the living with their paranormal woes, and help the dead get their affairs in order and pass on.

It would be an arduous undertaking—half the battle would be convincing people he was telling the truth, and he was sure plenty of them wouldn’t listen. But he had to try. There was a whole world out there, a world most knew nothing about—and a world in desperate need of a diplomat. Eli would be that middleman, a shaman, an exorcist. With a stopgap job as a yoga instructor to pay the bills, Eli was free to pursue his passion for the paranormal. Doing it as long as he has, it only stands to reason he'd eventually become entangled with like-minded individuals...

Powers/skills:
Friends on the Other Side - From his research into the supernatural, Eli has unlocked the door keeping him out of the spirit realm. Though he cannot fully cross over, he can commune with the other side—seeing invisible poltergeists, detecting supernatural presences, and fortifying his mind and soul against paranormal assaults such as possessions or curses. He also makes for an easy conduit, allowing him to briefly share his body with spectres so they may communicate.

Magic Touch - As a shaman, Eli’s magic is primarily specialised into the supportive category. He can do psychic battle with spirits to exorcise them or free others from their possession, dispel hexes, negative energy or curses through special rituals, and anchor weakened spirits to the real world through the use of “fetishes”—items with magic energy, usually crystals or items of great sentimentality, that attract and trap wayward spirits in much the same way as a bug zapper attracts a fly.
On the human side of things, Eli can touch his fingers against a person’s temples to establish psychic contact, relieving them of negative emotional energy, inducing sleep or wakefulness, or reading or sharing thoughts and memories between the two minds.

Fate in the Cards - The spirits are an awfully cryptic bunch, aren’t they? Rather than telling Eli exactly what he needs to know, they instead communicate with him predominantly through tarot. From his well-loved deck, Eli can draw up to three cards, each carrying a different meaning: The first gives him a read on the current situation, the second hints at a possible action he could take, and the third card reveals the broad-strokes consequences of this action. For example:
The Moon - You are lost, searching for something.
The Hermit - Did you check your room?
The Wheel of Fortune - Ah, there’s your charger.
Bag of Tricks: Eli carries a variety of tools on his person to help with his job. These include:

Dowsing Rods - L shaped steel rods used to detect buried gemstones (or more often natural health shops). Gemstones can be left in the moonlight to gather magic energy, effectively acting as batteries for rituals or recharging Eli’s personal reserves.

Gemstones - Varying in size and type, Eli carries these for the purposes mentioned above.

Sage and Rosemary - Herbs with magical properties. Sage can be burned to purify negative energy, whilst rosemary can be used to ward off dark magic from malevolent entities. Eli carries cuttings of them in a small satchel, alongside a flip lighter to light the sage.

Chalk - Crayola brand. Used for drawing magic circles, through which energy can be channelled and rituals can be performed within.

Tarot Deck - A worn rider waite tarot deck, used for tarot divination.

Heavyweight Tote Bag - Well, where else is he gonna keep all this?

Well-Spoken: As his family is from Rwanda, Eli grew up speaking English, French, and Kinyarwanda.

Danse Macabre: Eli plays the violin, and he plays it quite well. A timeless instrument, its sounds please ghosts from all sorts of centuries.

Feel the Burn: Magic and spirituality are not all spells and grimoires: As the Buddhists know, yoga is an ideal way to channel ones’ vital energy. As an instructor, Eli is quite well versed in the intricacies of the ancient physical art. Thus, he is incredibly flexible, and more than able-bodied.

Name: Fynn Laplace

Age: 31

Appearance: Fynn reaches up to a not exactly imposing 5'9 and presents himself having a rather average, albeit slightly overweight frame. More than shoulder-long, blone and wavy hair and a quite large goatee surround a rather innocent looking face with thin lips and a mildly pointed nose. His skin is fair and clearly indicative of him spending much more time indoors than outdoors, so is the fact that he's anything but overly muscular. There's a long scar running alone his left shin, but that's probably simply because the latter had been seriously broken once.

Concept: Computer nerd capable of both compensating for his lack of physical exercise and boosting his authority against lazy users never changing their passwords by turning into an entirely different, demonic beast.

Powers/skills: Fynn has grown up surrounded by people making their money with electronics, but today however electronics more often than not also involve software. Software is what he knows pretty well indeed and far beyond fixing somebody's Microsoft Word templates. Give him some proper equipment and he might try and work around matters of security or encryption the group's suspects might throw at them. He, after all, has also learned a knack about manipulating modern technology by means of magic from his family, and happens to be infused with demonic magic since birth.

Still there are the good old methods of just blasting through a locked door and he's got something for that, too. He can decide to let go of his inner discipline and let his inherent instability rage freely, pushing him away from being an ordinary human in a bodily manner as well. He then becomes a beast that's of the same height, but certainly in an entirely different class in terms of raw strength, durability and weight. He's then much more suited to those occasions when talking and silent intrusion just don't cut it, but also much more prone to engage in acts of violence he might regret later on or which are flat-out overdoing it. And it's not like there'd be that simple off switch he or anyone else can just push, just like he can't commit to this modus operandi in an instant. Psychological pressure and other means of stress certainly help a lot with that, though.

Quirks: He really hates guns, not so much because of their purpose but because they're just awfully loud. Also, as long as he is his human self, he can safely be considered a bit of a coward. And a coffee addict...

Background:
Electhereal Semiconductor's Corp. is a small fish in the lake of Silicon Valley, but being one of the more successful ones it has proven to be a steadily growing pond of money for Kaylen's parents to swim in. They are a duo of people who have just found other sharing the same interests and approach to life in general, a pair of scientifically aligned graduates who gives the world what it craves for: highly integrated circuits that consume ever less power when doing ever more stuff in gadgets only capitalism can invent. What they don't do however is tell the same world the truth about 'conventional science' not having been advanced enough for setting up such a magnificent little factory, hence the name 'Electhereal'. It is basically a broad, mocking hint which they perfectly know the vast majority of their customers will happily mistake for yet another strange marketing effort.

Kaylen was pretty much 'doomed' to take over the family business one day, though neither was such a plan against his own interest at any point nor had he much of an issue with the tremendous amount of effort that would require. However even an enrollment at Caltech couldn't protect him from the... more mundane desires... one might occasionally stumble upon in life. Agreed, Rebecca just was a very attractive girl. Up to this day, Kaylen's parents accuse themselves of not having seen the obvious red flags earlier, but then it took only a single night in a shared bed to make it happen.

Fynn was born -- and his mother was a succubus.

There would have been plenty of ways to dispose of him, if not for Kaylen himself then for his rich parents who would certainly have had the means necessary to bribe their way through the official part of law enforcement. But why should they have done this? Their whole income was partly based on the unique properties of the supernatural, so while they certainly scolded Kaylen for his escapade, they also sort of accepted the living outcome. Like said... sort of. He was the unexpected child, the unstable element to be more closely monitored. It was a delicate balance between 'since none of our business partners and most of our friends don't believe in the supernatural anyway, they'll never interpret his occasional oddity correctly' and 'there are those who will know what he truly is in an instant, and they could have the means to transform that kind of information into a scandal even the non-believers will happily exploit'. Things have not always been easy, but it would be wrong to say he wasn't loved.

With that kind of conflict in mind, the Sunday group was just the perfect job offering. Fynn saw it as an opportunity for joining an environment where the paranormal was the norm and where he could put himself to good use while also earning honest money. His environment saw it as an opportunity to defuse the whole situation a bit by putting him in a place where he can be much more what he really is and not always has to pretend to be your ordinary human.

The question is of course whether the Sunday Group will see it the same way in the future.

Things your character wants to happen (probably won't):

• Not being considered the complete nerd and boring indoor person he quite probably actually is.
• His other self wants to go completely crazy in the open. Think about all those panicking newspapers and breaking news about a demon roaming freely!

Things you as a writer want to happen (maybe will):

• Some serious action
• Intrigue
• Not opposed to spontaneous comedy either here and there

Writing sample: Does the sheet itself count as a writing sample, too ? :)