Atticus "Spellslinger" Flare


 * "I don't do this because I'm a hero, I do it because I'm a coward. What lies behind me is far worse than what lies ahead of me." - Atticus Flare on work ethics.

=• Basic Info •= Atticus Johansen Flare, AKA "Spellslinger", is a 23 year old Illuminati agent. He is highly skilled at thumaturgy, and not a whole lot else. While a capable investigator and in possesion of a sharp mind, Atticus is a coward to the very bone. In addition, has undergone severe mental trauma through his indoctrination into the Illuminati. Both of these aspects make him somewhat unreliable as a team leader or one to take his initiative.

Atticus prefers to work in teams where he can be given commands to follow and people to rely on. He is more than capable as a solo agent, although requires constant monitoring and "encouragement" to continue working on his own.

If Atticus were an animal, he'd be a deer: Skittish, cowardly, innocent if not flat out girly looking. But capable of packing an extremely nasty punch when backed into a corner. Never underestimate those timid eyes and gentle features: Atticus may be a coward, but he's a coward with the power to flash-fry a dozen people with the wave of his hand.

=• Early Life •= Born and raised to the Flare family in suburban Connecticut, Atticus lived a fairly normal life under the watch of God, until he was 16 years old, that is.

The Flare family were devout Christians, carrying an almost fundamentalist regard for the Bible and its word. Needless to say, the reveal of Atticus Flare's homosexuality was not one that was taken well. His family insisted that the sexual orientation was a "sickness" and called in a multitude of priests to attempt to "fix" the young boy. The experiences were too much for Atticus to bear, and in an uncharacteristic display of rebelliousness, Atticus ran away from home.

Moving in with his uncle Damien in Maine, Atticus became a paper-boy to make ends meet for a few years. Eventually deciding to leave his uncle's home at age 19, Atticus became a drifter of sorts. No home to speak of, but never truly "homeless." Working job to job and sleeping at the flavour-of-the-night motel or, in some occasions, the bed of another man.

Atticus never had a permanent residency, travelling around the United States in search of something. What that something was, however, he had no clue.

Then, in 2011, Atticus found something...

=• Indoctrination into Illuminati •= Atticus's first exposure to the secret world occurred at 1am in a Los Angeles subway bathroom.

What would have been a simple trip to the toilet while waiting for a train turned into a nightmare when a creature, namely a breachbeast from the hell dimensions, broke through a minor hellrift in the same bathroom and proceeded to attack him.

Atticus would have likely been killed or horribly maimed had it not been for the presence of an Illuminati agent (who has, for reasons of security, chosen to stay anonymous.) The agent in question had been sent to investigate demonic activity in the area and tracked the hellrift to the same bathroom, effectively saving Atticus's life at the last moment.

But that was only the beginning. Atticus had been exposed to the Secret World, first hand. This was before the rise of the darkness, so he was given a choice: Join, and be a leashed agent. Or be "cleaned up" like the loose end he was.

Choosing life, Atticus was sent back into the streets, but kept under the watch of a few Illuminati officials. Not that he minded, or noticed. Atticus was simply happy to be alive.

Skip forward one year, and the darkness began to rise. Gaia began to choose her heroes, the "bee people" as they were called. The Illuminati was preoccupied with the incident in Kingsmouth when it first appeared, and had no time to recruit agents. With the other faction's members growing every day, the Illuminati made a choice: If they couldn't recruit an agent, they'd make one.

Atticus was the perfect scapegoat: Alone, no solid friends, a family who'd abandoned him, a drifter without cause. Abducted in the dead of night, Atticus was force-fed a captured Gaia bee and held captive in a dark room, alone with no human contact, for the three day "gestation" period. Just him, the dark, and his painfully manifesting anima powers.

On the fourth day, a man in a gas mask came and held a pistol to his head, and pulled the trigger.

Needless to say, the experiment was a success. The Illuminati had successfully created their own "bee person". But by that time, Kingsmouth was under (relative) control, and they no longer needed the process.

A further 4 days of captivity, torture and experimentation to see just how capable Atticus was, and he was sent out into the world as a fighter. The harsh treatment left him with severe mental trauma, however, which he is now only just recovering from.

Regardless of this, Atticus has proven a surprisingly capable agent. Even though he resents his presence in the organisation.

He does what they say, because he knows what will happen if he doesn't...

=• Thaumaturgical Prodigy •= Frail of body and weak of spirit, nobody expected Atticus to be very useful. He was assigned the rank of a gofer: Go into place, scavenge on the sidelines for scraps of info and the occasional missed detail, send it all back into base and be packed into the proverbial cupboard until needed once more.

It wasn't until he was violently attacked by a ravenous horde of undead in the Kingsmouth area that Atticus's abilities truly came to light. The man with little else to speak of was a magical phenomenon in of himself. Dispatching 7 zombified townsfolk in mere seconds with a blast of panicked lightning from his fingertips, and one pair of wet underpants.

The Illuminati noticed the boy's unusually potent magical capabilities and immediately took him into training. What took others years to learn took Atticus mere weeks. Within only one month, elemental magic was putty in his hands, with blood and chaos showing much promising development.

Atticus was promoted and sent back into the field, but this time - much to his displeasure - as a full time agent. Atticus was assigned tasks that involved clearing areas of dangerous paranormal entities, combating ancient and powerful wraiths and spectres, and taking down behemoth-like beasts for his commanders.

Despite his potent magic, however, Atticus still bore the mental scars from his brutal indoctrination. When faced with a 15 foot murderbeast with claws instead of hands, Atticus would much rather turn and run that shoot fire at it. His only drive to fight comes from knowing what will happen to him if he doesn't.

Atticus is, however, extremely useful as a team member. While a cowardly pile of shivers and whimpers on his own, when directed by an influential and persuasive leader, Atticus can become a highly effective weapon in any battalion's arsenal.

=• Current Status •= Having been on the job for over a year, Atticus is now an experienced agent, and is no less of a coward for it. His fear for all things painful and frightening is one that simply will not be shaken, but it is also a weakness that he's needed to bypass on many an occasion.

Every day is a battle between flight and fight, won by mere memories and dark, cruel promises in the back of his mind. Atticus is undisputedly capable and effective at what he does, but that doesn't mean he needs to enjoy any of if it.

Atticus is a leashed agent, a tool of the Illuminati. And he knows it well and clear. If he weren't so busy running away from things, murdering things with electromagnetic blasts, or getting drunk and trying to find himself into the pants of other men, he'd likely be severely depressed.

It's probably a good thing the Illuminati is sure to keep him occupied - in all aspects. They know how to work a man, and no man is more workable than Atticus.