Dr. Paul Bickford

Concept: The “Scully” with a few doubts...

AKA: None.  As such. Answers to “Doc”  

Desc: Skinny as a goddamned rail. Decent head of hair although he’s got a salt and pepper thing going on with it. Doesn’t bother with facial hair though because it ALL comes in salty and he doesn’t like that as a look. Going for a kind of “Fuck-able Carl Sagan” vibe.  Still, a jeans and T-shirt kind of guy usually topped with a comfortable sportcoat. (The T-shirt usually from some late 80’s/early 90’s band.) Smokes too much. Drinks WAY too much coffee. Hums to himself. Thinks out loud. A voice capable of hitting the back wall of the lecture hall and then some.

History:  Paul is always careful to say that he is a psychologist first and foremost. It’s just that the university HAD a parapsychology program, minuscule though it was, and when he was a staff teacher he ended up teaching practically the entire course-load. 

Which he hated.

Frankly, Paul feels that the supernatural is a lot of baloney and over the course of time, he changed the original curriculum to reflect this attitude. Psych majors who wanted to explore the world of the unknown were invariably disappointed when Paul began his hard-core skeptical appraisal of supernatural/psychic phenomenon. After he got his doctorate, he finally had enough swing with the university to start bringing guest lecturers, and he made a point of bringing in stage magicians and people who had worked at psychic call centers.  To a degree, it worked. People wanting fuzzier thinking left psych, and went over to study folklore and mythology, and the rest who were interested in how belief in the supernatural world interacted with actual human psychology, stayed.  It did mean that the program never got any larger. Sadly, this was also true of the funding.

   Or at least, that USED to be true.  The rise of ghost hunting shows on television have caused a slight swell in the number of students hungry to know more. Heck, there were a number of them that weren’t even psych majors. So, as a result, Dr. Bickford began organizing ghost hunting field trips to supposedly haunted sites in the area. Lots of old mansions.  Naturally, there wasn’t a lot to see.  At least until they visited the decaying hulk of the city's old abandoned sanitarium.

   To this day, Paul maintains that they experienced a combination of natural effects involving natural infrasonic phenomenon and a possible exposure to carbon monoxide. Whatever exactly was the case, when the university got wind of the aftermath, the course was discontinued, everyone got an “A” to head off suing, and Paul was encouraged to take a sabbatical.

   As Paul was packing up his things on the last day of the semester, half expecting to never come back. A young woman walked into his office and introduced herself. Her name was Collette Reeves.  

And that’s how Paul ended up joining the Paraphysical Research Society.  He’s still pretty hard-headed about evidence and data and all that stuff...and frankly, the arguments with Miss Virgie are the most interesting exchange of ideas he’s had in years. (Especially since Collette tends to referee) But he has to admit to himself, since going along with them, he’s seen some things that he never would have believed possible. Like there was a whole world, he simply couldn’t see or feel until his eyes got forcibly opened.

Attitude: :"Look. I know how it sounds. It sounds like TV bullshit. But I’ve seen a few things in the last year that I could not explain. And I had equipment with me...I can show you data.  But you really won’t know until you bump up against it yourself...And hopefully, come out the other side sane.   Now if I could just PROVE any of it!

Skills: Paul is a seasoned academic but isn’t much for academic political intrigue. He’s a very decent writer and has some skill as a public speaker. (Out in the field, Collette talks to the weirdoes and believers, Virgie talks to the cops, and Paul talks to everyone else.)  He’s got a couple of dots in Medicine and a specialty in psychiatric drugs. (He’s had cause to have to administer a sedative injection in the field.) His main area of expertise is in psychology, of course, but he’s also studied stage magic and hypnotism and a number of other techniques in that same vein. He’s slowly discovering that sleight of hand isn’t as charming on dates as he’d thought it would be.  He’s also turned himself into a bit of a jack-leg electrical engineer and is contemplating getting a bigger house, just so that he can have a room dedicated to a workbench for same. Sensory and recording equipment of the sort needed in the field is not cheap, nor is it likely ever going to be in the university budget. As a result, Paul is cannibalizing or building it from scratch.  In combat, Paul’s best bet is to fall down so as to be out of the line of fire. He hasn’t been in a fist fight since grade school. Paul, for reasons that will become apparent below, speaks fluent Spanish.

Gear: While Virgie provides the house, Paul provides the Van.  He bought it from the university during one of their warehouse sales. At the time it seemed like a good investment because he was dating a linguistics teacher and it looked like they were getting pretty serious...Like move- in-together-and-have-kids serious. Sadly, that did not turn out to be the case.  But Paul got a good deal on the Van. It’s a white step-van built for moving mail and packages around the university environs. (The University is pretty spread out and some of the Ag Science programs are on farms way out in the sticks.)  Paul also built a mobile sensory recording station with multiple pieces of sensory equipment connected to an old laptop and powered by a smallish gasoline generator. The whole shmear is bolted, zip-tied, and hot-glued to an old furniture dolly for easy transport.  Collette has dubbed the thing, “The Grim Peeper”, a name which has stuck.  On his person, Paul carries an iPad and a dollar tree notebook. Paul also has the metabolism of a hummingbird, so he often has his go-bag which is loaded with snacks, a thermos of coffee, and bottled water.

Home: Paul lives with his hetero life-mate Manolo Cavazo in a 3 bedroom house that they rent together. Manny runs the student Sport/Exercise center on campus and most mornings they car-pool. They’ve been best friends since they roomed together in college and when Paul’s parents passed away in a train-wreck, Manolo’s Abuela practically adopted him. Manolo is a bit of a horndog, so Paul has been very careful to keep him from meeting Collette. When Paul and Manny go their separate ways for the day, they always say to one another,”Stay gold Pony-boy.”  It’s almost too sickeningly cute.

Circle: Aside from his Spanish-speaking second family, Paul’s circle is pretty small. He’s known and fairly respected in the psych department, but this never really prevents them from gossiping about exactly what happened at Whispering Hills Sanitarium. The department head likes him, but doesn’t want anymore irresponsible talk about that stuff.

Story Uses:

“Sure. But where’s the data?  Don’t try to prove something to me with Math and then back it up with Scripture...”

Paul is beginning to realize the opposite of Virgie's problem. He ALWAYS thought that people who talked about the Occult were full of shit. Now he’s beginning to realize that not all of them are. His role in the PRS is one of always saying. “Look people. It literally doesn’t MATTER what I know. The only thing that matters is what I can PROVE.” Paul IS usually pretty good about not taking arguments personally, and he can admit when he might be wrong. and while he and Virgie fight like an old married couple at times, She seems to know something about him, that he may not know about himself. He's absolutely terrified of the things he’s discovered and yet he wants...no. NEEDS to master this fear of the unknown. For this reason, and a few others, she keeps him around.

“Ok. It’s an interesting idea. I’ll be interested to see where you go with it.”

Paul might make a good mentor for a character at the university. additionally, whether he realizes it or not, he is on the lookout for new people to join the PRS.

Connections:

* As mentioned, makes up the "Scully" half of the PRS to Miss Virgie Hawkins "Mulder" half.

For all their crabbing at one another, he actually likes the old lady and is a bit protective of her. Paul is the one he seems to field all the heat from her oldest son Eldon. Eldon is the first person in years that Paul has wanted to punch in the mouth.

* Has had some long and interesting conversations with Fredrick Wyngarde about various topics in abnormal psychology. He's even seen a few of the plays that Wyngarde has written but they were a little grisly for his taste. Wyngarde's got an interesting take on things and so that's why the conversation continue.

* Dated Clarinda Hale some years ago. It was pretty serious there for a bit. And then...Well, things got weird between them, and Paul still doesn't really understand why. He still sees her occasionally and is a bit worried about her. He's offered to do a sleep study on her, but she waves him off for no reason she can easily articulate.

*Also, knows Dr. Dennis McMurtry but really only in passing. Has no idea that Clarinda and Dennis have a deeper connection.  If he saw them having dinner together, he might get the wrong idea.

*One of his favorite places to a take a date is, of course, Caligari's and he's on a first-name basis with all of the staff. He can even tell the Hernandez sisters apart and order in Spanish. They love him to pieces. 

* Has been to The Grimoire multiple times with Collette and Virgie. He tends to gravitate to Bear and they tend to talk about parapsychology engineering. It's a rare conversation that doesn't involve diagrams hastily written in his little notebook. Luna flirts with Paul. Noel would like to. Penny usually just looks over to Collette and gives her a knowing smile. Shaking her head a little and rolling her eyes.