Concept: Novelist turned Serial Killer
AKA: TJ has a bewildering number of names really. Old friends and people he went to school with know him as “Jonesy” and he often introduces himself this way. He writes his horror novels as “T. Rutherford” his occasional crime and detective fiction as “TJ Ford” and he still writes the occasional romance novel as “L.D. Cooper” (Say what you want, they got him through the lean times when he was starting out.)
Desc: TJ is middling short. He wears glasses because he’s put a LOT of mileage on his eyes. He’s mixed race but passing as white. His hair tends to come in dark and curly, but he tends to keep his dome shaved. He just likes the way it feels. On any given day, he’ll likely wear a T-shirt and sweatpants and if he has to go out, he’ll wear chucks. But he has a closet full of many different types of clothing and he can really wear anything and make it look good. He tends towards a serious mein. Although he does have a nice smile. His eyes are a pale grey. he has a mild stutter. He’s worked on it ever since he was a kid. It doesn’t trouble him so much anymore unless he is very very stressed out.
History: His parents had a bit of money, and his mama was a heavy reader, so he picked that up early. And pretty much anything that was on Mama’s shelf was considered fair game. He was maybe 10 when he read a novel entitled, “The World According to Garp” by John Irving. And pretty much from there, his fate was sealed.
There was something impossibly romantic to him about writing. He started early, writing a high fantasy series of novels that he shared with his junior high classmates. He worked hard and got himself a decent scholarship to go to a good school where he majored in English and Psychology. He learned how to turn himself into a word machine. None of this waiting around for the “Muse” to turn up. Not for TJ. It was how he managed to get out of school ahead of schedule. He had CLEP examed out of many of his general studies and was doing independent studies in the back half of his junior year. Truly. He types like the wind.
After school. He got himself a gig working retail and in the evenings he wrote. His favorite has always been horror fiction, followed closely by the detective fiction. If there’s something that TJ absolutely loves, it’s learning about things. He’s never been what you would call an overnight sensation. He’s never going to have that Stephen King “fuck you” money. But he’s got some fans in each of the genres he works in and he’s made a name for himself among publishers as being low maintenance and able to turn in work on time. Now, because his needs are simple, he’s effectively independently wealthy.
And you know, That would likely be the end of the story right there. If it hadn’t been for his father being killed. Jim Rutherford had been a hard working civil engineer all of his life and while he and his bookish son didn’t always have a lot in common, they did love one another and they did love mama. Jim was pulled over in a traffic stop one night. You might have read about it. Apparently, while being calmly questioned by law enforcement professionals due to his resemblance to an assailant reported in the area, Mr. Rutherford went berserk and attacked 6 police officers. In order to preserve their lives. they were forced to shoot Mr. Rutherford 19 times.
That was the official story of course. It’s really too bad for all of them that TJ was the first person they located to identify the body. Because TJ was able to identify defensive wounds and cuff marks on the wrist. Naturally, there was a stink. However, a grand jury cleared all of the police involved quietly and months after the fact.
To say that Mama didn’t take it well is an understatement. She’s getting treatment now for clinical depression and has moved in with some old girlfriends. But for a while there it was touch and go. She still drinks and smokes a bit more than is strictly healthy for her.
And TJ? Well. It’s perhaps dramatic to say that he cracked. It wasn’t like that. For the first time in years, he couldn’t write. Couldn’t even stand to read. Didn’t want to talk to anyone about it. He spent a few weeks just sitting on his couch and watching tv.
Then one night he woke up from sleep with a plan on the edge of his mind. He called up some police that he knew and started asking questions. Mind you, they knew him as TJ Ford and he asked questions, as writers will do. Not pointed questions though. Not direct. But he asked enough questions to be able to get a good idea of where to look for the names of the police directly involved with his father’s slaying. And he already knew where Hanlon’s, the cop bar, was. If nothing else, he could watch the place and follow half-sloshed cops home.
He picked them off. One by one. Each of them in a different way. Two he poisoned. One he attacked in the guy’s own house and tased him in the neck. They never DID find that guy’s body. One officer's apartment exploded. and another left his family in the morning and just never came home. They found him crucified out in the country somewhere. Each of the crime scenes scrupulously free of useful evidence.
That should have been the end of it honestly. But once you’ve started down a road like this, it’s hard to stop. Especially when you see African Americans, Latinos, and even deaf people and developmentally delayed people suffering the same things that his father had. The media may even be slowly waking up to this longstanding pattern of police behavior, but it certainly isn’t stopping it, and they are just as happy to turn some young black man who menaced a cop with a “gun” (Read=sandwich) into either a saint, or a burgeoning crime boss and probably a satanist too.
So occasionally, TJ is forced to go on the hunt again. He may see something on the news. Or maybe in the paper...and he’ll start having trouble sleeping...and writing. And once the words dry up. Well. It’s just a matter of time.
Attitude: “Look. I didn’t start out to do this. Maybe you do have a hard job and no one is paying attention to the idea that maybe you have PTSD or something like that...But I’ve been following you for months. And it’s not that. You’re kind of a racist fuckhead. So. I’m going to put this box on your head, and when I do, you’ll get to meet Randy. But you won’t want to get him upset. He’ll sting you if you do...”
Skills: Physically, he’s nothing special. He’s got essentially a “dad bod” He’s trying to get in a bit of running because he already knows he needs to be in better physical condition if he’s going to hunt cops. He’s learned to use a taser, and he’s actually getting pretty damn good with the blow gun and the dart pistol.
Socially, he’s a bit of a chameleon. Strong on Manipulation. He always has been this way. He has a good ear for the way people express themselves and can slide into social interactions with little preamble. He tends to set animals off though. They can sense something of the hunter in him. He is, of course, active in about a dozen different places online and reads about 100 RSS feeds.
On the mental side. He’s ridiculous. 4 in everything, 4 dots in academics(Specs in English, Research,) some dots in medicine (With specialties in psychology and toxicology) Dots in Occult, normally reserved for his horror writing, but there are options which I’ll discuss below. and dots in Investigation. He’s also got some dots in Science with specs in forensics and in improvised explosives. He’s also picked up some Larceny.
Gear: In the toolbox of TJ’s truck there is a large tool bag which has necessary materials. His stun gun, taser, Blow guns, and his dart pistol is there along with a few ampoules of useful toxins and hallucinogens. He’s bought a number of lock picking tools. (Mail order, all through a remailing service, of varying levels of usefulness.) Also, there’s a tarp, shovels, Bungie cords bought in bulk from Costco. Latex gloves from rite aid and all the usually forensic defeating chemicals.
His phone is pretty gee whizzy, but he still carries his Kindle because he never wants to be without a book at any point, and he can size up the text easier than the phone.
Home: Technically, He owns the family home. But he holds it in trust for his mother and her roommates. Every once in a while, he’ll go around there to fix something. Unless it’s something big and he can’t glean the basics from a youtube video. In which case he’ll hire out. He covers the house insurance.
After his dad was killed and he went into a bad place, he went out and purchased a mobile home. He’s never exactly needed a lot of space. It’s a single wide. He has his bedroom with the blacked out windows (“I work odd hours. I’m not cooking meth or anything weird in there.”) The other bedroom is essentially where he goes to relax and read. He keeps his office in the “Living room” and has a TV which is normally tuned to a news station or just music of some sort as wallpaper. He also maintains a studio apartment which has another computer that syncs all his devices once per day. The studio apartment is where he keeps gear for his hunting, he calls it the “Workshop”. The Workshop and his single wide are each armed with motion detectors that fit over the doorknobs and will go off if the knob is tried. These are connected to his phone. The landlord at the studio apartment has FINALLY gotten the goddamn message about calling him prior to sending in the guy in to spray for pests. TJ keeps the place clean.
Circle: TJ has a few friends around town and he’s gone out of his way to become professionally friendly with a number of people. Cops and criminals alike. He buzzes the occult scene every once in a while especially if he’s writing about some aspect of it that he’s only read about. But he’s not really a known name. He’s discovered that if you tell someone that you’re a writer, The people who don’t know dick will talk your ear off, and the people who DO know dick, will clam up.
It probably bears mentioning even though it has exactly no bearing on his activities, TJ is Asexual. After high school, he bumped into the concept of asexuality in one of his psychology courses and was utterly relieved that there was a name for what he was and that he wasn’t alone. This precipitated a long talk with his current “girlfriend” (They are still friends) and an even longer one with his parents. (Mama is still sad about no grandchildren.) In any case, TJ is relieved at least that he doesn’t really have anyone in his life that he has to explain anything to except his literary agent.
Story Uses: “Are you aware that if you get capsaicin in your eye, you can die from shock?”
I think I need to tackle this section on story uses a bit differently than normal. Thomas is, as written, a dangerous, but ultimately human killer of cops. While your attitude towards law enforcement professionals may go all over the map, the one thing that can’t be elided is that he hasn’t stopped at revenge of the original 5 and that he seems to take an inordinate amount of delight in terrifying them horribly before dispatching them.
This might seem to take TJ in a couple of different directions. For those thinking to keep him essentially human, The addition of a hedge magus template might be useful. You might also use him as a spirit urged or claimed individual which will give him a little more juice. He might find common cause with a seductive murder spirit or maybe a twisted “justice” spirit.
If you are in proud possession of a copy of Beast: the Primordial, You could posit that TJ is a beast or even that one of the cops of the original five was one and that he’s some twisted form of Hero. Either is possible. Last, but certainly not least, is the idea that Thomas has become a Slasher of some sort.
Connections:
*He actually knows and thinks well of Officer Karl Richter. That relationship will get real complicated real quick if you make TJ into a Beast, or give Karl the slightest inkling of what's going on.
* Has met Charlotte Wilson and talked writer stuff with her. Charlotte, for her part, is confused that he doesn't seem gay, and yet does not even look at her tits. Not even once.
* Thomas keeps a fifth of decent whiskey in the truck at all times in case he sees Tim Deacon or Charlie out on the street. Tim normally passes it off to someone else, but in both cases, Thomas is just paying for interesting stories.
* Chris Murphy Depending on how supernatural you make TJ, Chris might make a ready ally. In any event, Chris has twigged and might be helping behind the scenes.
* Has struck up an acquaintance with Rosalie Prescott. It's sensible, He's up at weird hours. He's seen some of her art. He likes her and her kid. He's even asked his agent about the particulars of commissions for cover art just to see if he can kick some business in her direction. She, of course, knows none of this.
* Went to high school with Jack Marston and still keeps in touch via Facebook. He recommends music and Thomas recommends books. Jack is always good for interesting stories about the bondsman business. Thomas is actually thinking about basing a character on Jack.
* Officer Wesley Ullman "I have a sneaking suspicion I'm going to have to do something about this guy at some point."
* Special Agent Owen Maccready "Love this guy. Great to talk to. understands a LOT about how the mind works.Interviewed him a couple of times for various books. I have to be extra careful about M.O. so that none of my killings get classed as serial killings. I mean, some of the occult trappings alone would put him in the field. Looking for me. I don't think he'd understand."
*T.C. Mitnick "Asked around online about computer crime and ended up paying this guy to tell me some of the things he'd done. Interesting character. Later, I ended up making another approach for some actual "Work". Thankfully. He was willing."
* Rory O'Halloran "Rory's my boy He read some of my junior high books. Good guy. GREAT cook.
* Clavo Hernandez TJ got referred to Clavo by a mutual friend. TJ told Clavo a mostly true story about needing documents for multiple pseudonyms. He said he was trying to maintain a sense of mystery about himself for his horror and detective fiction reader. Of course, he also told Clavo that he works in about three more genres than he actually does. Those identification papers are all safe as houses in his "workshop" should a need to skip the country arises.
* Norman Cayce "Talk to this guy pretty regularly. Have to keep notes, so I don't accidentally do something to a cop that we've talked about. Norman's sharp.
* The Borland Farm "Yeah. I may have heard about that place."
* Dr. Ronnette Franklin "Yeah. Ronnie and I dated in college... Our relationship is complicated. But there's nothing I wouldn't do for her. Still.
* Officer Honus Brightwater "Let's just say he's on a list."
