Name: Nicholas White-Eyes
Age: 43
Gender: Male
Race: Changeling, Shadowlurker

Appearance: Something seems off about Nicholas. He towers at six feet and six inches, with an unnatural thinness about him like a leafless autumn tree; yet wiry arms and spider-finger hands have a toughness to them, taken from years of hard knocks in the field. A darker tone of olive plays across his skin and a few fine threads of gray pepper his short black hair and roughshod goatee. He has a thin face, slight Spanish nose, and wide, full lips that do not often see a smile. But his most startling feature is his pale, white eyes, the color of moon shine. His cold and blank stare seems to look at everything and nothing all at once. He blinks rarely and does so with an unnerving deliberation. A jagged pink line runs straight down from the top of his nose to his Adam’s apple. He’s not told a soul how he got the scar, but from the corner of your eye it almost seems to twitch. He dresses in a slate grey button down shirt with a maroon tie paired with belted dark brown dress slacks. Often, he throws on an earthy brown sports coat with a two pockets on either side, filled with Trinkets touched by the Wyrd. He uses a shoulder holster to carry a .45 SIG Sauer GSR for ease and accessibility.

Of course, this is the appearance of his Mask, a face beheld by mortals untouched by the Wyrd. The eyes of the supernatural can see (or smell) the truth of Nicholas White-Eyes. But telling you this soon wouldn’t be fun at all would it?

Personality:
Nicholas is a driven man, woefully obsessed with the details. Deliberate and methodical. Unafraid of hours and hours of tedium 'just to be safe'. One can never shake the feeling that Nicholas is not looking at you but behind behind you. He has an admirable tenacity and unmatched dedication that is at times frightening. Once he is set on a goal, he cannot be dissuaded. Yet he is not unbendable. He may sound the retreat and slink away to his shadows looking for a different approach, an angle he missed. He always comes back to redouble his efforts using that infallible intuition of his. In the end, he always gets his mark. A pragmatic man, using every tool at his disposal, weaving a web of allies and resources to his ends. He can be manipulative at times. He can be very…persuasive when he feels the need. One should pray he does not. He is as deliberate in fury as is in all things. You can’t remember the last time you saw him laughing or smiling. (Perhaps in the company of a certain Neko girl. Perhaps) A stoic through and through.

History:
He was born and raised in south Texas. His parents were immigrants from south of the border and had trouble adjusting to American life. Eventually, he moved up north to Boston with his uncle after a familial dispute. After applying himself fully to his studies and using his talent for deduction and eye for detail, he joined the Boston Police Department and steadily worked his way up to the rank of Detective. Ironically enough, he specialized in missing persons cases. One dusk just before sunset he ran afoul of the sociopathic, insane, and powerful True Fae during one of his investigations. These beings, also known as the Fair Folk, the Others, or the Gentry, dragged Nicholas to the mad realm of Arcadia, where reality bound itself to the will of Faeries. His Keeper drowned Nicholas in their abyssal realm for a Durance (time of captivity) of ten long years. Somehow, he found the will to survive and made his way back to the mortal realm. But he was forever marked by the Wyrd, the strange, capricious magic underpinning the power of the Fair Folk. He was altered to be part human and part Fae. His time crawling in the dark recesses of Arcadia had turned him into a Darkling, one of the boogiemen skulking in the shadows. Nicholas had become a Changeling.

But he was not alone. He was taken in by the hidden community of Changelings from all walks of life in the Boston Freehold and allowed a new start. He joined the enigmatic and occult Autumn Court, one of four seasonal courts governing the Changelings and found a place in the Scarecrow Ministry, a group dedicated to keeping away the Fae by investigating supernatural activity that could attract the interest of the Fae and isolate, neutralize, or contain these factors. He worked to uphold the semblance of normality held by mortal man, the Masquerade, by keeping men away from places where the Wyrd bled into the mortal world. He worked to spread fear and myth in a supernatural Scooby-Doo hoax for the greater good. The fellowship of monsters gave Nicholas the support he needed to deal with the trauma of his Durance and his loss of self.

The bloodless murders spreading through the city have gained the attention of the Ministry and the Changeling community at large. The Ministry has assigned Nicholas to investigate these murders to determine if they are the work of human hands or something far more sinister, that could awake the capricious attentions of the Fae.

Abilities/Weaknesses:
As a Changeling, Nicholas draws power from Contracts, which are ancient agreements which the True Fae made with the elements of reality and passed on to their human captives to keep them from dying during their Durance. He is also a Darkling, a Shadowlurker, one who lives and breathes in the shadows where no light has touched. He may enter into shadows, partially or wholly, navigating through the Shade through the magical binds tying together all shadows. He claims to never forget the taste of a shadow.

Nicholas is bound to a Contract of Darkness. This deal made with shadow itself allows him to use darkness to entangle and restrain his enemies in thick, fibrous tendrils or to drag a living thing into the Shade. However he must draw on a limited pool of Glamour, a reserve Fae magic, replenished by consuming strong emotions. When his Glamour is depleted, shadows refuse him harbour and the Mask shielding his true face can be seen by mortal and supernatural alike.

Additionally, his binds to the Changeling's Autumn Court and the Scarecrow Ministry grant him additional powers, derived from fear. With permission of the Court and under the right conditions, he can learn of a person’s fear and invoke that fear. The Ministry provides each member with a Bugbear mask, allowing them once every night to look a person in the eyes and inspire crippling fear in them.

Lastly, he has more mundane abilities. A concealed firearms liscence and firearm training is quite useful. He also knows how to throw a solid one-two punch.

Of course, these abilities come at a price. Nicholas has lost some things that made him human for this power, such as the taste of chocolate, seven month’s worth of restful sleep, and the memory of his mother’s voice. Little rituals are necessary every so often to renew the Contracts, such as spending an hour away from natural light or swallowing a spider that has literally been scared to death. The Autumn Courts demand a pledge of obedience and loyalty as do the Scarecrow Ministry, with the consequences of betrayal ranging from a lengthy duration of muteness to banishment from the Freehold.

During the day, Nicholas has great difficulty accessing any of his Contracts and in direct sunlight he finds it nearly impossible. He is especially vulnerable to sources of projected light, such as a high powered flash light, a flare gun, or any magical fire. His web of Pledges bind him to certain conduct and breaking those pledges result in fates worth than death. He has loved ones. A precious few, but they are a weakness that can be exploited. Prolonged use of a Contract strains his ability to maintain his Mask, the glamour keeping his true form from mortals, and the very nature of Contracts addles the minds of Changelings. Living with knowledge that reality is not constant challenges Nicholas’s sanity and has resulted in recurring nightmares and the occasional hallucination. But despite these sacrifices, Nicholas holds onto his identity and uses his abilities for the good of the Freehold.