Stephen Cox
Further Information
Height: 5'11
Hair: Dark (usually brown but sometimes dyed black)
Eye color: Green
Clothing: Either jeans and a witty physics shirt, or a collared shirt and khakis if he is attempting to look respectable
Obvious traits: Angelic Visage(Appearance), Personal Masquerade, Humanity 5
- 1981 - Born in Norfolk, VA
- 2000 - Begins undergrad at Virginia Tech
- Spring 2006 - Graduates with a BS in String Theory and a MS in Astrophysics
- Fall 2006 - Begins Ph.D program at UNC
- January 2010 - Defends thesis, “The Mechanics of Black Hole Gravitation and Its Effects on the Underlying Hidden Dimensions of Spacetime.”
- April 23, 2010 - Embraced by Tenebrae, a Sabbat Lasombra Abyss Mystic
- Early 2011 - Attends first Esbat. Meets Nevyn, who helps Stephen escape
- Mid-late 2011 - Meets Marcel Trevisani, who helps Stephen come to terms with what he experienced at the hands of his sire.
- 2012 - Settles in Raleigh, NC and begins to build a new life
- Circa 2015 - Meets Evelyn Mitchell, a fellow vampire academic going through her residency
- Early 2017 - Stephen secures funding for his research via a "mysterious benefactor."
- Late 2017 - Meets Teuta on a visit to Georgia Tech in Atlanta. The two quickly become friends
- Mid-2018 - Attends the Toreador Ball (National Historical Game)
- January 2021 - Joins the Anarch Movement, sponsored by Joan Jordan
A postdoc researcher at UNC, Dr. Stephen Cox is part of a team that investigates and studies black hole mechanics and the effects of the presence of a singularity on space-time. (Pending VIP Approval) He is known as a minor contributor to the Event Horizon Telescope Project, serving as a data validation expert to ensure the data is sensical and free of potential errors. While he is dedicated to this research, it’s also a front for validating a more serious, personal project: A theory that black holes are entrances to the Abyss. Though he is reluctant to talk much about his research to non-scientist vampires, he is also incredibly enthusiastic to discuss his research when he finds others of his kind who take a genuine interest in it.
Stephen is deeply uneasy around significantly older vampires and thaumaturges or necromancers. Whoever is funding him more than likely has very deep pockets and with it quite a bit of leverage over Stephen. He doesn’t really hide his reasons for avoiding older vampires: They’re bigger predators and he doesn’t want their attention lest it turn out to be to his detriment. His discomfort with Thaumaturges and Necromancers is left a bit more vague, usually explained with a shrug as, “Bad things happen around me with magic.”
His most common way of breaking the ice and building friendships with others (other than talking about science) is performing “street magic.” Cardistry, sleight of hand, mentalism, they are all impromptu illusions he is more than happy to entertain others with. He claims (perhaps a bit tongue in cheek) it’s to “normalize simple thaumaturgical effects so mortals aren’t suspicious if they see them.” He takes the Masquerade seriously, normally reluctant to overtly use his powers of the blood even in Masquerade safe locations.
Stephen finds many of the callous practices older vampires casually employ to protect the Masquerade horrifying, such as wiping the minds of mortals, and generally clings to his Humanity like a life raft. Employing ghouls is a topic he is conflicted on: While he recognizes their use and almost necessity, he feels the requirement of fully blood bonding them is an awful way to live, no matter how well their regnant treats them. He is reluctant to speak to Pathbound vampires, much less approach them first, and tends to gravitate towards younger groups of individuals whom he can more easily relate to.
- Stephen's cat is not actually a ghoul, it's an Abyssal creature he befriended that just took up residence in his home
- Stephen's cat is actually a Flerken
- He has a mortal girlfriend who just thinks he's always awake at night because "that's when stars are out, duh."
- Someone commissioned him to Shadowcraft a Masterwork sex toy for an "unknown beneficiary," much to his mortification. It took him two months to perfect it.
- He has more than two degrees, he's just being modest. Some say four. Some say as many as ten.
- Teuta claims she met Stephen when he was trying to seduce a sorority girl at a party at GA Tech so he could feed and failing miserably, so she took pity on him and helped him out. He vehemently insists this was not the case.
- When he draws too heavily on the Abyss, or spends too much time Walking the Abyss, he becomes an extension of the Abyss rather than the other way around.
- Gabriella and Stephen take walks regularly to talk about how pretty they are.
- There might be life-sized cardboard cutouts of him in the nude that exist. Good luck finding them.
- Created an Abyssal sword named Event Horizon that will pull your soul into the Abyss
- Is part of a polycule that calls themselves "Fuck Around And Find Out."
- Stephen's sire calls themselves Tenebrae; they are responsible for numerous atrocities during the Crusades in the early 2000's
- He is a prodigy with the Abyss: He learned to Abyss Walk within 6 months of his Embrace, and mastered Obtenebration within a year
- His biological sister is Jackie Cox
- "Reality doesn't care if you don't believe it." -Stephen Cox
- "I have a certain fondness for the Lasombra, but Stephen is my favorite little shadow, for... reasons." -Eleanor "El" Bisset-Caesarea
- ”Oh, my sweet, handsome Angel boy...” - Gabriella
- "I cherish Stephen, because he's one of the very few people I find myself being completely, unabashedly myself around. It's a strange juxtaposition of fully embracing the absurdity of our lives as Kindred and still somehow being the men we've always been, rather than Kindred who were once these people." - Dr. Marcel Trevisani
- "I like Stephen. He's smart, can drink as hard as I do and he's almost as pretty as me. That's hard to find in one person." - Fiadh
- "Guess we can't playfully nudge Daniel anymore,right? There is strength in trauma that Tar Heels all face which is probably the reason for my fondness for all of them." -Banks
- "Just so fuckin' cute." - Finley Welles
- "Stephen is like adding a black hole and a genius together and somehow getting sass as the result. I have no idea how that happened but am nonetheless pleased with the outcome!" - Fiadh
- "A brilliant scientist, whom I take great joy in funding the work of and so dreamy... The stars are jealous of him." - Cypress Barton
- "How many people stumble through life, perpetually dissatisfied in their search for meaning? Dr. Cox is free to have his misgivings, but I have never had a ghoul who felt they lacked purpose." - Zoltan Vancura
- "He's a dick, but I mean he's a Lasombra so kinda comes with the territory. One of the Hottest people I know though so best be careful around this bad boy." - Kenneth Bilge
- "Stephen has great potential, but before he can fully embrace his gifts he must first expand his understanding of the world around him." - Nissim Melamed
- "The danger is that we grow too used to it, and become people who kill too quickly, too readily. It is good to be surrounded by bleeding hearts like Stephen, because as annoying as they are most of the time, they are sometimes right: There is sometimes a better way. I try very hard to remember that killing should not be the first solution to every problem. Tonight it was right, but it is not always." - Mace
- "Sure, he's brilliant and witty, but also, the things he can do with shadows... mmm" - Agatha Palmerstone
- “I worry about this kid sometimes. But I will do my best to watch over him when he’s in my sphere. I just... won’t mention that to him.” - Aoife Kennedy
- "..hehe... hehehe... Cox..." - Mutt
| Player | Phil Wallace |
|---|---|
| Pronouns | He/Him |
| MES # | US2003021226 |
| Domain | NC-006-D |
| Storyteller | Karl Fox (DST) |
