Roleplaying Character: Anthony Fergus McGregor (for Trinity Continuum)

 "You're one of the laddies working for the Hunts, aren't you? A wee scunner making his living off other people's pain... Go on, scream, nobody'll hear you, or if they do, by the time they get here, it'll be too feckin' late!"

Background: Born into a military family, with a long history of serving in the British Armed Forces, Anthony grew up in Drumchapel, Glasgow, in a house made cold by his father's deep reserve after the first Iraq War. The boy never knew what had happened, though people talked about Gulf War syndrome and PTSD, as if that made any real change to the bouts of sullen sulking, violent outbursts and feeling that his father may have gone to war but a stranger had taken his place. Only his uncle, Daniel McGregor was a saving grace, providing enough guidance that the lad didn't go to pieces, and often restraining his brother - Antony's father. As the boy got older Daniel would take him down the pub, telling him about the things he'd seen and done, and promising to put a good word in for him with his old C.O. 

Nonetheless, Anthony didn't really understand what had happened to his father, or what his uncle was talking about before he signed up and was sent to his first combat theatre, one of the wars the media didn't talk about and was brushed under the carpet by the British government. Officially, he and his comrades were involved in "peace keeping" or "pirate hunting", with little more to explain their actions. McGregor didn't understand it himself, only that there was talk of old experiments, strange phenomena, and occasional mentions of something called the Aeon Society. Whenever important information was found, he and his platoon were sent to stand watch, and they were kept in the dark. He did well, though, rising through the ranks to become an officer over the course of five years. Before too long, he was put forward for a classified training programme headed up by a Dr Jenny Illingsworth, who seemed to know far more about the missions Anthony had undertaken than he was comfortable with, and spent her time trying to figure out something she called a "Flux Trigger", examining soldiers under various stress conditions to see if something happened to them... something she never seemed to be able to fully articulate, or held herself back from explaining. 

Anthony would later learn that the Doctor had a long history of experimentation on soldiers, trying to make a super soldier for the Ministry of Defence and the COBRA committee. She'd gained access to journals written by members of the Aeon Society during the Adventure! period (to go a touch meta) and had used the information therein to galvanise her work. The soldier still isn't sure what she exactly she was trying to achieve, but she seemed to believe that certain events could force humans to evolve to a higher level, allowing them to access extraordinary abilities that would serve the United Kingdom well. 

The missions Anthony and his squad undertook were much the same as before, but now involved raids on research facilities, attempts to acquire strange technology on the black market, and stop terrorists from purchasing the most bizarre things - ranging from ancient tablets and papyri to living specimens which might have been alien in origin. Later, the soldier would come to understand he'd spent those years on the threshold of the world presented by the Aeon Society and its ilk. However it wasn't until South America that he became a true part of that world. The op sounded much like any other, recover an item from a Colombian arms dealer who was taking advantage of the chaos in that country to shift experimental pieces of technology to the United States. During the operation, Anthony's team were lured deeper into the rain forest, until they entered an area that, as they discovered swiftly, was a killing zone. Within 24 hours, most of the squad was dead, and Anthony had been badly wounded. Nonetheless, he overcame the threat, leaving a swathe of destruction and carnage in his wake before passing out. 

The Hospital: When he awoke, he was back in Britain, being monitored in a private hospital he later learned was part of a complex on a Hebridean island unlisted on any maps. As he recovered, he learned that the hunters had been part of a rich elite who hunted people for sport, before being instructed to forget all about them. They didn't exist, just like the other things he'd encountered on Her Majesty's service didn't.

That would have been the end of the matter, and of his career. They told him he wasn't able to continue to serve, that something was wrong with his mind, and he'd need an extensive course of therapy. This seemed to involve a room with a strange machine and a 'therapist' who tried to suppress or remove the memories of what he'd experienced. When Anthony refused to comply, he was subjected to more extreme 'therapies' to make him obey, but something inside the man had changed. It was as if he was stronger and more resistant than before. Within two weeks, he joined together with another soldier, Hamish Campbell, who'd had a similar experience in the Himalayas, and together they broke out, stole a boat and headed to the mainland. There, they disappeared, travelling first to Amsterdam, then Addis Ababa, before separating. Hamish is out there, somewhere, but Anthony hasn't spoken to him in years, though he does try to keep track of him. So far, he's learned that he's worked for various tin pot dictators, and seems content to work doing whatever dirty jobs people will pay him to perform. 

Private Security: Anthony initially took work as a mercenary, trying to lose himself in fighting, before he eventually signed on as a bodyguard for a paranoid American socialite, one Yazmin Osorio. A powerful woman, whose sister had disappeared on a trip to Ibiza, Yazmin feared she would suffer the same fate and was desperate for help. This led to Anthony being smuggled into the USA, specifically Florida, where he quickly discovered that someone was hunting humans again, this time on Miami's neon tinged streets. Something about the situation prompted him to take action, moonlighting when his employer was asleep and somebody else was on watch. Fearing the situation was too close to Yazmin's past, he kept her in the dark, never letting on that something else had attracted his attention even when he was exhausted.

His investigations led to a chance encounter with an FBI Special Agent, Malcolm Forbes, who was investigating the same case - after Miami's police had dismissed the murders as unimportant. Together they tracked the killer down and killed him. Only afterwards, did Anthony learn the murderer was part of the same group he'd encountered in the Colombian rain forest, and it was shortly after that that Forbes invited him to join the Theseus Club, explaining the group was dedicated to hunting down murderers and those who willing to take their love of blood sports to a sickening level. It didn't take long for him to say yes, and to this day, he remains dedicated to locating the Hunts' organisers and putting a stop to them. Forbes had mentored Anthony, inducting him into the Club proper, and he remains a valuable contact.

Anthony remains in touch with Yazmin, who has undergone her own moment of Inspiration, and sometimes works alongside him on cases based in Florida (the pair are both based permanently in Miami now, though their adventures take them all over the world). He remains in touch with his Uncle, and has re-established ties with Dr. Illingsworth, after she fled her own project after a group called KING:14 took over the Ministry of Defence's research into the strange technology she'd discovered. 

Together they've discovered that an all American group, similar to the Society of Minos, has sprung up and runs regular Hunts across the globe. Calling themselves The Halcyon Lodge, they recruit bored and idle billionaires, and their scions, offering them diversions... until they are ready to begin the Lodge's actual sport. 

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As ever the character sheet is here. I haven't outfitted the character with any gear, and you might not feel the Aspirations are particularly good (I confess I'm not good at coming up with those). As ever this character is free, you're welcome to download and play him or use him as an NPC.

I feel like I may have gone a little dark with this character, as I'm not sure if secret wars to control tech and weird artefacts from earlier parts of the Continuum are exactly intended by the game's authors. It is, however, where my brain went with the background. There's a touch of British shows like The Avengers in there, and probably more elements of Kim Newman's Diogenes Club stories there too. 

If you're interested (and please let me know if you are), I'll work at developing some of the elements I created for this, from Dr Illingsworth's experiments, the Ministry of Defence's work with the technology and artefacts from the Aeon and Adventure! eras, and KING: 14. I might even work out what KING stands for. However, I don't want to commit to anything too big, so I... well I probably won't do anything with them, really.