Ted Galange

 Backstory  ((DRAFT 1.56938743))

He was the guardian of Seattle. A legend in his own time. A silent, unknown hero of the city, and slayer of monsters. His name was Rory Galange.

And now he isn't here anymore.

Theodore Jeffery Galange, is this man's son. Born to his father twenty-two years ago, and a mystery woman that was apparently his mother, Ted was raised under his father's watchful eye, and under those of the men and women that worked under him. His father was caring, but also quite militaristic and gruff. Rory actually made his living running an Auto Parts store in town, but most of his specialized weaponry was donated. While his father was out fighting the good fight, Ted was kept home, out of harms way, usually guarded by someone. Rory never really tried to keep what he did a secret from Ted, and mostly told him things in prepared doses until the whole truth was out. He figured it was either that or having Ted get hurt trying to figure out what his father did at night. Ted idolized his father, seeing the man as borderline invincible. And despite his work, Rory did his best to be there for his son. Eventually, Ted managed to convince his father to teach him some of the tricks of his trade, though Rory was still staunchly against Ted actually participating. And despite Ted how put together a hand gun, hide weapons in his clothing, and the joys of demolitions, he was never allow to participate. The only thing Rory was more resistant about was telling Ted who his mother was exactly. He never seemed angry or afraid of telling Ted, Rory just refused politely.

Ted was, and still is, socially awkward and introverted. He does have a sparkling personality, it's just buried underneath a thick shell of silence and awkward expressions. Ted always tried to get along with the other kids at school, but the proper words never really came to him, and he ended up with few friends in the long run. The friends he did manage to gain led him down a path of intense nerdiness, from comic books to obscure imported video games. And eventually, that pure awkwardness was replaced by a calm and quiet demeanor, still socially inept in general conversation though. Though Ted wasn't necessarily unattractive, he was also mostly dateless for the majority of his run through middle and high school, and he still doesn't have much luck. Ted did seem to get along better with the people in his father's 'gang' though. Some sort of shared knowledge of that secret war they fought pulled them together. His one steady girlfriend was the daughter of his father's right hand man (though said relationship only lasted a year).

But unlike his father, who was a natural born leader, Ted was far more clever and intelligent. He did well in school, and was very good at a variety of more complex games. And sometimes toying the idea of more practical applications of planning...though his father never quite allowed Ted to participate in that. So the boy was mostly left with coming up with a variety of pretend showdowns in notebooks and on scrap paper. And, though Ted was bad with people, he was fairly good with Dogs, Cats, and other animals, oddly enough. He never quite understood it himself, so he just assumed it was some innate talent or something. Regardless, it wasn't something that helped him that much.

Despite being clever enough to thwart the majority of his authority figures, Ted was well behaved, and while not necessarily morally upright, he did do his best to at least be nice to people he respected. And make terrible jokes about people he didn't. Due to his quiet nature, said jokes generally never reached the ears of those they were about.

Rory's 'gang' protected Seattle from the supernatural...or anything else weird. At first, Rory's band was small, and only protected a few neighborhoods, but they slowly spread, until the entire city was under their protection. The man even wrote a coded manual for slaying the supernatural solely from his experiences, using the lyrics of old classic rocks songs as a basis for the codes. Using a variety of specialized munitions, explosives, and a few more...less reliable prototypes built by some of the hunters, Rory and his compatriots held their ground, and flushed out anything abnormal they could find. The supplies began to flood in from locale sources, sporting good stores and people just interested in donating, and some...less locale companies, interested in testing out their weaponry on more dangerous game. Eventually, it worked. And for a few years, things were quiet.

Then Rory got a letter, tied in blue lace. Ted thought nothing of it, but he soon learned that his father had torched the letter, and the man began acting anxious. A few days later, Rory announced to Ted that he needed to go on a trip, and he would be back soon. Ted was seventeen. And never saw his father again.

Without Rory, the city slowly fell back to it's old state. The gang tried to hold, but they started losing members, to their very prey, or to the fact they simply ran away. The vast stores of weaponry once had dwindled, for various reasons. Confiscated, stolen, broken, the works. The few that remained helped Ted out through the rest of his years at high school, and into a few at the local community college, studying psychology and sociology. Eventually, Ted got fed up, and began practicing to be like his father, and prowl the streets and night destroying what haunted them. Unlike his father, he did not have the charisma to lead, and he mostly hunted alone. He was successful at protecting a few streets, but that was it.

And then, history repeated itself.

Ted received his own letter tied in blue lace. It read,

"Theodore...your mother misses you very much...please come home.

- Annabelle Harding"

The letter was sent from some place in Atlanta, Georgia. Now with a lead, Ted said goodbye to the AutoParts store that provided for him, given now that he was technically the co-owner, and left to search for his father and find the source of the letter. And he brought hell and every one of his guns with him. Well what was left of his guns. His dad's old hunting rifle, a handgun, a hunting knife, an axe, a shotgun he had bought himself, and a copy of his father's 'guidebook', though Ted had only managed to crack three of the chapters.