Alexander Engel

Background
Alexander Engel was a child of curiosity. Born on December 13th, 1991- Oddly enough, Friday the thirteenth- he was always interested in what wasn't. Born in Boston to middle class parents, his father of German descent, his mother a great melting pot of European flavors, young Alex had the chance to live as normal a life a child could ask for.

Alex, however, did not ask for a normal life. In fact normalcy was what he was least interested in. From an early age, he threw himself into fantasy, visions of wizards and dragons and knights filling his eyes. By the time he had become a teenager, he had grown to accept the fact that his worlds of fantasy weren't real. Still, he was determined never to change his course to that of a simple, boring life.

He spent his weekends prowling the aisles and stacks of the Boston Public library, reading whatever caught his fancy; he took a shine to psychology early on, latter taking in a bit of biology and a good deal of computer skills, with using them, building them, as well as dabling a bit in artificial intelligence. He wasn't the most active of children, but he picked up some basic skills with blades and pistols from his father, who had spent a few years in the army. His school days became an intense social experiment, poking and prodding the minds of his fellow students- his successes causing their actions to mesh together like predictable clockwork gears, his failures resulting in bullying, detentions, and social ostracizing- at least until he could slip back into the cracks of his school's social hierarchy.

Speaking of clocks, he spent his afternoons exploring the many wondrous shops of the great city, finding enjoyment in the clock and watch makers that worked their craft in tiny shops crammed between apartments. These artisans did not sacrifice their art for the profit that a larger company might make, assembling their devices by machine. There was something magical to Alex about this, the way that a craftsman might, through time and dedication, put a bit of himself into his creations.

Alex came to love the sight of polished brass gears, set in boxes of clear glass, able to watch a machine's inner existence work as one could never do for a human being. These machines held no mysteries, they bore their existence for all the world to see. He saw a beautiful innocence in this, and dreamed of making machines himself, ones of such complexity that they could mimic life, and that you could look inside them and see what powered them, see what guided their actions.

Despite this love of brass and glass, Alex found himself, at the age of 16, under the wing of a man of a much different aesthetic. The man referred to himself simply as Geppetto. Geppetto was a marionette designer and puppeteer. There was a certain quality about this kindly old man, that seemed to allow him to bring his puppets to life. They sang and danced with a life that seemed impossible to Alex, but worked before his very eyes.

Geppetto always warned Alex never to touch his dolls, as they were very delicate. However, we all know of the hubris of youth. Unable to contain his curiosity, Alex approached the dolls while Geppetto wasn't watching. With that, something miraculous happened. He saw the dolls, alive, and conversing with each other. Hidden away from the rest of the world, these dolls laughed and played with each other, with no care in the world. Something changed in Alex, then. He realized that these dolls were truly alive, simple wood and paint, talking and moving, with minds of their own. He wondered, if wood and paint could be brought to life, why not the same with metal and gears? He saw potential, for life, everywhere. Living, thinking beings, where before there had simply been...things. The possibilities multiplied before his eyes, and with that, he catalyzed as a genius.

Geppetto was a genius himself. As an Artificer, his passion in life was to simply work his craft, and give them true life, instead of the pale facsimile marionettes are forced to settle for. Taking responsibility, he took the fledgling Genius under his wing, teaching him the ways of the genii. Despite this, Alex never took to being an Artificer like his professor. He didn't want to build, simply for building's sake. He wanted to creat life, he wanted to create minds, and he wanted to understand these minds, he wanted to understand how Intelligence, human or not, biological or mechanical, worked. Thus, he gravitated towards the Directors.

After his education, he found Boston transformed before him. Not the richest of people, he decided to dedicate some time, hunting down wonders, and obtained a few orphans for his troubles. Unfortunately, he ended up encountering a dangerous mane, which burned him heavily, making him lose sight in his right eye and scaring the right side of his face, neck, arm, and leg. Finding himself delving into the creation of automatons, he endevored to learn sign language to silently communicate with them.

After spending a few years without a coalition and separate from his professor, the two having gone their separate ways, he received a letter, a few months prior to the The Nameless Genocide. It detailed how his master had lost his interest in creating simply to create. He was growing old, and he wanted to do something with his Genius. In the area of northern Georgia, he was planning to gather as many Geniuses as he could, young and old, and begin an Academy. He wanted to bring a return to the more structured methods of the Peerage past, to truly educate Geniuses. Whether he made any progress on his dream might never be known, as The Nameless Genocide most certainly killed Geppetto.

Feeling the need to avenge his teacher, Alex, having come to prefer the title "Alexander the Clockmaster", made his way to the Atlanta area, trying to figure out what force had killed his mentor.

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