Jeffrey Stines

Background
To understand a person, one must understand their family. Gabriel Stines was an NYPD officer, known for a sharp mind in both investigations and politics. Gabriel's son Thomas, on the other hand, failed to live up to this example. An initially promising career and a mind even more brilliant than his father's ended in shambles as the man grew increasingly unstable, obsessed with shadowy conspiracies of supernatural chessmasters. Thomas's eventual death was ruled a suicide, and the investigation into whether he was responsible for the 48-hour killing spree immediately preceding it was closed for lack of evidence. He was survived by his widow Monica and five-year-old son, Jeffrey.

Jeffrey's mother made an admirable attempt to shield her son from the tragedy, moving to the suburbs where nobody knew them and keeping the worst of the details away from him until he was old enough. Trying to balance between stories of the honored grandfather he never met and the tragic fate of a father he barely remembered, she thought, would have been difficult enough for any boy, let alone one who preferred the company of animals to humans and had a habit of mentioning things that he couldn't possibly know. But Jeffrey's effortless intelligence, knowledge springing unbidden to his mind, easily carried him into advanced classes and encouraged his teachers to humor his compulsive and anxious nature as the eccentricities of genius. He graduated well, and determined -- despite his mother's apprehension -- to study criminal justice.

Unfortunately, the police academy proved less tolerant than his high-school teachers and peers. Despite a natural aptitude for the K-9 unit, unsatisfactory results on the routine psych evaluation combined with the red flag of his family background barred him from service in his chosen field. Humiliated and resentful, Jeffrey settled for a private investigator's license and began the process of inserting himself in as many investigations as possible, with or without a paying client. But his reputation for incredible intuitive leaps soon drew attention -- unable to explain where his lead on a brutal murder case came from without seeming insane, Jeffrey had little defense against the suspicion that ensued.

He eventually managed to dodge the heat that followed, passing the credit for the achievement to an officer who was all too happy to pull attention away from Jeff if it meant glory. Jeff, for his part, felt only mildly disillusioned. He no longer felt welcome in New York, but then, fame and fortune were never his goal. Searching for a new puzzle to tinker with, he found the Nameless Genocide, and following in the footsteps of a thousand dreadlocked pilgrims and gold-hungry prospectors before him, sold almost all of his belongings for a cheap van and cheaper canned food before striking out for Atlanta.

Abilities
Jeffrey's talent for coming to the right conclusion goes beyond simple intuition. While he himself is uncertain of the details, and doesn't consider it supernatural in any way, his thoughts somehow tap into a primal level of connected consciousness without realizing it and have done so ever since childhood. Effectively, he can access knowledge that he should have no direct way of learning as flashes of insight. In a state that an observer might call "meditative", or perhaps "manic-depressive", he contemplates the problem before him and feels the relevant information flow into his mind. This connection even extends to the animal kingdom, giving him a flawless rapport with almost any creature he comes across that rivals any horse whisperer or animal trainer.

Appearance
Thin in a way that vaguely suggests malnutrition, brown hair that probably hasn't seen a brush (or possibly even a shower) in days, and a dusting of stubble on an ethnically ambiguous face are probably the most visible qualities to any observer. Salvation Army clothing and the vague but persistent smell of some kind of animal are usually the next things. Jeffrey does at least make an attempt to keep his hygiene and fashions presentable, but in his current living situation (don't call it "homeless"), it's rather difficult. He'd love to wear a suit and tie every day, it's simply that circumstances aren't making that practical yet.

Personality
While he's improved somewhat since his childhood, Jeff still often comes across as a bit odd. His hands constantly fidget, his eyes either dart around the room or stare more than is quite socially appropriate, and he even walks with an odd stride as though he was trying to avoid sidewalk cracks. In conversation he tends to either talk very little or too much, interjecting with anecdotes or song lyrics that seem, to him, at least tangentially related to the subject. Strong feelings are almost impossible to elicit from him, with emotional scenes usually leaving him feeling simply awkward rather than anything more appropriate and violently unexpected ones often rendering him slightly dazed. This irrationally calm nature can make him seem lazy or heartless, and his actions occasionally back that interpretation up, but he is quite capable of responding to pressure, and usually tries to do the ethical thing when he can figure out what it is.

Sheet:Jeffrey_Stines