how am i playing the enigmatic dr. strand?

please be honest because while he may be a tool, i am not.

anon on, comments screened, etc.

OOC

Handle: PR.
Contact: plurk @ prthecrazyone
Over 18? Yes.
Characters Played: N/A.

THE CHARACTER

Character Name: Dr. Richard Strand.
Series: The Black Tapes Podcast.
Canon Point: Post-2x12: The Axis Mundi.
Character Age: It's not really known how old Richard is, but mid to late 40s is probably a safe guess. He's definitely older than 16 lmao.
Background: wiki link

Personality:

( the skeptic, the lone wolf, the chessplayer )
"In the world of paranormal investigations, these people are considered skeptics. These are the so-called “voices of reason.” There’s no room for scientific method. There’s no difference between any of these people and the ghost hunters on reality television. You are a respected journalist from one of the most respected radio programs in the world, working with you I have a national platform to renew skepticism. "

The main purpose of Richard's character in The Black Tapes Podcast is to be a skeptic. He is the Scully to Alex's Mulder, in that Richard has crafted an entire life and career out of disproving the paranormal. Every single thing has a rational response, even if said response has not yet been discovered to the ineffectual nature of today's current science. One day, there will be an answer to every single unexplained occurrence -- humanity just hasn't caught up yet. This skepticism is Richard's driving character trait that motivates his entire being. He is frustrated when people buy into Alex's . . . more open viewpoint of the paranormal, because Richard stoutly refuses to believe that any of it is real. And as current canon has not yet revealed if demons, ghosts, and the paranormal are real . . . well, so far, Richard has yet to be proven wrong.

. . . which leads into the other problem, in that it is next-to-impossible to prove Richard wrong. He is definitely a skeptic, but to the point where he stubbornly refuses that he may, just may, be barking down the wrong tree. It isn't known, yet, whether or not the ghosts and demons in the Black Tapes Podcast are real -- but Richard, when presented with multiple examples of multiple questionable occurrences, simply brushes them aside as apophenia -- the mind seeking to see what the mind wishes to see. The only reason the Black Tapes exist, to Richard, is because technology hasn't caught up to disprove them yet. This leads to multiple conflicts, predictably, with Richard and literally everyone else on their journey -- how do you disprove ghosts are real to a person who has already made up his mind?

The end game is what matters to Richard, and he is extraordinarily good at what he does, even if 99% of it is deflection. He is determined to meet his end goal. This shows through in a variety of ways -- his determination to inject reason into the narrative of paranormal activity, his determination to find his wife, Coralee, his determination to prove . . . literally everyone on the podcast wrong. Richard can very much be a single-minded individual when he fixates on a specific goal in mind. In season one of the Podcast, Richard is focused on his general mission to "inject reason into the discourse of paranormal investigation." But that mission abruptly gets shelved once he discovers his wife, who he once thought was dead and/or permanently gone, resurfaces. Then, his focus becomes almost obsessively fixated (understandably so) on finding her.

His stubborn determination is not infallible, though. Richard does demonstrate moments of weakness (or, really, what only he would consider weakness) when he doubts himself and his entire mission. He has had moments of reflection on doubting whether or not the paranormal is truly just a ghost story, but Richard always comes back to his zero sum game -- ghosts are not real, and he has to prove that. He is driven to do so, regardless of what anyone says, and while he is often the lone soldier in standing on his proverbial soap box in order to prove his story, he will never stop attempting to prove it.

Richard is also a "go-it-alone" type of individual. While he voluntarily agrees to be on Alex's podcast, he often takes issue with how Alex pries into his personal life and would rather keep it to himself. As the Podcast develops, Richard spends more and more of his time handling the Coralee problem on his own, preferring to do things "his way" rather than allow room for Alex's involvement. However, whenever Richard feels that he absolutely needs help, he isn't above asking for it -- coming to Alex and Nic and the others at Pacific Northwest Stories for assistance is a common theme in the Podcast, though it is sparingly done, and most of the collaboration on finding Coralee is done at Richard's begrudging acceptance that Alex probably won't leave it alone.

At the end of the day, though, Richard is a genuinely kind person . . . sort of. He does want to help, but he doesn't really seem to have patience for people who don't necessarily want to help themselves, in his view. He doesn't dress up his tone when he speaks to people, because he genuinely believes he is giving them the answers they seek. He cares very deeply for the people in his life, such as Coralee and his daughter, but he's also pretty bad at showing it -- at least, in a productive way. He also has a penchant for destroying his relationships and distancing himself in order to keep other people safe, such as his sister, as Richard is convinced that a group of people are after his family. To put it bluntly -- Richard Strand is really bad at being the normal definition of a decent person, but he tries. Kind of.

Powers/Abilities: Richard has made a career out of being a professional fun-ruiner. He has multiple college degrees, including psychology, mythology, and religious studies. He has his doctorate and has decided to spend his life shitting on people who believe in ghosts -- which, to him, is absolutely a talent. He has a massive memory and is extraordinarily clever and creative, but he is (according to him) a normal human being.

Canon has kind of teased that he might be a psychic but because canon hasn't confirmed/denied whether ghosts are, in fact, real, I'm just going to pretend he's a normal guy and that he's right and that there is nothing weird about him at all.

Power Nerfs (if applicable): N/A.

Inventory: Richard would have his cell phone on him and maybe some letters from his father, but likely nothing else of great importance. He was in the recording studio at his canon point and wasn't out actively researching much of anything.

Incentives: Richard would want the guaranteed safety of Coralee (his wife) and Charlie (his daughter). He's not really interested in monetary gains or anything like that, and he's not particularly attached to any material objects outside of his collection of tapes. The safety of his family is definitely enough.

SAMPLES

tdm thread