Alexander Belanger

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   <default>Alexander Belanger</default>
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Alexander Belanger is a member of the Belanger Circle and the head of the Blue Heron Institute.

Personality

Alexander could legitimately claim to be a sociopath given that he is repeatedly shown to be able to casually toss aside relationships in the name of personnel power.

He does have a legitimate interest in the advancement of practice but that is largely decoupled from any desire for morality. This may be an example of the perpetual Belanger curiosity.

Relationships

He has poached Nicolette as his semi-official apprentice from Chase. He has her trapped in a complex deal where she trades time to him in exchange for favors, and if the time traded forces her to remain with Institute past her 18th birthday, he gains greater power over her including the right to marry her off.

Every year Eliana Graubard would give him a gift, one of which was a modeling board, giving the two of them something to collaborate on and giving Eliane greater influence.<ref name=GT>The board in front of him was a gift, Eliana Graubard to Alexander.  It was one of several entreaties, as Alexander had framed them.  She’d given at least one a year, around a birthday or winter holiday, and in the last few years, she’d offered to collaborate.  A mixture of augury and modeling.  This board.  The dollhouse.

Which was genius, really.  Because Alexander loved collaboration even more than he liked having powerful magical tools, and because it gave Graubard what she wanted.  A chance to move in closer, to see and study Alexander.  Eliana and Alexander would never have worked, but if Alexander had had but a single chink in his armor, Graubard would have suggested him a partner who would insinuate herself into that chink.  A carefully crafted Graubard daughter or cousin.

Wye knew Alexander had a quiet trauma about love and romance, a heartbreak he’d never healed, as much as Alexander could smile and act casual as he told the story.  A perfectly trained and crafted partner would a disaster, less sure to work than, well, anything.  Alexander and Durocher were more likely to become a romantic pair than Alexander and Alexander’s ideal woman, and the idea of Alexander and Marie Durocher was laughable. - Excerpt from Gone and Done It 17.y</ref>

Scarlet

A Hangmaiden that he had a relationship with however her predations ended the relationship,<ref> - Excerpt from Gone Ahead 7.x</ref> he never healed from the trauma of it and did not seek out any other relationships.<ref name=GT/>

Reputation

While he is not as well known internationally as his immediate peers at the school he is considered just as dangerous as them.<ref>“I don’t know.  All I know is that Alexander Belanger is fantastically good at what he does.  He’s not world famous like Durocher or Ray are.  He doesn’t seek that out.  But he does earn a reputation with the people that do know him.  So there’s a feeling like of course he’ll save us.  Of course he’ll turn up, critical solution, and bring Bristow down in a way that doubles the Belanger holdings, get his apprentices back…” - Excerpt from Cutting Class 6.9</ref>

Appearance

In his mid-40s, and thin. Longish reddish-brown hair with grey at the temples. Dresses expensively in blazers, slacks, loafers, possibly tailored.<ref>Alexander sat at his desk, leather swivel chair turned sideways, his feet resting on the corner of his desk, one ankle crossing the other. He was skinny, which was not the case for most of the people she knew who were forty-five-ish, he wore a blazer with a linen shirt, black slacks, and loafers, and looked exceedingly at home. His hair was longer, most of it pulled back away from his face, grey shooting through the sides of it, the top an orange-brown that seemed to almost glow in the light of the candles around them. - Excerpt from Stolen Away 2.z</ref><ref>A man of about forty, narrow, with very light brown hair that might have been reddish and might have been catching the lingering flames. Lucy didn’t know that much about fashion, but it looked like his outfit was ‘bulletproof’, so to speak, an expensive blazer, shirt, and slacks that may have all been custom fit. - Excerpt from Out on a Limb 3.2</ref> Blue eyes, but they may appear gold to the Sighted when his Second Sight is active, or appear to peel away and reveal red beneath during more advanced Augur practices.<ref>Borrowed Eyes comic, Extra Materials</ref><ref>Alexander, situated so Musser was between him and Luisa, sat back, his eyes flashing gold as he turned on the Sight.
[...]
“Then that brings us to option three,” Alexander replied.  He closed his eyes and opened them again, and they were gold. [...] Alexander’s eyes, gold, started to flake and peel.  They revealed a burnished red.

With each fallen flake and revealed bit of red, his vision took on a red tint.  He could see the entirety of Ted Havens, inside and out.

With his free hand, he drew his wand, and he tapped his pocket, before tapping his eye.

White text began to flow into the backdrop of blood red and dark shadow, and the expanding image of Ted Havens, analyzed in full, in motion, in stillness, in emotion. - Excerpt from Gone Ahead 7.x</ref>

Abilities and Art

Alexander is a powerful Auger and an Incarnate practitioner, specializing in Strife.

He is very good at handling negative karma and navigating fraught social situations, tying into his understanding of Strife. His Sight and presence can bring strife with them, which may cause his allies to fight among themselves more.<ref>"Alexander was good at seeing the kinds and shapes of Strife, capital S, and karmic flows.  When he incurs a karmic debt, he is good at staying ahead of it until he can discharge it or pass it on.  I would imagine that if he’s a teacher at this school of his, he would be teaching some classes on Karma."
[...]
“With Nicolette sending omens in to investigate… she was looking for trouble, and then more trouble happened.  That’s how Melissa got hurt.  Does Alexander cause strife to happen by turning his Sight on things?”

“It surrounds him, yes.  He’s good at navigating it, to the extent that it may be something of a shield of his.  His underlings may fight more among themselves as a consequence.” - Excerpt from Out on a Limb 3.2</ref> In combat, he can manifest Strife omens as shadows which cause even such closely-allied targets as the Hungry Choir targets to hurt each other,<ref>The black centipede ripped its way out of Eloise’s arm.  It swayed, like a snake charmer’s snake, and her arm moved with it.  Like she was tearing at something invisible.

The children stopped coordinating.  Hands grabbed at Yalda’s ankle, and she tumbled, disappearing into the jumble.
[...]
Alexander joined his subtle power to Eloise’s.  She disturbed the connection between Yalda and her servants.  Alexander exuded shadows that flowed out, passing easily through the barrier, disappearing into and merging with the stark shadows that the children themselves cast, in the light of the floodlights.

When the children failed to coordinate, now, they were tearing each other apart.  One slipped in the mud that fifty shoes had churned up and drove another one’s face into a stone beneath the soil.
[...]
“Schartzmugel’s spent,” Eloise said.  “I’m spent too.  I can’t-”

There was a sudden violence, like Alexander’s efforts were still in effect, but it was coordinated again, child hurting child in their efforts to move, but moving as a whole. - Excerpt from Out on a Limb 3.z</ref> or subtly cause a person to accidentally kill themselves.<ref>The boy switched to a two-handed grip.  He shifted that grip, planting his feet, and his foot slid in the mud that had been kicked up by the creation of the big hole in the ground.  The gun dropped, and went off.  He’d shot himself in the foot.

He fell, the gun fell from his grip, and went off again, with no hand on the trigger.

It took the top of the boy’s head off, cracking the mask.
[...]
Zed looked and saw Mr. Belanger and Nicolette Belanger standing off to the side.  Nicolette looked away from the results of what she or her teacher had done, uncomfortable.  Mr. Belanger didn’t flinch, simply staring.

They were scary in their own way.  Handling the boy like that. - Excerpt from Out on a Limb 3.z</ref>

As an Augur, he has access to many kinds of Second Sight,<ref name="7.xe1" /> including seeing through objects<ref>One enemy remained unaccounted for, and he didn’t have a good photo of the man.

The world was see-through, if he wanted it to be.

The trees provided little cover.

Ted Havens ducked under a branch, rounded a copse of trees, and emerged from foliage.  He was unscathed, unlike so many others.

“Saw me coming?” Ted asked.  “That’s not usual.”
[...]
Thirty paces separated them.  Trees obscured the view some, though Alexander’s Sight helped with that. - Excerpt from Gone Ahead 7.x</ref> and seeing hidden emotion on people's faces.<ref>Faint emotion touched Ted’s face, as much as he tried to hide it.  Alexander could See through that too. - Excerpt from Gone Ahead 7.x</ref> He has Practices that help automatically keep notes for him on everything he does and interacts with.<ref name="7.xe2" /> He was capable of peeking at the future and using it to aid his plans.<ref>He’d planned this.  He’d seen enough of the future that he could figure out that it would come to this. - excerpt from Stolen Away 2.z</ref>

He was confident that a combination of channeling the man's strife and doubt back at him, and his own enhanced perceptions, would allow him to defeat the hyper-skilled Ted Havens in hand-to-hand combat.<ref name="7.xe1">“We fight.  I press the button early on in that fight.  Then you’ll try to beat me, get me to take it back or take measures.  Except it doesn’t work. [...] Because I won’t lose the fight, Ted.  I’ve been anticipating having to deal with you since before you arrived.  Hindsight may be twenty-twenty, but it’s the people who look forward who win.”
[...]
He could see the entirety of Ted Havens, inside and out.

With his free hand, he drew his wand, and he tapped his pocket, before tapping his eye.

White text began to flow into the backdrop of blood red and dark shadow, and the expanding image of Ted Havens, analyzed in full, in motion, in stillness, in emotion.

A little bit of fate, a little bit of strife.

Invisible to Ted’s eyes, they began to gather between.

Moments of hesitation, of doubt, of recollection, of dismay.  Frustration at Bristow, even.

Little landmines that would slow the man down and create openings.

This wasn’t going to be a drawn out fight.  It was one pass.  One exchange.  Lesser ‘landmines’ would pave the way for the big one.  Which would be when Alexander struck.

He had many forms of awareness, many Sights, many tools.  He fixed them on defeating a man who had seen tens or hundreds of thousands of years on this Earth.

Good.

That left one last measure, to secure this fight before it started. - Excerpt from Gone Ahead 7.x</ref>

As a highly advanced Auger when reading cards he was able to go up to a five by five arrangement.<ref>Alexander had done a five-by-five several times while Wye watched.  Wye suspected he’d need another five years before he could do that.- Excerpt from Gone and Done It 17.y</ref>

His weight with the spirits was so great that he was able to seize control of his apprentices' diagram within the Blue Heron Institute with a mere exertion of will.<ref>She felt a disruption of her diagram.  Weight.  Like she sat on a piece of land that was only six feet across, and it had just tilted fifteen degrees.

Alexander.  She could feel his presence.  He apparently had so much cachet with the spirits that even without drawing a diagram, he could exert his will through something she’d created.  Her being a subordinate of his would be a factor, but that was not a usual thing.

Sometimes she forgot how capable he was.

“Aha.  We have a mutual acquaintance,” Alexander said. - Excerpt from Stolen Away 2.z</ref>

Basics

• He has a Demesne in the Blue Heron Institute, which helped him take the school.
• His Implement is a wand, .

Tools

Alexander has a wide range of Magic Items related to his Practice, both specialized and versatile,<ref>“This was a find of mine.  A cursed object I cleansed.  It remains an interesting tool for observation.  A little cumbersome, but I have to admit, I like having an excuse to dust it off.”

She wiped off some dust.

“Most of the time, I prefer specialized tools for specialized jobs, but this is versatile, and has enough power left over from its past victims that it can power through some common defenses, like those runes you described.” - Excerpt from Stolen Away 2.z</ref> including:

• A magical dollhouse that can show a target area in diorama form,<ref>She lifted up the dense, metal dollhouse, setting it in a metal box with about 20 segments.  There were a horrendous number of figures, pieces of furniture, accessories, animals, and little colored blocks inside, sliding around, rolling down stairs, and falling out.  The box itself had zipper-like creases at the edges of each segment, knitting them together.  She centered the dollhouse and then collected the fallen bits, pushing them in through windows.
  [...]
  

She whispered, “Show me the three girls with animal faces,” and opened it up.

Three simple figurines with rectangular blocks for bodies were topped with the heads of a fox, cat, and deer.  They were within a cabin with an open top.  Ribbons filled the space, tying to a center mass.  A circular bit of wood, shallow, sat in the center.

There was no sign of the other figurines that had been within, or the diner, or the old house. - excerpt from Stolen Away 2.z</ref> or manifest the user there as a giant doll. If the dollhouse is not paid in power, it will take a pound of flesh from the user instead.<ref>“Swiftly.  I didn’t pay too exorbitant an amount, and the box may bite off your arm, if it decides it needs more payment.” - excerpt from Stolen Away 2.z</ref>

• Large photographs of various targets that update whenever they're unobserved. Certain magical effects cause the picture to appear distorted, however, and he or his agents need to have taken a photo of the target.<ref name="7.x">Gone Ahead 7.x</ref> He can also call "Inscription" to have a description of the scene appear on them, giving additional info, although not too often.<ref>“Inscription,” he said.
  
  The smoke cleared.  There was writing on the back.
  

Clementine Robertjon and the Sargent Hall Aware discuss how they weren’t truly themselves.

He gave it a shake, and the inscription disappeared partway through.  The scene changed slightly too.
[...]
He couldn’t use too many calls for inscription, and he already had some information from Wye.  The residents were agitated and didn’t know why. - Excerpt from Gone Ahead 7.x</ref>

• An oddly heavy pen that can reach through his photographs to do things like alter diagrams,<ref> Brie had been scuffed up, and one of those scuffs interfered with her binding.  A few waifs from the Devouring Song were lingering in the area.  Zed and Brie ignored them for the time being.
  
  He touched a pen he kept in his dash.  It was no larger than an ordinary pen, but it might have weighed fifteen pounds.  It twitched in his hand.
  
  Defenses were down, they were still being careful, but not careful enough.
  
  If he had it in his mind to bring the full bearing of his wrath down on their heads, then he could.  A stroke of the pen, to turn that vulnerability into a critical flaw.  Brie would break, and the devouring song would be free, Zed would be at the epicenter, close enough to be pulled into it. - Excerpt from Gone Ahead 7.x</ref> or attack Connections remotely at his command, although the acidic ink destroys the photos.<ref>Picking up the heavy pen again, he touched it to the photograph.
  
  Black ink bled into the photograph, taking on three dimensions in the scene.
  
  “Abandonment,” Alexander said.  “A connection severed.”
  
  The ink took on a sharp smell, then began to eat through the photograph.  He tossed it aside before it could burn his fingers.
  
  Done.
  [...]
  “I was thinking about him being my familiar.”
  
  “Yeah.”
  
  John remained standing where he was.  He wasn’t sure he was supposed to hear this, but…
  
  “…Not so much anymore.”
  
  The air filled momentarily with the smell of acid and ink. - excerpt from Gone Ahead 7.x</ref>
• With Rad Ray Sunshine's help, he constructed a computer system in his Demesne that can (with power) use Nina to reach into lost timelines and view Ted Havens' diaries from his centuries in a time loop.<ref>Gone Ahead 7.a</ref>
• Tarot Cards<ref>“Excuse me,” Alexander said, as he leaned in to study.  He drew some cards from his pocket and laid them down.
  

The Chariot at the left, the Fool at the right.  Strength at the back, the Empress at the front.
Alexander tapped his finger on the Chariot. - excerpt from Stolen Away 2.z</ref>

• A board game that can become a simulation of a particular place, the piece representing important people inside that place.<ref>The little town was represented by a kind of board game, but the size of each tile differed, depending on how important and dense the area was.  The valley was a big space, split into three sections.  Comparatively, the cabins where most of them were sleeping were divided into nine.  An outside area, a first floor, and a second floor, for each cabin. - Excerpt from Gone and Done It 17.y</ref>

He keeps a collection of cigarettes, one from every pack he's ever smoked, carefully categorized; by smoking them he can view occasions he was smoking them in the smoke, at the cost of using up the cigarette.<ref name="7.xe2">Even taking his time, he couldn’t keep it alive forever.  He’d burned his cigarette down to the filter.  He stubbed it out on the car mirror.

He saved one from every pack he smoked, and he liked to smoke in important meetings and negotiations.  He kept meticulous notes, using practices that recorded things for him, and the cigarettes were a backup.  He changed his brand every year, which helped with keeping track. - Excerpt from Gone Ahead 7.x</ref>

History

Before the Story

Alexander is the Augur who tricked Charles Abrams into becoming Forsworn so he could steal some of his stuff.

At some point he forswore a man by the name of Griffin Lytle.<ref>Griffin Lytle, forsworn by Alexander, far worse off than I ever was, he’s in the deep woods, barely holding on to humanity.- Excerpt from Wild Abandon 18.5</ref>

He founded the Blue Heron Institute by bartering favours with his family for the raw power and contacts necessary.<ref>Alexander had the institute in part because he’d bartered with family, getting the power as a kind of loan to get it started, then bartering again to get the good words, references, and contacts to bring people in.

If Alexander’s distant nephew got in any real trouble here, it disrupted that whole engine. - excerpt from Stolen Away 2.z </ref> When his teenage apprentice Chase took Nicolette as an apprentice and set her to watch the Institute while he was gone, Alexander subverted her.<ref>He was her sponsor.  The one who had brought her into the circle.  Alexander, in turn, was the one who had brought Chase in; Chase had been brought in because he was very, very good at dealing with certain kinds of Other, owing to his family ties, and because of the politics of it.  Making Chase an apprentice and teaching him all sorts of things about Seeing made for strong ties with Chase’s family.

He had expected something very different when he had found her. Leverage against Alexander, maybe.  More power.  A grateful girl a year younger than him.  Instead, Chase had had to go to school, he’d left her here to act as eyes, ears, and hands on things here, and Alexander had started to barter with her, making her more Alexander’s apprentice than Chase’s. - Excerpt from Stolen Away 2.z </ref>

Early Pale

He set his students to investigate Kennet on learning of the Carmine Beast's demise.

Stolen Away

He "helped" Nicolette deal with the Kennet Trio allowing her the use of an old dollhouse he has.

Out on a Limb

He attended the meeting between the Trio and the Belanger Circle.

References

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