Rasmus Kovacs's Questionnaire

Rasmus lives in the city of New York. Came there after tracking down the current owner of a certain artifact he believed to be the literal key to finding out what is behind the thing that haunts his nightmares. After hearing about his dreams and his goal, the old man eventually agreed to mentor Rasmus. Especially since the artifact seemed to take a liking to him.

This caused Rasmus to settle to live in New York City for the long haul and now, even though his mentor has since died in the pursuit of his research, Rasmus stays where he is both because of pure momentum and because a densely packed urban area like NYC has a thriving occult community that gives him access to all sorts of resources. The mundane amenities are pretty nice, too.

Rasmus is, officially, a locksmith. He shows up and opens stuck locks, repins them if needed, and all the other associated tasks of that profession. Most of his actual money, however, comes from more occult clients and his ability to open things of a more esoteric nature, as well as the buying and selling of various arcane relics in the pursuit of his own research.

Most of his money is spent on said relics, though he does maintain a rather nice townhouse in Greenwich Village that he inherited from his late mentor. His main hobbies, other than the occult, are collecting rare and interesting locks as well as non-occult books.

Rasmus's ambition is, in simple terms, to open the Wound In The World. The Wound may or may not be real, but it haunts his dreams and enough others seem to have heard of it as well that he can't simply put his nightmares aside.

The Wound In The World is, as you might expect, a tear in the fundamental fabric of existence that lets things flow in and out of reality under the right conditions. It doesn't exist in a conventional physical location, but more in a conceptual pseudo-place most easily accessible in dreams.

Rasmus is, at this point, obsessed with opening the Wound and finding out what is on the other side. He would do anything, and go to any lengths to achieve that goal. He would kill and sacrifice anything he needed to, and he would, himself, die if that was the only way to see through that outermost portal of existence.

The most defining event in Rasmus's life before The Contract was when he began to have his dreams about The Wound In The World. At first he thought he and his parents though he was mentally ill, and his parents put him through all sorts of therapy and treatments until they stumbled on signs that other people were speaking of the same thing he was.

After that, with the strange things he was seeing and experiencing validated, Rasmus began to seek out more detail about The Wound in order to better understand what he was seeing. Finding out that almost nobody new much more than him, and nobody at all seemed to know what was beyond the Wound, Rasmus became more and more obsessed with finding out what was there, which set him on the path he walks to this day.

Kimberly Schroeder - 66F - An old woman that recently retired from the NYPD where she was part of a special group tasked with investigating "unconventional" crimes... aka, those that have occult or supernatural elements. Though physically frail due to her age, she's at least Rasmus's equal in practical occult knowledge and has many stories of using that knowledge (and, it must be said, her legal access to large amounts of bullets and explosives) to take down things that should have been well above her throw weight.

Jan Bozeman - 34M - An investment banker by day, and an amateur occultist by night, Jan (pronounced "Yan") is one of Rasmus's first and most regular clients for selling off the rare and unusual things Rasmus comes across that he doesn't intend to keep for himself. A good man at heart, but certainly deep into living the stereotype of the goatee-wearing disaffected Gen-Xer even though he's a Millennial.

Clara T Nicely - 28F - Owner of the Ember Lily lounge, a popular hangout spot for the more "in the know" portions of NYC's occult scene, and a talented young occultist herself. Despite Rasmus's social awkwardness, the two have hit it off quite well and have become very good friends. There might or might not be something special there, but first Rasmus would have to pull his nose out of his research long enough to notice Clara's flirting. For her part, by now she's simply accepted that that's how Rasmus is and, while she'd be happy with more, she isn't going to cry over it not happening.

Rasmus was born in a medium sized city in the Midwest. Nowhere particularly special. Not small enough to be small and folksy, and not big enough to have urban flare. Just one of those cities that exist because people tend to congregate in bunches when confronted with too much empty space.

His parents were David Kovacs and Sanna Justi-Kovacs. His father is a factory worker at a plant that builds and assembles tanks and pressure vessels, while his mother sells handicrafts at the local Farmer's Market and online. These days they're of a slightly more occult bent due to her son's influence, but they were just tchotchkes back when he was a child.

His childhood, up until about the start of puberty, was fairly normal, He attended school like everyone else, and soaked up the old fairy-tales his mother would tell him as well as the bits and bobs of Old Country lore that she revealed through everyday life.

Then the nightmares started, and things went strange.

Even after learning how to keep a lid on things, Rasmus was considered an odd duck by his peer-group in school. He was never quite ostracized, but only because he never really connected enough with anyone to be rejected.

Rasmus has never really been in love.

He has a potential romantic interest in Clara Nicely, the owner of the lounge club that he usually goes to spend time at when he wants to be out of the house, but he's typically too distracted and awkward to notice the fact that she's interested and, if he does think about it, he's too scared of losing the friendship that they already have to risk it on trying for something more. It'd take a real act of god in order to get the two of them together, but she's still the closest thing he has going.

After all his occult research and attuning himself so closely to the lore of Opening, Rasmus's single greatest fear would have to be confinement. He doesn't deal well with being confined, to the point he would happily kill someone to get free of captivity and not lose a wink of sleep over it.

Part of that is tied to the complex subject of his obsession with The Wound In The World. The Wound, itself, haunts his dreams constantly with eldritch and disturbing nightmare visions but it is not, in and of itself, something he fears. The idea of being confined within the skin of the world, though, haunts him greatly, as does the idea of never knowing just what lies beyond.

Which came first, his dreams of The Wound In The World, or his obsession with Opening even he couldn't tell you at this point. Perhaps his nature was so attuned to Opening that he became aware of the ultimate doorway to open, or perhaps seeing the door made him want to open it, but the two are certainly linked.

More normal fears, such as dying screaming in a fire, also apply of course, though with the life he's chosen to live those are becoming more and more of something he's learning to accept as a distinct possibility to be guarded against rationally rather than some vague, looming Boogie Man that paralyzes him to inaction.

Rasmus's single most prized possession is, of course, the Frangiclaive. A small, strange looking mystical key that is purportedly able to open anything. Even, perhaps even especially, things that aren't meant to open. The Frangiclaive was a gift (and a Gift) he inherited from his late mentor, and the thing that drew him to his mentor in the first place.

Beyond the Frangiclaive, though, Rasmus possesses a moderately sizable collection of non-Gifted occult artifacts and rare books that are his most prized mundane possessions. The artifacts may have no power in and of themselves, but they are curiosities and minor bits of magic that have helped him in his studies that he keeps around for mementos. The books, on the other hand, are a mix of actual occult texts ranging from the ancient to contemporary theses and simple literature.

His most prized book is an autographed first edition of The Color of Magic.

The biggest problem in Rasmus's life right now would absolutely, 100% have to be the way his research is running into a dead end.

Rasmus has researched through all the occult lore he can find and run dry all the wells of mystery he has discovered that might have helped him further his knowledge... and all of it still isn't enough. Barring secret revelations buried deep in forgotten corners of the world, hiding secrets so lost to time that he doesn't even know there is a new question to be asked, Rasmus has no more major secrets to discover and he hasn't found his answer.

Even with the Frangiclaive as a tool and focus, he hasn't found a way to open The Wound In The World. He's getting more and more desperate. Desperate enough, in fact, to turn to a bunch of mysterious entities making vague promises of power to try and solve his problem.

Wake up to alarm clock.

Turn off alarm and roll over to go back to sleep.

Wake up again and hit second alarm.

Go start coffee machine.

Get up and take a shower. Brush teeth, comb hair. The typical routine.

Get dressed. Jeans and a t-shirt if being casual, or a suit if he's feeling like he wants to impress.

Head for kitchen. Make a breakfast consisting of eggs... normally scrambled, but he's experimenting with over easy... bacon or sausage, and wheat toast with fresh fruit preserves... strawberry for preference, but he'll always get whatever is in season and at the local market. And the coffee he started earlier, of course.

While eating, use smart-phone to review appointments for the day and check messages.

Respond to anything high-urgency immediately, otherwise use remainder of time eating to consider responses and respond afterwards.

If there's a morning appointment, head out immediately. If not, pick up whatever book he's reading and get in some page time.