Name: Sycorax Caliban
Age: Actual: 1276
On the Job: 31
Gender: Male
Weight: Changes on a whimsy, normally 190+
Height: Same as above, though he seems to prefer being at around 6' 6' or up.
Physical Appearance: Human:
Cambion:
Dialogue: The group stared at the horns that were protruding from the sides of their quirky teacher's noggin, the stares ranging from confused to surprised to downright amused. Sycorax, for his part, simply stared back at them, his arms crossed and his foot tapping.
"Well," he said, his voice deadpan, "which one of you is going to make a Narnia joke? Because I can assure you I am not as timid as Mr. Tumnus. These horns can do a lot more than just complement my great looks, believe me on
that."
Backstory: Professor Sycorax Caliban had been a teacher at McNamara High for longer than anyone could remember. He was a charming, handsome, thirty something year old man who seemed to always be the talk of the majority of his female students. He was well liked by the male student body, if only because he had a tendency to overlook dress code and small student conduct violations as well as joining in on some of the dirtier jokes, though he had a bad tendency to call himself 'handsome' or 'dashing' all too often.
Nobody was quite sure what Professor Caliban taught. The sign on his classroom door read 'Ancient Mythology' but the students in his classes never seemed to learn anything about that subject. Instead the Professor would come in, sit on his desk with a drink in hand, and start to talk about whatever he felt like. Graduates of his class (and EVERY student who attended his classes passed them) said that they had learned things about politics, modern cinematography, and even the effect of mules on United States military operations
And that was probably the reason why Professor Caliban had never been fired. His classes were so randomly interesting that none of his students, regardless of their GPA, wanted to miss even one class. It was truly something astounding to behold.
Another odd thing about the Professor was that nobody who graduated from McNamara High could ever recall what he looked like or exactly how old he was. He was never pictured in any of the school yearbooks or newspaper articles, even when people were certain that he had been in the shot. When asked about it the Professor would simply give a prize winning smile and shrug. And nobody ever questioned that.
What the faculty and students of McNamara High didn't realize was that their quirky yet lovable 'Mythology' teacher was, in fact, not human at all, though he was quite close. You see, Professor Sycorax Caliban was what is known as a 'Cambion', the offspring of an Incubus and a human female. One would normally think that this would make Sycorax invincible or capable of throwing around fireballs like some sort of comic book hero. This was not the case.
While Sycorax did inherit a few traits from his demon spawn father (Immortality, minor shape shifting, somewhat enhanced physical capabilities, and weak mind altering powers) Sycorax was, for the most part, entirely human. He could be injured as easily as anyone else, though it would take marginally more than usual to kill him (Immortal doesn't mean the same thing as unkillable. Staying handsome forever doesn't do you any good against a speeding car or a bullet.)
Now the question you're probably asking right now is 'Why in the nine hells would a half-demon be teaching at a public high school? The answer was simple: It was relaxing, it was easy, and, most importantly, it was safe. Sycorax had been alive for a long time, having witnessed (and in some cases involuntarily fought in) various wars and conflicts, each leaving him more and more shaken at the prospect of dying.
When he had heard that McNamara High was hiring a new teacher nearly 20 years ago he could have sworn he had died and gone to heaven (though he would probably like to revoke the first part of that saying). The job was easy enough and after about a year of reading out of a boring textbook, Sycorax had decided that if humans could put things in books to read to students, he could do the same thing without the books or any of the boring subjects.
Eternal life was good. He could work a few hours a day and never assign any work that he would eventually need to grade or check and then he could retreat to his home where he would spend the rest of the day doing nothing but enjoying himself and fooling around. Which is why the events that were about to unfurl at McNamara High would end up shattering both Sycorax's peaceful life and his charade as a quirky teacher.
For while Sycorax was half-demon, he was still very much half-human. He may have only had half a soul but it was a
soul none the less.
Anything Else? Sycorax, once his charade is over with, has a bad habit of talking about the past and the various people he had met over the time he was alive as well as the things he had supposedly done that had major impacts on history.
While he has shape shifting abilities, they are extremely limited, allowing him to only change his height, weight and physical appearance slightly. He may not shift into anything non-human or that is not male. Shifting his form in no way increases or decreases his physical abilities.
I'm not sure if this character would conflict with any part of the story you have planned but if It does let me know and I'll either edit it accordingly or start a new one.
Cheers
Permalink
