Archibald Windholm

"Red Eyes? Heh. A blue flame burns brighter than a red one. You'd do well to remember that."

## Biodata

### Birthday

September 12, 1993

This is a Modernstomia Player Character.

## History

Archibald had always wanted to be a detective, for reasons beyond anyone's comprehension. His early childhood was spent surrounded by enormous quantities of literature--he wanted to learn everything there was to know about everything. However, mysteries captured his imagination more than anything else. The thrill of the hunt, the unexpected twists and turns on the journey to the answer? What could be better than that?

Before long, everything started to take a similar shape. Homework? The answer was a mystery that needed to be uncovered. Sporting events? Same thing. With the amount he read, nobody was surprised when he became one of the NYPD's youngest detectives in a decade.

Life was good, for a while. Most of his "mysteries" were fairly mundane, however. He'd hoped for the dramatic cases represented on the big screens and inked on paper, but found that most of his cases revolved around drug possession and traffic injuries. He might have burned out, had magic not begun to make a resurgence.

Suddenly, strange things began to pop up left and right. Inexplicable events that followed an entirely new set of rules. He rapidly became more engaged than the rest of the department, actively seeking these "unsolvable" cases in the hopes of understanding exactly what was going on. He ended up getting what he wished for, but not in the manner that he would have liked.

It was on one investigation that he ran into a mysterious figure, who's eyes glittered with a red flame. Someone had taking offense to his nosiness, and set out to ensure that him and his partner wouldn't meddle in their magical business again. Energy arced through the sky on a scale he'd never seen, and his partner died within the span of a few quick seconds. But the figure had noticed something in him, and in the blink of an eye had traversed an entire parking lot to stand beside him. He felt his head trapped in the iron grip of a vice, as a voice yelled over him. "Hey! There might still be hope for this one!" A few muffled figures replied, but a surge of energy snapped into his brain, blocking him from making out the words.

He's still not sure what the red-eyed figure did, but something awoke within him. An inner fire, seething to escape at the soonest opportunity, and capable of bending the very fabric of space to reach those ends. He blacked out, waking up a few blocks from where he last remembered standing. Witnesses speak of a figure, burning with a brilliant blue energy, who'd simply vanished into a spec of light, leaving a dumbfounded group behind.

Tapping into that energy, however, took a toll on him. He woke with a splitting headache, one that only disappeared with strong drink. He started carrying a flask with him at all times, for otherwise the headaches returned more than he could bear. Over time, he learned to harness that energy, summoning it when he had need of it in a burst of azure flame. But the headaches, and the secrecy proved too much to keep his official career. He quit shortly after discovering these abilities to set-up shop as a private investigator instead.

The Underdark, however, proved to be the best source of clients he could have hoped for.

## Appearance

Everyone who's met Archibald always remembers one thing above all else--the intensity of his blue eyes. Some swear that they glow ever so slightly in the dark, but there's no mistaking the ferocity that hides behind them.

He prefers collared shirts, often in dark colors to stay in the alleys, but if it doesn't match his personal sense of style, he wouldn't be caught dead in it.

## Personality

Self-confident to the point of arrogance, Archibald isn't afraid to let anyone know what he's thinking. He doesn't see a need to hide who he is, but it takes a lot to get him to spill his secrets.  Most people stop digging at a small embarassment, and thus the bigger truths can be kept within.

If you can get past the confident exterior, he's actually rather caring.  He won't spare any expense to help the people he cares about--and yet he'll struggle to admit who exactly falls under that umbrella, even to his friends.