Dr Quirk

Dr Hilary Quirk - was a superhero generally known as Dr Quirk or simply as Quirk lasted a relatively short time on the hero scene. He is more famous - or notorious - for having built a brick house in mid-air above the Student Quarter of Colonial Bay. Prior to his death in the spring of 2062, he was Assistant Professor of philosophy at CBSU and a practitioner of an obscure branch of magic.

Description
In costume: Dr Quirk is a man in his mid-thirties, 5'11" in height and fit, if not exactly athletic. His hair is light brown, his nose aquiline, and his dry skin has the deep tan of a fair man who has spent many years in hot climes. But his grey eyes are his most striking feature, showing at once an indomitable will and a gaze that looks beyond his immediate environment.

His costume resembles an academic robe in midnight blue, covered in silver runes, symbols and sigils of an evidently magical nature. He carries himself in an extremely self-assured manner, and uses strong gesticulation.

In plain clothes: Hilary Quirk is a man in his mid-thirties, 5'11" in height and fit, if not exactly athletic. His hair is light brown, his nose aquiline, and his dry skin has the deep tan of a fair man who has spent many years in hot climes. But his grey eyes are his most striking feature, showing at once an indomitable will and a gaze that looks beyond his immediate environment.

He tends to favour light-coloured casual suits that look more at home in the tropics. On sunny days he also sports a panama hat.

Origin
Hilary inherits his mental gifts from his great-grandfather, who was publicly and arms dealer and secretly the master villain Dr Anarchy, whose acts of terror prompted governments to buy more arms even as he maintained the Cold War stalemate. Dr Anarchy was shocked into starting to mend his ways when he accidentally killed the heroine Britannia, whom he much admired. Ironically the same act caused Britannia's family to swear vengeance on him, and so began a feud.

Hilary's grandfather, who abandoned the arms trade for more diverse businesses and was never active as hero or villain, nonetheless struck back at Britannia family when they killed Doctor Anarchy. He died in a plane crash during a violent sudden storm at sea. Hilary's father had no interest in the family business, which he sold off to live on the interest, nor the feud. This didn't prevent him and his wife from being drowned by Britannia's descendant Triton, though Triton himself didn't return from his attack.

As for Hilary, he, and only child, had been raised by rich and doting parents who concealed this shameful and bloody history from him. Unsurprisingly he was quickly spoiled, and did pretty much whatever he liked. Luckily such was his intellect that what he liked largely was reading and learning whatever he fancied. This eventually led him to studying philosophy at university, where he was when he was shaken to the core by the deaths of his parents. Not only had he lost them, but this was the first time anything major had gone wrong in his life to make him feel powerless. It was when he was most feeling the need to regain control that he came across a reference to an obscure Indian philosopher, Visuanatus (as his name was Latinised), who seemed to believe that a strong enough will could alter the world itself. Grasping at this hope, Hilary devoted himself to uncovering the work of the obscure philosopher-mage, and he was on the course of becoming a magician.

Powers
At its most basic Visuanatian magic involves an extremely strong will imposing itself on material reality, but such changes can be resisted by other wills, even weak ones. Such resistance can be weakened, however, by planting the idea of the desired change in the observers' minds. The magic is showy, using strong gestures, to aid in this.

Thus Hilary can "shoot" someone by miming a gun with his finger, pull things about on strings imagined into existence or mime a wall into being, or even nullify magic with a dismissive wave or cause people to see things that aren't there by describing them.

Other effects can only be achieved beyond the senses of unwilling observer, because the suggestion is too hard: becoming invisible, transformation and teleportation is best done out of sight. However, once these states are achieved they persist when observed, because the fait accompli provides ample suggestion.

Hilary can walk on walls or (with more effort) on air so long as he begins showily. He can open a closed door on to a faraway place - the closed door providing an adequate element of doubt what lies beyond. His costume is a symbol-covered robe such as one might imagine a magician wearing: this makes it easier for people to believe it affords him protection.

His strong will alone (perhaps inherited from his supervillain ancestor but elevated to "superhuman" levels by years of esoteric training) gives him some defences, and he has learnt to see magic. His powers do not need line of sight so long as the target is very close: this allows affecting things in a box, behind a curtain, etc.

He is very well-read, especially in the areas of philosophy, languages, India and the occult.

Personality
Hilary is an arrogant, even hubristic, individual, no less than was his supervillainous ancestor. As a child, he was rich, spoiled and brilliant, and he never had any doubt that one day he would achieve great things, even if for a long time he just followed his fancies and had no idea what those great things might be. His parents' death was the only thing that has ever really shaken his confidence, and that just led him to see what his "destiny" was: to reintroduce Visuanatian magic to the world.

Hilary aspires to making magic an accepted academic subject (with himself, of course, as the foremost expert). In the long run he imagines a world in which magic rivals or surpasses science as a tool for the betterment of humanity, thanks to his efforts. Of course, this is not an easy path he has chosen: the academic establishment, magical establishment and the Nine Knives are all likely to oppose him.

For all his arrogance, he is not necessarily an unpleasant person. He knows his goals are better served if he can get along with others, and he has ample self-control to keep his less savoury emotions in check. And he is trying to make the world a better place, though his eye may often rest too much on the big picture and not enough on the small. He is a "hero" more to promote magic than for the individual deeds, though such side effects are not insignificant to him.

He still takes a delight in his abilities, many of which are relatively new to him, and enjoys showing off, both for the act itself and to show the world the wonders of magic.

Relations
Hilary has many acquaintances, often in strange and mystical circles, and and academic colleages, but his wandering lifestyle and perhaps his arrogance have meant he has few close friends. A notable exception is his close friend Sanjeev Bhattacharya who runs a rare book shop in Mumbai and seems to be able to track down even the most obscure occult books, and knows many people in world of true magic.

Hilary is hunted for two different reasons. Triton (the son of the Triton who killed his parents) is the descendant of Britannia, a British heroine killed by Hilary's ancestor Doctor Anarchy. This resulted in a secret feud between the two families, the last event of which was the drowning of Hilary's parents. Hilary is unaware of this part of his heritage, and so does not know Triton is now after him.

The Society of the Nine Knives is a secretive ancient order dedicated to opposing (at need even killing) rogue magicians. They use little magic other than countermagic themselves, favouring intrigue, stealth, martial arts and the knives for which they're named. They regard Visuanatian magic as having the potential to destabilise the world, especially if its practice become widespread.

History
Before his parents' deaths, Hilary was a rich and spoiled child, albeit brilliant, child. He grew up living in their several houses both at home in Britain and abroad (his parents were as prone to wanderlust as he is), and received an excellent education, often from private tutors. Though reading was his great love, he had more than his share of youthful indiscretions, since he tended to follow his whims - and was rich enough to get away with it.

His parents' death put an end to such irresponsibility but gave him a new obsession: Visuanatus. He travelled to India in an attempt to learn more about this obscure thinker, and came to love the country. He travelled all over the country chasing up references to the philosopher-mage, and learning many other things on his journey, not least meditation and astonishing self-mastery. In time - and not least thanks to the aid of his friend Sanjeev Bhattacharya - he came to piece together enough to rediscover Visuanatus' lost style of magic.

During all this time he continued his academic studies too, often by distance learning, and took his PhD at last, his thesis being on the philosophy, rather than magic, of Visuanatus. By this time he had become quite adept at magic and had developed his resolve to spread his learning, and so he looked for an institution in which he could do this. None showed interest, but the CBSU philosophy department at least took him on and allowed him to pursue his more exotic research interests. So Hilary found himself in Colonial Bay, though he also spends much time in his beloved India.