Quote: “You’re not like other grownups. You don’t have to pretend, with me. I’m different too.”

Background: José was not like other children; that much was obvious almost as soon as he was old enough to start school. He had an unusually vivid imagination, but he was not given to flights of fancy; instead, he seemed to “layer” his fantasy world atop the real one, insisting that his principal had horns, or that he had seen El Cuco, the boogeyman, doing his laundry at the laundromat.

José was brought up in a mixture of the dogmatic Catholic traditions of his parents and the folkloric Santería beliefs of his Abuelita. The old woman recognized True Sight which he had inherited from her, and hoped that a truly religious upbringing would “break the Devil’s hold on him.” However, should that route fail, she attempted to arm him against whatever he might face in life, passing on some of her knowledge of ghosts and evil spirits before her death.

Description: José is small for his age, and skinny to boot. He has wild, unmanageable hair which sticks up as stiff as black wire, especially in the back of his head. His eyes are large, dark, and seem to have seen more than a boy his age ought to. He often stares off into the middle distance, which often gives the impression that he’s either A) not paying attention, or B) has Attention Deficit Disorder.

Roleplaying Hints: José is a quiet boy, timid and shy around strangers. His intelligence, good grades, and gentle nature make him an easy target for bullies at the struggling public school he attends. As a result, José is quick to seek escape in fantasy worlds; in particular, the Star Wars Expanded Universe. The boy is a veritable library of locations, ships, vehicles, droids, factions, weapons, historical events, and notable persons which populate a galaxy far, far away.

José’s “gift” taught him early on that although grown-ups (usually) mean well, their attentions can sometimes make problems much worse than they would be otherwise. As a result, if something is going wrong in his life, he often avoids telling an adult about it for as long as possible, in the hopes that it will just go away on its own.