A placeholder name, for now, for a character idea I had that is a former cult leader turned into a raving hedonistic monster by the Tabaan so as either to be done with the Paragon totally or at least throw him off enough so that they can complete their plans. Still playing with the design, but I know that the iconic Baphomet will be borrowed from to an extent - perhaps Blasphomet mutates over time? Becoming more goatish or vaguely, abstractly possessing goat-like features? - but that the horns will not be like that of a goat, ram, or any other ungulate, instead being almost-completely straight and vertical save for a 45-degree bend towards the top.
Why âBlasphometâ?
Because I had a very bad time listening to a creepypasta named something along the lines of âThe Girl in the Photographâ (except thatâs definitely not the title, thatâs the exact title of another story), which of such a bad time was had that I didnât even finish listening to it: two girls - either later elementary or early junior high - get seized by some cult who.......yeah.Â
I left it alone, then internalized a fansert where Alex and the Paragon intervened. Childish? Probably, but I played with it some more to where I had a scenario I was thinking of using:
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  Set-up: Alex and his team (the Pursche siblings) are in a small and unassuming forest town somewhere in the US while on their pursuit of information and access to the Tabaan.Â
  Scene: The Pursches come back to the teamâs motel room where they find Alex sobbing in the bathroom. This takes us to not-long in the past where Alex, split up from the siblings, was doing some audio surveillance via the Paragon when he detected a far-off cry for help from a child - had he not been listening, she probably would never have been heard - and off he goes to find a blonde girl of no more than twelve being pursued by a few black-robed individuals. Alex crashes through the forestâs canopy, and in the stunned silence gets biological readings off the child and the individuals: she has bruises, cuts, torn clothing, but seemingly nothing worse, while off the robed characters he detects knives. The âfightâ is short as Alex deals with them as ethically acceptable by the Paragonâs standards, then from the child learns that she had escaped from an old church, but her friend is still there. He wastes no time in securing the girl he found (havenât figured the details out yet, but they definitely want to fall in line with what to do in an actual situation as such...right now Iâm thinking he swiftly takes her back to his motel, she goes into the lobby and calls the police) and bringing the robed characters with him, finding the church and the child upon an alter, the rest of the cult fully assembled. With only the Paragon restraining him, Alex flies into a rage and puts down the cult with only broken bones. He rounds them up and takes the other girl with him to the police station in town where, as the Paragon, reveals his presence to the officers inside and seeing that the other girl has been taken there.Itâs during the flight where Alex learns the extent of what happened to this girl via biological reading. At the station, thereâs a shouting match, police demand he/âitâ stand down, bullets are stopped, identities are revealed - members of the cult are town officials, including the police chief(?). He gives the station the location of the church, then flies off.Â
From here, I thought of how the cult returns, specifically just how vicious the Tabaan are with the Paragon: when they last fought the Paragons about an earthâs century ago, their enemy could kill only under life-threatening conditions or if the council behind the Paragons instated such a policy, and seeing as how this Paragon left these cultists alive, that means itâs not wholly uninhibited by any wartime conditions/policies, and because it left these cultists alive, it should have to deal with them again. Now, the leader of this cult would be âBlasphometâ, his members becoming mutants as well, and they would be sold through a ruse that their deity of worship (I donât know if I want it to be Satan or someone else, or if itâs some completely original fake deity) was upset with the Paragon and wanted to give its faithful the power to exact revenge and realize its dream of unbridled indulgence upon the world.Â
Now Iâm left with appearances, abilities, what plays out, and even what exactly this cult believed and practiced (well, I already got some ideas, even a step-by-step process the members must go through to truly experience the world without inhibitions).Â
EDIT: I have in mind that the Pursche siblings have been doing super-hero-type stuff for a minute, before they met Alex, so itâs perhaps isnât a stretch that they or at least one of them has kinda been through what he goes through with this incident?