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Astral leads the Connection toward their bright future. He's a narcissist in his late 30s (with the receding hairline to show for it) and the soul of an alien. He started out as a philosophy doctoral candidate but was expelled for his innovative research techniques (plagiarism). Now, he has a commune in the woods of Pasadena filled with a polycule of magicians who he's hypnotized into forming a cult. He has a gap between his front teeth, and one of his favorite hobbies is doing heroin.

Astral and his wife, Teresa, will combine their alien souls and human bodies to usher forth the new fate of his alien species. Unfortunately, he has fertility issues, and his first chance at a baby with Teresa is stolen by his acolyte Georgie. Luckily he still maintains the loyalty of his flock, including his most recent adoption, Mac.

He projects a laid-back hedonistic hippie persona, fully accepting of all the delicious consequences of New Age spirituality—free love and sex magic—but he's also a mega control freak, emotionally volatile, and vain.

The year is 1969.

On January 18th, 1931, Theodore Parsons was born to Mr. and Mrs. Parsons, joining three sisters Tracey, Tammy, and Tess in a beautiful house in Los Angeles.

Astral was a prodigy in most things he tried. He started reading when he was two, but his family was more preoccupied by his propensity for spontaneously bursting into flame. It was horrible to hear him cry from the pain, but when the flames died it'd only be a few moments before he was completely healed. Later, he had more control over these powers and found himself capable of generic wizard magic, like pulling something from across the room or making colored sparks fly.

Graduating high school early, Astral let Tess, an army colonel, pay for him to get a Master's in Philosophy. For his thesis, he employed the very bold strategy of plagiarizing and trying to hide it forever. A few weeks into his first semester as a doctoral candidate, Astral was expelled.

Annoyed by the expulsion, he tried to kill himself by driving his truck into a river. Instead, he hit a lamp post, which almost killed him. While he was knocked out, he had a vision of himself for the first time as the alien he is: weird, mantid-like, with large curved horns that erupted out of the sides of his head. Finally, the answer now to why he has always been so gifted: he isn't human.

Astral scoured newspapers for a local story about a woman who'd been abducted by aliens, Nancy Miller. He tracked her down and together they started the Connection. Now, they are preparing. Astral is a busy man with a lot of responsibility, but he often shrugs it off in favor of interacting with his polycule (cult members). Between adopting new members and dealing with rival magicians, he's constantly adding to his body count.

Character Inspiration

• Otherkin (Silver Elves)
• Jack Whiteside Parsons
• Aleister Crowley and Thelema

Origin of Name

He's named after Jack Whiteside Parson, but his first name is Theodore because it means "gift of God." He sure does think he is. Then, realizing that they couldn't just keep calling him gift of God, his family started calling him Teddy, like the bear.

For the name "Astral," we thought of the most hippie name we could think of for a cult leader character.