Theo is the firstborn son of an ancient line of vampire hunters. He grew up knowing the supernatural, hearing stories of them at the knee of his nan, his father returning from hunts, speckles of blood smeared on his shirt. In years of yore, the Crowhurst family held wealth and nobility and to this day retain their titles even if their wealth is more modest than many others in the nobility. Nevertheless, he was raised in their ways, taught to identify the supernatural by mundane means, introduced to the forms of magic and the occult, but told firmly to not meddle in it. The risks were apparent. Crowhursts hunted monsters, but they were human, and very few of them should meddle in dangerous magics. Their goal was protection and prevention. Theo took to it with dedication, if lacking the zeal of his ancestors. Alongside this, Theo kept up a veneer of the mundane. He attended school, learnt of the world of hard science and fact that rejected the supernatural. It had been made clear that he should not even acknowledge the supernatural, scoff at anyone who claimed it was real. The cognitive dissonance of embracing the truth while simultaneously rejecting it wore on Theo, chipping away at the dedication until it was clear to his father that he didn’t have much of a will to pursue the family tradition. His sisters were zealous enough that Theo, a reluctant participant, didn’t impact the family legacy too hard. His grandmother ran a pub, after all, so they weren’t all obsessed vampire hunters. So, while Theo did maintain the lessons of the supernatural, of fighting, and how to defeat it, he laid plans for a painfully mundane life once he was ready to move on. And that was what he did. Once he graduated, he enlisted in the RAF, training as a regiment gunner and picking up some vehicle maintenance. It fit neatly with his pre-existing skillset, Theo becoming an exemplary recruit. After his mandatory service, he moved on to a career, joining the London MET. Here his family legacy was helpful, as Theo was able to identify when something had a supernatural reason or mundane. In the end, he had a relatively successful track record for solving cases. One thing was made clear, whether supernatural or mundane, the most damage was done by the kind of monsters who knew what they were doing. The sort of monsters who acted cruel for the sake of it, who enjoyed others pain and suffering, it all came down to people. Whether they were supernatural or not hardly counted into it, this tempered the Crowhurst approach of ‘kill monsters’ with the keen mind of a detective trying to solve a case. Theo crossed paths with the England based Exchange often enough, served as an informant once he realised their actual goals, but kept out of it. They knew of him, were suspicious of his intentions, but once they realised there was no string of killings that followed in his wake, they left him alone, beyond utilising both his knowledge and information when it would be helpful to them. The next chapter in Theo’s history was the most mundane. He met a girl, fell in love, and followed her home. Lenore was from Boston, a PhD student focusing on myth and folklore at King’s College. She returned to Boston, Theo following her. They married so he could gain permanent residency, and he took a job at the Boston PD. This lasted until Lenore took a job with Baxendale College. Theo commuted for some months but soon grew tired of the back and forth and the little time spent with his wife. In this moment of weakness, the Easthaven Exchange actively recruited him. They were short on expertise and, having been clued in by the London Exchange that a Crowhurst was in the area and one that wasn’t an indiscriminate killer, saw the opportunity in recruiting him. Finally, Theo answered the calling of his family legacy in a roundabout way. He took to the Exchange like a fish to water, with a background in detective work, policing, and hunting the supernatural; he was ideal for the organisation. Unbeknownst to him, his wife had fallen into bad company during the months he’d been working and partly living in Boston while she’d been in Easthaven. Lenore had found friends in vampires and kept it from Theo. They were both under the impression neither knew of the reality of the supernatural. Lenore’s interest turned into an obsession, her academic interest turning into a desire to become a vampire herself. Her eventual turning into a vampire was something she did without informing Theo, and her deception managed to pull the wool over his eyes for a short period. It went on for long enough that on the discovery of the truth, Theo flew into a rage–their first real fight, Lenore furious at his lack of understanding, Theo angry at her deception and her stupidity. He warned her, a warning his father would be proud of, making it clear that his hand would be the one to kill her if she betrayed the unspoken laws of the Easthaven community. But Lenore was too far gone, drunk on power, a fresh vampire with little understanding of how the supernatural world worked. She became little more than a serial killer. Theo, for the first time with intent and zeal, tapped into his experience hunting vampires. She did not last out the week; the carnage she wrought was significant if short-lived. Theo staked her himself, performing the necessary steps to make sure she did not rise again. Feeling betrayed and empty, Theo’s dedication shifted to his job. He was known for brutal efficiency, if not lacking in compassion when warranted. The old Exchange Inquisitor liked it, tapped Theo for a potential promotion once she retired. That was a few years in the future still, though. The whole event with his wife did spark a little bit of a grudge against vampires, even if Theo is unaware of who was behind his wife’s turning. Should he find out… well, they likely wouldn’t live long if he had a say. Theo was a seasoned detective by the time the Inquisitor stepped down. His promotion was reluctantly accepted, but the title felt like it didn’t fit his shoulders—no more than ‘vampire hunter’ or ‘Lord’. Theo didn’t stop directly engaging with the cases crossing the desks of the Exchange, but then there was no such thing as a desk jockey in the Exchange, not really. And so life went on, Theo marked by his experiences, gruff and grumpy. But he had a cause and something to drive him forward. Up till then, he’d been lucky, avoiding anything disastrous, but in hunting down a rogue circle of arcanists, Theo found himself at the wrong end of a ritual. A curse wasn’t an issue for Exchange agents, they had some in their number, but now that was something for Theo to contend with. For all intents and purposes, he had joined the supernatural community himself now, no longer fully human. It wasn’t in his nature to stop just because of a spot of bad luck. Life moves on, Theo spending time learning his new curse and contending with the drawbacks. After all, an Inquisitor had to do their job, and the Easthaven office wasn’t large by any means.