[Mage 2: The Dethroned Queen] Patient 2: God's Monster

Out of Character (OOC):

Venue: Mage: The Awakening 2nd Edition

Chronicle: Mage 2: The Dethroned Queen

Story: The Asylum

Chapter 3 – Scene 4 “God's Monster”

Storyteller: Jerad Sayler

North Dakota State Hospital

Patient Case Study #2 God's Monster

The following is an excerpt is from an active play-by-post Story Plot starring Chimera (Hannah Nyland), Jack Bismuth (Alex Van Belkum), Overwatch (Andrew Buchman) & Eos (Jerad Sayler). The Story is called The Asylum and involves the supernatural badness of the Jamestown State Hospital in Jamestown North Dakota. Now that the Malus Loci is closed and several months has gone by, Chimera shifts her attention to some of the peripheral oddities at the NDSH. She sends her familiar Azazel to interface with STARK, a highly advanced magically created Virtual Intelligence, to plum the depths of the hospital records looking for anything odd.

Azazel: Allow me to read what I have found.  No evidence of the supernatural, but it appears the hospital has a bit of a celebrity on hand.  You may want to check into it though... listen:

Patient: Cameron Mueller

Attending Physician: Dr. Payton Oliver

Case Number: BG-365

Description and History:

Cameron Mueller is a giant of a man, standing slightly over seven feet in height and weighing more than 300 pounds. Cameron’s face always looks somewhat serene, his brow rarely knitted and his big blue eyes always wide with understanding and forgiveness. Cameron’s head is shaved bald at his request, and he keeps his face closely shaved. Nonetheless, Cameron enraged is a terrifying sight that can strike terror into all but the most experienced (or well-armed) of seclusion teams when he was at Brentwood.

Cameron Mueller is a very rare specimen indeed. Considering his methodical nature and exceptional intelligence, it was highly unlikely that Mueller would be captured alive. That is, unless he wanted to be, which is what he himself claims. Alienated from an early age by cruel children mocking his enormous size, Cameron viewed himself as an outsider, preventing him from developing normal social tools. 

Cameron possesses a genius level IQ but became sensitive around other children his age due to feelings of deep inadequacy apparently cultivated by his parents who lived in Salt Lake City Utah. During a one-year period when Cameron was seven years of age, Cameron’s father, Daniel Mueller, forced the boy to sleep in a crawlspace beneath his mother and father’s bed, where he could overhear the couple discussing how problematic he was. Cameron’s mother Andrea, a deeply religious woman, often made accusations of Cameron being “not okay with the Lord.” All of these factors contributed to Cameron Mueller becoming detached and separate from the world he lives in.

At the age of 12 (born 1976), Cameron’s father caught the boy while he was in the midst of burying the remains of the family cat. Cameron had stretched the animal on a piece of plywood, sliced open its abdomen and, as the organs were spilling out, set the animal aflame. After being savagely beaten by his father, Cameron was ordered by his mother to explain his actions. His only response was that he had “been moved by the Holy Spirit to give the precious creature to God.” 

Exhausted by Cameron’s repugnant behavior, Daniel and Andrea sent the preteen to live with his mother’s parents, Charles and Agnes Holpepper. On a cool evening in early March of 1988, Cameron killed his grandfather, stabbing him 43 times with a paring knife from the kitchen. When Cameron’s grandmother returned that evening, Cameron ambushed her on the porch with a baseball bat, killing her with multiple blows to the skull and neck. Cameron Mueller then went into the kitchen, and while his dinner was cooking, decided to call the authorities, who arrived and arrested Cameron, who was found calmly eating his supper, the bodies of his dead grandparents left where they had died. When asked why he killed his grandparents, Cameron only stared at them and gave no explanation as to why he’d committed murder.

After being processed and tried, Cameron Mueller was declared criminally insane and was interned at Utah’s Brentwood State Hospital. During his time at Brentwood, Cameron demonstrated none of the volatile behaviors that had been attributed to him and participated heavily in the hospital’s interfaith fellowship. In 1993, after demonstrating calm manner and drastically improved social adaptation, Cameron Mueller spent three months in a group home and then returned to live with his mother and father.

Mueller at 18

Fully grown at nearly seven feet two inches and slightly over 300 pounds, Cameron found a job working on the loading docks in his hometown. During his free time, the now-adult Cameron Mueller spent most of his money and time on medical texts, religious texts and alcohol. Still subject to the scrutiny and ridicule of his parents, Cameron himself says that he enjoyed playing out their murders in his head. Cameron said he’d even stand outside his parent’s first-story bedroom window with one of his knives, playing out the blade’s work in his head.

It was three years later (1996) that Cameron began spending time at the local community college campus during the evenings. He had taken a second job as a custodian to increase his personal spending money as well as keeping himself out of his parents’ home as much as possible. The first victim he snared in this way was 19-year-old Annabelle Tate who had allegedly locked her keys in her car. Mistaking Cameron’s maintenance uniform for campus security, she agreed to ride with him to the information office on the other side of campus. Instead, Cameron choked Annabelle into unconsciousness and then took her to an industrial park three miles from campus. After restraining her to a table, Cameron performed the first of his first “surgery”-style murders by dissecting Annabelle’s body while she was still alive. After thoroughly mutilating the corpse, Cameron proceeded to cut pieces from the victim and ingest them. According to Cameron, he blessed each piece as if it were some sort of ritual sacrament before eating it. Unlike in the case of his grandparents, Mueller managed to cover his tracks adequately, and the first of a string of 14 similar cannibalistic murders began. It wasn’t until the end of his eight-year killing spree that Cameron Mueller claimed he was “abandoned by Heaven” (captured in 2004).

Cameron was uninterested in the prospect of suicide as he felt the mortal sin of taking one’s own life could endanger the wellbeing of his soul, and Cameron Mueller turned himself in to local authorities, confessing in gratuitous and enthusiastic detail every detail of every murder as well as the locations of murder weapons and the location of the potter’s field where he had buried all of his victims. In accordance with these confessions and a history of insanity, the State remanded Mueller to a lifetime stay in one of Atascadero State Hospital, CA, high-security cells.

Due to his impressive improvement over the last 12 years (transferred 2016) and recent treatment hearings he was transferred to the North Dakota State Hospital for his last state of recovery and rehabilitation before being re-integrated into society.

Mueller Today

Treatments and Results:

Since Cameron has been at the North Dakota State Hospital, he had gotten both better and worse while admitted to the High Security Depression ward. He now seems to be caught in the throes of a penitent depression, Mueller believes he may have “misinterpreted the omens” and that he failed in the imperative of the soul that demanded he commit the murder spree. He failed in what he felt his mission was at the time.  In some sort of strange means to maintain his feelings of repentance, Mueller has taken to decorating small religious images that he’s made from paper. Cameron’s odd attempts at hybridizing Roman Catholic iconography and the likenesses of his victims are always lined up neatly along the walls of his room. Mueller prays in front of these images, talks to God and reacts poorly if the images are taken away from him. The prayers that Cameron offers to his paper pantheon are often a chaotic jumble of bastardized Latin (verified by qualified persons) and uncontrollable crying. Nonetheless, despite the glossolalia jumble of his prayer language, he conducts his prayer ceremony four times a day at regular intervals. Insofar as Cameron Mueller’s desire to cannibalize his victims, complete success has been achieved.  Cameron was initially uncooperative in this area at Atascadero and referred to these practices as “personal religious beliefs about which he refused to be interrogated.”

Plan:

Now 41 years old, Cameron is highly intelligent and fully capable of sabotaging his own therapy if he so chooses but, to our best estimation, is genuine.  He also is a high-risk for suicide but otherwise appears completely safe and trustworthy. Cameron Mueller is to be monitored 24 hours a day for suicidal acts (he attempted three times at Atascadero). He is not permitted metal or sharp objects and is only given crayons and paper with which to draw and write.  If he shows anything other than perfect behavior he will be sent back to Atascadero State Hospital (ASH) and re-admitted to their maximum-security ward.


Resolution: Chimera wasted no time, scrying Mueller and scanning his mind.  Despite outward appearances, he was not truly repentant, just waiting to get out before attempting his rituals of murder and cannibalism to devour the "sparks" of God trapped inside his specially chosen victims.  All his shame was at the thought that he hadn't conducted his bizarre rites correctly.  Prepared to destroy Cameron in cold blood she got her friend Eos, a Sin-Eater Reaper and prepared to kill him with the Stigmatic Curse from the Twilight side of his cell.  Instead, they pulled him into Twilight and questioned him.  Found to be highly resistant to harm and in need of serious reprogramming, Chimera took it upon her Wisdom to reprogram Cameron Mueller with advanced Mind Magic.  Correcting his murderous needs and culling the budding Slasher that was coming out.

"Eos, we're ready." With a quick slash of her knife through the air, Chimera pulls Cameron through the Twilight.

Cameron, at this point, has been preparing to crawl into bed and read. He looks around as the world shifts, becoming flat matte faded colors and distorted shapes. He looks up and sees Eos and Chimera for the first time. His cold eyes don't change. "...What?"

 "Sit down and don't do anything that could cause harm to us regardless of what we do." *Psychic Domination* "Have a seat." Chimera gestures at the floor.

Cameron sits down hard, eyes wary. "What are you doing to me?"

Eos glares at Cameron, her eyes becoming dark as her Geist looms over her shoulder. "You aren't sick, you are just a killer. You won't hurt anyone, ever again." *Eos uses Stigmatic Curse*

Cameron's face is emotionless, hard like a cliff face, "Your wrong."

One sore opens on his right arm and starts bleeding. Somehow, the damage just shrugged off him for the most part. The wound is bleeding profusely, but that should have killed him outright. He sneers at Eos and glances at his arm. "Suffer not the witch."

Eos frowns, "That should have killed him."

"God protects me." Mueller says behind gritted teeth. "Listen, I don't know what you think you know but you've got me all wrong."

"Enlighten us then. If you're not a killer, what are you?" Chimera rather suspects that this is more of his lies, but the complete lack of reaction to Eos' Curse has her interest. *Chimera uses Pierce Deception*

"I was doing the Lord's work, but I got it all wrong. I misinterpreted the signs but I had good intentions. I've given myself to the Lord and I am dedicated to making it right if it is the last thing I do. You can kill me if you want but you will be denying me the chance to do good in the world, for any sort of redemption." He bows his head and closes his eyes.

While these statements are 100% true in his mind, the supernal symbols drifting up from the statement are bloody, rotten, and hungry... his words are true but how he intends to carry out his redemption feels nasty and violence. Ecstacy and agony.

"How is butchering more people going to grant you redemption? Isn't that what you "misinterpreted" the first time? Explain." Chimera's voice is flat and she stands very still, but Eos is able to tell that she's really pissed off.

Chimera reaches out to Eos telepathically.

Eos replies.

Cameron watches Chimera's stillness and change of posture. He opens his mouth then pauses. "Are you angels? What is this place?"

"Hardly. And you're the one answering the questions here. What exactly do you think you're accomplishing? If god didn't want you to kill people the first time, why would he want it now?" Chimera asks.

Cameron acknowledges that his dodge didn't work and returns to placidly. He watches both Chimera and Eos with equal attentiveness. 

He shakes his head at the question. "No... killing them was never the mistake. The mistake was I didn't kill them the right way, didn't consume the right parts. God is fragmented. Trapped. Those people were special. They had the spark of the divine in them, I was told to free that spark, send it back to heaven through myself. If I free enough God will come back." He watches Chimera, "If your not angels...? But you are judging me right now. Who are you to judge me?"

"I see. Did god give you a mark of his favor, by any chance? Some sort of sign that you were chosen?" *Chimera Checks for Stigmata marks.*

"You know, I think I'm actually going to be honest with you. There are people who understand what you are, because in some ways, they're the same. Killers, and people with the same . . . let's say, appetites. The difference is that some of us choose to control ourselves. Who better to judge you, really? And what does it say when even we find you wanting?" Chimera pointedly refuses to answer any more questions until he replies to hers question about markings. She's still very still, staring at Cameron with a kind of intent aggression.

He frowns, "No marks... no more than the sparks I devoured. Are you saying you are like me?"

“Yes . . . and no – because I’m going to offer you a choice, which is more than you ever gave any of your victims. If you could be the person you’ve been portraying yourself as to the doctors here, would you? You pretend to be sorry that you’ve hurt people, despite that having nothing to do with it. But if your empathy for others could be real?” She watches dispassionately while watching him with Pierce Deception.

"Yes. I would. But I can't, I'm broken." He isn't sure if he is telling the truth or not, its irrelevant to him since it cannot happen.

"Fine. Then you will be." Chimera waves a hand, and knocks him unconscious.

"I'm "fixing" him. You know what I realized, Eos? For a truly moral and empathetic person, someone without his delusions to shield him, having to come to terms with the horrible things he's done is probably worse than death ever could be. I'm not doing this to be nice."

Chimera spends several hours crafting a permanent version of Psychic Reprogramming...

After the work is done Chimera return to the Sanctum. The spirits watching Cameron will report no major change in his behavior. However at his next hearing he is not released and it doesn't look like he will be released anytime soon. A few months from now he will have a few freak outs and breakdowns and they send him back to Brentwood.