Agriant Academy
A fifteen-year-old high school student who unexpectedly discovers he is a raw, untrained conduit of power known as a Nexus of Chaos. Plagued by debilitating anxiety, he enrolls as a late-developing student at Agriant Academy to gain control over his destructive energy.
Price is a young man with unruly, light-brown hair that curls up unpredictably at the ends and frequently falls into his eyes. When his emotional stress or anxiety flares, he experiences a severe physical reaction characterized by a hot, sweating forehead, shaking hands, a racing heartbeat, and a cold, jagged tightening in his stomach. His attunement grants him rare "Wild eyes" and causes a thick, swirling visual Fog to creep into his periphery, blurring his surroundings into indistinct shapes during an impending overload.
Price's primary emotional anchor in his normal life. She is revealed to be a former Nexus who abruptly left the Chaosmatic Community to protect him, though her casting display with hovering golf balls of sunlight provides Price with his first definitive proof of magic.
A blind enthusiast of Price’s life who is entirely unaware of his son’s actual social struggles. He lacks any Nexus attunement himself but supports his wife's choice to live a baseline suburban routine.
Price's only friend in the normal world. A resilient internet conspiracy enthusiast who acts as a loyal shield during school confrontations and watches Price's evolving kinetic outbursts with profound wonder.
An intense, older Lodgesworn Aspirant who tracks Price through the school corridors and library. Recognizing his private remedial access, she strikes a direct pact: she will train him to confidently interact with his peers at the Day of Disharmony festival if he assists her in recovering a hidden scroll from the Principal's office.
The department head who aggressively tracks his location down, and the school headmaster who provides him with a clinical stone tablet and enforces mandatory, daily remedial lessons inside his private quarters.
A mysterious, black-bearded vagabond who corners Price on a shuttle ride. He provides the first raw definitions of his Nexus status, warns him to keep his chain-bound book completely hidden from city agents, and tests the book's properties using a golden, tweezer-like implement.
Price O'Neil is a fifteen-year-old high school student who unexpectedly discovers he is a raw, untrained conduit of power known as a Nexus of Chaos. Plagued by an internal storm of sensory feedback and debilitating anxiety, his baseline life is upended when his volatile abilities trigger a series of uncontrollable outbursts. To gain control over his destructive energy, he leaves his suburban life behind to enroll as a late-developing student at Agriant Academy in Capitol City.
Price grows up completely blind to his magical heritage, believing his erratic nervous conditions are a standard psychological malady. His parents deliberately hide the existence of the Chaosmatic Community from him to enforce the illusion of a normal life, causing deep feelings of personal betrayal when the truth is revealed. In his suburban normal world, his severe social anxieties leave him isolated as a target of relentless digital and physical bullying by Justin Boyd's gang. Upon migrating to Capitol City, his massive, destructive Talisman performance marks him as a dangerous anomaly, leaving him isolated at the back of his Agriant classrooms as an eccentric outsider.
Lacking formal discipline, Price's system is highly unstable. Intense bursts of fear, shame, or anger cause his internal Chaos tank to overflow, resulting in violent, defensive kinetic shockwaves that can shatter reinforced glass, twist locker mechanisms, or launch human targets backward.
Because his raw current is exceptionally dense, standard civilian channeling focal instruments fail to regulate his output. He completely shatters smaller stone tiger and disc figures upon contact, requiring a massive, rough-cut stone tablet to safely anchor his connection and filter his environmental friction.
Price harbors a profound, protective attachment to his favorite book—a mysterious, heavy, black leather volume bound in golden chains that he discovered hidden in his attic. The artifact possesses an enticing, distinct energetic resonance that can actively vacuum out his anxiety and completely clear the visual Fog.