User Blog:
NPCs You Didn't Know You Needed: Brother Confessor

While I'm talking about Freud, (and a good many of you out there are groaning and rolling your eyes,) why don't we talk about another small king in a tiny kingdom.

Today's NPC You Didn't Know, I'd like to introduce you to Brother Laurence Michaels, child psychologist and father confessor for the Glenbrook School for Boys.

Description: Brother Michaels is imposing though he hardly means to be. Broad shoulders and a barrel of a chest means he takes up a lot of room when he walks down the halls of the exclusive private parochial school where he works. He keeps his hair short and his beard well trimmed. Because he's a brother, he wears street clothes befitting the school’s rigorous standards. Nice tweeds and slacks he's picked up a mail order big and tall shop that caters to other wealthy. He himself isn't wealthy and lives very lean so that his monthly stipend from the church can go to the superficial. He speaks deeply and often has to hold himself back or his booming laugh would interrupt the quiet atmosphere of the school. He is in a precarious position, and knows it all to well.

Background: Laurence grew up a smart man in a religious family. He looks at faith objectively and became much more interested in peoples’ interactions with God and country than in any higher concepts of God's work. That's why he started study in psychology when he entered the seminary. The priesthood never called to him, despite his faith and fascination, and so he became a brother. In school he wrote some well received papers on child development in the church and after finishing his masters, he was in high demand at church schools. Glenbrook offered him the most money and the chance to work most closely with the student body. He's been allowed to start a test study on combining talk therapy and holy confession, which has thus far been very beneficial for the boys in this strict religious setting. They can both relieve themselves of guilt, but also feel as if they have a safer outlet for their frustration.

It's draining on Laurence, however, and he tries to balance the sacrament of confession with more secular wisdom. Beyond that, some of the things the boys are confessing too are far more shocking than Laurence would have expected. He is now burdened with a great number of secrets that the church as well as it's wealthiest parishioner don't want getting out. It would, of course, be both illegal and immoral for him to let anything slip, but the line is thinning and his moral compass is starting to spin wild. It isn't a crisis of faith, or at least not in God. His worries are purely human.