Cory Vandermere

alive

Cory Vandermere

Player: Jeremy Magyar Groom On-screen character: Elias Vance

Actor (Off-Screen, 2015)

44, Los Angeles. The "Glitch" kid from Nebula Station: Orion's Edge (1989–1999). Almost-famous working actor. Warm, generous, deeply prepared. One brief marriage, no kids. Beloved on the convention circuit. Box 13 is his most interesting audition in fifteen years.

Vibe: The grown-up. Stable. Sober-curious. Skeletons: None major.

Actor Bonds

Bond Person / Thing Points
Person (friend) Tara — Horselover's assistant; replaced Marian (Session 6 bond phase) 23
Person (colleague) Diane Kessler — agent of 15+ years; sent him the Box 13 audition with a note saying "this one's interesting" 32
Anchor The Craft — twenty-six years of being a good working actor: prepared, kind to the crew, showing up at your best 40
Bond Phase — Session 6 (post ten-year skip)
Cory **drops Marian** — the ex-wife, the 2 AM call — and takes **Tara** in her place. After a decade still making *Box 13*, the person he'd reach for is no longer the woman from before; it's the assistant **inside the production.** The bond pool has been quietly turned toward the show.

Bond Phase, Session 1: unresolved — skipped.

Actor Relationships

On-Screen Character: Elias Vance

Forensic researcher, Box 13's "occult systems specialist." Survived something in 2011 that the official report called a gas leak seven times. Three colleagues went missing from that incident. Treats the impossible like a printer that won't print. Keeps a notebook with everyone's blood type. Knows enough to be useful, not enough to be safe.

Specialty: Pattern recognition, makeshift containment.

Character Bonds

Bond Person / Thing Points
Person (friend) Hannah — younger sister, civilian, the only person who remembers Elias before 2011 7
Person (colleague) Marcus — former colleague from before 2011; left the field, still answers the phone 16
Anchor Intuition — knowing without the paper trail; trust the thing under the reasoning — replaced The Method (Session 6) 48
Bond Phase — Session 6 (Character)
Elias **loses his Anchor to The Method** — *"the world is investigable; rigor is the path through"* — and takes an Anchor to **his intuition** instead. His entire identity was rigor; the night floors were a place where rigor **failed** (illegible signs, causality dead to his vector-math circle, doors that open only when you *give way*). He came out no longer trusting the method — only the thing under it. For Box 13's *occult systems specialist*, that is the corruption doing its quiet work: the investigator stops investigating and starts **feeling** his way. (Cf. the seam — Cory's warmth and Elias's rigor were "the same impulse at different temperatures"; the rigor half just broke.)
Bond Phase — Session 1
Visited Hannah. Failed roll (−4). Called from his apartment after the Kessler case. The call went well until he tried to talk about the asylum. She cut him off: *"Eli... no. We've been through this. You have to stop."* He said *"I love you"* and hung up. **Hannah: 20 → 16.** They've had this fight before. They will have it again. *"Eli" is the name only Hannah uses. Handle with care.*

Session 2 Notes (Elias Vance)

Bond Phase — Session 2

Action: Attempted to draw on The Method — analyzed the blood sample as a coping mechanism. Roll: Failed. Result: The Method (Anchor): 55 → 51 (−4).

Session 6 Notes (Elias Vance)

Character Relationships

Equipment — Tool Pouch

Leather roll-up pouch, well-worn. Lives on his desk; travels with him at all times.