[CENTER][COLOR=SLATEGRAY][B]C H A R A C T E R C O N C E P T P R O P O S A L[/B][/COLOR][h1][color=red][b]W A R L O C K ' S D A U G H T E R[/b][/color][/h1][hr] [img]https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/50/Warlocksdaughterdcu0.jpg[/img][h3][sup][sub][color=tomato]D A R L A A Q U I S T A [color=red]♦[/color] B A R I S T A [color=red]♦[/color] G O T H A M [color=red]♦[/color] V I G I L A N T E[/color][/sub][/sup][/h3][img]IMAGE/BANNER[/img] [/CENTER][COLOR=red][INDENT][B][SUP][SUB][H3]C H A R A C T E R C O N C E P T:[/H3][/SUB][/SUP][/B][/INDENT][hr][/COLOR] [CENTER][sup][color=red]"I'm the Warlock's Daughter."[/color][/sup][/CENTER] [INDENT][INDENT][i] Newly returned to the land of the living, Warlock's Daughter is a growing presence in the city of Gotham. Darla Aquista is dead, but Laura Fell walks in her place. Indebted to the mob sorcerer responsible for her resurrection, Warlock's Daughter is on a quest for vengeance. She wants to find her killers. She wants to make them pay. She wants to send them straight to Hell. Still, she wants to be good, she wants to be a hero. She really does. Mostly. Sometimes. At least when it's easy. Unfortunately, her aspirations to make her second shot at life better than her first are frequently interrupted by her adopted father regularly calling on her to pay down installments on her debt. Unburdened by Robin or another heroic figure to guide her, Warlock's Daughter is capable of great evil, while remaining mostly a force of good in Gotham. [/i][/indent][/indent] [COLOR=red][INDENT][B][SUP][SUB][H3]C H A R A C T E R M O T I V A T I O N S & G O A L S:[/H3][/SUB][/SUP][/B][/INDENT][hr][/COLOR][INDENT][INDENT][i]What does it mean to be good? How does dying and then being resurrected affect you? How do you hold onto what feels like an increasingly distant hope of being good, while being compelled to work with villains and doing bad things? How much are you willing to pay for vengeance? What are you willing to lose? What must a magician do in order to navigate an increasingly complicated world that appears to exist only in difficult to parse shades of gray? These and more, are all questions I would like to explore. My goal is to present a more grounded version of Warlock's Daughter with all the difficult moral struggles that afflict a character deeply uncertain of her own alignment or even purpose. Being a big fan of all things related to magic, I've been interested in diving into magic in a superhero setting for some time now. The DC Universe is particularly rich in terms of magic lore, so my hope is that Warlock's Daughter will offer me a somewhat grounded, more limited start from which to begin exploring this teeming arcane ecosystem, that to be honest is a bit overwhelming in scope. As I would like to start things simply, launching a straight forward plot, and providing Warlock's Daughter with few already established connections. It is my fond hope that I will be able to present a more gritty, modern take on magic, in line with perpetual favorites like Constantine and the Dresden Files. Adrift without a supporting cast to curtail her excess violence, Warlock's Daughter will be a vigilante struggling to find solid moral footing. Personal goals centering on revenge will be perpetually threatened by demands forced upon her by the outstanding debt she owes to her adopted father, Johnny Warlock. Attempts to step out of the darkness will be interrupted by memories of the grave and ties to the criminal underworld of Gotham. Hard choices and grim actions await the Warlock's Daughter. The people of Gotham may ultimately come to see Warlock's Daughter as a hero, an ashen faced specter dedicated to saving Gotham. However, they might just as easily find they are troubled by an occult horror, a being lost to selfish desires and burning bright with unbridled rage. Given that this RP is a group RP, my ultimate goal is of course writing with other players. Characters based in Gotham and Blüdhaven would make a lot of sense for Warlock's Daughter to interact with, as well as any magic oriented characters, but I am open to any ideas. [/i][/indent][/indent] [COLOR=red][INDENT][B][SUP][SUB][H3]C H A R A C T E R N O T E S:[/H3][/SUB][/SUP][/B][/INDENT][hr][/COLOR][INDENT][INDENT][i] [color=tomato]Johnny Warlock:[/color] A prominent mobster in Gotham City, Johnny Warlock is an occult villain aiming to carve out a piece of Gotham for himself that he can profitably rule. Working his way up from mob enforcer, he commands a motley gang of criminals that once belonged to Henry Aquista. Following Henry Aquista's death as part of an occult ritual to resurrect Aquista's daughter, Johnny has taken on the role of adoptive father to the returned Darla Aquista, now known as Laura Fell or Warlock's Daughter. [/i][/indent][/indent] [COLOR=red][INDENT][B][SUP][SUB][H3]S A M P L E P O S T:[/H3][/SUB][/SUP][/B][/INDENT][hr][/COLOR][INDENT][INDENT][i] "You should eat. It's good, best noodles this side of the Hudson River." "Not hungry," Laura replied, staring disinterestedly at the steaming bowl of ramen in front of her. The chopsticks the waiter had handed her remained frozen, unmoving in her hand despite the pleasant smell that accompanied the lazily rising steam. Johnny Warlock let out a loud sigh, shaking his head as he watched her. She knew she looked the same. Long black hair. Pale skin. Too much black. Black T-shirt. Black jeans. Black hair band. Black choker. Same frown. Same cold eyes. He readjusted his ponytail, but the annoyed look that had appeared stayed Johnny Warlock's face,"You gotta eat, kiddo. Come on, Laura. We've talked about this. You can't keep doing this. You can't keep starving yourself." "I can't taste it," she conceded. "Give it some time, dying ain't easy, you know? It's going to take a while before you are back to the way you were." "It's been more than a year," she hissed back. Johnny shrugged, returning his attention to the mountain of pork dumplings arrayed in front of him. Minutes passed quietly, before he spoke again,"These things don't work on a timetable you know. You gotta be patient. How's everything? You manage to-" "You don't have to pretend," Laura interrupted, letting the chopsticks fall from her hands as she pushed the bowl of ramen away from her. "You don't have to pretend that you care. Just tell me what you want. That's why you called me. It's always why you call me. It's the only reason you bother me any more. Isn't it, [i]Johnny[/i]?" "That hurts, kiddo," Johnny said, his voice rising. "I respected your father. He was my friend. He was my family. I loved the man as if he was my own flesh and blood. He was like a brother to me. I promised him I would look after you if anything happened to him. And that's what exactly I am going to do." "You killed him." "He made his choice," Johnny replied with a sudden icy confidence. He shifted in place. His back straightening as he slowly looked into her eyes," I [i]told[/i] him there was a price to pay. He knew. He always knew." A slow smile appeared on Laura's face, before it twisted into a cruel sneer, "Did you? Did you really, Johnny? Did you really tell him? Did you really tell him what the price was? I don't think you did. That's not like you. You don't warn people. You don't tell people the truth. You're not honest. You're a liar. You're a killer. You're a monster. Just like me." The Warlock's Daughter smiled as she saw the anger begin to bubble beneath the surface of Johnny Warlock's skin. Arcane fire lit bright embers his eyes and he clinched his fists, his broad hands beginning to shake, "You watch your mouth, kiddo. A man's got his limits and I sure as hell have mine. You think I came here to listen to you lecture me? You gonna tell me what's right now? Fuck that!" "I did what your father asked. I brought you back. I tore your soul from the hands of the Devil himself. So don't talk to me that way, [i]Darla[/i]," Johnny said, roughly jabbing a finger into her shoulder from across the table. "Don't act like you are better than me. Don't think for a second that you've got something to hold over me. Don't forget your place. I own you. I own you until your debt is paid in full. And don't you fucking forget." Laura recoiled, clasping her hands nervously on top of rickety table. Gone from her voice was any hint of contempt and any faint trace of rebellion, "Laura, I'm Laura. Darla is gone." "Sorry. Sorry, kiddo. I didn't mean it that way," Johnny said, placing his hands over her shivering hands with an apologetic smile. Her heart lurched and she felt an overwhelming sense of fear envelop her. She gasped wordlessly, taking a series of deep shuddering breaths as she struggled to pull away. "I'm just saying. You gotta learn to listen. I know how this works. You don't. You're just a kid. You're just a girl. You can't go tearing the city apart to find your killers. That's not how this works. That was never how this worked. We gotta take it one step at a time. We gotta stay below the radar. There are all sorts of freaks out there these days. Madmen dressing up as bats and worse. No, no, we do this my way. We do this the right way." "Fine, fine, you're right. Of course, you're right," Laura said apologetically, lowering her eyes to burn a hole in the table. She hated herself. She hated her fear. She hated Johnny Warlock. But she hated the shame she felt most of all. "Great, glad we got that settled," Johnny said cheerfully, already untroubled by their latest spat. "Now, you ready to listen? I got some work for you to do. Nothing major. But I need it handled. Quietly. Quickly." "Of course," Laura said, forcing herself to look up and smile. "What do you want me to do this time? What do you want me to steal? Who do you want me to maim? Who do you want me to murder? What do you want me to destroy?" Johnny waved a hand dismissively with a sly wink and flash of his teeth, before he devoured another pork dumpling, "You know, let's talk about that a little bit later. First, why don't you tell me about this Sarah chick that's been hanging around your apartment. I thought we cleared that up the last time." "Please, please no, [i]I'm sorry,[/i]" Laura pleaded in a sudden whisper. [/i][/indent][/indent] [COLOR=red][INDENT][B][SUP][SUB][H3]P O S T C A T A L O G:[/H3][/SUB][/SUP][/B][/INDENT][hr][/COLOR][INDENT][INDENT][i] [url=https://www.roleplayerguild.com/posts/5360477/]1.01[/url] [url=https://www.roleplayerguild.com/posts/5360477/]1.02[/url] [/i][/indent][/indent]