Location: Training Room B Gear: A hot ass dress Skills: The insurmountable will to not lose her cool under any circumstances Oh god oh fuck
"That sounds like something that has a lot of story behind it," Leah joked, clearly amused by it. She watched everyone continue to take pictures, on and on...and on. Dear lord, how many pictures could someone possibly take? Holy shit. Danni's creativity with the number of ways people just stood still was baffling, as were many things about him. But finally- finally, they got their pictures dealt with, and got moving along. Wow. The dance started half an hour ago, and the results for who would be going off to face the Baby Avengers would be announced once they got there. Hopefully they were saving that for the end when everyone didn't have a dance to take their minds off of it, otherwise the whole night would be ruined for some people. They got through the doors and... Yep. That was a lot of people. There were people dancing, and Leah didn't dance. Besides, that would be awkward with three people probably. And there was a table for drinks, but Leah wasn't going to even entertain that idea. She fully expected some jackass to sneak past everyone and spike it with something, someone could go invisible or just cast a Fuck You Here's Spiked Dance Drinks spell from somewhere else.
Looking around, there wasn't a whole lot that made this whole... Thing feel like Leah's scene. She saw Vicky off in the distance dressed up like Frankenstein's monster, which she found fucking hilarious but wasn't going to say why for obvious reasons.
And then she looked back at her group. "Okay, we're here. So... now what?"
You told me the shaping shadows stuff was a whole different Lux from purple so I was going with that assumption lmao
the shadow construction stuff tho, I'd say that's about as strong as something like the floorboards in someone's house. You could swing a hammer at them and you might not punch a hole through them but a gun would shoot right through.
@Blizz Could you give me an idea of how strong these shadow constructs are?
He does kinda seem like a single color-Lux user tho since he can easily open portals to one of the hardest places to reach, teleport easily, and shape shadows within a hundred feet of him. lol
_______________________________________________ Jack Hawthorne
He/Him | 29 | White | 5'9" | 178lbs _______________________________________________ Wise _______________________________________________ Skills & Talents "Interdimensional traveler, master of magic, and friend in dark places, at your service." ___________________________________
Loremaster ⫻ Jack has been to many places, met many people, and seen many things. Through his travels, he has encountered virtually every form the Paranormal can take, including the abominable things that aren't normally seen in Shimmer. Give him a minute to think, and he'll likely have many answers to a mystery. Jack's personal favorite subject is the way magic is used by people, and he always dozens of spells for all manners of Abstraction wrote down somewhere, that he can hook others up with if they're looking for something to add to their playbook. Like a mad scientist, most people can simply ask Jack for pointers and he'll throw them dozens.
Pokerface ⫻ Jack plays a mean hand. You'll never be too certain if he's cheating or if he's just outmatching you with raw skill once the cards are broken out. This certainly helps when money is at stake, but Jack is also pretty difficult to get an accurate read on, as he doesn't give away any cues when lying. No quiet words, no lack of eye contact, he lies through his teeth like a politician.
Musician ⫻ Maybe it's the magic fingers, but Jack can play a guitar well enough to impress a crowd on a stage. Most of what he plays is gloomy, gothic music that flips between mellow and heavy with little in between.
Sneaky ⫻ It turns out that being a shadow wizard lends well to staying hidden. Jack has a talent for concealing his presence, and remaining undetected by most people with or without magic. He can get the drop on people better than most, and throw off anybody from crazed witch hunters to the PRA with little trouble.
Resourceful ⫻ Sometimes you need to patch stab wounds, and sometimes you don't have a first-aid kit. Sometimes your car broke down but you don't have anything to fix the radiator. Jack's good at finding ways to get around most material needs, and is crafty enough that he can survive where most would perish. When winter comes and all you have is an old kerosene space heater to stay warm, Jack will cook a great breakfast using a pot, a circular pan, and a roll of aluminum foil (or a water bottle instead) as if the stove worked just fine.
Appearance ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ "The Void is cold, around this time of year."
Jack stands at 5’9” and always seems to be dressed for winter. Trench coats, wool pants, combat boots, the works. He wears multiple layers to keep himself warm in the cold, but also for the purposes of magic. Jack could easily pass himself off as someone’s eccentric college professor just by his fashion choices. He hasn’t cut his hair in ages, and always has it like a black, shoulder length, frazzled mess that has a mind of its own. Under all of his layers, one would find dozens of scars from cuts, burns, and other forms of damage. One that sticks out most is the destroyed remains of his left shoulder, which still aches from time to time. In place of it, Jack has a hand and arm that are made entirely from magical darkness.
Psychology ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ "I'm not like other Adepts."
MAIN GOAL ⫻ Jack doesn't have a damn clue what he's doing with himself these days. He doesn't have a goal that directs where he goes, and as such, he goes wherever he wishes. But having heard about the recent murders of his home, he has taken it upon himself to do what he can to help, even if he could put infinite distance between himself and St. Portwell.
PHILOSOPHY ⫻ Nothing will last forever. Not the good times, not the bad ones, and everything has its season. Jack believes that just because some things are not meant to be now doesn't mean they won't have a place in the world later. So he chooses to enjoy the world as a whole while he occupies it, knowing that he won't do so forever. Jack goes where life takes him, never in a hurry to live too fast. There is a time and a place when it is appropriate to push against the direction that fate is pulling you in, and there is a time to flow with the current, and Jack believes it is best to help those who are drowning as they do either.
SECRETS ⫻ While it isn't the most immediately dire secret, Jack prefers to keep the details of his world-hopping magic close to the chest. It's old news among the coven that he found a way to make this travel nigh effortless, but Jack isn't particularly eager to teach someone else how it works. If the wrong entity learned that spell, it could cause some problems.
SEXUALITY ⫻ Homosexual, as far as he's aware, anyway.
FEARS ⫻ You would think someone who wanders a realm of eldritch horrors like its a sidewalk would fear absolutely nothing. But honestly? Jack is scared of drowning.
REPUTATION IN OLD COVEN ⫻ Jack was always seen as a bit of a nerd. He was more fascinated by magic and the way it worked than most people. He'd always be found pouring over books and making up new spells for the sake of curiosity. Most of these spells turned out to be hits and misses, but Jack was always the one other Adepts went to when they needed a bit of advice on how to go about using magic.
ROLE IN THE BATTLE AGAINST THE STYGIAN SNAKE ⫻ Sometimes you've got to fight fire with fire. It was almost uncanny, the way the Stygian Snake seemed to mimic his own magic. Hiding in shadows, snuffing out the sun with a thought, warping the fabric of reality and more. Jack theorized at one point that the Stygian Snake was some manner of human twisted into an Aberration, as the things it could do were unsettlingly similar to the things he could do. Jack helped find the Apparition Killer, and joined the coven members who went to retrieve it, leveraging his purple Lux to ensure their safe passage back to Shimmer. During the fight against the Stygian Snake, Jack followed it into the shadows beyond the normal world, ensuring it had no peace and that his comrades were kept up to date after time was warped. He was injured during one of these jumps, costing him an arm and most of his left shoulder.
FLAWS ⫻ Above all else, Jack is proud of his magical capabilities. He has just a bit of an ego when it comes to his accomplishments and what he’s discovered, and he’s not afraid to back that up. But beyond that, he had trouble with staying convicted in things. He’ll pack up and leave if he can’t see things working out, before a conclusion is in sight.
Jack is also, for lack of a better term, out of time. In the Void, time does not flow. He has inadvertently displaced himself to an extent, not being as caught up on events as others. The Void has also eroded parts of him, he can’t remember most of his life before the coven, and he hasn’t had a proper night’s sleep in a decade.
Backstory ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ "We broke a demigod. What more needs to be said?"
When he was young, Jack had a kindling event that felt like a dream. It's hard to remember that far back, due to the Void's effects on his mind, but he remembers seeing visions of a horse one minute, and of a bull the next. His homelife was questionable at best, so once he started grasping magic, Jack just ran and ran. He never looked back, since it just felt right to him. The important events begin shortly after he discovered a certain snake terrorizing the mortal world. Ashley Stone and the Sycamore Coven ran into him, and from here he connected with the paranormal world. He met likeminded people and dove deep into studying all that he could, hoping to understand magic on a deeper level and use his shadowy magic against that of the Stygian Snake's days were spent pouring over books and scouting out the city at night, to the concern of a few coven members. No one was entirely sure where he came from or when he’d stop learning so much, but it worked out in the long run, as the Stygian Snake was one day banished into the coven’s namesake. Everything was fine, until it wasn’t.
The coven began falling apart in the following weeks. Leadership lost faith, people couldn’t agree on what they should do with the coven, and some just wanted to move on. Jack personally believed the coven should’ve dedicated itself to protecting St. Portwell from other supernatural threats, not just the ones that reversed time and his in shadows. B t it was never meant to last, so having learned to compensate for the lack of a left hand, Jack made plans to find greener pastures. He packed his things and assured his friends in the coven that he’d keep in touch. On the day he set out, Jack finally broke out the spell that, to this day, is considered his magnum opus: A portal into the Void. Some of the coven members were skeptical, but it worked. He said his goodbyes, opened the portal, and he was gone.
The Void is many things to many people. A land of nightmares, a place that does not exist, or even a purgatory. But to Jack, it was nothing short of magnificent. The horrors of the Void were not so horrific to him, and as the portal snapped shut, Jack hoped he’d stay a while. He wandered with fascination, embracing the eldritch nature of this world and learned so much. Jack stared incomprehensible entities in the eyes, dredged up remnants of distant universes and slept peacefully every night. Any other person would succumb to madness, but not him. He rebelled in this. The god of the Void, an entity known simply as the Child one day crossed paths with Jack. The Child found Jack’s amicability towards incomprehensible nightmares baffling, and decided to send him home after a conversation. When Jack returned to Shimmer, he discovered that time passed differently- He thought he was only gone for two days, but he was actually gone for a month.
He found this fascinating, but decided to spend a some time in Shimmer. But Jack could never simply let things be. Eventually, he trespassed again. The Child eventually got fed up with him, and left Jack to fend for himself. This was the cycle of Jack’s life for the next decade: Enter the Void, explore and bask in the horrific majesty of it, and return home for a while. During his time in Shimmer, he travelled just as extensively, seeing the world and all it had to offer. But in the Void, time got further and further away from him. They say time flies, but ten years passed in what should’ve only been two, or even three. It shouldn’t have surprised him, then, when Auri managed to find him and was very surprised that he never checked in. Ten years, and no one heard a word out of him back home. She called him for help, explaining that the old coven members were slowly being picked off from all over the world. Concerned, and happy to reconnect with old friends, Jack got a location and planned a trip back home.
Abstraction ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ "The darkness is not something to toy with, unless you're especially accustomed to it."
TYPE ⫻ Adept
ABSTRACTION ⫻Red-Purple Lux. Jack's channeler is a curious book.
ABSTRACTION DESCRIPTION ⫻ Jack blurs the lines between red and purple Lux into a form unique to him, allowing him to weave supernatural darkness into a variety of spells that allow him to manipulate his surroundings, protect people, and trespass into the Void.
Voidwalk ⫻ The spell that Jack considers his greatest work. As a kid, Jack developed a way to open up a doorway directly into the Void, and back into Shimmer. Doing this displaces him chronologically, meaning he could spend what feels like a day on the other side, but actually return several days later. The exact details of how he achieved this are a mystery. To open a portal, Jack requires several minutes to focus in a dimly lit area. During this time, he uses his shadowy red Lux to pull away at the "net" between worlds. The portal can only stay open for a few seconds at a time, after which the proverbial net will snap back like a rubber band. This spell is based on the concept of the Gloomy Step, and as a result of this, he can pick and choose certain regions of the Void to enter. One such region is a place he calls the Shadowzone, an area that is relatively untouched by the horrors of the Void, where Jack lives during his extended trips. If Jack does not actively decide where he wants to go in the Void, then his portal will place him somewhere at random.
Umbramancy ⫻ The oldest form of Jack's Abstraction is the ability to transform otherwise normal darkness into something tangible through red Lux, within roughly 100 feet.. He can pull a shadow off the wall, and shape it into strictly solid objects, use it to blind others or play tricks on someone. This expression of his Lux partly explains the amount of layers he tends to wear, as the shadows under his clothes make for a quick and dirty source of power. Jack can also create darkness, dimming down a normally well-lit room to the point that it becomes difficult to see. The light that would be rendered nonexistent by this magic does not go away permanently- Jack doesn't destroy light sources. Rather, he simply replaces it with magical darkness, meaning lights will return to normal when he wants them to, almost like something out of a horror movie.
When Jack makes something solid out of shadows, it has about as much durability as hardwood. You could swing a hammer at them and you might not punch a hole through them but a gun would shoot right through.
Gloomy Step ⫻ If Jack can find a particularly dark area, he can walk into it to vanish on a whim, and appear at an exit point of his choosing. He has to picture this place in his mind, meaning he needs to have been there before, or have a picture of it that he can commit to memory. This means that Jack can suddenly appear on the other side of St. Portwell, but he can’t appear in Dollhouse’s basement. There are two main factors that Jack must consider when using this spell: Distance and light. The more there is of either, the longer he was to wait before teleporting again. Jumping across a city at midnight twice is one thing, but doing the exact same thing at midday would be drastically slower.
Shadow Hand ⫻ Less a spell, and more a permanent replacement for the arm he lost during the battle with the Stygian Snake. Jack's left arm is made of magic darkness, and feels like solid rock when touched. He could use it to punch through windows and not feel a thing, crush tin cans with it, and carry things that would be too awkward to lift for others. The advantages stop there, since having a fake hand isn't the same as being supernaturally strong. It also makes blending in slightly challenging, since people tend to notice when your hand is solid black. For this reason, he'll often walk be seen with just one arm in public, because he can get rid of his magic one and make it appear again at a moment's notice.
LIMITS ⫻ Jack's Abstraction comes with the territory of staying concealed and staying mobile. Intense light effectively starves him of his ability to use most of his magic. Put him on a beach at midday and the best he can do is start looking for shade. In worse cases, the poor bastard can't even open a water bottle, having lost a hand to the sun.
WEAKNESSES ⫻WEAKNESSES ⫻ The Void is easily the most dangerous element that is known, home to unimaginable horrors and God-like Eldritch abominations. Opening a door there can end badly if he uses it willy-nilly, and something can come through - or quickly kill him if they will it. Umbramancy is countered by light-based magic or magic that generates light, which means Photomancy hard-counters his Umbramancy, and the constructs are far easier to destroy with magic. The Gloomy Step does not indicate what is on the other side and can leave him in a sticky situation if he does it willy-nilly. Light-based magic can, again, render him unable to teleport altogether, if he's being exposed to it.
Also, people will make fun of him for how edgy he is.
Other ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ "I should have come home sooner. I will tear the Void open wide as a canyon, and dethrone the Child if it means we stay safe."
"Slow down! This is a boat, not a yet, it doesn't have breaks!"
"That's north, so turn about to here and go left."
"That's not how you steer right- Turn the stick left."
Cora knew how boats worked, and she did not shut the fuck up once while Viktor was the one driving. It felt nice to be at least in the same state as her family again, even if there was about 40 miles between them right now. Kobra was back on their shit, and decided they needed to do it here- That made sense, but they had to know that there was no way they'd be genuinely safe around here. Between the wildlife, and her team, Kobra wasn't walking away from this in one piece. While they went down the waterways, Cora occasionally dipped a few metal vials into the water, to collect some of it for later investigation. According to Daphne and all the trees, Kobra had been dumping chemicals into the water. What chemicals, she wasn't sure. But if they were doing experiments here, they had to have been doing something different- Maybe trying to refine the venom formula and make it stronger, or last longer, or have less side effects- And any information would be good information for tracking the punks down. The last thing they needed was to walk headfirst into a Kobra facility, and being surprised when the venomed-up goons started breathing fire or something. In total, Stormcaller filled six, each one from water about an hour closer to the facility, and she'd fill at least one or two more before they left, for research purposes.
Once they hit a shallow area, the boat had to be ditched. Immediately, Zatara's bored ass started flying and Rain piped up with a plan. "Mirage can probably keep the animals around here off of us. Poking them with a sound stick'll just piss 'em off. We don't want to fight the wildlife on top of Kobra. I've been getting faster at flying, so I can go up front ahead of us all to scout if we want," She lifted up off the boat, over the edge and out to where Zach was. In the downtime between last mission and now, Cora had picked up a bit of speed and more control, feeling more comfortable moving around in the air. "It might be better to save the sound emitter for later. They might be expecting us, so they could be looking for intruders right now."
"This is your mission, Nymph. What's the move?" Cora quietly hoped that Nymph would try to at least hang back and not charge forth herself, given how much she used her powers just trying to get them here. She also wanted to subtly hype Nymph up, since she had a habit of letting others take the wheel. It didn't help, in that regard, that Rain was already laying out a whole battle plan for them.
Got a character in the works, dude who took to wandering the All-Verse after the coven fell off. He spent some time in the Void and learned some weird magic there (possibly) and your character has a thing with the void. So I'm to conspire since there's potential for a dynamic there if you're interested
Velhass didn’t want to be like the stories that Shirik told him. The thought mages who took hold of a person’s mind, manipulated them like bricks in a wall, and then died at the hands of an Inquisitor for trying to use his magic.
Velhass did not want to be disrespectful to the person who took him in, taught him what magic was, and kept him safe. Shirik was owed that much, at the very least. But seeing how aggressive Shirik felt when he just mentioned their old friend, whose memories came through like water from a river… It hurt.
It had been days since Shirik exploded in his face, and neither of them brought it up again. It was a boundary, and thus far neither of them explicitly had boundaries. They trusted one another, kept each other company when the nights grew colder, and hunted together every day. Shirik had done so much for Velhass in so little time, and it hurt not being able to do anything good for them in return.
He thought to himself, perhaps if Shirik were to forget whatever heavy memories they had, that made it so difficult for them to feel peace, then maybe they would live life a little easier.
But then Shirik would know. Shirik knew everything.
What was the point of such power, if not to use it for the good of others? Shirik used their magic to cook and give Velhass warmth. Even the Inquisitors used their magic to protect. But if they tried to hurt someone, they’d be hurt too. Would he be hurt if they were hurt badly enough? Maybe not, but Shirik would be.
And Velhass knew that Shirik wouldn’t look at him the same way after that.
But it would be so easy…
Shirik noted that Silbermine wasn’t directly answering their question, stating that his people knew the hills very well, but not where they had scouted lately. They took that to mean he was hiding something. Of course he was. All the lords in the land had designs on their realms, and the Glen nobility of yesteryear were no different. ”Yes… I once chased a fallen moon across the fields of Narkant. You would have been hardly a green-horned whelp, it was long ago. The moon fell from the heavens, abandoning her two sisters in the sky, and all the warriors of the kingdom failed to find little more than dust upon the grass.” Many of Shirik’s stories were fantastical, but held a more than a kernel of truth in them. They made their tales capture an audience, without diminishing the events that did happen. They were also, however, spouting absolute bullshit at the moment just to make Silbermine look like a dumbass in front of every person present. Kanth-Aremek never had a third moon.
”They set it fell into the Driddic Sovereignty, and tore open the earth, leaving behind a chasm greater than the deepest oceans, and darker than a moonless night.” There was an old rumor about a “Great Chasm” in the land of the Driisu. But it was just tbat- A rumor.
Shirik didn’t pay much mind to the Glen lord’s bragging of the Running, they were far above such squabblings. The humans, however, might be found some novelty in the idea. So when the Glen all began their knightly chant, Shirik switched languages as well. ”Glen song. Old, annoying. He is hiding something. Your ship remains, maybe.” It wouldn’t do to converse with the humans in such a manner when the Glen weren’t distracted. While they were all singing, Shirik wanted to take the time to confirm their fears to Ixtaro. Silbermine might’ve found something already, but isn’t saying so.
The blade of his scythe glided through the demon's neck as if it were but paper, and Jack could not help but feel the temptation to swing again, but the demon had fallen limp. Jack looked and witnessed Annika grow much larger, and tearing through the remaining forces. Relief washed over him. He noticed he seemed to be gripping his weapon with white knuckles, and relaxed, taking in a breath and leaning on the scythe. He wasn't in a hurry to get rid of it, knowing more of Witchfire's forces could be right around the corner. The dead body of Madalyne's father held his attention. Jack had seen death in many places, and he did not know Ed. But clearly, he meant something to some of the people present, who now had the burden of remembering him.
"...We will ensure his death is not unanswered for," Jack said to Runa and Madalyne, hoping it would provide some figment of comfort. Everyone passed in time, and some went before others, but it did not diminish the fact that Sym deserved the fate that would no doubt be awaiting him. And Witchfire... Ananym had some explaining to do. With Sym now gone, there were more important matters to attend to.
"You are exactly right," He nodded towards Prudence. "We cannot stay here. We have a matter of hours before the Veil falls to pieces, and our home is torn to ribbons by the monsters of this world. I understand you do not care for this, and I would happily open another portal to send out everyone here who wishes to return home, but interplanar navigation is unreliable at the moment. Here in Limbo, there are natural portals known as Stepping Discs, one of which just happened to have opened at the perfect time for Sym to escape. If you see one, and decide to remove yourself from this situation entirely, simply walk through and they should displace you into any point in physical space, during any point in the past or future."
Prudence didn't seem like the type who wanted to worry about an entire dimension folding in on itself. She gave Jack the impression that she was more concerned with her personal safety, and rightfully so. If she wanted a way out, he wouldn't blame her for taking it.
He then turned to the overall group. "Regardless, an option we may have is searching for Illyana Rasputina. She is the Sorcerer Supreme of Limbo, and Witchfire claims to be the queen of Limbo. A Sorcerer Supreme doesn't simply abdicate the throne, they hold their position of power for as long as they exist. And Miss Rasputina should be the most powerful woman in this entire realm, no less. If she has been replaced by Ana- by Witchfire-" Her name left his voice with a trace of grief, "-Then this side of the Veil is also under threat of crumbling. We need answers, and I would assume she can provide them. Does anyone have any other possible suggestions?"
Member
Forsythe
Cerera
tadcfnaf
Achronum
Zeus23
xVampire3go
Antlers
Morose
