For those on the scene with the Questing Beast, and who have missed out on the mostly-completely-average-at-best 1996 Adventure/Fantasy Dragonheart starring Dennis Quaid, Sean Connery, David Thewlis, Pete Postlethwaite, Jason Isaacs, and Dina Meyer, Dane's plan is best summed up as follows:
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Watch out.
The gap in the door... it's a separate reality.
The only me is me.
Are you sure the only you is you?
The gap in the door... it's a separate reality.
The only me is me.
Are you sure the only you is you?
DON'T TOUCH THAT DIAL NOW, WE'RE JUST GETTING STARTED
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| Hark, Dane; quiet thy mind, and lend thine ear to my tale. Thou shalt hear of my prides and my sorrows, that ye may'st yet glean wisdom from a Knight of yester-years. In the year of our Lord Twelve-Hundred-and-Four, I didst wage war within the very city of Constantinople, in the good and godly name of our Pope Innocent the Third. As the season didst shift to Spring, the Heavens themselves opened and smiled upon us, granting a bracing wind that wouldst carry us on to our foe's walls. We were seventy strong, whomst breached the towers and entered the north city; there we established our garrison, made to continue our siege. In the midst of our fierce battle, we didst raise a mighty wall of fire, laying waste to our enemy and their strongholds. I doth recall that fray with some fondness; how the breath of flame kissed my back as my blade cleaved flesh from bone. We revelled in the glory of righteous combat, cutting down our enemies in His Holy Name as our most blessed Pontiff had commanded - yet none with such fervour as I. |  |
| I carved a path through the city with ferocity unknownst to friend and foe alike, wielding a savagery I hadst not known I possessed - the Ebony Blade lent me its strength, urged my bloodlust, and I allowed it. For thrice over the rising of the sun we did plunder, pillage, and despoil. Precious arts were seized or destroyed; bronze and silver melted down for coin; tombs and shrines robbed for what little trinkets they held. By God, we even sacked their holy places - their churches, sanctuaries, convents. Priests were thrown from their vestibules, and nuns from their monasteries. Altars were smashed for gold and for marble, and stolen were their relics, pilfered were their coffers. All told, we robbed that fine city and its people of nigh one-million marks. Upon the hour of our victory we didst celebrate our own glory; yet 'twas only in the aftermath that the true toll became known. The nobles, whomst had governed with ever-growing ineptitude and bore no love for their citizens, had absconded from the city; cushioned by their coinpurses, they established new realms to be tainted with their foul avarice. Worse still, our siege had not been for the righteous cause of our church, but to settle debts 'twixt men whomst would ne'er lack neither coin nor land in all their days. Nay; in yon battle, we had felled nigh two thousand, my own blade stain'd with the blood of hundreds - but peasants all. A slaughter of serfs. We sailed from the sacked Constantinople not as a company of holy crusaders of the Lord, nor as noble knights in service of our country - but as a wretched band of murderers and thieves. Farmers and commoners didst jeer at us, branded us as wicked villains - and I couldst not find a word to refute their accusations. We were beasts, to a man, and we had acted like beasts, no better than rabid animals. I didst believe, Dane, that the might of the Ebony Blade wouldst make of me a paragon, resplendent in glory; alas, it hath only wrought me into a scoundrel, wretched and unfit to return home. This be the lesson of Sir Eobard Garrington, and heed it well, Dane. The Blade shalt deceive thee, beguile thee, tempt thee to maim and murder. Thou must resist! Tread the virtuous path: practice mercy and restraint. Offer sanctuary to thy fellow man. Seek redemption in thine enemy. Study wisdom, and thou shalt yet become a good and noble Knight, and live an upright and honourable life. Have faith in thyself, Dane, as I have faith in thee. Thou art destined for greatness. |
B L A C K K N I G H T
B L A C K K N I G H T
B L A C K K N I G H T
Location: New York
VI
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
It all passed over me in a flash: one moment I was standing up from a crumpled car chassis, wounds closing and a warm strength flooding my limbs: the next, I was a Knight of the Crusades, cutting down men without blinking, the Ebony Blade not just asimply a sword but a natural extension of my arm; the moment after that, I was returned to New York, my head ringing with the story of an 800-year-old Knight, his words that were so vivid and clear just as quickly fading into lingering echoes, retreating into a cold silence. In front of me, the Questing Beast battled myriad strangers who had appeared, erstwhile comrades who had come to the city's aid against the rampaging chimera. I could barely catch my breath.
"Wh...what was that...?" I coughed out, my arm still aching from where the Beast had sunk its fangs, clothes damp and stained with blood but the pain ebbing away with each heartbeat.
"That was Sir Eobar Garrington, one of our oldest compatriots. You saw his life, his story. He has imparted his strength upon you, as well as his lesson; and now, he is gone. Remember his sacrifice."
"Gone? He's dead?"
"All of us in the sword are dead. But Sir Eobar is now gone. There is nothing waiting for the wielders of the Ebony Blade beyond this veil, Dane. Such is its curse. Sir Eobar gave his very essence that you would live and learn, and now he has simply ceased to be."
"So you took the fucking afterlife from me as well?!" I suddenly shouted, incensed at this fresh new outrage. Would this damned sword and my damned grandfather never stop taking things from me?
"He who made the very first oath took much from our family in doing so. We have all made our peace with it. In time, you shall as well. For now, there are immediately more pressing concerns."
I screwed my face up tight, willing the anger rising up like bile in my throat to sink back into my belly and not cloud me to the current problem; the Beast was still alive and well, rampaging on, and despite the renewed vigor I felt from Eobar surging through my muscles and quickening my mind, the blade feeling slightly more at home in my grasp than it had before, I still had very little idea of what I could do about this monster.
Luckily, fate imparted an intervention on my behalf.
It all happened very quickly; some great orange canine-esque thing bounded in, and at first I wasn't sure if this new creature was just another part of the 'trial' the Questing Beast was supposedly pushing me through, but its sudden aggressiveness against the Beast at least made it the enemy of my enemy, which for the time being would suit me better than a bystander - and then it changed, the orange making way for red, the dog-like form moving back toward humanoid, but two additional appendages bursting out of the torso. The four-armed man nodded to me with a stalwart aura about him, and then leapt off with powerful legs, grappling the Beast's neck.
At the same time, a blur of blue and yellow rushed in, focusing his attentions on the Beast's forelegs. Between him and the red four-arm they nearly brought the Beast to a standstill, a feat made all the more impressive by its apparent growing strength and size as more combatants joined the fray; and then in a flash, the renewed might found its mark, and the tail flew into the blue boy's side and catapulted him at frightening speed into a billboard, crashing glass and cascading sparks erupting around him.
As one left the battlefield, another entered, spirited in seemingly out of thin air itself; she held with her a mighty scythe, and for a moment I thought Death had indeed come for me, and I also thought Death was awfully pretty for such a terrible thing, but then she raised the great keening edge and brought it down against the Beast's flesh, and finally, finally a wound was struck. Blood was drawn, fresh crimson against the dust and rubble of its rampage, a sign that it could be cut, beaten. Hope blossomed anew within me.
"Is this not cheating?" I asked, happy to have the help but concerned I was breaching some unspoken rule; so much of the sword and my new knighthood was still kept secret from me, and at every turn I expected new challenges.
"Nay, lad," Garrett replied, and for the first time I heard humour in his voice; joy, even. "All good Knights have their courts; welcoming comrades to your side and the unfortunate into your shelter is your duty as much as slaying dragons!"
"Let's focus on slaying the Beast first..." I said, and for the life of me, Garrett laughed.
"Worry less - fight more! Enjoy it, Dane!"
I went in swinging, disbelief reverberating through me not only at my decision to do so, but my ability at it - Eobar's expertise pulsed through me, and the Blade seemed lighter, smoother, its movements more fluid and intuitive. Hacking at where the scythe had pierced revealed further flesh, but while the four-arm wrestled with the Beast astride its neck, it still roared at its fresh injury and writhed its great serpent's head into a strike position-
And then stumbled back, its neck whiplashing under the force of the energy pulse that had just blasted it straight in the face, finally throwing the four-armed humanoid off at the same time. I looked around and a fourth stranger had appeared, clad head-to-toe in silver; he quickly joined our ranks, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the girl. The absurdity of the situation suddenly struck me, and how rapidly such insanity had taken over my life. In the space of two days, I had learnt of a family curse handed down through the ages; been introduced to and accosted by the spirits of my ancestors; been confronted with a Beast ripped from fairy-tale history; died and been revived in nearly the same breath; and now, stood as comrades-in-arms with some quadraped extra-terrestrial, Lady Death Herself or near enough to not make a difference, and a shining sci-fi hero who seemed to have stepped straight off the pages of Kamen Rider. Somewhere above me, the blue-and-yellow spandex picked himself out of glass shards and LED wires.
I suppress a very, very strong urge to laugh, knowing that if I let even a giggle escape my lips, it would shatter my mind irrevocably in the very same instant, and I would never stop laughing ever again.
"You guys have a plan, right?"
His voice cut through the fog and snapped me back from the precipice of madness. I looked to him, to the woman, to the alien, to the Beast, and back to him; I really didn't, but found my gaze drawn to the hilt in my hand, the way my fingers felt wrapped around the leather, the faith of nearly a thousand years of family thrumming within the cool dark steel of the Ebony Blade. The single voice of violence ever-whispering behind them. Fire at my back, slain men and women before me, three days of pillaging stretching out ahead of me, shame and the spurning of a collapsing empire following me home.
"Have any of you seen Dragonheart?" I called, pointing to the Beast's face with my free hand as it recovered and rounded on us. "I need to get up to it's mouth!"
"Wh...what was that...?" I coughed out, my arm still aching from where the Beast had sunk its fangs, clothes damp and stained with blood but the pain ebbing away with each heartbeat.
"That was Sir Eobar Garrington, one of our oldest compatriots. You saw his life, his story. He has imparted his strength upon you, as well as his lesson; and now, he is gone. Remember his sacrifice."
"Gone? He's dead?"
"All of us in the sword are dead. But Sir Eobar is now gone. There is nothing waiting for the wielders of the Ebony Blade beyond this veil, Dane. Such is its curse. Sir Eobar gave his very essence that you would live and learn, and now he has simply ceased to be."
"So you took the fucking afterlife from me as well?!" I suddenly shouted, incensed at this fresh new outrage. Would this damned sword and my damned grandfather never stop taking things from me?
"He who made the very first oath took much from our family in doing so. We have all made our peace with it. In time, you shall as well. For now, there are immediately more pressing concerns."
I screwed my face up tight, willing the anger rising up like bile in my throat to sink back into my belly and not cloud me to the current problem; the Beast was still alive and well, rampaging on, and despite the renewed vigor I felt from Eobar surging through my muscles and quickening my mind, the blade feeling slightly more at home in my grasp than it had before, I still had very little idea of what I could do about this monster.
Luckily, fate imparted an intervention on my behalf.
It all happened very quickly; some great orange canine-esque thing bounded in, and at first I wasn't sure if this new creature was just another part of the 'trial' the Questing Beast was supposedly pushing me through, but its sudden aggressiveness against the Beast at least made it the enemy of my enemy, which for the time being would suit me better than a bystander - and then it changed, the orange making way for red, the dog-like form moving back toward humanoid, but two additional appendages bursting out of the torso. The four-armed man nodded to me with a stalwart aura about him, and then leapt off with powerful legs, grappling the Beast's neck.
At the same time, a blur of blue and yellow rushed in, focusing his attentions on the Beast's forelegs. Between him and the red four-arm they nearly brought the Beast to a standstill, a feat made all the more impressive by its apparent growing strength and size as more combatants joined the fray; and then in a flash, the renewed might found its mark, and the tail flew into the blue boy's side and catapulted him at frightening speed into a billboard, crashing glass and cascading sparks erupting around him.
As one left the battlefield, another entered, spirited in seemingly out of thin air itself; she held with her a mighty scythe, and for a moment I thought Death had indeed come for me, and I also thought Death was awfully pretty for such a terrible thing, but then she raised the great keening edge and brought it down against the Beast's flesh, and finally, finally a wound was struck. Blood was drawn, fresh crimson against the dust and rubble of its rampage, a sign that it could be cut, beaten. Hope blossomed anew within me.
"Is this not cheating?" I asked, happy to have the help but concerned I was breaching some unspoken rule; so much of the sword and my new knighthood was still kept secret from me, and at every turn I expected new challenges.
"Nay, lad," Garrett replied, and for the first time I heard humour in his voice; joy, even. "All good Knights have their courts; welcoming comrades to your side and the unfortunate into your shelter is your duty as much as slaying dragons!"
"Let's focus on slaying the Beast first..." I said, and for the life of me, Garrett laughed.
"Worry less - fight more! Enjoy it, Dane!"
I went in swinging, disbelief reverberating through me not only at my decision to do so, but my ability at it - Eobar's expertise pulsed through me, and the Blade seemed lighter, smoother, its movements more fluid and intuitive. Hacking at where the scythe had pierced revealed further flesh, but while the four-arm wrestled with the Beast astride its neck, it still roared at its fresh injury and writhed its great serpent's head into a strike position-
And then stumbled back, its neck whiplashing under the force of the energy pulse that had just blasted it straight in the face, finally throwing the four-armed humanoid off at the same time. I looked around and a fourth stranger had appeared, clad head-to-toe in silver; he quickly joined our ranks, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the girl. The absurdity of the situation suddenly struck me, and how rapidly such insanity had taken over my life. In the space of two days, I had learnt of a family curse handed down through the ages; been introduced to and accosted by the spirits of my ancestors; been confronted with a Beast ripped from fairy-tale history; died and been revived in nearly the same breath; and now, stood as comrades-in-arms with some quadraped extra-terrestrial, Lady Death Herself or near enough to not make a difference, and a shining sci-fi hero who seemed to have stepped straight off the pages of Kamen Rider. Somewhere above me, the blue-and-yellow spandex picked himself out of glass shards and LED wires.
I suppress a very, very strong urge to laugh, knowing that if I let even a giggle escape my lips, it would shatter my mind irrevocably in the very same instant, and I would never stop laughing ever again.
"You guys have a plan, right?"
His voice cut through the fog and snapped me back from the precipice of madness. I looked to him, to the woman, to the alien, to the Beast, and back to him; I really didn't, but found my gaze drawn to the hilt in my hand, the way my fingers felt wrapped around the leather, the faith of nearly a thousand years of family thrumming within the cool dark steel of the Ebony Blade. The single voice of violence ever-whispering behind them. Fire at my back, slain men and women before me, three days of pillaging stretching out ahead of me, shame and the spurning of a collapsing empire following me home.
"Have any of you seen Dragonheart?" I called, pointing to the Beast's face with my free hand as it recovered and rounded on us. "I need to get up to it's mouth!"
I popped this in the discord as well but for those who aren't in there:
To those participating in the Questing Beast event, (@Stormyx, @Theyra, @Natty, @Ezekiel) would you rather I have its defeat in this post and we can wrap up with some character chats after, or give an opportunity to get involved in the defeating actions themselves? I'm happy to outline what I want Dane to do to actually defeat the Beast and then give you guys enough rope to make it happen.
To those participating in the Questing Beast event, (@Stormyx, @Theyra, @Natty, @Ezekiel) would you rather I have its defeat in this post and we can wrap up with some character chats after, or give an opportunity to get involved in the defeating actions themselves? I'm happy to outline what I want Dane to do to actually defeat the Beast and then give you guys enough rope to make it happen.
TAKEN
AVAILABLE
- Insectoid physiology (Abelle D'Voire AKA Swarm Queen AKA Hornet)
- Hyper-survivability (Lucille "Luce" Calder)
- Quantum Replication (Gil Galahad AKA One-Eighty)
- Auto-biokinesis (Penelope Boyle AKA Penny Dreadful)
- Technopathy: Upgrade & Technopathy: Create (Gemini 'Gem' & Siamese 'Sia' Trent AKA Lock & Load)
- Ferrokinesis ('Piper' AKA Flechette)
- Possession (Elwood Maliceet-Dowd AKA The Wendigo)
- Monster creation/control Minavita Ripole AKA Minnie Ripper)
- Space distortion (Vincent Gideon Jacobs)
- Blade manipulation (Frederick 'Fritz' Jackson AKA Vorpal)
- The Labyrinth (Poe Navidson AKA Wynd AKA Passage)
- Textakinesis (Chester Argyle AKA Whiplash)
AVAILABLE
- Animal Communication/Control
- Perfect Aim
- Any target with any item; around corners, through obstacles, ricochet shots, etc.
- Reference: Deadshot, Bullseye, Cpt. Boomerang, Hawkeye
- Resurrective Immortality
- No healing factor, pain tolerance, or extra durability
- 100% heal and revive with no lasting injury or brain damage only upon complete and lasting bodily death
- Reference: Nathan (Misfits), Resurrection Man, Mr. Immortal, Jack Harkness
- Hyper-Analytic Predictive Deduction
- Using minuscule contextual information to extrapolate extreme predictions to a high degree of accuracy
- Near-perfect reading of body language
- Accurate (but not perfect) prediction of future events
- Reference: Sherlock Holmes, Tattletale (Worm)
- Intangibility
- Psionic Suppression/Oppression
- Blocking or confusing of senses e.g. numbness, blind spots, deafness
- Application of false senses, e.g. pain, fear response, phantom touches, heat/cold receptors, aural/visual hallucinations
- Perception Manipulation
- Altering how oneself is perceived, e.g. seen in a different form, unable to be seen as a threat, unable to be noticed
- Barrier Generation
- Walls and force fields, immovable and unbreakable
- A maintained barrier cannot move, but cannot break
- Gravity Manipulation
- Alter personal gravity field to jump high, fall slow, walk up walls or on ceilings, even levitate.
- Increase it to be dense and immovable, decrease it to move faster.
- Decrease the gravity on an object to lift it, increase it to create an immovable obstacle.
- Suck things in. Push things away.
- Astral Projection
- Project a ghost of yourself that can travel and perceive freely
- Jump your body to where the ghost is
- Timeline Creation/Collapse
- Create parallel timelines and make different actions in each
- Collapse the ones that go wrong and keep the one with the best outcome
- Gas/Liquid Generation & Expulsion
- Harmlessly generate all manner of gases and liquids within your body
- Expel them at high or low pressure
- Acid, sleeping gas, scalding water, smokescreen, poison, etc
- Environment Manipulation/Terraforming/Terrakinesis
- Innate Mastery
- Temporarily master any skill or task you put yourself to
- Friction Control
- Liquidity
- Reference: Inque, Hydroman
- Biokinetic Grafting
- Absolute Momentum
- Reference: Juggernaut, 'An Unstoppable Force'
- Elastic Biology
- Reference: Mr. Fantastic, Plastic Man, The Elongated Man, Ms. Marvel
- Plant/Earth Form
- Reference: Swamp-Thing, Man-Thing, Maokai/Ivern (League of Legends), Ents
- Animal Transformation
- Skin-Shedding Shape-Shifting
- Reference: Husk (X-Men)
- Universal Matter Ingestion
- Consumption of all matter - mineral, fauna, flora, liquid
- Expand to consumption of psychic concepts - emotions, thoughts, dreams
- Reference: Matter-Eater Lad, Galactus
- Hooks?
Speaking of getting Ghost Rider started, I just want to check with @Pacifista and @Hillan whether you have anything in mind for Jubilee, or if you're okay with me having her vamped-up as a supporting character for my run?
OOPS
I've finally finished working on something for Wraith so I'll catch up on the IC and everyone who's joined the Questing Beast event so far, and start on Ghost Rider #1 while I give others a little more time to get involved before progressing with Dane.
Once I'm caught up I'll tag some people and we can work out how we want to approach collabs/resolutions and if there's anything those who are involved want to accomplish specifically for their character as part of the event.
Once I'm caught up I'll tag some people and we can work out how we want to approach collabs/resolutions and if there's anything those who are involved want to accomplish specifically for their character as part of the event.
C H A R A C T E R P O R T R A I T _________________________________________________________C H A R A C T E R P O R T R A I T  _________________________________________________________ C H A R A C T E R S U M M A R Y _________________________________________________________C H A R A C T E R S U M M A R Y Danielle Roxanne Ketch _________________________________________________________ 19 | Single _________________________________________________________ Independent | American  A L L I E S & A N T A G O N I S T S A L L I E S & A N T A G O N I S T S - | T H E S T O R Y S O F A R... T H E S T O R Y S O F A R... Danielle Ketch was born Halloween night, 2006, to single mother Roxanne. Her father was out of the picture far before her birth, unable to handle the idea of becoming a father and providing for a family, and his departure had left Roxanne destitute. The poverty and hardship she felt in the months leading up to and shortly after Dani's arrival created an unfair resentment of the daughter who she felt had robbed her of her one proper chance; Roxanne was a cold and distant mother, barely achieving bare minimum for Dani's wellbeing most days, and this subsequently taught Dani how to look after herself, and more importantly, how not to be like her mom. Their differences only widened the rift between them, and as Dani grew, what little relationship they had deteriorated further. Dani would spend days at a time away from home, returning only when no other options for shelter were available - and even then, she'd still occasionally opt for a bus stop bench instead. When Dani turned 18, her mother stopped getting benefits, and also stopped being legally responsible for her wellbeing - so Dani got a day to fill one box with whatever few possessions she could claim as hers, and then her mom told her to hit the road. A lifetime of being unwanted had not instilled Dani with a naturally happy or friendly disposition, and once ejected from her home, she began to wear out her welcome with the few people left in her small nowhere town who were willing to lend futons and couches and floors. When she eventually hit the streets, she ended up getting ticketed for vagrancy, and then arrested for assaulting a deputy, and then spent a night stewing in a cell with nothing to do but sit with her rage and misery and misanthropy; nothing to do but wish for revenge. This was when Mephisto appeared to her, and offered just that. Dani left her little parish of Hicksville in the Devil's asshole of nowhere that night forever, under cover of darkness and on the wings of power far from her own. By the time she woke up from her unconscious escape, the redneck hive she'd left behind was a smoldering inferno on the far horizon. Whatever power Mephisto had lent her had razed the town to the ground as its first act, indulging Dani's thirst for vengeance against a cruel and cold world in a most terrible wreaking of revenge. It left ash in its wake, and worse still it remained within her, residing in her heart, hungry and thrashing for more. Now on the run from forces both mundane and Hellish, Dani spends every sleeping moment reckoning and grappling with this new presence and power that seeks to dominate her completely - and every waking hour fleeing from its consequences. P L O T ( S ) & G O A L ( S ) P L O T ( S ) & G O A L ( S ) Dani Ketch was a character I tried a long time ago, before my knees creaked, and I have been wanting an opportunity to revisit her. While Black Knight's very character-driven, the way I like it, he's also mopey and unsure of himself and has a lot to learn, and won't have much of an opportunity to travel. Dani, on the other hand, will be a road-trip story all across the US with a (planned) ensemble cast, that will allow me to revive some other concepts I've enjoyed previously, explore more characters I've never thought about playing with (like I'm doing with Dane), and let me cross paths with nearly anybody else in the game - all while still scratching that supernatural itch I love so much and having a plot to pursue in the meantime. I recently discovered some art that reinvigorated my ideas for the character, (thank you @Lord Wraith for the edits once again!) and I have a very strong saga to pursue with Ketch and her eventual crew. P O S T C A T A L O G U E P O S T C A T A L O G U E 1.01 - TBC |
<Snipped quote by Roman>
Ghost Rider (Backdoor Pilot/Revival of Agents of S.T.A.K.E.) is accepted.
Thank you for following due process and reading the OOC.
No, I'm not salty about my IC being vandalized.
You think you're slick knowing this is a stealth STAKE revival but the joke's on you, my planned saga will eventually bring another entirely new character in that I was also theory-crafting their own sheet before realizing I could just hijack it into GR as well.
This looks really good but I've rarely played as straight up no-twists no-fusions no-offspring-OCs pure canon heroes before. I wonder who'd be a good fit.
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