Mage: The Awakening PbP Character Thread

This is a thread for my players to put their characters; and also for me to keep track of their Sanctum.

Daniel

[sblock]Name: Samantha McKinley
Shadow Name: Morrigan
Virtue: Justice
Vice: Wrath
Gender: Female
Age: 22
Exp: 2

Path: Moros
Order: Adamantine Arrow
Defense 3
Speed 10
Health 7
Initiative 6
Wisdom 7
Size 5
Willpower 5
Gnosis 2

Arcana
Death ***
Matter *
Fate **

Rotes
Grim Sight (D *)
Entropic Guard (D **)
Forensic Gaze (D *)
Exceptional Luck (F **)

Attributes: 5/4/3
Strength **
Dexterity ***
Stamina **

Intelligence ***
Wits ***
Resolve **

Presence **
Manipulation **
Composure ***

Skills: 11/7/4
Investigation ** (Crime Scenes)
*Medicine ** (Pathology)
Occult **
Science *

*Athletics **
Brawl **
Drive *
Firearms **
Stealth *
Weaponry *** (Knives)

Empathy *
*Intimidation **
Streetwise *

Merits:

Resources * (Savings)
Gnosis increase ***
Occultation **
Meditative Mind *

You don’t know the truth yet…

Knowledge will come with time. The dead have a nearly unlimited store of knowledge.

I have the Power…

Everyone dies eventually, both the powerful archmage and the lowly Sleeper stuck in his dreary 9-to-5 job with his family in his suburban home ... I've sworn to protect Sleepers from the beings that would prey on them, and from themselves when necessary. If only they'd open their eyes to reality...

This reality is a cage…

I have seen too many strange things in this world, even before I Awakened, to not believe the tales. I always thought all that magic stuff was a bit dodgy, I never believed in vampires, ghosts ... you know all that mumbo-jumbo. Until I nearly died from having my blood drained from my body by the ugliest bugger I've ever seen. Since then I've had to review a fair amount of opinions on magic and mythical creatures.

Your Shadow Name is your identity…

With my death and subsequent Awakening and rebirth, my former life ended. I chose the name Morrigan because of my Celtic roots. Morrigu the Phantom Queen, Celtic goddess of death. I hope she will grant me the strength to do what I must to return justice to this world.

Background

Samantha McKinley, Sam to her friends, was born in London on May 10th, 1983. She lived there with her parents and younger sister until 1994 when her father was offered a new job in New York. The McKinley’s packed their belongings and said their goodbyes to their friends. Not that Sam had too many friends, she was considered a bit weird even then, too serious and contemplative for an eleven year old. Her pale skin, pale grey eyes and stark white hair didn’t aid her popularity either. So the girl wasn’t too bothered by the move, her sister on the other hand, threw tantrum after tantrum to get her parents to stay in London.

In New York Sam fell back into her old habits, keeping to herself and keep her grades up. At first her fellow students were curious about the strange, quiet British chick, but soon the curiosity turned to bullying after it became clear she just wanted to be left alone with her books. She never reciprocated and the bullying never turned violent. The girl was quite the athlete and her father had insisted his daughters joined a self-defense class once they arrived in New York. Sam, in fact, joined two, one was basic self-defense, the other worried her parents, she’d enrolled into a knife fighting class.

Sam graduated from High School at 18, but this happy event was overshadowed by what happened after the graduation ceremony. While driving home from the ceremony, the McKinley’s car was hit by a truck that’d missed the red light. Sam was lucky and was discharged from hospital after a week with only a broken arm and a few bruises but her parents had been killed instantly and her younger sister ended up in a coma for four weeks with a long revalidation ahead, she would probably never walk again.

Sam had many difficult choices ahead, she wanted to continue studying. She had always wanted to become a doctor, but she didn’t want to abandon her sister nor did she have any income to pay for university. After her parents funeral she signed up for the police academy and she arranged for her sister to be moved to a nearby hospital so she could be there for her when she needed. At least now the government would pay for her education and with an evening job she could support her sister’s revalidation.

A little over a year ago

Sam was glad to get home. It had been a late shift … again. She could barely remember the last time she had had a full night’s sleep, nor could she imagine when the next would be, but her sister’s smile made it all worth it. Mary was doing well, last night she had been able to move one of her toes again, maybe one day she’d walk again. A smile showed on her pale lips when she turned the key in the door, but she didn’t meet any resistance as the door swung open, Odd… She always locks the door, when it gets dark. “Mary? It’s me…” No answer. “Mary? Are you alright? Mary?” Why are all the lights off? Did she go to bed early?

Sam tried to turn on the lights in the hallway, nothing, What the f*** she reached for a pistol like she had been trained to, which of course wasn’t there, students weren’t allowed to take their sidearm home, her own pistol was safely hidden in her bedroom. Instead she reached for the knife she always kept in her boot. Armed with her flashlight and her knife, she proceeded into the living room, “Mary?” A sound startled her and a shade shot passed her, “Skittles,” she breathed, her sister’s cat had never been too fond of her, “Bloody cat.” The living room was a mess. Someone had really gone to town here. Books and glass everywhere, she nearly tripped over one of the standing lights, Mary’s wheelchair lay knocked over near the kitchen door. “Oh dear god,” Sam gasped, carefully moving closer. Her boot was standing in something slippery, blood! Oh s***! “Mary? Mary! Answer me!”

She tried to push the door open with her foot, but it didn’t budge something heavy was blocking it from the other side, “S***! Mary!” Sam rushed back outside, tripping over an extension cord and cutting herself on the shattered glass of the table. She didn’t feel the pain as she climbed over the fence and ran to the backdoor, only stopping to check the fuse box and turning the lights back on. No training could have prepared her for what she found there. Mary lay naked on the floor, blood and ripped pieces of clothing everywhere. Her throat had been slit and her body been horribly mutilated. “Oh dear god, Mary. No!”

Sam was good at what she did, with a few deep breaths she detached herself from the situation. Her sister became just a body, an unfortunate victim, not related to her in anyway. With a cursory glance she could tell Mary had been raped and that she had resisted. She could tell the killer had been interrupted, he hadn’t finished his work. There were signs of a secondary struggle but no other signs of entry or exit. Whoever had stopped him might still be here.

Suddenly it was there, right in front of her, the ugliest bugger she’d ever seen. Wrinkled sickly yellow skin, crooked teeth, one of them jutting through its cheek and the smell, whatever it was it must have been swimming in sewage before it got there. She lunged at it with her knife but with remarkable ease it grabbed her wrist in the viselike grip of its bony hand and spun her around. “I’m sorry this ‘ad to ‘appen to ye’r family,” it hissed, Sam felt like she was about to throw up from the smell and fear, “If it’s any consolation, ye’r sister’s suffering ‘as been avenged. The bastard that killed her will suffer a very long time for what he did,” it hissed, it’s mouth close to her ear, Sam froze, “But I can’t let ya live, not after ye’ve seen me,” she felt those disgusting lips on her neck and then something akin to ecstasy as she slowly felt the life being drained from her veins.

“Sam? Maria? Are you guys home? Oh god!” Darkness, blissful darkness, peace, rest, quiet.

Stygia

But death isn’t that simple now is it? Before the true peace follows, you have to pass Stygia. Sam passed curiously through the many mausoleums and tombs, she’d never expected this to be the afterlife. She expected to be … well dead. She’d expected eternal blackness, no more consciousness, just dead, done with. She felt herself pulled towards something, she couldn’t explain it, but she had the feeling she had to follow this path to wherever it led. It was actually quite beautiful, covered in white marble with gold trims at the sides. Occasionally she’d pass a shade, another recently deceased she imagined searching his way to the next life, or whatever was at the end of this road. She hoped to find Mary before they passed into the great nothing.

Eventually she came to a large square dominated by a gigantic tower of … lead? Well she was in the land of the death, wasn’t she? Why wouldn’t there be a lead tower? Stairs spiraled upwards along its exterior, “I guess I’m supposed to climb that?” she asked no one in particular, most of the other recently deceased seemed to have their own worries. She climbed the tower for what seemed like hours, after a while she could only see the eternal bleak darkness below and a bright light at the top. After what seemed like eternity she arrived at the top and there was nothing there except a large stone, reminiscent to an offering block and a knife.

As if guided by an invisible hand, she reached out to the knife and used it to slit her wrist painlessly. Slowly she let her lifeblood drip onto the offering block as the few achievements of her life flashed before her eyes and then something different, something that hadn’t come to be or might never come to be. As she felt her life, or is it death, drain from her veins for the second time that day, she got the feeling she wasn’t done yet. Her blood pooled to form letters, “Samantha McKinley”

“I think she’s coming too!” Light, bright stabbing light, loud noise, movement, pain.
[/sblock]

Kevin Mayne - Harlequin

[sblock=Stats]
Name: Kevin Mayne
Shadow Name: Harlequin
Age: 23
Virtue/Vice: Patience/ Apathy
Path/Order: Mastigos/ Guardians of the Veil
Willpower: 00000
Gnosis: o
Wisdom: ooooo
Mana: 2/10
Defense: 2
Health: xxx0000
Initiative: 4
Speed: 9

Attributes

Mental: Intelligence ooo , Wits ooo , Resolve ooo
Physical: Strength oo , Dexterity oo , Stamina oo
Social: Presense oo , Manipulation ooo , Composure oo

Skills

Mental: Academics (politics) oooo , Computer o , Investigation oo , Occult (the Abyss) oo , Politics ooo , Science o
Physical: Firearms (short range) oo , Larceny o , Stealth o
Social: Empathy oo , Intimidation o , Persuasion o , Socialise o , Subterfuge (rote) oo

Merits

Barfly o , Iron Stamina o , Languages (atlantean high speech, indonesian, mandarin) oo , Natural Immunity o , Status (Guardians of the Veil) o , Occultation ooo

Arcana

Mind ooo
Space oo
Time o

Rotes

Mind
Scales of Thought (Third Eye / wits + empathy + mind) o
Eye of the Mind (Sense Conciousness / wits + empathy + mind) o
Watchtower Within (Mental Shield / resolve + occult + mind) oo
Forever Stranger (Incognito Presence / wits + subterfuge + mind) oo

Space
-none yet-

Time
-none yet-[/sblock]

[sblock=The Important Questions]
You don’t know the truth yet… Your character is a young mage, the Mysteries are new, the truth of the universe, indeed reality is just making itself known to you. And already you know that some truths are being hidden from you, either purposefully or perhaps because you are not ready to understand the greater secrets just quite yet. Awakened society is all about secrets, and you know that even your Master is hiding things, perhaps for your own good, perhaps to secure their own power… but how does your character feel about this, or do they even care?

There's something I like to say: 'What you don't know will hurt you'. I have a great thirst for knowledge, which means when people deny it to me it's more than a little frustrating. Something I don't know is something else that has a better chance of hurting me, on the other hand I do realise that knowledge I am too inexperienced to put into use effectively could be harmful to myself and others. So I bide my time, then when the opportunity arrives I learn as much as I can, even if it means going behind the backs of my colleagues. In reality it isn't that much different from my field of study during university. Even then I pursued knowledge others didn't want me to know or thought I wasn't ready for. There were risks in that but it payed off in the end. I see no harm in learning and knowing everything I can put my mind to, I do realise however the harm that could come from acting upon such knowledge without the necessary practical experience. At the end of the day all that means is that I must be patient with my knowledge, and not use it before I am ready.

I have the Power… Sleepers are ignorant, they believe that the world they live in is the way things should be. They can’t fathom a supernal world, a world where reality can bend to the will of an individual. The awakened have incredible power at their fingertips, how does this affect how you see sleepers, how you view reality, and how you view yourself. You can force your will on the world at will, but as the saying goes power corrupts… Will it corrupt you?

I have to admit that I look down on Sleepers as a whole, although I'm not all that opposed to befriending those who differentiate themselves from the ignorant masses. They could after all be other Awakened in the making. Heh, basically my view isn't too much different from how I saw the rest of humanity before Awakening, just that now my smattering of arrogance is in some way justified. My view of reality has been changed in some ways. Things that I saw as impossible before are suddenly a lot more realistic to envision. As someone who specialised in conspiracy theories, and mostly the debunking thereof, I now have to sit down and reconsider many of the judgements I had made as a Sleeper now that I have been enlightened to new avenues of possibility. My view of myself has changed, but not as much as someone would expect. I mean there's the obvious differences from what I was before but those are relatively superficial. What I mean is that I could say "Hooray! I'm so different now because I can fling t3h uber l33t magics!" but that's not change on the depth I'm looking at. It's what I do with it that is truly the subject of interest here and whether now that I have a powerful new tool at my disposal did what I want to do change at all, how I viewed myself and my future. My aspirations are much the same as they were before, it's just that now I am achieving my goals on what I consider to be a higher level of awareness and understanding, making my achievements that much more meaningful. Will power corrupt me? ...I feel as though power will eventually corrupt me, not today or tomorrow, but deep down I expect it eventually. In time someone, or something, will make the offer I won't be able to refuse.

This reality is a cage… a prison for your soul. The Exarchs, if you even believe they exist hold all the keys to reality. Their minions the Seers of the Throne do exist, and they are the enemy of the Pentacle, they are rarely obvious but they lurk just the same. They are omnipresent, they are dangerous, and they want to control you… or do they control you already?

If they do control me it is not as though I consciously do their will. Do I believe they exist? Well as a Sleeper there was all this religion I was sifting through and this only adds to it, albeit it has slightly more credibility when it's based on all this magic stuff that I recently discovered to be true and within my growing potential. Time and experience will tell what I put faith in, and to be totally honest the majority of my faith is currently put into the cycle of corruption, demise, renewal, corruption, and demise (continue ad nauseam). As a student of politics, taking a step back and looking upon that which happens across the world tells me that whatever entity holds supreme power has a sadistic sense of humour. Then again, maybe my way of looking at things is incorrect. It's not as though I am ignorant to the advice of others, it's just that offering me a new point of view is a very hard sell. No-one’s succeeded yet.

Your Shadow Name is your identity… Your Shadow Name is important, it is the name by which you shall come to identify yourself. It is who you are now, how did you choose your name? What does it mean to you, and what does it express about you, or how you view the world…

Harlequin. My mentor, Jester, chose it for me. See the common theme? I haven't asked but I imagine his mentor was probably some poor soul named Clown, or perhaps even Mime. They have my sympathies. Jokes aside I find the name to be rather good. I mean aside from sharing my Shadow Name with a rather impressive unit from a futuristic tabletop warfare game it actually has some interesting meaning behind it. Once upon a time, the term "Harlequin" was thought to originate from France (there are other possible sources but this is the one I liked). Long ago it was thought that the Harlequin was the name of a devil who apparently roamed the countryside with a band of demons in order to harass the souls of evil dead people and chase them to hell. Who better to deal with the wicked than one who is wicked themselves? No point in sullying the hands of kinder folk. In time legends changed, and as memory of the Harlequin faded it was ridiculed, becoming less fearsome and more humorous. They do not fear what they think they understand, or perhaps they forgot why they feared it at all. The Harlequin is seen as an entertainer in this day and age, who am I to correct those who make the assumption? In fact I should use it to my advantage. In the end the most important thing I took away from the name I was given was a relatively simple similarity: the Harlequin wears a mask, and so do I.[/sblock]

[sblock=Background]"What happened in James Cove?" she asked.

Kevin rolled over, he had no desire to visit the subject.

"I know something significant happened there, and from what I hear you must have had a hand in those events," Florence pressed the issue.

He grumbled, "It was a long time ago in a place far from here, why does it matter to you? It's not as though it's important to anyone you associate with."

Kevin had his back to her, but he knew the expression she would be making.

"It was a job wasn't it? You never tell me anything about your work, even that time-" Florence began.

"It wasn't work," Kevin interrupted.

There was a pause, and the sheets rustled as she propped herself up on one elbow.

"Well? What happened?" Florence asked.

Kevin turned on the lamp and picked his watch up off the nightstand. He squinted at it, the sudden light making vision difficult for a brief time.

"It's a long story for another time, and you have things to do before morning," he said, changing the subject.

Florence sighed and got up, walking over to the wardrobe, "You'll have to tell me at some point."

Kevin grunted in response as he agonised over whether to get up or not.


* * * * * * *


Kevin is a fairly generic male of anglo-celtic descent, easy on the eyes but totally forgettable. Light brown hair, short and often styled, ginger facial hair and dull blue eyes often covered by a pair of round sunglasses. His taste in clothes favours conservative but stylish clothing in earthy tones. His build is resoundingly average, but through family genetics he is graced by a fairly nice figure without the need for much exercise. While he never actually spent much time in Canada, Kevin is told that he has a Canadian accent. Kevin has one distinctive feature, but it isn't readily visible while he is fully clothed. It is a large tattoo that takes up the majority of his back. It is a four-armed crucifix, with the arms intersecting to make an 'x'. Intricate and small phrases in Atlantean are written around it. While it looks religious and arcane, in truth it is little more than a tattoo he copied out of a favourite video game and took some liberties with in adding Atlantean text. He was inspired to get it shortly after his Awakening and enjoys explaining it to anyone who may see it and are curious about its nature.


* * * * * * *


Scott's hand was on his gun as he contemplated in stunned silence what his protégé had done. It would be disastrous if his first student failed the Black Veil. Scott remained hidden and followed the events as they unfolded. Kevin's gun was still in its holster under his jacket. He hadn't fired a shot. A woman stood not far away from him, a small revolver clutched tight in her hands and tears running down her face. Kevin frowned.

"Well, this isn't going to do us any good," he said to her, "How is it that you lost your cool there?"

"I- I- I thought they-" her stammering trailed off.

"You put three slugs in a guy, and then you let his buddy get away. I didn't even know you were armed," Kevin indicated the corpse of a man in a business suit, "I'm going to have to try to clean this up, but the fact that a witness got away means you are in some deep sht."

She dropped the revolver, "How could it have gone this far? I don't even know who you really are!"

"And it's going to stay that way since you fouled this up so bad. I'll help but I don't want you dragging me down with you for any further acts of stupidity," Kevin said, kneeling down beside the corpse and taking a look at it.

"What do I do?" she was frantic, "Is he really dead?"

"You have to take those children of yours and get as far from here as possible. Your children will be the target of revenge attacks if they find you," Kevin explained coolly.

She took a couple of steps back, looking at the body.

"Go," Kevin indicated out of the alley, towards her car which was a little down the street.

The woman spun on her heel and fled. Once her footsteps faded Kevin stood up and looked around for traces he had left. After obscuring a footprint and removing a letter from the suited man's pocket he went to leave.

"Harlequin," Scott approached Kevin, "What did you do here?"

"Heh, keeping track of my progress like the good teacher you are, Jester. I'm sorry but I didn't like the course of action you desired. Call me weak but I had to find a less cruel means of achieving that goal you set me," Kevin shrugged.

"You convinced a woman to kill her husband," Scott still couldn't quite get his head around it.

"And yet what you wanted was far worse. They're out of your hair nonetheless," Kevin yawned and stretched.

Scott was flabbergasted. Had Kevin failed the Black Veil?


* * * * * * *


Kevin's father was Australian, and his mother was American. They met in the course of their work, as they both had diplomatic roles for their respective governments. Events took their course and Kevin was born in Canberra, Australia. Aside from regular relocations due to his parents' embassy work, Kevin's childhood was largely uneventful. Of course, Kevin's measure of uneventful is comparing his home life to that of his friends. There were no major problems at home that he could think of, although he came to this conclusion because his parents were never home long enough for problems to be caused or revealed. In the end though the solitude did no real harm, he enjoyed being left to his own devices and if he wanted company it wasn't difficult to make friends at school (he was able to pick up languages quickly). Due to both his parents' roles he was given a front row seat to much of the drama that would often unfold wherever they happened to be. Business was often discussed at the dinner table, and while his parents didn't think much of it then Kevin absorbed quite a lot of what they were saying. He was an intelligent and talented child and he displayed as much during his schooling.


* * * * * * *


Kevin tossed and turned. He had only begun his degree six months ago. Was there something about his dorm room that was giving him nightmares? He was no expert in Feng Shui, but there didn't seem to be anything disastrously out of the ordinary. Was the stress of university getting to him? It seemed a bit soon for that, and his first year was shaping up to be of barely any challenge anyway. Not exactly a situation that would create stress. His conspiracy investigations were finally making progress, but that was something he considered good. There was no sense to it, and yet there he lay, whimpering in his dreams as he was beset by horrors born of his own mind.

He awoke with a start, emitting a small yell and sitting bolt upright. Kevin reached for the glass of water he kept by his bed, but didn't find it. Odd. He leaned over and reached about some more while he rubbed his sleepy eyes with the other hand. He realised he couldn't even find his set of drawers. Odder. Looking over to where the set of drawers should have been revealed they weren't there. Further analysis suggested the reason why his furniture wasn't there was because he wasn't in his room. Oddest? There was more to come. Alarmed, he went to leap out of bed only to find he wasn't in his bed and that it wasn't nearby. His pyjamas were gone and he was clothed as he would normally have been.

"Deep breath," and he did, "A nightmare within a nightmare. This is a first for me."

He spoke aloud to himself, hoping it would have some positive effect. Everything seemed a hell of a lot more real than it should be for a nightmare. What was that thing from that movie? He needed to find a light switch, except there were no walls. Kevin cursed under his breath. Around him was a three dimensional maze, stairs and paths of iron grating twisting, intersecting and ending nowhere. It was the kind of thing seen in those artists' sketches of impossible physics. For a moment he had to wonder whether all artists who had been inspired to depict such strange things had seen the place he was standing in now. The maze stretched on for as far as he could see in all directions, eventually being swallowed in roiling clouds. Were they getting closer? Or further away? He couldn't tell, he was never a good judge of distance but this was a whole new level of confusing. Kevin picked a path and started walking, he might as well see where it would take him.


* * * * * * *


Kevin was most of the way through high school when his parents split up. Oddly enough he was apathetic to the whole event. He pursued his own interests for the most part. Conspiracy theories intrigued him. Kevin took a philosophical stance upon the matter of conspiracies. From his studies he deemed conspiracies to be born of peoples' desire for an enemy greater than the coincidental acts of idiocy of public figures: An enemy who they could actually fight because it bore ill will towards them in some way. People needed enemies. Through his own parents he usually had a good means of determining the validity of a theory, and while most were just absurd or turned out to be based on a convincing set of coincidences, occasionally he'd come across one that would prove defiant in his efforts to unravel it. He was a competent young investigator, with a knack for fooling information out of people, but he could never get enough information to validate or invalidate one of these particular few theories.


* * * * * * *


Kevin was hauling his luggage out to the taxi waiting in front of his dorm. He had his piece of paper saying 'Masters Degree of Arts, Majoring in International Relations' but that wasn't what he considered the biggest of his achievements coming away from university. Like Jester, he was now officially a Guardian Prophet, the friendly face of the order everyone loves to hate. When he got back from his vacation he'd get a job (conveniently provided by his Guardian buddies) and begin his training as one of the Faceless. His mother and father had both attended his graduation ceremony and everything was looking surprisingly good. Now his mother was waiting for him in New Zealand for a holiday as a graduation present. It's just as well she had the costs covered, because he was verging on broke.

"Hey, are you Kevin Mayne!?" someone yelled behind him.

Kevin flinched. He had gotten used to being addressed by his shadow name, and to hear his true name being yelled like that made him glance around nervously, not that he actually had any enemies... yet. He turned to face the owner of the voice, Amado, the portly caretaker of the dorms. He was out of breath and paused for a second while he caught it. Nice enough guy but trying to keep an old building in shape while occupied by a bunch of rowdy students seemed like a stressful job.

"This package just arrived for you. I'm glad I caught up with you before you disappeared," he explained.

"That's very kind of you," Kevin said, impressed by the act, "I owe you one."

"I'll hold you to it," he said with a smile, and wandered back inside.

Kevin checked the return address. Somewhere by the name of James Cove, where the hell was that? He packed his things into the trunk and got into the taxi. He neatly opened the package with his multitool. It contained a book of short stories, and Kevin flicked through to get a feel for any common themes in the book. Reaching the end something fell out into his lap; a photo. He picked it up for a closer look.

"Interesting book?" the driver asked.

"More than I initially thought," the picture was of a girl he had never met before.

Red hair, green eyes, glasses, she was cute. Looked young, under twenty? Something was written on the back in Atlantean. Kevin took pride in his grasp of Atlantean, he regularly used it to boost his spells. The most common translation was 'Protection'. There was also something written on the page where the photo fell out from:

August 5th, 2006

They are everywhere. My lifetime has been one of consequence. I have seen you before, and I will see you again. The man in blue knows you are coming. Follow your path.

If the return address was anything to go by it seemed this Winifred McDouglas wanted Kevin to protect this young lady. Perhaps her or this man in blue would brief him on the details once he got there. Kevin groaned as he weighed up what he should do. He slumped in his seat and looked at the photograph of the young woman.

"Duty, and destiny, calls," he murmured to himself as he pulled out his mobile phone.

"Pardon?" the driver thought Kevin was talking to him.

"Don't mind me, just talking to myself," the call connected, "Hi, I'm calling about a booking."


* * * * * * *


Kevin began to study the occult in pursuit of the truths behind the more difficult conspiracies. It seemed to be one of the connecting factors between the toughest cases, but that too only took him so far until he hit a wall. By the time his parents' divorce had been settled Kevin had begun living in Washington DC with his mother. He had obtained dual citizenship and was regularly flying between the States and various embassies to spend time with either parent. Eventually he began his university degree in Washington DC, majoring in international relations. Needless to say he found it quite easy using all the knowledge acquired from his background.


* * * * * * *


"Alice?" this was the last place he ever expected to see her, or anyone for that matter.

"Kevin?" she responded, sounding as surprised as him.

Kevin was rarely able to maintain friendships longer than a few years with his constant moving. The internet helped somewhat, but he was never comfortable speaking to friends online. The first time he had met Alice was when they were attending the same high school in London, he developed a crush on the girl that he couldn't shake. He was living there with his father for a while, but moved to Singapore when his mother asked him to spend some time with her. He started high school there and tried to forget Alice. As fate would have it however a few months later she started attending the same high school in Singapore. Her father was in banking and had moved the family there due to business. The odds were uncanny, and while the two of them were happy to have someone they already knew to fall back on Kevin always had trouble mustering up the courage to ask her out. He had always had trouble with expressing feelings of that nature, not for any particular reason he knew of, for some reason it was just a barrier he could never overcome.

"...What are you doing here?" Kevin finally asked after recovering from a moment of stunned silence.

Even years later she still caused his heart to skip a couple of beats. He was a sucker for dark eyes.

"I don't know," she responded plainly, "I've been wandering for... I don't know. A long time."

Her situation sounded chillingly similar to his.

"Oh well, at least we're in good company now," he gave a reassuring smile.

Kevin too couldn't remember how long he had been wandering the maze for. Ascending stairs, descending stairs, following paths and crossing doorways; he had travelled so far and yet it felt as though he had made no progress. Were the roiling clouds in the distance starting to take on shapes? He had started to feel as though his movements and choices were starting to be scrutinized by critics he could not see, and he chastised himself for feeling paranoid in a place that seemed so devoid of anything. Kevin's mind had begun to navigate it's own maze. He had company now though, if there's anyone he could rely on it was Alice. He had always been confident in his own intelligence but she was even smarter, perhaps between the two of them they could decipher a path out.


* * * * * * *


It was early on in Kevin's degree that he experienced the Awakening. It was a crushing experience for him. At some points he had taken some psychology electives however and one of the psychology lecturers, an Enchanter by the name of Dr. Scott Bauer, took notice of Kevin's predicament. He was a Guardian of the Veil and saw in Kevin an ideal mindset for the order, so the moment Kevin displayed a solid chance of Awakening Scott put into motion the Veils in the hope of snatching up the talented young man before any of the other orders took notice. With his natural interest in conspiracies Kevin was easily drawn in, and his progress through the Gray Veil was surprisingly successful. Just before the partaking in the Crimson Veil he had his Awakening, and it changed him. Kevin completed the Crimson Veil, but not in the way Scott expected. Kevin seemed colder after his Awakening, as though it went wrong somehow and had scarred him. When Scott spoke with Kevin about it, it was just as he had thought, but he didn't think the experience was bad enough to alter Kevin's suitability or odds of success.


* * * * * * *


"Ah, Dr. Bauer. What brings you to my door?" Kevin hadn't touched on the fact it was two in the morning and he was in his pyjamas.

"At some point during the past week you had a strange dream-like experience, yes?" the question came as a surprise.

"I'm not entirely sure what you're getting at Dr. Bauer," Kevin went on the defensive, "Can't this wait till tomorrow?"

Scott scolded himself for taking making this difficult for himself, "This is important, it's to do with those favours I've been asking of you."

Kevin grumbled something as he checked if there was anyone else in the hallway.

"Fine, take a seat. You're a psychologist so I'm curious to hear your take on this," Kevin quietly shut the door and began explaining what happened.


* * * * * * *


Scott, known as Jester in mage circles, didn't expect Kevin to actually come so close to failing the Black Veil. He's still unsure if what Kevin did would constitute failure, he simply didn't expect it to take the turn it did. Scott decided, after consulting a number of elder Guardians, that Kevin had barely passed. The incident was never spoken of again. There were two factions who drew Kevin's attention within the Guardians, the Prophets and the Faceless. He decided to start with the Prophets, then perhaps receive training with the Faceless. As far as he could tell there didn't seem to be anything preventing him from joining both.


* * * * * * *


The iron walkways rung with Alice and Kevin's footsteps as they meandered without direction through the maze. They reached another wide platform. The iron grating that everything seemed to be made from reminded Kevin of that series of horror games, and he took a moment to remember the name.

"We have to stop for while, I feel like I'm about to collapse," Alice sat down.

Kevin nodded in agreement and sat down as well. He was starting to get dizzy and tired, and couldn't help but feel the condition of the distant clouds was related to how he and Alice were feeling. While Kevin and Alice sat the first arcs of lightning start to snake among the distant clouds, they were initially roiling but now they seemed to writhe violently. There was a loud crack as the sonic boom finally reached them.

"I think the clouds are getting closer," Alice looked worried.

Again Kevin nodded, "If lightning struck the walkway we're on we'd be killed."

"We should keep moving. The sooner we're out of here the better," although she had already said that a couple of times before it still made Kevin feel a little better.

As Alice stood up another loud thunderclap took them off-guard. She shrieked and lost her balance. Kevin moved to help her but he didn't make it in time and she fell off the edge of the platform. She screamed as she fell, then disappeared through a horizontal doorway. Behind and above him Kevin heard doors open, and two horizontal doors he hadn't noticed before hung in the air over the other side of the platform. He looked to the door Alice fell through and then tried to find similarities with either of the two doors. Kevin could hear her screaming coming closer but couldn't determine which door it was coming from. He found a similarity and ran over to one of the doors, but Alice fell through the other. In that split second he leapt off the platform. The air electrified behind him as the platform was struck by lightning. The sound was almost deafening. As they fell Kevin caught Alice and held her close, not knowing what to expect at the bottom.


* * * * * * *


Kevin finished his training as a Prophet at roughly the same time as he graduated from university. It was his intention to go on holiday with his parents (albeit separately, the divorce was rather heated and even now his parents couldn't stand one another) as a way of celebrating his success before he went back to Washington and finished some more arcane training before starting his career. A package from the town of James Cove, not too far away, prompted him to change his plans in order to find out what his presence was needed for in the sleepy coastal town. He rang his parents to inform them that he couldn't go on holiday due to career opportunities that had suddenly been placed before him. While neither would have argued with that he was sorry to disrupt their plans. He cancelled his flight, only getting a partial refund due to the lateness of the cancellation, and caught a bus to James Cove.


* * * * * * *


"It's not your fault, Jester," the greying woman adjusted her glasses and opened a file on the computer she was sitting at.

"I feel as though I've set something terrible in motion," Jester was visibly stressed.

The two of them sat on either side of a desk at the entrance of a basement filled with books and a number of computers. The combined whir of all the computers was mixed in just such a way as to be almost comforting, although that may have been a little magic used to make working down there more bearable. The woman spun the LCD monitor around to Jester.

"Read the first few paragraphs," she said, "It's nothing earthshaking. In the end more good is done than harm."

Jester calmed a little as he read, but still wasn't entirely sure, "I hope you're right, Swan."

"Ha, from what you've told me the odds of him even being the individual spoken of in this minor prophecy are exceptionally small," and Swan spun the monitor back around, "Want me to print you a copy?"

"Yeah, that'd be good. Thanks."


* * * * * * *


Back in Washington DC Jester had started to think about Harlequin's progress. He had caught wind that Harlequin had cancelled his flight at the last minute and instead had taken a bus up the coast for some reason. That was of no great concern at the present moment, but Jester was starting to wonder whether he should have pressured to have Harlequin failed for the Black Veil rather than to have him passed. It gnawed at him when he thought about the repercussions of having someone that he had trained, his first student no less, potentially be a magic-wielding psychopath. Jester did some research and found a prophecy describing events that could be interpreted as the ones that were taking place around him at present. He sought advice from an old friend in the Mysterium, who assuaged his fears partly but not completely.


* * * * * * *


Kevin and Alice plunged into the murky, cold depths of what tasted like salt water. The water was dark and it was difficult to find their orientation in the suffocating cold. Kevin kept a strong grip on Alice's wrist and the two of them eventually surfaced. Not far away was an island with a tower at its centre and they swam towards it with their remaining strength. Scrambling ashore Kevin climbed to his feet and extended his hand to Alice to help her up. She slapped his hand aside with a vicious scowl. His hand was ice cold, which made the blow hurt more than he expected. He took a step back, confused.

"Alice? What's wrong?" he asked.

There was hatred in her dark brown eyes, and it scared him. She picked herself up and pointed an accusing finger at him.

"You're wrong," and she let forth with a torrent of abuse that Kevin would never have expected in his wildest nightmares.

Kevin stepped back and Alice stepped forward, assailing him with accusations and criticism that stung him to his core. His foot caught on something and he fell back onto the muddy shore. Alice continued regardless and stepped forward again forcing Kevin to scramble backwards through the mud.

"Why?" tears ran down his face and his voice was weak.

There was no end and no explanation given. Even Kevin's clothes seemed to whither away to nothing in the face of Alice's hatred. He hugged his knees and sat weeping in the mud. Alice had caught Kevin off guard and stripped away any and all forms of defence he had. He was overwhelmed.

"I know- I already know that I'm all those horrible things!" Kevin's yell cut through like a knife, and Alice paused, "I know I'm a horrible person, but if I'm damned I may as well use it to the advantage of others."

There was silence. There were no kind words or a reassuring hand on the shoulder. The silence was enough. With stinging, red eyes Kevin looked up at Alice and found her to not be there. His blood froze in his veins. Had she ever been there at all? Or was she just something brought into existence by this inexplicable place? Kevin sat still for a while, incapable of doing anything. He decided to stay like that until he felt well enough to press on.

Eventually Kevin had gathered enough strength to stand. Once he was back on his feet he was dry and clothed once again, as though he had never fallen into the water, but that was something he didn't really care about anymore. The tower loomed ahead. A monstrous thing of iron adorned with gargoyles crafted from brass. An open door stood at its base, and towards it Kevin walked. He walked over what felt like a battlefield, although there were no corpses to be seen. Rusted weapons and broken armour were strewn about through the field of mud that lay around the tower. Kevin walked around many a large murky pool of water until he reached the tower. Crossing the threshold revealed to him what looked like a torture chamber within. Across the walls many names had been carved, and he was compelled to add his own. Taking a sharp implement off a tray of varied sharp implements he found a free space for his own name and began to carve it into the iron wall. At one point the implement slipped and he cut his left hand. He took a handkerchief from his pocket and wrapped it around the injury. Once his name was complete he looked at the sharp implement. It seemed no duller from its use, and Kevin turned to return it to the tray he picked it up from.

"You return," a creature that Kevin could only describe as a demon stood at the centre of the room, "The last time I saw you Awaken must have been during the nineteen-twenties, or was it the nineteen-thirties? I was never good at differentiating between those decades."

Kevin looked at the creature and suspicion was written across his face. He walked around the room and placed the instrument back with the others on its tray.

"Oh, don't be like that! They do the very same thing to you every time, there's no need to be grumpy at me because of their choices," the demon chuckled, "I guess the good part about our friendship is that it never gets old, seeing as we have to start over every time your soul is sent into the Fallen World."

Kevin's gaze became a little less hostile, "Name?"

"Kaz'nel'tharion at your service, old friend," he said, giving a bow.

"What did you mean when you said they do this every time?" Kevin gauged the demon carefully, wary of it too turning on him.

"You have passed the test, you need not fear anything from me except a little enlightenment," Kaz said, "What I meant to say is that you have always had a weakness for women with deep brown eyes. It is in fact their form of insurance against your ambition."

Kevin raised an eyebrow.

Kaz clapped excitedly, "Now I have your attention, old friend. Heed my words well. Every time you are sent to Fallen World it is no fanciful whim. Your soul is a carefully honed weapon, but it is unfortunately flawed. You are useful, and have valuable strengths that if left unchecked will put more than their enemies' in jeopardy. I guess you could be described as a wild card. For that matter you have your weakness for women with dark eyes. I know my advice has never helped you that much before because you've never been able to resist them, but I am compelled to warn you out of what I assume to probably be a futile sense of loyalty to a friend. Let there be no mistake, once you have served your purpose a beautiful, dark-eyed woman will be your demise."

"Tell me more," Kevin said, "Who are these people you're talking about?"

The demon laughed heartily, "I'm sorry friend, but we are out of time. Isn't that always how things go? Till next time!"

With that the world seemed to unravel around him, till there was only the blackness of sleep left. Kevin awoke with a start. This time he was back in his dorm room. He ran a hand down his face, remembering clearly the twisted dream he had experienced. It felt as though a part of himself had been unravelled and lost in the journey.

"That was fcked up," he reached for the glass of water he knew to be there this time around, and found himself clutching a bloody handkerchief.[/sblock]