Avant Garde
"Art doesn't express. It exposes"
 _______________________________________________ Moses 'Mo' Jackson Muller _______________________________________________ 3rd November 1997 | 21 | Caucasian Hispanic _______________________________________________ Single | ♂ | Asexual _______________________________________________ Santa Celia Art College | Street Artist _______________________________________________ Physical Profile ___________________________________ Miscellaneous Items ___________________________________ | Appearance Details ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ With a bean-pole figure of 6 foot and 1 inch, one will almost always be immediately repulsed or disgusted by Mo when they first come into contact with him. Mo has the appearance of a skinny leech, reeking to high hell of overnight caffeine fugues of artistic fervor combined with pallid overgrown hairy skin. One evident thing that one will notice about Moses immediately is the fact that he is stained with artistic materials. Graphite dust etched into his skin from hours of sketching. Bits of dried paint underneath his fingernails. A blot of ink underneath his chin. Mo's face is undecipherable, scrunched eyebrows that are lost in thought and a glazed visage that shifts between the realm of reality and dreams. His mouth and facial expression are constantly irractic and shifting, almost as if he's conversing with someone else in his mind. His dark lidded grey eyes are constantly in a bloodshot state of frustration with baggy under-lids that are threatening to drop off his face at any moment. His face bears a lightly shaven moustache complimented with rows of splotchy acne scars permanently branding his cheeks and nose. His wild bush of dark-brown hair is uncombed and knot with splatters of paint and chalk dust dug into the very roots. Moses skeletal appearance belies a lithe physicality that is marked with legacies of a misspent youth, with puckered knees, weathered elbows and faded bruises aplenty. He has a slight hunch in his shoulders, bending him slightly forwards even when standing or sitting still. His thin arms dangle precariously off his shoulders, hands always gravitating towards his pockets to reach for a pencil and paper to draw on. Aside from this, Moses has one single ink tattoo on his right forearm. For casual wear, Mo prefers street-wear such as rain-jackets, bomber jackets and jumpers that always come with a hood alongside a pair of worn out sneakers or sport shoes. When he’s painting the streets, Mo wears a strappable gas mask underneath a red bandanna and scarf to conceal himself along with a set of paint-stained foreman gloves. Personality ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ Mo is a man who's seen it all and more who has become emotionally numbed in response to supernatural phenomena. Whenever something strange or out of the ordinary happens around him, he is often non-plussed and works with the situation as best as he can. Mo can always be expected to be a calm and nonchalant individual who is undoubtedly reserved, usually resorting to succinct or blunt responses during normal day to day conversations with strangers and doesn't engage in bouts of sentimentalism or overt emotional exuberance. On the contrary, he's more interested in doodling rather than conversing, often taking every opportunity during conversation to draw something or someone. Mo's lack of sociability is often affected by the fact that there are a constant retinue of dead talking Artistonancer's in his head that are incapable of shutting up, often leading to sudden impulsive bouts of frustration and shouting at seemingly no one. He treats his fellow dead Artistonancers with almost no semblance of respect and views them as more of a liability and annoyance rather than a source of help ever since the incident. Needless, Mo has an difficult relationship with the ghosts of former Artistonancer's that haunt him on a daily basis that range from sarcastic barbs to hostile expletive-filled death matches. In spite of his rather cold demeanor, Mo has the soul of an artist and expresses most of his emotions in his art, using it as an outlet for his repressed emotions and as a method for calming the voices in his head down. The very act of art for Mo is cathartic. He is completely enraptured with enthusiasm when dug deep into his work and will never refuse an offer to do a commission for a stranger, barring extreme circumstances. However, any criticism of his artistic ability is seen to him as a challenge that he has to respond to in kind. Heavens help you if you insult graffiti as an art form in any way possible. Mo has always had a pathological distrust of authority figures, holding a contemptuous view of them as a massive conglomerate of high-horsed people with ulterior agendas. This usually leads to Moses being more likely to disobey orders from a source of authority or to actively act against them if there is enough evidence to support his suspicion. However, in rare cases, he is willing to interact and cooperate with them on good faith if they give him enough reasons to do so. In terms of his ethical integrity, Mo is often apprehensive of moral situations and approaches them with trepidation, often going as far to trying to avoid the call to altruism. However, despite his best efforts, Mo will ultimately, in the end, help those in trouble, especially people of lower socio-economic background despite him believing internally that he's doing this for his own self-gain. However, intrinsically, Mo is a person who desires an ordinary life as a street artist rather than being stuck with the mantle of an Artistonancer after his last experience with the supernatural. He is both afraid and daunted of the nature and legacy of his supernatural abilities, often leading to conflict between him and the retinue of long dead Artistonancers that take refuge in his mind. Being one of the last order leaves a heavy burden on Mo's soul as he knows that with every choice that he makes, Artistonancy either becomes preserved or extinct. Therefore, this leads to a conundrum where Mo is afraid of acknowledging the existence of his powers and actively takes steps to prevent himself from using his abilities as best as he can. Right and wrong, good and bad, all of that doesn't matter to Mo when he's trying to live as a normal guy who tags buildings left and right. Deep inside his mind, Mo knows that his life as an street artist can't last forever as the world becomes more stranger and yet, he continues to fight against his destiny. |
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Born to a middle-class suburban family in the center of San Francisco, Moses ‘Mo’ Muller lived a sheltered life under the constant eye of his mother and father who were grooming their children to take over the reigns of Muller and Associates, one of the top premier accounting firms within San Francisco. Whilst the rest of the Muller children were willing to fufill the wishes of their father and mother, Moses was the proverbial black sheep of a family, wanting to escape from under the nose of his family. Ever since he was young, Moses was attracted to the arts ever since he first drew a little stick figure of a butterfly he saw in the backyard. His parents first wrote it off as a minor ‘hobby’ and that he would soon see the error of his ways. He didn’t. Much to their horror and Mo’s confusion, Mo continued to become more ambitious and daring in his artistic ventures, signing up for extra-curricular art activities and generally raising a middle finger to his family’s wishes.
It soon became worse when Mo’s family visited an charity art exhibition out of necessity, causing Mo to come back to his home later, claiming that he was hearing voices in his head. Five to be specific. Voices of adult men and adult women, painters, from the Renaissance, from the Cold War, famous artists of yore.
That was the last straw.
One day, without any warning whatsoever, at the age of 13, Mo’s parents made him pack his bags and sent him to his uncle, Gerald Muller, who was an art professor in Arido Art College, informally disowning him and refusing to recognise him as their son. Gerald Muller recognised Mo’s almost innate talents in the visual arts and immediately made him his protege, teaching him the foundation of the arts. Eventually, Gerald took a wager and betted on it after several nights of indecision. He took out one of Mo’s paintings, a black and white striped apple, and asked him jokingly to try and reach into it. Mo managed to do it on his first try. After that incident, Gerald revealed that he was one of the last curators of an ancient art of magic of ‘Artistonancy’ and the history of their family. That Mo was what Aristonancers would call an 'Avant-Garde', a practitioner who would decide the fate of the study by himself and himself alone.
After celebrating with his first shot of whiskey (at an illegal age at that), Gerald had been unknowingly training him to become better in the art of Artistonancy in order for one single goal.
To resurrect his dead wife. Mo's aunt.
The process seemed successful. For a few brief seconds, the professor had his wife back. Before the screaming began and his blood began to splatter on the walls. Instead of making a successful replica of his own dead wife, Mo accidentally gave birth to an horrific abomination made of writhing flesh, splattered oil and twisted shape. A distortion. Mo was knocked out by a blow that left his mind in a tumble of broken memories. The next thing he knew, he was being interrogated by detectives in Saint Celia National Hospital, demanding to know what had happened. Why was half of the campus destroyed in pieces? Was it the work of an terrorist organisation? Was it a gas leak?
They wouldn’t even believe him if he told the real answer. Mo was soon admitted to the hospital and was lost and adrift, with only the voices in the head to guide him and - Fuck that. The voices were responsible for this. Artistonancy was a curse. It had birthed that….thing. That monstrosity. It was dangerous. No, he was dangerous. Soon after his uncle’s funeral, Mo approached the ruins of the campus, ducking underneath a border of security tape, to secure his uncle’s books on Artistonancy. The last remaining books of a once thriving order. Centuries worth of knowledge that he hadn’t even tapped into yet.
He burnt them one by one, not even stopping to take a peek at the pages, and threw them into the ocean, no matter how much the voices told him to stop.
After a few days of argument and dissent, the murals stopped communicating with him. For years in fact.
A few years later, Mo’s still trying to move past the incident by working as a job as a legal street artist in the inner city of Saint Celia. As he realised the increasing levels of crime and violence within the city he loved, he tried to do something good for the city as the muck and scum of crime rose, accepting jobs to paint memorials of dead victims, tags that criticised the local gangs that preyed on the innocent and tried to cast color into a city that was quickly losing it. His paintings made people weep. Cry. Laugh. It gave them hope. For once, he was proving the murals wrong. That he didn’t need to be an Artistonancer to make the world right. As storms darken on the horizon of Rook Bridge, Mo only hopes that he can hold onto his dreams for a little while longer.......
It soon became worse when Mo’s family visited an charity art exhibition out of necessity, causing Mo to come back to his home later, claiming that he was hearing voices in his head. Five to be specific. Voices of adult men and adult women, painters, from the Renaissance, from the Cold War, famous artists of yore.
That was the last straw.
One day, without any warning whatsoever, at the age of 13, Mo’s parents made him pack his bags and sent him to his uncle, Gerald Muller, who was an art professor in Arido Art College, informally disowning him and refusing to recognise him as their son. Gerald Muller recognised Mo’s almost innate talents in the visual arts and immediately made him his protege, teaching him the foundation of the arts. Eventually, Gerald took a wager and betted on it after several nights of indecision. He took out one of Mo’s paintings, a black and white striped apple, and asked him jokingly to try and reach into it. Mo managed to do it on his first try. After that incident, Gerald revealed that he was one of the last curators of an ancient art of magic of ‘Artistonancy’ and the history of their family. That Mo was what Aristonancers would call an 'Avant-Garde', a practitioner who would decide the fate of the study by himself and himself alone.
After celebrating with his first shot of whiskey (at an illegal age at that), Gerald had been unknowingly training him to become better in the art of Artistonancy in order for one single goal.
To resurrect his dead wife. Mo's aunt.
The process seemed successful. For a few brief seconds, the professor had his wife back. Before the screaming began and his blood began to splatter on the walls. Instead of making a successful replica of his own dead wife, Mo accidentally gave birth to an horrific abomination made of writhing flesh, splattered oil and twisted shape. A distortion. Mo was knocked out by a blow that left his mind in a tumble of broken memories. The next thing he knew, he was being interrogated by detectives in Saint Celia National Hospital, demanding to know what had happened. Why was half of the campus destroyed in pieces? Was it the work of an terrorist organisation? Was it a gas leak?
They wouldn’t even believe him if he told the real answer. Mo was soon admitted to the hospital and was lost and adrift, with only the voices in the head to guide him and - Fuck that. The voices were responsible for this. Artistonancy was a curse. It had birthed that….thing. That monstrosity. It was dangerous. No, he was dangerous. Soon after his uncle’s funeral, Mo approached the ruins of the campus, ducking underneath a border of security tape, to secure his uncle’s books on Artistonancy. The last remaining books of a once thriving order. Centuries worth of knowledge that he hadn’t even tapped into yet.
He burnt them one by one, not even stopping to take a peek at the pages, and threw them into the ocean, no matter how much the voices told him to stop.
After a few days of argument and dissent, the murals stopped communicating with him. For years in fact.
A few years later, Mo’s still trying to move past the incident by working as a job as a legal street artist in the inner city of Saint Celia. As he realised the increasing levels of crime and violence within the city he loved, he tried to do something good for the city as the muck and scum of crime rose, accepting jobs to paint memorials of dead victims, tags that criticised the local gangs that preyed on the innocent and tried to cast color into a city that was quickly losing it. His paintings made people weep. Cry. Laugh. It gave them hope. For once, he was proving the murals wrong. That he didn’t need to be an Artistonancer to make the world right. As storms darken on the horizon of Rook Bridge, Mo only hopes that he can hold onto his dreams for a little while longer.......
Abilities & Skills
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//Abiliites:
Artistonancy | Artistonancy is a branch of magic that involves the use of artistic mediums as the main source of an practitioner's power by ‘drawing’ magical objects out of the artistic medium. Artistonancy was once effectively known as a 'poor man’s' magic in the inner circles of the magical community in the 15th century, effectively on the verge of extinction due to the hubris of its practitioners, believing they could overcome its rules. Every practitioner of Aristonancy has either accidentally killed themselves from their creations or gone insane from the accumulation of murals in their head. Ironically, Artistonancy has managed to out-live other magical arts that were once wide-spread throughout the world, although, its survival rests in the hands of one ordinary Californian.
Mo is one of the last remaining Artistonancers on Earth, specialising in using painted mediums as his source of magical power. The type of object drawn out can either have mundane qualities or supernatural qualities that can give boons to the user. The degree to which the object is supernatural depends on the materials used to create the object, the style of art, the aesthetic characteristics and much, much more. Mo has been out of practice since he found out his talents in Artistonancy 6 years ago but he still remembers the bare basics.
Artistonancy mainly involves two concepts: visualization and materialization of the object in question. Visualization requires clearing the mind of any distractions and focusing on the object that the practitioner wants to ‘draw’ out of a medium. Different types of paintings vary the difficulty and extent of visualization that a user must be involved in. A single image or a picture of an object restricts visualization but makes it extremely easier to focus. A more complex painting composed of multiple images gives a measure of freedom and leeway to the user to visualize whatever object that they want. Materialization involves the practitioner touching the visual medium and physically pulling the object out. The difficulty of materialization and the time it takes depends on the size of the object. Larger objects require Artistonancers to request the help of other people in order to fully materialize the object.
Mo is one of the last remaining Artistonancers on Earth, specialising in using painted mediums as his source of magical power. The type of object drawn out can either have mundane qualities or supernatural qualities that can give boons to the user. The degree to which the object is supernatural depends on the materials used to create the object, the style of art, the aesthetic characteristics and much, much more. Mo has been out of practice since he found out his talents in Artistonancy 6 years ago but he still remembers the bare basics.
Artistonancy mainly involves two concepts: visualization and materialization of the object in question. Visualization requires clearing the mind of any distractions and focusing on the object that the practitioner wants to ‘draw’ out of a medium. Different types of paintings vary the difficulty and extent of visualization that a user must be involved in. A single image or a picture of an object restricts visualization but makes it extremely easier to focus. A more complex painting composed of multiple images gives a measure of freedom and leeway to the user to visualize whatever object that they want. Materialization involves the practitioner touching the visual medium and physically pulling the object out. The difficulty of materialization and the time it takes depends on the size of the object. Larger objects require Artistonancers to request the help of other people in order to fully materialize the object.
Mural Transferal | The soul of an Aristonancer continues to live in their art, even after they have passed away. When an Artistonancer dies, part of their spirit lays trapped and remains in their painting, sustained by the mere belief and awareness of their creations by the world, becoming what is known as a mural. If a Aristonancer's work becomes culturally insignificant over time, the remaining part of their soul will begin to degrade until they are no more. If it's not the case, then, a living Artistonancer can bring them back to life, allowing their conscious to inhabit their mind and voluntarily link them to their soul. Murals are independetly living spirits that are tied to the conscious mind of an Artistonancer. A mural is a source of invaluable information and experience for any Artistonancer and serve a secondary use of shielding their mind from mental or psychic attacks. The more murals that an Artistonancer accumulates, the increasing likelihood that they will begin to exhibit symptoms of sociopathy and psychopathy which will then develop into full-blown insanity. The recommended limit for accumulation of murals is a total of 8 voices.
Limitation(s) | Laws of Artistonancy
Artistonancy is a multi-faceted area of magic that has many nuances and limitations that even most Artistonancer's are not aware of. Due to burning Gerald's last collection of Artistonancy lore and by extension, his relationships with the murals in his head, Mo is currently aware of only 3 laws within Artistonancy that he has learnt thus far. With further communication with the murals in his head and more testing, he may soon grow to be aware of other laws.
Law of Dimensions:Artistonancer’s are unable to draw out objects that are larger than the dimensions of the visual medium itself without severely injuring themselves or causing a rupture. A ‘rupture’ is known as a backlash of magical energy that can rebound upon the caster, causing either severe mutations related to the visual medium or in extreme cases, death. Along with this, Artistonancer’s are restricted to only using their magic on one dimension only and not multiple dimensions. Therefore, Mo can only draw objects out of two-dimensional visual mediums and not three-dimensional visual mediums such as origami, sculptures, pottery or statues.
Law of Belonging:Artistonancer’s are only able to draw objects out of art that they have created by themselves only, finding themselves unable to draw out objects out of art created by other people. Attempting to draw objects out of artistic objects not created by the caster doesn’t have any severe repercussions, merely just a sense of disappointment, unlike the law below.
Law of Life:It is said that past or ancient aristonancers managed to master crafting life out of art itself. However, the practice of vivification, as it is called, has been lost in the annals of history. Attempting to create an sentient being out of an artwork will always almost result in the formation of a distortion. Plants and fungi are the exception to the rule but even attempting to take out any living being that can express intelligent behaviour is going to distort immedietely. Distortions are extremely dangerous sentient beings created by an Aristonancer that are a facsimile of life itself ranging from eldritch abominations to mere shadows of a person. Distortions are insane and can’t be reasoned with, operating on a single minded obsession that may vary from benign to dangerous.
Weaknesses | Whilst Mo’s artistonancy is particularly versatile and grants him several boons, there are several weaknesses that one can capitalise on with enough observation. One of Aristonancy’s main weaknesses is the concept of Iconoclasm, or rather the inherent weakness of a construct that may cause it to degrade over time, depending on the quality and nature of the materials used. As Mo’s constructs are mainly derived from chalk and paint, a combination of water or chemical solvents can dissolve or destroy Moses’s constructs on contact, even constructs that are meant to be defensive in nature. Whilst a mere drop of water won’t carve through Moses constructs, a downpour of rain or a gout of water from a firehose could potentially wash away everything.
Other than this, the main source of a Aristonancer’s power is also their crippling flaw. As long as one prevents Mo’s away from an available supply of paint and chalk, Mo could be easily mistaken for a simple ordinary individual with no outward superhuman characteristics whatsoever. Easy pickings for any one with a bare minimum of professional training.
As the majority of Mo’s Aristonancy relies on touch in order to begin drawing the object out of the visual medium, breaking Mo’s hand or simply crippling them beyond use is a valid tactic that any opponent could use to remove the use of his powers.
//Skills:
Painter | Mo is an accomplished career painter who is adaptable with a myriad of visual mediums and has a knack for combining both realistic detail and surrealist imagery in a fitting blend with one another. His creativity and imagination are boundless whenever he’s holding a brush, a pencil, a marker or a can in his hand. His preferred mediums for painting are chalk, spray paint and pencil, although, he does have experience with other mediums such as oil and water-color in acquiescence of the voices in his head.
Parkour | Mo is mostly adept at the art of parkour, a childhood of rebellion in the inner city being responsible for him picking up the skill in the first place. Whilst not possessing as much finesse or brute endurance compared to other free-runners, Mo’s technical skills have never diminished throughout his age. Mo is able to maneuver through the concrete jungles of Santa Celia with ease, confidently leaping off roof-tops and vaulting over fences without catching his breath. Mo mainly uses his parkour skills to access the perfect canvas for his art or to mainly escape from the menagerie of authorities and gangsters that are on a constant chase after him.
Supporting Cast
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(TO BE EXPANDED ON LATER)
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