Skelace

Paragon's End [Modern/Fantasy/Anime/Adventure]

And so the Prodigal Son returns!

I bet you have heard that at least 20 billion times-

@dndragons

I approve this message.

Now off to type up my reply!

Paragon's End [Modern/Fantasy/Anime/Adventure]

<Snipped quote by Skelace>

As long as he can make of some sort of response for your character within reason that should work out fine. Afterwards you were gonna be stuck at the cabin a bit by yourself anyways. So it works out pretty good actually.

Judging by your status it sounds like you're in a foreign country, anywhere cool?

@Cottonmouth

Yeah I sent @Prodigal Son a pm about it. But that's what I figured. No use in me holding up the whole group over what would be a single post on my part.

If by cool you mean hot and arid then yes. I'm stationed over in Qatar for a couple of months.

Paragon's End [Modern/Fantasy/Anime/Adventure]

Hey guys, I'm pretty sure I'm on the opposite schedule as everyone else so @Prodigal Son totally has my permission to godmod Deston for right now just to help expedite the process of getting everyone in to IC. It's 2130 over here and I do enjoy my beauty sleep when I've got a long couple days of work ahead of me.

Paragon's End [Modern/Fantasy/Anime/Adventure]

Deston had been careful to make sure he hadn't been seen the last couple months, not wanting to have a run in with more assassins that he was sure his old friend had out looking for him. His time stalking his prey he had made sure to hide his aura lest he be found before he struck. But after finding the man had no contact with his former Grand-Magi for the past year, Deston had let his thoughts take him away, completely forgetting all pretenses of hiding himself. His mind seemed to race round and round in a hopeless cycle, looking for what he missed, questioning how he could have been so blind, where would he start now? A mixture of self pity and loathing constantly seeping its way into his thoughts, not at all helped by the sour mood of the gloomy city around him.

When a whisper broke through his thoughts panic and fear nearly startled him to his core. He knows my name? An agent against the Church? Deston's eyes scanned the beggar looking man from head to toe, now fully alert. The thought of this being a trap clear in his mind. "Ex-Arch-Magi huh? Didn't know that was a thing. Few reason's to leave the Arcanocracy when you are so high up." Stopped and turned to face the man, fighting the urge to run. It was clear to Deston how powerful a mage the man standing before him was so if nothing else he said was true the Arch-Magi part couldn't be far off. "What kind of proposition would you such a high ex-ranking member of the Arcanocracy have for me? Perhaps the better question to start off should be how do you know my name?

Paragon's End [Modern/Fantasy/Anime/Adventure]

@Prodigal Son Son of a gun! I must have erased that line while I was reworking the post. He's in Chicago... I swear I wrote that down. My bad.

Paragon's End [Modern/Fantasy/Anime/Adventure]

The day was dreary. Gray, damp, and wet. The slosh of the cars as they passed on the street mixed with the pitter patter of the rain. Deston loved this kind of weather. It seemed to have a calming effect on everyone. Most people would just be grumbly and sluggish but there were a few content faces he saw as he made his way down the streets of Chicago. Even the unfortunate souls who had a vehicle shower them with puddle water as it passed couldn’t seem to put up more effort than a disappointed sigh. In weather everyone kept their head down. No one wants to stand out and challenge the day to get even worse. It helped the unnoticeable become invisible.

Deston’s eyes could just barely see under the gray hoodie he was wearing. His eyes scanning the faces of those that passed by. Everyday at exactly 8:15 in the morning his target walked this street to get to work. Weeks spent following just this one man. Deston hadn’t put this much effort into a target for nearly a year now. But this one was special. He had direct access to Deston’s real target. And today was the day Deston retrieved the information that he needed from him. He appeared a block away, rounding the corner running a bit behind schedule, his walk furious and fast paced. He had just found out his wife had been cheating on him. His mind was in the perfect condition now. His guard was down. A sly smile curled into the corner of Deston’s lips.

They bumped shoulders on the crowded sidewalk. Deston’s hand pressed against the man’s chest in contorted in a mark of magic. The man continued down the street checking to make sure he still had his wallet and phone, not even giving Deston a second glance. Deston resisted his own urge to take a look back at his target. Deston already knew where the man was going. There was no need to keep eyes on him. The magic was already there. Now all Deston needed to do was wait.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The man arrived at small building and stumbled inside. His heart was racing. He couldn’t believe she could do this to him. Twelve years they had been together and just like that, out of nowhere. They had just spent the other night out on a date. Why would she do this? The lights were dim now and a faint red glow began to come from them. He had to keep checking over his shoulder to make sure it wasn’t there. Her laugh resounded in his head. God she wouldn’t shut up. He just wanted to make her suffer. Make her hurt like she hurt him.

Suddenly it slithered past him. He wasn’t sure what it was but he could feel his heart pounding in response. His back pressed up against the wall. It felt sticky and slimy, the smell of iron coming from it. God above she wouldn’t shut up. She was so loud now his head was starting to spin, and he was breaking out into a sweat. Suddenly he couldn’t remember where he was. He dropped to his knees, his breaths coming in gasps. He tried to wipe the sweat from his brow smearing the blood across his forehead, adding to the nauseating feeling. Why was he here? He was supposed to be at work. GOD SHE WOULDN’T SHUT UP! There it was again. It just went behind him. His head swiveled trying in vain to keep up with it, the spinning causing him to collapse to the floor, spitting out at the inch of water that had accumulated on the floor trying to drown him. “Oh GAWD MAKE IT STOP!”

“I can help with that.” A voice in the dark whispered out. Who was there? Why wouldn’t they help? Their voice cut through her laughter like a knife, leaving only a dull thud in its place. Brief moments respite before she began again. “You just have to tell me where the Grand-Magi is.”

Grand Magi? He shouldn’t answer. Where was the voice coming from? The room just had to stop spinning and he knew the voice would be right there on the edge of his vision. It was slithering around his leg now, crawling up his pant leg, another one climbing across his lower back it’s slither sending shivers through his already contorting body. There was more than one?! “Tell me where the Grand-Magi is!”

“I don’t know! No one knows! He disappeared a year ago! Just make her stop!”
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

His coworkers were gathered all around him, some shouting for someone to call an ambulance, others touching his forehead calling out to him in sweet consoling tones. The man frothed from the mouth as he screamed out nonsense to no one in particular. His body contorting this way and that.

It was in Deston’s power to make the delusion end but the man’s answer fanned a fire in Deston’s heart that raged uncontrollably. This man was supposed to have all the answers. He was supposed to know the Grand-Magi’s every move. Instead he was two months of wasted effort and pointless life. Deston had the power to make the delusion end, but he just walked back out the door. He let the drizzle sizzle the fire of his soul. Step by step he felt the calm return. He was too far away to fix the madness he had laid upon the man now and a pang of regret doused what was left of Deston’s rage.

He shuffled his way back to the homeless shelter he had called a home for the past couple of weeks, wondering what direction he should go from here.

Paragon's End [Modern/Fantasy/Anime/Adventure]

<Snipped quote by Skelace>

Yes, it looks good. Though there is one thing. I am not sure if I inferred correctly, but I will say it anyway because I think it needs to be layed out in black and white. The general population by and large is unaware of Talents and magic. So the news media really wouldn't tell you if someone who died was a magi or not, they wouldn't know. Unless it was from some vaticsn only news station or something like that.

@Prodigal Son

Yeah I knew that. I figured they would have their own news sources and such. If you want I can take that out. Sorry for causing so many problems :P

Paragon's End [Modern/Fantasy/Anime/Adventure]

<Snipped quote by Skelace>

It would be simpler if your character was a willing participant in the group. And with the story map I have layed out it currently does not account for a group member to be a double-agent. Having pc enemies is much more difficult to deal with than just having npc GM enemies.

@Prodigal Son

Sounds good, that can be fixed in a lickity split! I just edited his history and a bit of his personality. Does it look better now?

Paragon's End [Modern/Fantasy/Anime/Adventure]

Deston Douglason

Male
24
Appearance:
6'2"
A lithe and lanky build with messy auburn hair that spills down to his collar.
Sun tanned skin, and dark hazel eyes that seem to be permanently narrowed.
Clean shaven, with a narrow jaw line that peaks at his chin.

Basic Appearance

This good sir should do. Perhaps not so muscular...

Abilities

Deston has dedicated his life to changing the world around him. He furthers his goal by literally changing the way people see things, by altering the world around him. At first he would simply conjure images and visions that weren't there, but by an early age he had already mastered making exact duplicates of people and decided to move onto loftier goals. He began focusing an channeling his mana into changing the chemical and atomic structures of materials around him. While he can masterfully change an apple into an orange without blinking an eye, he is still working on perfecting his craft to a greater scale such as turning a wooden mansion into brick and stone, or forming an item out of the air, without it leaving him exhausted and burnt out.

Backstory

Deston has never wavered in his service to the Catholic Arcanocracy and has never doubted their teachings. Once his skills as an illusionist were known they helped him focus and hone his natural born talent. At a young age he was being given tasks by his Grand-Magi Alexander Leiber, such as sitting in on meetings without being seen, or sneaking into places otherwise forbidden to his fellow novices. The Church soon displaced him from his home in Ireland, constantly having him travel from place to place going to meeting after meeting, breaking into offices, and warehouses alike. By his teenage years he had become a master at blending into the crowd, becoming anyone at any time. A Japanese manager here, a German scholar there. He was recently promoted to Magi after completing his first task of killing a man for the Church. Deston didn't know who the man was, though he suspected he was a dangerous apostate the Church had deemed needed to be put down for the betterment of humanity. But he never actually asked. He never asked questions, and he found he wasn't the slight bit worried about who the man was. That was until the man Deston had killed actually made the news. The man had been a well respected Grand-Magi of the church.

The news shook Deston's otherwise blind faith, and sought council the only place he new where. At his next meeting with his old friend and mentor Grand-Magi Leiber. Leiber quelled his fears providing a story where the man Deston had just killed had actually been an operative of a dark order bent on the destruction of the Church. The Church couldn't formally charge the man with these crimes without alarming the people of how deep this group had infiltrated the church. Deston readily accepted the story he was provided, unwilling to believe that the Church would have him kill an innocent man. But the crack in Deston's faith was there.

Deston couldn't help but ask questions for his tasks which seemed to come less and less frequently after that. After a curious case of not receiving word from the Church for two months Deston finally received another task to kill. This time Deston couldn't go blindly killing. He spent weeks stalking his subject, a man mid way through his life. A thug from all indications, the man constantly skulking in the back alleys of Chicago shaking people down. Still Deston was unsure what the higher ups in the Church could want with this mans death. It was after one particular shake down where the man had beaten a young female and threatened to kill her child that Deston had decided the man deserved to die. Deston snuck into the mans apartment with all the skill his years provided, and entered the mans room only to find him already tore to pieces on his bed. Just then two Magi and came out of the shadows attacking Deston.

The battle that followed added two more bodies to Deston's kill count. Again death affected him not at all. But the betrayal of the Church haunted him. Obviously no longer welcome in the Church, Deston spent the following year hunting down his Grand-Magi who had seemed to disappear into thin air.

Personality

Deston's personality is whatever the moment requires. One moment he is pretending to be outgoing, hearty salesman, the next a secretive and nervous recluse. He typically prefers to stay in the shadows and scope a situation out before deciding on how to act. When engaging with peers he will often display a mask of a happy go lucky youth as he observed his natural quite, caustic, cynical, and reserved demeanor would make people distant and in the long run harder to manipulate for assistance. That being said, Deston is easily flustered with true deep emotions often not knowing to do when they appear as he is used to expressing only the shallow.

Deston has no true friends as he is constantly moving about, his only constant contact is the Grand-Magi he has been serving his whole life. The betrayal of his faith rocked Deston hard, causing him to look at the world with constant cynicism and suspicion. When letting down his mask he can become vicious with his tongue as he begins to let people know what he thinks of them or a situation, not afraid to use the secrets he's stolen from another to hurt them, or pick apart their personality. His ego has been building since he was first removed from his fellow novices, giving him a sense that he cannot fail and a belief that he has no living equal in his craft. While he has no doubt there are others who know more, he believes in just a few short years he shall pass them all.

Paragon's End [Modern/Fantasy/Anime/Adventure]

@Prodigal Son Gotcha gotcha! Didn't see that difference between the Church and the Arcanocracy, I'll have to do a little editing. But I figured since the group is going about trying to protect the paragons, Deston would just hitch along since that seemed as good a way as finding them as any other. But I can do some editing if you'd prefer on that matter as well.

Heheh it's no problem. I was a little confused there at first but I figured something like that happened.