Category: Drama
#21: The (Would-Be) Baroness Torrington, Vera Newport
I am Vera Newport, the Baroness Torrington. Or I would be, if British peerage laws did not prevent me from inheriting my rightful title. As it is, I am the heiress who cannot inherit, and now the woman without a fiancé.
…Ah, yes. Thank you for your condolences, but I do not feel much grief over my loss, as harsh as that may sound. My fiancé was my first cousin, originally set to inherit my father’s title, as per his (apparent) right as the next male.  Our marriage would have been one of convenience, designed to keep him in line and the title in my hands. I did not particularly like him – he was cruel at times and weak-willed at others – but I would have put up with it.
I don’t now, but I have larger issues to contend with. You see, once I am out of mourning officially, I will have to find a husband. It is not only expected of me as a lady of fortune (and it is times like this that I wish I were a man, who would not be so harshly obligated to do things), but also required as a person of noble blood.
If I only did like the company of men, it would be so much easier. Any affection I have felt towards men has been familial or platonic. My younger sister, who is coquettish to the point of embarrassment, would be much better suited for this position, to find a husband and pass on the title. However, she will have to pry that right out of my cold dead fingers before that happens. I am the first born child and will inherit what is mine, regardless of what lies between my legs. Pardon my French, there.
What sort of man do I like? I do not know. I have seen many different types of men – suitors before I became engaged, military men, working boys – and none have been to my liking in a romantic sense. (If I must confess, I liked that delivery boy best, with his gay smiles and blunt personality. He was refreshing to be around. A shame he had to go to war and die.)
This all bores you, doesn’t it? To listen to a woman of high birthright complain about needing to find a husband. There is a war going on. People are dying, rations are becoming tighter, and I am complaining about something trivial. Well, it might be trivial to you but my future depends on this.
…why don’t I go and try to solve this problem a different way? You think I hadn’t thought of that already? You think I am not trying to? Plans like this take time, effort, and a lot of manipulation. Be patient. I know I must be. This plan is not my last hope. It is a ongoing project which I started a very long time ago. I must wait still before it bears any fruit.
…What sort of person do I like? A gentle disposition, but an iron will. Keeps a cool head in the face of adversity. Appreciative of humour even if it does go beyond their mental facilities, and willing to explain their jokes if they are met with confusion instead of laughter. Good with their hands. I also like dark hair and an olive complexion. So many people are as pale as ghosts that any sort of colour is wonderful.
–WHAT? How could you – you think that I – but we don’t even – I was not describing my lady’s maid. No, I was not. Go now. I don’t wish to talk to you any longer. Send Melissa along. I wish to see her (and if you dare insinuate anything I will personally make sure that you never step foot in England again).
#21 Emaline Amity
Emaline is Riordan’s best friend. She is unaware of Riordan and her brother’s being fae though. Even though the twins aren’t her brothers Emaline treats them like they are. Emaline becomes very lost after Riordan and her brothers’s disappearance, with no trace of where they went. Afterwards she becomes very secluded.
17 – Mrs Honeyford
During the 70’s, Cleopatra Honeyford was a glamourous private detective fighting corrupt cops and gangs alike in the infamous Docks district of . At the time she was a crack shot with a gun and better fighting unarmed or with knives than almost anyone in the city. Unlike many of her peers, Cleo survived, and continued to live in the area for years to come. While she is certainly no longer considered the pin-up she once was, she continued training her fighting technique, including a stint where she incorporated large quantities of the technique of her martial artist then-boyfirned into her own style, she has general incorporated, and is generally considered to be one of the deadliest martial artists in the world. Her style is incredibly potent, and adjusts well to improvised weapons, and seems to excel in taking down multiple armed opponents, quickly and brutally. Though she is more or less retired from crime fighting, many come to train with her, even if it means putting up with her famously bad cooking, which she never got round to learning how to do in her youth.
16 – The Lion of Assur
Despite their reputation for glamour and daring, sometimes the people in the profession of Adventurer-Archeologists make mistakes. The Lion of Assur is possibly the most notable and well publicised incident which bought the profession into disrepute. In 1962, the Oxford University contacted one Texas Smith, a world reknowned expert on ancient languages to come decipher a tablet that some students had uncovered in Syria. Texas deciphered them to be describing “The Lion of Assur – the greatest weapon known to man, a weapon that can level cities, crush armies and should it not be hidden, unstoppable as it is, it will destroy the world”. It went onto describe how a peace deal made had included the permenant hiding of the Lion to prevent its abuse. Texas immediatly set off on a several week long adventure involving Nazi’s, gunfights, motorbike chases and lots of snakes.Â
When the Lion of Assur was revealled however… it was a bit of a let down. While a giant 120m tall mechanical man is undoubtedly impressive, Texas and his Nazi foes hadn’t taken into account the ancient Assyrians ability for hyberbole, and while it could certainly have defeated ancient buildings and crushed armies armed with bronze weapons – but, it turned out that it had not only decayed a little in its long history, but thin sheets plate enough to protect from a sword or arrow turned out to be no match for a standard modern gun. The whole affair took Texas Jones decades to live down even after he defeated some evil Mummies threatening Paris. The Lion of Assur remained in storage for years, until eventually it was bought by a British Muslim businessman who is currently restoring it and upgrading it with modern materials so it can be used to fight the Giant Monsters that have been attacking cities more often in recent years.Â
15 – Samuel Khan-Bonaparte
The League of Solomon is an ancient order dedicated to ruling the world through their own superiority. Their core project to bring this about is a selective breeding project which stretches back over a thousand years and is more ambitious than anyone realises. Taking the bloodlines of some of the greatest leaders and fighters in human history and through extensive selective breeding trying to create the ultimate humans to lead the new age. Samuel Khan-Bonaparte, as the name suggests was a result of the combinations of Ghengis Khan and Napoleon Bonaparte, with various other great tacticians in smaller percentages.Â
 Although ranked only a level 6 on the purity scale, and deemed only suitable as a soldier rather than a general, the bloodlines bred into him to learn quickly and solve problems are particularly successful within him – a chance overhearing of an offhand comment allowed him to finally discover what the League of Solomon had bred him for and triggered his escape. He now acts sometimes as a mercenary, and sometimes as a fighter on his own quests, trying to uncover the League of Solomon once more, but has never found so much as a trace of them since he left.
 Samuel came about as I wanted a character that came out of a Secret Society of some sort, and the idea of trying to selectively breed people with the traits of great historical leaders seemed like a fun one to pursue, and made a certain kind of sense enough to appeal to mad people. They’d have been working at it for so long they’d have different bloodlines, and breed in traits from people who had useful things like excellent memory or problem solving ability, as well as creating optimised training regimes to produce the perfect childhood to produce the kinds of personalities they would like.
#19 Big Heart
I mostly needed a character I could relate to.
Being a romantic is pretty tough the majority of the time.
(If you can identify the quote, you win aaall the prizes)
Miernie
Miernie is the Queen Elect. Formerly she was a warrior priestess of he Tontin sisterhood known as a “Warcaptain”. He standing down from her position to become a royal concubine was highly controversial among her fellow sisters. Not as controversial as when the King chose her to be his bride, and the Queen Elect. Now the most powerful of the Clock-work aristocracy wants her dead, only one group will take her alive.
#14 Old Noona
#14 Old Noona
Old Noona is as nutty as a fruitcake. She’s one of those round little old ladies, gray hair sticking out all crazy, walking in little shuffling steps everywhere she goes.
If she can help it, she won’t walk on anything other than dirt. Even if it means trampling through the spruce hedges in front of the bank or shuffling like a tightrope walker on the little line of dirt that collects in the crack between the curb’s edge and the sidewalk. Grass is okay, and any other plant matter is fair game, but she hates having to walk on concrete and asphalt. She grumbles to herself, shuffling along at her top speed every time she has to cross the street.
And she won’t set foot indoors, not even to sleep away the winter chill. She’ll sleep next to a heating vent when it gets below freezing, and townsfolk dread the morning they might find her, not having made it through a night that got a little too cold for her old bones. But she doesn’t seem to mind. And lots of people look out for her.
She has the cackle of a cartoon witch, and a vocabulary as florid as it is frank, and she’ll gladly talk to anyone who’s looking interested. Funny thing, she never talks about things you’d think the crazy street lady might talk about. Instead, she always talks about things that the other person might find interesting, if a little unexpected. She has this skill. She calls herself a people person.
But a very few who stop to talk to her know a deeper truth. When you stop, really stop to look into her eyes, you’ll see they glow with the bright passion of a child’s. If you bring a hot cup of something with you and sit with her a minute, you might just find her talking about things you never really had the guts to say out loud but carry in your heart. There’s only a few who could tell you why that is, why any of it is, why she is the way she is.
She made a deal, you see, once, very long ago. She gave up houses, she gave up the world of built things, in exchange for which she got two things, the skill to sleep outdoors in any sort of weather, and the skill to grant any who would cross her path, not the wishes they would make out loud, but the quiet ones, the ones they didn’t even know they had, but needed more than any others.
#20 – “Candi” the Succubus
Candi is a friend of Ian (day 19) and is jealous of his and Shaylah’s (day 7) relationship. She acts pleasant and supportive but she secretly wants to split them appart.  She doesn’t think Shaylah is good enough for him and wishes she would just disappear.  She knows about the secret meetings but she fears that Ian would suffer if she were to expose them.
#20 – The Occultist – Sorcerer & Summoner of Demons
Excerpt from Dark Star Rising: Meanwhile, Thornton Oswald III completed his summoning ritual with the King of Netherbeasts. Grimmammon took the form of a great cat of immense size.
“Grimmammon, I invoke your service as in the pacts defined by my ancestors.â€
“Bah, mortal, why should I bother with your family’s ancient pacts? You have been notoriously lax in your relationship to us. Where are the rituals of blood and souls as in the past?â€
“Spare me your pathetic bargaining, hell-beast. Without me and mine, you and yours would have passed into your final existence decades ago. Our world stopped worshipping your kind hundreds of years ago. Look around you. Ask where Lord Arioch and his brethren have gone. Provide your services and enjoy the benefits of our continued relationship.â€
“Show me why you summoned me.â€
“Look, oh Great One. Tell me what you see.â€
Grimmammon looked over the edge of the roof, and his demonic mien grew more stoic. “Our pact ends at the edge of this world, sorcerer. That is an eldritch being from beyond our world.â€
“And evidently frightening enough to remove most of your bluster. Tell me more, Great One. Who or what is that creature?â€
“A Chaos god from before the time of Arioch, from before time as you measure it.â€
“You lie. There were no gods before that time.â€
“Silence, pup. There are secrets even the gods keep. These creatures were imprisoned here in an age before yours. You are not the first masters of the Earth. Did you think you were? Ha.â€
“Imprisoned?â€
“By the First People. They could not destroy them, but they could lock them beneath the Earth, or the Sea, or in Fire. It is said even the very Air imprisons one. I will have no truck with that one, no matter what the price you offer. Its powers likely dwarf mine, the same way mine dwarf yours.â€
Oswald thought about what Grimmammon told him, and realized they were out of their depth. Even if Shango and Kali were here, this was a threat greater than they could manage on their own. Since neither of them were here, it was likely they were working on this menace in their own way. “So we will do what we can until they arrive.â€
“I know you can see the boy in that conflagration. Bring him here; deposit the flames on the creature. Then you can take your leave. We would not want you to be injured before I can make use of you again. You are weakening with age; perhaps I shall call your rival Shunmaburan instead.â€
“As you request, so shall it be. But if you seek to wound my pride, you will find no demon has pride when its survival is at stake. But by all means, if you wish to call Shunmaburan today, and he were not to survive, I would be in your debt. Farewell.â€
The old demon stood at the edge of the roof and the flames rose from the crater in the street. The flames swirled as if they were a fire vortex and flew from the crater to surround the otherworldly invader with the terrible fires. The Kid disappeared from the crater and appeared on the roof next to Oswald. Oswald saw the daemon link the fire to the creature, and realized the fire would only last a few minutes before exhausting its fuel. Once surrounded, the creature stopped moving forward, and this bought them some time.
Grimmammon turned away from the roof’s edge. He looked at the boy and said, “Tough, that little one is. A parting gift.†And with that he nodded and stepped back into the gateway in the floor of the roof.
Oswald was not happy with Grimmammon’s parting words. No good comes from gifts from demons. Looking down at The Kid, he saw the boy’s amazing recuperative powers rebuilding him, and in less than two minutes, he sat up, looking angry.
“Wait. We need to talk. There are things you need to know.â€
First Appearance: The Occultist, originally a villain, works with the Paragons because the government in their world, attempted to kill all metahumans, to be rid of the threat of super-powered beings. Reformed, he turns his sorcerous might to the protection of humanity from demonic predators.
About the Art: Created by Gerald Ramos Fernadez, known as *rhardo by his fans on deviantART, his strong colors, expressive faces and fantastic panoply of superheroic art made his magician Dr. Presto, the perfect choice for my magical protagonist, The Occultist. An accomplished artist in the Philippines, he creates superheroes on contract, of which I will be taking advantage of, when this contest is over.
#19 Julio Mendez
Julio’s fluff piece about a twenty-nine year old black lab was cut short when a sea creature attacked the Brooklyn Bridge. After the cameraman fled in terror, Julio picked up the television camera and recorded the story that began his career. He is still widely regarded as one of the best reporters of his time.
# 17 Boris Rohr
The most dangerous man in the Czech Republic, his only fear was his own reflection every morning after a shower.
#20 Riordan Desiree
Riordan was a changeling child who was switched with another baby, Riordan’s mother took the baby and the baby’s mother took Riordan. Riordan was never told why this happened, she just knows that it did. Riordan’s adoptive mother knows about the fae to some degree, but not much. Riordan lives with her adoptive mother and her younger twin brothers. Riordan’s best friend is Emaline Amity. Unfortunately Riordan’s adoptive mother and her real mother both die and Riordan goes missing, leaving Emaline and the twins on their own. Due to the twins being part fae they are snatched up by the faerie before the human authorities can take them. Emaline being just human is left on her own.
#8 Rogelio “Rotor Mouth” Torres
Art by Michael Powell (@mpowelljr)
Words by Rolando Garcia (@roshow)
He’s lived his whole life in the projects, selling drugs since the age of 11. Today he runs his own little crew that’s doing good enough business to move his mom out of the old neighborhood. On the weekends he MCs and battle raps at local clubs.
His stage name is “Rotor Mouth.” It’s the name his friends call him because he talks so damn much.
He always knew he was abnormally persuasive, so he used that skill to hustle his make money. Then in his late teens he started exhibiting signs of telekinesis, moving small objects. Rogelio realizes his powers run deep but he doesn’t really care to do much with them.
An underground army general, however, gets it. His scientists have observed Rogelio and learned that his persuasion isn’t an intangible telekinetic power. Rogelio doesn’t realize this but when he use telepathy to persuade people  he’s actually  re-arranging the atomic composition of their brains. The general hopes that this physical trait can be duplicated and weaponized. He orders his agents and goons to bring in Rogelio.
Soon, Rogelio will find himself on the run…
#16 Brett
Brett had a lot of prospects to be the next nick-toon. He already looked like a mix of Heffer and Mr. Big Head from Rocko’s Modern Life. But when he was caught with Transexual hooker who used to be a nun, things went down hill from there. He is currently a alcoholic living in Baltimore working on a come back.
#19 – Ian Incubus
Ian Incubus is Shaylah Succubus’ (Day 7) boyfriend.  However, he still lives in the daemon realm and hasn’t seen her since she was exiled.  During the story, the two will find a way to see each other again but it will be very dangerous for them to do so.  He misses her very much and will do whatever he can to make sure they can stay together permanently.
#12 The Matrade that just can’t handle the Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Going in he believed it was a true story. He was fine until the scene where the hippie opens up the freezer and the girl is in there, still alive. It just really got to him, that this really happened and all, that he jumps at every other thing.
#19: Gadsden
He is not born in the strict sense of the word. It is best to describe his coming to existence as creation. Letters from an unprecedented code strung together into words into blood into bone and flesh and scales. The Green Sun burnt his eyes out as soon as he was, but he never needed physical vision to begin with. He knows nearly all things which are, have been, and will exist, and thus sees nearly all things, too. He knows a few things which Must Never Be, warnings of damnable but not doomed futures, and he must see that these do not occur.
Didn’t mean that it didn’t hurt like hell, though.
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For a very long time, he is bored.
His planet is so boring at the moment. It will be years before they do anything remotely interesting. He had to show them how to make fire, of all things. (And they will use it magnificently, he has decided, as they will use all things he teaches them.)
Boring, boring, boring. He winds across this planet, still young and fresh, waiting for his dominoes to fall. Waiting for dominoes to exist. He likes those, and his scales turn black and white. It will be ages before someone makes them, though, given that they are still struggling to speak in more than grunts and whines. If only he had a proper voice and not this infernal hiss. He can’t get anything across, can’t make things go any faster. He pokes and prods and occasionally bites things, but his efforts are futile. This is how this world works: he nudges (and can only nudge and gently push, cannot even whisper suggestions into ears like they think he can. Will think he can. Had thought he could) knowledge onto these stupid beings in hopes that they will become less stupid. It’s a painful process.
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He waits and plans out the lessons he will teach them. He does not decide what those things are because he already knows what they are. They have been taught so many things, and all by him, so he must teach them. He doesn’t have the option of forgoing something and watching that time pocket collapse. Not for a very long time, at least. He must take the slow path, the painful path to reach the Final Reckoning.
(He thinks that this is stupid phrase for it, so he teaches them new words for it. Apocalypse, Armageddon, RagnarÇ«k, Doomsday, Yawm al-QiyÄmah, the Great Cycle of the Long Count.)
At the same time, because while there is so much to do, there is so little to think about. These creatures are dumb now, still so foolish, believing every putrid thought he gives them because it is the only way they understand. A few are smarter, know better, and he spends time with them. Diamonds in the rough. Stars to navigate by. If not for them, he would have–
–not given up, no, he cannot because he does not. The future is unreachable if he gives up moulding this world to its final purpose (and maybe more, if he can plan it right).
These minds, rich and succulent like fresh fruit (which he cannot eat, not with this body, but he knows what it tastes like and longs to bite into that flesh himself and savour its sticky, sweet blood), make the wait bearable.
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He gives them language so that they may warn each other of the coming future, full of fire and destruction.
He gives them mathematics so that they may calculate when that day will come and make amends and pay their dues.
He gives them weapons so that They may use them to defend Themselves, planting the seeds of fire and power and metal long in the past so that others may perfect them and Their Guardians may teach Them.
He does not teach them how to kill. They figure it out themselves.
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When there is time, he plans accordingly for a time he does not know (not past, not present, not future, not Time That Must Not Be). He ponders the ways it could occur, and deduces the ideas which will not work, having seen the way this species operates. He has a long time to plan and a (relatively) short time to execute it. A good plan must have structure and strategy, but also allow for flexibility. Those Children (and they are, but there is no room for pity in his heart) are blind spots in his Vision, which is still too green for his liking, but he can predict how they will act.
They are young. Will be young. (And will always be young.)
(And if it all goes right, never were young.)
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Among the plans to make sure that the Fifth Universe comes (he likes that name best), he also makes plans to die.
He is so very tired and old.
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He lists the Things Which Must Never Be:
She must not become powerful (he has made her influence weak. The company she built across the multiverse is only a continental giant, and that is good enough. He makes sure there are people who appreciate creating things from scratch and tasting them, too).
He must not be here (too late, this is a silly event to avoid. He is always here).
That Doll cannot exist (this is more of a personal preference. That Doll frightens him).
That Silly Man cannot steal the Wall (which does not make sense, but he executes plans to avoid this anyway, even if he must work harder to make up for the development lost).
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The Guardians come, and he wishes he could feel some sort of kinship to them. They, like him, are bred for this Game. Without it, they would not exist. Their existence is paradoxical just as his is (the code that he is forged from does not exist yet, will not exist yet for another generation, and he will make it happen).
(So close now.)
But they do not have to live for billions of years, watching these creatures climb out of the primordial soup and then proceed to get even that wrong. They only have to live for a few decades, knowing only in their dreams (the ones he gives them because they must know their purpose, the sole reason why they exist) that they were created to Guard Those Children.
(They are yours, he tells them in their dreams, the only place he has a voice they can hear. You will find them one day, and you will expect it. You will teach them how to live and to fight, to struggle in the face of adversity and to strive against all odds.)
(Teaching them to love is not what he does. They will learn that on their own.)
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A blind spot:
One of the Guardians has a child, a flesh and blood child of her own.
He does not know what to make of this development, and lets it figure itself out.
(It does.)
(And doesn’t.)
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The First Child comes, the light of Her Meteor shining like a new sun in the twilight. She lands in one country, is picked up, and Guardian and Child flee to another.
The Second Child comes and solves the problem of the scotomic child.
The Third Child comes, and the dust does not settle for a long time.
The Fourth Child comes and confuses a lot of people into thinking that the sun had risen twice. Stupid humans.
The Fifth Child comes and he goes to the place where the Meteorite landed. This Child is his, and will have two Guardians instead of one, because if he has any hope at all of getting what he wants (an end), it is with This Child.
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He watches This Child grow up, whispers into His (no–Her now) Dreaming ears, and wants to be able to do it without tormenting Her so.
It is a strange feeling, but so is the way that This Child will stroke him, wearing crimson and navy (for those two worlds that no longer are, their destruction becoming his source and bane), like some humans stroke smaller, fluffy beasts they domesticated.
If this is domestication (if this is love), he likes it.
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Game start.
Day 19: Brianna Jones
Brianna is a sophomore at Ridgeville High School. She enjoys playing electric guitar and drawing fanart for Nightmare Before Christmas, and always posts it to Deviantart. However, a nagging feeling in the back of her head tells her that she’s not very good at any of the things she enjoys doing. Is she right? Is her insistance that Green Day is the best band not true? Only time will tell.
#18 Winslow Spencer
Occasionally unscrupulous businessman. Secret revolutionary.
Image from superstock.co.uk
#19 James Ridler
Jack Ridler was a average college student trying to make ends meet, but when his mother’s strange lumps turned out to be cancer, he knew he needed more money, so he tried to join a gang. Its initiation and he has till the end of the week to mug 10 people or his life is forfeit.
#17 Picasso
Is he man or monster hero or villain? these are questions everyman must face. Jake Freeson was once the best looking man in his village. but when he and some friends partied too late, and had a few too many drinks. Jake survived but was horribly disfigured, and one drunk mad scientist later he became a hideous beast. Now he fights to survive, and find a world that will accept them.
#30Characters Chatter…