OOC: My character, Archbishop, is an Empathy/Dark Defender.
IC-
John Ryan steered the Oldsmobile deftly around the tight turns of Riverview Drive, the road that snaked along the west bank of the Passaic River which his son Daniel loved to ride on. It was a narrow unlit road and John would have preferred to take the main boulevard for saftey's sake except that he was returning home with his wife Veronica and Daniel after attending a grammar school play in which Daniel had been a castmember and of course Daniel had insisted on taking it.
As Veronica and Daniel discussed the play, John's thoughts drifted to how good he had it. A loving wife and a bright personable son of course, but after being unemployed for eight months he had finally found a decent job and things were really starting to look up.
He glanced over at his wife and smiled contently. Then he noticed a gradually brightening light on the side of her face as she turned from talking to Daniel in the back seat to return his smile. Recognition of what the light was jarred his mind from the pleasant place it was as he quickly jerked his head back to the road to see what he was too late to avoid.
A head on collision.
Daniel grudgingly opened his eyes and took a moment to gather his senses until he realized he was laying on the floor of the car. The stench of burned oil and charred metal entered his nostrils. He grudgingly tried to pick himself up off the floor but his right leg would not move. Looking up he saw the headrest of the carseat in front of him which he grabbed and tried to pull himself up. As he got higher, he glanced over the seat to look for his mother and father. He found them...or parts of them.
Pain took him.
Muffled moans of agony creeped into the last remaining bit of his consciousness. The faint sounds of a deep gruff voice arguing with a voice so pure it felt like his head was splitting open faded in and out of his hearing. He felt his arms being tugged in two different directions. As he tried to focus on the sources of the tugging, he saw a faint glimpse of a demon and an angel. They each had one of his arms and were pulling it in different directions while spewing an unfamiliar language at each other. Frightened, Daniel suddenly jerked back his arms and felt an enormous impact as both figures crashed into him.
Darkness...
Screaming, Daniel awoke from his dream and peeled off the bedsheets that were clinging to his sweaty body. Throwing on a pair of old sweatpants he stalked downstairs knowing the church would be empty. He liked it this way. The serenity of the chapel at night often put his mind at ease from the nightmares that tormented his sleep.
As he sat in a pew he heard a voice call to him. "Daniel, are you ok?".
He turned and saw Father Bowland walking towards him with a concerned look on his face.
"The nightmares again, yes?" asked the Priest as he came to sit in the pew next to Daniel.
"You can say that, Father." Daniel replied.
Father Bowland sighed as if about to offer advice he had given a million times before. "Daniel, as I've told you before, you have to come to terms with your past. You have to let it go. There was nothing you could do. In all truth, you're lucky to be alive yourself. God works in mysterious ways."
"What does He have to do with it?" Daniel asked bitterly. This was always a sensitive subject with him. Of course he believed in God. How else could he explain his vision on the night of the accident before he passed out, but then again how could he put his faith into a God that had taken away his mother and father?
The old Priest grunted knowingly as if he knew Daniel would ask that very question. "How else then do you explain the...gifts...you've been given?".
Daniel had told the Priest of the vision he had long ago and of the strange things he was able to do since then. He had an amazing ability to cure diseases, sickness, and the most fatal of wounds by merely willing them to be healed, however he also posessed abilities which even frightened himself. Dark powers that maimed and destroyed and seemed to feed off his rage and hatred.
Daniel turned to the Priest with a look of helplessness on his face, "But Father, you know as well as I do the duality of my powers. Surely this God you speak of so highly wouldn't have also given such a destructive power to me.".
"Perhaps not," replied Father Bowland, "It could be that God did not bestow you with any gifts at all."
"Then who?" asked Daniel wonderously. He had never been able to explain the source of his gifts so up until now he had always presumed God had somehow given them to him. As fantastical as it sounded it was still the only conceivable explanation.
Father Bowland thought for a moment and nodded his head confidently. "Perhaps while fighting for your soul, you somehow received some of the powers of the Angel and Demon you saw in your vision."
This thought had never crossed Daniel's mind. He had dissected every detail of his vision countless times but had always figured the two apparitions were delusions brought on by the intense pain he had suffered in the crash. Was there actually an Angel and Demon fighting for his soul? Was there such a thing as a soul? The more he thought about Father Bowlands' revelation, the more he thought it could actually be the explanation that had eluded him for so long.
As Daniel sat and contemplated this thought Father Bowland, seeing Daniel's concentration, continued, "Daniel, since you were brought to me after being orphaned, I have tried my best to raise you as a compassionate, empathetic, and God-fearing man. I believe that while a war is being waged within you for your soul, you are forgetting that you are still alive and have power over both entities within you. This is clearly evident in your decisions to unrelentingly battle crime and help all of God's children from criminals, Pagans, and those that would do us harm. The good in you is winning!". The final statement reflected on Father Bowland's face as he grinned enthusiastically at Daniel.
Daniel mulled over the Priest's words and was about to be won over when he recalled something he wished he hadn't. "It is true that I try to help all who are in need with my abilities to heal. I guess it's because I feel the need to redeem myself of my own inability to help my parents when they needed it the most. However, it's when I use my...darker gifts to disable and harm the wrongdoers that I worry about the most."
"Why does that worry you my son?" the Priest asked.
"Because I enjoy it."
To be continued...
OOC: Hope you liked my little story and had the patience to actually read it. I'd say that Archbishop definately reflects part of me in the sense that I'm unsure of the workings of God, or even if there is one.
Archbishop's Empathy/Darkness powers reflect the duality of man. The ability to build and do good, but also the power to harm and do evil. For the dramatization of a Comic Book Superhero, I decided to symbolize that in the Demon and Angel fighting for his soul.
Anywho, would love to hear your comments! Also keep up the great writing all! Some fantastic stories on these boards.
OOC: My character, Archbishop, is an Empathy/Dark Defender.
I'd say that Archbishop definately reflects part of me in the sense that I'm unsure of the workings of God, or even if there is one.
IC-
John Ryan steered the Oldsmobile deftly around the tight turns of Riverview Drive, the road that snaked along the west bank of the Passaic River which his son Daniel loved to ride on. It was a narrow unlit road and John would have preferred to take the main boulevard for saftey's sake except that he was returning home with his wife Veronica and Daniel after attending a grammar school play in which Daniel had been a castmember and of course Daniel had insisted on taking it.
As Veronica and Daniel discussed the play, John's thoughts drifted to how good he had it. A loving wife and a bright personable son of course, but after being unemployed for eight months he had finally found a decent job and things were really starting to look up.
He glanced over at his wife and smiled contently. Then he noticed a gradually brightening light on the side of her face as she turned from talking to Daniel in the back seat to return his smile. Recognition of what the light was jarred his mind from the pleasant place it was as he quickly jerked his head back to the road to see what he was too late to avoid.
A head on collision.
Daniel grudgingly opened his eyes and took a moment to gather his senses until he realized he was laying on the floor of the car. The stench of burned oil and charred metal entered his nostrils. He grudgingly tried to pick himself up off the floor but his right leg would not move. Looking up he saw the headrest of the carseat in front of him which he grabbed and tried to pull himself up. As he got higher, he glanced over the seat to look for his mother and father. He found them...or parts of them.
Pain took him.
Muffled moans of agony creeped into the last remaining bit of his consciousness. The faint sounds of a deep gruff voice arguing with a voice so pure it felt like his head was splitting open faded in and out of his hearing. He felt his arms being tugged in two different directions. As he tried to focus on the sources of the tugging, he saw a faint glimpse of a demon and an angel. They each had one of his arms and were pulling it in different directions while spewing an unfamiliar language at each other. Frightened, Daniel suddenly jerked back his arms and felt an enormous impact as both figures crashed into him.
Darkness...
Screaming, Daniel awoke from his dream and peeled off the bedsheets that were clinging to his sweaty body. Throwing on a pair of old sweatpants he stalked downstairs knowing the church would be empty. He liked it this way. The serenity of the chapel at night often put his mind at ease from the nightmares that tormented his sleep.
As he sat in a pew he heard a voice call to him. "Daniel, are you ok?".
He turned and saw Father Bowland walking towards him with a concerned look on his face.
"The nightmares again, yes?" asked the Priest as he came to sit in the pew next to Daniel.
"You can say that, Father." Daniel replied.
Father Bowland sighed as if about to offer advice he had given a million times before. "Daniel, as I've told you before, you have to come to terms with your past. You have to let it go. There was nothing you could do. In all truth, you're lucky to be alive yourself. God works in mysterious ways."
"What does He have to do with it?" Daniel asked bitterly. This was always a sensitive subject with him. Of course he believed in God. How else could he explain his vision on the night of the accident before he passed out, but then again how could he put his faith into a God that had taken away his mother and father?
The old Priest grunted knowingly as if he knew Daniel would ask that very question. "How else then do you explain the...gifts...you've been given?".
Daniel had told the Priest of the vision he had long ago and of the strange things he was able to do since then. He had an amazing ability to cure diseases, sickness, and the most fatal of wounds by merely willing them to be healed, however he also posessed abilities which even frightened himself. Dark powers that maimed and destroyed and seemed to feed off his rage and hatred.
Daniel turned to the Priest with a look of helplessness on his face, "But Father, you know as well as I do the duality of my powers. Surely this God you speak of so highly wouldn't have also given such a destructive power to me.".
"Perhaps not," replied Father Bowland, "It could be that God did not bestow you with any gifts at all."
"Then who?" asked Daniel wonderously. He had never been able to explain the source of his gifts so up until now he had always presumed God had somehow given them to him. As fantastical as it sounded it was still the only conceivable explanation.
Father Bowland thought for a moment and nodded his head confidently. "Perhaps while fighting for your soul, you somehow received some of the powers of the Angel and Demon you saw in your vision."
This thought had never crossed Daniel's mind. He had dissected every detail of his vision countless times but had always figured the two apparitions were delusions brought on by the intense pain he had suffered in the crash. Was there actually an Angel and Demon fighting for his soul? Was there such a thing as a soul? The more he thought about Father Bowlands' revelation, the more he thought it could actually be the explanation that had eluded him for so long.
As Daniel sat and contemplated this thought Father Bowland, seeing Daniel's concentration, continued, "Daniel, since you were brought to me after being orphaned, I have tried my best to raise you as a compassionate, empathetic, and God-fearing man. I believe that while a war is being waged within you for your soul, you are forgetting that you are still alive and have power over both entities within you. This is clearly evident in your decisions to unrelentingly battle crime and help all of God's children from criminals, Pagans, and those that would do us harm. The good in you is winning!". The final statement reflected on Father Bowland's face as he grinned enthusiastically at Daniel.
Daniel mulled over the Priest's words and was about to be won over when he recalled something he wished he hadn't. "It is true that I try to help all who are in need with my abilities to heal. I guess it's because I feel the need to redeem myself of my own inability to help my parents when they needed it the most. However, it's when I use my...darker gifts to disable and harm the wrongdoers that I worry about the most."
"Why does that worry you my son?" the Priest asked.
"Because I enjoy it."
To be continued...
OOC: Hope you liked my little story and had the patience to actually read it.
Archbishop's Empathy/Darkness powers reflect the duality of man. The ability to build and do good, but also the power to harm and do evil. For the dramatization of a Comic Book Superhero, I decided to symbolize that in the Demon and Angel fighting for his soul.
Anywho, would love to hear your comments! Also keep up the great writing all! Some fantastic stories on these boards.