The Grave Misttress - Origin of a Villain Part One
By
FloatingFatMan,
Posted on: 2005-11-07 08:49 in Multi-Media Fan Creations
Excellent. That's a massive improvement to your writing style, with only a couple of typos or awkward sentences. I love how you captured the still childlike emotions in Grave Mistress' memories of what happened to her.
/em faints!
Wow, thanks Wordy! What can I say? 
I've been scribbling some stories since Trial (all unpublished apart from Homecoming), and have taken note of the good advice you gave me so I'm glad to see you like the result!
Having kids certainly helps when you want to capture something childlike, I can tell you!
I'll be posting part two either later today, or tomorrow, depending on when I get chance 
@FloatingFatMan
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
I must say...
You've given Grave a depth of character I could not have forseen...
All I had when I first thought of her was a name (comming from numerous typos...) and the idea "dimensional twin"; "Dead family" and a resulting: "necromancy"
You've tied all this into a nice bundle of compexity that is a 'human' character.
Well done!
@ShadowGhost & @Ghostie
The Grav Mistress, Mistress of Gravity
If you have nothing useful to say, you have two choices: Say something useless or stay quiet.
Thanks I did my best with what meagre information you supplied....
@FloatingFatMan
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Meager information leaves you with a lot to play with
Worked out for the best
@ShadowGhost & @Ghostie
The Grav Mistress, Mistress of Gravity
If you have nothing useful to say, you have two choices: Say something useless or stay quiet.
Hi all. Shadowghost and I have rolled up nemesis characters to play off against our RP mains so I thought I'd writeup an origin story to explain the how and why for Grav's nemesis, the Grave Mistress!
>
Hope you enjoy it and please give me comments!
DISCLAIMER: I have endeavoured to keep the story suitable for 12+, but there are parts where this was unavoidable and still tell the story I wanted to tell. There is nothing graphic though...
The Grave Mistress The Origin of a Villain - Part One
I still remember it like it was yesterday; the day they came and destroyed my whole world. Id been playing in the back yard with my big brother Eric. I was only six.
Then they came, the so called heroes.
The war had started a few months ago, but I didnt know anything about it then. I was much too young to understand the breakdown of law and order, and the rise of the vigilantes, the self styled heroes; murderers, all of them. Even now, no one really knows what started it all off, but we know how it ended.
Id been in the swing when the big bang came. The house next door just blew up, and people came flying from the sky, charging at the ruins, and my house. I heard my mother screaming and saw her running out the house towards me. Then, she wasnt there anymore, just a big ball of fire where shed been and a man standing in front of it, laughing. Eric ran at the man, screaming at him. Hed always been very strong Eric had, and when he hit him, the man he fell over and said a bad word. He hit Eric back, hard.
I never saw Eric again after that. The man hit him so hard he got thrown up into the sky; I didnt see him come down again. Then I heard daddy screaming. He had a big stick and he ran at the man, hitting him on the head and making blood come out, but another man came. Daddy didnt see him, but I did. I saw what he did to my daddy; I ran into our shed and hid.
I dont know what happened after that. I stayed in the shed for hours and hours, too scared to come out. When I did, all the bad men were gone, and so was our house, most of the houses were. Just lots of fires and no people; I was all alone.
I spent the next few years living on the streets, stealing what I needed to survive. I was hungry all the time, and always scared. There were a few other kids like me left too, after a while we all sort of congregated together, for company, and safety; some of the bigger kids looked after us as best they could. But every once in a while, one of us wouldnt wake up in the morning and one of the big kids took them away somewhere.
We spent most of our time hiding from the gangs that wandered the wrecked streets, looking for kids like us that no one cared about. Kids they could use and throw away. Sometimes theyd catch one of us, usually we didnt see the one who got caught again; those that did come back were, different, more scared than usual, and cried a lot. They usually ended up cutting themselves and going to sleep forever.
Then, when I was twelve or thirteen, I got caught. They all had skull masks on and they dragged me to an old warehouse. It was filthy and stank, and was full of little fires and funny circles with weird writing in them, not that Id have been able to read them anyway, I couldnt read... or write But, thats not what they wanted me for anyway.
They tied me up and threw me into one of those circles and stood around me, laughing and pointing. Then one of them, a big one, walked up to me and said something. I didnt understand what he said, it was in English I think but I didnt know how to speak that back then, I only knew Dutch. He got angry when I didnt answer him and he hit me, hard. Then he pulled out a big knife.
I thought he was going to stick it in me and I just gave up, glad it was going to end at last, but he didnt He did worse he started to cut my shirt off. I knew I was only little, but I knew what he was going to do Id heard some of the big girls talking about it in our hiding place, what happened if you were caught. I didnt want him to hurt me like that. I tried to get away but he just laughed and held me down, the others laughed to.
I tried to curl into a little ball, trying to protect myself, feeling his hands tearing at my clothes and, then I felt something else. It was like a dark hole inside me opened up, and something came out. Then I heard the noise a low... moaning noise and then the screaming started. I scrunched up tighter, trying to hide, but the noises got worse There were lots of gunshots, and more screams and low moans, and lots of wet crunching noises. Then the hands on me went away and I heard the sounds of people running away. Then it all went quiet.
I laid there for a bit, then finally opened my eyes; right into the face of something awful. I screamed and tried to back away but it just crouched there looking at me. Then it said something. Miss tress. I screamed and told it to go away and, it just, fell apart!
I know what it was now of course; it was the first manifestation of my powers. A zombie, called forth in my terror to do my bidding and protect its mistress. Those animals whod taken me didnt have a chance. It killed most of them in a most unpleasant way. But I didnt know then so, when I finally got free of the ropes, I picked my way through the horrible messes on the floor, got out of the building, and just ran and ran and ran. I never went back to the other kids.
I wandered the world for a few years. Drifting from place to place, never staying anywhere long. A lot of the places I went had been ruined in the war, not many people were left. Some I met were OK, let me stay around and gave me food But some were like those men in the warehouse; they soon regretted trying to hurt me though.
I spent nearly a year walking through some country called Vietnam I think it was, and didnt see a single person alive. Youve no idea what spending a year with only the dead for company can do to you; by the time I left that place Id changed, a lot. Eventually, I reached China and, in time, found someone who could see what I might be, and took me in. He was a nice old man, and a scorcerer; the first person whod been kind to me for years. He taught me how to control my powers properly, and helped me to open doors to more abilities. But he never saw the growing darkness inside me.
Once Id grown strong, I started to wander the streets at night; hunting those who preyed on the young. When I found them, I called forth my servants, and they died, every single one. I wasnt going to let animals like that hurt more kids, like theyd tried to hurt me. I crafted a new identity for myself, The Grave Mistress, and haunted the streets in the darkness; like the old tales of monsters in the night.
Eventually, by the time I was in my early twenties, my benefactor found out and we argued. He tried to tell me that killing to protect others was just as wrong as what those I was killing were doing, but I didnt care. By then, I was mostly dead inside anyway; I guess thats what happens when everything you can do is based around the dead, you die a little bit each time yourself. He yelled at me, said he was going to call the heroes to take me away. I couldnt let him do that, so I showed him something else I could do, and ripped the life from his body, using it to make myself stronger; something Id been doing more and more lately.
I was a little bit saddened Id had to do that. Hed been kind to me but, well, he shouldnt have said he set heroes on me; I hate heroes all of them.
I left China then, and wandered around the world for a few more years, before I eventually arrived in America, and Paragon City. By now the war was over and the heroes had won, as if youd want them in charge. The city was beautiful; no crime of any kind was tolerated there. Anyone caught so much as dropping litter was executed on the spot by one of the many roving heroes. See, theyre still nothing but murderers.
Though it was dangerous for me there, I was able to conceal myself and snuck into the city. Id heard some things about recent discoveries theyd made about some other worlds, things that interested me a lot. Eventually I found out theyd discovered there were other worlds, copies of ours, but each one different. Theyd found ways to look at some of these worlds, but no way to actually go to any of them. I was pretty disappointed by that so after Id found out what I wanted, I left the city; it was far too dangerous for me to stay for too long.
As I was leaving, I found a tunnel leading to some caves under the city so, curious, I went exploring. I wandered around in the tunnels for hours before eventually, I came to a large cavern, where I found an old stone circle, and a book.
<End of Part One - Part two later... If you ask nice!
@FloatingFatMan
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.