Post by Doom on Aug 17, 2024 3:22:25 GMT
“Yeah, I like to be bad….but in a good way.”
General Information
Full Name:
Illyana Nikolievna Rasputina
Codename or Alias:
Magik; ‘Yana (nickname); Darkchylde; The Boss (by Limbo inhabitants)
Anonymity:
Public Identity, but not well-known to most people outside mystic and heroic circles
Gender:
Female.
Race:
Mutant
Age:
Mid-twenties (exact age unknown due to discrepancy in temporal flows of Limbo and Earth)
Place Of Birth:
Ust-Ordynsky Farm, Siberia, Russia
Occupation/Status:
Queen of Limbo, Associate of Darkwatch, X-Men part-timer, Candidate for Sorcerer Supreme, Freelance Paranormal Investigator
Alignment:
Hero
Factions:
Darkwatch, X-Men (part-time)
Canon Or Original?:
Canon
Powers/Abilities:
Mutant:
Stepping Discs: Magik has the innate ability to summon portals which are naturally attuned to and tunnel through Limbo to connect two points in space/time. With concentration, these portals can bridge vast distances, capable thus far of teleporting between continents. Magik’s portals can cross time as well as space, as she discovered for the first time by accident, and it was only with a great deal of training that she was able to control this aspect of her teleportation; she can thus far intentionally time-travel by a couple of weeks, but has accidentally moved by decades at a time before getting the ability under control.
Magic: Trained during her childhood in Limbo by the diabolic Belasco and then by a version of Kent Nelson, and later supplementing this training with individual study, Illyana’s skills are an unheard-of blend of Black and Light magic, and include the following abilities:
Energy Manipulation: Generate energy blasts or manipulate energy in the environment.
Summoning: Retrieve and store Soulsword at will; summon demons from Limbo.
Astral Projection: Temporarily separate spirit from body.
Protection/Shielding: Invocation to defend from overwhelming attacks.
Exorcism: Banish spirits possessing mortal bodies.
Binding/Warding: Keeping things in/keeping things out.
Matter Manipulation: Rearrange composition of atoms.
Mystic Armor: Appears along with the Soulsword, generally only on her left arm - the more black magic Illyana uses in a short time period, the more armor appears until it covers her whole body.
Half-Demon Soul: As a result of spending most of her childhood in Limbo, Illyana’s soul acquired demonic properties - this gives her greater power than most mortal sorcerers by default, but causes problems elsewhere, as she can trigger demonic wards.
Psionic Shields: Immunity from psychic scanning.
Unnatural Toughness: Since becoming Queen of Limbo, Illyana’s body has become more durable than the average mortal’s. She can still be wounded by conventional means, but as her pain threshold seems nonexistent, she is extremely difficult to stop.
Limbo Control: Able to alter the dimension of Limbo at will.
Darkchylde Transformation: When she uses too much black magic at a time, Illyana transforms into the Darkchylde, a manifestation of the hideous ‘education’ she received at the hands of Belasco, and during the transformation is at her most powerful. This form has had different appearances on the few occasions it has manifested, but in general, she grows horns and a tail, her eyes glow yellow; last time, her lower legs also became cloven hooves. This form is more than a mere transformation, however, and has potential that is yet untapped.
Physical Conditioning: Illyana is as strong as a woman of her size who engages in intensive regular exercise.Summoning: Retrieve and store Soulsword at will; summon demons from Limbo.
Astral Projection: Temporarily separate spirit from body.
Protection/Shielding: Invocation to defend from overwhelming attacks.
Exorcism: Banish spirits possessing mortal bodies.
Binding/Warding: Keeping things in/keeping things out.
Matter Manipulation: Rearrange composition of atoms.
Mystic Armor: Appears along with the Soulsword, generally only on her left arm - the more black magic Illyana uses in a short time period, the more armor appears until it covers her whole body.
Half-Demon Soul: As a result of spending most of her childhood in Limbo, Illyana’s soul acquired demonic properties - this gives her greater power than most mortal sorcerers by default, but causes problems elsewhere, as she can trigger demonic wards.
Psionic Shields: Immunity from psychic scanning.
Unnatural Toughness: Since becoming Queen of Limbo, Illyana’s body has become more durable than the average mortal’s. She can still be wounded by conventional means, but as her pain threshold seems nonexistent, she is extremely difficult to stop.
Limbo Control: Able to alter the dimension of Limbo at will.
Darkchylde Transformation: When she uses too much black magic at a time, Illyana transforms into the Darkchylde, a manifestation of the hideous ‘education’ she received at the hands of Belasco, and during the transformation is at her most powerful. This form has had different appearances on the few occasions it has manifested, but in general, she grows horns and a tail, her eyes glow yellow; last time, her lower legs also became cloven hooves. This form is more than a mere transformation, however, and has potential that is yet untapped.
Swordmaster: After creating the Soulsword, Illyana devoted a great deal of time over the course of years to mastering its use. As a result, she is an incredibly deadly duelist.
Multilingual: Illyana can speak and write Russian, English, and Demon Cant. She never has shaken that Russian accent, though.
Weapons/Items:
Soulsword: Created in a ritual that bound a shard of Illyana’s own soul into the very fabric of Limbo, this sword is both the source and the manifestation of much of Magik’s power, as well as a symbol of her rulership of Limbo. The Soulsword has several abilities beyond the means of a typical sword, such as the power to contact and harm incorporeal/spiritual/otherwise magical beings and disrupt other magic; it is also completely weightless. It has a peculiar metaphysical property as well: the wielder of the Soulsword is the ruler of Limbo, and only the ruler of Limbo may wield the Soulsword; as the sword is made from an intrinsic part of Illyana’s being, she has effectively established herself as the true Queen of Limbo for all time. The sword’s appearance has shifted back and forth over the years, typically manifesting as a long thin blade, a huge buster sword, or a medium between those; it also glows, usually either blue or gold.
Appearance
Image:
Physical Appearance:
Illyana is a strikingly attractive young woman, with ideally proportioned slavic features - wide cheekbones, large blue eyes, slender nose, full lips, strong jaw, slightly pointed chin. She wears her blonde hair long, with bangs that cover her forehead. She is about 5’5” and weighs roughly 125 pounds; she is slender with lean muscle from years of physical training.
Clothing and Armor:
Illyana’s everyday wear is all casual, all the time - she does not have much of a formal side - and she can almost always be found in a t-shirt or tank top with a doom metal or hard rock logo, slim-fitting pants, and thick-soled boots, possibly with studded leather accessories. Magik’s choice of work attire is a little more varied, and depends a bit on her mood, the occasion, and who she’s working with. When with the X-Men, she usually opts to insert some color (yellow/gold) into her general preference for black, but retains her own personality by the inclusion of a black leather vest. When operating in her capacity with Darkwatch or on her own, her current favorite look is a high-necked crop top (with window) with shorts and thigh-high boots (all black of course); both looks include a headdress that sticks out from under her hair, and she always appears with a metal gauntlet and pauldron on her left arm. When she has used too much black magic, her armor covers more and more of her body until it forms a full suit that leaves only her face uncovered.
Casual:
Current favorite uniform:
X-Men:
Full Armor:
Personality
“Sassy, brassy, kick-your-ass-y; that’s pretty much ‘Yana in a nutshell.”
-Kitty Pryde
Sexual Orientation:
Omnisexual
General Personality:
Illyana’s formative years were, to put it lightly, fucked up, and although there are people who wanted to help her recover after her torturous years under Belasco, that time still haunts her and she finds the experience difficult to talk about at the best of times. Yana does not trust easily, and as a result is a difficult person to get to know - she has been described as ‘prickly’ by some and ‘complicated’ by others. It’s true that she is fairly introverted, but also desires genuine connection the same as anyone, although she finds it harder than most - there are few people, if any, with whom she has a lot of common ground (given not many people have been raised by a demon in Hell). Nevertheless, there are a few whom Yana cares about a great deal, although one might not guess that by how she talks - she is often brutally honest, and regularly expresses affection via mild verbal abuse; if Yana finds it worthwhile to insult someone, that is a person she would die for.
Outside of personal relationships, Magik approaches her job with an atypical degree of ruthlessness for someone who associates, even loosely, with the X-Men. She is more likely than most superheroes to employ lethal force against opponents and, as uncomfortable as this may make some people, she is unapologetic about it. Illyana acts in this way in large part because she was trained to unconsciously devalue herself (by Belasco), and as a result is prone to take the burden of immoral/amoral acts upon herself, not only because she thinks it is what needs to be done, but because she doesn’t want that burden to fall on people she regards as better than her.
Face/Voice: Nastya Kusakina/Laura Bailey (as voiced in Midnight Suns)
Anything Else
The Makeout Rule: Yana abides by a ‘fight or fuck’ policy, whereby before any fight she invites potential opponents to make out (apparently without regard to species or gender). If the invitation is accepted, they make out; if not, they fight. Pretty self-explanatory, actually.
Character's History
Siblings:
Piotr Nikolaievitch Rasputin (Colossus) (brother), Mikhail Nikolaievitch Rasputin (brother, deceased)
Mother:
Alexandra Rasputina (deceased)
Father:
Nikolai Rasputin (deceased)
Other Family:
Grigori Rasputin (paternal great-great-grandfather, deceased)
History:
“So it’s finally my turn for this thing, huh? Don’t tickle my brain too much, Grey. So, I’d like to take the opportunity to be the first to say ‘fuck’ in my record. Okay, that’s business done.
“Most people who know me already also know that my personal history isn’t exactly what you’d call good dinner conversation, but I’m going to be very honest in this record, because I guess that’s kind of the point of this whole exercise, right? Make a collective record of how mutants got to be where we are now. More than honest, really – I’m going to get explicit. I’m not sure how I could do otherwise, given how long I spent hating myself for what was done to me, and what I was forced to do, as a child; longer coming to terms with it. But….well, we’ll get to that. Maybe slap a psychic content warning on this one.”
Early Life
"Little Snowflake!"
-Piotr Rasputin
-Piotr Rasputin
“So I was born on the Ust-Ordynsky Farm in Russia - nice enough place, but not very interesting. Mostly just potatoes and cold, you know? My oldest brother, Mikhail, was a cosmonaut, but he died when I was still a baby; I never knew him. Things got….let’s say ‘interesting,’ when I was four or five. I couldn’t do much farm work yet, so I was out playing in the field when a tractor lost its brakes, and there I was, right in the path of destruction. Good thing my other brother was there - I think you might know him. So he armors up, smashes the tractor, happy ending, right? Well, for the time being, yeah, kinda. Piotr went off and joined the X-Men, and life went on. Didn’t last, but who’s keeping track?
“Next time I saw Piotr, it was when I got kidnapped by some of the Penguin's henchies, along with a bunch of other people, to blackmail the X-Men into rescuing the Riddler. Part of some contingency plan of his. But why the Riddler, you ask? Well, apparently he’d been hired a little bit before this by COBRA to kill the X-Men, but he botched the job and his employer wasn’t too happy with him. Yeah, I know, right? He couldn’t even take on one guy in an admittedly pretty awesome goth suit, but they expected him to kill a whole team of powered heroes? I’m sure it didn’t help that he left clues to secret escapes from his deathtraps. That’s a guy who was better off staying in his lane.
“Looking back, I think it was the stress of that whole deal that awakened my abilities and, you know….put Belasco on my scent. See, after the kidnapping incident, Piotr and Professor X decided that it would be safer for me to stay at the Institute. Nice idea, but the X-Men being away all the time didn’t do much for security. I’ll say this, though: one of the few good things to come out of that time was that I met Kitty Pryde. Yeah, I know she likes ‘Kate’ now, but sue me. I knew her as ‘Kitty’ when I was five and decades afterward – a name’s a hard habit to break.
“Anyway, like I said, this is about the time Belasco got his hands on me. He came in the middle of the night, like the villain of some 80s horror movie, the twat. Bad situation for the X-Men, because they came back tired from a mission and immediately had to breach Limbo trying to get me back. It would have been a rough fight under the best circumstances, all kinds of demons and shit blocking the way. As was, they still almost pulled it off. But this isn’t a story that has a happy ending - what a fucking memory to be probably my most vivid, right? Just as I was passing through the portal back to Earth, Belasco grabbed me on one side, and Kitty got the other. Ever been the rope in a tug-of-war? I don’t recommend it. Especially when the other team is bigger and stronger. Belasco won, obviously, otherwise we wouldn’t be here now, under these exact circumstances, would we?
“I was told afterward that Kitty lost her grip for what they perceived as only a few seconds. For me, it was closer to ten years.
Ten years in Hell.”
“Next time I saw Piotr, it was when I got kidnapped by some of the Penguin's henchies, along with a bunch of other people, to blackmail the X-Men into rescuing the Riddler. Part of some contingency plan of his. But why the Riddler, you ask? Well, apparently he’d been hired a little bit before this by COBRA to kill the X-Men, but he botched the job and his employer wasn’t too happy with him. Yeah, I know, right? He couldn’t even take on one guy in an admittedly pretty awesome goth suit, but they expected him to kill a whole team of powered heroes? I’m sure it didn’t help that he left clues to secret escapes from his deathtraps. That’s a guy who was better off staying in his lane.
“Looking back, I think it was the stress of that whole deal that awakened my abilities and, you know….put Belasco on my scent. See, after the kidnapping incident, Piotr and Professor X decided that it would be safer for me to stay at the Institute. Nice idea, but the X-Men being away all the time didn’t do much for security. I’ll say this, though: one of the few good things to come out of that time was that I met Kitty Pryde. Yeah, I know she likes ‘Kate’ now, but sue me. I knew her as ‘Kitty’ when I was five and decades afterward – a name’s a hard habit to break.
“Anyway, like I said, this is about the time Belasco got his hands on me. He came in the middle of the night, like the villain of some 80s horror movie, the twat. Bad situation for the X-Men, because they came back tired from a mission and immediately had to breach Limbo trying to get me back. It would have been a rough fight under the best circumstances, all kinds of demons and shit blocking the way. As was, they still almost pulled it off. But this isn’t a story that has a happy ending - what a fucking memory to be probably my most vivid, right? Just as I was passing through the portal back to Earth, Belasco grabbed me on one side, and Kitty got the other. Ever been the rope in a tug-of-war? I don’t recommend it. Especially when the other team is bigger and stronger. Belasco won, obviously, otherwise we wouldn’t be here now, under these exact circumstances, would we?
“I was told afterward that Kitty lost her grip for what they perceived as only a few seconds. For me, it was closer to ten years.
Ten years in Hell.”
Torment
"Dante said it best: 'Abandon all hope.'"
-Belasco
-Belasco
“Limbo….Hell….same difference. Well, not really. I mean, they’re closely tied, dimensionally speaking….but you don’t care, and it’s an esoteric issue anyway. Point is, Belasco sure made it seem like Hell. See, he wanted me in the first place because he recognized my magical potential and wanted me for his apprentice - I know many of our fellow mutants aren’t super familiar with mystic shit, so trust me when I say you don’t want to become the apprentice of a demonic wizard. Why, you ask? Let me count the ways.
“First, you’re never alone. Belasco was always watching. Always. Even though he let me move around his castle mostly at will, I found out quickly – the hard way – that no matter where I hid, he could find me. Like, for example, when a scared little girl failed to report for tutelage. Whatever hole I could find, it was never small enough.
“Second, any kind of perceived failure was punishable by pain. Didn’t incant the black mass exactly right? Torture. Nodded off during his lecture? Torture again.
“Third, same thing for any kind of defiance, actual or perceived. Maybe the worst thing about dark wizards is that they can hurt you in the most horrible ways you can imagine, but keep you alive through the ordeal – and worse – put you back together so they can do it again. When I tell you I’ve been skinned alive, I’m not kidding. That kinda kills most people. I’ve had the pleasure multiple times. And that wasn’t even the worst of it. I guess that was pretty much the constant of my time as Belasco’s student. Pain. Because nothing was ever good enough for him, and he didn’t mind letting his minions have a crack at me either.
“Fourth, you stay in that situation long enough, you aren’t you anymore. The whole point of Belasco taking me on as an apprentice was to make me like him. The torture by itself is enough to ensure you’re never the same – but the real horror is being forced to participate in the black arts. To perform the same acts on others as have been done to you. I talked about skinning alive before; that’s the mild stuff. I’ve done that and worse to other living beings. Difference is, I got to survive the experience; not sure who got the better end of that deal.
“Only thing I know for sure is it took a damn long time to come to terms with what I’d done.
“I endured five or six years of that. Honestly, I don’t know how I was still sane when I finally managed to escape. Maybe pain is just one of those things you just get used to and accept with enough time; survived having your entrails devoured by insects once? Sure, I can do it five more times. Not sure whether to attribute that to my own mental fortitude, or if I really did go crazy. Anyway, like I said, I escaped. I fled to the fringes of Limbo – don’t get me started on Limbo geography – dodging the revenants of alt-dimensional heroes who had intersected with Limbo at one point or another. I had to kill several different demonized versions of my brother as I was fleeing, and some other friends and allies, too. Free tip: don’t ever try to fight any version of Invincible. That guy’s tough as fuck.
“By the time I made it to the fringes, I was sure I was going to die. And I almost did, if not for a turn of good luck which seems like it was way overdue. I was found by a version of a guy called Kent Nelson. If you don’t know him by that name, you might know his other one: Doctor Fate.”
“First, you’re never alone. Belasco was always watching. Always. Even though he let me move around his castle mostly at will, I found out quickly – the hard way – that no matter where I hid, he could find me. Like, for example, when a scared little girl failed to report for tutelage. Whatever hole I could find, it was never small enough.
“Second, any kind of perceived failure was punishable by pain. Didn’t incant the black mass exactly right? Torture. Nodded off during his lecture? Torture again.
“Third, same thing for any kind of defiance, actual or perceived. Maybe the worst thing about dark wizards is that they can hurt you in the most horrible ways you can imagine, but keep you alive through the ordeal – and worse – put you back together so they can do it again. When I tell you I’ve been skinned alive, I’m not kidding. That kinda kills most people. I’ve had the pleasure multiple times. And that wasn’t even the worst of it. I guess that was pretty much the constant of my time as Belasco’s student. Pain. Because nothing was ever good enough for him, and he didn’t mind letting his minions have a crack at me either.
“Fourth, you stay in that situation long enough, you aren’t you anymore. The whole point of Belasco taking me on as an apprentice was to make me like him. The torture by itself is enough to ensure you’re never the same – but the real horror is being forced to participate in the black arts. To perform the same acts on others as have been done to you. I talked about skinning alive before; that’s the mild stuff. I’ve done that and worse to other living beings. Difference is, I got to survive the experience; not sure who got the better end of that deal.
“Only thing I know for sure is it took a damn long time to come to terms with what I’d done.
“I endured five or six years of that. Honestly, I don’t know how I was still sane when I finally managed to escape. Maybe pain is just one of those things you just get used to and accept with enough time; survived having your entrails devoured by insects once? Sure, I can do it five more times. Not sure whether to attribute that to my own mental fortitude, or if I really did go crazy. Anyway, like I said, I escaped. I fled to the fringes of Limbo – don’t get me started on Limbo geography – dodging the revenants of alt-dimensional heroes who had intersected with Limbo at one point or another. I had to kill several different demonized versions of my brother as I was fleeing, and some other friends and allies, too. Free tip: don’t ever try to fight any version of Invincible. That guy’s tough as fuck.
“By the time I made it to the fringes, I was sure I was going to die. And I almost did, if not for a turn of good luck which seems like it was way overdue. I was found by a version of a guy called Kent Nelson. If you don’t know him by that name, you might know his other one: Doctor Fate.”
Sanctuary
"That girl has the manners of a goat and the ability of a Sorcerer Supreme."
-Kent Nelson
-Kent Nelson
“Kent had been trapped in Limbo, same as a bunch of other alt-dimensional heroes, but he’d managed to avoid being demonized like all the others. Being cut off from most of his sources of power, he wasn’t getting out on his own, but succeeded in carving out a little piece of Limbo for himself that he was able to camouflage from Belasco. Looking back, I realize what a huge risk it was for him to take me in - for all he knew, I was just the bait in a trap – if I had brought down all Belasco’s demons on him, he would never have survived. He did it anyway.
“He was smart and kind enough to give me time. Trust is hard after coming from a bad situation in the real world – imagine how much worse it would be coming out of a den of true evil. It took weeks for me to start accepting that we had some measure of safety. Once I did, Kent began to teach me what he knew. That was hard, too, in its way; I had to unlearn the expectation of new and creative tortures for failure. Oh, Kent was strict enough – light magic demands a lot of discipline and focus, after all – but the worst I could expect from him was a light rap on the knuckles, usually because I fell asleep over some book of lore. He was old-school like that. Let me tell you, mystic textbooks will teach you to do some cool shit, but they tend to be really not exciting. Best sleep aids in the universe.
“Anyway, after a few years of training I had enough ability that together we were able to devise the Ritual of the Soulsword. The ritual bound a shard of the caster’s soul into the immaterial fabric of Limbo, basically weaponizing the dimension itself. Honestly, I would have wanted Kent to be the one to perform the ritual, but because of how Limbo had affected the development of my soul from my formative years, I was in tune with the dimension, so I was more powerful. Had to be me; he couldn’t have taken the strain. Plan was for me to do the ritual, team up to kill Belasco, send Kent back home, go home myself. First part worked out. The rest, less.
“We probably should have anticipated better that Belasco would be able to detect the rite and track down where it was performed. I mean, we warded, but….not good enough. A horde of demons descended on us quickly. We only had a few seconds’ warning, and….
“....Kent deserved better.”
“He was smart and kind enough to give me time. Trust is hard after coming from a bad situation in the real world – imagine how much worse it would be coming out of a den of true evil. It took weeks for me to start accepting that we had some measure of safety. Once I did, Kent began to teach me what he knew. That was hard, too, in its way; I had to unlearn the expectation of new and creative tortures for failure. Oh, Kent was strict enough – light magic demands a lot of discipline and focus, after all – but the worst I could expect from him was a light rap on the knuckles, usually because I fell asleep over some book of lore. He was old-school like that. Let me tell you, mystic textbooks will teach you to do some cool shit, but they tend to be really not exciting. Best sleep aids in the universe.
“Anyway, after a few years of training I had enough ability that together we were able to devise the Ritual of the Soulsword. The ritual bound a shard of the caster’s soul into the immaterial fabric of Limbo, basically weaponizing the dimension itself. Honestly, I would have wanted Kent to be the one to perform the ritual, but because of how Limbo had affected the development of my soul from my formative years, I was in tune with the dimension, so I was more powerful. Had to be me; he couldn’t have taken the strain. Plan was for me to do the ritual, team up to kill Belasco, send Kent back home, go home myself. First part worked out. The rest, less.
“We probably should have anticipated better that Belasco would be able to detect the rite and track down where it was performed. I mean, we warded, but….not good enough. A horde of demons descended on us quickly. We only had a few seconds’ warning, and….
“....Kent deserved better.”
Dominion
"That chick's Queen of Limbo? Voluntarily!?"
-Hellboy
-Hellboy
“Let me back up and talk about Belasco for a minute, even though it galls me to give him the slightest consideration. It galls me even more to admit that without him, I wouldn’t be me – hence the necessary consideration. He started out as a mortal sorcerer, back in like the eleventh century, and got all demonized and immortal when he managed to contact and make a deal with some of your bog-standard forces beyond mortal comprehension – the Ogdru-Jahad. He spent centuries serving them, trying to bring them into the material plane. He made his most successful attempt during World War II, working with Grigori Rasputin, but they only succeeded bringing their Key across. You probably haven’t heard of Hellboy (the Key in question), but he’s pretty cool for someone who doesn’t officially exist. You probably also noticed a familiar name just now. Grigori Rasputin? Oh yeah. Same Rasputins, as my brother and I found out later. Seems like we got our X-gene from him.
“I think that was one of the major factors that led Belasco to select me as his apprentice – finding out Grigori had descendents. Just my bad luck to be the youngest and most malleable.
“Anyway, back to Limbo. With the Soulsword, no demon was a match for me, and pretty quickly I had a horde to counter Belasco’s. Demons are like that: show them enough overwhelming force and they fold like nothing. So now it’s a real war. A short one, in the end, but still – army versus army, before Belasco finally decided to show his cowardly ass. You might ask: what’s an immortal sorcerer got to fear? Me. A pissed-off fourteen-year old. Even young as I was, with an incomplete education, the Soulsword made me far more powerful than he could have anticipated or prepared for. He challenged me to settle things with a duel; I guess he probably wanted to take the opportunity to get me back under his power after defeating me. He didn’t get the chance.
“I split him open and sent his gore in a thousand different directions into the void. Sucks to be immortal, motherfucker.”
“I think that was one of the major factors that led Belasco to select me as his apprentice – finding out Grigori had descendents. Just my bad luck to be the youngest and most malleable.
“Anyway, back to Limbo. With the Soulsword, no demon was a match for me, and pretty quickly I had a horde to counter Belasco’s. Demons are like that: show them enough overwhelming force and they fold like nothing. So now it’s a real war. A short one, in the end, but still – army versus army, before Belasco finally decided to show his cowardly ass. You might ask: what’s an immortal sorcerer got to fear? Me. A pissed-off fourteen-year old. Even young as I was, with an incomplete education, the Soulsword made me far more powerful than he could have anticipated or prepared for. He challenged me to settle things with a duel; I guess he probably wanted to take the opportunity to get me back under his power after defeating me. He didn’t get the chance.
“I split him open and sent his gore in a thousand different directions into the void. Sucks to be immortal, motherfucker.”
Return of the Queen
"Her comin' back through that portal was hard on everyone; prob'ly on her more'n anyone else."
-James Howlett
-James Howlett
“So. Queen of Limbo. Me. And what was my first act as ruler? Leaving, of course. In a part of the palace Belasco had kept off-limits, I discovered the portal to Earth, the same one from years before, Kitty’s stand still sticking through, searching for me. Easiest decision I ever made. But boy, were the X-Men surprised when I stepped through as a young adult.
“It was hard on Piotr, I know. For them, it had only been seconds. Last he knew, I was still his ‘Little Snowflake,’ (if anyone but him calls me that, they should prepare themselves to be stabbed) so of course that’s who he was expecting. But after ten years, he was almost a total stranger to me, and I had been conditioned to treat the unfamiliar as a threat. So I was….standoffish. That might be a generous term.
“It was pretty clear from jump that I wasn’t going to fit well with the X-Men for the time being, even though I was now the same age as Kitty, and she was already a member of the team. I was too damaged. So, for the time being, Professor X set me up with a new team of his younger students, the New Mutants. You might have heard of us.
“Being on the New Mutants fresh from Limbo was….a mistake. The Professor is a smart guy, but even his judgment’s not flawless. Then again, I’m not sure what decision would have turned out better. Turns out returning to Earth from Limbo was a bit of a double-edged sword. Being a powerful sorcerer draws attention from the wrong quarters at the best of times, and me being half-demon didn’t help matters because I caught the attention of the Church of Blood. What a bunch of dicks.
“The archdemon Trigon’s got a few plates spinning at any given time trying to breach into our dimension, and I guess his followers thought I might be a suitable vessel for the demon. Long story short, the other New Mutants got sucked into my drama and used as leverage against me. It was also the first time Darkchylde manifested; if some heroes are a little wary of me, this incident will be why. Anyway, even though the others did manage to free themselves from the Church’s brainwashing, we still wound up collectively in a magical duel with Trigon, and let’s just say that’s an experience I wouldn’t care to repeat. We won, but it’s one of the few times I’ve felt really, really small. Must suck even more for that Raven girl, though, actually being related to him. She’ll never be free from his influence.”
“It was hard on Piotr, I know. For them, it had only been seconds. Last he knew, I was still his ‘Little Snowflake,’ (if anyone but him calls me that, they should prepare themselves to be stabbed) so of course that’s who he was expecting. But after ten years, he was almost a total stranger to me, and I had been conditioned to treat the unfamiliar as a threat. So I was….standoffish. That might be a generous term.
“It was pretty clear from jump that I wasn’t going to fit well with the X-Men for the time being, even though I was now the same age as Kitty, and she was already a member of the team. I was too damaged. So, for the time being, Professor X set me up with a new team of his younger students, the New Mutants. You might have heard of us.
“Being on the New Mutants fresh from Limbo was….a mistake. The Professor is a smart guy, but even his judgment’s not flawless. Then again, I’m not sure what decision would have turned out better. Turns out returning to Earth from Limbo was a bit of a double-edged sword. Being a powerful sorcerer draws attention from the wrong quarters at the best of times, and me being half-demon didn’t help matters because I caught the attention of the Church of Blood. What a bunch of dicks.
“The archdemon Trigon’s got a few plates spinning at any given time trying to breach into our dimension, and I guess his followers thought I might be a suitable vessel for the demon. Long story short, the other New Mutants got sucked into my drama and used as leverage against me. It was also the first time Darkchylde manifested; if some heroes are a little wary of me, this incident will be why. Anyway, even though the others did manage to free themselves from the Church’s brainwashing, we still wound up collectively in a magical duel with Trigon, and let’s just say that’s an experience I wouldn’t care to repeat. We won, but it’s one of the few times I’ve felt really, really small. Must suck even more for that Raven girl, though, actually being related to him. She’ll never be free from his influence.”
Alone
"Welcome to Madripoor: A Nice Place to Visit!"
-Madripoor Tourism Ministry
-Madripoor Tourism Ministry
“After that incident, I figured I would be better off out of view for a while. I don’t know what possessed me to return to the Ust-Ordynsky Farm….Russian hicks don’t know how to deal with weird shit that defies nature. Last time they saw me, I was four – how were they supposed to react when I show up like a year later and I’m fifteen?
“I stayed for a while, but my parents never really got used to me being older than I should be. Ever been fifteen and people treat you like you’re five? It’s awkward as hell. And frustrating. And….fucking depressing. I mean that literally – I got really depressed before I realized the Farm wasn’t the place for me.
“It’s such a cliché, but as I was in a dark place, I sought darkness. Next stop, Madripoor.
“But, you know, darkness gets a bad rap. Everybody has it; it’s just a question of whether you choose to deny it or embrace it. And I don’t mean ‘embrace it’ in a bad guy sense. I mean that denying a part of who you are is damaging, long-term, ‘cause it works a lot like a volcano – if you don’t find an outlet for the pressure, it’ll find one on its own. You’re much better off acknowledging darkness and channeling it in a way that works for you. How do you think I eventually tamed the Darkchylde?
“But I’ve gotten off-track.
“I didn’t have much in terms of marketable skills – try putting ‘all-powerful super-witch’ on a resumé – so I opened a paranormal investigation office. Madripoor’s a shithole – the nicest shithole in the world – but I’ll say this for it: business permits are remarkably easy to come by when you threaten the bureaucrats with a bigass buster sword.
“I did that for a few years. You might think it would be a bad idea to be a teenage girl with a walk-in business in a place like Madripoor, where the mob is the de facto rule, but have I mentioned recently that I’m an all-powerful super-witch? What, I did? Yeah, they learned quick to steer clear. Business was better than you might expect, too; it sure never hurt my clientele that I can ‘port halfway across the world at the drop of a hat. Not to say doing that never got me in trouble, because it did: one guess how I found out my portals can cross time.
“That particular scrape had me traveling back to the 1940s, where – lucky me – I ran into Kent Nelson and the Justice Society. This was, of course, not my Kent. We did not get along. I thought he was a bit of a dick then, and what I’ve heard about the fallout from the Enchantress crisis hasn’t changed my mind. We did punch some Nazis together, though, so that’s something. At least he was gracious enough to help stabilize my portal to get me home. Might have still flipped him off as I went through.”
“I stayed for a while, but my parents never really got used to me being older than I should be. Ever been fifteen and people treat you like you’re five? It’s awkward as hell. And frustrating. And….fucking depressing. I mean that literally – I got really depressed before I realized the Farm wasn’t the place for me.
“It’s such a cliché, but as I was in a dark place, I sought darkness. Next stop, Madripoor.
“But, you know, darkness gets a bad rap. Everybody has it; it’s just a question of whether you choose to deny it or embrace it. And I don’t mean ‘embrace it’ in a bad guy sense. I mean that denying a part of who you are is damaging, long-term, ‘cause it works a lot like a volcano – if you don’t find an outlet for the pressure, it’ll find one on its own. You’re much better off acknowledging darkness and channeling it in a way that works for you. How do you think I eventually tamed the Darkchylde?
“But I’ve gotten off-track.
“I didn’t have much in terms of marketable skills – try putting ‘all-powerful super-witch’ on a resumé – so I opened a paranormal investigation office. Madripoor’s a shithole – the nicest shithole in the world – but I’ll say this for it: business permits are remarkably easy to come by when you threaten the bureaucrats with a bigass buster sword.
“I did that for a few years. You might think it would be a bad idea to be a teenage girl with a walk-in business in a place like Madripoor, where the mob is the de facto rule, but have I mentioned recently that I’m an all-powerful super-witch? What, I did? Yeah, they learned quick to steer clear. Business was better than you might expect, too; it sure never hurt my clientele that I can ‘port halfway across the world at the drop of a hat. Not to say doing that never got me in trouble, because it did: one guess how I found out my portals can cross time.
“That particular scrape had me traveling back to the 1940s, where – lucky me – I ran into Kent Nelson and the Justice Society. This was, of course, not my Kent. We did not get along. I thought he was a bit of a dick then, and what I’ve heard about the fallout from the Enchantress crisis hasn’t changed my mind. We did punch some Nazis together, though, so that’s something. At least he was gracious enough to help stabilize my portal to get me home. Might have still flipped him off as I went through.”
Homecoming
"The school is more of a home to many of us than our actual homes."
-Scott Summers
-Scott Summers
“It wasn’t too long after I got back from that jaunt that the Kree showed up. I did my best to fight the detachment that was stationed over Madripoor, but that didn’t go so well, overall. Too many of them, even for me. Small consolation prize, though: it was the first time the makeout rule paid off – small Kree patrol on a side-street. Smart bunch, didn’t feel like dying. Shame their culture is so imperialist and….dickish; love some blue skin.
“Even I can figure out when I’m in too deep. Eventually. I realized the only way I was going to free Madripoor from occupation was to help win the war more directly. So I went back to the last place I wanted to: Westchester, New York. No one home, of course – should’ve figured that the X-Men were already involved in the conflict. Good thing they never revoked my security access. I tracked down the Blackbird to San Francisco and portaled straight there.
“If ever there was a clusterfuck, it was San Francisco under Kree occupation. I thought Madripoor was bad, but SF was the staging ground for an entire arm of the invasion force, where they were controlling the whole Pacific Rim. There were more of them there than almost anywhere else on the planet, and the weirdest part of the experience, for me, was knowing that and then slowly realizing how much easier things were working with a team. Don’t get me wrong: I did plenty good on my own in Madripoor – made a lot of aliens scream for their mommies – but it was a zero-sum game. I could kill a bunch of them, sure, but they’d just get reinforcements a few hours, maybe a day, later. Working with the X-Men, though, we were able to make a real dent.
“After weeks of fighting on the streets, we were ready for the final push. Our part in it was to infiltrate and disable the Command and Control ship stationed over San Francisco bay. I could go on about it, but, long story short, we got in, kicked some ass, and killed Kree communications in-system, which were being routed through the C&C ship. Their backups fell to other teams around the world. Their organization crumbled fast after that. For my own part, I wound up having to hold off two Kree super-soldiers, Captain Glory and Captain Atlas, while Kitty fucked up their bridge computers. Since I’m here talking, you can guess who came out better.
“Even so, I was pretty fucked up after that fight, so naturally the X-Men took me back to the Mansion to recover. I had a concussion, a few cracked ribs, dislocated jaw, punctured lung, broken arm, bunch of torn muscles….pretty much the works. But, yeah, you should’ve seen the other guys. I was doomed to lay in bed for a few weeks, but Kitty came and sat with me every day for hours, which saved the whole thing, really.
“Oh yeah, and if you didn’t know, the invasion happened, like, a few months after Kitty officially came back to the mansion. Do we take ‘hope you survive the experience’ seriously around here, or what?
“As I got better, she and I started going down to the Danger Room for some light exercise and sparring, which wound up getting more and more….high-intensity, let’s say. Pretty soon we were ‘sparring’ every day, in and out of the Danger Room, and Kitty became the first and only person I know who’s a genuine fan of the makeout rule.”
“Even I can figure out when I’m in too deep. Eventually. I realized the only way I was going to free Madripoor from occupation was to help win the war more directly. So I went back to the last place I wanted to: Westchester, New York. No one home, of course – should’ve figured that the X-Men were already involved in the conflict. Good thing they never revoked my security access. I tracked down the Blackbird to San Francisco and portaled straight there.
“If ever there was a clusterfuck, it was San Francisco under Kree occupation. I thought Madripoor was bad, but SF was the staging ground for an entire arm of the invasion force, where they were controlling the whole Pacific Rim. There were more of them there than almost anywhere else on the planet, and the weirdest part of the experience, for me, was knowing that and then slowly realizing how much easier things were working with a team. Don’t get me wrong: I did plenty good on my own in Madripoor – made a lot of aliens scream for their mommies – but it was a zero-sum game. I could kill a bunch of them, sure, but they’d just get reinforcements a few hours, maybe a day, later. Working with the X-Men, though, we were able to make a real dent.
“After weeks of fighting on the streets, we were ready for the final push. Our part in it was to infiltrate and disable the Command and Control ship stationed over San Francisco bay. I could go on about it, but, long story short, we got in, kicked some ass, and killed Kree communications in-system, which were being routed through the C&C ship. Their backups fell to other teams around the world. Their organization crumbled fast after that. For my own part, I wound up having to hold off two Kree super-soldiers, Captain Glory and Captain Atlas, while Kitty fucked up their bridge computers. Since I’m here talking, you can guess who came out better.
“Even so, I was pretty fucked up after that fight, so naturally the X-Men took me back to the Mansion to recover. I had a concussion, a few cracked ribs, dislocated jaw, punctured lung, broken arm, bunch of torn muscles….pretty much the works. But, yeah, you should’ve seen the other guys. I was doomed to lay in bed for a few weeks, but Kitty came and sat with me every day for hours, which saved the whole thing, really.
“Oh yeah, and if you didn’t know, the invasion happened, like, a few months after Kitty officially came back to the mansion. Do we take ‘hope you survive the experience’ seriously around here, or what?
“As I got better, she and I started going down to the Danger Room for some light exercise and sparring, which wound up getting more and more….high-intensity, let’s say. Pretty soon we were ‘sparring’ every day, in and out of the Danger Room, and Kitty became the first and only person I know who’s a genuine fan of the makeout rule.”
Nerd Squad
"Although they're often overlooked at large, the X-Men have earned every bit of their good reputation."
-Batman
-Batman
"Yeah, yeah, the X-Men are big goddamn heroes and all, but let’s face it, you pretty much have to be a big, giant nerd to qualify. I say that with love. Maybe. I like to leave them guessing. Sometimes, though, a real weirdo like me winds up on the team by being in the right place at the right time. Maybe wrong place, wrong time, depending on who’s judging. Just as I was about recovered and getting ready to head back to Madripoor, some magical bullshit starts up on Muir Island, someone asks offhanded if I’m coming, half-joking I’m sure, but I think ‘Fuck it, how long could it take?’
“And that’s how I officially joined the Nerd Squad. No ceremonies of induction or any pomp like we do now; just ‘fuck it, go.’ Goddess, things used to be so much simpler. So often, the X-Men were just whoever was available and able to fight. I kind of miss that. We were….I don’t know….scrappy, or something. Punching up.
“If you know anything about the X-Men, then you know it’s nonstop. If it’s not militant racists, it’s aliens. If it’s not aliens, it’s time-travel nonsense. Throw in the odd few evil robots and the occasional guy trying to kill us for the clout, and that’s a pretty typical week.
“That was my first tenure, and it lasted about a year and a half before I had a bit of a falling out with the rest of the team. So of course John Constantine was involved. It’s a long and convoluted story, but best I can figure, he stirred up a rebellion against me in Limbo, then showed up all sympathetic and wanting to help because ‘balance of the spiritual world,’ blah blah, all because he needed some artifact from Belasco’s old vault to make some deal with other mystical powers….I really hate that guy. So of course the X-Men get involved because they’re a bunch of well-intentioned, sweet little angelic baby nerds, and they just want to help.
“Well, let’s just say they didn’t like what they saw very much. The reality of fighting a demonic war, I mean. That, and reestablishing rule. Lots of torture executions, you know. Brutality is the only language demons really understand, so that’s how you have to communicate with them and let them know who’s in charge. Now, you have to understand that I was never afraid of losing my throne – that’s low priority for me – but the longer a demon war goes on, the more chaotic it will get until it spills over into other dimensions and a bunch of compacts are violated. Basically, as the Queen of Limbo, I’m expected to keep a lid on what’s mine, outside of some very specific rules for how the dimensions are allowed to interact. If I hadn’t done what had to be done, we would have been looking at a cosmic free-for-all with consequences that don’t bear thinking about. I mean, really, you try negotiating with Malebolgia.
“When we got back home, it was pretty clear that I wasn’t welcome at the mansion for the time being. I knew they would probably get over it eventually, but it still hurt dammit. So I went back to Madripoor for a bit, had a couple dustups with some thugs who were too new to remember me, and was actually pretty much ready to settle back into the old routine. Imagine my surprise, then, when I heard through the mystic grapevine about the Enchantress incident and Doctor Strange’s new little club of magical misfits. I would have been pissed about not getting an invitation, but I had been in Limbo while the Enchantress thing played out, so they got a pass.
“And that’s how I officially joined the Nerd Squad. No ceremonies of induction or any pomp like we do now; just ‘fuck it, go.’ Goddess, things used to be so much simpler. So often, the X-Men were just whoever was available and able to fight. I kind of miss that. We were….I don’t know….scrappy, or something. Punching up.
“If you know anything about the X-Men, then you know it’s nonstop. If it’s not militant racists, it’s aliens. If it’s not aliens, it’s time-travel nonsense. Throw in the odd few evil robots and the occasional guy trying to kill us for the clout, and that’s a pretty typical week.
“That was my first tenure, and it lasted about a year and a half before I had a bit of a falling out with the rest of the team. So of course John Constantine was involved. It’s a long and convoluted story, but best I can figure, he stirred up a rebellion against me in Limbo, then showed up all sympathetic and wanting to help because ‘balance of the spiritual world,’ blah blah, all because he needed some artifact from Belasco’s old vault to make some deal with other mystical powers….I really hate that guy. So of course the X-Men get involved because they’re a bunch of well-intentioned, sweet little angelic baby nerds, and they just want to help.
“Well, let’s just say they didn’t like what they saw very much. The reality of fighting a demonic war, I mean. That, and reestablishing rule. Lots of torture executions, you know. Brutality is the only language demons really understand, so that’s how you have to communicate with them and let them know who’s in charge. Now, you have to understand that I was never afraid of losing my throne – that’s low priority for me – but the longer a demon war goes on, the more chaotic it will get until it spills over into other dimensions and a bunch of compacts are violated. Basically, as the Queen of Limbo, I’m expected to keep a lid on what’s mine, outside of some very specific rules for how the dimensions are allowed to interact. If I hadn’t done what had to be done, we would have been looking at a cosmic free-for-all with consequences that don’t bear thinking about. I mean, really, you try negotiating with Malebolgia.
“When we got back home, it was pretty clear that I wasn’t welcome at the mansion for the time being. I knew they would probably get over it eventually, but it still hurt dammit. So I went back to Madripoor for a bit, had a couple dustups with some thugs who were too new to remember me, and was actually pretty much ready to settle back into the old routine. Imagine my surprise, then, when I heard through the mystic grapevine about the Enchantress incident and Doctor Strange’s new little club of magical misfits. I would have been pissed about not getting an invitation, but I had been in Limbo while the Enchantress thing played out, so they got a pass.
New Ways Forward
"Sometimes you get back up just to spite the other guy."
-Spider-Man
-Spider-Man
“It still galls me a little to admit it, and I sure hadn’t admitted it at the time, but I like being on a team. So when I heard about Darkwatch, I figured it might be a good time to audition myself for a new group. A little petty? Yeah. Worth it? You’re goddamn right.
“I think that’s a pretty good place to end off my first session. More soon. Go hug a witch in the meantime. But not me.”
- Magik’s Personal Psychic History Record, Part 1 (Recorded July 1, 2084 C.E.; Year 2, Third Krakoan Age)
“I think that’s a pretty good place to end off my first session. More soon. Go hug a witch in the meantime. But not me.”
- Magik’s Personal Psychic History Record, Part 1 (Recorded July 1, 2084 C.E.; Year 2, Third Krakoan Age)
Role Play Sample:
coloholics.boards.net/thread/1252/abbey-common-room-mea-culpa
