Vatheon App
[ Player Name ] : Saint
[ Personal LJ ] : saintcynicism
[ Age ] : 24
[ Timezone ] : Arizona (US Mountain, without the daylight savings)
[ Other Characters ] : Duncan, Inque, and Superboy. This'll probably be my last one for a while.
[ Character's Name ] : Simon Dark.
[ Character's Age ] : Looks to be in his late teens (no canon answer beyond this)
[ Series ] : Simon Dark
[ Canon Point ] : After killing his "brother," but before he gets his things and leaves Gotham.
[ History ] : [WARNING: SPOILER CENTRAL if you haven't read the series]
Simon Dark is made from stitched together pieces of dead bodies, and came into an existance out of the combination of advanced scientific knowledge and dark magic. His [human] faces and size reveal that he's approximately 17 or 18 years old, but whenever possible he wears a mask to cover it. Simon doesn't know who he is or how he got to where he is now. He can remember everything he's ever read or seen, but he can't remember his past. He rarely ventured far from the neighborhood he called home, known within Gotham as "The Village," and when he does it's rarely for long. He doesn't know quite why he settled in Gotham, only that he was smaller than he is now when he first arrived and settled underneath a burned-down church.
His accomplishments since settling in Gotham include stopping a cult known as Geo Populous from unleashing a demon plague on the city (and from there, the world), after which he became the new "Mayor" of Gotham. The title should not be confused with the actual mayoral position in the city government: he is instead the magical overseer of Gotham , who controls the flow of supernatural creatures into the city. Fortunately, the gate requires a key to open, virtually no one left alive knows of it, and he keeps the key hidden away inside his chest. So, it's a pretty easy job at this point.
With Geo Populous out of the way, Simon began to learn more about his origins through a series of recordings given to him by Gus, the owner of a simple convenience store who just so happened to be Simon's creator and medical genius. When another failed experiment, more or less amounting to Simon's older brother, began killing in Gotham, at first Simon was suspected. His name was cleared however, when Detective Tom Kirk found the real killer and attempted to subdue him, but failed and took a serious beating. Eventually Gus was killed, though Simon later sacrificed two of the 20 souls that were used to make him in order to bring Gus back to life. The whole matter came to an end when, angered by his 'brother's' continued insistance on killing those he cared about, Simon tore him in half.
[ Personality ] :
Simon is, arguably, one of the most selfless individuals to ever appear in Gotham City. He helps people simply because it feels like the right thing to do, will provide for others (even his cat, Kitty) before he worries about himself, and will never take anything without leaving behind money to pay for it (not even food). His view of the world is predominantly black and white, right or wrong, good and bad, although the ever-growing gray area in between intrigues him. While he is more knowledgeable about the world now (for example, he knows normal people can't come back to life after having their head cut off), Simon still remains far more naive about the ways of the world and society at large than the average person. He's never been to a movie theater, or even knows what one is, andthe number of books he's read can be counted on one hand. In short: while he may be somewhat familiar with magic, he's like a fish out of water when it comes to everything else. Not surprisingly, he can feel painfully out of place in some social situations as a result.
However, it's because of this lack of knowledge that Simon has a passionate desire to learn more about the world. More about people. More about anything, really. As Simon himself once explained, "I want to know what they know, because they know things I don't. I've learned, and that makes me stronger." Whether it's new rituals, new incantations, or just more about the world around him, Simon is extremely passionate about learning new things- the downside to this is that he has yet to fully understand the concept of privacy, so just watching people is a pretty common tactic. On the plus side, he usually won't read anyone's mind unless he asks them first...usually.
[ Strengths/Weaknesses ] :
Simon has a number of special abilities and spells available to him, which will be summarized for everyone's convenience (virtually all had to have limits attached by me, based on the maximum potential shown in-canon and some guesswork):
+ Super Strength: He can't throw around buildings, but he's torn at least one person in half, torn off the arm of another, beheaded several with a wire, and ripped the roof off a car after punching a hole in it with no difficulty. So, safe to say he's strong, though not quite on par with someone like Superman (especially since he needed explosives to get through a large stone wall).
+ Supernatural Healing: While it's not an instantaneous process by any stretch of the imagination, he's been able to recover fully from multiple gunshot wounds in less than 24 hours. Severe damage can still HURT him, and badly, he just recovers physically from it much faster than ordinary people.
+ Athletic & Agile: Usually this wouldn't be something mentioned, but with Simon, it's noteworthy. He's faster than an ordinary human, having chased down a car after taking a more direct route on foot, and can actually leap higher than any normal human (at least eight feet vertically). Since no numbers were ever given for speed, for simplicity's sake I'm going to just give him the upper limit of a 35mph running speed (which would allow him to have chased down that car like he did, but also explain why he's never really seen doing anything faster than that).
+ Hard To Kill: While it's incredibly unlikely Simon's actually immortal, he's suffered and survived fatal injuries before without any real difficulty. In one instance, he was shot nine times at point blank range, all hitting vital organs. He then got up off the coroner's slab, was hit by a car, and still managed to scale the side of a multi-story building in seconds and run away (though later collapsed from the injuries. Twice.). Presumably, he doesn't need to breathe either, as several of those nine gunshot wounds were through his lungs.
+ Magic: Simon knows some rituals and incantations from memory, though they're primarily unrelated to combat. These include travel incantations (which take him to a location of his choosing as long as he's been there before), and the ability to destroy some supernatural beings such as a dead body possessed by magic energies or beings, as well as the magic or magic entity responsible. Even the ones without an actual corporeal body to call their own, so in theory he can destroy or hurt ghosts as well (though this will go up in a permissions post). (For the game's sake: travel incantation only takes him to established in-game locations, and something blocks him from using this ability to go home).
+ Far Seeing: Simon can see, in his mind, a person he's met of his choosing and their surroundings, or a location of his choosing (provided he knows where the person or location is). However, he's understandably blind to his own surroundings for the duration of the experience. Currently, he can only see people and locations within Vatheon.
+ Contact Telepathy: By touching his hand to another person, he can quickly learn everything about a person, including their plans for the immediate future. He can even show the information gleaned from others to an individual of his choosing the same way. This is also useful for learning new languages, as well as sharing knowledge with others. Note that this is a conscious process (meaning if someone brushes up against him, odds are nothing will be exchanged, because the ability is not "always on" ), and a sure-fire sign he's using it is that his hand and eyes begin to glow bright blue.
+ Magic User: Simon is capable of performing any number of magic rituals, provided he's read up on how they're performed. At the moment, he knows very few by heart (traveling incantations, how to visit the In-Between, and a far-seeing incantation he no longer needs, but remembers anyway). Note: for this game, unless mods feel it's fine, the In-Between can't be traveled to. It's a plane between life and death that the departed travel through to get to their ultimate afterlife, so I don't think it would work well here. On top of that, he might be in a position to learn a lot about the power behind the city, so for convenience's sake I'm inclined to say it won't work.
+ Stealthy: While not formally trained, Simon is nonetheless capable of easily sneaking around unheard and unseen when he wants to. He once silently dispatched a cultist just two steps behind another, without being heard by the first. And there wasn't anything else in the area to make noise.
+ Gifted Memory: Simon also remembers anything he's ever read or seen (NOTE: no, he can't instantly learn how to do something by watching it get performed. Tasks like piloting a plane, performing first aid, etc, all require actual learning, not just being observed once).
- Human Frailty Simon's hard to kill, not invulnerable to harm. Break a bone like a leg or an arm and he'd be understandably weakened, and large amounts of damage from multiple gunshots (a little less if they're hitting important things) would eventually wear him down to the point he'd be fighting at diminished capacity and need to recover later. Based on the vulnerabilities of others like him that have been shown, it's possible to knock him out with a strong enough blow to the head (like augmented strength being used to crack him across the back of the head with a bat), or kill him with enough damage (like removing his head or cutting him in half, etc). It sounds weird having to list this, but really, he can function with missing limbs, so it's only some kinds of severe damage that apparently affects him.
- Necromancy (headcanon weakness): Being more or less undead (he exists in a strange middle area), necromancy has an unpleasant impact on him, specifically those spells associated with controlling or animating the dead. In theory, Simon can be controlled through such spells to a signficant extent, and only retain some independence through constant struggle against that control.
[ Other Important Facts ] :
He has a shapeshifting head. Yeah, you read that right. Simon has no face or facial features of his own other than a pair of eyes and a mouth, but he can change his head and face to one belonging to any of the 18 souls currently inside him. I am so not describing them all here.
He also possesses a Sending Stone, which he can throw with great force and then guide in flight with his hands. Given it's magic nature, it isn't exactly bound by gravity, which means it's going to keep flying around until he wants it to stop. Considering it can be thrown with enough velocity to go through several people, it's a good idea to avoid it while it's in flight. He's also still got a length of wire he made into a garrote, though now that he knows death is permanent for people, he rarely uses it for its intended purpose.
[ Sample ] : (Taken from a Gotham City RP I played him at)
Naturally, Simon had decided to attend the charity ball, even if his outfit couldn't qualify as 'semi-formal' even under the loosest of standards. A gray hooded sweatshirt was worn over his black and red-striped shirt, and the pair of blue jeans he wore were worn and frayed to the point they almost looked gray. He wore no leather dress shoes, but instead a ragged pair of sneakers that were no doubt second-hand. Unsurprisingly he turned more than a few heads, and for all the wrong reasons. However, Simon seemed oblivious to the whispers and murmurs of the upper crust, and if he did hear them, he didn't show it. And, like certain other vigilantes attending the event, Simon too brought along his mask. Only, with him, that was really the extent of his costume, so it was easily hidden inside the pocket of the sweater jacket he wore.
Ever since he'd left The Village, he'd been wandering Gotham, both trying to find a new home and helping wherever, whenever he could. And the news of a charity event benefiting a children's hospital was a refreshing change of pace from breaking up a mugging in the dark, forbidding alleys of Gotham. And while saying that Simon didn't have much would be the understatement of the evening, what he did have, he was prepared to give. Helping was just something he did, it was almost a second nature to him. He came in disguise of course, and without his mask; he was using the face of a black haired, blue eyed boy. One of the 18 people left. It was easier to control the facade now, at least, though he was still in pain from surrendering Peter and Thomas to save his father. But that was a simple fact of life now, he could continue helping others so long as he could still move.
And he'd brought help.
Sticking its head out of the gray hooded sweater Simon wore was a black and white tabby cat, peering curiously around the room as Simon placed his donation into the large bucket: four dollars and twenty-seven cents. It really wasn't much, but considering he had no job beyond protecting the city, and no income other than the charity of others, it was everything he had. Luckily he'd already purchased food for Kitty, otherwise donating the last of his money might have posed a problem. As he doubted he'd find any comfort in attempting to talk to the other guests, particularly those who were muttering derogatory remarks behind his back, Simon moved straight toward the children at the event. The youngest in particular, as the older ones were no doubt entertained by other things. Once there, he knelt down to put himself at their level, though the main reason was so that his smuggled-in companion could wriggle out of the confines of Simon's sweater and hop down to the floor for the children to play with.
"Play nice, Kitty," Simon requested, fondly rubbing his furry little friend's head before leaving him in the custody of the children. And while they seemed to genuinely appreciate the gesture, which was plenty reward for Simon, he couldn't help but feel a sense of loss. He wasn't giving Kitty away of course, but now, Simon felt completely and utterly alone. He knew no one here, and the whispers about his choice of attire seemed magnified a thousandfold. Frankly, he felt like he'd sooner take his chances with another evil cult...at least they didn't talk down about him when they didn't think he was paying attention.
[ Questions? Comments? Concerns? ] : What is the answer to the ultimate question?
[ Personal LJ ] : saintcynicism
[ Age ] : 24
[ Timezone ] : Arizona (US Mountain, without the daylight savings)
[ Other Characters ] : Duncan, Inque, and Superboy. This'll probably be my last one for a while.
[ Character's Name ] : Simon Dark.
[ Character's Age ] : Looks to be in his late teens (no canon answer beyond this)
[ Series ] : Simon Dark
[ Canon Point ] : After killing his "brother," but before he gets his things and leaves Gotham.
[ History ] : [WARNING: SPOILER CENTRAL if you haven't read the series]
Simon Dark is made from stitched together pieces of dead bodies, and came into an existance out of the combination of advanced scientific knowledge and dark magic. His [human] faces and size reveal that he's approximately 17 or 18 years old, but whenever possible he wears a mask to cover it. Simon doesn't know who he is or how he got to where he is now. He can remember everything he's ever read or seen, but he can't remember his past. He rarely ventured far from the neighborhood he called home, known within Gotham as "The Village," and when he does it's rarely for long. He doesn't know quite why he settled in Gotham, only that he was smaller than he is now when he first arrived and settled underneath a burned-down church.
His accomplishments since settling in Gotham include stopping a cult known as Geo Populous from unleashing a demon plague on the city (and from there, the world), after which he became the new "Mayor" of Gotham. The title should not be confused with the actual mayoral position in the city government: he is instead the magical overseer of Gotham , who controls the flow of supernatural creatures into the city. Fortunately, the gate requires a key to open, virtually no one left alive knows of it, and he keeps the key hidden away inside his chest. So, it's a pretty easy job at this point.
With Geo Populous out of the way, Simon began to learn more about his origins through a series of recordings given to him by Gus, the owner of a simple convenience store who just so happened to be Simon's creator and medical genius. When another failed experiment, more or less amounting to Simon's older brother, began killing in Gotham, at first Simon was suspected. His name was cleared however, when Detective Tom Kirk found the real killer and attempted to subdue him, but failed and took a serious beating. Eventually Gus was killed, though Simon later sacrificed two of the 20 souls that were used to make him in order to bring Gus back to life. The whole matter came to an end when, angered by his 'brother's' continued insistance on killing those he cared about, Simon tore him in half.
[ Personality ] :
Simon is, arguably, one of the most selfless individuals to ever appear in Gotham City. He helps people simply because it feels like the right thing to do, will provide for others (even his cat, Kitty) before he worries about himself, and will never take anything without leaving behind money to pay for it (not even food). His view of the world is predominantly black and white, right or wrong, good and bad, although the ever-growing gray area in between intrigues him. While he is more knowledgeable about the world now (for example, he knows normal people can't come back to life after having their head cut off), Simon still remains far more naive about the ways of the world and society at large than the average person. He's never been to a movie theater, or even knows what one is, andthe number of books he's read can be counted on one hand. In short: while he may be somewhat familiar with magic, he's like a fish out of water when it comes to everything else. Not surprisingly, he can feel painfully out of place in some social situations as a result.
However, it's because of this lack of knowledge that Simon has a passionate desire to learn more about the world. More about people. More about anything, really. As Simon himself once explained, "I want to know what they know, because they know things I don't. I've learned, and that makes me stronger." Whether it's new rituals, new incantations, or just more about the world around him, Simon is extremely passionate about learning new things- the downside to this is that he has yet to fully understand the concept of privacy, so just watching people is a pretty common tactic. On the plus side, he usually won't read anyone's mind unless he asks them first...usually.
[ Strengths/Weaknesses ] :
Simon has a number of special abilities and spells available to him, which will be summarized for everyone's convenience (virtually all had to have limits attached by me, based on the maximum potential shown in-canon and some guesswork):
+ Super Strength: He can't throw around buildings, but he's torn at least one person in half, torn off the arm of another, beheaded several with a wire, and ripped the roof off a car after punching a hole in it with no difficulty. So, safe to say he's strong, though not quite on par with someone like Superman (especially since he needed explosives to get through a large stone wall).
+ Supernatural Healing: While it's not an instantaneous process by any stretch of the imagination, he's been able to recover fully from multiple gunshot wounds in less than 24 hours. Severe damage can still HURT him, and badly, he just recovers physically from it much faster than ordinary people.
+ Athletic & Agile: Usually this wouldn't be something mentioned, but with Simon, it's noteworthy. He's faster than an ordinary human, having chased down a car after taking a more direct route on foot, and can actually leap higher than any normal human (at least eight feet vertically). Since no numbers were ever given for speed, for simplicity's sake I'm going to just give him the upper limit of a 35mph running speed (which would allow him to have chased down that car like he did, but also explain why he's never really seen doing anything faster than that).
+ Hard To Kill: While it's incredibly unlikely Simon's actually immortal, he's suffered and survived fatal injuries before without any real difficulty. In one instance, he was shot nine times at point blank range, all hitting vital organs. He then got up off the coroner's slab, was hit by a car, and still managed to scale the side of a multi-story building in seconds and run away (though later collapsed from the injuries. Twice.). Presumably, he doesn't need to breathe either, as several of those nine gunshot wounds were through his lungs.
+ Magic: Simon knows some rituals and incantations from memory, though they're primarily unrelated to combat. These include travel incantations (which take him to a location of his choosing as long as he's been there before), and the ability to destroy some supernatural beings such as a dead body possessed by magic energies or beings, as well as the magic or magic entity responsible. Even the ones without an actual corporeal body to call their own, so in theory he can destroy or hurt ghosts as well (though this will go up in a permissions post). (For the game's sake: travel incantation only takes him to established in-game locations, and something blocks him from using this ability to go home).
+ Far Seeing: Simon can see, in his mind, a person he's met of his choosing and their surroundings, or a location of his choosing (provided he knows where the person or location is). However, he's understandably blind to his own surroundings for the duration of the experience. Currently, he can only see people and locations within Vatheon.
+ Contact Telepathy: By touching his hand to another person, he can quickly learn everything about a person, including their plans for the immediate future. He can even show the information gleaned from others to an individual of his choosing the same way. This is also useful for learning new languages, as well as sharing knowledge with others. Note that this is a conscious process (meaning if someone brushes up against him, odds are nothing will be exchanged, because the ability is not "always on" ), and a sure-fire sign he's using it is that his hand and eyes begin to glow bright blue.
+ Magic User: Simon is capable of performing any number of magic rituals, provided he's read up on how they're performed. At the moment, he knows very few by heart (traveling incantations, how to visit the In-Between, and a far-seeing incantation he no longer needs, but remembers anyway). Note: for this game, unless mods feel it's fine, the In-Between can't be traveled to. It's a plane between life and death that the departed travel through to get to their ultimate afterlife, so I don't think it would work well here. On top of that, he might be in a position to learn a lot about the power behind the city, so for convenience's sake I'm inclined to say it won't work.
+ Stealthy: While not formally trained, Simon is nonetheless capable of easily sneaking around unheard and unseen when he wants to. He once silently dispatched a cultist just two steps behind another, without being heard by the first. And there wasn't anything else in the area to make noise.
+ Gifted Memory: Simon also remembers anything he's ever read or seen (NOTE: no, he can't instantly learn how to do something by watching it get performed. Tasks like piloting a plane, performing first aid, etc, all require actual learning, not just being observed once).
- Human Frailty Simon's hard to kill, not invulnerable to harm. Break a bone like a leg or an arm and he'd be understandably weakened, and large amounts of damage from multiple gunshots (a little less if they're hitting important things) would eventually wear him down to the point he'd be fighting at diminished capacity and need to recover later. Based on the vulnerabilities of others like him that have been shown, it's possible to knock him out with a strong enough blow to the head (like augmented strength being used to crack him across the back of the head with a bat), or kill him with enough damage (like removing his head or cutting him in half, etc). It sounds weird having to list this, but really, he can function with missing limbs, so it's only some kinds of severe damage that apparently affects him.
- Necromancy (headcanon weakness): Being more or less undead (he exists in a strange middle area), necromancy has an unpleasant impact on him, specifically those spells associated with controlling or animating the dead. In theory, Simon can be controlled through such spells to a signficant extent, and only retain some independence through constant struggle against that control.
[ Other Important Facts ] :
He has a shapeshifting head. Yeah, you read that right. Simon has no face or facial features of his own other than a pair of eyes and a mouth, but he can change his head and face to one belonging to any of the 18 souls currently inside him. I am so not describing them all here.
He also possesses a Sending Stone, which he can throw with great force and then guide in flight with his hands. Given it's magic nature, it isn't exactly bound by gravity, which means it's going to keep flying around until he wants it to stop. Considering it can be thrown with enough velocity to go through several people, it's a good idea to avoid it while it's in flight. He's also still got a length of wire he made into a garrote, though now that he knows death is permanent for people, he rarely uses it for its intended purpose.
[ Sample ] : (Taken from a Gotham City RP I played him at)
Naturally, Simon had decided to attend the charity ball, even if his outfit couldn't qualify as 'semi-formal' even under the loosest of standards. A gray hooded sweatshirt was worn over his black and red-striped shirt, and the pair of blue jeans he wore were worn and frayed to the point they almost looked gray. He wore no leather dress shoes, but instead a ragged pair of sneakers that were no doubt second-hand. Unsurprisingly he turned more than a few heads, and for all the wrong reasons. However, Simon seemed oblivious to the whispers and murmurs of the upper crust, and if he did hear them, he didn't show it. And, like certain other vigilantes attending the event, Simon too brought along his mask. Only, with him, that was really the extent of his costume, so it was easily hidden inside the pocket of the sweater jacket he wore.
Ever since he'd left The Village, he'd been wandering Gotham, both trying to find a new home and helping wherever, whenever he could. And the news of a charity event benefiting a children's hospital was a refreshing change of pace from breaking up a mugging in the dark, forbidding alleys of Gotham. And while saying that Simon didn't have much would be the understatement of the evening, what he did have, he was prepared to give. Helping was just something he did, it was almost a second nature to him. He came in disguise of course, and without his mask; he was using the face of a black haired, blue eyed boy. One of the 18 people left. It was easier to control the facade now, at least, though he was still in pain from surrendering Peter and Thomas to save his father. But that was a simple fact of life now, he could continue helping others so long as he could still move.
And he'd brought help.
Sticking its head out of the gray hooded sweater Simon wore was a black and white tabby cat, peering curiously around the room as Simon placed his donation into the large bucket: four dollars and twenty-seven cents. It really wasn't much, but considering he had no job beyond protecting the city, and no income other than the charity of others, it was everything he had. Luckily he'd already purchased food for Kitty, otherwise donating the last of his money might have posed a problem. As he doubted he'd find any comfort in attempting to talk to the other guests, particularly those who were muttering derogatory remarks behind his back, Simon moved straight toward the children at the event. The youngest in particular, as the older ones were no doubt entertained by other things. Once there, he knelt down to put himself at their level, though the main reason was so that his smuggled-in companion could wriggle out of the confines of Simon's sweater and hop down to the floor for the children to play with.
"Play nice, Kitty," Simon requested, fondly rubbing his furry little friend's head before leaving him in the custody of the children. And while they seemed to genuinely appreciate the gesture, which was plenty reward for Simon, he couldn't help but feel a sense of loss. He wasn't giving Kitty away of course, but now, Simon felt completely and utterly alone. He knew no one here, and the whispers about his choice of attire seemed magnified a thousandfold. Frankly, he felt like he'd sooner take his chances with another evil cult...at least they didn't talk down about him when they didn't think he was paying attention.
[ Questions? Comments? Concerns? ] : What is the answer to the ultimate question?