Post by William Debaere on Aug 4, 2011 20:45:02 GMT -5
William Debaere
"There are those who play to win, and then there are those who play because they cannot bear to lose."
"There are those who play to win, and then there are those who play because they cannot bear to lose."
NICKNAMES[/color]: // Bill, Bill "The Bear" Debaere, Lakshmi
AGE[/color]: // 31
DATE OF BIRTH[/color]: // August 14th
GENDER[/color]: // Male
ALIGNMENT[/color]: // True Neutral
OCCUPATION[/color]: // Gambler, Family man, Magus
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Never Forgotten
Game on
The Ghost of a Dream
Father and Daughter
The only game that matters now.
HEIGHT[/color]: // 6' 3''
WEIGHT[/color]: // 227 lbs.
EYE COLOR[/color]: // Blue
HAIR COLOR[/color]: // Brown
PIERCINGS[/color]: // none
TATTOOS[/color]: //Two dice (One with 5 up, the other with 2 up) on his left shoulder blade. Command seal on the back of his right hand in the shape of an ornate coin.
DISTINGUISHING FEATURES[/color]: //A tall man with a fairly dominating presence. Talks loud, laughs louder. Well-trimmed facial hair and a strong build help him stick out in a crowd.
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- Gambler
- Whether or not William was born lucky is a matter of debate. Although no one today would call him "lucky", he always has a strong presence at the table, and frequently goes home more jovial than when he arrived. To him, life is a game, a game that can be won if you have the right hand and the stakes are high enough.
- Upbeat
- He'll never let you catch him down. Always an affable guy ready to give you a slap on the back and a rousing talk. He's far from immune to depression, but he hates to see other people down and does his best to cheer them up.
- Iron Woobie
- William Debaere is a broken, broken man. Good luck getting him to admit it though. No matter how many blows of hardship he is dealt he will continue regardless, and in fact in spite of them. He refuses to ever admit defeat, and will fight to the bitter end to win. However, this has made the failures in his life all the more painful. His drive to succeed only left him greater pain when he failed.
- The Unfettered
- William has lost everything that was most important to him. All he has left now are his memories and his sadness. When hes not hiding his pain behind a mask of joviality, or drinking to drown his sorrow, he spends his time alone, forced to reminisce. However, in his weakness there is strength. Nothing is more dangerous than a man with nothing to lose.
LIKES[/color]: //
-Winning
-His wife and daughter
-Gambling
-Drinking
-Hanging out with friends
-Lazy Saturday mornings
-A good workout
-His little wooden coin.
DISLIKES[/color]: //
-Losng
-Hospitals
-Depression (His and others)
-Helplessness
-Having the tables turned on him.
-Failure
-Most of the Clock Tower
STRENGTHS[/color]: //
William is a determinator; he will not give up so long as he has the ability to continue, and sometimes even well after that. He has faced so much hardship in his life that death is hardly a threat to him. He cannot be extorted, bribed, intimidated, or blackmailed. This is how he earned his nickname "The Bear" he simply will not stop unless you put a sizable bullet through his brain.
WEAKNESSES[/color]: //
William is prone to bouts of extreme depression, try as he might to hide it. He is a borderline alcoholic and is prone to reckless behavior.
In terms of fighting skills he is rather weak at long range, and can be outmaneuvered by enemies with a broader range of attack.
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MY FAMILY LINE[/color]: //
One of the few Flemish Magus lines, the Debeares were established relatively recently in the 1500s. They specialized in deconstruction, believing that the route to Akasha could be found if one broke matter down to its true, purest form. While they do send emissaries to the Clock Tower, they are generally unaffiliated and looked down upon. Since William became head, the family has fallen into stagnation, their stores emptied and their research ignored.
Their specialty is Earth.
MY HISTORY[/color]: //
I like winning, I really do. When I was a kid, I would challenge the kids to any and every kind of game we could find. Card games were big. None of that trading card game crap, no I mean I was playing Texas Holdem and Gin Rummy at the age of 8.
Of course, becoming head of the family and receiving the crest kind of ended that spree.
Turns out the guys at the Clock Tower weren't much into gambling. Too busy shoving their faces in old books to give a guy the time of day.
So I started doing a little wandering, you know, pubs, clubs, hell I even took a few games in alleys, although those games rarely ended well.
So you win some you lose some...mostly won, my middle name ain't Lakshmi (Hindu Goddess of luck FYI) for nothin. Don't ask me why my atheist Flemish folks named me after a Hindu deity, and a woman at that!
Oh well, I guess "Lady Luck" had my back.
But there was this one girl, excuse me, this one woman, her name was Emilia, who always seemed to have my number. Now I've been around a few years and I know my tells, as in, I know that I don't have any, but game after game this woman was wiping me out. I'm thoroughly convinced that half of my net losses went to cushioning her coffers.
After a while we became pretty comfy. We'd talk between games, I'd compliment the various clothes and jewelry that I had, by proxy, bought her; and she'd drag my drunk ass home when I couldn't stand.
Eventually we decided "Well, maybe we could be more than gambling partners" and we started dating. She was fantastic, witty, beautiful, and kind to a fault. Absolute demon at the tables, but an angel outside. I'm not much of a romantic, but I'll say I was smitten from day one.
So we got married. It was nice, my family came, as unhappy with my habits and my non-magical bride as they were. She didn't have a family, an orphan, so I wanted her to feel welcomed. I ditched the Clock Tower, we moved into a small place of our own, we were happy.
Well, maybe not entirely, I couldn't hold a job, and my research was too crummy for the Magus' Association to want anything to do with me. Emilia supported us, she worked hard and I knew she hated her job, I tried to make her time at home happy, but I know now I could have done so much more.
I spent my days at gambling halls, but it seems Lady Luck had left me. I kept losing more and more money, but I knew I could get it back. I knew it! Well, Emilia and I started arguing. She told me I needed a job, we needed a more stable foundation, on and on, I knew she had a point, but I wasn't about to back down. I argued that we were doing fine. She'd move up in her job, and while we may not be living like royalty we were comfortable enough for two.
That's when she told me we would soon be three.
I'll be honest, never thought Id be a good Dad, but I was sure as hell gonna try my best! Emilia gave birth to a little girl, we called her Rose. Sweetest thing I've ever seen.
From that day on, Emilia kept working, but I was determined to be Super-Dad. I took care of little Rose while she was a baby. You know, baby stuff. Feeding her, changing her, playing with her. She was great, and I felt great.
But something was bugging me. I needed competition, winning. Rose was still too little to understand competition, let alone gambling. So I started hiring sitters for Rose and making my way back to my old haunts. Ya I know, maybe I wasn't Super-Dad, but I did the best with what I got. And it seemed Rose was my lucky charm, because I started raking in the cash.
Emilia was mad of course, but I convinced her I was just hangin out with the guys, old friends from around town and the occasional pal from the Clock Tower that wasn't a total stick in the mud.
She was satisfied, I was happy, and Rose was still the most adorable thing ever.
Have you had ever had a day where things went from gold to black? This is one of those days.
Emilia, Rose, and I were all going to a concert. Not a rock concert or anything, but one of those legitimate classical concerts with violins and pianists and conductors with crazy hair. I didn't see why Rose would want to go, but Emilia said classical music was good for kids and hey, it was a change of pace after all those bawdy bar songs.
So I was going to do a few quick games at the locl pub and be home by 7pm. That was the plan, I even set the alarm on my phone (Yes I carried a phone! Ya, my friend Malakai from the Tower gave me shit about it too...) so I wouldn't miss it.
Oh man what a day I had. I was on fire! By the end I had one, I kid you not, over two thousand pounds! In a local pub! I was taking half the town to the cleaners, oh man, it was the best...
...then I checked my watch.
11:37pm.
I was out the door in a flash, but the damage was done. I had heard the thunder and lightning from inside, but thought little of it.
Running through the freezing rain I met Emilia halfway home.
I had accidentally given the name of the wrong bar where I would be, and at around 9pm she got worried and set out looking for me, then the heavens opened up on her. There had been a taxi diver strike, so walking was all she had. When I finally found her she was freezing and soaked to the bone. I walked her home and we dismissed the sitter she had hired for Rose. That night, I couldn't help but notice the cough she had developed.
Emilia became sick. Influenza, the doctors said, and a bad case. Being an orphan she had never received a Flu shot of any kind.
A few weeks later, Emilia caught Pneumonia.
We didn't have the money for proper treatment. She passed away soon after.
I didn't truly feel the heartbreak until I came home from the small local doctor's office where Emilia had been staying, and Rose, now only 4, came up to me and asked.
"Daddy, where's Mommy?"
I didn't have the heart to tell her. She wouldn't have understood.
"Mommy can't come back. It's just you and me now Rosey."
And so it was. Rose and I spent all of our free time together. I got back into research and magecraft. Ya, it was awful, but it payed the bills, and that's what Rose and I needed.
When she was six, Rose came home from Kindergarten and said to me:
"Daddy! I have a present for you!"
"Oh? Whatcha got for me, sweetheart?"
"This! I drew it myself!"
She handed me a little wooden coin, the kind you can get at a hobby store for a nickel. On one side was a smiley face with scribbled hair and an attempt at my beard labeled: "Dad"
On the opposite side was a smiley face with longer hair and a bow labeled: "Me"
"Mommy used to say Daddy really likes coins. So I made a coin with us on it so you can remember um..." She tried to recall something, but I was too busy holding back tears to notice. I took the coin and pulled Rose into a tight hug.
"It's great, Sweety. I love it, and I'll never forget."
I never did. She gave me that coin on February 19th, two years to the day after her Mother died.
However, this golden age was going to come crashing down. I had to leave for the Tower for a few days to discuss my latest project and push for more funding, so I hired a sitter to look after Rose.
I gave her a kiss on the cheek and left for London.
The days were dull and tiresome, I just wanted to be back home with Rose. Then I got the phone call, it was the sitter, her slightly shaky tone still rings clearly in my memory.
"Ummm...Mr. Debeare? I um...I think Rose is a little sick..."
Forget the project, forget the funding, I was on my way out the door in an instant. I needed to get home. I needed to make sure Rose was alright.
Rose was not alright.
The doctor said it was a Lower Respiratory Tract Infection. But I knew that cough, I knew the weakness in her limbs and the slurring speech. I was losing Rose just like I'd lost Emilia.
I wasn't going to lose this game.
I asked what could be done, I pushed for every antibiotic therapy that might work. None did, the best option would have been procaine penicillin, but Rose was allergic. I watched with desperation as one "cure" after another failed. My money was gone, I had sold our apartment and was living with any friend willing to take me in. I told myself it didn't matter, none of it mattered, as long as Rose made it.
It was a rainy day in June. I had seen children playing in the park, some of them around Rose's age. That's where she should have been, playing with her friends, not sitting in a hospital bed, tied to a web of wires.
I sat in the waiting room while the results of the treatment, the last treatment, were reviewed. It was a long shot. I turned the little wooden coin over and over in my hands, as if trying to draw whatever luck it contained. I needed you Lady Luck, Lakshmi, answer me now when I need you most. I didn't care if I died penniless, as long as I had Rose.
The doctor came in, I offered him a small hopeful smile, he shook his head solemnly.
I walked into Rose's hospital room and took my familiar seat at her side. She had been looking out the window at the birds playing on a nearby tree.
"Dad." She asked me calmly. "When can I go home?"
I couldn't say anything. I couldn't even think. All I felt, was the desire to see that wonderful smile one last time.
"Soon, Sweety, real soon."
She died peacefully in her sleep that night.
The funeral was a lonely affair, just me, a minister, and Rose, looking as if she had only fallen asleep.
As the hours ticked by, the minister told me he had to leave, but I was more than welcome to stay as long as I needed, she would be buried in the morning. All I could do was nod and hold that little coin in my hand.
I was staying with an old friend from the Tower. He was what the old pencil-pushers there had always wanted me to be. Successful, smart, rising through the ranks. He didn't have marriage prospects, but he'd probably be married off to some magus family to keep the line "pure" or something.
Outside he was a nice guy though, kept in touch with me while I was out and even helped me get that research position in the tower. I hated having to live off him, but he brushed it off. He was a good man.
He saw what Rose's death had done to me. I had started drinking, I wasn't talking much, and my work was slipping. Eventally he decided enough was enough.
"Bill. I don't want to do this, but dammit look at you! I can't let you drink yourself to death! There...there is something you can do..."
He told me about a war, a war where the prize was a wish, any wish. Where even the impossible could be done. I knew what I had to do.
This was the last game, the only game that ever mattered. I was going to play cards with death for the souls of my wife and child. If I lost, I'm his; but in all honesty, that would be preferable to living a life without them.
He helped me get a plane ticket to Italy. All I had was my skills, the clothes on my back, and a little wooden coin.
Long odds, but maybe, just maybe, the Goddess of Fortune will be in me again.
MY GOALS[/color]: //
Reunite with his family, in this world or the next.
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Giant's Fists- The Debaere family Mystic Code (see spell effects for details.
Hat- A damn fine one at that.
Little Wooden Coin- Always in his pocket, if not in his hands.
RANK[/color]: // 7
ELEMENT[/color]: // Earth
EXPERTISE[/color]: //
Gambling-No, gambling isn't pure luck. Not when you know what you're doing. He knows the meta-games that are run from grand casinos to shady back rooms. Looking for a tell or a break in his game face? Keep looking.
Kickboxing- Bill "The Bear" Debeare is a tough customer. Having had to be his own bouncer on multiple occasions, and very familiar with back alley scrapes; he doesn't know any fancy-schmansy martial arts, but if there's an ass that needs kicking, he's more than qualified.
Raw Grit- Neither rain nor snow nor sleet nor hail will stop the mail, and it sure as hell won't stop Bill. He'll just keep going through assault after assault.
MAGIC CIRCUITS[/color]: // 10 circuits with 5 prana each, in addition to a family crest of 120 prana adds up to 170 prana total.
SPELLS[/color]: //
The Human Oscilloscope
Element: Earth/Sorcery Trait
Rank: D
Cost: 5
Range: 3m
Effect: An offshoot of structural grasp magecraft and the Debeare family's sorcery trait. It allows the caster to instantly gain a knowledge of the precise resonant frequency of an object, i.e. the frequency of greatest oscillation. This ability does not extend to components of an object made of drastically diffferent materials. So touching a window would lead to understanding the frequency of the glass, not the window pane or the surrounding wall. This ability extends up to 3m in any direction around the point of contact across the same material.
The spell requires only a one-line chant.
Giant's Fists
Element: Mystic Code
Rank: D
Cost: 5pr
Range: Self
Effect: Not so much a spell as a safeguard against it, the Debeare family Mystic Code is an ancient pair of tight black gloves that prevent vibrations in the air from reaching the wielder's hands. They essentially work as magic dampeners, using prana to disturb the constant oscillation of any object they are in contact with bare millimeters from the gloves' surface, preventing spells like Resonance from harming the caster.
Resonance
Element: Earth
Rank: C
Cost: 10pr +5per minute
Range: touch
Effect: Charges an object or surface with prana, causing it to begin vibrating and oscillating. William, with the use of his Sorcery Trait, can narrow the rate of frequency down to a level with a margin of error of .001hz. Depending on the composition and size material, this effect can take any form from weakening it to total destruction. This spell can create a hole large enough for a grown man to fit through (with some effort) in two minutes. For other comparisons:
Blow out a tire/break a doorknob - <1min
Break a streetlight - 2min
Render a car undrivable (hitting the engine or wheels) - 3min
Breaking a stone pillar - 3-4min
Snap thick steel wire - 4min
Destabilize and weaken a metal wall - 5min
This spell can be used to make truly devastating punches, that strike far more violently than a normal one, Although this can be stopped by prana resistance in a magus, which also prevents it from destroying Mystic Codes and reinforced items. Requires a 3 line chant.
Earth Breaker
Element: Earth
Rank: A
Cost: 50pr
Range: 10m
Effect: An overcharged version of Resonance delivered in an instant; it causes the earth within 10 meters of the caster to shake violently to the point of splitting open and knocking any opponents to the ground. There is a single point in the middle where the caster stands that remains unaffected, giving him an edge over his enemies. The shaking lasts for 30 seconds. Requires a seven line chant.
PLAYER'S NAME[/color]: // Revworks
FACE CLAIM[/color]: // Kaburagi T. Kotetsu (Tiger & Bunny)
OTHER CHARACTERS[/color]: // W1: Aashiq Nassar, Imhotep, Alvitta Aestling. W2: Aeneas, Sakurako Tenketsu, Huld, Sargon
MISC. INFORMATION[/color]: // Rest in Peace Jez, we'll miss you.
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