Post by mattbrp on Feb 5, 2011 0:56:02 GMT -5
((So I have pretty much never settled on a backstory for Roxster. He has always just been this semi-emotionless and purposeless heap of rocks. In the interest of actually developing his character (and getting myself back into writing and roleplaying) I have attempted to do up a series of stories portraying his background. I'm still a bit rusty and trying to bust my writing chops back out, so please let me know what you think!))
Billions of people around the world spend their days searching for their inner meaning. To find the purpose for their existence, and to discover what the future holds for them. I feel like I am the only one who is searching for their past; clinging to any semblance of a memory. I've had the feeling that I used to do great things in this world. My only wish now is that I had the stories to go along with that. They say as you get older, all that you really have left is your memories, but now, I don't even have that. I do not know what the past held for me; I do not know where I have been, nor the deeds I have accomplished. The only thing of which I can be certain is that the path I have walked has been a bit different than yours...
I sought help through the Menders of Ouroboros. I have heard many stories from my fellow heroes of travelling through time and "flashing back" to relive past memories. Maybe they could help me understand the places I have been and things I have done. When I first stepped foot into that dimension, I felt an odd sense of nostalgia, as if I had been here before. Things felt familiar, but I had no physical recollection of ever being here.
"Scott," a deep voice beckoned from across a large reflection pool, "At long last, you have returned."
"I'm sorry, but I'm afraid I don't know who you are."
"My name is Mender Lazarus. I will be the one who shall guide you in recalling all of your past memories in hopes of helping you discover who you are so that you may rejoin the fight against the forces of evil as strong as you have ever been."
"You...know why I am here?"
"I have seen what happens in your future because of what the Crey Corporation has done to you. I have seen the devastation that this has caused."
"Crey...? What do you mean? What have they done to me?"
"That is a story that must remain for another time, as first you must learn about your powers and how you discovered them. And you must relearn how to control them, for the future of your world depends on it."
"I just want to understand where I have been. I feel like I have done many things in my past, but I cannot remember. I feel like there is a hole missing that I want to mend."
"Then first, I must take you back to the days before you learned about your abilities. I must take you back to Canada..."
------------
"I'm not going to take care of you forever, Matt! One of these days, you're going to have to buck up and learn to deal with shit like this on your own!" A woman's voice boomed at me from across a car. The voice sounded oddly familiar.
"I'm sorry..." I trailed off.
"Sorry? You're sorry? Ever since your dad left, I've been left to deal with you and your sister's bullshit all on my own. Do you think this is the life that I wanted, Scott? Do you think I wanted to raise two ungrateful little brats all on my own? And now you're just going to run away to college in a totally different state because you want to 'get out of Canada' and 'make a better life for yourself'."
"Mom! I've been spending my entire life so far learning about soil conservation and geothermal energy, and now you're telling me that I need to stay home?" I screamed.
"I spend the last 18 years of my life trying to raise a good, strong son and all he wants to do is move to Rhode Island and play with dirt. I think this may just be one of the biggest mistakes that I have ever made!"
"I'm doing something that I want to do! And for once in my life, I'm not going to change that because you don't like it!"
"For once in your life? For once in your life, I'd think that you'd show some appreciation for the woman who brought you into this God-forsaken world against her own will! You were an accident, Scott! You were never supposed to even be in this world!"
I felt my hand shoot toward the door handle.
"So what? Now you're just going to bail out of the car? We're in the middle of Vermont and I have all of your shit in the backseat."
"Keep it. You obviously need it more than I do." I flung the door open and jumped from the car, rolling through the grass a number of times before finally landing face down in a ditch. I laid there for a few minutes before I got up and looked around. I don't exactly know what I was thinking, but I knew that I needed to get out of that car for some reason. I watched as the car slowed to a halt, and I wondered what was going through my mother's head; regret wasn't exactly her forte.
That's when I noticed the eighteen-wheeler barreling towards my mom's car. I panicked and my hand shot forward as I screamed, trying to save my mother. Suddenly, the semi slowed to a halt as the front tires sank into a patch of quicksand. The driver got out of his car and examined the pool of liquefied dirt and cement that his truck was now stuck in with a puzzled look on his face. I saw both sets of eyes turn in my direction as I hurriedly ran over the hill and made my way towards Rhode Island.
------------
I never went and registered for classes once I got to Paragon City. It had been two months, and I don't know if it was because I was still feeling depressed after what my mother said to me, or if I just really didn't see the need for it. I was still trying to make sense out of what happened in Vermont. Could I have caused a pool of quicksand to appear with a simple hand gesture? That seemed like something straight out of my brother's fairy tale books. At any rate, I decided it would be best to simply ignore it. I did not tell anyone about what happened that day, and I did not talk to my mother since.
I'd been living in a small apartment in Eastgate near where the Hollowing incident had taken place. It was in a pretty dangerous part of town, but I was working at a small video rental shop, so money was kind of tight and the rent was pretty low. I also felt a strange attraction to this area. It felt like I could constantly hear a faint cry for help, but I could never place it.
My life took a pretty sharp turn one day when Ashley Peters walked into the video store. She asked me for help finding a copy of some vampire drama that had recently came out, and I gave her hell for it. The story is fairly common from there, so I will spare the details, suffice to say that we were married in the next four months. Maybe it was just the stress of the hard times I was going through, or maybe it was just how easy she made it feel to be around her. Needless to say, I was in love.
Then, that damned Saturday morning, I was home from work. Ashley worked at the Eastgate Medical Center emergency room, so I woke up and saw her off to work. No sooner than she could have gotten to the bottom of our staircase, I heard her shriek and call for help. I ran to the balcony to see my wife being carried away by a pair of Trolls. I felt my body freeze with anger, rage, but most of all helplessness. My arms outstretched and my eyes closed with fear, I suddenly heard the angered grumble of Trolls ringing out. I opened my eyes to see the two freaks pinned helplessly underneath a large chunk of earth that seemed to have been torn out of the ground. I looked around for any of the heroes that normally frequented this beat, but things seemed strangely quiet. Then I made a horrifying realization.
Ashley was nowhere to be seen!
I called out into the morning fog as the PPD and their drones arrived on the scene. I searched frantically to no avail, until the police began asking me questions.
"Hello, sir. My name is Lieutenant Wincott. Do you have any idea what happened here today?"
"I...I'm not sure. My wife Ashley was on her way to work...and the Trolls...they tried to take her..."
"And did you happen to get a glimpse of the person or persons involved with pinning the Trolls under this large portion of concrete?"
"No...I didn't see anyone in the area...But please, you've got to help me find my wife."
Lieutenant Wincott helped me over to the curb so I could sit down and gather myself. They called in a team of people with a large machine to lift the slab of concrete up. The Trolls were handcuffed and taken into custody, but their legs were crused under the weight of the rock, so they had to be carried to the car. Then I noticed two policemen approaching me with distant looks on their faces. I could only imagine what they had to say to me.
They explained to me that Ashley had fallen underneath the chunk of earth as the Trolls dropped her trying to escape. She had been crushed to death. They also told me that they had checked the whereabouts of all registered heroes, and could not determine who had in fact caused the accident. This meant that the person was either a rogue hero operating outside of jurisdiction or it was an unregistered superhuman. I thanked the two officers and went back to my apartment to be alone for a while.
As I entered the door of my second story loft, I fell to my knees and burst into tears. I held my face in my hands for what seemed like forever. I felt a hatred for almost every hero I had seen in the streets near Eastgate. How could you call yourself a hero if you killed an innocent victim in the process of saving them?
I lifted my face out of my hands. I felt a cold, scraping, rocky feeling across my face. I don't think I blinked for well over five minutes as I stared down at the palms of my hands which seemed to be turning into stone. What in the world was happening to me? The hatred I felt only moments earlier quickly turned to confusion. Could I have been the one that killed Ashley?
------------
"Scott? Scott, can you hear me?" Lazarus' voice seemed to snap me free from a dream. Tears beaded down my face as I looked down at the metallic gloves on my forearms. I was back in the present now, but I felt like a weight had been placed on my heart.
"I know that that must have been a hard place to begin retracing your memories, but it was essential in teaching you the place that you hold on this earth."
I was still speechless as I replayed the events I had witnessed in my head.
"You were responsible for your wife's death, Scott. But it is something you must learn to live with. For it was her death that brought about the realization of your powers. Without her sacrifice, you would never come to be the superhero that you did. And reliving that memory was the first step to regaining control over the powers you possess."
"I...I need to learn more."
"I'm afraid I cannot allow you to go through any more anguish today. You must get your rest. Return to your own world and think about the events you have remembered today, see if they spark any new memories. When you feel you are ready, return to me here in Ouroboros and I will show you more."
Billions of people around the world spend their days searching for their inner meaning. To find the purpose for their existence, and to discover what the future holds for them. I feel like I am the only one who is searching for their past; clinging to any semblance of a memory. I've had the feeling that I used to do great things in this world. My only wish now is that I had the stories to go along with that. They say as you get older, all that you really have left is your memories, but now, I don't even have that. I do not know what the past held for me; I do not know where I have been, nor the deeds I have accomplished. The only thing of which I can be certain is that the path I have walked has been a bit different than yours...
I sought help through the Menders of Ouroboros. I have heard many stories from my fellow heroes of travelling through time and "flashing back" to relive past memories. Maybe they could help me understand the places I have been and things I have done. When I first stepped foot into that dimension, I felt an odd sense of nostalgia, as if I had been here before. Things felt familiar, but I had no physical recollection of ever being here.
"Scott," a deep voice beckoned from across a large reflection pool, "At long last, you have returned."
"I'm sorry, but I'm afraid I don't know who you are."
"My name is Mender Lazarus. I will be the one who shall guide you in recalling all of your past memories in hopes of helping you discover who you are so that you may rejoin the fight against the forces of evil as strong as you have ever been."
"You...know why I am here?"
"I have seen what happens in your future because of what the Crey Corporation has done to you. I have seen the devastation that this has caused."
"Crey...? What do you mean? What have they done to me?"
"That is a story that must remain for another time, as first you must learn about your powers and how you discovered them. And you must relearn how to control them, for the future of your world depends on it."
"I just want to understand where I have been. I feel like I have done many things in my past, but I cannot remember. I feel like there is a hole missing that I want to mend."
"Then first, I must take you back to the days before you learned about your abilities. I must take you back to Canada..."
------------
"I'm not going to take care of you forever, Matt! One of these days, you're going to have to buck up and learn to deal with shit like this on your own!" A woman's voice boomed at me from across a car. The voice sounded oddly familiar.
"I'm sorry..." I trailed off.
"Sorry? You're sorry? Ever since your dad left, I've been left to deal with you and your sister's bullshit all on my own. Do you think this is the life that I wanted, Scott? Do you think I wanted to raise two ungrateful little brats all on my own? And now you're just going to run away to college in a totally different state because you want to 'get out of Canada' and 'make a better life for yourself'."
"Mom! I've been spending my entire life so far learning about soil conservation and geothermal energy, and now you're telling me that I need to stay home?" I screamed.
"I spend the last 18 years of my life trying to raise a good, strong son and all he wants to do is move to Rhode Island and play with dirt. I think this may just be one of the biggest mistakes that I have ever made!"
"I'm doing something that I want to do! And for once in my life, I'm not going to change that because you don't like it!"
"For once in your life? For once in your life, I'd think that you'd show some appreciation for the woman who brought you into this God-forsaken world against her own will! You were an accident, Scott! You were never supposed to even be in this world!"
I felt my hand shoot toward the door handle.
"So what? Now you're just going to bail out of the car? We're in the middle of Vermont and I have all of your shit in the backseat."
"Keep it. You obviously need it more than I do." I flung the door open and jumped from the car, rolling through the grass a number of times before finally landing face down in a ditch. I laid there for a few minutes before I got up and looked around. I don't exactly know what I was thinking, but I knew that I needed to get out of that car for some reason. I watched as the car slowed to a halt, and I wondered what was going through my mother's head; regret wasn't exactly her forte.
That's when I noticed the eighteen-wheeler barreling towards my mom's car. I panicked and my hand shot forward as I screamed, trying to save my mother. Suddenly, the semi slowed to a halt as the front tires sank into a patch of quicksand. The driver got out of his car and examined the pool of liquefied dirt and cement that his truck was now stuck in with a puzzled look on his face. I saw both sets of eyes turn in my direction as I hurriedly ran over the hill and made my way towards Rhode Island.
------------
I never went and registered for classes once I got to Paragon City. It had been two months, and I don't know if it was because I was still feeling depressed after what my mother said to me, or if I just really didn't see the need for it. I was still trying to make sense out of what happened in Vermont. Could I have caused a pool of quicksand to appear with a simple hand gesture? That seemed like something straight out of my brother's fairy tale books. At any rate, I decided it would be best to simply ignore it. I did not tell anyone about what happened that day, and I did not talk to my mother since.
I'd been living in a small apartment in Eastgate near where the Hollowing incident had taken place. It was in a pretty dangerous part of town, but I was working at a small video rental shop, so money was kind of tight and the rent was pretty low. I also felt a strange attraction to this area. It felt like I could constantly hear a faint cry for help, but I could never place it.
My life took a pretty sharp turn one day when Ashley Peters walked into the video store. She asked me for help finding a copy of some vampire drama that had recently came out, and I gave her hell for it. The story is fairly common from there, so I will spare the details, suffice to say that we were married in the next four months. Maybe it was just the stress of the hard times I was going through, or maybe it was just how easy she made it feel to be around her. Needless to say, I was in love.
Then, that damned Saturday morning, I was home from work. Ashley worked at the Eastgate Medical Center emergency room, so I woke up and saw her off to work. No sooner than she could have gotten to the bottom of our staircase, I heard her shriek and call for help. I ran to the balcony to see my wife being carried away by a pair of Trolls. I felt my body freeze with anger, rage, but most of all helplessness. My arms outstretched and my eyes closed with fear, I suddenly heard the angered grumble of Trolls ringing out. I opened my eyes to see the two freaks pinned helplessly underneath a large chunk of earth that seemed to have been torn out of the ground. I looked around for any of the heroes that normally frequented this beat, but things seemed strangely quiet. Then I made a horrifying realization.
Ashley was nowhere to be seen!
I called out into the morning fog as the PPD and their drones arrived on the scene. I searched frantically to no avail, until the police began asking me questions.
"Hello, sir. My name is Lieutenant Wincott. Do you have any idea what happened here today?"
"I...I'm not sure. My wife Ashley was on her way to work...and the Trolls...they tried to take her..."
"And did you happen to get a glimpse of the person or persons involved with pinning the Trolls under this large portion of concrete?"
"No...I didn't see anyone in the area...But please, you've got to help me find my wife."
Lieutenant Wincott helped me over to the curb so I could sit down and gather myself. They called in a team of people with a large machine to lift the slab of concrete up. The Trolls were handcuffed and taken into custody, but their legs were crused under the weight of the rock, so they had to be carried to the car. Then I noticed two policemen approaching me with distant looks on their faces. I could only imagine what they had to say to me.
They explained to me that Ashley had fallen underneath the chunk of earth as the Trolls dropped her trying to escape. She had been crushed to death. They also told me that they had checked the whereabouts of all registered heroes, and could not determine who had in fact caused the accident. This meant that the person was either a rogue hero operating outside of jurisdiction or it was an unregistered superhuman. I thanked the two officers and went back to my apartment to be alone for a while.
As I entered the door of my second story loft, I fell to my knees and burst into tears. I held my face in my hands for what seemed like forever. I felt a hatred for almost every hero I had seen in the streets near Eastgate. How could you call yourself a hero if you killed an innocent victim in the process of saving them?
I lifted my face out of my hands. I felt a cold, scraping, rocky feeling across my face. I don't think I blinked for well over five minutes as I stared down at the palms of my hands which seemed to be turning into stone. What in the world was happening to me? The hatred I felt only moments earlier quickly turned to confusion. Could I have been the one that killed Ashley?
------------
"Scott? Scott, can you hear me?" Lazarus' voice seemed to snap me free from a dream. Tears beaded down my face as I looked down at the metallic gloves on my forearms. I was back in the present now, but I felt like a weight had been placed on my heart.
"I know that that must have been a hard place to begin retracing your memories, but it was essential in teaching you the place that you hold on this earth."
I was still speechless as I replayed the events I had witnessed in my head.
"You were responsible for your wife's death, Scott. But it is something you must learn to live with. For it was her death that brought about the realization of your powers. Without her sacrifice, you would never come to be the superhero that you did. And reliving that memory was the first step to regaining control over the powers you possess."
"I...I need to learn more."
"I'm afraid I cannot allow you to go through any more anguish today. You must get your rest. Return to your own world and think about the events you have remembered today, see if they spark any new memories. When you feel you are ready, return to me here in Ouroboros and I will show you more."
