OOC NOTE: This is kind of long - but it's meant to be the official "introduction" of my character into the "Spirits of the Earth" story. I don't intend for all my posts to be as long-winded, but I needed to set up some exposition so anyone seeing this before reading my character's back-story would kind of get Janus' "deal."
I'm open to absolutely any kind of interactivity you may introduce to this story. If you want to move it away from the starting location, feel free - if you want to kill an "NPC" that I created, go for it - but please be sure to leave character choices for whoever replies next to follow up on - character-presented decisions are the best! Mine will always be presented in bold at the end of my posts!
To read up on Ser Janus, check the thread, thanks!: http://www.spiritsoftheearth.net/smf/index.php?topic=19353.0
Finally, enjoy! I look forward to role-playing with all of you!"The Big Fight"Janus Fairview, who would still like to think of himself as a knight meant to fight in the Civil War to the North, sits alone in an empty corner of a Moral Bros. circus tent. This tent is the same he has won many victories in during recent months. 4 weeks ago he became a prize-fighting champion without ever revealing his real name to anybody. Tonight, he defends the belt that brings him higher pay from the fight-promoter Tary Brookskin, a Serenian out to help his "Moral Bros." brand transcend Cerenis and coastal Serendipity.
"One day, I'm going to headline Reajh and the Grand Duke will seek my entertainment!" was all Janus needed to hear from Tary's thin lips to assure him that his time as a prize fighter in the Moral Bros. show was coming to an end. Janus could never travel to Connlaoth, much less the capital. He would become the witch in a witch hunt, and he wouldn't have that.
These thoughts seem to effect the once-strong willed man more than usual these days. In the back of his head, his inner-twin, the evil demon called The Who whispers to him...
"That strap of leather can't make you what you are..." The soft voice seemed louder than the voices that were entering the tent to prepare for the "Big Fight" show later that night.
Janus shook it off before opening a book filled with hand-written pages. Janus thumbs to the middle, closes his eyes, holds his face to the sky & recites a verse from the scribble below. Whomever he's reciting to is asked to relieve him of the "burden that is The Who," acknowledging that the demon is his penance for abandoning his family during the War for the Valley.
"Whattaya readin'?" The question presented by a portly crew member pierces Janus' concentration. Suddenly, the fighting tent seems all more real. Janus slaps the book closed, quickly. "Are those prayers?"
"No friend, they're pleas."
----
Janus stares blankly at his championship belt as he gets ready to make his way to the make-shift ring set up in the middle of the fighting tent. His promoter Tary Brookskin blabbers something about how he intends their next show to make them enough money to "really start touring." It becomes white noise to Janus as The Who attempts to get him to rip Tary's eyes out through his throat. Janus' inner-dialogue questions this but The Who feels he could find a way.
Suppressing these urges, Janus warns Tary to back away. Tary, confused, agrees to do so and backs off just as the ring-announcer introduces Janus, known in the Moral Bros. fighting circuit as "The Glassjaw," to the rabid crowd of on-lookers.
Janus chose the name "Glassjaw" for two reasons. The first reason is that he believes no respectable knight would refer to himself as "the Glassjaw," knowing the term means "a weakling." This is to hide in plain sight... Janus sincerely doesn't want to be recognized as the murderer of Connlaoth's King Darren IV. Darren was a good man, Janus' king. His friend. It was Darren that knighted Janus - a privilege he could no longer uphold during his self-exile to Serendipity.
The second reason Janus calls himself "Glassjaw" is to lull his nightly opponents into a sense of security. Someone with the nickname "Glassjaw" certainly couldn't hold up in a fight, very less be a highly accomplished Connlaothian Knight.
Janus entered the ring to loud applause, a stylized pig mask covering his face - revealing only his heavily bearded mouth. He held his belt nearly 7 feet in the air...
Just then, the circus tent began tearing on several different sides. The cause for these tears were the rogue blades of pirates who had apparently come ashore a few miles up the coast before singling out the Moral Bros. Big Fight show as a worthy target.
Janus was rushed from all sides by pirates of all sizes. Janus blinked his eye, and in a moment heard The Who whisper out a suggestion...
It burned. There was a bright light. Janus did
that thing again. For a second he thought the onslaught had finished - but beyond the scattered limbs of the pirates he had just blown apart with extremely-demonic powers, Janus spotted what looked to be the Pirate Captain holding the Moral Bros. head promoter Tary Brookskin with a very sharp looking dagger to his throat.
"My name is Simon, I'm captain of those fellas you just roasted." Captain Simon yelled toward the ring, "I came here for some pocket cash and suddenly find myself eight men down. I came for gold, mister prize-fighter, but I ain't leaving until I take your head."
Janus, recovering from the evil powers he just omitted from his very being, staggers to get to his knees. One foot goes up. He's seeing double. Regardless as he looks up toward the entrance curtain, he realizes Brookskin, his only real link to earning money, is being held by knife point. A trickle of blood runs down Brookskin's neck as the blade ever so gently enters the top layer of skin. Surely this is just scare tactic to get in Janus' head?
As Pirate Captain 'Simon' holds Janus' promoter Taary Brookskin with a blade to the throat, will someone arrive to aid him - Or will Mr. Brookskin have a new smile crafted into his neck?
