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Darian Mallory was born on August 14th,
1984… the product of a series of strange events that, were it not for
fate, or perhaps destiny, should never have occurred.
Allyson Jenkins, daughter of middle-class, New
York City businessman Bert Jenkins and his wife, the lovely Elisabeth,
was much like any other girl of her age… stubborn, proud, very set in
her ideas of right and wrong and certain that nothing would ever
change them. And so when her friends in her senior class all decided
to take a Spring Break trip to Mobile, Alabama, Allyson didn’t even
bother to tell her parents where she was going. After all, she was an
adult, and could take care of herself. She just jumped in her 1978
Chevrolet Cougar, rolled the top down, and set off following the lead
of the other cars. And everything went quite well… until a storm hit
in central Alabama late one night. Allyson became separated from the
group, and, in the worst stroke of luck yet, had a flat tire out in
the middle of nowhere. Scared beyond anything she’d ever felt before,
with no spare and no way to call for help, she sat in her car and
began to cry.
Until a knight in shining armor rode up to save
her.
To be truthful, he was barely a knight… barely
her own age, to tell the truth. And rather than armor and a steed,
this man wore dirty work overalls, and rode in a large 1970 Ford
flatbed pickup. He was a local mechanic’s apprentice in the nearby
town of Marion, sent to check on one of his shop’s customers, just
five miles further out, when he came upon poor Allyson. He introduced
himself as Albert Mallory, and within ten minutes had hailed the shop
on his CB radio, and had a toe truck on the way. Still in shock, and
scared of being alone in some small, strange hick-town, Allyson begged
the awestruck Albert to stay with her. And so he did. She was, after
all, quite beautiful, in a big city sort of way, and the small-town
Albert was already lost in those beautiful eyes… just as she had been
lost in his. After her car was fixed… paid for by Albert, though
Allyson could have afforded it, simply because he wanted to impress
her, the young New Yorker decided she’d had enough of this trip, and
got on the road to head back home. But even after she’d gotten home,
and even after being scolded by her parents, Allyson couldn’t get
Albert out of her mind.
And, over a thousand miles away, young Mr.
Mallory’s thoughts turned, more often than not, to the beautiful
brunette from an entire culture away.
And so it was, immediately after graduation that
May, Albert used up every ounce of money he had driving up to New York
City, and finding the girl he loved… after all, they’d worked on her
car, so they had all her personal information. And at the door, her
parents, not wanting their daughter involved with some redneck hick,
immediately sent the young man away. But, stubborn an independent,
Allyson would have none of that. She packed a quick suitcase, grabbed
her checkbook and credit card, and was in Albert’s truck before he
could ask a question, and with a kiss, they set a plan in motion.
Unfortunately, their plan met an initial setback when they arrived
back in Marion, Alabama… Albert’s parents, it seems, didn’t want their
son getting on with some haughty Yankee girl. It seemed as if they
would have nowhere to stay, until they discovered something quite
coincidental about each other. Both, oddly enough, had family in
North Carolina, along the coast. And so they moved over there where
they could have family nearby, settled down, and got married. And
within two years, having finally gotten enough money for a house, a
nice car, and a decent way of life, Allyson gave birth to a beautiful
baby boy. Darian Alexander Mallory.
But two years would be, it seemed, all they would
have with their child… for, after leaving him with his Aunt Edna (on
his father’s side) to celebrate their two-year anniversary, both were
killed in a car accident by a drunk driver.
After that, Darian was never quite the same. He
was, rather than being put in foster care, passed from family member
to family member, never staying in one place too long… no one really
wanted their relation’s bastard child, as most called him (though,
honestly, he was NOT a bastard child). He lived in seven different
states, never had many friends, and really didn’t develop any good
study habits because of this. His only solace as he grew up was his
guitar… something that would have, had he lived longer, been a
fifth-year birthday present from his father. Every day, from the age
of five on, Darian practiced that guitar until his fingers bled. By
the age of 12, he was putting on small impromptu concerts in his back
yard. At 14, he started his first band, which lasted approximately
one month, before creative differences lead to its breakup… kind of
like the Beatles, only younger, Southern, and less talented. Finally,
as he was to be moved to yet ANOTHER uncle, at the age of 15, Darian,
now simply called “Taz” by his best friends, because he played the
guitar like a devil, ran away from home… just trying to get anywhere.
Finally, he made it to Richmond, Virginia, where
he settled into a local YMCA, and, using a fake ID, started getting
work playing guitar at local clubs. And while he wasn’t the smartest
kid around, Taz WAS smart enough to both take and pass his GED,
thereby keeping himself from having to go to school, AND allowing him
to get work a lot easier.
It was in one of these clubs, on a random and
generally normal August night just after his sixteenth birthday, that
he first ran into Mike Monroe. Taz was playing a set, and Mike was
trying to find work as a singer. After talking, the two quickly
joined forces, and began looking for other elements of a band while
they started playing on stage TOGETHER… Mike singing, and Taz playing
guitar and singing backup vocals (though, in those days, he sang like
a cat being run across a cheese grater… it wouldn’t be until later
that he learned to sing decently). Two months later, they met a local
junior high kid named Aaron Rich… though he asked them to call him
“Skull,” due to his gothic skull-like face paint. Skull was a
drummer, and a very good one too, and, as Mike (currently 18) knew Taz
was only two years older than this kid, they all fell in with each
other quite quickly. Now they were at least a decent band, and began
performing across the city as The Screaming Devil’s Skull
(which, oddly enough, was one of the more normal names in this day and
age). It wasn’t for another month and a half that they realized what
they were missing… a bass player… and another month before a chance
encounter with a girl trying to pick up Taz that they met their
would-be drummer. Dizzy Colden, she called herself, though after a
year or so they’d discover her first name was really Lorelei.
Now they were a band, and after a few
experiments, took the name The Caveman Architects. And,
together, they formed quite a reputation for themselves throughout
Richmond. And during the latter half of the year 2000, Taz had what
was to be a series of roller coaster events that would, when you get
right down to it, change his entire outlook on life forever.
It all started when his band started getting some
major gigs in the club district. Now, mind you, Taz had moved around
for most of his life, and this didn’t exactly give him much of a
chance to build any kind of impression on the kids his age in any one
town. And as teens, children can be cruel and judgmental from the
beginning… so he never exactly had a girlfriend… ever. But now, here
he was, a very handsome, very talented young man, rocking the roof off
any building he played in. The women adored him, and he had NO idea
how to handle this. Next came with his meeting of Kaeri Anders, whom
he only later found out was a semi-famous musician in her own right.
She was also blind. But, through their time together, she got past
her protective shell of bitchiness, and they became quite a couple
together. However, the biggest of these events was yet to come, and
came about because of Kaeri, her jealous manager, and a crazed Son of
Ether.
One day, while out to lunch together, Kaeri’s
manager approached the two of them. He had been madly in love with
the young woman for quite some time, and had finally snapped, coming
here to beat the CRAP out of Taz in a jealous rage. Which, actually,
he did. But a very strange man with something that looked like a
remote control on steroids in his hand, screaming at them about
ruining the parameters of his experiment, stopped this, eventually.
When the manager tried to hit him, the man dropped the device, and
pretty much destroyed it.
This, let me tell you, is listed in the annals of history as “A Very
Bad Thing.”
The crash shattered the Etherite’s focus item, and the ensuing paradox
storm had MASSIVE effects on the area around it… though most people
believed it was simply a freak storm, and didn’t stay around to see
the sidewalk melt. Taz, however, didn’t have a chance to do this, as
the epicenter of the paradox storm was right at his feet. When
another mage, a Euthanatos named Cheryl Kramer came to the scene, she
managed to get Taz out of the storm… and told him to get his
girlfriend out of here (being blind, she, of course, saw nothing of
this). He did so, but began to move at INCREDIBLE speeds (Time 3 wild
effect) while doing so. After this, he slept until the next day,
where he had a massive headache, and began hearing the voice of his
long-dead father talking to him (AKA his manifesting Avatar).
However, it was a month before he would be,
again, approached by another mage. And during this time, he began to
manifest wild effects of his magic, though rarely in instances where
anyone would notice… by the grace of God alone. One day, however,
someone did notice. A Son of Ether… or Daughter, as it was… by the
name of Washuu Imzadi. She took Taz in, and began to mentor him as a
Son of Ether. It was during this time that Kaeri left him… and so,
with nothing else to cling to, he threw himself wholeheartedly into
this. Washuu crafted two new inventions during this time: an energy
sword, and a set of infravision goggles, complete with earpiece. She
gave these to Taz to help her test… but then, mysteriously, she
disappeared. Forever. Now, again, without a mentor, Taz did his best
to train on his own, trying to discover what it was that had happened
to him. The best way to do this… find the woman who had saved his
life that first day.
About a month later, he finally found Cheryl
Kramer, and, with it, joined the Richmond Chantry, studying under the
head of that chantry, Kara Mayfair. By this, he transformed from a
novice Son of Ether to a novice Hermetic, House Shea. For six months,
he studied under Ms. Mayfair, discovering ways of magic that he had
never dreamed could exist, but found he was equally adept at them as
with his former mentor. Here he also kept up his sword training,
learning to use the gifts given to him by Washuu in months past. He
actually began to excel in his studies, here, but more than that, he
met someone who would… as Kaeri had… change his life forever.
Alexa Scott.
A young Dreamspeaker, Alexa was in the same
position as Taz. Shy, overintelligent, undersocial, and unsure of how
to handle the feelings she got when she was around Taz, Alexa spent
the first month of her time in the chantry in her room, mostly. But
Taz finally convinced her to go out and do something with him… and it
wasn’t but a few weeks later that they could be found, often, studying
together in the chantry library… and kissing during half of their time
there, maybe more. Everything seemed to be going just a bit too
perfect for Taz… until, once again, fate stepped in.
It seemed that Mayfair was charged with aiding
and abetting a Vampire, and allowing it access to the chantry. Though
believed to be under control of the vampire, this was still
unacceptable. She was brought up on charges, and Taz immediately left
the chantry, unable to believe she would do something like this. He
still kept ties with Alexa, though, and they continued dating… on and
off, mostly on. One day, though, he received a letter from a Ms.
Victoria Everett, a Hermetic master of House Tytalus. She told Taz
that the Quaestre had decided that, unless Taz took up another mentor
within the Order of Hermes, a RESPECTABLE mentor, he would be brought
up under the same charges as Ms. Mayfair. Seeing little choice, Taz
began to mentor under Ms. Everett… who took every opportunity to mess
with his mind, making him paranoid, jumpy, and far too bitter for his
age.
Oddly enough, it was about that time that
everything went downhill.
It turns out that just after Taz started
mentoring with Everett, Alexa had discovered a part of her past life
that had pushed itself into this one. Death Magic. She began
studying it… and then, after a few months, she actually began taking
human sacrifices to further her power. It took several months, but by
the end of 2003, Taz ended up walking in on one of these sacrifices.
With little choice in the matter, and with Alexa ready to attack HIM
now, Taz powered up his energy blade… and, after a quick but brutal
struggle, was forced to take the life of the woman he had fallen in
love with.
Now,
Taz has left Richmond… going back to the place of his birth.
Roshmere, NC. Here, he hopes to try and come to terms with what he
has done… and make sense of the life that has shattered around him.
Wonders:
Energy Sword - Wonder 4. Arete 3, Forces 3, Prime 2.
Ultravision Goggles - Arete 1, Correspondence 1.
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