Down at the base of the Vine, silence had stolen over the crowd once again, but this time in patches. Some were still oblivious, many were staring. The Shades saw them. Witchlan and the Emperor saw them. But no one, not even the Emperor, knew what they were or what they were doing here. Everyone who saw them was overcome by the same hushed confusion. Two humanoid figures, gleaming wanly in the feeble artificial sunlight, hovered high above the courtyard and appeared to be waiting for something.
For the first time in its almost 11,000-year history, the Viscain Empire had uninvited guests.
To Be Continued. . .
SHADE DOSSIERS
Lor Kalkin
First Specialist, Plague Squad
* * *
Category: Psychic
Discipline: Cancer
Height: 174 cm
Weight: 75 kg
Gravity Rank: 25
RPP: 1,875
RMP: 5,300
Birthdate: 10,475.253
Artifact: Contamination Pump
Artifact Rank: 22
Dark RPP: 41,250
Dark RMP: 116,600
Active Dates: 10,500-Current
Residence: Root Palace, Locsard Psychic Academy
When Dark with the Contamination Pump, Lor Kalkin becomes a giant, sickly-purple walking cancer, increasing to 3 meters in height and 3 meters across at the shoulders. He is surprisingly agile for his bulk, however, and is able to direct his potent psychic power to instill rot through unnatural growth by touch or up to a range of 20 meters. His innate discipline enables him to regenerate tissue at an already fantastic rate, but with the aid of the Contamination Pump, he is, perhaps, physically immortal, able to reconstitute himself from significant loss of body mass.
Jav Holson
Specialist, Plague Squad
* * *
Category: F-Gene Fighter, Superior Grade
Discipline: 18 Heavenly Claws
Height: 172 cm
Weight: 73 kg
Gravity Rank: 25
RPP: 1,825
RMP: 500
Birthdate: ??,???.???
Artifact: Ritual Mask
Artifact Rank: 15 (30)
Dark RPP: 27,375 (54,750)
Dark RMP: 7,500 (15,000)
Active Dates: 10,682.031-Current (replaced Karlan Farsal)
Residence: Planet 1287
The Ritual Mask, as a non-permanent Artifact, has a finite amount of power and will ultimately fail, taking Jav along with it when it expires, but it does give him a number of notable abilities. Like all Artifacts, it augments Jav physically by a factor equal to its rank. In addition, the Ritual Mask is capable of initiating the Mikai Curse, which cycles up in intensity, forcibly wrenching blood—spilled and readily available or through the very pores of the skin—from all living things in a 200 meter radius. This blood is drawn directly into the Mask until the Mask is satiated and reaches its maximum, doubled potential. So far, Jav has had little success in controlling himself while Dark.
Laedra Hol
First Specialist, Triangle Squad, Retired
* * *
Category: F-Gene Fighter, Superior Grade
Discipline: 18 Heavenly Claws
Height: 166 cm
Weight: 50 kg
Gravity Rank: 30
RPP: 1,500
RMP: 100
Birthdate: 9,962.302
Artifact: Charging Fork
Artifact Rank: 18 (36)
Dark RPP: 27,000 (54,000)
Dark RMP: 1,800 (3,600)
Active Dates: 10,000-10,500
Residence: Planet 1287
The Charging Fork, which sprouts from Laedra Hol’s forehead when she goes Dark, enables her to concentrate on discrete characteristics and power them to extraordinary levels. She typically uses the Fork to substantially increase her grip strength when performing her signature technique, the Sky Fisher Claw, but she can focus the power to enhance her speed, endurance, physical resilience, her Raw Mental Power, etc.
Kimbal Furst
Specialist, Triangle Squad, Retired
* * *
Category: F-Gene Fighter
Discipline: Rush Hands
Height: 180 cm
Weight: 76 kg
Gravity Rank: 25
RPP: 1,900
RMP: 100
Birthdate: 9,973.127
Artifact: Taikou Quills
Artifact Rank: 22
Dark RPP: 41,800
Dark RMP: 2,200
Active Dates: 10,000-10,500
Residence: Planet 1305
When Dark, Kimbal Furst becomes a self-sustained nuclear reaction in the form of an anthropomorphic phoenix. His martial training includes Approaching Infinity theory, which he exploits for completely unfettered, free movement.
Cov Merasec
Specialist, Triangle Squad, Retired
* * *
Category: F-Gene Fighter
Discipline: Wind Fission Sickles
Height: 192 cm
Weight: 80 kg
Gravity Rank: 24
RPP: 1,920
RMP: 100
Birthdate: 9,966.103
Artifact: Fugue Inducer
Artifact Rank: 18
Dark RPP: 34,560
Dark RMP: 1,800
Active Dates: 10,011.211-10,500 (replaced Jav Corso)
Residence: Planet 1251
When Dark, Cov Merasec is covered in thin interlocking, glossy black flexible plates, topped with a cubist’s crude interpretation of a crow’s head. Invoking the Fugue Inducer enables him to supplement his signature Copy Twin technique, developed from Approaching Infinity theory, to unimaginable levels, becoming a one-man army of up to 1,800 strong. Cov suffers no ill effects at the death of any of his Fugue Army, and in fact, can effect a sort of serial immortality, as long as just one, even if not the original, remains alive.
Mont Cranden
First General, 18th Generation, Retired
* * *
Category: Psychic
Discipline: Pocket Dimension Creation, Various Minor Powers
Height: 182 cm
Weight: 89 kg
Gravity Rank: 10
RPP: 890
RMP: 5,500
Birthdate: 9,312.235
Artifact: Gate Crown
Artifact Rank: 20
Dark RPP: 17,800
Dark RMP: 110,000
Active Dates: 9,350-9,850
Residence: Locsard Psychic Academy
Mont Cranden’s Gate Crown greatly facilitates his innate ability to create dimensional vaults, enabling him to create up to a total of 11,000 cubic meters of enclosed, sequestered space, to which only he has access. These vaults can remain semi-permanently in place where originally constructed or be mobile, following criteria of Cranden’s devising. In either case, his vaults and their contents are invisible to and inaccessible from the outside world. It is possible to tax the boundaries of one of Cranden’s vaults from the inside and find escape, but this requires a uniform and substantial display of force directed simultaneously against a large enough portion of the vault’s inner surface area to overwhelm Cranden’s mental constraints.
Besides his vaults, Cranden possesses a number of other psychic disciplines, most notably true, invasive telepathy and minor telekinetic powers, which are limited to his person and mostly aid in self-defense.
AFTERWORD
Comic books and Saturday morning cartoons; kung fu movies on Channel 31; an interest in mythology, the supernatural, and science fiction; a chronic daydreamer’s imagination geared specifically towards active escapism: these are the elements, both external and internal, that helped shape my psyche while growing up.
For every source I could name that’s influenced the Approaching Infinity story, there’s at least one that I’d miss, but besides the elements listed above, it really comes down to a love of Halloween. Long ago, when the story was in a much rawer state, the Viscain Empire was in fact the Halloween Empire.
I think I was the only one who appreciated the name, though. To me, it conjured up images of autumn, of orange and russet leaves, of blustery days and overcast skies, when it felt like something big was always just about to happen, waiting only for night to fall. The Emperor’s name remains as a reminder of the Empire’s. . . (ahem) roots, and though the story has evolved beyond the Halloween-soaked world I’d originally envisioned, I hope some of that sense of archetypes, masks, and the dark manages to shine through.
Chris Eisenlauer
June, 2011
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