Askante

Askante (Scenesys ID: 10052)
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Profile
Full Name:	Askante'yahaxi
Gender:	Neutral
Species:	Daemon
Theme:	Original (OC)
Occupation:	None
Citizenship:	None
Residence:	Nowhere
Education:	School of Existence
Status:	Shelved
Groups:	Mystic Arts-OOC
Other Information
Apparent Age:	2028	Actual Age:
Date of Birth	15 03 0000	Actor:
Height:	213 cm (7')	Weight:	113 kg (250 lb)
Hair Color:	Black	Eye Color:	Black
Theme Song:	"The Fear" by Lily Savage

Profile

Eyes from the firelight, the skittering sound in the depths of the cave, stay away from the fog, beware! For millenia and more, Askante has done its purpose, keeping mankind and other beings away from the deepest and darkest places, by that those hairs raised and the cold chill down the back of the spine. The modern world is not familiar though, the stakes have all changed. How do you keep mankind safe from itself?

Sheet

Description

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Description:

Extremely tall, visually lean, this creature is covered head to toe in smooth scales, like those of a fish or smooth serpent, lustrous and black as ink. Its features are roughly human and beautifully androgenous in an alien way, with large, pitch black eyes, a slender nose and expressively shaped mouth. It has no hair to speak of, instead a mantle of quills extends back down its back, the longest at four foot in length, the shortest at perhaps half a foot. Its limbs, for it has six of them, are slender and delicate seeming - its four arms are lithe, the legs long and lean, like those of a dancer. From the base of its spine slinks a long lizardlike tail, whip-lean and mobile.

However, it wears clothing. A tight white shirt and charcoal waistcoat, skinny jeans and a trench coat of black over it all, though no shoes can be seen anywhere. At its neck, several charms hang, on its fingers and toes, many rings gleam.

History

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History:

Mankind was once upon a time an endangered species. There were precious few of them eking out an existence in the wilds, against all manner of predators and dangers untold, from living creatures to pure happenstance. Askante came into being at this time, before organized beliefs and the like created more powerful entities than itself: to be that fear in the dark that kept mankind, cro-magnon and neanderthal alike, at the fireside and in their crude shelters. When mankind spread slowly across the continents, it followed them in the shadows. Across Asia to Australasia, over the landbridge of the arctic and into the Americas also.
It would be awake, learning the new associations made with it, discovering new wards and superstitions against the evil of the world and watching as gods and monsters took center stage. Periodically it would hibernate for many generations and return to a world subtley changed. Occasionally, a Monkey would see it for its true self and interesting things would happen, occasionally a deity or a shaman would task it to some accomplishment, but mostly it simply did its job of keeping the lizard brain on its toes. That is until its modern awakening, to a world where fear itself has gone completely bonkers... This isn't Kansas any more, Toto.

Personality

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Personality:

Askante is quirky. It's very hard on a day ending in 'y' to completely work out what makes it tick. It has peculiar habits that seem at times random; one day it will avoid every crack on a street. Another day it will refuse to go in any front door. But generally speaking, even for all the peculiarities, it seems extremely hard to phase. But if you take the time to watch, there's method in the madness and an astute mind in the strange creature's head.

Abilities

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Eye of the Beholder:
Askante does not alter what it looks like to any. It is what it is, a scaled creature with four arms and a tail that is attentuated and tall. But most people do not see it, they see what they want to see. Strong willed or Divine/Mystical entities will see it for precisely what it is. If it is working its Primal Fear abilities, it can end up appearing as any manner of things to onlookers, but it has no control over -what- these individuals see, it is entirely personal to the onlooker.

Immortal:
Askante cannot be **MUNDANELY** killed. It can be inconvenienced for a time but simple death never sticks. If an individual or circumstance destroys it, it will reform in the shadows shortly after and go about its business again. The time this takes varies on the manner in which it was killed. For example: if an individual 'vanquished their fears' it would reform when that individual is out of sight and out of mind, usually after a couple of hours. If it was exploded by a gas main going boom, it would reform almost immediately. The reason for this is simple: Its nature and its purpose is to be in the dangerous situation, where such mundane things may kill mere mortals in order to trigger their primal instincts to get the hell out of dodge. But that generally means the danger you're sitting on could go off under your own feet. The material therefore has very little effect on its ability to reconstitute itself.
*The Supernatural however is a very different affair. As it is a Daemon, or Earthbound free-willed spirit, it can be bound to a place or object by the right cleverness, by ritual, magic, god or device and could even be used as a mystical battery to power a fetish or an object in this manner, which would cause it immense pain and might in fact throw it into a long hibernation cycle when 'destroyed'.
*Magic or spiritual weaponry and magic itself can destroy it for longer, rendering it out of action for perhaps days at a time (This should be negotiated in play)
*Certain spiritual, magical or extra-planar events could obliviate it. For example: drowning in the river styx, falling into the Abyss, being consumed by Mephisto, etc, could give it final death. As most of these things reside in the realm of the Dead, it is loathe to have to travel to the underworld by and large. Similarly the Fae realm tends to be magic all over the place, which means navigating through it can be an arduous task that takes way, way longer than it ought.

Multi Limbed:
Askante has four arms. This allows for a greater manual dexterity than the standard two and can use each as a normal person would use their limbs. It allows it to climb scaleable surfaces easier than most.

No Barrier Will Stop It:
Fear is pervasive. In real terms, this means no doors, locks or walls in the mortal world will stop Askante. This says nothing about alarm systems or security personel, but the barrier itself will not prevent the creature from walking through it. Similarly no mundane binding will contain it, but it may be mystically arrested and held by appropriate means.

In addition, no barrier between the realms DIRECTLY connected to Earth have any means to keep Askante out. This means it can travel between the Mortal realm and the fae, the underworld or the astral, though it has no special skill at shaping or crafting anything within those realms and is no more powerful than any other might be. This has the following benefits:
* It has been used by Mystics and Deities in the past in this capacity as a Psychopomp, messenger or gofer.
*It may bring with it as many individuals as can hold one of its hands to travel 'across' . This does not protect those individuals from the dangers inherant in any of these realms and this should be taken into account.
*It may bring back something from the other sides, provided the object or entity may be held in arms. It has no ability to make said object or entity remain in the mortal realm, once it has set that thing down. Nevertheless this has its uses.

Primal Fear:
Askante has the ability to sense fear. The stronger the fear, the more of a magnet it is to the creature. It can tell the breadth and depth of that fear and its root in the psyche. This grants the following abilities:
*Primal instinct: It can heighten or lessen a person's primal fear. That is to say only the fundamental fear. NOT complex phobias, though they may be lessened in relation to the primal: E.G Fear of snakes because of the danger of poison and teeth, may be lessened but not irradicated. The fear of the open sky and exposure is Primal. The fear of Heights is Primal. The fear of Postmen, is not. This ability is entirely consent based.
*Manifestations: In direct relation to the heightening or lessening of fears, Askante can create sounds, smells, feelings and otherwise that are directly physical, but cannot use them directly as a weapon. Cold sensations down the spine, butterflies in the stomach, these are all doable. A swarm of skittering things in the shadows is also doable, but they can do no physical harm, other than be extremely creepy and crawl on skin. These manifestations are the warning signs to stay away from the dangerous thing. These are **EXPLICITLY** not illusions and have a tangible quality to them, but last only until the fear has passed and are formed out of ectoplasmic matter.

Supernaturally Agile:
The creature is lithe and agile. In simplest terms, it can dodge most ordinary ranged weaponry such as arrows and darts with relative ease and can move around an environment almost faster than the human eye can track. Bullets travel faster than that though and it may be shot if it cannot gain cover quick enough.

Traveller:

Askante can teleport locally: Approximately one or two acres or a city block. The more it teleports the more fatigued it gets and can manage probably five or six jumps before exhaustion. It can however, also travel through the worlds, which allows it to go across the continental land masses if it knows its destination, for the purpose of scenes.

Skills

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Hand To Hand Combat:
Askante does not usually fight things if it can help it. It usually has no need, but it is very capable of defending itself with exceptional skill in hand to hand combat, using teeth, claws and body parts.

Jack of All Trades:
...is the master of none. But it is passably good at a very broad variety of skills and talents that mankind has honed and it has been able to observe. This applies mostly to practical skills, such as carpentry, animal husbandry, pottery, skinning, tanning, etcetera and cannot easily be applied to such things as computer hacking, though it might still take a crack at that.

Threat Assessment:

By its very nature, Askante has a talent for near instant situational assessment of threat and can easily discern in any given environment or scenario, what dangers may come from various sources. Though it does not make it a stellar tactician, it can quickly analyze the safest approach to a dangerous situation.

Resources

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All My Pretty Things:
Good fortune favours the brave, but Fear has collected quite a bit of it, too. Little baubles, pretty things, unusual items and occasionally rare jewels. At the time they were collected, most of these items were nothing more than trinkets, but when that trinket is two thousand years old, it has more value in the current market. At a pinch, Askante could liquidize a bit of its assets if this mundane thing called money was necessary. It wouldn't like it though.

Crow's Stone:
Askante followed the people to Australasia and at one point, the aborigines of what would become Victoria gifted it in thanks, with a simple river stone painted with the image of 'Crow'. This is a genuine minor artifact that is truly ancient and grants Crow's gift-- the equivalent of All-speak, allowing Fear to communicate with any that need to listen.

Fetishes:
Over its existence, Askante has collected many fetishes or spirit charms, from around the world. Some of them may even have some power with the spirit world, in the right hands.

Some Still Remember:

Here and there, scattered around the world are peoples, usually tribal, sometimes magical, that still know who Askante is, passed down in writings, stories, oral traditions, the Dreamtime or otherwise. Sometimes this offers respite and assistance, but it can be a double edged sword. Sometimes, they also know its name...

Weaknesses

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A Plethora of Pantheons:
Though Askante is not a devil, a demon, a bakemono, a great bane, a minion or a servitor, because it shares some traits with such divine entities, it can be occasionally compelled and/or charmed by a given Deity, Angel or otherwise. It is harder to do so, but not impossible. Most of the time, it would probably be quite happy just to be asked.

Benevolence:
Though it might seem like a virtue at its core, fundamentally being a good force dressed in a dark facade has is downsides. The PURPOSE of Askante is a good one, to help the Monkeys to survive; both themselves and others. It can be very hard to face the fire though, when all you really want to do is keep them from harm, idiots that they often are. It can bring Askante considerable emotional pain, to watch self-destruction and the Fear that it was born of, be used as a weapon.

Get Thee Behind Me:
Because there is no straight rule that applies to Askante, as defined by a pantheon or its nemesis, it is unfortunately bound to whatever belief might be strongest. It could be abjured by crossed fingers like the lamest vampire ever, /if/ the person doing so truly believed the warding would work.

Superstition:
You never know if a ward has a power, or a belief might actually bring about ill-fate. Too may times, in too many places, the warding of bad luck has had a knock-on effect on Askante, particularly as it senses the strange little fears around it. So it is very careful, if also very random (because you never know /which/ warding may have effect) to adhere to the vibes where it is at. This can sometimes render it stuck in a nearly OCD behavioural pattern, as it feels the energy around it.

The Power of the Name:

The Name is the thing that binds. If any find out its true name (The whole of the thing, that is) they will have power over it to compel it to a task. A particularly powerful Mystic of any stripe could effectively bind it into service and this has happened in the past. It is wary of trusting any with such power, for very good reasons.

Logs

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To Refresh Character's Log List Click Here. Then hit the resulting button to dump the old cached list.

Title	Date	Scene Summary
Home Improvements	November 2nd, 2023	Nick paid a visit and brought chinese food. A bit of a discussion was had on Citizenship and SIN cards.
Sleeze, wheeze, cheese.	October 1st, 2023	A Daemon and Hellblazer in a bar. Peanut happened, and observations on human kind
Just another day in the Hyperloop	September 6th, 2023	Where's transit security when you need it?
Central park: A Ninja Bear theme	September 2nd, 2023	Supervillain trauma is so yesterday. Fruit pelting, who even does that any more?
A plethora of Choices	August 27th, 2023	Decisions made: Seafood at the sailor and a bit of history, good food and company. And meeting Nikki's BF.
Now You See Him...	July 26th, 2023	A pleasant afternoon at the Central Park Zoo is spoiled by Spider-Man's (or his evil twin's) attempted assassination of the Mayor of New York City. Jessica Drew is forced to watch a burger kiosk explode. Right. In Front. Of Her. Eyes. So it's a bad day all around.
It Preys	July 3rd, 2023	Spider-Man goes hunting the reptiloid creature in Central Park, suspecting that it is in fact Dr. Curt Connors. Things do not, uhhhh, go quite as planned.
Hellish glare and inference	June 6th, 2023	Satana makes a new friend! And for the first time, not from raw materials! (She also offends an earth spirit, but that's not important, right?)
Delayed Diner Dining	May 26th, 2023	Nick follows through on his promise to take Askante to Fred's Diner. Lucifer joins in. There is talk of careers, forbidden books, and FEEEEELINGS
A business empire in the making--maybe.	May 22nd, 2023	Sometimes a guy just has to prove he is who they say he is.
Curiosity and other emotions	April 30th, 2023	What started as a personal mission, became a different entity. Willow Rosenberg, witch extraordinaire, brought Joy to Hope. In the form of magic transportation and a small battery-free radio...
Adaptation Part 2	April 22nd, 2023	Summary needed
Where the Shadows Grow	April 18th, 2023	Lucifer gives Askante a friendly visit and invites Nick Drago along to meet the Daemon of Fear.
Catching A Convoy	April 8th, 2023	Two DPS (one melee DPS/Tank Subclass and the other Ranged DPS) take on the Raid Boss with mixed results but a great Charisma Roll saves the day.
How to Handle Beaurocrats for Dummies	April 13th, 2022	Pulling a favour of a beaurocratic nature. After all, the Devil got a driver's license.
Friends in all Forms	April 8th, 2022	Nikki pays Askante a visit, and makes an offer that Askante might not refuse.
Dimensional Hitchhiking	March 27th, 2022	Summary needed
All you could Hope for	March 23rd, 2022	Hope has a house. And a positive effect.
By the burning embers of a dumpster fire...	March 13th, 2022	A fleeting meeting in the green of NYC
Willard, 2030 edition	March 6th, 2022	Watching tigers burning bright. Met a rogue in dead of night. Been around for all these years, found the names to give those fears.
Walking through History	February 18th, 2022	The devil gave the Daemon of fear some news on Hope. And a gift of knowledge. Plus, the brain is pretty from the inside, with computer imaging.
Gargoyle impressions	February 1st, 2022	Met Loki, that was weird. Sat on the Statue of Liberty or a bit and discussed humanity
Snowfall in the Park	January 8th, 2022	Summary needed
Rock, Meet Hard Place	December 2nd, 2021	A seemingly random attack leads to freedom for one who's been a prisoner inside his own mind.
Thanksgiving at a Coffee Shop	November 26th, 2021	A gathering at a coffee shop of people who all had a reason to want coffee after a long and typically stressful holiday
It's all symbolic isn't it	November 23rd, 2021	On the statue of Liberty, ancient things meet for the first time, for the last time...or something.
Evening Snacks	November 14th, 2021	A cozy, friendly picnic became the site of an attempted murder, a moment of realization and the site of an explosion, all at once..
Another day in somebody else's paradise	October 31st, 2021	Sarah Connor meets a Daemon, a hungry ghost was toasted. Normal business in some places.
Are you afraid of the Dark	October 23rd, 2021	A little more is discovered about Vitali's possession situation. Though there are still very few answers. And no, Heng-Tali is not afraid of the dark.
A Sunny Afternoon in the Park	October 3rd, 2021	Liansong and Yaozo meet new people.
You Don't Belong Here	September 30th, 2021	Summary needed
Listen to the Fear	September 26th, 2021	Thwart a mugging, get shot, get hotdogs and talk about mysticism.
Pot luck	August 30th, 2021	A street fundraiser introduces Soda pop to a millions of years old Daemon. And Nikki gifts it a shiny thing. A computer chip necklace. One day, that will be antiquity.
In the park after dark	August 28th, 2021	A chance encounter in the park, brought a young Magi in contact with an ancient spirit
It's nice to see a /lady/ Demigod sometimes...	August 12th, 2021	Askante dipped into the embassy of Themyscira and acquainted itself with Princess Diana. The original one that is.
All my pretty things!	August 2nd, 2021	ASkante meets Nikki and Squishy. Shares shinies and discovers the internet is used for 'lightning knowledge'. Nope, still don't understand why cellphones are so facinating.
Darliston	August 2nd, 2021	They leave this Halfway Lounge in the golden glow of John's abode, leaving behind their fears. For now.
A Night of Liberty	July 31st, 2021	An unexpected meeting happens on Liberty Island after it's closed to tourists for the night and interesting conversation occurs.
A charm for all your fears	July 26th, 2021	Scoobies. They are a thing. Also trades probably need to have an agreement before hand.
Everyone's coming to Church these days	July 23rd, 2021	Wade crashed Askante's hideyhole. Brought vampires. There was a chat with the Redbox.
Fear-O-Meter, Bah Dee Ba Dee Da	July 22nd, 2021	Fearful Fellows Find Fun and Friendship in Fated Fouled Forthress of Faith
Falling down the Cracks	July 21st, 2021	Shamans can still be kind to the unprepared
Not that kind of Fetish	July 21st, 2021	Askante tries to find its pendant and meets an old friend.

Cutscenes

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To Refresh Character's Log List Click Here. Then hit the resulting button to dump the old cached list.

Title	Date	Scene Summary
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Gallery

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