Rook (Lavender Spools)
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Rook, born Lavender Spools, is a relatively new face in the hero community. She was a literal unknown only a few months ago, appearing out of obscurity with a strong showing during a DEMON assault on police forces in Millenium City's West Side where she prevented the deaths of several officers with healing influence. Since then she has made an endeavor to work her particular brand of justice into the world's areas of need.
(Information OOC unless otherwise indicated.)
Contents
Background
Beginnings
Rook doesn't have a great deal of detail about her past, what little of it there is in only eighteen years. Her childhood was relatively normal: imperfect, but most are. Her parents divorced when she was barely three years old. Her father made no move to vie for custody. Raised by her mother alone, young Lavender had a mundane school life in Christchurch, New Zealand. She was an above average student with particularly high marks in history and participated in several after-school sports activities. She dated for a few months. In all, her experience was entirely average.
Halfway through Form 5 a truck struck the passenger side of the Spools' car, buckling the doors inward and rolling the car several times before it came to a stop. Despite swift medical response, Lavender did not survive.
As often happens with early deaths her funeral was well attended. The captain of the football team, her best friend, spoke on her behalf. The mourning period came and went. Life moved on.
This occurred in 1969.
The Conversation
Lavender wasn't sure how exactly she had gotten out of the car. That was their car smashed on the side of the road - she was pretty sure, at least. It looked like their car. It was hard to tell with people running over to it to force the driver-side door open. But then her mom was being dragged out. So it must be their car. So why wasn't she in it?
There was a man standing beside her in the road, but no one paid them much attention. The crash was more eye-catching than she was in her simple clothes, but this guy should have drawn someone to him. All black on a sunny day. Silver jewelry around his neck. Just standing there in the road.
She asked if he wasn't going to help with the car.
The man smiled at her, but not like he was happy. The sick-friend smile. The bad news smile. "No, they don't need my help over there," he said.
So what was he doing here then?
He held out his hand. "I came to pick you up. There's something I think you should see."
She could hear wings.
They were in a house. Of sorts. Something about it was off, but she couldn't quite place what. He didn't give her long to look at it; there were things to be done inside. "Your time is your time," he said, "but only for that one line and, well...sometimes things don't happen in quite the way they are meant to happen."
She wasn't sure what he meant. He stuck his hands in his jacket pockets. "Sometimes people can be more resistant about facing the future than most people would. One big rock in the river makes the water move around it. When that happens it splashes onto things that wouldn't have gotten wet yet."
She looked at him.
The pale man took off his jacket; he hung it up on a hook in the garage. When did the room become a garage? "I'm offering you a second chance. Not to give you back what you lost - that's over. There's no going back. But if you want it, I can replace it with something else."
Like what?
"I have to visit the world in person every once in a while," he says. "It's an exercise I enjoy, but it's also an obligation that I think I could fulfill better if I made the trip more often. I just can't afford to do that more than I already do." He crossed his arms. "If I had someone else to help me out with the task..."
They spoke for a time afterward, but she already knew she would accept. This man, she knew that she knew him. She could feel something about him already inside her, somewhere. A connection. Yes. She would do this.
Return
Time passed. She learned. She learned quickly. How to tap into his hands, his strengths. How to leave his home; how to return to it. How to return to hers. Not that she did - she wasn't ready, not yet. But she could.
The change was abrupt, coming back one day to find him waiting for her on the porch. He didn't need to say anything. It was time for her to move out, to return to her own place.
So she did. And brought him with her, that part of him that was her now, that kept her going. She would live the life that he could not.
He hadn't mentioned she would be coming back so much later than when she'd left. Forty years? Forty YEARS. So much had changed. So much was still changing! Maybe this was why he hadn't mentioned it: he wanted her to see why she was needed, why he needed her. Imagine how much the world could seem alien when only visiting for a short time with centuries between. Only forty years and so much was different. Having someone on the ground to keep life and death grounded could be a great asset to his role.
Fine then. If he needed her, she would be his anchor on her world. If he needed a home here, she would let him rest with her. If he needed a castle, she would be that fortress.
She is his Rook, and the board is vast.
Personality
(Public Knowledge)
Thus far Rook has demonstrated a degree of calm more often attributed to non-human entities with greater lifespan. She appears to have a sense of humor but has yet to reveal a temper, facing those who question her declarations of faith with a reasonable, level response each time such conversations arise in a public forum. When captured by VIPER on one occasion Rook's transmission across the Champions Respond and Protect channel showed signs of fear and the uncertainty of youth, but she retained a clear head and acted on advice given to her without allowing panic to take hold. In all she acts as if her emotional center stands several decades ahead of her physical age, for good or ill.
This sense of maturity extends to her manner of address, speaking to others - enemy or otherwise - in a polite and measured way much of the time. Though on occasion a harsh word here and there arises, usually in the form of turning hostility back on those who directed it toward her, her demeanor rarely shows wrath in her words or tone.
Powers
Teleportation (Folding)
Rook is capable of phasing out of the physical world for periods of time ranging from a few seconds to, according to her, several hours. This ability appears identical to several forms of teleportation. Rook, however, claims that rather than moving directly through space and time to a different location, she is folding herself out of this plane altogether and is removed to "the temple of [her] Lord." The accuracy of this statement is difficult to determine as following a teleporter out of phase is nearly impossible. A dark red light clings to her for some time after she reappears from a fold.
Embrace
By channeling the will of her Lord, Rook is able to make direct contact with the lives of others, to hold them in her hands and sever their connections to the physical world. While this could very easily be used to end a life completely, Rook has thus far only weakened the connection enough to render a hostile force unconscious. In practice, it looks very much as though she is doing some form of harm to her enemies with a projection of darkness.
Soul Salve
In the same manner, connecting with another's soul enables Rook to heal harm done to it, restoring what has been taken away by violence. She appears unable to bring back an entirely expired life, however. Either her Lord's power only extends so far, or he is unwilling to alter what has already ended.
Flight
Rook can take flight while consumed by an aura of purplish flame similar to the light she uses in restoring damaged lives. This light appears to make her weightless, carrying her through the sky where needed until she releases the glow to return to earth.
Bond
By strengthening her bond to her Lord, Rook is able to empower her connection to his will, reinforcing both the impact of her destructive influence and enhancing her ability to restore what has been damaged. An intense darkening surrounds her when she enters an aggressive state, inverting the white segments of her robes. The restorative aura, by contrast, is far more subtle - a misty glow about her person.
Portals
Rook can open a variety of portals to her Lord's plane, their size and shape varying by purpose. The smallest she uses as a shield, opening a passage between herself and a source of danger to redirect incoming attacks elsewhere, reducing the force that presses through to her body. A series of circles summoned beneath her increases her ability to strike through solid bodies to the energy that drives them. The largest is a destructive rift that grips the core of her enemies and hurls them about in an effort to discourage further aggression.
Religion
(Excerpt from an interview with Rook immediately following yet another attempt on the life of Mayor Biselle which she played a part in thwarting. Published in a magazine.)
Q: You say your power comes from faith, but you don't display overt indicators of your religion. What is it exactly that you worship?
Rook: "My faith is not one that preaches. It is not a church; it does not have a following as such. There are others who worship, and we all belong to my Lord, but it is not the same as, for instance, the Christians with their set structure and beliefs.
"I have been in contact with my Lord. I know Him in some fraction of the way He knows me, knows all of us. While all have had words with Him at one time, I am one of the few gifted with memory of my time spent with Him and the ability to return, to converse, and come back to this world at will. I do not require rules or regulations to know Him better; I do not pray or praise. I worship through my actions in this world. By engaging with all of life I make His will manifest here."
Q: So who is your lord?
R: "Names are labels for concepts, for ideas. I refer to Him as my Lord for that is what He is to me now, as I am today. In the ancient world He was not named, was simply a part of the world, one element among many. In the modern world few things go without some categorization, but that sort of identification is not the same as knowing who He is."
Q: ...is there an answer in there somewhere?
R: "Many. I did not tailor one to satisfy your curiosity."
