Post by Lepa on Oct 21, 2023 22:52:55 GMT -8
(Left: Normal | Right: Blacklight form)
Name: Blake Devitt
Alias: Blacklight
Gender: Male
Age: ~54
Race: Human
Home: Aster City
Alliance: Heliosoft
Alignment: Chaotic Neutral
Family: Kyran Devitt (Grandfather, deceased), Lilith Faust (ex-wife), Aedan Devitt (son)
Friends: Xander Aurelius, Emmett Sinclair, Richard Reagan, Azrael Engineer, Fiona Faire
Rivals: Lyle Truman
Likes: His magic research, alcohol
Dislikes: Socializing, Programming/Coding, Blood Azrael
Job: Magitech Department Head & Programmer at Heliosoft
Appearance: Blake is a tall man with long, dark hair. His hair is thin and wavy and falls just past his shoulders. He usually wears an open button up shirt for the sake of trying to keep up appearances at his job, but it is a minimal effort. When shifting into his enhanced magic form, his hair becomes a bit lighter with a purple shade.
Relationships:
Blake's relationship with his only son, Aedan, was strained in later years. Aedan's disappearance started a nasty argument with Blake's wife, Lilith, that ended with her leaving him. He serves as a boss to Azrael and later Fiona at Heliosoft. Blake's closest friend is Xander, his employer and company owner. He's also friends with Richard, a seasoned police officer.
Personality:
Blake is studious, antisocial, and incredibly secretive. He was more outgoing in his youth, though that has been jaded by age. Best described as grumpy, he prefers to be left alone with his magical research - most of which he's dedicated his life to. He dislikes being around others, seeing them as nuisances that waste his time at best. That isn't to say he hates people - he just prefers solitude and the ability to hear himself think. However, his trust has been betrayed before, so he tends to be guarded around others. This makes him come off as very gruff and standoffish. He dislikes frivolities and tends to bluntly speak his mind.
Despite his prickly exterior, Blake does care about those close to him. Unfortunately, his over devotion to his work often interferes with this - especially when his research is ultimately meant to protect them.
Powers:
Magic Expertise - Magic Inscription & Magitech Programming
Blake's magic expertise mostly focuses on developing or inscribing rituals to attach magical properties to an object. He rejects the term "enchanting," protesting that his inscription process is more akin to computer coding, requiring a multitude of smaller spells and commands to achieve much more complicated effects. If he was out in the world and had to inscribe an object without any of his tools or preparations, he can only inscribe a very short and basic magical property. This also would take some time and require focus from Blake.
The other half of his knowledge does involve actual computer programming and coding, though said knowledge is mostly for translating magical spells or rituals into automated computer processes. He mostly creates and translates simple spells for his company as they're easier to mass produce with fewer problems. While it is possible for him to create more complex magical processes, these are mostly for his own private use.
Elemental Fire Binding Ritual
Blake's summoning magic is very specific. His knowledge originally stemmed from ancient druidic magic taught to him by his grandfather, which Blake used to summon elemental spirits for assistance. He has forgotten this knowledge long ago. It was lost with his grandfather's passing, though Blake was able to piece together small parts of it from his own research. With it, he developed a specific ritual used to summon a fire spirit that would bond itself to its summoner.
A flawed prototype of the fire ritual was used on Azrael. A second prototype version of the fire ritual was used by his own son Aedan Devitt, Jack Baumer, and Casey Calhoun. The finalized version was used by himself.
Fire Powers - "Blacklight Inferno"
Blake's purple fire abilities he gained through the above ritual he developed himself. The flames belong to a fire elemental that has bonded to him. Blake can use these flames as projectiles or to increase the power of physical attacks, but they also have an ethereal quality to them, allowing him to detect life force signatures. This can range from physical tracks to spiritual or energy trails left by beings from other planes or realms. The effectiveness of his tracking depends on the trail left behind, but he can get a stronger reading if he can cross reference an object that has his target's life energy signature.
Blacklight (Magical State)
If Blake can stand still and focus for a short time, he can synergize with his fire elemental to gain an enhanced form. He gains a long tattered coat with a caped hood and domino mask, while bone-like armor adorns parts of his body. His firepower is stronger and his fighting skill is more competent in this form, as it gives his fire elemental better control of Blake's body. In exchange, he becomes much more vulnerable to damage from water attacks.
Weaknesses:
Blake is an older man who has stated himself that "he's a researcher, not a fighter." While he has fire powers, he doesn't fight with them if he's not transformed into Blacklight. In his normal state, he would mostly attack with fire from a distance and play keep away, as he has less experience at close range.
In his Blacklight state, he's a more competent fighter, but he becomes exceptionally weak to water attacks. He can maintain this transformation for as long as he wants, but he can be kicked out of it if he's hurt enough. This is also a safety precaution for Blake, as trying to stay in his enhanced form while heavily damaged will put extra strain on his body, which will immediately worsen once he returns to his normal state.
History:
As a child, Blake had an insatiable curiosity for magic. He'd first learned about it from his grandfather, Kyran Devitt, whose practices and teachings were Druidic in nature. Blake's parents didn't approve of it, but that didn't stop Blake from wanting to learn more. His grandfather was more than happy to pass on his traditions to him, and under his guidance, Blake was even able to call upon small elementals. Unfortunately, Blake only had this ability for a brief time, losing it with age. The growing arrogance and rebellion of his teen years had made him dismissive of the little magic he'd learned. When his grandfather saw this, he again attempted to guide Blake, but this time the teen was too stubborn to listen.
The eventual passing of Blake's grandfather didn't help matters. Filled with regret, Blake was devastated to lose him, growing secluded and aloof. It was bad enough that his grandfather was gone; it was only later that Blake realized his grandfather used an old, ancient magic that may have been lost alongside him. Blake berated himself for his arrogance. As if to atone, or perhaps distract himself, he immersed himself in magical studies. It was a dim hope, but maybe he could piece together the bits that his grandfather had taught him and rediscover the secrets behind the old magic...
Blake would go on to become an expert in the magical field. This would get him hired by Xander Aurelius as one of the people working on Heliosoft's Magitech development, about 20 years before the present day. He would end up working closely with Lyle Truman, another magical specialist whose knowledge overlapped with his own. Blake was pleased; with his efforts combined with Lyle's, he was closer than ever before to rediscovering his grandfather's old magic.
Unfortunately, Lyle would use this knowledge for his own destructive purposes. Using their findings, Lyle attempted to summon not just an elemental, but a monstrous ice titan. When the temperature sharply dropped, Blake knew something was wrong. He confronted Lyle, quickly learning that the man was obsessed with summoning this creature no matter the consequences. Blake was forced to use everything he knew to stop Lyle from nearly destroying the building. In the moment of desperation, he'd even managed to call forth a fire elemental - something he hadn't been able to achieve since his childhood days. Together, Blake and the flames interrupted the summoning, canceling the ritual and leaving Lyle with a scarred face for his troubles. He still managed to escape in the chaos however, leaving Blake to survey the damage with Xander.
In the midst of the damage and restoration, Blake managed to piece together bits of Lyle's summoning process. He had no doubt that Lyle would attempt it again, especially once Blake realized he had stolen equipment from the company to aid his cause. Blake reasoned the attempt would not happen again so soon, however. If the ice titan was as powerful as Blake suspected it to be, then summoning it again would require a tremendous amount of resources.
Uneasy about the potential looming threat, Xander kept Blake with the company long after their Magitech project concluded. Both felt a personal responsibility for Lyle's actions, and have since resolved to work against the potential appearance of the ice titan. To do this, Xander promoted Blake to the head of the newly formed Magitech department. He was given his own space for private research, where he spent much of his time trying to develop a counter to Lyle's summoning ritual...
Blake would go on to devote the rest of his adult life to this cause. His tireless research and desire to stop Lyle made him obsessive with his work. It came to a point where his own wife accused him of no longer caring about his family when their own son went missing - followed by her leaving him shortly afterward. Now without a family (and later burdened with concealing a co-worker who is periodically possessed by a violent spirit from time to time), Blake spends most of his time holed up in Heliosoft.
Anything else:
- Blake is notoriously unorganized in his workspace.
- The fire elemental Blake bonded with is the same one that he called forth when he stopped Lyle's initial summoning attempt. It naturally hung around him until Blake perfected the fire ritual, where it officially bound itself to him.
- Blake's private space in Heliosoft has a small room with basic necessities for staying overnight.
- His favorite alcoholic drink is an old fashioned.
