Vincent Jones

Scion! The game happened Thursday, but not much happened in it, and then over the weekend IRC went down and I bought pokemon platinum... yeah. Anyway, we didn't do much actual *game* last week, and so I will meld what we did do into this week's story. But the Storyteller asked for some fluff and so after the break is the history and description of my Scion, Vincent Jones, and his Birthrights.

In order to understand any Scion, one must first understand their heritage. This is just as true of Vincent Jones, and though tales of his Divine Father Vishnu are plentiful and elaborate, here I will tell the short story of his mother, the mortal Lily Jones.

Lily Jones was born in the late 60s, to mother Anne and an unkown father of Indian descent. Anne was a hippy and never denied that she slept with many men in those years, and Lily had a lazy upbringing full of joy and friendship in Cardiff. She stayed in the city to study literature at university, and only at the age of 24 did she go out to see the world. Her tour took her around all of Asia, finishing in February at the Indian city of Agra, where the Taj Mahal lies. In the shadow of that legendary building she met a man calling himself Arcav, a very handsome, pale-skinned man with whom she spent a wild night of passion. In the morning, he was gone.

Vincent Jones, son of Lily and grandson of Anne, was born in the Welsh countryside on the 14th of November 1989. He was brought up by two women, and was taught to always be aware of people and their emotions. Perhaps in rebellion at this matriarchal upbringing, at school he always favoured PE and sports, coming to excel at athletics and at rugby. Playing the position of scrum half, he was captain of his school and local rugby teams by the time he entered his teenage years. Puberty changed him from a cherubic boy into a handsome man, and a line of broken-hearted girls soon trailed in his wake.

Vincent left school at age 16 with GCSEs in only English, Politics and PE. He continued playing for his local team in the hopes of attracting the eye of a wandering talent scout while he worked a number of jobs as a barman, waiter and at one point personal trainer. Then came the fateful night. He was working as a waiter when a busload of foreign dignitaries came into the pub where he worked due to a flat tyre. He was well-liked and his tips were significant, and at the end of his shift he felt like the luckiest man in Cardiff. Then he met his step-mother.

Lakshmi is renowned for her beauty among the Devas, and Vincent can't help but agree. He was entranced as she led him away out of the city into the woods and told him what he was. As he came to grips with the fact that his father was Vishnu and he needed to fight monsters, Lakshmi presented him with two gifts. On behalf of his father, Vincent received a great sword, and from his step-mother a small bulb. He didn't even bother to hand in his notice or inform his rugby club, only leaving a note for his mother Lily before starting on the road to England.

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Vincent Jones is a tall, well-built man, measuring in at 1.9m tall and with clearly defined yet light muscles all over his body. Naturally dark of hair, Vincent keeps his domed head cleanly shaven so that only the bushy eyebrows over his dark brown eyes give away this fact. Vincent's preferred attire is a pair of worn blue jeans that are loose enough to run in, and a short-sleeved rugby shirt in his national colours of red with white flanks. He also shows his nationality with bright green trainers that would match his team's socks, though he wears none. Over the crest on his shirt, Vincent has crudely sewn on a white breast pocket, inside of which can be seen an odd lump that is in fact his step-mother's lotus bulb. Hanging from his belt are a pair of sharpened chakram which Vincent took from his mother's travel collection.

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Lakshmi's gift to her husband's son was a Bulb of the Perfect Lotus (Relic 2: Channels Health and a Follower). This white bulb, taken from the lotus flower in which the Goddess herself was once reborn, holds the power of potential life. It also holds a number of sentient spirits, which Vincent may awaken by whispering a summoning command over the bulb.

These Lotus Sprites (Followers 1) are the spirits of petals of the Lotus Flower, and take the physical form of large petals folded into the shapes of angels. There are five of them, each with a different colour and personality. Kaalaa is black and lazy, while Safed is white and vain and Niila is blue and lecherous. Haraa the green is demanding and ravenous, while Laal the red is quick to anger and fond of jealousy. While none of them enjoy fighting, they can be motivated to violence, and above all they are each fiercely loyal to Vincent.

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Vishnu was filled with sorrow when he found that he would not be able to give his son his Visitation personally, and so set about finding him the finest weapon he could. He went to a scion of Surya the Sun God, a famous blacksmith among the Devas, to ask for this boon. In his incarnation as Rama, Vishnu had saved this smith's life, and so the Sword of the Radiant Protector (Relic 4: Channels Guardian, Sun, War. Katana template with the Piercing tag) was forged immediately and with pleasure and love. The Sword is a khanda, a traditional Indian broadsword with a long blade and a flat end. This one varies from the norm in that it has a triangular cross-section, giving one razor-sharp cutting edge and one flat, resilient edge for guarding with. This flat edge is further hardened by an overlaid layer of glimmering gold forged from Sunlight. This guarding edge shines just the same in any light as it does in that of the noonday Sun, and will never dull even though Vincent uses it to push against so as to deliver more forceful blows.

No sheath can fit the Sword, and so instead Vincent has two leather straps on his back between which is suspended a long L-shaped bladeguard. It is these straps which hold the sword to his back when not in use, and this metal sheet which stops the mighty Sword from merely slicing through its restraints. It takes merely a moment, however, for Vincent to grab the hilt over his shoulder and bring the khanda to bear.