thisaccident | application -UPDATED 11/29/11-
The Player
Name/Nickname: Cori
Personal LJ: seireiishtar
IM: ShadesAtNight02 @ AIM
E-mail: seirei_ishtar@yahoo.com
The Character
Character Name: Belial
Character Journal: deal_withthe
Canon: the Black London novels
Age: Ridiculously old
Race: Demon
Timeline: Post Bone Gods, after he essentially helps save the world. Ew.
Abilities/Powers:
► Demonic strength
► Resistance to magical abilities
► Minor dream manipulation
► Power of suggestion; though it's more along the lines of simply dulling a person's inhibitions, and then giving them a nudge in the direction of what they really want to do.
► Healing; he does pull Jack right back from the land of the dead, even if it was in exchange for his soul. It can probably be assumed his abilities cover even little things, closing wounds or curing illness, though it's always for a price.
► Possession; that body he's using? It's not his. And when his back is truly up against the wall, he'll shed the human skin for his real form.
NOTE: This list is subject to change as more of the series is released.
Power Limitations: Well, his healing abilities will need to be toned down, obviously. He won't be able to stop the progress of the disease once it infects others (or himself), but perhaps he could slow it, if nothing else? For the low low price of your soul, of course. Or a favor. He likes favors.
Inventory:
► One stylish undertaker uniform black suit
History:
There is no God. Angels don't exist. But Hell still does, and long before human kind first crawled into the world like an unwanted plague, demons had already made their home in the treacherous planes beneath it. And before the demons there were other creatures, older than gods and much more powerful, and the creature called Abbadon, devourer of worlds, headed the lot of them. They were the beings that made the demons that came after-- the first six-hundred and sixty-six Named demons, modeled after themselves from mud and flesh for their own amusement.
It was all fine and dandy until the demons started to do what all living creatures do, multiplying like rabbits and soon outnumbering their predecessors. It only got worse from there when the demons banded together and waged war on Abbadon and all of his ilk, slaughtering their way through the supposedly superior beings and spreading their remains all across the deserts of Hell.
Belial - one of the original Named demons and bearing the mark to prove it - was one of them, even having a hand in taking down Abaddon himself and allowing the three most powerful demons - Azrael, Beelzebub, and Baal, who later go on to become the Triumverate, and the supreme Princes of Hell - to take Abaddon, and the rest of his kin that they couldn't outright destroy, and lock them away in the furthest depths of Hell for the rest of eternity, with only the dark and ghosts for company. Belial's part in the war even later earned him the rank of general of Hell's armies, possibly ranking him only just below the Princes themselves.
These days, though, Belial seems to be nothing more than a demon enjoying what luxuries Hell can afford him, and taking to the mortal plane for those that Hell can't.
One such luxury would be living souls; particularly those of mages, and one night that's exactly what he gets. A mage named Jack Winter, bleeding out in the middle of a crypt from a summoning gone horribly, horribly wrong, uses the last few precious moments of his life to call up any demon or spirit that would hear him out, and Belial is the first demon to heed his call. Jack, naturally, doesn't want to die, and so Belial makes him a deal; Jack gets another thirteen years added onto his lifespan, and in return, his soul is Belial's to take to Hell once those thirteen years are up. No ifs, ands, or buts.
And foolishly, Jack seals the bargain.
But being a demon of his word, Belial leaves Jack to his own devices once the mage is back on his feet, and for a while it seems as if Jack would never hear from the demon again.
Thirteen years come and go quickly, however. And when Belial finally does return to remind Jack that his soul's due date is rapidly approaching, Jack, very predictably, starts fighting back, looking for any way he can possibly get out of the bargain he made with his soul intact. His life would be nice, too. And to his luck, he finds something that almost looks like an opportunity to do just that. Belial actually lost a soul, another man who had bargained with him after Jack, and he needs the mage to find the man and return him. The only problem is that this other man ran straight to another demon's turf, where Belial can't reach him.
And that's about when the wheels in Jack's mind really start kicking into overdrive, because if this one man can get away from Belial, then maybe he has a chance, too.
Unfortunately, fate never plays out the way we want it to. When Jack finally does find the man, it's only to watch him shoot himself in the face, loosing his soul on another demon's turf and thus effectively keeping it from Belial's clutches, but leaving Jack with nothing left to work for. And when his thirteen years finally comes to a close....
He still fights tooth and nail when Belial comes back for him. But he goes down all the same. And for a while Belial has exactly what he wants. Because Jack's soul is special, in a way. He's the chosen mage of the Morrigan, a goddess of war, who would love nothing more than for Jack to fight at the head of her dead army, to help her raze the world, to "cleanse" and "renew" it as something better. Unfortunately for Belial, the Morrigan herself comes to Jack in Hell, and she has an offer of her own; help her, fight with her, and he can live again.
Jack takes it, and just like that he's gone. And Belial is not happy.
Six months later Belial finds himself summoned again, this time by name, and is surprised to find that this time it's Jack's girlfriend, Pete, pulling him up from the Pit.
Pete has a bit of a problem, you see. First off, Jack's alive, after having been assumed dead for the last several months. Second, the Morrigan wants a particular soul to serve as the catalyst for summoning a demon of her own, a great primordial evil called Nergal, to head her bloody war across all of creation. And Jack's working for her. And Jack has the soul, which he conned Pete into helping him get, before he left her with the necromancers they ended up stealing the soul from. He's kind of an amazing dick like that, as you can see.
Said necromancers then locked her in an old warehouse freezer, and she's understandably pissed about the whole affair. Pissed enough to call up a demon. The only demon whose name she knows, and that just happens to be the one who condemned the man she loves in the first place, at that. Belial's actually fairly amused at the fact. But she called him with a bargain in mind, and after tugging on her chain a bit for the sake of entertainment, he's happy to agree.
Pete's mission, as she's chosen to accept, is to find Jack, stop him from handing the soul over, put a boot firmly up his lying, backstabbing ass, and hopefully stop a potential apocalypse from devouring the world, and all Belial has to do is help her in any way he can. Because if Earth is razed, Hell is going to follow, and all of demon kind with it. In return, Belial gets one favor from her, for anything he so wishes. No soul needed, because Pete's pure spirit wouldn't last a moment in Hell anyway. And besides, it turns out that Pete is a being known as a Weir-- a sort of living magical battery that amplifies the power of mages ten-fold. A rare hot commodity in their world. It's never a bad life choice to be owed a favor from a Weir.
When they finally do track Jack down, however? That's when everything, rather predictably, goes straight to shit. Jack's been trying to hide, guilt eating away his sanity bit by bit, and when the Morrigan arrives with them the party really gets going. She's a powerful woman in her own right, despite Belial's reassurances, and the demon is almost pushed right out of his borrowed skin and just narrowly avoids being sent straight back to Hell. It's about then that Pete finally does the one thing she's been trying to avoid all this time.
She sticks a knife into Jack's chest, killing him a third, and supposedly final time. Having lost her greatest warrior, the Morrigan flees, the summoning just narrowly averted. And the world is safe as as it's ever been.
Medics also arrive shortly after the chaos and manage to revive Jack, though Pete seems just slightly less relieved about that.
And with that, Belial's end of the deal is done. He finally takes his leave, but not without reminding Pete that he'll be back for his favor, and an eventual second attempt at Jack's now free soul. Because the man still owes his soul, and demons are not the kind to ever forget a bargain.
Personality:
When we meet him in canon, our first impression is that he's just the sort of lying, scheming, soul hungry monster you typically expect of demons. But Belial's debut novel is also told from Jack Winter's point of view. You know, the man who fought tooth and nail to find any way out of the bargain he made on his soul, and is therefore understandably biased in his thoughts about the demon. The way he sees Belial isn't necessarily accurate.
Except for the soul hungry bit, at least. That's all true.
But if there's one thing that Belial isn't, it's a liar. Sure, he may joke and tease ("We're not so different from humans, Pete. 8(" "Don't lie to me. >(" "Well, it was worth a shot. B)"), but he's never anything but honest to everyone he speaks with, often to an entirely brutal degree. This is especially true when it comes to deal making; a bargain is sacred to a demon, and Belial tells people in no uncertain terms the price they'll eventually have to pay along the line, whether it's owing a vague and inevitably abusive favor or having their soul dragged down to Hell. He always keeps his end of the bargain, and the person he made the deal with will, too. If he has to threaten and cajole a bit in order to make them understand that, well, that makes it all the more entertaining for him. He plays by the rules; the only problem is that sometimes it gets hard to tell if he's really following the rules of Hell, or his own.
He does, however, seem a bit picky about the deals that he makes. He was more than ready to turn down Pete's plea for help until she explained in detail how the world would probably be lost (and, naturally, Hell along with it), and even then he agreed only because it'd be a shame to let his favorite haunting ground go to waste.
He's a prideful man, and as far as he's concerned he has no reason not to be. He's one of the elite, possibly one of the most powerful demons next to only the Princes themselves, and he knows it. (In fact, the Princes are the only beings he's ever shown as being submissive to, and even frightened of, despite often talking trash about them behind their backs; when someone can not only wipe you out of existence, but even fucking liquidate you like you've never existed at all....well, when they say "jump", you damn well jump.)
But despite the smug and cocksure attitude, Belial is a surprisingly amiable sort of demon, civil for the most part and can even be outright friendly, cruel and crude as it can come off. And he's one of the few characters overall who will willingly admit when he's made a mistake, laugh it off, and actually make the effort to not repeat it twice. He pays attention and he learns, seems to understand people even better than most people do, and that alone may be the most dangerous thing about him.
Unfortunately, the friendliness can often get too friendly. Sexual harassment is generally how he says hello, and slamming people into walls a friendly handshake.
Oddly enough, he still seems able to care for people in his own way. Once he strikes a deal with someone, that's it. That person is his, until the bargain is seen all the way through. Oftentimes even after, should that bargain include their soul. He will regularly check in on those that owe him, and as shown in the case of Pete, and later on even Jack, will even go as far as to protect them from any other threat. It's a possessive affection, if it's even affection at all, and he's not going to let anyone break his toys before he gets the chance to play. (At least, he won't allow anything too damaging.)
He comes off as hard to offend, and harder still to really anger. But as said before, he's a prideful one, and once he feels he's been pushed enough he pushes right back, quick and often twice as violent. He was made the general of Hell's armies for a reason, and you don't keep that title very long by being a spineless idiot.
Above all else, though, Belial's driven. Everything he does is done with only one thought in mind: how can he use it to help his own ends?
Also, the man loves the cinema, with a fondness for Bond films and celebrity-lust over one Ursula Andress. He likes the small joys in life.
First Person Sample:
[There's a bit of a shuffling noise as the audio clicks on, some tapping and some mumbling.]
--quaint. Smoke and plague and death. It smells like I'm still back in fucking London.
[The audio cuts out. After a moment it flickers on again, the owner of the disembodied voice apparently satisfied with his investigation of the device, and he heaves an exasperated sigh before speaking.]
Here's the deal, then. Not that the change of scenery isn't nice, but if you kind folks could explain to me what exactly is going on with the plane displacement shenanigans, I won't be painting the town with your entrails. What do you say?
[....not that the bored tone sounds especially threatening, granted.]
Write it out Sample:
He could hear the sirens even before they stepped out of the lift, the sharp sounds drilling into an already hellish migraine (pun not intended), and it only became worse as they exited the building.
Well. Belial exited. Pete he had to practically drag out by the hair, the woman held firmly against him and trying to take him down with her every time she stumbled. She was still out of it, still in a shock that showed no signs of abating anytime soon. Belial could have left her behind, bent over the bloody corpse of the late Jack Winter (which, he suspected, the nice doctors had already managed to revive, allowing the mage to cheat death for a third time, the bloody fucking Houdini) and leave the medics to clean up the mess. Her mess. It was nothing less than the woman deserved, after all. He should have left her up there, but he made a bargain with her that he intended to see through.
And besides that, he couldn't very well call in a favor from some drugged up meat sack. Which is likely what she'd become if left to London's finest.
It was with that thought in mind he deigned to show her that one moment of generosity; took her someplace safe, away from the chaos engulfing the hospital, checked her over for any injuries that may have needed righting, and sat her down on the edge of the pavement, to watch over her until she collected herself back into the iron-willed young woman he had been growing so increasingly fond of.
There was a lot of blood. But, much to the demon's amusement, none of it was Pete's own.
So that was that. The Morrigan had fled, like the flighty bitch she was, Nergal shoved back into whatever hole he'd tried so hard to crawl out of, the world made safe for puppies and rainbows all around. And there was Belial, tired and worn and still clinging desperately to the skin he'd been very nearly pushed right of. Belial and little Petunia, bonified heroes of the Black.
He was never going to scrub himself clean of such a dirty feeling.