Application (Mayfield)
Name: Trev-MUN
Personal LJ: ils_trevmun
Contact Info: E-mail: irishlightningstudios@gmail.com AIM: Aragan the Acolyte
Other Characters Played: Balin Wilbur (walking_nuke), Falk Gatt (nanocerancowboy)
Preferred Housing: Randomize me!
Character Name: The Monk of Key-Fu (Mayfield could use "Monk" as his surname and "Key-Fu" as his first name)
Character Age: In his thirties.
1. Background
2. Personality
3. Abilities - Training
4. Abilities - Equipment
5. Abilities - Powers
6. Sample Entries
BACKGROUND
Many years ago, Key-Fu was once a self-titled "champion vampire killer." He has willingly forgotten his original name, preferring instead the name of his martial art as his own name. His change in career and identity started when he came across the Key rune in an abandoned abbey that had fallen victim to vampirism, hidden in part by a monk's lunch box.
Once he took the Key rune for himself, Key-Fu was imbued with knowledge of the martial arts involving the Key's use as the primary weapon. He was bestowed with all the knowledge needed to unleash its powers and apply them in both combat and outside of it. Intrigued by what the Key bestowed upon him, he took it upon himself to wander the countryside, experimenting with the martial art and seeking to master its powers. After all, knowledge of an art is one thing-mastery of it is quite another!
During his early travels, he met with several other wandering warriors, as well as fought against his archenemy, a powerful vampire once known as the Count of Red Liquid Which Flows Unpleasantly. The Count had sought to take Key-Fu's Key-but failing to talk the martial artist into merely giving it up, he attempted to kill him instead. In the ensuing conflict, Key-Fu first unleashed the full power of the Key on the brink of his defeat, destroying his rival with a punch to the face.
Years later, Key-Fu was transported to a spiritual plane after a fatal car accident. There, he met many of the people he had defeated in combat, and after a short time, was confronted by another martial artist (who had projected himself into the spiritual plane and was not truly dead). This martial artist, the Monk of Machine Translate, demanded the Key from Key-Fu much as The Count once did. The ensuing fight between Key-Fu, his newly-befriended old rivals, and the enemy martial artist (as well as his lackeys) devastated the spiritual plane, forcing its rulers to return Key-Fu and his companions to the living to prevent any further damage.
After returning to the land of the living, Key-Fu assembled a group of like-minded martial artists-including the Count-to form the Caravan Companions, based out of his own Winnebago (originally based out of an apartment, but they were evicted when Machine Translate arrived to fight them). For several years Key-Fu's group clashed with Machine Translate and his new gang of fellow martial artists, the Cantankerous Companions, having lost his original team of lackeys to Key-Fu's prowess during the battle in the spiritual plane. One such battle resulted in the brief incarceration of Key-Fu's team, due to the damage done to a bank where the battle had been fought. The jail complex's self-destruction after its power generator went unstable allowed Key-Fu to go free, and thus far, the authorities have not come looking for him-perhaps assuming that he had died in the explosion that followed.
The rivalry between Key-Fu, Machine Translate, and their respective teams has not lessened any since that time. To this day, Key-Fu continues to clash intermittently with Machine Translate, especially when the latter is goaded by his superior to step up his plans to destroy Key-Fu and take his Key.
PERSONALITY
Key-Fu is best characterized as a wildcard. People who try to physically read his emotions are stymied by the fact that he seems to have very few facial expressions other than his wide, toothy grin-most of which tend to be either anguish or pained. Similarly, he almost never loses his confidant, stereotypically heroic-sounding voice, no matter what he may be truly feeling. Key-Fu typically declares how he feels in any situation, which would normally remove any social vagueness or subtleties-but even this can be difficult, given Key-Fu's preference to use malaprops and strange, wordy phrases in lieu of plain speech. Suffice to say, Key-Fu is also a chatterbox.
No matter what he's doing, the Monk of Key-Fu always seems to have an unlimited reserve of energy and gusto. He'll perform any task with vigor, even if he declares it to be boring, humiliating, or mundane. That's not to say that he might actually be good at what he's doing, though; Key-Fu can be reckless, especially when it comes to dealing with things outside his expertise. Though he's at least responsible enough that everyday domestic chores won't turn into a total disaster. (Usually.)
The same goes for combat, too. Despite the fact that he tries to fight on the side of the good guys in every battle he partakes, he almost invariably hurts the good guys as much as he does his opponents. Did he just get kicked into a wall? You can bet it there's someone or something in between him and that wall who's going to taste Key-Fu's back. Did Key-Fu just miss with a leaping kick? You can bet that he's going to slip on a banana peel, fall into a manhole, smash through a car windshield, or land in something explosive.
Whether or not Key-Fu understands how dangerous he is to his friends and (potential) allies is not clear. He may simply not be aware of how much damage he's causing to those whom he's not trying to defeat. If made to understand, he will at least apologize and attempt to make up for it, up to and including submitting to the authorities; in the past, Key-Fu was arrested and jailed for his failed attempt at stopping a rival martial artist from achieving a diabolical goal. He willingly allowed himself to be jailed, yet had no compulsions about leaving his cell when an accident gave him free passage through the facility-it just wasn't until the jail itself was about to self-destruct that he attempted to escape.
When Key-Fu isn't busy with the more basic day to day problems of living, or facing off against unpleasantness, he's always training, struggling to reach higher levels of mastery with his chosen martial art. The only things that truly tick Key-Fu off are those who try to kill him or steal his Key rune-such people typically become his rivals and archenemies. Rivals borne out out friendly rivalry, however, are treated with the same benign(?) behavior that Key-Fu is normally given to expressing.
ABILITIES - TRAINING
MARTIAL ARTS: Key-Fu is sole known practitioner of the martial art that he's named himself after, but many of its more standard moves resemble those in other martial arts, such as taekwondo, judo, muay thai, akido and karate. Thus, while he cannot claim to be knowledgeable in any single art outside his own, he is still capable of sparring with the best of them, and he can fight barehanded when he doesn't have his Key on him. Without the Key, though, Key-Fu is more or less limited to the capabilities of a typical martial artist, albeit a skilled one.
ABILITIES - EQUIPMENT
THE KEY RUNE: This mystical rune, as Key-Fu calls it, looks like a golden, thick, oversized skeleton key from the Victorian era. It seems to faintly glow, but will flare to almost blinding levels whenever Key-Fu invokes it to do so. He claims that the Key taught him everything there is to know about the art of Key-Fu, and it seems to be the art's very focus; nearly every strike Key-Fu makes has the Key at its forefront. He will even momentarily balance the Key on his forehead when making a headbutt! There's good reason for it, though; the Key is a bit hefty and is, for all intents and purposes, indestructible. With the right amount of strength and a little luck, Key-Fu can smash through almost anything as long as the Key is the striking point.
SOY BOMB (THE STEED): A Winnebago motorhome that looks as if it took a scenic route through a war zone. Charred black and scored in most places on the outside (with "SOY BOMB!!" spray painted on the sides in red), the inside doesn't look that much better. This is Key-Fu's home, but it is can also serve as a weapon; Key-Fu can channel the Key's power through the Soy Bomb for a vehicle-sized Shoeshine.
ABILITIES - POWERS
SUPERHUMAN AGILITY/DEXTERITY: Not only does Key-Fu have the dexterity to quickly go from one attack to another while still holding the Key at the point of impact, but he is also incredibly fast at doing so. Key-Fu can turn what would normally be a single blow into a combo of strikes all on its own.
PLASTICINE BODY: When Key-Fu takes damage, he really takes damage. Any kind of injury will cause a splattering of blood to fly out of his body-and this includes blunt force like punches or even stubbing his toe. On the other hand, he has a lot of endurance, and wounds rarely appear on his body regardless of his actual physical condition. When Key-Fu is defeated, he may simply faint in a pool of his own blood. During a battle he may lose more blood than a human being could possibly contain.
SHOESHINE !!: The signature attack of the Art of Key-Fu, as well as his battlecry. It involves a series of blindingly fast and hard punches, kicks, and other strikes-all channeled through the power of the Key. The attacks come so fast that it appears as if there are multiple copies of Key-Fu attacking at once; either at a single target or everything (and everyone) around him. This is a command word used in several different applications, including ...
SHIN SHOESHINE MODE: Reserved for dire confrontations or finishing moves, Key-Fu can temporarily absorb the Key to perform this attack with the eponymous command word. When this happens, two key blades stick out on either side of Key-Fu's head like antennae. In this mode, Key-Fu fights barehanded, though the real reason for this form is the Shin Shoeshine-a powerful, supersonic flying punch into his target that causes the Key to reemerge from Key-Fu while unleashing quite a bit of destructive energy. Whether or not Key-Fu misses, the "cooldown" time from this strike is such that it leaves him open to retaliation if he hasn't finished off his foe.
SAMPLE ENTRY 1
Behold, citizens of the flower calendar! A most pleasant morning awaits you!
Yet it is with this dawning day that I am tasked with a challenge that presses upon me! It threatens to ground me like a grape into a most awful wine of failure! My pupils of this dissimulate domicile long for flapjacks! Alas, I confess that I am only aware of jacks that jump!
I require your assistance to become the jack of all trades! Lend me your experience and I shall pay with interest!
SAMPLE ENTRY 2
[It's quite a chaotic battlefield, that much Key-Fu can see. He watches from the roof of a nearby building, fists on his hips and never losing the wide toothy grin on his face, as the watches the brawl in Mayfield unfold.]
Gracious me! It seems the eternal Cops and Robbers game is afoot!
[... But there's no one around to hear that hearty declaration. Key-Fu turns and leaps off the top of the building, away from the battle.]
Perhaps they shall enjoy a heaping bowl of justice!
[From down the street comes the roaring of a car engine-and then, a beaten up and utterly scorched Winnebago came barreling down at full speed. Suddenly it swerves onto the sidewalk and is plows into a street light that dared get in the way. As impossible as the physics may seem, Winnebago is stopped dead in its tracks with a sickening screech of tires, tipping forward slightly as all its energy is spent on impacting the street light. The light, for its part, decides it's taken enough stress on the job and opts for a power nap-bending over and eventually falling in front of the Winnebago.]
[Despite the utterly failed attempt at a heroic entrance into the brawl, Key-Fu nevertheless looks as triumphant as if he had just punched out a dragon in a prize fight, standing on top of his Winnebago with his fists once again at his hips, the grin never having left his face.]
[The man sure knows how to make a bullseye out of himself.]