ThreeA ~ Adventure Kartel : Bleak Mission.

"A bleak day. From everywhere mire. A dark fringed cloud. A shadow casting light."
"Longing for a way back. Half a whole. Simpler days. Simpler man."
His seed lost at birth. Heaped blame upon it. A mirror cracked. Many faces stare back."
"The first to be asked. The first to offer all. Shun the robes. But not the message."
"A bleak day. A hidden sun. A bleak day. A dog's best friend."
- extract from "My Gift To You, The Portents of Julian Creamy (unpublished, of course!).

I wander lonely streets
Behind where the old Thames does flow
And in every face I meet
Reminds me of what I have run from

In every man, in every hand
In every kiss you understand
That living is for other men
I hope you too will understand

I've got to tell you my tale
Of how I loved and how I failed
I hope you understand
Oh these feelings should not be in the man

- History, The Verve.



A (mis) interpretation:

Name: William Mission.
Alias : Bleak.
Age: 45 years old.
Affiliation: The Adventure Kartel (former); Independent (current).
Std. armaments: "Gladys" - modified .45 supernatural auto revolver; Custard "the Satanic" Labrador; magic objects and mystic items.
Abilities: Magic manipulation; expert hand to hand combatant; master strategist and tactician; deception; cunningness.


2001. Isle of Avallone. Bleak sat down amongst the surviving few apple trees and fired up another Habanos cigarillo. 'Nuthin taste better than the hand roll ones by a torcedora on her sweet inner thigh,' Bleak would always say. He rests his back against a stone carving on which written upon it, "Insula Pomorum quae Fortunata uocatur", the Fortunate Island. Bleak and his companion, the genetically engineered dog, Custard the Satanic Labrador, has came here to 'escape from it all'. Weary and tired, Bleak arrives at the island on a self imposed exile, the guilt of the past and youthful mis-endeavour, a terrible sadness that seems to weight heavily perpetually upon his shoulder, relentless memories that refuse to let go of his battered mind. The isle seems to reflect Bleak's state of emotional and mental breakdown with its vast tract of morgues, cemeteries and burial grounds of long dead legendary kings and ancient lords of Albion. The place was once a legendary paradise but Eden has since burnt. All that is left are desolation and bleakness. A fitting final resting place.
Bleak is from Albion City, Europa. His mother died while giving birth to him. His father's identity was then unknown to him and he moves in under the care of his uncle and aunt. Unfortunately both died in an accident involving a stray bomb from a warbot. Bleak wanders the streets afterward, eventually becomes involve with an underground occult group known as the Session 9, which uses magic to carry out crimes. He is eventually caught and sent to the Butcher's Bay penal colony at Site 7. At the age of eighteen, Bleak is sent for military duties rotation serving in the Western Front sub-sector of Germania and participated in the Battle of Rhine-Ruhr City. There he first encounters a vampir preying on the grunts in the trenches. After completing his duty, Bleak is pardoned and honourably discharged. Going back to his homeland, Bleak struggles to find job and is forced to contacting back his old acquaintances and life of crime. His life changed forever when he is recruited as a member of the secret occult society, the Club of Osiris while trying to steal the Book of Thoth. His elementary magic skills are further developed, and as with all Mission family, Bleak quickly masters all forms of magic abilities and occult knowledge. His position within the Club rises, and during those period, Bleak also become enamoured of punk rock. He becomes friends with famous rock stars, majority whom are secretly seeking new "fads" in the form of occultism and sees Bleak as an "adviser" and "teacher". Bleak gains his nickname "The Chthonian" during this period of his life for his nihilistic outlook at life. He nevertheless practises a decadent lifestyle which involves magical orgy, drugs and subliminal songs. As his popularity rises, Bleak later become involve in an extramarital affair with the young wife of Mordecai, one of the Elders. Both this and internal political strife for power makes Bleak break away from the Club. Unknown to him, his married lover is then pregnant with his child, later to be sent to the Apulia Sector orphanage, Olive Creek. His son is non other than Thomas "Tommy" Mission. The cuckolded Mordecai does not forgive Bleak though. Summoning a daemon after him, Bleak witnesses his friends and acquaintances torn apart by the creature during a party before he banishes it back to the warp. The massacre drives Bleak into madness, and the atheist Terra authorities committed him to the Jeremiah Danvers Institution. He is abused regularly by the guards there, and worse still, the director of administration of the hospital is a member of the Club of Osiris, and under the instruction of the vengeful Mordecai, carries out various magical experimentation upon Bleak. Eventually he is sprung from the hospital by a dhampir, Baron Seth von Sydow, whom together with Bleak, track down and capture the vampir overlord, Drago Tempes, whom has been awakened by Mordecai. While successful in his task, Bleak is infected with the curse of the lycan, briefly suffering from being turned into a werewolf until he cured himself later with wolfsbane which nearly kills him in the process.
Bleak continues to work for Seth, whom becomes the founder of the city of Andria, Apulia Sector. Bleak later becomes involve in a political power struggle between the vampir clan of the Blue Bloods and the dhampir group,The Cognate Society. Bleak is able out-play and defeat both sides through cunningness. He then takes revenge on Mordecai, having him dragged to Dis and tortured for eternity by having a deal with a Hierophant.
After a period, Bleak enters into a tumultuous relationship with Elaine Von Sydow, the eldest daughter of by newly appointed Baron Seth Von Sydow. Relationship between a dhampir and human is highly forbidden as accorded by the Treaty of Nicaea, the Governor General has no choice but to banish Bleak from Andria shortly before the orbital crash of the Rothchild Weapon Research and Development Station, The Apsinthos upon the city. This and subsequent discovery that he has a son whom he neglected, and in turn refuses to claim him as a father, causes him to fall into a major depression that leaves him wandering aimlessly across Terra, an alcoholic and abusing drugs. He travels wide and far. In Masr Kayropolis hivecity, Republic of Middle East, he befriends Custard, a genetic engineered dog which is a former member of the Circle of Lab, a pirate group consisting of equally genetic engineered dogs terrorising the Suez. The dogs were intended to be  infiltrators, intelligence information gathering agents for covert operations. Possessing intellect which match their creators, the canines were also built for combat. They are a hundred times more robust and fiercer than any ancient battle hounds. Their bites and claws are reinforced with super hardened ceramic steel alloy strong enough to tear apart standard armours and flak jackets. Their eyes, ears and nose contained advanced sensory perceptions and long range scanners. A Lab could scan through the entire light spectrums, pick up all range of broadcasting frequencies and extract information from sense of smell from miles away. Each dog has a 200 years lifespan. Before the Circle of Lab sales pitch was to be presented to the Terra governments however, the director of Rothchild R&D division had a change of mind. The six Labradors were to be culled, but Bean Sr. allows them to escape. After wandering aimlessly around, the canines settled in the Republic of Middle East. There, they quickly gained notoriety as self styled "Canine Pirates of New Luxor", terrorising the merchant shipping lanes in the Suez. During one of his adventures to seek out the Eye of Ra, Bleak fought the canines on numerous occasions. Finally, the local government sent a 666th "Sand Devil" Division Dropcloth warbots team to exterminate the dogs once and for all. Custard is the only survivor (but with its left eye shot off), after being saved by Bleak, whom himself was wounded in the melee. Feeling indebted, Custard imprinted its mind onto Bleak and has been staying loyal to him and by his side throughout his adventures ever since. Bleak has grown tremendously fond of it. Custard often advises Bleak on important matters, and has protected, and saves him from trouble on several occasions. They could communicate with each other in human language. This is the reason why some people who come across Custard calls it "a satanic dog", a term which Bleak loves and since then, has introduced the Lab as Custard, the Satanic Dog. It speaks in a deep, baritone voice akin to J.E.Jones, a well known movie actor. Custard carries a backpack on its body. It contains several copy of grimoires (The Book of Thoth, the Liber Juratus, the Clavicula Salomonis, the Lemegeton and the Necronomicon), a piece of a mysterious rune stone, the Seal of Solomon, and a signed copy of Playboy by the late Hollywood sex symbol/actress Marilyn M, amongst other magic and mystic items.
Although a compassionate humanist who struggles to overcome the influence of both Order and Chaos over humanity and despite his occasional forays into heroism, Bleak is a foul-mouthed cynic who intentionally pursues a life of sorcery and danger. His motivation has been attributed to an adrenaline addiction that only the strange and mysterious can sate. He also seems to be something of a "weirdness magnet". Bleak has a wide and international circle of contacts and allies, and is supremely adept at making friends. He has had many girlfriends as well, and mentions past boyfriends.  At the same time, his close friends inevitably suffer or are outright killed simply by being in his life. This has left a severe psychological scar on him. Bleak carries a sidearm known as "Gladys", an auto-revolver which fires self-custom made bullets. These rounds are tipped with explosive shells that contain white oak, holy water, garlic, and silver shavings. These ingredients, each bearing a folkloric power to impede evil and/or specific monsters, have the potential to injure many of the foes Bleak may face. The gun itself has unearthly resistance to almost all forms of meta-physical attack, and includes grips carved from fragments of the True Cross. The metal of the gun is forged from a combination of Irish church bells, cold iron from crucifixes, blessed silver, and other mystic metals. The gun was said to have been given to him by a renegade daemon  prince known as Anung un Rama. Although Bleak hates to admit it, but he is a lousy shot, thus rely more on his magical abilities and formidable hand to hand combat skills. After coming clean from his drugs and alcohol addiction, Bleak regains his high level of physical endurance, strength and dexterity, capable of taking high amount of physical punishments. His military experience and trainings gained makes him an exceptional hand to hand combatant. Bleak rugged face is heavily scarred during his battle against Koschei the Deathless at the Thrice-Tenth Kingdom. With the use of his magical knowledge, Bleak can resist many psychic attacks such as telepathy, soul and body possession, and powerful mind controls. He can even use sigils to block off omniprescence. Bleak has some resistance against omniscience, as he is fully capable of tricking powerful divine beings. Bleak is adept at summoning daemons to fight in battles as well as he can also create and raise his own powerful daemons with ease. He has defences against psychic assaults, curses, spells, mind control, and daemonic/spirit possession. Bleak also carries with him an assortment of magical tools and weapons, such as his own military jacket that has its own sentient magical powers. Even with pressure, lack of time and preparation, Bleak can think of a strategy to defeat his enemies in a fight, letting him outwit both forces of Order and Chaos while striking fear into them. He's a master tactician and strategist and he can plan a strategy on the go. Bleak is known to possess great intellect, cunningness and deception. He has fought against many of the most powerful beings in existence. His achievements are well recognised by gods, goddesses and greater daemons, making him one of the most powerful mage in existence.
 
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I imagine Bleak as an anti-hero, something like Clint Eastwood's character in A Fistful of Dollars I guess, with some Spielberg's Indiana Jones, Guy Ritchie, Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez works thrown into the mix. The majority of the misinterpretation is taken from John Constantine's wiki.