Bane - CoMUX

Bane is a humble mercenary whose only extravagence is a luchador mask, a man inside a secret world that will do any job for a sum that indicates respect.

Biography

Some men are born into soft surroundings, and live them their entire life, not wanting for a thing. Some men are born into this and plunged into hardship, becoming a bard's poem. And some men are born into hardship and despair, and instead of dying in this destitution, become stronger than one can possibly imagine. It is not power to be born into power and direct the fates of others. It is power to be born into vulnerability, and then direct the fates of others. This is the story of Bane.

In Santa Prisca, a small Central American territory that was merely a shifting of borders between the Central Intelligence Agency and the Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti's cartographers, NATO and the Warsaw Pact struggled over the soul of a port city important for access to the drug trafficking routes of Latin America that were vital to intelligence being run between America and the banana wars they waged to their South, for gold and bauxite and other necessities. Sir Edmund Dorrance was a British mercenary on the side of the Marxists, and in the course of the battle, impregnated a lover. Dorrance, better known as King Snake, was blinded in a night raid by a black shirt CIA paramilitary outfit, fleeing with the help of his mercenaries, leaving his rose to be captured. Had he known the fate of his unborn child, he may have chosen to kill his lover himself, but a phosphorous blast stayed his hand.

The woman delivered the child, and he grew up in the walls of Pena Duro prison, for political prisoners, run by the American intelligence apparatus, after the Marxists lost the war and Santa Prisca once again became a province instead of a nation. Bane was looked after by a Jesuit priest, educated by inmates who fought alongside the struggle, and protected by his mother, who was a fiery princess of war even behind bars, despite everything the capitalist dogs did to break the prisoners. The young Bane, as the prisoners called him, was an inspiration, and they rallied around him, even as the warden attempted to break him and the inmates around him. Bane grew up hard, under the tutelage of weightlifters and soldiers and monks. He grew up smart, he was smuggled extra food, and he only wanted for his father. And once, when an inmate attempted to get him to inform, he took the inmate's life with a shank he had hidden in his teddy bear, Osito. For Bane knew one thing: every decision in prison is a test of honor. And as he learned from the priest, life is a prison, with God setting the rules. And Bane was to become an angel of God, for God had chosen him to wrestle Jacob one day. Bane's dreams started that night, of the bat. The devil. The all seeing eye in the rafters of the prison from the nearby caves.

As Bane grew into an adult, the CIA came into their possession a potent chemical cocktail, designed by a young psychiatric student named Dr. Jonathan Crane. It was codenamed 'Venom'. It had caused neuroleptic shock in all that had used it, but they were all American soldiers. Dr. Crane hypothesized that it was the lack of rigid discipline in their neural structure, from brief survivors that displayed signs of hebephrenic schizophrenia before they went into permanent comatose shock. The CIA had one perfect subject: Bane. He killed three guards and broke the bones of ten more as they tied him down to the laboratory table, fighting even after being heavily sedated. They drilled the hole in his skull, attached the metal surgical harness for the tube, and pumped the Venom into his system. The test worked perfectly, except for one issue: he managed to escape, the test far too perfect, the scientists far too human in their need for approval. Bane would've slid the test under a degree, to keep the subject under control. But he was a prisoner. Not a bean counter in surgical garb. A riot broke out, and Bane escaped. Bane later seized a supply of Venom with the help of fellow escaped soldiers, and had a Russian surgeon attach him together with it, in exchange for a supply of Venom, which was then a black market commodity from that day forward after being analyzed. He lurked South America for a time, forgiven for his crime by the CIA, the State Department forswearing all knowledge of the incident and striking it from the records. And he worked as a mercenary, for the CIA knew he was a prodigal son, and would return one day. And one day he did, coming to Gotham City after an agent who knew of his nightmares, told him of the Bat. And he intended to break the Bat, to find out who he was. Was he stronger than a dream?

He was.

Character Details

What makes a man a convict, a scoundrel, or a spy? They are all the same thing. The ability to be a lockpick, a thief, inside a dangerous world. A convict survives an institution meant to make you an inmate, with his personality stronger for the experience. A scoundrel masters the social gestures inside an unfamiliar territory, to become a charming cad by earning the admiration of those who should reject him. And a spy grows up in an environment that makes him perfect for work in an area that his country would appreciate his service in, through his own private world. And what if you grow up in a prison, hewn of politics, oppressed by spies?

You have Bane.

The world of Pena Duro, for a man, is soul crushing. Once, you were a peasant revolutionary, a KGB agent, a Cuban boatman, a mercenary pilot, a CIA dropout, a cocaine smuggler, or even a politician. Many of these souls inhabited Pena Duro, run by the American government's pawns, under the watchful eye of the CIA. All three of those individuals need to navigate a world that is socially a prison, mentally a prison, and physically a prison. When you are in such a combination of those individuals worlds, from childhood, and you survive to become Bane, you are truly a master thief. Not a mercenary, not a hero, not a villain, not a gladiator or a luchador or a Nietzchean Overman, but a master thief. Strength, deceit, softness, humility, pride, faith, intelligence, ethic, treachery, integrity, all these things are taught. How do you earn extra food? You share when someone needs it. How do you avoid becoming a traitor? You refuse to betray. How do you find a traitor? You pretend to betray. How do you avoid defilement? You employ trickery. How do you show your power? With honor. How do you protect another? With an example. And how do you accept protection? With a common bond. These are all the arts in a thieving guild, and these are the inner mechanisms of Bane's world. He only has one scar. One night, the devil came for him. And that devil was from Gotham City, the world that Batman had created, that the Jesuit priest foresaw. That was the hell from Arkham Asylum, the experiments of Crane and Strange and Tetch and Waller and others. That was Venom.

Bane, had he escaped, could have been a general. He could have plucked a jewel from poverty, and made her rich. He could have found his father, and made him proud. But instead, because of those scientists, he only sees the prison. He is in a living hell, and he cannot escape, nor can he remember what anything outside his view is. As the Jesuit priest said, he is a descending angel, sent to wrestle Jacob, Batman. Batman created Gotham City for motives only Batman understands, and will never tell. And Bane broke Batman for reasons only Bane understands, and can never comprehend. And this is their understanding. Bane never once attempted to unmask Batman, even when he was broken. And Batman will never penetrate into those deleted CIA files revealing Batman's complicity in Bane's creation. The difference is, Bane knows what Batman has done, and has demonstrated is power. Batman has no power, since he does not understand. Bane's power is in justice. Batman's power is in understanding. Bane knows this. Batman does not even suspect.

Bane has money. He could retire. But the Venom? The Venom, she is a curse. She is a cobra's bite into the back of his neck, surging him with adrenaline and teenage horomones, as the Venom causes his lungs to over-oxygenate and his heart to pump it into his every cell via his blood. Had he not been himself, he would die. His heart would collapse, his bones would break, his carefully structured mind would expose a flaw. But he trains every day, he constantly practices mental aerobics, he monitors his equipment, he practices a routine, he takes missions to find an excuse to properly use Venom. She is killing him, the Venom. And he is grateful, slowly, more and more, that the CIA gave him such a gift. And this angel, he is also a prodigal son. The CIA knows he will return one day. And when he does, they will be ready. For the time being, he takes missions that merely offer him a respectful token, always a decent amount, for Bane is an excellent statistician, with the mind of an insurance auditor and the risk management of a health professional, but the understanding of power of a CIA operative. For Bane is the greatest spy ever created. And he is valuable.

Tactical Genius
Bane is a tactical genius, from growing up his entire life in a third world prison designed for political prisoners, and surviving numerous tests of logic, cunning, and integrity. This does not only apply to manuevering through physical obstacles, but social and academic ones as well.
Polyglot
Bane was educated by a Jesuit priest who was a friend of his mother, and speaks English, Spanish, Portugese, and Latin. He uses the latter language as a system of covert signal and communication, in Roman centurion (Mithras) style.
Human Genetic Peak
Bane is the result of a genetic merger between Sir Edmund "King Snake" Dorrance, descended from a long line of mercenaries bred for war in English battles, both official and privateer bandits with letters of marque, and a female Marxist revolutionary from Santa Prisca, a native Mestizo merger of Latin warrior blood with Spaniard conquistadors descended from knights that conquered Spain from beneath the hands of the Arabs during the Reconquisda. Atop this we have Bane's lifetime of physical training and conditioning in durability, strength, speed, flexibility, dexterity, and focus. He is only somewhat lacking in agility, the consequence of breeding one's self to survive prison.
Venom
Bane is a test subject for Venom, a highly dangerous steroid developed by American corporate interests via synthetic adrenal and pituatary horomones mixed with experimental cardiovascular steroids, giving the user an addictive, temporary boost in strength, speed, and aggression, without the permanent physique effects of standard steroids.
Tactical Wrestling
Bane is an exceptionally skilled wrestler, taught by convicts in Santa Prisca and trained to perfection on the field of battle over the course of his career both inside and outside prison. He knows manuevers to manipulate joints, bones, muscles, nerves, sensory organs, weakpoints, and errata to incapacitate, maim, silence, capture, interrogate, torture, even kill a rival, and can fight multiple foes at once, and knows how to use his surroundings quite effectively from his prison surroundings that required him to move around potential ambushes and hard points.

Chemical Monomania
Venom has induced a state of chemically induced monomania in Bane, impossible to spot with standard psychiatric testing profiles due to the neurology of the issue, versus the standard psychology of such a state. He thinks he is literally the only person alive, and regards all others as tools, traps, tricks, objects, obstacles, walls, et cetera, trappings of his prison origin.
Nightmares
The close quarters of prison has given Bane a recurring nightmare about bats, not dissimiliar to chtirophobia, however he lacks the annoyance at sibilant noises that would indicate chtirophobia. Bane is instead afraid of how others see him after being a Venom test subject, not being able to sense himself in the humanity he has lost, and finds the concept of a bat's night senses and nocturnal approach disconcerting. An urban, claustrophobic, or dismal environment only heightens this anxiety, triggering Bane's fight or flight reflex, which is labrythine complex due to his upbringing.
Addiction
Venom is addictive, biologically, and besides the frequent use of the chemical itself, the Pavlovian imprint of the activities associated with Venom guarantee Bane's eventually downward spiral to the physical breaking point as he ages and can no longer keep up with his activities.
Anomie
Bane is uncertain of who his father is, and has a sense of alienation that seperates him from society, causing him to often do things just to experience them, subconsciously seeking his father figure for validation and approval. These journeys represent, to him, challenges to overcome his own limitations, but are in reality challenges to overcome the boundaries set by the father who did not exist in his childhood.
Battle Harness
Venom requires Bane to wear a harness with injector system, tubing, and control bracer to use his addictive crutch. This system is vulnerable in combat, despite Bane's best efforts (and they are spectacular manipulations, he grew up using a teddy bear to conceal a knife) to shield his tactical vulnerability. One can either remove the option of Venom entirely, cut his Venom off mid-stream once activated and disorient him, or cause an overload, potentially killing him.

Relationships

RP Logs & Journals

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