Darkness

The Darkness Portrayed by Pending Statistics Full Name Giacomo 'Jackie' Estacado Age 26 Height 6'2" Build Tall, muscular Eyes Brown Hair Black Factions None Occupation Crimeboss/Vigilante Alignment Anti-Villain Claim to Fame The enigmatic, questionably benevolent Don of the Franchetti Crime Family and host to a primeval evil. Reputation Known in law enforcement and many underworld circles for his time as the Franchetti Family's premiere hitman, about five years ago they turned on Jackie. The resultant civil war left Estacado atop the heap, the Boss of a NYC crime family with roots in the Old World. It's said he's been killed more than once but it doesn't stick, that he's not even human, and that ravenous beasts protect him while he sleeps; among all sorts of other crazy, crazy shit. Biography + Character History Jackie Estacado was born with nothing: his mother was a prostitute who died when she returned to drugs immediately after his birth, and his father was a notorious hitman who Jackie never knew. The curse that waited within him took Danny Estacado's life when Jackie was born, and the boy ended up in an (ostensibly) Catholic orphanage. Cruelty and derision and harsh conditions were a fact of life under the ascetic governance of monks and nuns, and Jackie's only friend was a girl about his own age named Jenny. He protected and looked out for her, and when Jackie was finally found and adopted by one Frank Franchetti, he never forgot that promise, helping her however he could and maintaining a lifelong, if often distant relationship with his childhood friend. Uncle Frankie, on the other hand, was not the salvation he initially appeared. His father Danny's employer, Frankie had a familiarity with the reputed supernatural abilities exhibited by the elder Estacado, and sought to mould Jackie into the perfect enforce for the Franchetti Family. A drug runner and bagman from his earliest days, Jackie killed his first man just before his sixteenth birthday, and by the time he hit seventeen the tally had risen considerably. The next few years saw the relentless, unflinchingly loyal Jackie make his mark as an infamous, cunning hitman, rubbing out rivals of the Franchettis with much aplomb. Around his twenty-first birthday, Frankie's greed and ambition had only grown: undercover feds fell to Jackie, along with a family Frankie feared could finger him. Jackie's anger over his targets' nature prompted a paranoid Frankie to seek to rub him out in turn: it was only the awakening of his birthright, an ancient and all-consuming force calling itself the Darkness, that allowed Jackie to escape death— and gave him the power to fight back. Despite an abundantly successful initial campaign against the veritable army of hitmen sent against him, Jackie's burgeoning abilities could not protect those closest to him, and it was Jenny who proved the ultimate loss, paying with her life. Broken, enraged, Jackie delved deeper into the Darkness and waged a relentless war on the Franchettis and their associates, turning those he could to his cause and eviscerating the others— including his uncles Frankie and Paulie. There was no stopping him, and inside the year it was Jackie sitting at the head of that table, presiding over the remnants of one of New York's oldest mafia clans. Since then he's rebuilt a prosperous criminal enterprise out of the rubble, gaining prominence and respect from many other Bosses and attaining legitimacy through his ruthless efficiency and cagey maneuvering. His targets have been as far afield as Hong Kong and Thailand, and in the end the network he needed was established. With little patience for the unmitigated avarice and psychopathy of many of his contemporaries, Jackie's Franchetti Family is a call back to a different age; perhaps a better class of criminal. He targets rival syndicates that don't pass muster with his standards, using those resources and manpower to fuel both his own ambitions and the infrastructure necessary to combat his many enemies: from the cult that seeks to drain him of the Darkness and leash it to their own ends to the fire-being and her legion of warrior angels that seek to kill him outright. It's never been a dull life, at the least.

Character Details Personality Jackie is a man who had nothing, was given everything, and found out the honor and loyalty in that privileged world was another cruel lie. He's a man who's seen everything he loved destroyed or revealed as a lie. It would be a stretch to say Jackie is haunted by the bad things he's done, but he's haunted by the things he's lost, and the mistakes he's made; the wrong turns, and the times he's been used or deceived. He's an anachronism of the old world for his sense of honor among thieves, his hatred of less discerning criminals and killers, and his old school adherence to honor and loyalty even where it gets him in (more) trouble. Never a man who's afraid to row upstream if it gets him where he feels he needs to go, Jackie is headstrong, driven, unrelenting, and also prone to the bouts of self-doubt and crises of faith that such an intense momentum can provide in retrospect. He's lost everything that mattered to him, blames himself for it, and is possessed by an ancient evil that is only marginally under his own control: yet still Estacado refuses to give up, only redoubling his efforts and his insistence on forging his own path as 'destiny' seeks to force his hand this way and that. Willful, cagey, and deadly, those who've sought to exploit or control Jackie have found him nearly as liable to burn their hands as the entity within him. Abilities Occultist Jackie's learned a lot about the nature of his powers since they first crawled into his skull on his twenty-first birthday. He's also learned a lot about the other things that go bump in the night; then killed more than his fair share whilst bumping back. He has acquired a deep and often almost intuitive sense of artifacts and cosmic mechanisms related to the Darkness. Other magic? Well, let's just say it's been flung at him a lot— and he's a fast study who reads more than one would think. Scholar Jackie was always a bright boy. While far from the brainiest in the world, relative to -his- seedy world he's a freaking genius. Since the Darkness awoke, Estacado's only expanded his education personally and through skilled allies and associates, learning about chemistry, anatomy and physiology, architecture, gunsmithing… pretty much anything he's decided would be handy to drag out of the Darkness. It's this knowledge that allows him to make truly detailed and formidable constructs, as well as compounds such as acids, explosives, or fire born of Darkness itself. Hitman Jackie Estacado is among the best assassins in the underworld today. The man is lethal with a firearm, specializing in handguns. He's a crack shot and has been in enough gunfights that cover and return fire are all but reflexive— he can drop a man across a room on the draw, dead between the eyes. Jackie's had to kill more than a few opponents with nothing but his bare hands or a shiv at high noon under a cruel sun. Not only does he keep in shape, he practices constantly, honing and expanding his art. Not only that, a lot of his experience is in the field… so to speak. Shadow Strength Empowered with the Darkness, Estacado can easily smash through reinforced barriers or heave a freight car over his head. Various amounts of the power can be allocated internally as necessary to boost Jackie's physical strength or into weapons that augment impact force. When he does not have access to the Darkness, Jackie is nonetheless an impressive specimen, with natural strength approaching its peak. Shadow Armor Jackie can summon a carapace of the Darkness in nearly any form he can imagine, from clothing to battle armor. While these constructs can be remarkably resilient, patterned after diamond or even more formidable materials, Jackie himself can only take so much impact. In his typical battle-ready ensemble, anti-tank rounds and clean hits from super-strong superhumans can easily drop him, but are not enough to take him out for good. If it's dark out, it's a safe bet at least some of Estacado's wardrobe is actually made from the Darkness. Shadow Sight To actively exert control over a construct, Estacado must be focusing on it, and more than a handful at once gets quite taxing. He can however remain in background psychic contact with any patch of Darkness he's summoned, sensing the world through and as perceived by that construct, and grant them various levels of autonomy. He can remotely sense and make minute alterations in their priorities and perceptions, if he chooses. The net result of this is that Jackie may have eyes and ears in potentially any shadow and every dimly lit room where hushed conversations and ambushes coalesce. He can surveil or watch a target from afar if patches of darkness are available, and his awareness of his personal surroundings with Darklings or his shadow armor in play borders on precognition. Hard Nosed Jackie Estacado is damn stubborn. No one with a brain would argue it. Incredibly willful, life never dealt Jackie any trump cards (at least except for the one really powerful curse)— but he never let that stop him from taking the pot. Ambitious, determined to look out for his friends, Jackie will heartlessly quash his own utopian illusion and kill the seductive demon projecting it to protect people important to him… or just to settle a score with said demon. He never gives up, he never lets go, and it's this all but unshakeable will that fuels the Darkness… and widens the remarkable channel between man and Void. Magnetic Jackie's always been intense and compelling, from when he was just a little waif right up through his days as a Franchetti bagman and buttonman. A social chameleon, Jackie can pick up quickly on what people want to hear, and attract or repulse them at his leisure. He's incredibly charismatic, surprisingly well-spoken when he's not laying down a cluster f-bomb, and a possessed of a keen sense of style and wit— for good and ill. He's the kind of man who makes an impression for a lot of reasons, and he's incredibly aware of it. It's one of his favorite weapons. Shadow Step As quickly as he can focus mentally on the shift, Jackie can teleport from darkened areas to another shadow, or maintain an intangible form of pure darkness. The Darkness can also 'swallow' physical objects and spit them out somewhere else in much this same way; if they're lucky. This can be used to deflect incoming projectiles, as well as to deliver Jackie or his Darklings through solid objects and into otherwise secure rooms that just suffer from unfortunately dim interiors… Shadow Constructs The core of Jackie's mastery of the Darkness is his ability to manifest his willpower in three dimensional constructs of mystical shadow anywhere darkness exists that he can effectively visualize. These can be of virtually any form Jackie can imagine and rationalize, from intricate biological or mechanical devices to demonic beasts of pure shadow to unnatural, dark fires. All constructs can be broken, delayed, or dispatched by sufficient physical force or bright light, but truly destroyed to their core only by properly attuned mystical forces or artifacts. Jackie's conjurations can emulate any chemical or elemental compound Jackie understands, from water to explosives to acids to shotgun shell primer. Darkness constructs can manifest supernatural effects akin to skilled sorcery (sometimes even with the impact Jackie intends). Sentience can exist within these constructs as an extension of both Jackie's will and that of the Darkness. If persistent dark is available, they may persist indefinitely, set to specific purpose.. or surrendered to the whims of the Darkness. The most common manifestation of these powers are the Darklings: voracious gremlins from the heart of the Darkness, and Jackie's psyche, that serve as a veritable army of footsoldiers with sharp, gnashing teeth. These creatures run the gamut from stunted cretins nursed on black comedy gold to horrifying monstrousities that know nothing but murder. These semi-autonomous beasties develop their own personalities as they travel over from the Darkness' realms to this world, and can be conjured in a myriad of form to suit various situations. WARNING: May (will) behave erratically. Shadow Psyche While probing Jackie's mind sans Darkness has little obstacle beyond the man's fierce will and defiant stubborness, the ancient entity that suffuses him is something of a different story. Telepathic onslaught tends to have the desired, destructive effect on the man's faculties, but concerted probes or deep scans run the very real risk of connecting to the Darkness rather than simply Jackie's own spiritual essence. This will draw the entity's attention, and whether it seeks to use its own potent psychic influence to seduce, deceive, destroy, or disturb is all but impossible to predict. Jackie's mind being proverbially blown is also an open door for the Darkness to take the driver's seat. Advantages The Darkness All of Jackie's own paranormal abilities are derived from a source called 'The Darkness'. Far from a simple reservoir of power, the Darkness is a sentient, if utterly alien entity that has been around for awhile— to put it mildly. It's seen things; it's devoured a lot of those things, storing knowledge and gathering secrets. When it suits its purposes (read: facilitating mayhem and violent upheaval) the Darkness can directly advise Jackie, warn him, provide visions of the future or the past, even fight Estacado's control and cut loose on its own behalf at times. Keeping the Darkness satiated tends to make it more cooperative, though it would insist it only wants Jackie to enjoy himself; reach his potential. Jackie's like a little drainplug on a deep, dark ocean that holds energies that have made the universe itself shudder. So long as it's in the Darkness' interests (or amusements), it will go so far as to actively repair even mortal damage to or near-total destruction of its host's form, drawing Jackie's consciousness into its bizarre otherworlds for the duration. These depths also contain the souls or echoes thereof of a myriad of beings devoured by the Darkness over the eons. The Family The Franchetti Family is OG, Italian Americans who wanted to preserve the things that meant something to them— honor, family, loyalty. They circled the wagons against corruption in the government, against discrimination (at least against their own), but somewhere along the line it all went straight to hell, as foundations built built on blood tend to do. Jackie took out the trash. He and the Darkness killed all the worst murderers, molesters, and rapists in the ranks of the Family and its associates— then he branched out. Jackie did his homework, the good men, the real gangsters? Those he brought into the fold. Everyone else got fed to the Darkness. It's left Estacado as the Don of an extensive criminal enterprise with an unusually old school crew, reasonably capable henchman muscle, and serious rep on the street. Not to mention the connections to all the guns, girls, and gambling a man could imagine. It's good to be the king. The Wealth Being the head of a major crime organization comes with a lot of risks, and a lot of perks. Foremost among those perks is perhaps that everyone in the organization, and thus everyone who does business with the organization, kicks up some of their take. Jackie Estacado has nearly uncountable dollars stashed away, and routinely seizes his competition's assets for his own use. To say money is no object is perhaps overstating the fact— but the guy could buy a private island and build a state of the art fortress on it and not tap himself out. The Light For a long time, Jackie Estacado was kind of a professional asshole. The closest thing he had to a real friend, a real family was an orphan girl named Jenny. 'Try and do a little good.' It was the last thing the love of Jackie's life said to him before she walked out of it. It took her brutal execution to really drive the weight of that request into Jackie's thick skull, to really educate him on everything he had lost— sacrificed, in his life of hedonism and death. His descent to darkness. It would be a stretch to call Jackie a changed man since his Uncle Frankie murdered Jenny, but it was sure as Hell a shift in how he chose dinner for the Darkness. Jackie would swear to you that her ghost is the only thing that keeps him sane, and makes him that much less of a prick. Irony, right? The Stockpile Safehouses, businesses, garages, armories, demolitions equipment, modified vehicles— chances are if it spits fire, provides a handy escape, or makes him money, Jackie has his fingers in it or can find it. Automatic weapons, explosives, drugs and contraband of all kinds, he's people who knows people, and has established a rather extensive network of fallback positions and state of the art military hardware to protect himself and his people. The Vault Over the ages, many people and objects besides Jackie have become touched or imbued by the Darkness and related forces. Some of these objects are old as can be— a sword said to be forged from the fang of a demon and cursed to feed on souls, or a muzzle loader from the earliest days of firearms said to be able to drop a demon with one shot, exacting a toll in blood from its wielder; but they can just as easily be mystical items of more modern make. Jackie collects these artifacts where he finds or detects them, keeping many in one of his most well-guarded vaults within his personal penthouse fortress. Sometimes, they come already attached to a skilled operative— others, he matches to a wielder or simply hoards. Each is cursed as well as blessed, dangerous to the wielder and their enemies. The end result is Estacado's most elite, exclusive, and unpredictable force, and potential leverage over those who hunger for power. There are rarely more than a handful of such operatives at any given time, and it's a rather high risk job. Disdvantages The Light None of Jackie's Darkness-given abilities function exposed to light, -especially- daylight. Constructs melt away, Darklings dissipate; the Darkness simply cannot be used under the rays of the sun or high intensity artificial lighting. Direct sunlight is not necessary so long as the entire area is well-lit, a daylit house with the shades open will limit Jackie's powers to functioning in shadowy corners or inside closets. Jackie's one saving grace here is that he can project his Darkness powers anywhere shadow is prevalent, even when illuminated himself. Typical light levels in a place like a bar or restaurant at night are enough to inhibit but not disable the Darkness; track lighting that obliterates most shadow is much more effective. Intense spotlights are enough to force Darklings to recoil, and erode constructs into smoke with sustained exposure— torches will similarly back the little buggers off, and only damage the Darkness through direct contact. Good luck getting much more than impish laughter out of flicking your Bic. The Darkness Simply put, the Darkness isn't Jackie's power, Jackie is the Darkness' avatar or host. At least, depending who you ask— it's complicated. Whatever the truth, chaos and Estacado might as well be synonyms. The sentient power prefers it this way, works to keep it this way, sometimes even subtly (or really really not subtly) intercedes in events to make them spiral more fully out of control. It takes all of Jackie's formidable will to keep the Darkness in check, particularly if his aims are contrary to its desires; and the Darkness is tireless, patient… ancient. When Jackie is fatigued or broken down mentally or emotionally, the Darkness can actually use him without his conscious consent for nearly any aim. There's also the fact that if Jackie ever conceives a child, he dies when the infant is born, and the Darkness passes to that child. It's kind of kills the appeal of being a family man, to say the least. The Angelus The Darkness' opposite number is a sentient force of pure light; solar fire. It represents unflinching, merciless order and perfect symmetry, the spark of creation and life versus the void of consumption and entropy. To say that the Angelus hates the Darkness (and vice-versa) is like saying Israel and Palestine have a little beef. The two ancient powers have been duking it out since before there was human history, and while Jackie doesn't have much personal stake in that fight… the Angelus seldom gives its hosts a lot of options. The Attitude To say Jackie Estacado has a temper and a bit of a chip on his shoulder is putting it politely, but probably not politely enough to be safe. He's gotten in a lot of jams over the years because he has a hard time controlling his anger and his sense of knavish honor, and escalates situations readily with his disdain for… well, most people really. He's stubborn enough not to change anytime soon, often, or for anybody else's benefit… much less his own. It's also all but impossible for him to let an opportunity to be a smartass pass by, and to say he's carrying some weight and angst from his tragic, violent past is also understating the supremely obvious. The Baggage Forget the emotional trauma, though Jackie's got loads of that to spare; we're talking deep, nasty, potentially fatal shit here. Whole crime syndicates, cults, and ancient entities that want Jackie dead, tortured, or used for their own ends— if not all three in random order or a fancy dance remix. Who he can trust and who's looking to get close to gut him for some twisted ritual to chain the Darkness is a very real lifestyle hazard. Never mind the people he -can- trust who tend to wind up murdered in nasty ways by everyone, and everything, out to screw him. The Not-white Knight It's ironic the amount of trouble Jackie has ignoring a really well delivered sob story. The way he can't just walk away from a scumbag talking down to a kid. Deep down he's still dark shades of that pissy little orphan that stabbed a monk in the neck with a letter opener for laying a hand on his BFF. He's no selfless hero by a long shot, getting bloody and taking what he wants from the people he thinks deserves it is one step removed from 'all Estacado knows;; still, can't blame a guy for wanting to do a little good along the way, right? The Fuzz Jackie was arrested the first time when he was nine, running a drug shipment for the Franchettis. He was in juvie once or twice, and he's got a rap sheet for a laundry list of minor charges; and a handful of failed prosecutions on other not so minor charges. Authorities from various detectives to OC strike teams with the FBI know in their heart of hearts that Estacado is no good— even if no one can really prove it. He's often on the suspect list when interests related to him or the Franchettis are hit, and getting help or trust from people in positions of authority is often tricky, to say the least— especially if they're clean. Relationships Image Name Relation Information Character Name Friend Insert a description of the relationship here. Hooks Pending… Character Gallery Logs 2014 The Smooth: Alliance September 28, 2014: A leader of the Odessa Mob has made for Alliance, Ohio, in an effort to evacuate the people responsible for creating the smooth. They've been tracked. (log: 20140928-the-smooth-alliance | tags: batwoman corvinus darkness huntress lunair midnighter rant shift stw the-smooth | posted: 28 Sep 2014 22:19) The Smooth: Thug Hunting September 10, 2014: Dackleman's goons seem to be one step ahead of Shift and Jackie. A different hunting method is clearly required. (vulgarity, graphic violence) (log: 20140910-the-smooth-thug-hunting | tags: darkness gotham shift the-smooth | posted: 11 Sep 2014 14:02) Smoothing Things Over September 2 2014: Kwabena returns to M-Town, determined to do something about the Smooth. (log: 20140902-smoothing-things-over | tags: darkness iceman metal shift the-smooth | posted: 03 Sep 2014 21:39) The Smooth: Addicted August 22, 2014: Catwoman comes to Rant's rescue, but not before Dackleman's thugs deliver a crippling blow in their efforts to extort her talents. (log: 20140822-the-smooth-addicted | tags: catwoman darkness rant shift the-smooth | posted: 29 Aug 2014 07:18) The Smooth: Inferno August 16, 2014: Richard Dackleman runs the majority of his trafficking operation out of the Bronx. Shift and Estacado intend to burn it to the ground, but some troublesome cops interject. (Vulgarity, gore) (log: 20140816-the-smooth-inferno | tags: darkness paul_manning shift the-smooth witchblade | posted: 17 Aug 2014 02:45) The Smooth: Perfect Gentlemen August 10, 2014: Kwabena's ongoing quest into a new street drug, 'The Smooth', has him taking care of a mutant who's become severely addicted to the stuff. Neither of them expect to encounter one of the region's most notorious hitmen. (Vulgarity and drug references) (log: 20140810-the-smooth-perfect-gentlemen | tags: darkness shift the-smooth | posted: 11 Aug 2014 04:18) 2015 Darkness Cometh December 31, 2015: Rain found a thing that apparently is relevant to Jackie's interests. Being a good friend, she lets him know and tells him about a local magic market that might be coming in. (log: 20150131-darkness-cometh | tags: darkness rain rp the_darkness | posted: 09 Mar 2015 22:37) Demons in the Park January 25 2015: Trouble in M-Town draws out it's defenders and hints at trouble elsewhere (log: 20150125-demons-in-the-park | tags: aspect beacon darkness lux magik zatanna | posted: 28 Jan 2015 11:12) Sara has the nicest friends January 19, 2015: Sara and Steve stop for a drink and run into an interesting fellow. (log: 20150119-sara-has-the-nicest-friends | tags: captain_america darkness witchblade | posted: 21 Jan 2015 04:17) Back to: Current Cast