The Question

[Darcy Leone]

( Charles Victor Szasz )
is the name, nice to meet you too.

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SAY WE MET AT THE BAR ,
WHEN I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHO YOU ARE.[/color][/font]
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SO, WHATS YOUR NAME?[/COLOR]
Charles Victor Szasz. I go by Vig Sage. And for friends, they call me Charley.
GOT ANY NICKNAMES?[/COLOR]
The Question
THANKS. JUST HOW OLD ARE YOU?[/COLOR]
37
JUST TO MAKE SURE – MALE OR FEMALE?[/COLOR]
Male
EXCELLENT. WHAT WAY DO YOU SWING?[/COLOR]
I have no sexual orientation. It's the last thing I think about. Though I suppose if I had to pick an orientation, it would most likely be Hetrosexual.
WAIT A MINUTE – YOU LOOK FAMILIAR. HAVE I SEEN YOU BEFORE?[/COLOR]
Johnny Depp. Thoughts on it? Nope. Pointless question.

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COME ON AND FLY WITH ME ,
AS WE MAKE OUR GREAT ESCAPE.[/color][/font]
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I HEAR YOU'RE TEACHING. HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN TEACHING AT SOUTH HIGH?[/COLOR]
About a year.
SURE, SURE. AND WHAT SUBJECT DO YOU TEACH?[/COLOR]
Computor Science
UH HUH. YOU LIKE IT THERE?[/COLOR]
Sure. *Downs a shot of Jack*

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NOTHING ABOUT YOU IS TYPICAL ,
NOTHING ABOUT YOU IS PREDICTABLE.[/color][/font]
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JUST WONDERING – IS THIS HOW YOUR HAIR LOOKS LIKE MOST OF THE TIME?[/COLOR]
Brown
THEY SAY THE EYES ARE THE WINDOWS TO THE SOUL. TELL ME ABOUT YOURS.[/COLOR]
Brown
AH. SO WHAT WOULD YOU CONSIDER YOUR BODY BUILD TO BE?[/COLOR]
Athletic
GREAT. HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR PERSONAL STYLE?[/COLOR]
I like to dress nice. Suits and tie. For my vigilate uniform, I wear a mask that covers any and all facial features you may see. It gives me the look of a man without a face.
I SEE. ANY DISTINGUISHING FEATURES?[/COLOR]
None
WHAT, IN YOUR OPINION, WOULD PEOPLE THINK OF YOU AT FIRST SIGHT?[/COLOR]
For the average person, I'm a nerd. I don't pay attention. I have no life goals and I'm oblivious to my surroundings. I want it to be that way. A life without mystery means that nothing can be accomplished.

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I'M THE PRESS CONFERENCE ,
YOU'RE A CONVERSATION.[/color][/font]
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YOU'RE DOING GREAT. NOW TELL ME ABOUT THE THINGS THAT YOU LIKE.[/COLOR]

• Meditation
  
• Questions
  
• Answers
  
• Riddles
  
• Any form of logic
  

MHM. WHAT ABOUT THE THINGS THAT YOU DON'T LIKE?[/COLOR]

• Action by artibrary whim
  
• Meaningless death
  
• Cowardice
  
• No compassion
  
• Avarice (greed)
  

GREAT. NOW TELL ME WHAT YOU'RE GOOD AT.[/COLOR]

• Acrobats: Vic is accomplished at various acrobatic techniques, from leaping onto rooftops to tumbling from a fall to jumping fences. He was an active kid, often found climbing trees - or a touch less benignly, hopping over barriers to explore all those interesting places he wasn't supposed to be. Because of this comfort with throwing himself from place to place, it was fairly easy for him to pick up Richard Dragon's more systematic and refined teachings on the matter.
  
  
• Athlete: Vic was an athlete in high school, mostly focusing on track and field. He's still a good runner, and like most in the "hero" line of work takes well to sports and other physical activity.
  
  
• Computer Ops: Vic has a certain distrust for the internet, seeing it as an eerie collaboration of countless actors. But it does draw him as well - he's spent more time than is healthy browsing conspiracy theory websites. The "marketplace of ideas" notion, even in a sometimes flawed form, has an attraction for him.
  
  
• Detective: Vic is a masterful detective, and is well-versed in the many skills such a person can employ to seek out information. Whether this is shadowing someone, tracking their credit record, or cutting through aliases, Vic is one of the best. He's also particularly good at using his resources as a reporter to tap into information networks that can help him in his ... alternate approach to exposing the truth.
  
  
• Journalism: Vic is a brilliant writer and a skillful reporter. Both in print and on the screen, he has quite a following, drawn to his unorthodox views and edgy intellect. He's an able debater and interviewer, with a knack for the sort of pointed humor that quickly wins the support of audiences. Although mostly self-taught, he is quite well-versed in literature as well as the art and science of writing. His style can vary from elegant and smooth to quick and punchy, but when writing for the paper he often sides with the latter.
  
  
• Lockpicking: Vic takes much enjoyment in logical puzzles, and mechanical engineering of various sorts is one expression of this. He's spent a lot of time fiddling with locks until picking them has become a well-rehearsed motion, even when most would be shaking too much to hold a pin. While rather good at bypassing even sophisticated security, he gets the most mileage perhaps out of picking the common doorknob.
  
  
• Marksmanship: Vic is a competent user of firearms, and knows the basics of their firing and maintenence. He does not often carry a gun, but some jobs require more firepower than even his knack for improvisation can scrounge up on the scene. A garbage can thrown over someone's head is a neat trick, but it's not of much use when the target has friends with automatic weapons. When things go ugly, he can shoot straight enough to compel his adversaries to take their time approaching him.
  
  
• Martial Arts: Vic is a resourceful and effective fighter, a product of his natural talent for getting the most out of his training. Perhaps even more remarkable than his considerable technical expertise is his unshakeable mental focus. For most, life-or-death situations are terrifying and alien, and their motions are as a result dictated by crude reflex and bursts of uncoordinated gross motor control. Vic, on the other hand, appears as calm and focused in a fight as the average person might be in his or her daily routine. This presence of mind, especially when pitted against those of lesser skill, makes his abilities seem almost magical.
  
  His primary formal style is Dragon's "Zendokan" karate, but ascribing a style to Vic is somewhat misleading. He does not have a long tradition of training in a particular style, as most of his learning has been through old-style individual attention from his teachers.
  
  
• Quick Study: Learning under pressure has been a constant demand of his life. Even as a child, Vic was not one to claim, "I don't get it," because the obstacles (some in human form) that he faced were deaf to such complaints. The burning building does not care if you find an exit. You have no guarantee that there is one. He was much younger than much when he got this unpleasant taste of the much-lauded but little-understood "warrior spirit," and it laid the foundation for his future progress. Vic knows it to be an ugly scenario of do-or-die, easily and falsely romanticized. But like many awful things, these experiences taught him a lesson, however high the price paid.
  
  Vic can learn as though he were being burnt alive and whatever he's learning showed the only way out. Show him something once - a step, a motion, anything - and he already has the basic idea. And with a pile of books and an internet connection, he'll quickly learn the ropes of almost any academic or intellectual topic. He knows the usual cost of a second chance, and displays an at-times eccentric insistence on getting it right the first time. More than this, he will squeeze every bit of knowledge out of important information or experience, fulfilling the old proverb, "From one thing, understand ten thousand." Long a useful knack, this was refined into a true weapon of the mind during his time studying from Richard Dragon.
  
  
• Sleight of Hand: Another bread-and-butter skill one acquires growing up in the parts of Hub City where Vic did is broadly summarized as "Sleight of Hand." Very often, it was quite convenient to be able to pocket something discretely. To hone this skill, he often rolled pennies, rocks, or whatever else over his knuckles to pass the time walking here and there. He keeps this habit up to this day. He can put on quite the one-man show with a ballpoint pen and a paper clip, his coworkers attest.
  
  
• Stealth: Vic is an expert in the ways of stealth. As prodigious a fighter as he is, he understands through hard experience that no one is invulnerable. Every fight, however "easy" it may appear intellectually, has the potential to end in violent death. The fewer times he has to play that game, the better. Furthermore, when he must fight, he prefers to do so with as much preparation and advantage as he can establish before the guns start firing and the pipes start swinging.
  
  
• Thievery: Poor though he was, Vic was not a habitual thief; but meager as the items he swiped were, he did often deprive his peers of little gadgets and knick-knacks. Ironically enough, he practices this much more often now that he's a famous reporter with a steady paycheck - as The Question, he often needs to lift evidence or other items off of his targets.
  
  
• Tough: Vic is tough. The seeds of this indifference to hardship arose from instinct rather than choice. The abuse he took in his orphanage years first drove him into a pathetic, neurotic state of victimhood. It became quickly clear that scampering around looking scared only magnified what he received, and in the natural fashion of children, when faced with continual adversity he simply learned to get by, accepting his harsh reality plainly rather than fantasizing about how it could or should be. This was the first of many lessons in stoicism that he grudgingly undertook.
  
  Trials often test the body as well as the spirit. Vic is remarkable for his ability to withstand both forms of difficulty. He can exhaust himself and still remain vigilant. More than most, he can remain calm in the face of not only simple pain but also true injury. And perhaps more impressive than pain resistance in this world of brazen vigilantes, Vic is able to give the world a sober and unflinching look. Though the sight disheartens him, like the fighter refusing to let repeated blows break his posture he accepts this existential misery and simply moves beyond it. Not because the sudden sight of an inspirational calendar with kittens in flower pots makes him think it's all not so bad after all - it is in his nature to simultaneously consider the child laborers choking amongst the printing presses. No, he is not habitually melancholy, but not because of retreats into unfounded or myopic optimism. Honesty, itself the origin of this pain, provides its own almost inexplicable solace, which he believes must be superior to pleasant delusion.
  
  
• Weapons: Vic's preferred weapon techniques are those employing staves of various lengths. These weapons allow a wide range of techniques, and permit a certain versatility. For instance, a sword can really only be held in one way (perhaps a few), and it is clearly polarized (there is a sharp bit and a non-sharp bit.) A staff, however, may be wielded with a wide range of grips and hand positions, and whirled back and forth between the two ends. Furthermore, finding a staff-like weapon is fairly simple in most environments. On the symbolic level, he perhaps finds something aesthetically appealing in such a versatile, simple, and balanced weapon. Nothing more than an unadorned pole, it can execute a number of extremely complex and even dizzying movements. This is to Vic something of an ideal.
  

NOW YOUR WEAKNESSES. I APOLOGIZE FOR THIS BEING SO LONG.[/COLOR]

• Human: He bleeds, he breaks, he gets sick. While he packs a variety of shamanic talents and martial arts training that make him physically superior to many of the people on the planet, he is still ultimately human, and cannot take a punch to the face by an angry Kryptonian.
  
  
• Under-Armed: The Question often goes into a dangerous situation without anywhere near the level of armnament that might seem appropriate. He only sometimes carries a firearm, or even a knife. He'll often resort to improvised weapons picked up as he comes across them. As an extraordinarily resourceful fighter, he is unpredictable in his methods but generally much more prepared than he seems to be. This habit of carrying little in the way of weaponry has an element of practicality to it - for example, by avoiding burdening himself with armnaments, and to be less conspicuous if checked (assuming he's not in Question attire, obviously) - but it's also to some extent an eccentricity.
  
  
• Temper: Vic has a tendency to fly into rages. He is tightly wound to be sure, and the frantic energy that bubbles out from beneath his intricate intellectualism has its origins in fury. A righteous fury at times, perhaps, if such a thing as "righteousness" can be said to exist per se. Mixed up within it all are his own hatreds of authority, his anxieties and his checkered past. Although he tries to confront this seething mass of emotions and prejudices, the close examination of that which drives him is too terrifying a sight for him to bear completely. The mind-games he must play with himself to separate noble anger from its vile cousin, and to further question that very distinction, disorient him and leave him vulnerable to seemingly erratic bursts of anger.
  

YEAH..DO YOU HAVE ANY GOALS THAT YOU WISH TO ACCOMPLISH?[/COLOR]
To find the answers to all of my Questions.
MMM..WHAT ARE YOU AFRAID OF?
I have no fear. Corny as that sounds, I rationalize my feelings with logic. Any situation can be overcome with a cool head and a room full of resources.

HAVE ANY HABITS OR QUIRKS? DON'T WORRY, I HAVE TOO.[/COLOR]
Asking Questions.
EVERYONE HAS DEEP DARK SECRETS, RIGHT? YOURS? DON'T WORRY, I WON'T TELL A SOUL.[/COLOR]
I killed a man... With my thumb.
COULD YOU DESCRIBE YOURSELF IN ONE WORD?[/COLOR]
Curious.
TELL ME ABOUT YOURSELF, OVERALL.[/COLOR]

• Agitated : At times, The Question can be stunningly Zen. Other times, he is a bundle of nerves and rambling rants. His anxiety and eccentricity ranges from endearing quirkiness to a frightening detachment from reality. He is himself among the most frightened by these bouts of borderline insanity, because he is responsible for what these thoughts lead him to do. The trouble with pressing himself to consider all possibilities and to thoroughly examine every belief is that it takes him frequently into uncharted and uncertain territory.
  
  
• Angry : Calling The Question "curious" rings not-quite-true, because it suggests inquiry with a smile, led along by innocence. It omits the anger that suffuses his inquiring nature. For all his self-discipline and philosophy, he has an inclination towards fury that completely flouts the detached outlook to which he supposedly subscribes. He himself is not entirely sure what to do with it. At first glance, it seems that serenity better fits the life he wishes to lead. But anger is what he was given, and he has to wonder if for all its inherent selfishness and destructiveness it cannot serve a noble cause after all.
  
  
• Charismatic : As crazy as he can be, Victor is a charismatic person. He is very sensitive to tone and wording, and his intelligence shows through in the form of a keen and amusing wit. His opinions are sometimes quite extreme, but he has a remarkable way of talking people into notions that they would never have considered. People just like to listen to him. His internal wrestlings and contemplations have given him a vibrant and sober view of life, which others can often sense. He just sounds like he knows what he's talking about. He's special; a very ... -real- person, many would say, compared with the mediocre and flat-faced (oh, the irony) types of everyday life.
  
  
• Detached : Even when upset and anxious, Vic tends to speak in a subdued and thoughtful tone. He prefers to do most things quietly or inconspicuously. As he talks, he does so in a manner laden with hints and nuances that most never notice. Of course, this periodically gives way to sudden actions that appear brash and even insane. He seems to be operating on a completely alien frequency.
  
  
• Inner Ponderings : As a child, Vic read several of the great works of philosophy with unusual voracity for his age. He was eventually one of those teenagers to become fascinated with the pop philosophy of Ayn Rand's "Objectivism." He was struck by her willingness to assail the great names of philosophy. Her book reminded him of his readings of Nietschze, but more accessible, and perhaps more pointed as a result. He began to turn away from the classical approaches of utilitarianism on the one hand or the categorical imperative/absolute duty of the other, to ponder this egoism-as-virtue concept. Living in Hub City, Benthamian utility-maximization seemed a certain sham, but a peculiar combination (which worked better in his mind than it would in a scholarly paper) of egoism and absolute duty came to define his outlook.
  
  Although his cultivation of this philosophy gave Vic startling resolve and discipline, the price was a severe narrowing of his views on the world. As he navigated the circles of drug dealers and power brokers to bring down their perverse enterprise, he remained certain even as he became lost; a most dangerous outcome. On some level, he knew he'd lost his footing, and his bitterness over this lack of a reassuring foundation enraged him. It's a supremely difficult thing to deliberately put oneself through hell day in and day out, betting not only one's life but arguably one's soul on an instinct or calling, which is supposed to somehow be better than the feelings one fights in the name of that calling. But when the doubt sept in, it truly felt like salt in the wound.
  
  When Lady Shiva pulled The Question out of that river and sent him along to Richard Dragon, she set him on the path towards the inner resolution he desperately needed. Although it was immensely difficult, he started to permit himself to ask the sorts of questions he pushed aside in the name of his peculiar faith, and to lay bare his assumptions about the world and what he needed to do in his short time in it. At first, it simply made him weak and uncertain, and he dearly hated that. It was wretched to, in the midst of difficulty, no longer have that certainty and anger to push him through it. But in time, he came to understand something perhaps a little better - or at least more human. By the time he moved to Gotham, he was better-balanced and sharper, perhaps less frightening but also more capable. There was a certain connection between the "A is A" identity-centered theory he explored as a teenager and the essentialness of all things he found in Dragon's version of Zen. He maintains that people, though their lots are often unfair, are principally affected by their own choices. He has no desire to help create some sort of utopia, but he does believe in principles, and believes that some must be enforced.
  
  
• Honest: Vic is honest. This does not refer so much to qualms about lies or trickery (he has few), but rather to how honest he is with himself. This word, "Honesty," perhaps best summarizes his view of the world. Absolutely central to Vic's personality is his refusal (inability? he sometimes wonders) to accept second-best in his search for truth. Even more than any "normal" moral consideration would suggest, he believes it is the duty of thinking human beings to employ logic and reasoning to understand themselves and the rest of the universe.
  
  At first, though, this passion for "the truth" expressed itself mainly as a belligerent, overly-intellectual insistence on "honest argument" to decide all matters. Later, as he matured, he began to realize that this narrow-minded argumentation was needlessly insensitive, and shut many doors to real understanding. But while he broadened his view, he never lost his drive to Figure It Out. He does not accept feeling or inclination as justification, but rather sees them as just one part of true understanding. He can be scrutinizing to the point of obsession. Sometimes this comes out as a simple personality quirk, as he stops to figure out something apparently inconsequential. But it runs far deeper than that.
  
  
• Sense of Humor : Vic has a good sense of humor, healthily dry and sarcastic. Sarcasm in particular has a certain appeal to him: the laying down of a parallel line of (misguided) logic, which evokes a laugh only when the listener compares it to sound reason. The most Socratic of modes of humor, perhaps. He spends a lot of time in his own head, and it shows in his muttered quips. Something about his hard life has taught him to find a laugh where he can. A joke can make tough times easier. More than that, he finds that after a certain amount of difficulty, humor arises naturally with the departure of fear and hesitancy. More than simply enjoyable, he has a feeling that humor is at its root truly sublime.
  

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PUT ON A SHOW ,
I WANNA SEE HOW YOU LOSE CONTROL.[/color][/font]
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DO YOU HAVE ANY SIBLINGS?[/COLOR]
None.
DO YOU HAVE ANY CHILDREN?[/COLOR]
No lovers. No children.
LOVELY. MANY PEOPLE HAVE PETS – DO YOU?[/COLOR]
No.
FASCINATING. I HOPE YOU DON'T MIND MY ASKING, BUT WHAT'S YOUR BACKGROUND?[/COLOR]
Caucasion as you can see. I tan well.
WELL, ALMOST DONE. BUT WHERE DO YOU LIVE APART FROM HERE?[/COLOR]
An apartment in lower end Gotham.
DO, TELL ME ABOUT YOUR PAST. DON'T WORRY, THIS IS THE LAST THING THAT I WILL BE ASKING.[/COLOR]

Charles Victor Szasz grew up in a Catholic orphanage in the ugly, corrupt streets of Hub City, a city synonymous with words like “venality,” “corruption,” and “violence.” His father having stepped out of the picture long before he was even born, his mother could not continue to support him, and though she tried for the first few years of Victor’s young life, she inevitably had no choice but to leave him in the care of the orphanage, leaving him with nothing but an unshakable sense of parental rejection. Victor, or Charles as he was then, became an ornery little boy. After all, in Hub City, what choice does one really have – particularly when the institution entrusted to your care is routinely physically abusive.

Charles defiantly opposed such victimization at the hands of his caregivers. He took great pride in this, and eventually began to take up arms for others, quickly earning him a reputation as a troublemaker. Charles carried this with him to college, which somehow, by the grace of God, he made it into regardless of his tragic economic and social situation, deciding to study journalism in an effort to continue defending those weaker than himself. While in school, Charles became enchanted with a classmate named Lois Lane, though he never said much of anything to her. He found it enough to admire her from afar.

Let it be mentioned here that Charles once beat up his drug dealer because he had given him LSD. Acid scared the hell out of Charles, as he was uncomfortable with being unable to trust his senses. Life is funny.

Following graduation, Charles returns to Hub City, gaining a job with news station KBEL. Taking up the name “Vic Sage,” Vic makes his mark as an outspoken and aggressive investigative reporter both loved and hated for his obnoxiousness. While many such personalities gain fame by sacrificing their integrity as journalists, Vic’s credibility was sacrosanct, and the people of Hub City were not afraid to voice their concerns to him. Following leads on one such incident would lead Vic Sage into becoming the Question.

Dr. Aristotle Rodor, scientist and Vic’s former professor, approached Vic concerning a Dr. Arby Twain. Apparently, Twain and Rodor developed an artificial skin, a pseudoderm, using technology from the Batman foe Dr. No-Face and gingold extract. They had initially intended it to be used as a more efficient bandage, placing the pseudoderm over wounds and applying the gingold gas to replace the damaged flesh. Unfortunately, the gas was toxic, and would sometimes prove fatal when applied to the wounds. Dr. Twain grew greedy, proceeding to illegally sell the pseudoderm to Third World countries, regardless of the health risks involved. Vic knew the deal had to be stopped, but he had no means of going after the scientist without exposing his famous self. Dr. Rodor resolved that Vic wear the pseudoderm over his face to hide his features. Vic dawned the pseudoderm, giving birth to the Question. The Question broke up the illegal deal, Vic Sage reported on it. From then on, Vic would use The Question to get to the truth that TV personality Vic Sage could not, partnering with Dr. Aristotle Rodor, who supplied the pseudoderm. Aristotle and Vic became fast friends, marking the occasion with Vic fondly referring to Aristotle as “Tot.” Tot would further develop the pseudoderm gas over the years, eventually enabling it to change the color of Vic’s hair and clothes in addition to blurring out his facial features.

Vic was active in Hub City for some time, fighting corruption, reporting stories, achieving notoriety, and even falling in love. Myra Fermin was a good-hearted woman sharing Vic’s aspiration of saving Hub City, only she intended to do so by becoming mayor. Vic assisted her as both Vic Sage and the Question, paving the way for her ideologically, as well as beating the hell out of any number of Hub City’s corrupt characters that sought to stand in her way.

On one such occasion, The Question wound up engaging Lady Shiva in combat. Lady Shiva made short work of the Question, who up until this point fought out of blind rage and thuggish brawn. Lady Shiva’s goons continued the fight longer after everyone else, kicking and stomping the fallen hero before shooting him the head with a pellet gun and throwing him into the river. Lady Shiva, for reasons of her own, saved the Question, bestowing upon him directions to meet Richard Dragon in Nanda Parbat as soon as he had recovered.

Richard Dragon, while wheelchair confined, thoroughly trained the Question in martial arts, as well as Eastern Philosophy. The new outlook was difficult for Vic, as he felt it stood against his defiant, vengeful nature. Lady Shiva had agreed, seeing in him the passion of the warrior. Richard Dragon was not convinced, however, seeing in Vic a passion for curiosity more than anything else. As Vic’s training had begun to plateau, Dragon realized that Vic would have to let go of the self-destructive anger that Hub City had brought out of him. As a test, Dragon sent him back, where, upon arriving, Vic was engaged by Lady Shiva again. Lady Shiva asserted that she had been right, that Vic’s was the passion of the warrior. However, Vic found that the shoe had no longer fit. Vic, full of questions, officially adopted the name The Question.

To his despair, Hub City had become much worse in his absence. Good-hearted Myra had opted to give up waiting for him and instead married a deadbeat drunk. She becomes mayor after her competition is found dead, and in an odd turn of events, her husband shoots her during her victory speech for supporting what he believes to be communist beliefs. She falls into a coma, and Hub City falls into chaos. Lady Shiva and the Question manage to keep the peace until Myra reawakens. As she resettles into her mayor position, Vic and Myra begin to resume their previous relationship, though she will not fully continue it until she leaves office. The Question continues to serve Myra dutifully, refusing to kill.

During a massive hallucinogenic trip, Vic’s subconscious, appearing as his mother alerts him that Hub City will be his demise. Shortly after, Richard Dragon arrives to say much the same thing. Hub City is only getting worse, and there is nothing the Question can do about it, and if Vic is to keep from going completely insane, he will need to abandon his home. Vic is resistant at first, but when he collapses from injury, he is forced to agree. Richard Dragon steps from his wheelchair, revealing that he only appeared as he did so as to get through Vic’s machismo. Lady Shiva brings in a helicopter to remove the cast from Hub City. Vic almost convinces Myra to leave with them, but she ultimately decides to stay back as mayor and embrace the havoc. She leaves her only daughter, Jackie, in the care of Vic. The Question, Jackie, Richard Dragon, and Tot abandon Hub City. Lady Shiva opts to stay back, as well.

After leaving Hub City, Vic and Jackie take some time off in South America in a hilarious attempt escape the corruption of the like found in Hub City and to melt away the Question alter ego. The two are quickly swept up in a drug war, and the Question is forced to kill a man in order to save Jackie’s life. The Question finds the act much easier than he ever thought possible, and realizes that he could easily do it again if need be. And he does. Throughout the years, his martial arts get better, his speech gets weirder, his focus and drive gets more intense, and his kill count gets higher. By the time he reaches Metropolis to help Superman rid the city of a subterranean crime agency that the Last Son of Krypton had failed to even detect, The Question had developed his meditations and conspiracy theorizing into a sort of urban shamanism.

During Batman’s absence following the events of Infinite Crisis, the Question took care of Gotham City, not only by keeping crime down, but also through spreading his madness, creating a new defender for the city. The Question sought out Renee Montoya, one of Gotham’s finest who had recently fallen on hard times after the death of her partner. The Question and Renee went on many an adventure, following Intergang’s dirty trail, all the while building a friendship and learning from each other. The Question took Renee to Nanda Parbat to learn from Richard Dragon much as Vic had. It was here that Vic revealed to Renee that he was dying of lung cancer, and that he was grooming her to replace him. Renee stuck by Vic’s side the whole way, refusing assisted suicide, as death was a question Vic needed answered. Vic seemingly died, asking Renee “who she will become.” Renee Montoya took on the mantle of the Question, assisting Batwoman in Gotham City.

Willpower has been shown to aid human beings in any number of unbelievable acts. From being able to maintain or alter one’s own body temperature, to being able to punch through walls of stone, to the ability to literally stop ones heart from beating, with the proper focus and the right understanding, ordinary humans are shown to be quite super. It is no stretch to suggest that the Question was able to reliably fake his death, as he is more than capable. Sometimes, disinformation is required for both enemies AND allies. After all, it would not be the first time that the Question has been mysterious.

It is understood in aboriginal tribes that, in order for one to become a true shaman, the spirits must first test them. These tests seem to be administered by nature itself, quizzing the initiate with a lightning bolt, or examining the student with a horrible illness. The shaman, having seen death, is rewarded with a gift from the spirits, being it an extra bone, or an extra organ, marking him as unique above all others. Vic passed his test, having been able to “commune” with the cancer totem early on in his illness. Vic’s cancer has come together as a benign tumor, which neither makes itself visible, nor impedes his ability to function normally. It is his certificate of authenticity.



THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR TIME.[/COLOR]
Sure.

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[/color][/font]
I'M GIVING UP SLOWLY ,
I'M BLENDING IN SO YOU WON'T EVEN KNOW ME.[/color][/font]
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Hey hey hey, my name is Mitch[/COLOR],
and I am 18 years old. I
am of the Male species. I have
been roleplaying for about 4
now. My other characters here are full names!
Anyways, I have a couple of things to say:
Member title should be 'Curious'..
So...bye! See you guys around.

Oh, and this is my rp sample:

postithere! Just to remind you, AVERAGE post, not your longest ever.

[Peter Bishop]

accepted!

good to have you back mitch! (: