#oc:dash

[mayonaisalspray]

Please ignore my Chicago style screenshot

[pertinax--loculos]

[WIP Introduction: Hellbent]

Finally! Just one thing to note: I’m struggling with terminology, so a lot of the words I use in this intro are subject to change.

Working Title: Hellbent

Status: planning/first draft

POV: close third limited (alternating)

Featuring/Themes: acceptance | addiction | religion and spirituality | transformation | growth | self-love and self-esteem | relationships | grief | LGBTQ+

Content Warnings: drug use/addiction | violence | abuse | character death/s | potential suicidal ideation | (all excerpts will be marked)

Synopsis:

Raleigh Lukas’s life is privileged, predictable, and placid. As a member of the Church, he knows exactly what comes next; he’ll finish college, marry his girlfriend, Kennedy, and have kids. Probably a few of them, to satisfy the Church’s requirements that the true humans increase their numbers.

Dash is homeless, hopeless, and haunted by his past. He’d be happy to just numb himself with drugs and let life pass him by, except that his friend-with-benefits Alec is obsessed with the Partners, an underground movement that supports the brainbent - humans born with extraordinary mental abilities. Whilst most of the brainbent are imprisoned, in hiding, or dead, a small handful work alongside sympathetic humans to overthrow the Church’s stranglehold on the upper echelons of society.

A chance meeting of these two very different lives leads to a tentative friendship that is challenged by the arrival of someone claiming to be the nigh-mythical Dantalion - a figure of brainbent legend, said to be powerful enough to turn the tide of the nascent resistance. It’s a bold claim, and one that Dash dismisses with a certainty that only makes Raleigh more curious about his mysterious past.

As tensions rise Raleigh finds himself in the middle of a struggle he didn’t want any part of - drawn on one side to his family, friends, and blind belief, and on the other to a movement with principles that just keep making more and more sense - and the broken addict who makes him question everything he thought he knew.

Criminally expository excerpt under the cut. Brief character intro masterpost to follow.

[Excerpt]

“So what’s a Dantalion?”

Dash snorted. “It’s nothing. It’s a myth.”

“Well, tell me the myth then. I’ve heard you and Alec talking about it…” Raleigh trailed off as Dash cut his eyes to him. He felt heat start to spread across his cheekbones. “Sorry.”

Dash huffed, shifting a little against the wall. “S’alright. Doubt you’re gonna overhear anything worse than what you already have.” He quirked an eyebrow at him, just slightly, and Raleigh felt the heat in his face intensify. “Thought you would’ve learned not to eavesdrop.”

“It wasn’t on purpose!” The protest was probably a little too strident; Raleigh looked down in the vain hope of hiding his embarrassment.

Dash just chuckled, leaning forward to swipe his cigarettes off the table. “You really wanna know?”

Raleigh nodded, looking back at him. “I’m curious.”

“Alright then.” Dash paused, took a long drag, then nodded slightly. “So, I know that your cult has been feeding you lies for your entire life, but to really understand, you have to realise that that’s what they are – lies. The vast majority of people that are brainbent, as you put it, are telekinetic, prophecisors, or empaths. Telepaths are exceedingly rare, and manips – short for manipulators, those who can control minds – are even rarer. It’s statistically probable that you’ll go through your entire life without ever meeting a telepath, let alone a manip.” He glanced down as he tapped ash off the end of his cigarette. “Even if you live a life like me, where you’re not actively avoiding them.

“So not only are manips rare, but for most of the ones that do exist, their abilities have been insanely overblown. Even the term ‘manipulator’ is a bit of a misnomer; they don’t so much overtly manipulate as kinda nudge you in a certain direction. Like, if you were on a train, a manip could get you to get off at any station they chose, but they wouldn’t be able to get you on the train in the first place, not unless you were already planning to do it. As far as getting you to kill yourself or something drastic, it’s completely out of the question. A manip could come in here and tell you to go jump off a cliff, but you wouldn’t do it. It’s more like influencing, not outright control.”

“For most of them.” Raleigh hadn’t missed that little tidbit.

The corner of Dash’s mouth quirked up. “For most of them. There are manips that are more powerful. That’s where most of your stories come from. Those manips can – or could – get you to do whatever they wanted. Your classic mind control, if you like. They say walk, you walk. They say jump, you jump. They say go stand in front of that train…” He shrugged, taking another drag. “You’re a stain on the tracks.

“Now, two of these… Coercers, they were called, were really well known during the War. Married couple, Michael and Sarah Johns. They had a child together. Mind manipulation is actually a recessive trait, same as telepathy – that’s part of the reason they’re so rare. No matter what your cult may have you believe, the brainbent really aren’t that big on eugenics, so it wasn’t like telepaths only married telepaths or whatever. The fact that Michael and Sarah were together was mostly just luck – they just happened to both be Coercers. I assume you know how genetics work?”

Raleigh frowned a little, trying to recall his high school biology classes. “For a recessive trait to be present in the child, it has to be present in both parents, right?”

“Right. Like blue eyes.” Dash grinned, tilting his head so his eyes caught the light. Raleigh had to bite the inside of his cheek to stop himself reacting. They really were very blue. “And if the parent has one dominant allele and one recessive, they’ll exhibit the dominant trait – I could’ve had one parent with brown eyes and still ended up with blue. You need two recessive alleles to exhibit the recessive trait.

“Upshot being, the kid was gonna be a Coercer. If one of the parents had been telekinetic, there was a chance it wouldn’t happen, but it was guaranteed with two Coercer parents.

“Anyway, Sarah and Michael were killed towards the end of the War. I don’t really know the details, just that it was a bomb. Blew up the whole building. And this is where the myth comes in – some people, especially a lot of the Partners, believe that the kid survived. They think he was taken in by some fundie family, and raised without knowing about his past. So they think that kid’s out there, either unaware of who he is and his abilities, or hiding for whatever reason. They wanna find him, get him onside, use him as a weapon or whatever.” Dash shrugged again, carefully crushing his cigarette out on the floor beside him.

Raleigh waited a few moments, but it seemed although that was the end of the story. He cocked his head to the side a little, narrowing his eyes in thought. “But, then… isn’t it possible? That he is actually alive, I mean?”

Dash arched an eyebrow at him. “You tell me. You think a fundie family would be willing to take in some brainbent trash? What for?”

Raleigh shifted uncomfortably. If Dash really wasn’t aware of this, being the person to enlighten him wasn’t a pleasant prospect. “Well… I mean, um, I heard, or I know, that after the War, instead of sending young kids to prison, there was a program, which had families take them in, foster them basically, in the hope that they could be… re-educated, I guess, that being raised in the- in a different environment might help to, y’know… suppress the… abilities, I guess.”

Dash’s gaze was steady, a smirk playing over his lips. “Oh yeah? And how’d that work out?”

“Well… not great, from what I’ve heard. They discovered it was, uh, more innate than they originally thought. Weren’t able to stop the, uh, abilities from manifesting.”

“Exactly.” Dash leaned forward a little, resting his elbows on his knees. “So, if the kid survived – and, recall, that requires him to either a, survive a bombing that killed his parents, or two, be forcibly taken away from his parents, both of whom could control fucking minds – he’d be in Carcerum. I mean, I’m of the opinion that he died with his parents, but hell, what would I know?” He sat back again, rolling his eyes a little.

When he put it like that, Raleigh had to admit that it seemed improbable at best. And he was right; even if, by some miracle, the child had survived the murder of his parents, odds were that he’d just ended up imprisoned.

“So then, why do so many people believe that he’s out there?” he said eventually.

Dash shrugged, nonchalant. “Why do people believe in God? They’ve gotta have faith in something, no matter how improbable.”

Raleigh winced, but only a little. He was getting more accustomed to Dash’s lack of faith and casual blasphemy, but comparing some brainbent myth to God was still a little disconcerting.

Rolling the story over in his head again, another question occurred to him. “So why’s he called Dantalion? Was that his name, or…?”

A small line appeared between Dash’s eyebrows. “I actually have no idea. I don’t even know if the kid was a boy or a girl, actually – I don’t think there’s any proof either way, it was Wartime and not a lot of stuff got documented.” He raised a hand to his mouth, chewing on a nail as he thought. “Most likely it’s just a name someone invented and it caught on. I mean, it’s a bit too perfect, isn’t it? A demon against the followers of God, and he ‘reaches in and changes the thoughts of everyone’ or whatever it is.”

“‘For he knoweth the thoughts of all men and women, and can change them at his will’,” Raleigh murmured. For some reason that line had stuck in his head; it was part of what had made him so curious about Dantalion in the first place.

Dash raised an eyebrow at him. “Done your research, huh?”

Raleigh glanced down. “I looked it up after I heard Alec mention it the first time. It made an impression.”

Dash snorted again, stretching his arms out in front of him and then rolling to his feet. “Well, now you know. Don’t worry about it too much. It’s a myth. It helps some of the Partners get through their day. That’s all there is to it.” He stretched a hand down to Raleigh. “C’mon, let’s go get something to eat.”

[mayonaisalspray]

i love drawing

[mayonaisalspray]

One day ill draw Taunt's stupid yaoi situation but until then youre just getting the things surrounding it

[mayonaisalspray]

wanted to draw all my dod ocs who have closed eyes... tried to make them all at least a little distinct despite all technically having the same face

[mayonaisalspray]

whats dash's deal :eyes:

So Dash has a few things going on (I know youre talking about the mentioned shared sentiment but I wanna talk about other things too). They've got some pretty intense delusions of grandeur. Dash picked it up as a coping mechanism soon after the apocalypse started, and they believe themself to be a force of light created to cut through the darkness that has fallen on the world. In reality though, theyre a 19 year old with really good evasive maneuvers.

Theyre close friends with Block, Punch, and Loveshot. Not getting along with Adrenaline makes it a bit hard to be friends with Block (Adrenaline is the only one in the group who doesnt politely nod when Dash talks about their delusions), but they mostly just try to avoid her.

Now onto the part you actually asked me about. Dash has romantic feelings for Killdroid. The two of them got into a shootout once (contextually the revolver killdroid lms) and Dash found it exhilarating. Dash lost the battle and died, but losing has motivated them to become stronger. They essentially see Killdroid as a rival, and what they could become if they allow their powers to corrupt them. Dash thinks that beating Killdroid will turn them towards good (I can fix them mentality style)(it will not do that)

[gaithe-guy]

oh my gosh it's been forever since i've touched any of the character's i rp with but... i have to send in Rayk and Dash for the latest thing you reblogged XD <3

Drinks all of the coffee: Let’s be honest... Probably Dash... Rayk gets up and doesn’t have to worry about keeping awake... Dash doesn’t want to get up and the only way to get him up is a pot of coffee.

Brings up adopting a pet: Again... Dash... “Can we please get a Krakjya, Rayk? Think about how much fun it would be to play fetch with it... or laser sights from yer gun!”

Kills the bugs: Hands down Rayk. Dash screams and crawls up Rayk as if he’s going to die if he’s near a bug.

Cooks the meals: Uh... neither one? They have the staff cook it for them at Dash’s place.

Starts getting into holidays way before they should: Hands down Dash. lolol.

Initiates the couple selfie: Dash... He slides right up against Rayk and holds his comm up before beaming “Smile for the pic, Rayk!”

Forgets the birthdays and anniversaries: Probably Dash... he’s so busy with keeping things in order with the family business that he forgets everything else.

Always ends up with too much junk food after grocery shopping: Rayk. Hands down Rayk I could see this.

Nicknames the other: Both. They both nickname each other.

Sorry this took so long to get to.

[chaotic-wasteland]

Concept of sorts. Colors and such subject to change but yeah, think I like the idea of this idiot inking and piercing himself everywhere. (Back is covered in tatts.) Unfortunately the writing is insanely hard to read BUT WHATEVER.

This guy will never look as badass as he hopes he does. Not with his daughters clinging to him anyway.