March, Part Ten (1997)

Now we come close to the end of the original team inspired by the original Pride Flag of eight colours—already down to six after 1998’s death of March Red/Zap and March Pink/Wrath leaving to vigilantism. The remaining team continued to stand up for queer rights, opposed hateful villains of a variety of calibres—including a resurgence of white supremacists, various “calls to morality” from right-wing organizations, and even sometimes just villains targeting San Francisco for reasons of their own personal gain—and always, Father Light grew in the background, and would be their near undoing. Father Light is inspired by any number of evangelical hate-spewing “faithful,” but given he just died a couple of days ago, and people always trot out that “don’t speak ill of the dead” crap, how about I remind you of the hate of Pat Robertson.

Alongside the threat of Father Light’s focused hostility and hatred, however, there was also a place made of love and support, Faerie’s pocket dimension of Sanctuary, and upon Faerie’s loss, the magical commune would need a new guardian. Sanctuary is loosely based on Radical Faerie Sanctuaries and Gatherings.

Father Light and the Seekers of the Source

René Lafayette was a sharp child born to intelligent, wealthy parents, and was raised with privilege and without want—if perhaps rather coldly—but he certainly never lacked for any of his needs. His family paid lip-service to faith, attending church regularly but without much in the way of true declarations of faith beyond nominal donations, and Lafayette’s interest in organized religion came more from curiosity about human nature than anything else: how did the church hold such sway over people to the point where they’d willingly devote their lives to it? He never found the answer, lacking much in the way of an epiphany himself, but his interest led him to psychology, which he studied voraciously throughout his early and post-secondary educations, eventually heading to university to begin an undergraduate degree and planning on becoming a psychiatrist.

In university, however, Lafayette found he was surrounded by those who seemed to flaunt tradition and normalcy, and he found the experience distasteful. Worse, all across the country it seemed like these attitudes were gaining ground, and Lafayette felt the stirrings of a his first real sense of a cause—his desire to halt the forward motion of the degenerates of humanity. This led him to joining self-styled moral organizations on campus, despite their seemingly always aligned with faith he did not have himself, but it was with one of those groups that Lafayette was protesting the Pride Parade of 1978 in San Francisco. Lafayette had a front row seat to the empowerment of the eight individuals who would soon became known as March, and his fury that somehow they were chosen as worthy when they were so clearly degenerates and the worst of humanity, ignited what had already been a strong desire to stand his ground into something nearly puritanical. He watched them. He studied them. Even as he finished his undergraduate degree and considered a career in psychology specializing in rehabilitating deviancy, he knew he was close to understanding what had happened, but just one final moment of epiphany away.

March Turquoise/Faerie gave him that moment. Never one to hold back about the mystical makeup of the world, at a well-televised rally of his “Radical Faeries,” explained what he believed to be the origin of the powers of March: the focus of the collective unconscious of queer people through a symbol, the Pride flag. Lafayette, keenly understanding of psychology and a student of mass consciousness, pivoted in his educational direction, dropping out and instead going into seclusion for nearly a year while he crafted a symbol of his own: a narrative about how what happened to the group known as March—and, in fact, nearly every empowered individual on the planet—was truly about tapping into a unique source of belief, a secular focus he called “the Source,” and how the truly strongest of humanity would do so through the application of conscience, morality, and leadership. Crafted as a philosophy and practice that would guide others in focusing their own thoughts in his direction, Lafayette waited until he had perfected “the Source” and then came forth as the leader of a new, secular movement, “the Seekers of the Source.”

His church grew throughout the early to mid 80s, and by no small coincidence—at least, not in Lafayette’s mind, and certainly not given the political machinations he contributed to behind the scenes, both legal and otherwise—the first stirrings of true power came to pass alongside the AIDS crisis, which Lafayette used as another focal point of how “the Source” manifested immorality through illness, and other rhetoric he didn’t believe, but knew would draw others into his organization. Though he’d been working behind the scenes politically to weaken or stymy March and any other “degenerate empowered” people out there since the opening of his “church,” the first time Lafayette felt the power his devout seekers had given him was in 1987. While speaking to his congregation, Lafayette began to glow with a pure, white light, just as he’d written would be the first level of coming into power would appear. As he’d also expected, that one, irrefutable sign would create a snowball effect in the collective unconscious of his followers, and his own empowerment sped up. By the time March was burying Zap, Father Light—as he’d become known throughout the last few years—had achieved a power on par with theirs.

By 1997, with his church having grown to cross multiple states and even into new countries, he had surpassed them. With an equally vocal wife and a son of his own turning fifteen and growing into the role of diligent supporter and heir-apparent, Father Light was one of the most well-known figures of secular faith in the country, and his summoned “Soldiers of Light” had been used on multiple occasions to defend the Seekers of the Source from attacks from militant groups—nearly always ones Father Light had arranged to attack him in the first place, to further promote his own ability and righteousness in the eyes of his people.

March’s every success, however, galled him as much as it had back when he’d been at that parade and first watched their powers—powers from flaunting their indecency and degenerate natures in public. Father Light had never put that disgust to rest. Having seen some of March’s greatest challengers all ultimately fail to defeat them, however, Father Light instead turned to what had always been his greatest asset: his patience, and his ability to study. The key to defeating March, he concluded, lay almost squarely in besting one of their members: Prophecy, who could almost always be counted upon to know when a disaster or challenge was underway. Faerie, too, had a more chaotic ability to stymy assault, but Father Light focused on Prophecy, and decided the solution to assaulting March effectively and making it clear to all his followers—and the world at large—that the path to the Source was the only worthy path to power, was to divide and conquer.

Father Light worked with a group of his inner circle followers—who had some power of their own at this point, though in their minds (and thus, reality) at his mercy—to call upon the Source to hide Father Light from Prophecy’s sight. To ensure this plan would have as much efficacy as possible, he also hired a group of terrorists to start a massive fire elsewhere in San Francisco when they knew Prophecy would be away from March Tower, at the time he planned to arrive at the tower for his own public display of power. His machinations worked: Prophecy sensed the impending arson attack and raced to save the people there, and Father Light was able to face down Faerie, Silvanus, Blood Sister, Lustre, and Decibelle on his own. Unleasing his “Soldiers of Light” and demanding March turn away from their decadent, deplorable ways, what Father Light had intended as a flex of his power soon turned sour as the remaining members of March attempted to defend themselves and their tower, not just refusing to capitulate to his will but outright denying his faith and morality and the Source itself. Father Light lashed out with all of his power, with his Soldiers of Light swarming March, and his own blasts of light damaging the building, and injuring innocent bystanders throughout the immediate area.

In the end, Father Light unleashed a barrage of destruction at the tower itself, declaring it a symbol of their depravity and filth, and given it housed a clinic, shelter, and other services designed to help the least fortunate, the death count would have been terrible, but instead, Faerie and Silvanus stopped trying to defend themselves from Father Light’s soldiers, and worked together; Silvanus creating a massive wall of roots to buy time for Faerie to open up mystic portals to allow the people inside to escape to elsewhere. Lustre, Decibelle, and Blood Sister tried to hold back the tide of Father Light’s “army,” but in the end they were overwhelmed, and Faerie, his attention fully on maintaining the gate for others to escape, was struck down by one of Father Light’s blasts, and he died in Silvanus’s arms in the yard in front of the Tower. Silvanus’s powers wrapped around himself and his lover’s body, encasing them inside a growing, twisting form of an oak tree that stands there to this day.

Faerie’s death—and Silvanus’s transformation—seemed to snap Father Light out of the blind rage he was in, albeit too late, and he left, taking his soldiers with him, and later he would not resist when officers came to arrest him, saying that a court of justice would see the morality in his actions. In many ways, Father Light was proven right—René Lafayette was found not-guilty of murder or manslaughter by a jury of his peers. The defense managed to use the lack of a body as a loophole: neither Silvanus nor Faerie could legally be declared murdered given they’d apparently turned into a tree, and it was enough to side-step a guilty charge.

Father Light did, however, end up jail: sentenced to twelve years mostly for massive destruction of property, and multiple other, smaller charges, mostly around others who’d been injured in the crossfire—though notably even these charges were about “innocent people who hadn’t been near March Tower on purpose, including four police officers” with the unspoken declaration that the people who were at March Tower were indeed of a lesser concern.

Father Light would continue to lead his Seekers of the Source and speak from his minimum-security jail until his death in 2007, at which point his son would take over the church, and his moniker of Father Light, as Lafayette had written (and thus preordained).

Father Light, 1997 (PL 12)
Identity: René Lafayette (Public and well-known)
Cis Male, 45 years old, 1.8m, 75kg, Blue Eyes, Greying Blond Hair
Group Affiliation: Seekers of the Source, Base of Operations: Seekers of the Source Church (until 1997), Minimum-Security Jail (thereafter)

Attributes: Str 1, Sta 1, Agi 1, Dex 1, Fgt 1, Int 3, Awe 3, Pre 3 (28 points)

Powers: Armor of the Spirit: Protection 12, Impervious 12, linked to Flight 1 (26 points); Commander of Conscience: Ranged Summon 6, Controlled, Heroic, Multiple 4 (16 Soldiers of Light), Sacrifice (39 points); Wielder of the Source: Array with Lancet of Light (Damage 8, Penetrating 8, Reach) (17 points), AE: Lash of Light (Ranged Damage 5, Penetrating 5, Precise 2) (1 point)

Soldiers of Light (PL 6)
STR 4 STA — AGL 0 DEX 0 FGT 6 INT 0 AWE 0 PRE 0 (10 points)
Powers: Blade of Conscience (Strength-based Damage 2, Affects Corporeal); Unliving Construct of Light: Immunity 30 (Fortitude effects), Insubstantial 4 (Incorporeal, Innate, Permanent), Protection 4, Strength Affects Corporeal; Wings of Light: Flight 1 (Wings), Regeneration 1 (61 points)
Advantages: Defensive Attack, Improved Critical 4 (Blade of Conscience), Improved Initiative
Skills: Perception 4 (+4)
Offense: Initiative +4, Blade of Conscience +6 (Close, Damage 6, critical 16-20)
Defense: Dodge 6, Parry 6, Fortitude Immune, Toughness 4, Will 5
Totals: Abilities 10 + Powers 61 + Advantages 6 + Skills 2 + Defenses 11 = 90

Advantages: Benefit 2 (Fame, Wealth), Connected, Contacts, Skill Mastery—Persuasion, Well-informed (6 points)

Skills: Close Combat (Lancet of Light) 11 (+12), Deception 10 (+13), Expertise—Business 7 (+10), Expertise—Psychology 10 (+13), Expertise—Politics 10 (+13), Persuasion 11 (+14), Ranged Combat (Lash of Light) 9 (+10), Vehicles 2 (+3) (34 points)

Offense:
Initiative +1
Lancet of Light +12 (Reach, Damage 8)
Lash of Light +12 (Ranged, Damage 5)
Unarmed +1 (Close, Damage 1)

Defense: Dodge 9, Parry 9, Fortitude 7, Toughness 13, Will 17 (36 points)

Power Point Totals: Attributes 28 + Powers 66 + Advantages 6 + Skills 34 + Defenses 36 = 170

Complications: Motivation—Obsession: Father Light believes he deserves the power he has managed to collect, grow, and focus through his followers and their belief in “the Source,” but no matter how much he gains, he wants more, and anyone denying his abilities or standing up to him only makes him all the more intent on proving himself superior to them. Weakness—A Made Man: Ultimately, all of Father Light’s powers are intrinsically tied to his “Seekers of the Source” and their belief in him as the receptacle of their belief in morality, conscience, and focus. It might be possible to shake that belief, or to cut him off from it in some way, and weaken or even remove Father Light’s abilities. Unrelenting Disdain and Hate: Father Light’s disgust at those he deems “degenerate” colors nearly everything he does, despite him usually being a methodical, studious sort, and ultimately led to his downfall.

Sanctuary—1997

The pocket dimension created by Faerie and populated by queer people Faerie gathered and offered a place and time to be away from the real world, often to heal trauma, became known as Sanctuary. While the media often slandered Faerie as “recruiting” or “kidnapping,” nothing could be further from the truth, as Faerie, and his partner Silvanus shaped the realm to be a place of peace and restoration. None knew that better than Wéi Kyle, who, at twenty-two, was found by Faerie after his conservative Chinese family had kicked him to the street after finding out he was gay. Faerie offered him time in Sanctuary, and over the months thereafter, Wéi Kyle found himself falling in love with Faerie and Silvanus both, and the three formed a polycule of mutual love, support, and trust, with Wéi often acting as a guardian of the pocket dimension when Faerie and Silvanus needed to be elsewhere for any extended amount of time.

Sanctuary itself appears as an idyllic woodland beside a lake, with a clearing to either side of a spring-fed river, where a commune made up of multiple simple, stone-cottage like buildings in a large, loose circle forms around a central stone archway that was also the dimensional portal of entrance and egression. The commune itself exists in a perpetual state of warm sun or gentle rainy days, with cool refreshing nights under odd stars and a random number of moons on any given evening. Time always moved differently there—two days inside Sanctuary passed for every day outside—but as Sanctuary grew, Faerie worked further magics to ensure those inside didn’t age at all, giving them more time to heal or recover from whatever had brought them to his fey realm.

When the attack on March Tower began in earnest, Wéi Kyle, the lover of Silvanus and Faerie, happened to be in Sanctuary, and when Faerie died, and Silvanus wrapped himself and Faerie both inside an oak tree, the dimensional portal at the centre of the commune closed, and the nearly three dozen people in Sanctuary found themselves cut off from the outside world, with no real idea of what had happened. That evening, however, Wéi was visited by Ricky and Henry, and the two held him in their arms as they’d done on many a night, spoke to him of always loving him, and asked him to look after everyone in Sanctuary. Wéi Kyle agreed, and the three shared a tearful farewell, though Ricky promised they would always be with him. When Wéi woke, he found he was wearing a sashed robe not unlike the one Faerie often bore, though cut more like a tunic and bearing a hood he could pull over his head, and he also realized he grasped a wand made of oak. Realizing these to be gifts from his lovers, Wéi went to the mystical library in Sanctuary where Faerie researched and penned his theories about the magical realms, and began studying.

Three months later—though only a month and a half to the real world—Wéi Kyle had managed to restore the dimensional portal to some degree, tying it to a key he wore around his neck like a pendant, and through the two gifts had begun his journey into understanding the mystic arts to better be a guardian of Sanctuary and continue its mission to provide a place for those who needed to escape to heal from their traumas, or simply to find others of their kind who’d accept and welcome them.

Taking the same name as the dimension itself, Wéi Kyle became “Sanctuary” and though he kept out of the public eye as much as possible, occasional glimpses of the young mystic would happen, and stories of the handsome man who offered respite in another realm were whispered throughout San Francisco and beyond. A chance encounter in a hospital room where Wéi Kyle had come to offer a bashing victim a place in Sanctuary on the same night that The Purple Hand had come to track down the unknown assailants made for an unlikely ongoing partnership thereafter, with The Purple Hand often reaching out to Wéi when there is someone he believes could use time in Sanctuary. Secretly, Wéi hopes to convince The Purple Hand to spend some time there himself, sensing there is more than a little trauma there, too.

Sanctuary, 1997 (PL 8)
Identity: Wéi Kyle (Secret)
Cis Male, 27 years old (appears roughly 25), 1.76m, 88kg, Brown Eyes, Black hair
Group Affiliation: Sanctuary, Base of Operations: Sanctuary

Attributes: Str 0, Sta 1, Agi 2, Dex 2, Fgt 1, Int 3, Awe 4, Pre 3 (32 points)

Powers: Fey Mantle: Enchanted Object, granting array with Mantle of Protection: Protection 7, Impervious 8, Immunity 5 (magical damage, and AE: Spirit Shroud: Insubstantial 4 (Incorporeal), Removeable (17 points); Sanctuary’s Key: Enchanted Object, granting Movement 1 (Dimensional Travel—To and from Sanctuary), Affects Objects, Affects Others, Increased Mass 4, Easily Removeable (6 points); Magic Spells: Array with Air Bolt: Ranged Damage 4; AE: Earthworks: Create 4 (Permanent), AE: Phoenix Burst: Ranged Cumulative Affliction 4 (Resisted and Overcome by Fortitude; Impaired, Disabled, Unaware; Limited to vision), and AE: Nereid Hands: Move Object 4 (11 points); Mystic Awareness: Senses 3 (Mystic Awareness, Analytical, Radius) (3 points); Wand of Silvanus: Enchanted object with Strengthen Magic: Enhanced Magic 4 (+4 to all magic spell effect levels), and Aid Focus: Precise 2 (+2 to all attack rolls on magic spells), Easily Removeable (6 points)

Advantages: Attractive, Enchanter, Equipment 3 (HQ—Sanctuary), Ranged Attack 2, Ritualist, Skill Mastery (Expertise—Magic) (9 points)

Sanctuary (1997)—Large Headquarters, Toughness 6; Grounds, Dimensional Portal, Effect: Immunity 1 (aging), Infirmary, Laboratory (magical), Library, Living Space 2, Personnel (fey spirits), Sealed (pocket magical dimension), Self-Repairing, Temporal Limbo (Time passes slower in the real world than in Sanctuary), Workshop (magical).

Skills: Expertise—Magic 4 (+7), Insight 4 (+8), Perception 4 (+8), Persuasion 4 (+7), Sleight of Hand 4 (+6), Stealth 4 (+6) (12 points)

Offense:
Initiative +2
Air Bolt +4/+6* (Ranged, Damage 4/8*)
Phoenix Burst +4/+6* (Ranged, Cumulative Affliction 4/8*)
*with Wand of Silvanus

Defense: Dodge 8, Parry 8, Fortitude 8, Toughness 1/8*, Will 8 (24 points)
*while using Fey Mantle’s protection effect

Power Point Totals: Attributes 32 + Powers 43 + Advantages 9 + Skills 12 + Defenses 24 = 120

Complications: Motivation—Responsibility: Wéi Kyle feels it is his duty to maintain Sanctuary as a place for queer people who need time away from the real world to heal, to find community, or to restore or explore themselves however they need to. He does this as much in the name of his former lovers as his own belief in it being the right thing to do, and no matter what else happens, the pocket dimension and those who need it remains first and foremost in his thoughts. A Lot of Homework to Do: Wéi Kyle has a lot to learn, and he knows it. While he dedicated his original training to mastering some basic spells and ensuring people could come and go to Sanctuary through the dimensional portal, his background in magic consists mostly of what he recalls from Faerie’s lectures and his own self-directed research. Without his wand to focus and empower his abilities, his spells are much weaker, and he relies on the hooded mantle to protect himself in a crunch. Worn hood down, it armors him, with the hood-up he becomes intangible. Given enough research, Wéi Kyle can often come up with a ritual or create an enchanted object to suit his needs, but he needs time to do either. Secret: Though the pocket dimension of Sanctuary is somewhat known among the mystic community, Wéi Kyle is doing his best to maintain his own secret identity as the one capable of aiding people to come and go from the dimension, at least until he can restore the dimensional gate to function without the key he put enchanted. Wéi Kyle is also aware there are other mystic beings—both human and not—who would love to take Sanctuary from him.