Wayne Censi

Vital Information
Orphan
Vitals
Gender	Male
Race	Caucasian
Location	New Orleans
Status	Alive
Character stuff
Nature	Caregiver
Demeanor	Survivor
Essence	Questing
Chantry	House of the Rising Sun
OOC
Player	Siin

Wayne Censi is a prominent member of the Chantry of the House of the Rising Sun in New Orleans. He is a former member of the Akashic Brotherhood and is a key member in the ongoing war against the Technocracy. This version of Wayne Censi is different than the Fae-Blooded version of Wayne Censi. For that version, see Wayne Censi (Chicago).

Description

Wayne Censi stands at 5'8" with sandy blond hair reaching just past his shoulders that naturally sweeps backwards over his scalp. He has green eyes and tanned skin that bears a weathered and lightly scarred appearance from his various scrapes and battles with supernatural beings. He sports a full mustache and goatee while keeping his sideburns clipped to only his earlobes.

Wayne's clothing is always loose fitting, and often takes a slight oriental bent to it, due to his immersion in much of the Akashic lifestyle. When geared for battle, he wears a traditional fighting monk gui made from matter-enhanced silk, allowing it to help turn aside both blades and bullets.

Background

Beginnings

Wayne Censi was born in Baton Rouge, LA to Robert Censi and Miranda Reynolds. An only child who grew up with few friends, he tended to stay mostly to himself. While still in early grade school, his family moved to New Orleans, and it was there he met his first and eventual lifelong friend, Damien Allen. School was horribly uneventful and Wayne was a mediocre student. His parents however involved him in martial arts to help him direct his energies outward.

Wayne's parents eventually moved back to Baton Rouge shortly after he graduated high school. On an impulse, he and Damien moved into a small set of apartments so they could begin life on their own. Despite their differences, they were great friends, and often were found in one another's company no matter the locale.

The turning point in their lives strangely started in the most mundane of places: A video rental store. Wayne had been working as a simple shelving clerk, and had not gotten along well with his boss. After a fit of ranting ended from his boss, he tossed a video case at them, advising them to catch. The projectile video caught the unsuspecting supervisor square in the head, resulting in Wayne's termination. Deciding the job wasn't worth it without Wayne, Damien quit and they both went home. To help ease the tension, Damien succeeded in coaxing Wayne out to a club to blow off steam. Despite his reservations about drinking, the public and the like, Wayne agreed.

They found a wonderful location called the Jazz funeral, and despite his best efforts Wayne found himself having a certain amount of fun. As usual, Damien had managed to be social and Wayne tried to sulk in a booth with his glass of water. Cassandra Vanoy, introducing herself as Cassie, joined them in the booth. She was slender, beautiful, and obviously creole, right down to the accent. More over, she was smoking, and not from a cigarette. Light wafts of smoke were coming off all parts of her body. Wayne brushed it off as merely being residual smoke from the club's smoke machines. After a pleasant conversation, the three parted and Wayne and Damien went for a walk to clear their heads.

The walk led them to a park bench not overly far from the Jazz Funeral. Lights turned out all down the street until only the one above their bench remained. In an ensuing melee, Wayne and Damien fended off several displacer beasts, regenerating panthers with 6 limbs, and even scored some teeth of the beasts as trophies. As a grand finale, Wayne somehow managed to transform into a Chinese dragon, which Damien promptly road back into Main Street.

In the days and weeks to follow, Wayne came to realize that he had just witnessed his first magickal event, and was apparently a mage, a person able to change reality by will alone. At first, he dealt with a scant few mages, as the vast majority had been killed off in a Paradox Storm a few years previous. The remaining mages of any power were a hollow one named Cassie whom he had already met at the Jazz Funeral, a Cult of Ecstasy mage named Marcus who had since vowed to never again use magic, and a nearly insane Verbena named Arianna. The introduction into the Magickal universe was abrupt and shaky at best.

In short order, Wayne and Damien found themselves hip deep in weird situations as they scrabbled for purchase in a world that had been turned upside down. Stability arrived soon in the form of Theora Hetirck, a Euthanatos Master who had been sent to New Orleans to fix the various instabilities. Due to the massive storm years earlier, the ley lines and nodes of the city were a convoluted mess. With her directing operations, Wayne found himself going from a lost soul to a focused errand boy, helping in investigations and combating all manner of strange occurrences.

Thanks to Theora's apprentice Erkius, Arianna moved from being nearly crazy to completely so, believing herself to be the Avatar of the Snake Goddess. Arianna would factor into future events in her own unique ways, but was no longer able to be considered a reliable source of information. Cassie founded her own chantry of Hollow Ones while Theora created a chantry from the husk of an old Hermetic location within New Orleans. From these bases of operations, Wayne aided the groups in helping restore New Orleans to proper working order.

Training

Eventually realizing the need for proper teachings, Theora arranged for Damien and Wayne to be trained by their respective traditions so they would be better prepared for the things that New Orleans would bring their way. Unknown to Wayne, Damien had changed his mind from being a Virtual Adept to becoming a Euthanatos trained by Theora.

On the day they planned to leave, Wayne was at the bottom steps of the chantry stairway talking to Damien at the top landing, when without warning Theora came up from behind and in one fell move, used a garrote to break Damien's neck, letting him tumble unceremoniously to the bottom of the stairs at Wayne's feet. Stunned and horrified at the sudden murder of his friend, Wayne put himself between Theora and Damien's corpse. He knew full well he had no chance to face down a Master and survive, but he had no intention of letting her touch him again. His defiance was short lived as Theora overcame him magickally and took Damien's body away. Wayne left for his training with grief and hatred in his heart.

Neither would stay long, however, as his training was brutal. He had come late to the Brotherhood, and thus his training was harsher to get him caught up. He had to learn traditional ways of strengthening the body and mind, and they pushed all of his limits to their breaking points and beyond as they taught him what it was to be a true Akashic Brother. About halfway through his training, he began getting letters from home, and impossibly letters from Damien. He responded to them with feigned interest and excitement, not believing they were Damien. He had watched his friend die in front of him after all.

Wayne survived his training and the exit hall of the Xiudaoyuan, a feat not every brother could claim, to return home to New Orleans. When he arrived, he found Damien inside the Chantry, though he was far different than Wayne had remembered. This Damien was clean shaven, well kept and hard working to a fault, a far cry from the slacking computer nerd he'd known a few months before. Wayne was convinced this wasn't the real Damien, a belief he would hold on to on some levels even into the current days.

The Fall

Almost immediately after returning from training, things started going down hill. First the reunion with Damien and then a series of verbal altercations with other chantry mates including Cassie resulted in Wayne feeling like he was only good at hurting others. His mind descended into a dangerous spiral of flawed logic as he began thinking of all the harm he'd done over the years to those allied with them. Wayne made attempts to leave the chantry, but was denied by the Earth Elemental Wendy at Damien's behest. Realizing his staying meant others being hurt by him, but that he was unable to leave, he slowly built his mind into a fury of imperfect reasoning. Destroying his practice dummy in a fit of magick, Damien and Theora noted that Wayne was dangerously close to going Marauder.

Damien subdued Wayne, and had a number of conversations with him. It wasn't until he had a talk with his Avatar before he was able to finally turn from his madness ridden path and move back towards a realm of sanity. He entered a 24 hour censure, where he was prohibited from utilizing magick in any form, enforced by Theora and Damien. At the conclusion, Theora informed Wayne that in his near-madness state, he had violated 6 of the 7 protocols, and he was due to stand trial for them. Whether he survived the trial or not was not something she could predict.

Understandably, Wayne feared the worst. He couldn't understand how things could have gotten so bad so quickly. Clapped in primium chains and hauled off to a distant horizon realm, Wayne stood trial before a cabal of Euthanatos, and was found guilty of violating the protocols. His punishment fell short of death, but not by much. His avatar was branded so that anyone could see that he was an oathbreaker. In addition, he had a Gaes placed on him that should he break any of the protocols in the future without justifiable reasons, his death would be assured.

Wayne was returned to his chantry in shame, and he turned inward for guidance. His mindscape was barren of the green hills and trees it had sported in the past, and he realized it was barren because of his foolish choices and actions. It would be months before Wayne and his Avatar would speak again, and longer still before he started advancing again. Forgiveness wasn't something he was willing to look for lightly, nor did he think he deserved it.

Drugs and Decisions

Wayne dealt with many hardships through his early years of being a Mage. The most notable of these occurred during the incidents dealing with a band of Nephandic mages working to corrupt the city and the remaining magi there. Damien had grown up street-wise, lessons that Wayne had missed out on. In an attempt to locate the drugs and infiltrate the group, Wayne unintentionally imbibed a potent awakened drug, to which he became hopelessly addicted to.

As one would anticipate, Wayne hid this addiction from both his friends and mentors, thinking there was nothing wrong with it. As his dependence upon it grew, he made a fateful decision to drug Cassie's food before he served it to her. In the ensuing night of revelry, Wayne apparently lost control, and beat Cassie severely, shattering her bones which had previously been turned to rotted wood due to a bout of paradox.

Hutch, Cassie's protector, came calling the next morning and laid down her own amount of pain as she pulled a confession from Wayne about the drugs. Working with others in her chantry, Hutch had Wayne restrained until Theora could locate a Life Adept to remove the addiction to the drug. The removal process was excruciating as the unforgiving mage pulled the drug straight through the pores in Wayne's skin, hoping to insure Wayne would never touch the drugs again.

The ploy worked, and Wayne grew to be completely intolerant of drugs in any fashion. This would play no key roles in any of his activities until he learned that his own tradition was found to be backing the Triads and their drug operations. Ignoring any and all reasoning for this, Wayne declared himself separated from the Akashic Brotherhood and joined other mages as an Orphan. This decision did not sit well with his tradition heads, as they feared his chantry deacon, Theora, was corrupting the mages under her leadership.

In response, the Brotherhood sent a cabal of mages to retrieve Wayne in a sort of rescue mission. Wayne kept them at bay initially, and sensed something amiss with the squad of mages. A public festival was planned during the duration the mages had come to visit anyway, so Wayne agreed to meet them there for a final discussion. He coordinated with his chantry to insure there would be guardians there should things go awry. The foresight proved to be Wayne's salvation. After informing the Akashic cabal of his intent to never rejoin the Brotherhood, and further stating that he was fully aware of his decision and not under any influence nor had he taken leave of his senses, the cabal sprung into action.

It didn't take long for the melee to come to an end, the result was a quick defeat for the foreign cabal. Wayne and others returned the survivors to the House of the Rising Sun to be healed and given a message before being released. The message was simple: Don't try anything like that again. Wayne relayed a disturbing part of the assault to his mentor Micky Chan in which the cabal leader had seemed to enjoy the thought of delivering punishment to Wayne. Chan, outraged, took this information straight up the chain of the Brotherhood demanding to know why a death squad had been sent. The situation was handled, though Wayne never swayed from his decision to leave the Brotherhood.

Current Years

Wayne has advanced alongside his long time friends and allies during the various battles that would come to their door. Eventually becoming a Mind Adept, he helped defend New Orleans during a major offensive by the Technocracy which nearly brought all of the Traditions to their knees. With strategic strikes, the Technocrats combined forces with Nephandi to sack Doissitep, the Hermetic Stronghold in Horizon, Calcutta, the home of the Euthanatos and the chief Xiudaoyuan of the Akashic Brotherhood.

Theora Hetirck had foreseen this battle coming, and came to Wayne before being called away. She worked with the Mind Adept to make a full copy of her mind so that should she be damaged, he could work to restore her upon her return. Wayne hesitantly agreed, not being sure he could contain a personality so strong willed as Theora's. Immediately after completing the copy, Theora left to Doissitep along with the other Spokes of the Wheel to aid the Rimpoche in defending the doomed citidel. During the battle, Theora was lost in a melee with a Nephandi Anti-Oracle, nearly sending Damien, her then husband over the edge.

With the other members of his chantry helping, they calmed Damien enough to keep him focused on what they could accomplish. Wayne spent the next couple of years working with the House of the Rising Sun to strike back at the Technocracy in any way they could. At times, sometimes unknown even to Wayne, Theora's mannerisms and actions would seep out of her contained mind and cause Wayne to act them out. Wayne's magicks would act with them, often creating hairs of Theora's as he showered, or allowing him to walk precisely as she did. Understandably, this unnerved Damien on multiple occasions.

As the fight against the Technocracy Ramped up, Damien was able to get lost in his work while Wayne, Damien and Jonathan Morrell(JJ) worked tirelessly to start gaining ground against their longstanding enemy. With the defections of some of the members of Void Engineers to Tradition ranks, Wayne and others started gaining vital information into their opponents and were able to finally start an effective offensive. Armed with information and their wits, Wayne and other members of the House of the Rising Sun, along side their new Void Engineer allies stormed and razed the Descartes Mental Institute, a major hub in North America for the Technocratic fleet and operations. Though losses were had, they emerged victorious and returned to New Orleans.

The next year was fraught with small battles here and there, and eventually Theora returned, allowing Damien to stabilize and Wayne to finally shed her mental copy. It took some work, but the chantry was able to get her back up to speed relatively quickly. Wayne and the other members of the chantry stood by her side when they faced down one more climatic battle with the Technocracy in an attempt to knock their control away. While they succeeded at the battle, the Technocracy still managed to hold on to their grip on reality. Theora Ascended, exiting reality altogether and leaving Damien in charge of the House of the Rising Sun.

Wayne has since taken up position as the chantry head of security, and aided in multiple battles and adventures with the other members of his chantry. Their greatest challenge came when Hurricane Katrina bore down on New Orleans. The mages within New Orleans did what they could to stop the storm, but found that it was being bolstered by forces magick. It appeared the Technocracy was trying a new tactic and wanted New Orleans out of the way in the Ascension War. Just before landfall, Cassie and her Hollow Ones dissipated the storm on National TV, prompting the Technocracy into action. They encased New Orleans in a massive dome, and accelerated the time stream within it, hoping to outlast the mages within the dome. With help from outside, the time stream was restored the dome brought under control of the mages within it. The battle here finally set the Technocracy back enough to cause them to withdraw from most of their places of power.

These days, Wayne trains mages in his chantry in combat and tactics, and continues to work with Damien and JJ to keep New Orleans free and fluid.

Paradigm

Wayne believes, as many martial artists do, that his magicks stem from the internal energies of the body, mind and soul known as chi. He focuses his chi through various trinkets and articles he keeps on him at all times. At last record, his foci consisted of a time ring, a Chinese luck coin, his martial arts sash, a displacer beast tooth, handwraps and meditation techniques.