Lance Drakon's Questionnaire

Lance lives in the outer central area of Las Vegas downtown a few miles east of the Las Vegas Convention Center where he rents a terrible, infested basement. Originally, he'd moved to the area in pursuit of his passion and talent for professional fighting game tournaments, but after his embarrassing public defeat during the finals of his last tournament, he finds himself living there purely out of habit and residual love for the scene. Despite his sore feelings, he will often use the close locale to attend gaming tournaments and keep up-to-date on the scene. He reasons that one day, once he's proved his strength, he might return and dominate the scene for real.

Despite his obsessive pursuit of martial power, Lance is tragically aware of the need for funds to feed, clothe, and house himself. As a result, he has continued to participate in low-stakes fighting game tournaments online under an alternative pseudonym, which brings in a paltry but livable sum every month. As sad as it is, the vast majority of his money goes directly towards merely funding the rent for his tiny basement and the cheap fast food crap that he puts on the table every day. What little other money he has goes towards his fund for contract 'necessities' and emergency costs.

Lance Drakon is nothing but ambition. From as long as he could remember, he aspired to climb the ladder of power within the Fighting Game scene and prove to the world that he was the most powerful, most skilled gamer that the world had ever seen. In his mind, it was the quickest and surest path to demonstrate his innate superiority and achieve incredible popularity and recognition. Like everyone else in the world, he eventually learned about the reality of supernatural powers and creatures, but it didn't dissuade him from his obsession of reaching the top and dominating the competition. Until the day that he, in the finals of a tournament, was so completely defeated that his ambition crashed down around him, leaving him mentally scarred. From the ashes of that defeat, a new ambition emerged; if he could not ascend the Fighting Game ladder, then he would instead use these supernatural abilities to become the pinnacle human instead and rule the world through his own innate power. Surely that was where his superiority would shine through. To prove that, he would sacrifice anything. Kill for it effortlessly, and risk his life for scraps of power.

From as long as he could remember, he aspired to climb the ladder of power within the Fighting Game scene and prove to the world that he was the most powerful, most skilled gamer that the world had ever seen. In his mind, it was the quickest and surest path to demonstrate his innate superiority and achieve incredible popularity and recognition. Like everyone else in the world, he eventually learned about the reality of supernatural powers and creatures, but it didn't dissuade him from his obsession of reaching the top and dominating the competition. Until the day that he, in the finals of a tournament, was so completely defeated that his ambition crashed down around him, leaving him mentally scarred. From the ashes of that defeat, a new ambition emerged; if he could not ascend the Fighting Game ladder, then he would instead use these supernatural abilities to become the pinnacle human instead and rule the world through his own innate power. Surely that was where his superiority would shine through.

My father, Estoc Drakon, is a complicated man. To him, all of life is one big fight, and it's a lesson that I've taken to heart too. When he was growing up on the tough streets, he fought back. When he needed a job to pay his way through life, he fought through it. When he found the woman that he loved with all of his heart, he fought for her love. When he found out she was pregnant with me, he fought to care for her.

To explain my father further, I gotta talk about my mother a bit, too. Her name's Cecilia Drakon. Some kind of college professor or something. Really, really smart. I never really went into much detail about it, honestly, but she studied stuff back in the day that'd make my eyes roll back into my head. Super nice. Like, the nicest person I've ever met, probably.

Anyway. When she got cancer, my father fought that, too. It was the first time my father lost, I think, and it broke the poor man. He's still alive, but I sometimes I think he doesn't want to be. When he sees me, I can tell he sees my mother, and...

Yea, anyway. My parents are a touchy subject.

Other than them I've only really got one friend--somebody I met online through the gaming scene. The one dude who didn't ditch me after I lost in the big tournament. Their tag is just NewE, but their real name is Neal Ersten. We hang out IRL a bunch these days, too, when we've got the time and the money, but obviously shit's been rough since I fell out of the tournament scene. Neal's a real wise guy, doesn't take my shit, but he knows I'm the best, so it works out.

My father, Estoc Drakon, is a complicated man. To him, all of life is one big fight, and it's a lesson that I've taken to heart too. When he was growing up on the tough streets, he fought back. When he needed a job to pay his way through life, he fought through it. When he found the woman that he loved with all of his heart, he fought for her love. When he found out she was pregnant with me, he fought to care for her.

To explain my father further, I gotta talk about my mother a bit, too. Her name's Cecilia Drakon. Some kind of college professor or something. Really, really smart. I never really went into much detail about it, honestly, but she studied stuff back in the day that'd make my eyes roll back into my head. Super nice. Like, the nicest person I've ever met, probably.

Anyway. When she got cancer, my father fought that, too. It was the first time my father lost, I think, and it broke the poor man. He's still alive, but I sometimes I think he doesn't want to be. When he sees me, I can tell he sees my mother, and...

Yea, anyway. My parents are a touchy subject.

Fortunately, that happened later. My childhood was pretty sweet, honestly. Both of my parents were all onboard with my gaming interests, so I was able to dive into the pro gaming scene pretty quickly and make a name for myself. Well, and of course I attended school. Went great. Had a bunch of friends and stuff, though obviously now that I'm grown up it's obvious they weren't real friends. Just hanger-ons that were interested in my skills.

No, I haven't. I mean, not unless you count being in love with Fighting Games, or in love with Fighting itself. Or maybe in love with being strong? 

...Okay, maybe I had a crush in high school on this one goth girl with dyed red streaks in her black hair, but that probably doesn't count either. I asked her out, she said no, and I'm a fucking chill dude so I did what any self-respecting guy would do and left her alone to go cry in my basement back at home. Easy.

I mean, that is what any self-respecting guy would do, if we're being real here.

What a fucked up question. Honestly. Look, if it's just between me and myself, and nobody else is seeing this, yea, of course I've got fears. Everybody does, right? 

Even gods.

Mine are pretty simple. Being weak. Failing. And... Not that I'd ever let anybody know this one, but... Losing people I care about.

Why being weak? It's straightforward I think. If you're weak, people don't respect you. If people don't respect you, life sucks. You can barely walk down the street without your own brain making shit worse for yourself. The worst thing is when your self-doubts are real, because then you can't hide from them.

Failing is similar, but it also means losing something. Every time you set out to do something and you fuck it up, you're not just losing at that particular thing, you're losing that part of you that knows you can win. That's different from just losing while you're learning--losing isn't failure so long as you learn from it. My ma always said that. But true failure is when you give it your all and lose something really important to yourself.

Or someone really important to yourself. I don't have anybody like that outside of my parents, really. It's obvious why. I'm not strong enough yet. I could still fail. 

When I do, I don't want to lose someone I can't afford to lose.

Easy. My bandana. My pops gave it to me ages ago, back before I knew what a bandana was, or what the color orange was. At the time, he told me it was just a momento of his fighting spirit, and a symbol that I should keep fighting as hard as I could.

In reality, I'm positive that pops accidentally yoinked it off of somebody one day and figured it'd be an easy way to get rid of it by passing it off to me.

I'm not bitter about that though, of course. Look, it's not about why something happens, it's about what it means when something happens, right? Even if pops was bullshitting me all the way back when, it became true because I chose to think it was true, and because he was willing to believe right alongside me.

If anything, it just makes it mean even more than it ever did as a shitty dollar-store bandana.

Right now? God, uh, probably money? Look, I'm obviously an incredibly talented guy--you know it, I know it, everybody knows it, they just might sometimes pretend otherwise. With that said, I'm kind of nerfing myself in some ways by playing to my strengths.

Society doesn't really appreciate men of my caliber, sadly, and fighting tournaments don't pay great, and I don't think they'd appreciate me taking up actual pro fighting with my newly discovered skills. Naturally, it wouldn't be very fair. So...

Yea, I'm stuck with the paltry earnings I get from whatever fighting game tournies I can crash, since it's not like I'd ever work a 'real' job like some kind of idiot. I'm a fighter. Born to be a fighter, always will be a fighter. It's that simple.

...Maybe on one of these contracts I can find a chest full of gold, or something? That would seriously simplify a lot of things in my life, if I'm being honest. I wonder if the contract guy takes requests?

Heh. I'm glad you asked. Everybody could learn a thing or two from my high-octane lifestyle, and quite frankly I think it'd probably be best if everyone just stole all of my general life habits. It might help raise the world out of their pathetic little lives!

So, first things first, wake up. You'll still be really tired since it's only, like, 9am or something, so just kind of lay there for an hour or two. This part's important--helps get the body in unity or whatever.

Next, check your phone. Look to see the latest news or whatever, catch up with your online buddies, no big deal. This step takes another hour or so.

Then, get out of bed. Ideally you're still wearing your clothes from the last day--this helps save a lot of time in the long run, and also gets you some extra attention in public for the fashion sometimes, which is a great bonus.

Then... Yea, that's it. You're good to go. Check your computer, work out, whatever. All set!