Michael Holiday
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
| File:Holidayportrait.JPG | |
| "Damn I could use a smoke..." | |
| Michael Holiday | |
| Player: @Holiday | |
| Origin: | Natural ((Magic)) |
|---|---|
| Archetype: | None ((Blaster)) |
| Security Level: | Not Applicable |
| Personal Data | |
| Real Name: | Michael Augustus Holiday |
| Known Aliases: | Holiday, That Guy On T.V., Dirty Old Man, #$&@%! |
| Species: | Human, and proud |
| Age: | 32 (Not old) |
| Height: | 5' 10" |
| Weight: | 205 lbs. |
| Eye Color: | Green |
| Hair Color: | Blonde |
| Biographical Data | |
| Nationality: | Irish/German, born in America |
| Occupation: | Paranormal Detective |
| Place of Birth: | Brooklyn, NY |
| Base of Operations: | Skyway City, RI |
| Marital Status: | Single |
| Known Relatives: | Augustus Holiday (Grandfather, deceased) Dr. James Holiday (father) Scarlett Holiday (Mother) Daniel Holiday (Brother) |
| Known Powers | |
| None | |
| Known Abilities | |
| Adept at gambling, smooth talking, drinking, and the mystic arts | |
| Equipment | |
| The Hat, Winchester shotgun, magic shotgun shells, undead Slaying Axe, confiscated Circle of Thorns magic wand, "borrowed" Longbow jetpack, one sweet functioning Proton Pack (Thanks Skye!) | |
| From the case files of Mike Holiday | |
It started out as a gag, a foray into the RP world with a character inspired by DC Comics/Vertigo's character John Constantine. It evolved into one of my favorite, and most indepth characters ever. Enjoy the humor, the weirdness, and the overall awesomeness that is Michael Holiday.
UPDATE: MAJOR updating, bringing Michael Holiday up-to-date with 2009. Also re-arranged some items, making the page look better!
Personality
He's an ant amongst giants, one lone superpower-less face in a sea of gods. He's Mike Holiday.
Most people will describe Holiday in one word: weird. Some will say: awesome. Some will say: who? All will agree, however, that Michael Holiday is an all-around good guy.
Mike Holiday is an amiable typical street-smart wiseass, who just happens to have a not-so-typical job. He's quick with a joke, and even quicker to have your back. Holiday treats his friends well. He may complain about his job and he'll never miss an opportunity to tell you how lousy his luck is, but in truth, Holiday loves his job. Mike treats each case he recieves with the dedication one would expect an officer of the law when on the job.
Holiday is smart, observant, and a wealth of supernatural knowledge. He can usually surmise the nature and species of those with Magic origins simply by looking at the person, and asking a few questions.
Holiday is a drinker, and a chain-smoker. He is practically fueled by Jack 'n Coke, and Lucky Strikes. He is also a notorious ladies man. However, vices aside, Mike Holiday is an upstanding citizen and lover of life.
Powers
Mike Holiday has no natural superpowers. He exhibits all the strength and stamina one displays when one smokes and drinks practically every day when they turn 12.
However, he thinks it's funny to tell people he has the superpower of uncanny bad luck. He may be right. While not a superpower, Holiday may have the extraordinary circumstance of being immortal.
Abilities
Michael Holiday, while superpowerless, is not helpless. Holiday has a few abilities that help him in his daily life.
Skilled Detective
Mike Holiday inherited his father's gift for lateral thinking, and deductive reasoning. Holiday usually solves the average case within two to three days, with larger cases taking longer. A quick-thinker, Michael usually solves his problems with a sharp wit, and smooth talking, rather than with his fists.
Paranormal Expert
While he has no natural attributes, Mike Holiday has an unparalelled knowledge of all that is mystic and paranormal. He may not let on as much, but Michael Holiday is an expert on demonology, parapsychology, paranormal history, the various species of mystical entities, and the afterlife.
While he has one of the best libraries of paranormal knowledge in his apartment, Michael Holiday now has access to the Midnight Squad's vast library and resources, extending his mystic knowledge to near limitless potential.
Spell Crafting
Holiday uses this knowledge extremely rarely, only using magic abilities in extreme circumstances. Most of the time he relies on mystic artifacts and general quick thinking. Known uses of magic are:
- Levitating
- Healing others
- Opening a portal to the afterlife
- Banishing demons
Right Cross!
While Holiday is a self-proclaimed "lover, not a fighter", he trains at a local gym, and is adept at boxing. Mike has a nasty right cross that can lay most humans out cold. Holiday tries to stay as much in shape as a person with his vices can.
Weaknesses and Limitations
Holiday has the same weaknesses and limitations as your average human, meaning he can be shot, stabbed, bludgeoned, asphyixiated, etc. He is by no means invulnerable, but has been known to use a protection spell every now and then.
Unique character flaws are his cigarette addiction (smokes at least a pack a day), his penchant for Jack Daniels and cola, his inability to turn down a bet if "he's feelin' it", his weakness for a pretty face and a pair of legs, and, most notably, his ridiculous almost frightening streak of bad luck.
His streak of bad luck however, seems to have taken a break... for now.
Equipment
Holiday is in possession of many artifacts and tools used by paranormal researchers, as well as the standard tools of your everyday detective. Almost always in his posession is a notepad, a pen, and a divining crystal that can lead him to hard to find objects.
Augustus Holiday's Book Of Arcane Knowledge
One of his main sources of information is Augustus Holiday's Book of the Arcane. The book is a veritable cornucopia of occult information. With thousands of pages filled with 150+ years of text, drawings, diagrams, and more, the book is Holiday's first choice to learn of new discoveries, or brush up on old info. The book is old, worn, and over-stuffed with papers, parchments, imprints, and other such items.
Holiday adds to the book when he sees fit, hoping to one day pass it on to another.
Winchester Model 1200 Defender Shotgun
His go to problem solver is his Winchester pump-action shotgun. The shotgun can fire conventional shells, as well as specialized shells such as silver shells (for werewolves and vampires), holy shells (for demons and the undead), and mystic flame shells (shells which explode in blue flame when they touch anything evil). Holiday saves the shotgun as a last resort method, as he dislikes shooting living beings.
Undead Ghost Slaying Axe
He also has an axe which was rewarded to him by a gracious museum curator. The undead Slaying Axe is a large axe with mystic carvings on it. While it cleaves things like a normal axe, it has a special affect on those of the undead variety, making sure they change over to the dead variety.
Circle of Thorns Blackwand
Holiday also has a Circle of Thorns Blackwand, a powerful magic wand that he managed to confiscate after busting up some wannabe Thorns using it in a ritual. This wand emits powerful dark energy, as well as other abilities Holiday has yet to explore.
The Hat
Perhaps his most prized possesion is his famous fedora, known to some as simply, The Hat. This family heirloom, passed down from his grandfather Augustus, has special mystical properties. It protects whoever wears it from intrusions of the mind, such as possessions, or psychic readings. It has served Holiday well thus far, although a strong enough influence could potentially short out the mystic energy of the hat, and invade Holiday's mind.
Miscellania
Thanks to Skye Valentine, Holiday is in possesion of a fully functional and operating proton pack, much like those of the Ghostbusters. He has yet to use it.
Holiday is the proud owner of a black 1969 Chevrolet Camaro, which while a bit beat up, he takes pristine care of. The rusty car has a few dings and dents, but Holiday treats it like his baby. The car has mystic protection symbols carved into the doors, which prevents the Paragon City criminal element from stealing Holiday's precious ride.
Most of the items Holiday carries are stored in the trunk of the Camaro.
Affiliations
Taxibot Theta- Sam McKain, former travel serviceman to the superpowered, ex-Holiday Inc. secretary, superhero, best friend, and all around good guy.
Skye Valentine- Another close friend, former digital spirit, tolerator of Holiday's weirdness.
Star Valentine- Sister to Skye, ex-fiancee to Theta, encourager of Holiday's weirdness.
Dr Von Dread and Sergeant Prentice- Former nazis turned Council members, Pocket D drinking buddies, and totally weird dudes.
dizzy the banshee- A mischevious netherworld fairy, poster child for non-sugared cereals.
Human Miracle- Another drinking buddy, and notorious ladies' man.
Toni Segatto- Ex-girlfriend with a...complicated...history.
Dory James- Current possible maybe someday on-again, off-again girlfriend, with a knack for tossing mid-size imports.
And there are many more who Holiday encounters regularly in his everyday existence...
From The Case Files of Michael Holiday (Character History)
Humble Beginnings
The man they call Michael Augustus Holiday was born on January 29, 1977 in Brooklyn, New York into a family of near-legends. In fact his grandfather, the man he takes his name after, was a famous superhero contact back in the 40's and 50's, so well learned in the field of the supernatural and paranormal, that the Midnight Squad picked him above all others to be their New York liason.
Before Augustus passed away when Michael was 10, he passed on his blessing to the boy. Constantly being held to a higher standard by his father James, Michael Holiday grew up as something of a rebel. He didn't want to live up to the famous Holiday name. When the time came, Holiday moved from New York, and settled in Paragon.
Instead of attending NYU, Holiday applied to the Croatoa campus of Paragon University. The first Holiday to leave New York in many years, Holiday found Paragon was way more interesting than New York in many aspects. Here, Holiday would major in Paranormal Studies, and minor in Criminal Justice.
New Proprietor of Holiday Inc, and The Dead Husband
Holiday opened up Holiday Inc., the family business, away from the city of Manhattan, and relocated it to Skyway City in Paragon. He set up an office/apartment in the Astral District near the Yellow Line, and has been located there ever since. It wasn't long until Holiday would start to take on cases of a variety of types, from exorcisms to vampire hunting.
The first notable case he worked on was that of The Dead Husband. In this case, Holiday defeated a zombie in poker, so that the zombie would leave it's former wife in peace after losing a gambling match in it's previous life. Holiday noted from this case that zombies have fantastic poker faces.
The Rikti Invasion
Business was briefly disrupted, as was everything everywhere on May 23, 2002, when the Rikti invaded Earth by the droves. As Paragon City was in the heart of the invasion, Mike Holiday found himself in the thick of things. He found himself holed up in the basement of his apartment for the duration of the invasion. He likes to tell people he spent it holed up with a leggy blonde in a luxury penthouse. After Omega Team and Hero One sacrificed themselves to save the planet, Holiday found a ruined Paragon and a city in chaos. Even with the large influx of superheroes that promised to come in, the people of Paragon City would need an easily accessible solution to all the paranormal weirdness that plagues them. He needed to get his name out there...he needed advertising.
T.V. Commercial and The Jingle
After the post-war reconstruction, Holiday got to work. Thanks to a local ad agency, and cheap late night air time, Holiday Inc. began broadcasting a commercial offering it's paranormal services. It's notable for it's bad acting, and even more notable for it's little jingle at the end. To the tune of Green Day's "Holiday":
Got demons in your closet
Ghosts possesed your wife
Give us a call and we will
come save your life.
Call Holidaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!!!
Says Holiday, "The kids love the catchy rock songs".
Holiday Meets The City Of Heroes
Sometime before the fall of 2006, a bored Michael Holiday went bar-hopping. He was somewhere in Founder's Falls before a stranger pulled him aside. The stranger told him that if he wanted to see a real nightclub, that he should go look for Pocket D. A few questions and directions later, Holiday found himself in Paragon City's premier superhero nightclub. Pretty sneaky, stashing it away in an pocket dimension. Here, Mike met some awesome people, including some lifelong friends he would've never met in any bar in Paragon. Holiday also met some business contacts here as well. Overtime, Holiday would become a Pocket D regular, heading on over once he closed up shop for the night. It was one of the best decisions he'd ever make.
Famous Cases
Since the grand reopening of Holiday Inc. after the Rikti invasion, Holiday has enjoyed a series of high profile and notable cases and has made a name for himself around Rhode Island's Jewel. These stories are infamously spoken in bars and gatherings all across the city. Through these stories, Holiday has become a sort of local legend in his own right.
The Lost Doll
There was the case of The Lost Doll, in which Holiday found himself entering Hell itself to retrieve a little girl's dolly that some demons had stolen. The girl was a daughter of a Talos Island socialite who had ignorantly bought the doll from an occult store. The doll was a demonic plaything, but was cherished by this little girl. For a hefty fee, Holiday braved the depths of Hell, (it's not as hot as you think), retriving the little girl's prized toy.
The Pizza Ghost
Perhaps, most famously, there was the case of The Pizza Ghost. In Paragon's Golden Age, Frankie "Fats" Dimaggio was a high ranking capo for The Family. However, no criminal is untouchable, and the police fingered Frankie. "Fats" opted to squeal to the police to avoid serious jail time. When the Family caught wind of this, they murdered "Fats" in his own Independance Port pizzaria, and forgot about his memory until present day.
Holiday was called in to investigate recent hauntings of the pizzaria by the owner. The owner was the same young hitman who did Frankie in. It appeared that Frankie's ghost longed for vengance and closure. Possessing the ingredients and various food items in the pizzaria, "Fats" manifested a physical body and attacked the owner. Luckily, Holiday was there to stop the marinara monster before anyone was hurt.
Thanks to Holiday, the pizza owner was arrested for his past crimes, and Frankie "Fats" Dimaggio's soul could finally rest in peace.
Project: Afterlife
There was the case of Project: Afterlife, in which Holiday found himself investigating a string of bizarre deaths, which somehow lead to Crey Industries. In this case, these people were simply alive one moment, and dead the next. Before Holiday could link the victims together, he went to question the one suspect that could pull off murders such as these: Death itself.
Mike Holiday entered the Underworld to talk to Death. Outraged that Holiday could have the gall to accuse him of such things, Death explained that there is a complicated method to the way he takes lives. These murders went against the grand scheme of the universe.
Upon further investigation, Holiday found out that all the victims were at one point or another Crey Industries employees. Before he could investigate further, Holiday found himself being sued by Countess Crey herself, and found himself in the middle of the trial of the century. Crey's high powered laywers had Holiday against the wall, but that didn't stop him from further investigation.
On the day of the verdict, Holiday found out that all the victims were working on one special project. It was Crey's attempt at an arcane division, experiments with the afterlife. Holiday pieced together that this project was meant to stop death, but it wound up making it's test subject become a version of Death itself! Just as the judge was about to throw the book at Holiday, the technoDeath made his presence known. He had come for Countess Crey herself, and to finally complete his revenge. Holiday knew he could stop the failed experiment, but he first had a proposition for the Countess: drop the charges against himself and Holiday Inc, and keep this under wraps, or he'd let the Deathmonster come after her. The Countess reluctantly agreed, and Mike Holiday was found innocent of all charges.
It Came From Beneath
Another case involved Holiday going into the sewers to combat a golem that had formed from the stone and sludge beneath the streets.
The Paragon City Department of Public Works employs some of the toughest people in the city. They have to deal with zombies, mutants, and robots roaming their sewers everyday of the week. So when Holiday got a call from them to help them get rid of a problem, he knew he was in for a treat. The workers complained about a being of brick and steel that would attack them anytime any of them got close to a certain area of the sewers. Holiday braved the depths of the murky underworld to investigate.
It seemed that years of underground villiany had finally taken it's toll on the sewers of Paragon. An unholy mix of waste, mutagens, mystic residue, and bad karma had given birth to an entity of the sewers. The beast was composed of the rock the sewers were built with. The steel pipes of the sewers comprised it's skeleton, and the sludge and refuse was it's blood. Holiday managed to tame the beast, who simply wanted to be left alone.
The Sewer Golem now works for the Paragon D.P.W., protecting it's co-workers from the myriad of threats that make their way into the sewers.
The Second Coming
Some cases are more personal to Mike Holiday. For instance, there's the case of The Second Coming. During this case, Holiday found himself battling Rikti to save the life of his hospitalized father.
Crisis on Infinite Holidays
There was also the time-bending, reality-altering journey called Crisis On Infinite Holidays, or Holiday Inadvertantly Screws With Reality. In this case, Holiday came into the possession of the Malleus Mundi. The reality warping book fell into the hands of Arachnos and Ghost Widow, and Holiday found himself subsequently saving reality as we know it. This case in particular holds special meaning to Holiday's personal life.
As time rolls on, Mike Holiday will be sure to find himself in the thick of ridiculous adversity and insane situations.
The Many Transformations Of Mike Holiday
Throughout the course of his career, Holiday has done some pretty messed up stuff. Stuff that would become the talk of legend...and cannon-fodder for friends to make fun of him with. Holiday has become a variety of strange creatures and aquired strange powers for limited amounts of time, due to random occurences, or sheer rotten luck.
He once was turned into a werewolf. He was accidentally bitten by one during a case. To counteract the transformation, he was taking doses of silver. Believing himself to be cured, he stopped taking the doses. The result was a loss of memory, torn clothes, a blond shaggy werewolf, and several frightened people. A duo of heroes transformed him back.
Holiday once was also turned into, (embarassingly enough) a woman. Long story short: don't make stupid bets with mages over the Super Bowl.
Once, after accidentally inhaling some "Death Dust" from a voodoo priest he busted, Holiday was turned into a zombie. Faced with a lack of nose, bad smell, and an unquenchable thirst for brains, Holiday was forced to fight his zombie urges. In fact, because he didn't consume any flesh, he temporarily died. However, once the dust wore off, the zombification process began to reverse itself, and Holiday regenerated back to normal.
Other weird transformation happened when Holiday crossed paths with one of Paragon's elite. Due to being at the wrong place at the wrong time, Holiday inadvertantly became a superhero. The Spectral Scourge is a hero who can become a ghost. The Scourge accidentally possessed Holiday, imbuing him with his own powers, and subsequently hired him to retrieve his missing coporeal body. Most will remember The Spectral Scourge's utter domination over Holiday's life, including making him wear a blue tie, a color Holiday loathes.
Holiday Here and Now
At present, Holiday is doing his normal routine: working in the mornings and afternoons, hitting the D at night. He recently aquired a new secretary, a young girl by the name of Lilith Darkweaver.
Michael Holiday is also a full-fledged member of the Midnight Squad. Finally giving in to his family's lineage, Holiday underwent initiation and is now a rightful member of the Squad, a position his grandfather made famous.
Trivia
- The idea for the character Michael Holiday came after watching the movie 'Constantine'. Upon further research, I found that the John Constantine character was quite bad ass. Mixing in some new character traits, and removing some I didn't like, Mike Holiday was born.
- Thanks to a complete lack of originality, Holiday shares some of the same stats and hobbies as the person who created him. Mike Holiday, and Mike Fusco (that'd be me), share the same birthday, the same preference in drinks, are from the same area, have a brother with the same name, and have the same tastes in sports.
- Holiday will level as the handler sees fit. I'd like to eventually get him to level 20, but that's a waaaaaays off yet.
- It is highly possible that Michael Holiday is immortal, thanks to a spell from his grandfather.
- Holiday currently holds the Guinness Book of World Records record for largest male vampire ever captured.
- Mike Holiday smokes the "Lucky Strike" brand of cigarettes. Took me awhile to figure out which brand suited him.
- Holiday can now be seen in his second costume, which is plain t-shirt and jeans, his ever present fedora, and a green New York Jets jacket. (At least, it's SUPPOSED to be a Jets football jacket. :P)
- More to come...
Michael Holiday: The TV Series
With all the comic book movies being made out there from 300, to Batman, to Spider-Man, to Watchmen, one can only ask: how would the movie of my character play out? The Mike Holiday movie would definetly be an action/comedy with elements of the supernatural. I have no idea what the plot would be.
In retrospect, I don't think Holiday could carry his own movie. I DO however think he'd be wonderful as a prime-time TV series! How the casting would plan out, I have no idea. But maybe YOU folks do.
Think you can do better? Let me know! If you know the character, or if you've read the article here and think you have an idea, leave it in the discussion page. I'd love to hear from you!
