<div class="floatleft">(https://puu.sh/ukoJ4.jpg)</div><strong>Character Name: </strong>Samuel Keen<br/><strong>Alias: </strong>The Onyx King<br/><strong>Time/Date: </strong>March 7, 2025<br/><strong>Location: </strong>Hellfire Club, Council Chambers<br/><strong>Tagging: </strong>-<br/><strong>Mentioned: </strong>-<br/><strong>NSFW Warning: </strong>-<br/><br/>The Onyx King was a self-made man. Any assistance he had received in his life, any attention from the influential and wealthy and powerful had been due to his ceaseless efforts to claw and drag himself from the wretched and mediocre masses. His mutant gift was a powerful tool to aid in his efforts, but the mere fact that it was he who now sat atop the Onyx throne rather than a dozen other, perhaps more powerful exemplars of<em>homo sapiens superior</em>, told all that needed to be said. Samuel Keen, as he was known to the outside world, may have held no inherited title or status, but within Hellfire, he had made himself King and was heir to the legacy of Sebastian Shaw, having fought wars both bloody and economical until he held most of the former Black King's holdings.<br/><br/>In his guise as the Onyx King, he opted for black robes in the manner that nobles might have worn in ages past, with a heavy chain of gold around in his neck. Of course every bit of it, from the onyx-black gloves to the mantle around his shoulders were custom-made by the finest of tailors, interwoven with cutting edge protective meshes and inlaid with advanced technology -- such as the psi-shield that kept his thoughts from casual prying and intrusion.<br/><br/>As one of the foremost economical players via his own Keen Incorporated, the destruction in Berlin had hit his various businesses particularly hard. Thus, when he strode through the wooden portal-frame that led into the council chambers, Keen paid little heed to the extravaganza that had been assembled as by their usual customs, his attention squarely on the data-feed projected into his eye by the latest of communicative technology.<br/><br/>The situation and cutting of losses had required his personal attention, which was a rarity these days, with so many intermediaries and managers and CEOs handling the day to day vagaries of the business world. Still, the Onyx King kept his composure -- chaos was nigh and much had been and could still be lost, but he had learned all too well that upheaval also presented hitherto unrealized opportunities.<br/><br/>Today, it was his duty as leader of the Onyx Court to decide, along with his Jade counter part, what steps to take to ensure the future and continued supremacy of the Hellfire Club. What had to be done to reinforce the old structures -- or, perhaps, how to break them on their own terms and come out ahead. Samuel held no illusions that the very proposal of the latter would earn him yet more enemies among the traditionalists in the club, but he had not gotten where he was by cow-towing to his lessers.<br/><br/>With a sweep of his arm the burly man adjusted his mantle and sat down upon the onyx-colored throne at one end of their meeting table, brow furrowed. With a casual expectant gesture he held out his hand, separating index finger from the others in anticipation of being handed his usual choice of wine.<br/><br/>The wait, he held little doubt, would be a short one. Neither he nor his noble-blooded counterpart were fool enough to leave the other waiting.<br/>