[app for lastvoyages]
User Name/Nick: KaOS
User LJ: nevermore_1313
AIM/IM: orderfromka0s
E-mail: promotedtocondiments [at] gmail [dot] com
Other Characters: notafuckingnut, stepintoshadows
Character Name: "Evil" Ed Lee
Series: Fright Night (2011)
Age: 18
From When?: Post-death during the showdown at Peter Vincent's apartment
Inmate/Warden: He's a recently-made vampire with a grudge against his former best friend and a recently discovered taste for violence and blood with little to no compunction for killing or immorality of any kind; suffice to say he's an inmate.
Abilities/Powers:
Bear with for general tl;dr and WAY more attention to the nitty gritty than entirely necessary. Also for some minor canon!mythology tweaking because they can't even stay consistent with their own.
General Mechanics:
Unlike your standard mythology, he's not quite "dead"; blood pumps and circulates, neurons fire, you can't sustain an existence without its basic operations, after all, even if you're essentially an animated corpse kept alive by a Christianity-fearing virus). He's got a pulse, consequently, and a heartbeat, and he even breathes, only they're all depressed enough to be generally accepted by the medical community as "incompatible with life" -- they're enough to maintain the body, keep it running and operating, but if the average person tried to live that way they'd long since be dead because it's just not practically sufficient.
Newly made vamps -- fledglings, like Ed for example -- tend to be particularly bloodthirsty and are hungry almost constantly for the first month or so while their human bodies shed what's left of their human lives and adjust to the rigors of a vampiric existence. They tend to have very short shelf lives if left to their own devices because they don't have the un-life experience to know where their limits are, or how to adequately control their urges as needed; comparatively few make it through the first months, but those that do tend to stick around for a while.
The turning process, for its part, is fairly similar to the usual mythology; the Sire drains the prospective Childe, or nearly, anyway, and when the victim dies he or she is inevitably reborn a vampire, forever connected to the one who turned him or her until they're effectively released from the bond. One bite won't do it unless it's a complete draining, but repeated exposures will, only the process is much more gradual; see what happened to Doris, for example -- she wasn't a true vampire, but when Charley tried to break her out she turned to dust in daylight all the same.
Vampire blood on its own also has some special properties, namely enthralling humans, bending them to the vampire's will for as long as the blood's still in their system, with the added benefit of giving them some vampiric qualities, namely a taste for rare meat and mildly raised strength and stamina. Whether or not the mortal actually ENJOYS being a thrall varies from individual to individual. The blood can heal damaged tissue as well, but this tends to be something they don't use unless they have to.
According to the Fright Night mythology, there are several varieties of vampires rather than only one. Jerry comes from a particularly long-lived breed given to nesting under the earth, building entire tribes of Children rather than living out solitary existences. General abilities are the same as in most mythologies; increased strength, hearing, and sense of smell, as well as heightened reflexes and accelerated healing.
They also have three "forms"; one where they look human, aside from the pale skin, one where their eyes turn black, their fangs sprout, and they grow claws, and the final monstrous form, with a mouth full of shark teeth and features twisted to match.
Weaknesses:
All the old standards apply; immediate death can be caused by a stake to the heart, beheading, or sunlight. They're also vulnerable to crosses (although not as much as you'd think, it mostly depends on the strength of faith of the one brandishing it), and holy water or holy items. They also can't be seen in mirrors or on video.
Limits:
The weaknesses mentioned above are still in full force, obviously, but he'll also have checks on strength and durability to keep him manageable; movie canon states his is a particularly difficult breed to kill, they tend to be the Energizer Bunny of vampires (he's already had his head nearly severed and continued on like it weren't no thang, for example, and Jerry was squished by a car for miles and still managed to tear the damn thing apart and shake it off, so there's precedent). Consequently, he'll need to be pretty well de-powered to compensate. Strength's on par with your average, in-shape adult male (so stronger than his build would indicate but not INHUMANLY so), heal time's tripled, and things like spider climbing and crazy gymnastics are off-limits. The vampire blood properties are dampened too; the healing component still operates the way it always has, but consuming it will only hold a mortal in thrall for 20 minutes (more or less), depending on general will and stubbornness of the one in question -- particularly determined and strong-willed individuals (or ones with some measure of immunity to Glamour) might only be effected for 5 or 10 minutes, while the weaker-minded might be subjected to a half hour.
Personality:
The funny thing about Evil Ed is that he wasn't even particularly evil when he was given the nickname. Weird, yes, different, yes, which is mostly what spawned it in the first place, but not evil, but in the way childhood nicknames given in the heat of the moment tend to, the right situation, the right audience, and the name stuck. In the hands of friends it became something different though, something cool; like Evil Knievel, it was just a word, not a description.
It was only later that it actually turned out to be appropriate.
Ed's the kind of guy who seems ubiquitous to just about every school. The one who's just a little strange -- ultimately harmless, but he never seems to be on quite the same page as everyone else. A few seconds too quick to laugh at the joke, or too slow to stop, or he skips the one everyone laughs at entirely to get amusement out of the one nobody else finds funny. He's got a twisted sense of humor, a tendency towards the macabre, and a bit of a reputation for being something of a spazz; he's high-strung by nature, given to sudden bursts of ideas and flurries of words, and once he's got an idea in his head he tends to purse it until he's exorcised it completely. Good for productivity, sure, great for projects and creativity in general, but not so good for the social life when you live one fixation for weeks at a time to the detriment of everything else.
Needless to say, he's also the kind of guy who tends to attract bullies of all shapes and sizes just by existing; he's awkward and gangly, he doesn't really fit in -- a fact which he generally seems to pride himself on, regardless of the trouble it usually gets him into -- and while by now he's pretty much used to it, the fact hasn't exactly helped him considering it's mostly just given him a thicker skin and a more sarcastic and snarky attitude towards...just about everyone who isn't a friend, even if they haven't done anything to him personally. Which only makes it worse on himself in the long run.
He's also a manipulative little shit when he wants to be; years of being used and abused by his classmates has given him something of a nasty streak, a tendency towards unscrupulous behavior when he has no other options he can see. Ordinarily he's happy to go along with whatever, but if he's dedicated enough to his plans and sees no other alternative to accomplishing his goals, he's not opposed to using underhanded methods to get what he wants; he blackmailed Charley to get him to check out Adam's house with him, after all.
Getting turned has done little to help any of this, in fact has only served to exacerbate most of it since it has by and large completely removed his moral code. He's a cocky little twerp, thoroughly convinced of his own superiority (vampires are stronger, faster, and just generally better than humans in every way, and even though it wasn't that long ago that he was dead certain they all needed to die he's not afraid to extol their virtues anyway). Nevermind that he's been one for all of days, and that he doesn't have anywhere near enough un-life experience just yet to back up the kind of noise he makes, he's a vampire now, and he's got a Sire who will absolutely back him up when he can't do it himself. ...Probably.
With his humanity removed, Ed's free to take his vengeance on the world, and as far as he's concerned he's 100% entitled to do so; he's had to take their shit for eighteen years, in his mind it's absolutely his right to return the favor now that he's got the means.
Path to Redemption:
The thing about Ed is that he's not everything he seems. Jerry did a number on him to get him to this point, threw just about everything that was wrong with his life in his face to get him to drop his guard and just give up; he had next to no friends, one was dead and the other wouldn't give him the time of day if he could help it, he didn't fit in, nothing seemed to be going his way, to hear Jerry tell it. And it was the kind of truth that you can't really even deny as a half-truth or twisted facts, it was a pretty accurate assessment. So when Jerry promised something better? Well there really wasn't much he could do but accept his fate.
Because when it all comes down to it, for as much as he claims otherwise, as much as he may say he's entirely content with what he's got in spite of everything, he really just wants a place to belong, people who want him to tag along. People who want him period, and family doesn't count because that's what they do. Charley just up and deciding to cut him out of his life because he was "inconvenient" to what he wanted from life hurt as deeply as the things Jerry said, in fact it's why what Jerry said had the effect it did, and ever since Charley decided to stop being friends with him and Adam because they were "too weird" he's been trying to fill that gap one way or another.
And even though he's a vampire now, the need is still there.
Any Warden taking on Ed should keep this in mind; regardless of anything he says or does, regardless of how solitary he gets and how much he might snap and lash out, he's still looking to fill that space. He desperately wants someone he can nerd out with, someone he can share his ridiculous ideas with and just generally be himself around without having to worry about what they'll do or if they'll stick around. And he won't be picky about their alignment either; he's actually evil right now, or at least disregards morals enough to be a pretty good facsimile, so he won't really care if the gap is filled with someone just as bad or worse or an actually halfway decent person. Anyone who shows at least a little inclination will do, and they'll be in a fairly solid position to shape his own perspective on things.
The funny thing about Ed is that he's a walking contradiction; he loves what he can do, the power he's got because of it, and if you were to ask him flat-out he would probably tell you he wouldn't go back for anything. He's the big wolf on campus now, he can't be pushed around any longer, and now that he's got it he can't wait to use and abuse it. But, by the same token, he's new at this, not as inhuman as, say, Jerry, who's been a vampire for some 400 years and consequently is pretty well stuck in his ways. He's more drunk on the power than anything else; he even says himself that he blames Charley for the whole thing, for letting Jerry turn him, implying that he really doesn't like the situation as much as he claims. He's stuck living in the dark, sleeping in dirt, living off other people like a human-shaped leech, and it's really not something he ever wanted for himself. He loves what he can do but to a degree hates what he is, and he deeply resents both Charley and Peter for their parts in it; Charley for turning him away when he needed it and putting him in a position where it could happen at all and Peter for misrepresenting himself, claiming he was an expert in the field when really he was just a showman with fancy words who didn't even believe his own spiel. There's still the old Ed lurking in there somewhere, and a major key to his redemption will be keeping that intact as much as possible, if not trying to bring it to the forefront.
History:
Ed's been a geek his whole life; from being introduced to the original Batman tv show as a kid to a childhood revolving around whatever animated superheroes and comics he could get his hands on, he's spent most of his life living in a fantasy world in one way or another; cartoons and comics branched out into Star Wars, Star Trek, Hercules, Xena, Farscape, Cons and cosplay and swordfights with boffer weapons and improvised armor among like-minded kids. He met Adam and Charley in kindergarten, and from then on the three were all but inseparable: Squid Man, Gladiator Boy, and Kid Comeback, banded together against the jocks and jerks who didn't quite get their brand of Different. The hallways were tough, hostility and black eyes lurking around every corner, but with the three of them? It was manageable.
And then high school rolled around, and everything changed.
It started gradually at first; sophomore year full meetings of the trio increasingly became duos, Ed and Adam left in the lurch more and more often for more and more transparent reasons; plans made when there hadn't been a conflict before, surprise visits, or flat-out refusals to answer the phone. Junior year brought an even further breakdown of the group, and before Senior year had even started Charley had stopped talking to them entirely, and started hanging out with the same jocks and jerks who had spent their every waking moment tormenting them, to add insult to injury.
Ed took this especially hard, refusing to accept one of his best friends had been replaced with a pod person in the name of girls; unlike Adam, who just wrote him off, he clung to the hope that he'd one day come to his senses, so he kept trying to pull him back into the group despite the extra crap he got because of it, right up until the day Adam disappeared.
They'd had their suspicions for a while; a new guy in the neighborhood and then a sudden rash of disappearances over the next weeks, it was too weird to dismiss as coincidence. So they started following him, videotaping him, building their case, and finally, after weeks of work, they had their conclusion: he was a vampire. Ridiculous, of course, but the proof was there, it was undeniable, each point on its own only circumstantial but together overwhelmingly compelling.
They were supposed to hunt him down together, skip school to ambush him in his house during the day and put an end to the monster, only...morning came, Ed left early for the meeting point as agreed, but Adam never showed. So he went to the only person he knew might care enough to do something. Charley.
Except it didn't go as planned and he ended up a vampire instead. And then got staked by his (former) best friend, only to wake up on the Barge.
Sample Journal Entry:
Heyyy, what's shakin', bacon?
...See, it's funny because you're food. Just a bunch of walking milkshakes. [He snickers, a slightly unhinged little laugh, and it's clear that aside from the deathly pale skin and too-dark glint of his eyes there is something seriously Not Right about him. You may have seen him in the hallways earlier, he was skulking around before deciding to post something.] But anyway.
[Evil leans back in the chair, as relaxed as a tiger stalking its prey from afar, and smirks. Behind him you can see a room that looks almost stereotypically "nerdy teenage boy"; movie posters from just about every horror movie known to man paper the walls, and there's a row of Star Wars action figures lined up on a shelf somewhere behind him. The only thing that doesn't quite seem to fit is the large wooden crate stuck in the middle of the room.]
Chuckles, you out there? Because if this is some kind of fucked up newbie hunter joke I am so gonna kill you. And it's gonna be messy as fuck.
Sample RP: [3-5 paragraphs, 3rd Person POV]
He'd expected it to hurt more.
Not that he'd ever really thought about it; a stick on steroids shoved through your chest wasn't exactly something you usually contemplated. Sure, he'd had a few in-depth discussions with Adam about what killing a vampire might be like, but...somehow they'd never thought they would be on the other side of it. It was one of those horror movie situations, you don't think about what the monster's feeling because he doesn't matter. He's only there to be killed off in the end.
He's not you, except for in werewolf movies. Or zombie flicks. And even then it's more metaphorical than serious. "The Beast That Lurks Inside Everyone". "The Growing Pandemic of Consumerism". Not actually you.
But here he was. Heart, meet stake, and there was Charley, the fucking smug bastard. Fitting, that he got it now, after it was already too late. After he got Amy the stupid skank involved. Figures it would be the chick that did it. Sell-out little shit. Too fucking perfect; the prodigal friend returneth. Ed wanted to laugh, but he had a sneaking suspicion it would only make things worse on his end, and he doubted Charley would get the joke anyway.
His fingers were smoking, dissolving. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. He could feel them, but that hurt less than he'd thought too. Less than the hole in his chest, anyway.
Charley frowned, looked like he wanted to say something but couldn't find the words, but at least he looked sorry about it. Good, he should, but Ed couldn't really find the malice for it. He hadn't wanted this, not really. And in that moment, he forgave him for everything. All of it.
"It's okay, Charley."
...Except it wasn't. Because he closed his eyes in one place, only to open them in dirt. Again.
"FUCKING SHIT."
Special Notes: