[OOC] Profile
Player Information
Name: Nyx
Personal Journal: minilovely
Contact Info: gilded chrysanth [AIM]
Character Information
Name: Grace Harlow
Age: Appears in her early to mid-teens, but is actually closer to 100.
Setting:
Grace's 'verse is almost identical to the real world, with one major exception: supernatural creatures and the occult are very real. Since Grace is a vampire and hasn't had much contact with other sorts of non-humans, I'm going to focus on vampires exclusively for this bit.
Most humans aren't aware of the existence of vampires-or, really, the existence of anything beyond the mundane. There are a few exceptions, but generally speaking these are humans that have entered a Contract (see abilities) with a vampire, usually in exchange for the promise of being changed into vampires themselves at some point in the future. In the interest of maintaining their secrecy and freedom, most groups of vampires make it a rule not to let any humans outside of Contracts know of their existence; if one accidentally reveals itself, it is responsible for killing the human in question and disposing of any evidence.
For the most part, vampires are organized into large, branching families that self-govern themselves. Families are generally spread out over large distances to help avoid infighting about territory, with small groups living together. Typically, they live in cities, relying on the large population to obscure the fact that they're picking off and eating humans. Fighting within a family is solved by a decree from the family head; fighting between separate families is solved by violence.
There are also drifters and nomads that move from area to area rather than settling down in any one place, but these are rare; generally, newborn vampires are adopted by the family that sired them. And, besides, traveling creates the risk of accidentally encroaching on someone else's territory and being killed for it. For the most part, nomads are vampire that have been kicked out of their family for whatever reason and lack the ability to establish a territory of their own.
Vampires are few in number. This is largely because the majority of the families have rules against frivolously changing humans, in order to prevent food and territory from being stretched too thin. The change itself is achieved by the swapping of blood between a human and a vampire, as vampirism is actually caused by a virus carried in the bloodstream. Generally speaking, after the transfer has taken place, humans have to withstand one to three days of intense fever and sickness while the virus changes their body.
Additionally, though vampires are technically immortal, their lifespan is limited in a sense, which in turn helps control the population. Vampirism causes the brain to gradually deteriorate, meaning older vampires are eventually reduced to something feral and animal-like. The exact rate of deterioration varies from vampire to vampire, but its effects usually begin to become noticeable after about a few centuries. Generally speaking, after vampires reach a certain point in this erosion, their family will perform a mercy killing (though truthfully this is motivated only partly by mercy, the need to keep their erratic behavior from being noticed by humans also significant).
Finally, though this rarely occurs, it is possible for male vampires to impregnate female humans (and females of other species that are "human-based" in some way, such as lycanthropes). Female vampires, on the other hand, are incapable of becoming pregnant. Though they're rare enough that this is rarely an issue, dhampirs and other crossbreeds are discouraged if not outright forbidden by most families, largely for two reasons. The first is that they are a security risk of sorts, as the cease aging at some point during their teens or twenties-something very obviously noticeable to the humans they are no doubt surrounded by. The second is that sunlight does not affect them the same way it does full-blooded vampires, and they therefore have an extreme potential to be used as assassins in both inter- and intra-family disputes. As such, most half-vampires are killed at birth, few living to see adulthood.
History:
In the early 20th century, Grace was born in America as Joanna Blake. She was a weak, sickly child, making her the constant target of teasing from her peers. Her relationship with her father was strained as well, as he had hoped for a son rather than a daughter; as a result, she became extremely attached to her mother, who frequently attempted to shield her from hardship and shelter her from the world's darker truths.
And there was quite a bit of hardship to shelter her from at times. Her family's financial situation wasn't the best, to put it mildly, meaning they frequently had to struggle to make it from month to month. This stress eventually got to her mother; almost ironically, given her daughter's sickliness, she eventually died of illness. Joanna, left only with peers that ridiculed her, a father she resented, and a home that was constantly on the verge of going under, snapped. She ran away from home soon after.
This proved not to be the best idea, but she was too stubborn-and too afraid of facing her father again-to return home. She nearly starved to death and probably would have had she not been found by a woman calling herself Temperance Harlow. She offered to adopt her as her child, but only if she fulfilled certain terms she had. Desperate, she agreed without waiting for her to explain them, and before she had time to reconsider her decision, she was sitting in the woman's home with their blood mingling.
The change was difficult, lasting three days, during which Joanna was certain she was going to finally succumb to her illness and die. Only once the fever subsided did Temperance explain to her what had happened, though the girl was too shellshocked to have much of a reaction to this news at the time. She also explained why she had chosen her and what the rest of her terms were; Joanna reminded her of her dead daughter, whom she missed horribly, and she wanted her to take her place. Feeling as though she had no choice but to comply, she agreed.
Temperance was more than a little damaged from her long life as a vampire, not to mention obsessed with regaining her lost daughter, so it turned out she meant for Joanna to do more than simply act as her child. She was supposed to abandon her identity entirely, taking up the long dead girl's name, dress style, and even behavior. As one might imagine, their relationship was less than healthy, with her not-mother exploding into anger whenever she let the facade drop, intentionally or otherwise. Still, it wasn't long until she grew used to being addressed by the name Grace.
The only positive part of her new life was that she took to being a vampire quite well. After being frail and sickly for so many years, her newfound strength was exhilarating. She also overcame her aversion to killing remarkably quickly; Temperance explained to her that it was simply the natural order of things, and, besides, she had never met a human she had liked other than her mother. It wasn't hard for the bitterness that she had kept hidden inside her for her entire life to come to the fore in her new conditions, and soon she was feeding without remorse.
Of course, there was a new kind of bitterness welling up inside her while under Temperance's care. The woman's mind continued to deteriorate as she grew older, with her behavior becoming increasingly inhuman, erratic, and violent. On more than one occasion, Grace was severely punished and even verbally abused for not acting sufficiently Grace-like; every time, her ambivalent feelings toward Temperance grew closer to hatred. Eventually, her hate and resentment boiled over, and Grace murdered her.
When the head of their "family" inquired about this, she simply told him a partial truth-that Temperance had been behaving so unpredictably a mercy killing was necessary. She was given a slap on the wrist and warned not to take such actions on her own, but otherwise her story was accepted without complaint and there was no further investigation into what had happened. Still, despite not having been kicked out and sentenced to a nomadic lifestyle, she left house in which she and Temperance had been living and began to wander.
Personality:
The way Grace acts and the way Grace really is are two entirely different things.
Outwardly, Grace is a sweet but shy young lady, constantly stammering and blushing but trying her best to be helpful and kind. Naive but with her heart in the right place, she always tries to be helpful and do the right thing, even if her lack of confidence sometimes keeps her from accomplishing this successfully-something she will apologize endlessly for. She's also very emotional and wears her heart on her sleeve, and cries often with little provocation. Basically, she seems like a good kid that needs to learn to be a little less insecure.
But, truthfully, Grace isn't like that at all. She's really perfectly confident...and perfectly cruel and selfish. After all, she doesn't care the slightest bit about anyone but herself, only concerning herself with other people when she thinks they can provide some form of entertainment for her. This is usually not a good thing for the individuals in question, as her true personality has a rather prominent sadistic streak. She takes great pleasure in hurting people, generally on an emotional level.
Because, you see, she is very bitter. She's only met one human in his life that she couldn't find some reason, logical or not, to hate, so she doesn't have a very high opinion of humanity in general. Add to this her belief that it's the natural order of things for vampires to be above humans and you've got someone who only sees people as something to abused and toyed with before eventually becoming dinner. She doesn't see anything remotely wrong about luring people in with false kindness and then killing them; after all, if they were stupid enough to be tricked, they obviously deserve to be removed from the gene pool anyway.
Grace is also very opportunistic, using whatever she has at her disposal to her advantage. For example, even though she is technically no longer obligated to keep up the sweet little girl act, she does so simply because she knows she can use it to manipulate others in a way that wouldn't be possible otherwise. In other words, even though she resents being forced to take on a false identity, she continues to use it because she realizes it's beneficial to her. Utility trumps her personal sense of pride.
And Grace is very emotionally manipulative. After playing the role of a sweet little girl for so long, she's gotten very good at faking her feelings, and she's certainly not above crocodile tears to make someone feel guilty or to get their sympathy. She tends to play with people emotionally, manipulating them into doing things they don't want using guilt, and then taking great delight in their reactions when she reveals it was all an act all along. She especially enjoys this when the person in question is one she intends to make a meal out of.
Probably her only redeeming feature is her love for children. Yes, she absolutely adores them-and will not tolerate seeing them harmed in any way, even going out of her way to protect them despite her general self-centeredness. She does have an unfortunate tendency to be a little over-protective or even possessive of them, but for the most part she honestly only wants what's best for the child in question.
Abilities:
strengths-
Being a vampire, Grace possesses enhanced strength, speed, and agility. Likewise, her senses are heightened, night vision in particular.
Grace also heals at an accelerated rate, though how accelerated that is depends on how recently she has eaten. On a full stomach, minor injuries will heal almost instantaneously, and severe ones can heal within a day. However, under no circumstances can things like severed limbs be reattached.
Finally, she has retractable fangs and claws.
weaknesses-
Grace must consume human blood regularly in order to survive. Though animal blood can be used in its stead, subsiding on it alone will eventually cause a vampire to grow sickly and malnourished. It's also possible for a vampire to eat human food, but it's not a very appetizing prospect; it's about the vampire equivalent of pica.
Though sunlight doesn't cause immediate death, it does cause pain; the skin exposed will immediately burn and blister. Vampires are also vulnerable to heat and general, and will succumb to something like heat exhaustion if exposed to high temperatures for an extended period of time.
contracts-
In addition to the abilities outlined above, Grace is also capable of establishing Contracts with humans. A Contract is created when a vampire bites a human but doesn't drain them entirely, usually as part of a deal where the vampire is allowed to feed regularly on small amounts of the human's blood. The Contract has two effects:
The first is the creation of a minor psychic bond. This bond is weak, not allowing those involved to know more than whether the other half of the Contract is alive or dead. Things like thoughts, emotions, current location, etc are not transmitted.
Secondly, for a brief period of time after the initial formation of the contract, the human will be open to suggestion. A command given during this window is not guaranteed to be fulfilled, and the human cannot be made to do anything they wouldn't otherwise; the more basic the command, the more likely it is it will be followed. Generally, this is used to swear the human to secrecy.
For obvious reasons, Contracts are usually only formed between a pair that trust each other to some degree, but this is not a requirement.
Name: Nyx
Personal Journal: minilovely
Contact Info: gilded chrysanth [AIM]
Character Information
Name: Grace Harlow
Age: Appears in her early to mid-teens, but is actually closer to 100.
Setting:
Grace's 'verse is almost identical to the real world, with one major exception: supernatural creatures and the occult are very real. Since Grace is a vampire and hasn't had much contact with other sorts of non-humans, I'm going to focus on vampires exclusively for this bit.
Most humans aren't aware of the existence of vampires-or, really, the existence of anything beyond the mundane. There are a few exceptions, but generally speaking these are humans that have entered a Contract (see abilities) with a vampire, usually in exchange for the promise of being changed into vampires themselves at some point in the future. In the interest of maintaining their secrecy and freedom, most groups of vampires make it a rule not to let any humans outside of Contracts know of their existence; if one accidentally reveals itself, it is responsible for killing the human in question and disposing of any evidence.
For the most part, vampires are organized into large, branching families that self-govern themselves. Families are generally spread out over large distances to help avoid infighting about territory, with small groups living together. Typically, they live in cities, relying on the large population to obscure the fact that they're picking off and eating humans. Fighting within a family is solved by a decree from the family head; fighting between separate families is solved by violence.
There are also drifters and nomads that move from area to area rather than settling down in any one place, but these are rare; generally, newborn vampires are adopted by the family that sired them. And, besides, traveling creates the risk of accidentally encroaching on someone else's territory and being killed for it. For the most part, nomads are vampire that have been kicked out of their family for whatever reason and lack the ability to establish a territory of their own.
Vampires are few in number. This is largely because the majority of the families have rules against frivolously changing humans, in order to prevent food and territory from being stretched too thin. The change itself is achieved by the swapping of blood between a human and a vampire, as vampirism is actually caused by a virus carried in the bloodstream. Generally speaking, after the transfer has taken place, humans have to withstand one to three days of intense fever and sickness while the virus changes their body.
Additionally, though vampires are technically immortal, their lifespan is limited in a sense, which in turn helps control the population. Vampirism causes the brain to gradually deteriorate, meaning older vampires are eventually reduced to something feral and animal-like. The exact rate of deterioration varies from vampire to vampire, but its effects usually begin to become noticeable after about a few centuries. Generally speaking, after vampires reach a certain point in this erosion, their family will perform a mercy killing (though truthfully this is motivated only partly by mercy, the need to keep their erratic behavior from being noticed by humans also significant).
Finally, though this rarely occurs, it is possible for male vampires to impregnate female humans (and females of other species that are "human-based" in some way, such as lycanthropes). Female vampires, on the other hand, are incapable of becoming pregnant. Though they're rare enough that this is rarely an issue, dhampirs and other crossbreeds are discouraged if not outright forbidden by most families, largely for two reasons. The first is that they are a security risk of sorts, as the cease aging at some point during their teens or twenties-something very obviously noticeable to the humans they are no doubt surrounded by. The second is that sunlight does not affect them the same way it does full-blooded vampires, and they therefore have an extreme potential to be used as assassins in both inter- and intra-family disputes. As such, most half-vampires are killed at birth, few living to see adulthood.
History:
In the early 20th century, Grace was born in America as Joanna Blake. She was a weak, sickly child, making her the constant target of teasing from her peers. Her relationship with her father was strained as well, as he had hoped for a son rather than a daughter; as a result, she became extremely attached to her mother, who frequently attempted to shield her from hardship and shelter her from the world's darker truths.
And there was quite a bit of hardship to shelter her from at times. Her family's financial situation wasn't the best, to put it mildly, meaning they frequently had to struggle to make it from month to month. This stress eventually got to her mother; almost ironically, given her daughter's sickliness, she eventually died of illness. Joanna, left only with peers that ridiculed her, a father she resented, and a home that was constantly on the verge of going under, snapped. She ran away from home soon after.
This proved not to be the best idea, but she was too stubborn-and too afraid of facing her father again-to return home. She nearly starved to death and probably would have had she not been found by a woman calling herself Temperance Harlow. She offered to adopt her as her child, but only if she fulfilled certain terms she had. Desperate, she agreed without waiting for her to explain them, and before she had time to reconsider her decision, she was sitting in the woman's home with their blood mingling.
The change was difficult, lasting three days, during which Joanna was certain she was going to finally succumb to her illness and die. Only once the fever subsided did Temperance explain to her what had happened, though the girl was too shellshocked to have much of a reaction to this news at the time. She also explained why she had chosen her and what the rest of her terms were; Joanna reminded her of her dead daughter, whom she missed horribly, and she wanted her to take her place. Feeling as though she had no choice but to comply, she agreed.
Temperance was more than a little damaged from her long life as a vampire, not to mention obsessed with regaining her lost daughter, so it turned out she meant for Joanna to do more than simply act as her child. She was supposed to abandon her identity entirely, taking up the long dead girl's name, dress style, and even behavior. As one might imagine, their relationship was less than healthy, with her not-mother exploding into anger whenever she let the facade drop, intentionally or otherwise. Still, it wasn't long until she grew used to being addressed by the name Grace.
The only positive part of her new life was that she took to being a vampire quite well. After being frail and sickly for so many years, her newfound strength was exhilarating. She also overcame her aversion to killing remarkably quickly; Temperance explained to her that it was simply the natural order of things, and, besides, she had never met a human she had liked other than her mother. It wasn't hard for the bitterness that she had kept hidden inside her for her entire life to come to the fore in her new conditions, and soon she was feeding without remorse.
Of course, there was a new kind of bitterness welling up inside her while under Temperance's care. The woman's mind continued to deteriorate as she grew older, with her behavior becoming increasingly inhuman, erratic, and violent. On more than one occasion, Grace was severely punished and even verbally abused for not acting sufficiently Grace-like; every time, her ambivalent feelings toward Temperance grew closer to hatred. Eventually, her hate and resentment boiled over, and Grace murdered her.
When the head of their "family" inquired about this, she simply told him a partial truth-that Temperance had been behaving so unpredictably a mercy killing was necessary. She was given a slap on the wrist and warned not to take such actions on her own, but otherwise her story was accepted without complaint and there was no further investigation into what had happened. Still, despite not having been kicked out and sentenced to a nomadic lifestyle, she left house in which she and Temperance had been living and began to wander.
Personality:
The way Grace acts and the way Grace really is are two entirely different things.
Outwardly, Grace is a sweet but shy young lady, constantly stammering and blushing but trying her best to be helpful and kind. Naive but with her heart in the right place, she always tries to be helpful and do the right thing, even if her lack of confidence sometimes keeps her from accomplishing this successfully-something she will apologize endlessly for. She's also very emotional and wears her heart on her sleeve, and cries often with little provocation. Basically, she seems like a good kid that needs to learn to be a little less insecure.
But, truthfully, Grace isn't like that at all. She's really perfectly confident...and perfectly cruel and selfish. After all, she doesn't care the slightest bit about anyone but herself, only concerning herself with other people when she thinks they can provide some form of entertainment for her. This is usually not a good thing for the individuals in question, as her true personality has a rather prominent sadistic streak. She takes great pleasure in hurting people, generally on an emotional level.
Because, you see, she is very bitter. She's only met one human in his life that she couldn't find some reason, logical or not, to hate, so she doesn't have a very high opinion of humanity in general. Add to this her belief that it's the natural order of things for vampires to be above humans and you've got someone who only sees people as something to abused and toyed with before eventually becoming dinner. She doesn't see anything remotely wrong about luring people in with false kindness and then killing them; after all, if they were stupid enough to be tricked, they obviously deserve to be removed from the gene pool anyway.
Grace is also very opportunistic, using whatever she has at her disposal to her advantage. For example, even though she is technically no longer obligated to keep up the sweet little girl act, she does so simply because she knows she can use it to manipulate others in a way that wouldn't be possible otherwise. In other words, even though she resents being forced to take on a false identity, she continues to use it because she realizes it's beneficial to her. Utility trumps her personal sense of pride.
And Grace is very emotionally manipulative. After playing the role of a sweet little girl for so long, she's gotten very good at faking her feelings, and she's certainly not above crocodile tears to make someone feel guilty or to get their sympathy. She tends to play with people emotionally, manipulating them into doing things they don't want using guilt, and then taking great delight in their reactions when she reveals it was all an act all along. She especially enjoys this when the person in question is one she intends to make a meal out of.
Probably her only redeeming feature is her love for children. Yes, she absolutely adores them-and will not tolerate seeing them harmed in any way, even going out of her way to protect them despite her general self-centeredness. She does have an unfortunate tendency to be a little over-protective or even possessive of them, but for the most part she honestly only wants what's best for the child in question.
Abilities:
strengths-
Being a vampire, Grace possesses enhanced strength, speed, and agility. Likewise, her senses are heightened, night vision in particular.
Grace also heals at an accelerated rate, though how accelerated that is depends on how recently she has eaten. On a full stomach, minor injuries will heal almost instantaneously, and severe ones can heal within a day. However, under no circumstances can things like severed limbs be reattached.
Finally, she has retractable fangs and claws.
weaknesses-
Grace must consume human blood regularly in order to survive. Though animal blood can be used in its stead, subsiding on it alone will eventually cause a vampire to grow sickly and malnourished. It's also possible for a vampire to eat human food, but it's not a very appetizing prospect; it's about the vampire equivalent of pica.
Though sunlight doesn't cause immediate death, it does cause pain; the skin exposed will immediately burn and blister. Vampires are also vulnerable to heat and general, and will succumb to something like heat exhaustion if exposed to high temperatures for an extended period of time.
contracts-
In addition to the abilities outlined above, Grace is also capable of establishing Contracts with humans. A Contract is created when a vampire bites a human but doesn't drain them entirely, usually as part of a deal where the vampire is allowed to feed regularly on small amounts of the human's blood. The Contract has two effects:
The first is the creation of a minor psychic bond. This bond is weak, not allowing those involved to know more than whether the other half of the Contract is alive or dead. Things like thoughts, emotions, current location, etc are not transmitted.
Secondly, for a brief period of time after the initial formation of the contract, the human will be open to suggestion. A command given during this window is not guaranteed to be fulfilled, and the human cannot be made to do anything they wouldn't otherwise; the more basic the command, the more likely it is it will be followed. Generally, this is used to swear the human to secrecy.
For obvious reasons, Contracts are usually only formed between a pair that trust each other to some degree, but this is not a requirement.