ooc: application
Oct. 6th, 2014 11:01 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
havebloodPLAYER
Name: Mhairi
Age: 25
Personal Journal:deathwailart
E-mail: starkhavenmalt [at] gmail [dot] com
AIM/MSN/etc: aim&plurk: deathwailart
CHARACTER
Name: Isaac Acker (real name: Isaiah Abraham)
Age: 215; appears around early twenties
Appearance:
Isaac is tall and lanky, about 6'1" although he has terrible posture so he probably looks a little bit shorter than that. He's not exactly well-muscled, lean and wiry; if you felt charitable you could maybe get away with saying he looks athletic even though he really isn't. His hair is dark brown and usually shaggy and going for that 'just rolled out of bed' look that comes naturally when you really don't brush your hair most days. The main thing to be noticed though is that he's horribly pale. Because he's a vampire. And sometimes his eyes go completely black if he's having a bad day.
Due to being a vampire, he has to cover up an awful lot - the sun won't kill him straight away but prolonged exposure even on a day most people wouldn't call particularly sunny can still have him suffering from sunburns. So he wears a lot of layers - t-shirt, shirt (usually flannel because he sort of fell into the hipster thing and couldn't quite claw his way out), hoodie and maybe a jacket, usually with his hands in his pockets to cover them up - no matter the weather. He often wears some sort of scarf too and he's almost always carrying a pair of sunglasses due to the light sensitivity.
After living so long and having to move around so many times, he's very good at changing his accent. His 'normal' or natural accent is English RP but he can do most UK accents perfectly well and when he's speaking foreign languages (usually Spanish, Italian, French or German due to extended periods of living in those countries more than once) he sounds like a native speaker - whenever he's lived there, most people don't know he isn't originally a native.
There's a contradiction between how Isaac carries himself and how he actually behaves. He's prone to slouching, he jiggles his feet/bounces his knee, rubs the back of his neck, drags his hands through his hair an awful lot; he doesn't particularly want to be noticed by people and he has a lot of anxieties about blending in with people. But when he actually speaks he's very prone to fits of being dramatic and not quite knowing when to shut up to the point he sounds more than a little theatrical. His sense of humour tends to be his default response in most situations and he comes up with a lot of outlandish scenarios and his voice tends to become almost squeaky when he really gets going and can make him sound more than a little hysterical. His sense of humour is usually very dry outside of situations where he starts to feel stressed but there's usually an air of him being very vigilant - looking around, trying not to get too comfortable, avoiding an awful lot of physical contact - so that when he does feel comfortable around people he's a lot more tactile and almost seems like a different person. Only people who know that he's a vampire ever get to see that side of him because it's meant to be kept secret (by the rules of his world) and because it's a very big gesture of trust from him to actually let people that close.
Chosen PB: PB is Francois Arnaud
Personality:
Isaac is a fairly laidback guy for all that he's seen, partly because he's been around for so long that he's had no choice but to keep moving on. There's still part of Isaac that feels guilty for his first several years as a vampire even if he knows that he was not made the way he should have been and time heals a great many wounds - he hasn't taken a life save for in self-defense in a long time and he knows how to control his hunger. He enjoys charming people to do so but he only uses it to feed - the other person is under the influence and he doesn't think they can properly consent to anything. Other vampires tease him about this saying he has old fashioned manners when it comes to this particular part of vampire life. When it comes to the politics of the courts, Isaac views himself as fairly far removed - he'll abide by their rules gladly because they taught him how to be a vampire and a decent person but he doesn't want a great deal of responsibility with all the goings on of the courts and how they have to keep track of so many vampires and werewolves. This does change years down the line but for basically all of his vampire life, he keeps well away from it all.
As previously said, he's laidback and likes the modern world a hell of a lot - sometimes he can be a bit of an overgrown manchild but this is partly an act so that no one will figure out just how old he is and the things he's seen. He has a huge passion for (crap) tv, video games and films and will frequently make pop culture jokes - Laurent is well used to tuning him out. Despite his ability to charm, Isaac can come off as a bit of a goof sometimes when he's around humans because he really enjoys hanging out with them. He likes to make fun of vampire films or anything that deals with the supernatural, pointing out the glaring inaccuracies. He tends to do this with any crime procedurals too. Honestly there are a lot of things he'll rant about quite happily and being in a lab full of geeks does absolutely nothing to help with that whatsoever. His friends however only get to know him so well because he's careful about how much they see so they see only what he wants them to which is the lab genius who likes geeky things. This is a protective measure and Laurent does the same - no one really knows too many of the nitty gritty details of Isaac's life, only that he's kind of ridiculous and good to hang out with at the pub or elsewhere.
One of the most important things to Isaas was his job as a forensic scientist. He was good at it (although he admitted to Laurent that they both had advantages due to their enhanced senses as well as knowing when a crime was caused by demons or something else supernatural but they did both have to prove their suspicions fully) to the point that his superiors wanted him to take on more training to become a scene of crime officer but he was always happiest working night shift in the lab with his equipment. Honestly, he really loved playing around with scientific stuff and still does and one of the things he really loves about being able to live forever is seeing what humanity comes up with on the science front. It was wanting to do some good in the world the only way that he felt he could that had him taking the position in the first place and much later, when the Courts finally ask him if he'll work for them in a similar sort of capacity, he says yes and heads up a team to try to help as many normal people as possible against the demon threat and finds that, even though he avoided working for the Courts for years that he actually really loves the work.
If he's exposed to sunlight for too long without the proper precautions, he starts to get anxious and grumpy which he usually blames on migraines - he becomes extremely twitchy if he can't get indoors or at least cover up and put on sunglasses. He really starts to lose his temper if he can't get out of the sun and will end up in bed for a few days afterwards. Trying to get him outdoors on a sunny day, especially if he hasn't fed much recently, is like getting blood from a stone only this stone will probably punch you in the genitals and scream.
Laurent is incredibly important to Isaac - he is his oldest friend and has taught him much. They've been on the run together, fought together, shared so many things and right now they live together pretending to be normal people. They're best friends and Isaac helps him with his changes at the full moon with Laurent helping on the days where Isaac is having problems with the sun. They both work together even if Laurent spends much more time out and about and they chat about their work back home at their shared flat. They both care about the normal world which is why they fought in two wars and ended up working for the police, to help where they can. Basically they're an old married couple at this stage and they've acknowledged to friends that they come as a package deal - you can't have one without the other and Isaac is considered to be one of Laurent's pack. (And everyone jokes that if they're still as close in a century they'll adopt a bunch of young werewolves and vampires and be the world's most ridiculously embarrassing parents.)
There aren't that many other strong relationships in his life - he's had flings, had romances but the idea of being in a romance with something that's as immortal as you is still rather daunting as is the thought of being with a human. Because with a human he'll have to leave them before they notice he doesn't age or he'll have to out himself and watch them die or try to turn them into a vampire. It saddens him to know that he'll have to move away from where he's living currently due to the fact that he doesn't age. He forms friendships easily because he's a nice guy but he tries to stop people from getting too close because he'll have to cut all ties to them fairly soon. It's hard too for him to watch them with families because he doesn't think he'll ever have one due to the risks involved and the fact that any child born to supernatural beings is born a mortal and will either be turned at great risk or have to grow old and die without being able to see their parents much for fear of breaking the Veil. One time Isaac did mess up pretty badly however. As some humans can perceive the Veil, he ended up falling hard for a priest who knew that there was more to the world than what he saw and in the end, hunters got involved and Laurent and Isaac finally had to leave London. It's one of the more recent big regrets that Isaac carries with him because he feels responsible for endangering Laurent and their other friends (which he already has issues about given that his earliest years as a vampire drew hunter attention that eventually got everyone except Laurent and himself killed) and for them having to move away.
As for things that piss him off, cruelty is the biggest one (well in terms of things that aren't ridiculous like crime dramas getting everything wrong.) He's seen a lot of it and he doesn't understand why people feel the need to do awful things to each other. He's seen plenty of needless death and suffering in his time and even though he lives his life as a good person, helping other people he knows that there are many hunters who want him dead just for being what he is. This is part of why he's unwilling to get involved in conflicts, preferring instead to keep his head down and get on with his life and in the event that court business finds it's way to the normal world, he'll just ignore it. Really, that's one of his strategies now - ignore something until it goes away even if Laurent has to remind him that he's a vampire, not an ostrich. He has prejudices against the demons because he flat out doesn't trust a single one of them and if there's one thing he questions, it's why they're allowed a say because he's seen the damage they can inflict and he's unsatisfied with the answers that always boil down to 'this is the status quo and we're keeping it this way'.
At his current canon point, there's a huge amount of guilt at turning another into a vampire, given what he knows now and at this point he has no idea if Adam - someone he cares about and loves a great deal - will survive the process or if he's doomed him to a painful death giving his friends and family some sort of false hope. It's no easy thing to make a vampire and Isaac still isn't sure if he's actually saved him or not by doing this or if he's going to make him resent his new life; Isaac has never turned anyone, least of all someone he cares about and it's the fact that it's not Adam's choice that worries him. Choice is a hugely important factor in his life especially knowing what he knows about the origins of vampires.
World Information:
All the gods are real. All of them. And all the supernatural creatures from lore and myths are real too and have a great many prejudices to the point that they settled their differences to create the Courts that are split as follows:
These courts came together with the gods and those that cannot be part of courts (ie creatures such as kelpies or those that defy these categories) to create what is known as the Veil. The Veil helps to separate the otherworlds and dimensions from the normal world, thus ending the hunting of supernatural creatures for the most. The fairies for example will live in places like the Otherworld and will only venture out when they need to and the gods, who have powers that are much diminished from what they once were. The Veil is a form of suggestion so that the things that are supernatural can go about their business without too many worries - if someone sees something they shouldn't, the Veil makes them forget it, dismiss it or forms an opinion of what it might be so the world continues as it should. This also impacts on the abilities of the supernatural creatures and gods as they're weaker than they would normally be due to part of their very essence is involved in maintaining the Veil. Some are not pleased with this arrangement.
There is magic in this world and it's somewhat of a wildcard in that it is not the domain of any house and is very different to what any members of any court can do. Magic strikes when and where it will and requires all the courts to keep track of it as it is actually a threat to the Veil as it can disturb it so violently. Those with magic can be and have been little more than pawns due to the amount of power they can wield - many have to be killed by members of the court or hunters as magic is incredibly addictive, rendering the users violent and dangerous.
Added to all this there are hunters who know, to varying degrees, of the creatures that are out there. They want them gone, convinced that it will make the world a safer place - some are children who had werewolf, vampire or fairy parents etc meaning they have a degree of sensitivity towards the supernatural and are able to perceive the Veil. Mediums and so on can definitely perceive the Veil and otherworlds/dimensions and try to keep track of things to make sure the world stays in some sort of balance. Often they have a degree of fairy blood in their ancestry somewhere.
But all is not well with this world as some gods and the unseelie and damned courts are unsatisfied with their lot and seek to subjugate the mortal world, making all humans their slaves so they'll have power. To do this they want to destroy the Veil at the opportune moment and meddle with magic as much as they can, playing courts against one another and the humans too. The hunters are more zealous than ever, abandoning their rules and codes. Others, those sensitive to the supernatural, try to reach out to any who might listen.
And in the midst of all this the supernatural creatures living in the mortal world are trying to live their own lives without getting killed or caught up in all this.
Vampires:
Werewolves:
Vampires & werewolves:
Seelie & Unseelie:
Wording: it isn't that fairies can't lie but they enjoy shading the truth - it's one of those annoying Obi-Wan deals working on 'what I told you is true, from a certain point of view'. If you have an issue with that then too bad, it's your own bloody fault. This also works with deals - even if you are offered something, someone might not accept it (like Shirley's deal with The Morrigan) until you actually offer it up yourself even if it's expected. Fairies man, they like life on the complicated side.
Geas/geis: this is a magical compulsion common in Celtic mythology and all fairies have the power to perform it under the most dire of circumstances. This magical compulsion has certain conditions that must be fulfilled or else penalties are incurred via fate. It's usually a command or prohibition, 'you shall/shall not do this' so it works either by a) bringing about its own fulfillment via manipulation of cosmic events or b) by instilling the subject with a compulsion they can't resist. If the geas/geis is broken, it usually results in death.
The Drowned Court deals with anything to do with water e.g. mermaids, krakens, kelpies
The Spirit Court has a very close association with the Usher's Court as Death is everywhere at once so this is how their court gathers the spirits and undead to them. They are often messengers but most choose to depart into the afterlife, being judged by the Gods.
Demons:
History:
Isaac was born in 1837, the middle child of an upper class family who were heavily involved with shipping (on his father's side) and mining (through his mother) and he lived a pampered lifestyle of lavish excess, expected to follow in his father's footsteps and take part in the business. That all changed when in 1857 on a night out in a seedier part of London he was bitten then fed the blood of the prostitute he'd hired for the night - she left him where he was as he stumbled home trying to make sense of why he felt so ill with a growing urge to drink blood. He tried to hide his growing problem from his family until he snapped and attacked one of the family servants, shipped off to various doctors as the family hushed it up so it wouldn't cause a scandal. Eventually he ended up at a church where they tried to exorcise him but it almost killed him until he escaped and started to hide in the rundown parts of London, feeding where he could on the lowly and the desperate. He sought out the woman who had attacked him and left him but she had moved on - unbeknownst to him she was somewhat of a renegade vampire who turned people into vampire to lash out at the hunters who had killed her mate, masquerading as a prostitute to be able to hide herself - so he was left alone, resorting to petty theft to get by, letting his hunger build until he was starving due to the disgust he felt. He spent seven years doing this, getting closer to being caught until other vampires and werewolves tracked him down and took him in to teach him how to control himself.
It took a good decade for him to be able to control himself when feeding and to learn how to 'charm' people so that they wouldn't remember him - 'charm' was a gift given by the fairies when the courts were set up to help vampires hide. This was also where Isaac learned of the courts and how so many of the things dimissed as flights of fancy or superstition etc were actually real. He almost wanted to run when he learned this but did not, remaining within the court's house due to the fact that he didn't want to be back out in the world on his own so he stayed and learned and tried to figure out what he was going to do with his life now that he was immortal.
Unfortunately, the actions of Isaac, the vampire who made him and the other vampires she had made that hadn't been found or had run caught the attention of the hunters who soon attacked the house the court had been living in, killing several members as the rest ran for their lives. Isaac still never managed to learn anything of the woman who turned him but there was no time to ask as the hunters kept chasing them for years and years, never letting them stop and settle. Some members of the court wished to go to one of the otherworlds where they would be safe but it was argued that they would put them in danger due to the fact that the hunters might be able to follow them through. So they ran as one of the rules of the court - unspoken but still followed - was that they did not kill hunters unless there was no other choice.
In the end, they had to take the lives of the hunters when they came at them one final time, dumping the bodies so none would know where to find them. At last they were free and many of the court returned to the otherworld having realised they had no true desire to live in a world that still had factions who hated them so much. Isaac was offered the chance to join them but he declined because he wanted to stay. One other surviving member of the court remained, a werewolf named Laurent and the two ended up moving around together, taking whatever jobs they could and along the way they had a great many adventures including that time they bumped into Hades (of course they were sworn to secrecy about that one.) There were more hunters but the pair ended up in France until they went their separate ways - Laurent went to one of the otherworlds for a time so Isaac bummed around Europe on his own, taking odd jobs although due to the fact that light was a problem, he had to work at night.
Life was really quite uneventful for him as he watched the world changing as he remained as he was, quietly moving with the times although he avoided London until he was sure his family would be dead, visiting their graves, regretting that they would never know what truly became of him. He was saddened to find a tombstone with his name upon it in the family plot - the rumour was that he had died of a sickness when he had run away from the church he had ended up in, again to preserve the reputation of the family. This was when he truly changed his name and left his old life behind once and for all (well, after making off with some valuables so he could set himself up more comfortably and attend different schools.)
Isaac ended up meeting up with Laurent again during both the first and second world wars, other members of the court coming to fight too - wars are the only times hunters will put their codes to one side and fight alongside any man be they human or not. Indeed, Isaac owes his life to some hunters who allowed him to feed from them when he was badly injured and he ended up staying with some tolerant hunters when the first world war ended. Not all hunters follow the same codes and some will only target those who hurt normal people for no reason, respecting that the courts do good works and that they have allowed the world to move on when it could very well have been stuck in the dark ages if they hadn't agreed to the Veil. After the second world war though, weary of two wars in so short a time Isaac went to one of the otherworlds to spend time recovering, learning about the others who lived there. He embarked on several romances over the decades he was there until he realised just how much he missed the normal world and went back, Laurent coming with him.
Eventually Isaac ended up attending university where he studied forensic science and Laurent joined the police force so that they both ended up working together in some capacity. Having jobs involving the medical profession or law enforcement are encouraged as they allow the courts to do damage control and to keep tabs on who gets up to what although neither Isaac or Laurent actually outed themselves to anyone in their department. Isaac worked nights for obvious reasons but started to notice a rise in cases no one could quite explain as the damned court started to move, putting the Veil at risk. He reported his findings to Court Blood Moon, hoping things would go back to normal but they kept rumbling on and their fellows - a household consisiting of a vampire, werewolf, fairy, selkie and ghost - all noticed too, as did the hunters. It was when he investigated rumours of demonic activity on Laurent's behalf that he met Oliver, a priest who could see through the Veil. They ended up getting close despite the dangers and embarked on an ill-fated romance; Laurent kept reminding Isaac how dangerous it was, especially when Oliver knew what Isaac was. Eventually hunters found out and Isaac was 'encouraged' to leave London so he and Laurent went, making sure that their friends would not be hurt by the hunters so they ended up bumming around Europe for a bit, staying with friends. Sometimes, it's just like it used to be back in the old days.
But nothing ever stays that simple.
This lasts about five years before Isaac and Laurent decide to settle in France, slotting back into similar jobs again with Isaac grudgingly being dragged along on yet more missions during this period. Laurent claims it's to keep Isaac sharp, Isaac complains that it's to suck him into a world he wants no part of. Eventually though, they both need a break from living so heavily in the human world so in 2033 it's off to one of the safe zones in Scotland, a place where they don't have to hide what they are and will be completely and utterly safe. This zone is run by a banshee, Shirley McAllister, and her Cú Síth boyfriend Corbin, both of whom would go on to be close friends of Isaac's. Time there sees Isaac gaining a certain tolerance of magic thanks to the influence of Shirley and her strict house rules involving guests and their code of conduct towards one another.
A few years later, with Isaac and Laurent working in Scotland (Laurent a gamekeeper – providing him handy places to turn during the full moon, Isaac a pharmacist) there's a noted upswing in demonic activity, something both Isaac and Laurent noted in their travels and in France – news from London and their friends there isn't good, with all of them relocating into one of the otherworlds for the time being to escape it. At the safe zone where they stay when they're not working, a demon breaches the perimeter only to be killed by Shirley – a rare feat given how powerful and dangerous they are. Laurent is called back to London and Court Blood Moon and even though Isaac doesn't want to go and get more involved, he equally doesn't want to abandon Laurent so he goes too. They find London a more wary place thanks to the strain of demonic activity on the Veil because whilst people don't know what exactly is happening, there is the very strong sense that something is wrong and violent crime is on the rise, especially disturbing crimes. Given that the Damned Court is made up of the strongest creatures outside the Gods (and with the Gods being effectively neutral due to the effort of having to maintain the Veil in the first place) they need new ways to fight them. Laurent has always worked in such a capacity for the Courts via Court Blood Moon in dealing with problems but this is the first time that Isaac, given his close relationship with Laurent, his work as a scientist and his ability to live so long and so well in the human world make him valuable. The Courts extend to him an offer: work with them, blending science and magic in an effort to combat the threat facing them.
By 2037, Isaac is the head alchemist for Court Blood Moon and finds himself very much involved in the Courts, much to his chagrin – given the dangers the world is facing, he finds himself having to work with whoever wants to help including hunters joining as well as witches and those with magic who have no desire to see themselves become the pawns of demons.
Meanwhile the influence of the demons is becoming more and more insidious by way of them slipping into the drug trade too; demons make special blends where the users are given a week's supply – the first couple of hits are enough to get you interested but you have to stop within a certain point before the week ends. But giving up? It's hard when the drugs are so addictive and more and more either become pawns or end up as meatsuits. By the year 2050 their goal becomes clear: with enough demons and influence in the world they'll be able to get back their magic and reign over the earth the way they did in the earliest days. The demons know Isaac is working against them and informing others so they go after him, first with the intent to kill him, secondly with the intent to break him to work for him. They torment him with their plans not only for him and his friends but with the knowledge that demons were the ones to make vampires at least (they refuse to tell him more about what else they created or brought into being) and it's why they struggle so hard. By drinking blood, they are in essence doing as the demons wished, consuming others to stay alive and in the end, it's why it's rare now for vampires to make it past three hundred; eventually they'll hear the whispers of demons and it's only if they're strong enough to keep going that they won't slip and become a danger the Courts have to put down. Those who don't consume human blood and hide in the shadows? Safe if weak. People who blend in like Isaac are a ticking timebomb.
Luckily Laurent accompanied by Wakahisa Isamu, a phoenix and demon hunting expert, manage to rescue Isaac before an emergency summit is called: angels have been found dead and many of the people working on the same research as Isaac have been killed or abducted. Unable to take their souls, the demons have found a new method similar to one the fairies use: if they know the true name of a person, they can invoke a rite to control them. It's to this end that Shirley arrives with Corbin and agrees as a bloodline matriarch to take his 'real name' Isaiah Abraham to keep him safe from their control, Isaac Acker becoming his name instead but one that can't control him. Leaving her safe zone to her daughter and her family, Isaac, Laurent, Isamu, Shirley and Corbin band together to head underground as best they can, joined by the Peters family (twins, Adam and Nina and Nina's girlfriend Seo-Hyeon) a very old hunting bloodline with a strict code. The group work together to get information as best they can although they're frequently having to move so they won't be discovered. Disaster strikes when they run into an ambush and Adam is wounded badly – the only way to save him is for Isaac to bite him which he eventually does.
Abilities:
(This is more general facts about vampires in this world, it makes sense to explain them all together)
In terms of non-vampire abilities, Isaac was a forensic scientist (BSc in forensic biology) who specialisesd in bloodstain pattern analysis and he's pretty into discussing how glaringly inaccurate all of your crime procedurals are. He's got quite a stack of various science-related degrees throughout his life too and he's very good with languages, again from how long he's lived.
First Person:
test drive thread or:
Right, first off - and this isn't me being a vain prick, this is for a valid reason - I need to know where I can get some sunglasses, it's for a medical condition. Secondly I'm probably having a particularly intense dream because I don't remember waiting for a train and now I've just come stumbling off one and I'm just waiting for some sort of muffled bwom in the distance.
Anyway, if this isn't a 'I actually have at least a serious head wound or I've been drugged to the gills' dream then I need to know where I am, where I can get help, who brought me here and all that jazz. I mean I did read but you know, just so I've got some sort of corroborating evidence. And I'm Isaac Acker, desperately seeking sunglasses and an explanation. Or Laurent. Laurent if you get this message can you come find me and bring me home you're better at the hunting down people routine Mr Detective - come shuttle me back to the bedlam we're calling home for now.
Can't believe I'm doing this on a watch. Down the fucking rabbit hole.
Third Person:
They were close.
If he was ever asked to describe how a demon felt - and he had been lately, ever since they'd joined up with the hunters - he could only describe it as a prickling sort of sensation, like someone walking over your grave only worse. You couldn't shake it away until the threat had passed and even then it always took a while for him to feel like there wasn't something about to come crawling out of the shadows towards him. Isamu was ahead of them, leading the charge as the most experienced fighter, Laurent bringing up the rear, Nina and Seo-hyeon to his left with Corbin in his other form to the left again, a buffer between them and anything else. Shirley was at his right and Adam...
He swallowed thickly, the smell of fresh blood in the air and risked a glance over to the third hunter, his face no longer pale but grey and waxy. Adam had one hand clamped around his middle and the shirt they'd quickly tied because there hadn't been any time for Isamu to try and heal him, not after what they'd run into so they'd been forced to get him moving. Shirley met his gaze for a moment, helping to keep Adam on his feet and her expression was grim. He'd heard her wailing, they all had but no one asked except Corbin when he went to her, no one wanted to intrude, to remind her, not when she had her own family and friends whose deaths she might see.
"Isaac," she began, getting a better grip on Adam who let out a bitten off whimper of pain when he was jostled.
"I know!" He almost shouted, voice echoing in the tunnel they were sloshing through as Isamu swore, the sound of metal on metal ringing out before a crackle of lightning. "Is he..."
"I'm," Adam gasped, looking over to Isaac who knew that dazed look in his eyes all too well, "I'm okay, doesn't...shit, it's not so-"
"Give him here."
"You're sure?" Shirley asked, pausing a moment to look between Isaac and the blood that covered her arm and side, all of it Adam's.
"Yeah, yeah, just...I've got him." They didn't really have time for it but Shirley was a better fighter than him and he had to do something more than just running, especially when it was Adam, when Nina hadn't been able to because she'd been sobbing until Seo-hyeon had dragged her once they got Adam up and to his feet. "Is he going to-" He asked because he couldn't help himself, slinging Adam's arm around his shoulders as he supported him and started running again.
"I don't know," the banshee admitted and Isaac's blood ran cold, a sinking weight in his gut.
"This way!" Isamu called suddenly, ushering everyone ahead. "Shirley if you could-"
"Laurent!" She called even as she nodded and it seemed to take an eternity to be ready, to be safe for the moment as they stopped and gasped for breath but then she and Nina were kneeling, murmuring to Isamu too low for Isaac to pay attention to.
"Hey," Adam croaked, leaning all his weight against Isaac as he tried and failed to touch the wound. "How bad?" The smile Isaac tried must have looked like a grimace because Adam sighed and closed his eyes. "That bad."
"You're going to be fine."
"You're a terrible liar."
Before he could counter that, Nina beckoned him, white as a sheet and biting her nails. "Isamu said it's too much for him to heal, after fighting the demons," she began, Isamu bowing his head and murmuring an apology. "But...there's one way. It's the only way Isaac."
He was already shaking his head before she finished, backing away. "I can't, Nina, that's not saving him, it's-"
"It's the only way I'll still have my brother!"
"He might die from me turning him!"
"I didn't howl for him."
Shirley's words stopped him cold and he found he couldn't look at her, instead looking to Adam, Laurent trying to get him to sit comfortably.
"Please," Nina whispered and Isaac swallowed again, feeling colder than he could ever remember.
"Fuck," he muttered but the decision had already been made before he found himself kneeling at Adam's side, preparing to bite him.
Name: Mhairi
Age: 25
Personal Journal:
deathwailart E-mail: starkhavenmalt [at] gmail [dot] com
AIM/MSN/etc: aim&plurk: deathwailart
CHARACTER
Name: Isaac Acker (real name: Isaiah Abraham)
Age: 215; appears around early twenties
Appearance:
Isaac is tall and lanky, about 6'1" although he has terrible posture so he probably looks a little bit shorter than that. He's not exactly well-muscled, lean and wiry; if you felt charitable you could maybe get away with saying he looks athletic even though he really isn't. His hair is dark brown and usually shaggy and going for that 'just rolled out of bed' look that comes naturally when you really don't brush your hair most days. The main thing to be noticed though is that he's horribly pale. Because he's a vampire. And sometimes his eyes go completely black if he's having a bad day.
Due to being a vampire, he has to cover up an awful lot - the sun won't kill him straight away but prolonged exposure even on a day most people wouldn't call particularly sunny can still have him suffering from sunburns. So he wears a lot of layers - t-shirt, shirt (usually flannel because he sort of fell into the hipster thing and couldn't quite claw his way out), hoodie and maybe a jacket, usually with his hands in his pockets to cover them up - no matter the weather. He often wears some sort of scarf too and he's almost always carrying a pair of sunglasses due to the light sensitivity.
After living so long and having to move around so many times, he's very good at changing his accent. His 'normal' or natural accent is English RP but he can do most UK accents perfectly well and when he's speaking foreign languages (usually Spanish, Italian, French or German due to extended periods of living in those countries more than once) he sounds like a native speaker - whenever he's lived there, most people don't know he isn't originally a native.
There's a contradiction between how Isaac carries himself and how he actually behaves. He's prone to slouching, he jiggles his feet/bounces his knee, rubs the back of his neck, drags his hands through his hair an awful lot; he doesn't particularly want to be noticed by people and he has a lot of anxieties about blending in with people. But when he actually speaks he's very prone to fits of being dramatic and not quite knowing when to shut up to the point he sounds more than a little theatrical. His sense of humour tends to be his default response in most situations and he comes up with a lot of outlandish scenarios and his voice tends to become almost squeaky when he really gets going and can make him sound more than a little hysterical. His sense of humour is usually very dry outside of situations where he starts to feel stressed but there's usually an air of him being very vigilant - looking around, trying not to get too comfortable, avoiding an awful lot of physical contact - so that when he does feel comfortable around people he's a lot more tactile and almost seems like a different person. Only people who know that he's a vampire ever get to see that side of him because it's meant to be kept secret (by the rules of his world) and because it's a very big gesture of trust from him to actually let people that close.
Chosen PB: PB is Francois Arnaud
Personality:
Isaac is a fairly laidback guy for all that he's seen, partly because he's been around for so long that he's had no choice but to keep moving on. There's still part of Isaac that feels guilty for his first several years as a vampire even if he knows that he was not made the way he should have been and time heals a great many wounds - he hasn't taken a life save for in self-defense in a long time and he knows how to control his hunger. He enjoys charming people to do so but he only uses it to feed - the other person is under the influence and he doesn't think they can properly consent to anything. Other vampires tease him about this saying he has old fashioned manners when it comes to this particular part of vampire life. When it comes to the politics of the courts, Isaac views himself as fairly far removed - he'll abide by their rules gladly because they taught him how to be a vampire and a decent person but he doesn't want a great deal of responsibility with all the goings on of the courts and how they have to keep track of so many vampires and werewolves. This does change years down the line but for basically all of his vampire life, he keeps well away from it all.
As previously said, he's laidback and likes the modern world a hell of a lot - sometimes he can be a bit of an overgrown manchild but this is partly an act so that no one will figure out just how old he is and the things he's seen. He has a huge passion for (crap) tv, video games and films and will frequently make pop culture jokes - Laurent is well used to tuning him out. Despite his ability to charm, Isaac can come off as a bit of a goof sometimes when he's around humans because he really enjoys hanging out with them. He likes to make fun of vampire films or anything that deals with the supernatural, pointing out the glaring inaccuracies. He tends to do this with any crime procedurals too. Honestly there are a lot of things he'll rant about quite happily and being in a lab full of geeks does absolutely nothing to help with that whatsoever. His friends however only get to know him so well because he's careful about how much they see so they see only what he wants them to which is the lab genius who likes geeky things. This is a protective measure and Laurent does the same - no one really knows too many of the nitty gritty details of Isaac's life, only that he's kind of ridiculous and good to hang out with at the pub or elsewhere.
One of the most important things to Isaas was his job as a forensic scientist. He was good at it (although he admitted to Laurent that they both had advantages due to their enhanced senses as well as knowing when a crime was caused by demons or something else supernatural but they did both have to prove their suspicions fully) to the point that his superiors wanted him to take on more training to become a scene of crime officer but he was always happiest working night shift in the lab with his equipment. Honestly, he really loved playing around with scientific stuff and still does and one of the things he really loves about being able to live forever is seeing what humanity comes up with on the science front. It was wanting to do some good in the world the only way that he felt he could that had him taking the position in the first place and much later, when the Courts finally ask him if he'll work for them in a similar sort of capacity, he says yes and heads up a team to try to help as many normal people as possible against the demon threat and finds that, even though he avoided working for the Courts for years that he actually really loves the work.
If he's exposed to sunlight for too long without the proper precautions, he starts to get anxious and grumpy which he usually blames on migraines - he becomes extremely twitchy if he can't get indoors or at least cover up and put on sunglasses. He really starts to lose his temper if he can't get out of the sun and will end up in bed for a few days afterwards. Trying to get him outdoors on a sunny day, especially if he hasn't fed much recently, is like getting blood from a stone only this stone will probably punch you in the genitals and scream.
Laurent is incredibly important to Isaac - he is his oldest friend and has taught him much. They've been on the run together, fought together, shared so many things and right now they live together pretending to be normal people. They're best friends and Isaac helps him with his changes at the full moon with Laurent helping on the days where Isaac is having problems with the sun. They both work together even if Laurent spends much more time out and about and they chat about their work back home at their shared flat. They both care about the normal world which is why they fought in two wars and ended up working for the police, to help where they can. Basically they're an old married couple at this stage and they've acknowledged to friends that they come as a package deal - you can't have one without the other and Isaac is considered to be one of Laurent's pack. (And everyone jokes that if they're still as close in a century they'll adopt a bunch of young werewolves and vampires and be the world's most ridiculously embarrassing parents.)
There aren't that many other strong relationships in his life - he's had flings, had romances but the idea of being in a romance with something that's as immortal as you is still rather daunting as is the thought of being with a human. Because with a human he'll have to leave them before they notice he doesn't age or he'll have to out himself and watch them die or try to turn them into a vampire. It saddens him to know that he'll have to move away from where he's living currently due to the fact that he doesn't age. He forms friendships easily because he's a nice guy but he tries to stop people from getting too close because he'll have to cut all ties to them fairly soon. It's hard too for him to watch them with families because he doesn't think he'll ever have one due to the risks involved and the fact that any child born to supernatural beings is born a mortal and will either be turned at great risk or have to grow old and die without being able to see their parents much for fear of breaking the Veil. One time Isaac did mess up pretty badly however. As some humans can perceive the Veil, he ended up falling hard for a priest who knew that there was more to the world than what he saw and in the end, hunters got involved and Laurent and Isaac finally had to leave London. It's one of the more recent big regrets that Isaac carries with him because he feels responsible for endangering Laurent and their other friends (which he already has issues about given that his earliest years as a vampire drew hunter attention that eventually got everyone except Laurent and himself killed) and for them having to move away.
As for things that piss him off, cruelty is the biggest one (well in terms of things that aren't ridiculous like crime dramas getting everything wrong.) He's seen a lot of it and he doesn't understand why people feel the need to do awful things to each other. He's seen plenty of needless death and suffering in his time and even though he lives his life as a good person, helping other people he knows that there are many hunters who want him dead just for being what he is. This is part of why he's unwilling to get involved in conflicts, preferring instead to keep his head down and get on with his life and in the event that court business finds it's way to the normal world, he'll just ignore it. Really, that's one of his strategies now - ignore something until it goes away even if Laurent has to remind him that he's a vampire, not an ostrich. He has prejudices against the demons because he flat out doesn't trust a single one of them and if there's one thing he questions, it's why they're allowed a say because he's seen the damage they can inflict and he's unsatisfied with the answers that always boil down to 'this is the status quo and we're keeping it this way'.
At his current canon point, there's a huge amount of guilt at turning another into a vampire, given what he knows now and at this point he has no idea if Adam - someone he cares about and loves a great deal - will survive the process or if he's doomed him to a painful death giving his friends and family some sort of false hope. It's no easy thing to make a vampire and Isaac still isn't sure if he's actually saved him or not by doing this or if he's going to make him resent his new life; Isaac has never turned anyone, least of all someone he cares about and it's the fact that it's not Adam's choice that worries him. Choice is a hugely important factor in his life especially knowing what he knows about the origins of vampires.
World Information:
All the gods are real. All of them. And all the supernatural creatures from lore and myths are real too and have a great many prejudices to the point that they settled their differences to create the Courts that are split as follows:
- Court Seelie - the 'good' fairies, the summer court
- Court Unseelie - the 'bad' fairies, the winter court
- Court Blood Moon - the vampires and werewolves
- The Spirit Court - ghosts, spirits etc
- The Damned Court - demons and malevolent creatures
- The Usher's Court - all psychopomps or those who deal with the dead in an 'official' capacity will be part of this court as well as their own court
- Court Burning Wings - angels
- Court Eternal Flame - run by phoenixes, deals with fire associations
- The Drowned Court - water associations
These courts came together with the gods and those that cannot be part of courts (ie creatures such as kelpies or those that defy these categories) to create what is known as the Veil. The Veil helps to separate the otherworlds and dimensions from the normal world, thus ending the hunting of supernatural creatures for the most. The fairies for example will live in places like the Otherworld and will only venture out when they need to and the gods, who have powers that are much diminished from what they once were. The Veil is a form of suggestion so that the things that are supernatural can go about their business without too many worries - if someone sees something they shouldn't, the Veil makes them forget it, dismiss it or forms an opinion of what it might be so the world continues as it should. This also impacts on the abilities of the supernatural creatures and gods as they're weaker than they would normally be due to part of their very essence is involved in maintaining the Veil. Some are not pleased with this arrangement.
There is magic in this world and it's somewhat of a wildcard in that it is not the domain of any house and is very different to what any members of any court can do. Magic strikes when and where it will and requires all the courts to keep track of it as it is actually a threat to the Veil as it can disturb it so violently. Those with magic can be and have been little more than pawns due to the amount of power they can wield - many have to be killed by members of the court or hunters as magic is incredibly addictive, rendering the users violent and dangerous.
Added to all this there are hunters who know, to varying degrees, of the creatures that are out there. They want them gone, convinced that it will make the world a safer place - some are children who had werewolf, vampire or fairy parents etc meaning they have a degree of sensitivity towards the supernatural and are able to perceive the Veil. Mediums and so on can definitely perceive the Veil and otherworlds/dimensions and try to keep track of things to make sure the world stays in some sort of balance. Often they have a degree of fairy blood in their ancestry somewhere.
But all is not well with this world as some gods and the unseelie and damned courts are unsatisfied with their lot and seek to subjugate the mortal world, making all humans their slaves so they'll have power. To do this they want to destroy the Veil at the opportune moment and meddle with magic as much as they can, playing courts against one another and the humans too. The hunters are more zealous than ever, abandoning their rules and codes. Others, those sensitive to the supernatural, try to reach out to any who might listen.
And in the midst of all this the supernatural creatures living in the mortal world are trying to live their own lives without getting killed or caught up in all this.
Vampires:
- enjoy the taste of blood but what they feed on is the life force hence why they have to drink from a living person
- can go out in daylight if well fed - they dislike very strong sunlight; it causes migraines, sunburns and symptoms like heat stroke
- averse to religious items but can develop a tolerance to some of them if they're exposed long enough
- silver is toxic and their image cannot be captured by cameras/videos/mirrors
- when feeding they can pick up emotions/information/strong memories
- immortal - can die via starvation, trauma to the heart, removal of the head or prolonged exposure to silver/sunlight
- 'charm': this is an ability that aids feeding, taught by the fairies. It involves prolonged eye contact and physical contact. It is a form of suggestion so vampires do not out their nature. The person does not remember the vampire or thinks it is all a dream
- no animosity with werewolves - they make up Court Blood Moon, one of the main powers behind the Veil as they had been hunted so severely
- none are born vampires, must be made
- capable of reproducing but it's risky
- must be invited into a private residence - public is fair game. Permission to enter can be revoked but only by the 'head of the household'
- near instantenous healing
Werewolves:
- can only fully shit into a wolf at the full moon
- mood affected by lunar cycle
- silver and wolfsbane highly toxic to them
- immortal like vampires - they have few children as changing their children is very dangerous and it is hard to separate themselves from their offspring
- cannot control the need to shift at full moon
- werewolf form is that of a regular wolf but larger with human intellect although they function on instinct
- maintain alpha/beta/omega dynamics in packs. Alphas are dominant and to be respected - largest and fiercest; betas are next and tend to be smarter, better at keeping the peace; omegas are last and are more predisposed to be wild - most omegas become betas over time. Pack dynamics change over time and all new werewolves are omegas
- die more easily than vampires - they heal slower and will bleed more quickly. Ingestion of wolfsbane is fatal - prolonged contact can cause madness then death
- heightened senses to make them superb hunters - the race with the keenest senses of all the courts
- strongest when surrounded by a pack - this does not necessarily have to be other werewolves
Vampires & werewolves:
- heightened senses: vampires - smell, sight, taste; werewolves - all, most sensitive at full moon
- stronger than most other supernatural creatures - werewolves are faster at the full moon
Seelie & Unseelie:
- have their own fairy magic and much is based on exchange and obligation. Fairy magic can only be used by fairies with the power being drawn from the Otherworlds. During the summer the Seelie are strongest, during winter it's Unseelie. Seelie are more friendly and inclined to mischief whereas the Unseelie are known for their cruelty. Iron is highly toxic to them. Nature falls into the domain of theses fairies - sky and land. Water belongs to the Drowned Court.
- Banshees are members of Court Unseelie and the Court of Ushers
- Like all fairies they have a bit of a blue and orange morality - they follow rules of their own making
- They are capable of making fairy food: all normal food can taste like dust (and conversely dust can taste like food) to the point that nothing else will be appealing. Sometimes the nutritional value of the food can be affected as well leading to death by starvation. Eating food can bring you under the control of the fairy who makes or whoever is in charge of a realm and eating fairy food is seen as the fairy doing you a favour meaning you will owe them.
- Iron is toxic
- Exact wording is incredibly important to them as is the correct phrasing
- They function via a sense of obligation but they are under no obligation to inform anyone about that
- Fairies and their morality is complicated, functioning on their own sense of honour and their sense of obligation
- They have issues with empathy (true empathy) and not manipulating the people around them - that requires near constant conscious effort
- They hate being in debt to anyone
- Insults or slights count as attacks thus it is in an injury and they will seek to harm the other party in due course
- A fairy is compelled to honour guest right and cannot injure someone in their own home unless it is their home too
Wording: it isn't that fairies can't lie but they enjoy shading the truth - it's one of those annoying Obi-Wan deals working on 'what I told you is true, from a certain point of view'. If you have an issue with that then too bad, it's your own bloody fault. This also works with deals - even if you are offered something, someone might not accept it (like Shirley's deal with The Morrigan) until you actually offer it up yourself even if it's expected. Fairies man, they like life on the complicated side.
Geas/geis: this is a magical compulsion common in Celtic mythology and all fairies have the power to perform it under the most dire of circumstances. This magical compulsion has certain conditions that must be fulfilled or else penalties are incurred via fate. It's usually a command or prohibition, 'you shall/shall not do this' so it works either by a) bringing about its own fulfillment via manipulation of cosmic events or b) by instilling the subject with a compulsion they can't resist. If the geas/geis is broken, it usually results in death.
The Drowned Court deals with anything to do with water e.g. mermaids, krakens, kelpies
The Spirit Court has a very close association with the Usher's Court as Death is everywhere at once so this is how their court gathers the spirits and undead to them. They are often messengers but most choose to depart into the afterlife, being judged by the Gods.
Demons:
- immensely powerful - they have a great deal of strength
- masters of manipulation
- able to possess whatever they choose - it depends on the willpower of the individual
- often associated with an element they can wield to devastating effect
- fire and lightning are associated with this court
- once had magic but it was stripped from them - they are the reason magic is chaotic and they view magic wielders as theirs
- all other malevolent creatures are added to this court too due to their common close associations/worship of demons
History:
Isaac was born in 1837, the middle child of an upper class family who were heavily involved with shipping (on his father's side) and mining (through his mother) and he lived a pampered lifestyle of lavish excess, expected to follow in his father's footsteps and take part in the business. That all changed when in 1857 on a night out in a seedier part of London he was bitten then fed the blood of the prostitute he'd hired for the night - she left him where he was as he stumbled home trying to make sense of why he felt so ill with a growing urge to drink blood. He tried to hide his growing problem from his family until he snapped and attacked one of the family servants, shipped off to various doctors as the family hushed it up so it wouldn't cause a scandal. Eventually he ended up at a church where they tried to exorcise him but it almost killed him until he escaped and started to hide in the rundown parts of London, feeding where he could on the lowly and the desperate. He sought out the woman who had attacked him and left him but she had moved on - unbeknownst to him she was somewhat of a renegade vampire who turned people into vampire to lash out at the hunters who had killed her mate, masquerading as a prostitute to be able to hide herself - so he was left alone, resorting to petty theft to get by, letting his hunger build until he was starving due to the disgust he felt. He spent seven years doing this, getting closer to being caught until other vampires and werewolves tracked him down and took him in to teach him how to control himself.
It took a good decade for him to be able to control himself when feeding and to learn how to 'charm' people so that they wouldn't remember him - 'charm' was a gift given by the fairies when the courts were set up to help vampires hide. This was also where Isaac learned of the courts and how so many of the things dimissed as flights of fancy or superstition etc were actually real. He almost wanted to run when he learned this but did not, remaining within the court's house due to the fact that he didn't want to be back out in the world on his own so he stayed and learned and tried to figure out what he was going to do with his life now that he was immortal.
Unfortunately, the actions of Isaac, the vampire who made him and the other vampires she had made that hadn't been found or had run caught the attention of the hunters who soon attacked the house the court had been living in, killing several members as the rest ran for their lives. Isaac still never managed to learn anything of the woman who turned him but there was no time to ask as the hunters kept chasing them for years and years, never letting them stop and settle. Some members of the court wished to go to one of the otherworlds where they would be safe but it was argued that they would put them in danger due to the fact that the hunters might be able to follow them through. So they ran as one of the rules of the court - unspoken but still followed - was that they did not kill hunters unless there was no other choice.
In the end, they had to take the lives of the hunters when they came at them one final time, dumping the bodies so none would know where to find them. At last they were free and many of the court returned to the otherworld having realised they had no true desire to live in a world that still had factions who hated them so much. Isaac was offered the chance to join them but he declined because he wanted to stay. One other surviving member of the court remained, a werewolf named Laurent and the two ended up moving around together, taking whatever jobs they could and along the way they had a great many adventures including that time they bumped into Hades (of course they were sworn to secrecy about that one.) There were more hunters but the pair ended up in France until they went their separate ways - Laurent went to one of the otherworlds for a time so Isaac bummed around Europe on his own, taking odd jobs although due to the fact that light was a problem, he had to work at night.
Life was really quite uneventful for him as he watched the world changing as he remained as he was, quietly moving with the times although he avoided London until he was sure his family would be dead, visiting their graves, regretting that they would never know what truly became of him. He was saddened to find a tombstone with his name upon it in the family plot - the rumour was that he had died of a sickness when he had run away from the church he had ended up in, again to preserve the reputation of the family. This was when he truly changed his name and left his old life behind once and for all (well, after making off with some valuables so he could set himself up more comfortably and attend different schools.)
Isaac ended up meeting up with Laurent again during both the first and second world wars, other members of the court coming to fight too - wars are the only times hunters will put their codes to one side and fight alongside any man be they human or not. Indeed, Isaac owes his life to some hunters who allowed him to feed from them when he was badly injured and he ended up staying with some tolerant hunters when the first world war ended. Not all hunters follow the same codes and some will only target those who hurt normal people for no reason, respecting that the courts do good works and that they have allowed the world to move on when it could very well have been stuck in the dark ages if they hadn't agreed to the Veil. After the second world war though, weary of two wars in so short a time Isaac went to one of the otherworlds to spend time recovering, learning about the others who lived there. He embarked on several romances over the decades he was there until he realised just how much he missed the normal world and went back, Laurent coming with him.
Eventually Isaac ended up attending university where he studied forensic science and Laurent joined the police force so that they both ended up working together in some capacity. Having jobs involving the medical profession or law enforcement are encouraged as they allow the courts to do damage control and to keep tabs on who gets up to what although neither Isaac or Laurent actually outed themselves to anyone in their department. Isaac worked nights for obvious reasons but started to notice a rise in cases no one could quite explain as the damned court started to move, putting the Veil at risk. He reported his findings to Court Blood Moon, hoping things would go back to normal but they kept rumbling on and their fellows - a household consisiting of a vampire, werewolf, fairy, selkie and ghost - all noticed too, as did the hunters. It was when he investigated rumours of demonic activity on Laurent's behalf that he met Oliver, a priest who could see through the Veil. They ended up getting close despite the dangers and embarked on an ill-fated romance; Laurent kept reminding Isaac how dangerous it was, especially when Oliver knew what Isaac was. Eventually hunters found out and Isaac was 'encouraged' to leave London so he and Laurent went, making sure that their friends would not be hurt by the hunters so they ended up bumming around Europe for a bit, staying with friends. Sometimes, it's just like it used to be back in the old days.
But nothing ever stays that simple.
This lasts about five years before Isaac and Laurent decide to settle in France, slotting back into similar jobs again with Isaac grudgingly being dragged along on yet more missions during this period. Laurent claims it's to keep Isaac sharp, Isaac complains that it's to suck him into a world he wants no part of. Eventually though, they both need a break from living so heavily in the human world so in 2033 it's off to one of the safe zones in Scotland, a place where they don't have to hide what they are and will be completely and utterly safe. This zone is run by a banshee, Shirley McAllister, and her Cú Síth boyfriend Corbin, both of whom would go on to be close friends of Isaac's. Time there sees Isaac gaining a certain tolerance of magic thanks to the influence of Shirley and her strict house rules involving guests and their code of conduct towards one another.
A few years later, with Isaac and Laurent working in Scotland (Laurent a gamekeeper – providing him handy places to turn during the full moon, Isaac a pharmacist) there's a noted upswing in demonic activity, something both Isaac and Laurent noted in their travels and in France – news from London and their friends there isn't good, with all of them relocating into one of the otherworlds for the time being to escape it. At the safe zone where they stay when they're not working, a demon breaches the perimeter only to be killed by Shirley – a rare feat given how powerful and dangerous they are. Laurent is called back to London and Court Blood Moon and even though Isaac doesn't want to go and get more involved, he equally doesn't want to abandon Laurent so he goes too. They find London a more wary place thanks to the strain of demonic activity on the Veil because whilst people don't know what exactly is happening, there is the very strong sense that something is wrong and violent crime is on the rise, especially disturbing crimes. Given that the Damned Court is made up of the strongest creatures outside the Gods (and with the Gods being effectively neutral due to the effort of having to maintain the Veil in the first place) they need new ways to fight them. Laurent has always worked in such a capacity for the Courts via Court Blood Moon in dealing with problems but this is the first time that Isaac, given his close relationship with Laurent, his work as a scientist and his ability to live so long and so well in the human world make him valuable. The Courts extend to him an offer: work with them, blending science and magic in an effort to combat the threat facing them.
By 2037, Isaac is the head alchemist for Court Blood Moon and finds himself very much involved in the Courts, much to his chagrin – given the dangers the world is facing, he finds himself having to work with whoever wants to help including hunters joining as well as witches and those with magic who have no desire to see themselves become the pawns of demons.
Meanwhile the influence of the demons is becoming more and more insidious by way of them slipping into the drug trade too; demons make special blends where the users are given a week's supply – the first couple of hits are enough to get you interested but you have to stop within a certain point before the week ends. But giving up? It's hard when the drugs are so addictive and more and more either become pawns or end up as meatsuits. By the year 2050 their goal becomes clear: with enough demons and influence in the world they'll be able to get back their magic and reign over the earth the way they did in the earliest days. The demons know Isaac is working against them and informing others so they go after him, first with the intent to kill him, secondly with the intent to break him to work for him. They torment him with their plans not only for him and his friends but with the knowledge that demons were the ones to make vampires at least (they refuse to tell him more about what else they created or brought into being) and it's why they struggle so hard. By drinking blood, they are in essence doing as the demons wished, consuming others to stay alive and in the end, it's why it's rare now for vampires to make it past three hundred; eventually they'll hear the whispers of demons and it's only if they're strong enough to keep going that they won't slip and become a danger the Courts have to put down. Those who don't consume human blood and hide in the shadows? Safe if weak. People who blend in like Isaac are a ticking timebomb.
Luckily Laurent accompanied by Wakahisa Isamu, a phoenix and demon hunting expert, manage to rescue Isaac before an emergency summit is called: angels have been found dead and many of the people working on the same research as Isaac have been killed or abducted. Unable to take their souls, the demons have found a new method similar to one the fairies use: if they know the true name of a person, they can invoke a rite to control them. It's to this end that Shirley arrives with Corbin and agrees as a bloodline matriarch to take his 'real name' Isaiah Abraham to keep him safe from their control, Isaac Acker becoming his name instead but one that can't control him. Leaving her safe zone to her daughter and her family, Isaac, Laurent, Isamu, Shirley and Corbin band together to head underground as best they can, joined by the Peters family (twins, Adam and Nina and Nina's girlfriend Seo-Hyeon) a very old hunting bloodline with a strict code. The group work together to get information as best they can although they're frequently having to move so they won't be discovered. Disaster strikes when they run into an ambush and Adam is wounded badly – the only way to save him is for Isaac to bite him which he eventually does.
Abilities:
(This is more general facts about vampires in this world, it makes sense to explain them all together)
- enjoy the taste of blood but what they feed on is the lifeforce hence why they have to drink from a living person.
- can go out in daylight if well fed - they dislike very strong sunlight as it causes migraines, sunburns and symptoms like heat stroke.
- averse to religious items but can develop a tolerance to some of them if they are exposed long enough.
- silver is toxic to them and their image cannot be captured by cameras/videos/mirrors.
- when feeding they can pick up emotions/information/strong memories. After feeding their saliva heals the wound but some pain/discomfort might linger.
- immortal - can die via starvation, trauma to the heart, removal of the head or prolonged exposure to silver/sunlight or via religious ceremonies.
- 'charm' - this is an ability that aids feeding, taught by the fairies. It involves prolonged eye and physical contact. It is a form of suggestion so vampires do not out themselves when they feed. The person does not remember the vampire or thinks it is all a dream.
- no animosity with werewolves - they make up court blood moon, one of the main powers behind the Veil as they had both been hunted so severely.
- none are born vampires, they must be made.
- capable of reproducing but it's very risky.
- must be invited into a private residence - public places are fair game. Permission to enter can be revoked but only by the head of the household.
- near instantenous healing.
- heightened sense of smell, taste and sight
- stronger than a great deal of supernatural creatures - still far weaker than demons.
In terms of non-vampire abilities, Isaac was a forensic scientist (BSc in forensic biology) who specialisesd in bloodstain pattern analysis and he's pretty into discussing how glaringly inaccurate all of your crime procedurals are. He's got quite a stack of various science-related degrees throughout his life too and he's very good with languages, again from how long he's lived.
First Person:
test drive thread or:
Right, first off - and this isn't me being a vain prick, this is for a valid reason - I need to know where I can get some sunglasses, it's for a medical condition. Secondly I'm probably having a particularly intense dream because I don't remember waiting for a train and now I've just come stumbling off one and I'm just waiting for some sort of muffled bwom in the distance.
Anyway, if this isn't a 'I actually have at least a serious head wound or I've been drugged to the gills' dream then I need to know where I am, where I can get help, who brought me here and all that jazz. I mean I did read but you know, just so I've got some sort of corroborating evidence. And I'm Isaac Acker, desperately seeking sunglasses and an explanation. Or Laurent. Laurent if you get this message can you come find me and bring me home you're better at the hunting down people routine Mr Detective - come shuttle me back to the bedlam we're calling home for now.
Can't believe I'm doing this on a watch. Down the fucking rabbit hole.
Third Person:
They were close.
If he was ever asked to describe how a demon felt - and he had been lately, ever since they'd joined up with the hunters - he could only describe it as a prickling sort of sensation, like someone walking over your grave only worse. You couldn't shake it away until the threat had passed and even then it always took a while for him to feel like there wasn't something about to come crawling out of the shadows towards him. Isamu was ahead of them, leading the charge as the most experienced fighter, Laurent bringing up the rear, Nina and Seo-hyeon to his left with Corbin in his other form to the left again, a buffer between them and anything else. Shirley was at his right and Adam...
He swallowed thickly, the smell of fresh blood in the air and risked a glance over to the third hunter, his face no longer pale but grey and waxy. Adam had one hand clamped around his middle and the shirt they'd quickly tied because there hadn't been any time for Isamu to try and heal him, not after what they'd run into so they'd been forced to get him moving. Shirley met his gaze for a moment, helping to keep Adam on his feet and her expression was grim. He'd heard her wailing, they all had but no one asked except Corbin when he went to her, no one wanted to intrude, to remind her, not when she had her own family and friends whose deaths she might see.
"Isaac," she began, getting a better grip on Adam who let out a bitten off whimper of pain when he was jostled.
"I know!" He almost shouted, voice echoing in the tunnel they were sloshing through as Isamu swore, the sound of metal on metal ringing out before a crackle of lightning. "Is he..."
"I'm," Adam gasped, looking over to Isaac who knew that dazed look in his eyes all too well, "I'm okay, doesn't...shit, it's not so-"
"Give him here."
"You're sure?" Shirley asked, pausing a moment to look between Isaac and the blood that covered her arm and side, all of it Adam's.
"Yeah, yeah, just...I've got him." They didn't really have time for it but Shirley was a better fighter than him and he had to do something more than just running, especially when it was Adam, when Nina hadn't been able to because she'd been sobbing until Seo-hyeon had dragged her once they got Adam up and to his feet. "Is he going to-" He asked because he couldn't help himself, slinging Adam's arm around his shoulders as he supported him and started running again.
"I don't know," the banshee admitted and Isaac's blood ran cold, a sinking weight in his gut.
"This way!" Isamu called suddenly, ushering everyone ahead. "Shirley if you could-"
"Laurent!" She called even as she nodded and it seemed to take an eternity to be ready, to be safe for the moment as they stopped and gasped for breath but then she and Nina were kneeling, murmuring to Isamu too low for Isaac to pay attention to.
"Hey," Adam croaked, leaning all his weight against Isaac as he tried and failed to touch the wound. "How bad?" The smile Isaac tried must have looked like a grimace because Adam sighed and closed his eyes. "That bad."
"You're going to be fine."
"You're a terrible liar."
Before he could counter that, Nina beckoned him, white as a sheet and biting her nails. "Isamu said it's too much for him to heal, after fighting the demons," she began, Isamu bowing his head and murmuring an apology. "But...there's one way. It's the only way Isaac."
He was already shaking his head before she finished, backing away. "I can't, Nina, that's not saving him, it's-"
"It's the only way I'll still have my brother!"
"He might die from me turning him!"
"I didn't howl for him."
Shirley's words stopped him cold and he found he couldn't look at her, instead looking to Adam, Laurent trying to get him to sit comfortably.
"Please," Nina whispered and Isaac swallowed again, feeling colder than he could ever remember.
"Fuck," he muttered but the decision had already been made before he found himself kneeling at Adam's side, preparing to bite him.
