Giselle Tancredi

[Giselle]

Name: Giselle Tancredi
Nicknames: None
Race: Vampire - bitten
Occupation: None
Gender: Female
Skin Color: Extremely pale caucasian
Age: 143 but looks around 10-11 years of age
Clothing: Giselle wears a blue, long sleeved dress with a blouse underneath, both of which are filthy from years of wandering the world with nowhere to call home. She'll replace her clothing once in a while, but for the most part she fixes them herself - she taught herself how to sew. She also has a black hooded cloak to help her blend into the shadows.
Height: 4'
Weight: 64lb
Tattoos: None
Piercings: None
Jewellery: None
Body Modifications: A noticeable scar on her neck from when she was bitten

Hair
Length: Her hair reaches down to her lower-back
Style: Giselle's hair is a mess of matted and knotted tangles, having ended up this way after years not seeing a brush.
Color: Black with some grey areas

Facial Hair
Length: N/A
Style: N/A

Eyes
Color: Blue
Oddities: They turn a vivid shade of red when Giselle feels fear, or when Scarlett is trying to or has come through.

Personality: Giselle developed a split personality to cope with the trauma that she suffered during the time she was turned. She seems to have separated her own personality from that of her "vampire self" in order to cope, surviving the trauma of being turned into a vampire by pretending that part of her is someone else who is not in her control.

If someone were to watch Giselle's behaviour without interacting with her they would see a little girl who would talk to herself, seemingly as two entirely different personalities. If this person were then to try and talk to her Giselle would be the one they would be talking to. If something were to happen to elicit fear or anger then Giselle would change dramatically to her other personality, Scarlett. To Giselle, Scarlett is a whole other person with whom she just shares a body although they are able to separate when they talk together.

Giselle herself was a very quiet, bashful young girl who was far more mature than her years implied. Though she loved her life she wished that she was more confident and outgoing like the rest of her family; when at big functions that her parents would host her parents would be the dutiful host and hostess, her brothers would meet and greet, but Giselle would be at the back of the room watching the laughter and dancing and being quite content doing so. If she was invited to she would join them, but for the most part she was a lurker.

After being turned she changed dramatically, becoming almost mute. The trauma of her being turned made her become very withdrawn and wary of anything and everything around her and she regressed to the mind-state of a lonely little girl. She was always a loving girl and once she got to know someone she was very affectionate, which made acceptance of her new circumstances all that much more distressing; she was brought up on fables and horror stories about vampires and now she was one of them. The realisation of what she had become and her subsequent refusal to accept this fate resulted in her very soul cracking in two.

Giselle's other personality is her vampiric side, repressed into the form of another person in her mind. She first appeared in front of Giselle when the young girl emerged from her hiding place after the werewolves had cleared the place of vampires and left it destroyed. Calling herself "Scarlett", the girl promised that she would look after her new friend from now until the end of days.

She is the amalgamation of Giselle's vampiric side and the dark thoughts that resulted from the trauma she suffered, so put mildly, Scarlet is a violent and intensely aggressive personality. Scarlett is more like the fabled vampires, because that's how Giselle believes vampires are and should be. She will not hesitate to kill in order to satisfy the bloodlust and hunger to keep both herself and Giselle going, but will also quite often torture and kill just for the sake of doing so if she has to in order to protect Giselle or to make her feel better. If her victim ever asked who she was, as they so often did, she would refer to herself as The Reaper.

Typically Giselle is the dominant personality and Scarlett is the protector of sorts, only appearing when Giselle is in danger or gets very frightened. The two personalities are always aware of their surroundings no matter who is in control at the time so sometimes Scarlett will forcibly push through if something angers her enough to make her lose control. Most of the time this will end with Scarlett killing. When this happens, Giselle's defence mechanism kicks in, causing Giselle to try and forget everything that has happened through further repression. Giselle will never accept that she is a vampire, and will say that Scarlett is the vampire, not her.

Weaknesses: Giselle has all of the weaknesses associated with her kind; intolerance to sunlight and holy symbols, holy water, garlic, and would die from a beheading or stake through the heart. Giselle is weak of both mind and body so if anything were to happen to her she would rely on Scarlett to protect her. Also, if the situation calls for Scarlet to draw blood, she will not stop until the victim is dead; if and when she becomes unaware of her surroundings she can sometimes get into a spot of bother.

Both personalities have an severe fear of werewolves and would avoid them at any and all costs. Other vampires are not such a problem for Scarlett, but Giselle is terrified of them; the only vampire she will trust is Scarlett.

Abilities: All of the skills vampires possess; speed and agility, balance, strength and heightened senses. She can also blend into the shadows with incredible ease, doing so to hide and watch or to escape from any given situation. Not an ability, per se, but when she's in trouble or in danger Scarlett will "come through" to protect Giselle.

Weapons: A silver full-finger ring with a sharp blade tip and a claw-like blade attachment on the top side, and another with two raptor-like claws attached. Only Scarlett uses these.

Prized Possessions: Giselle's teddy bear - the only thing she has left of her previous life. She takes it everywhere with her. Scarlett has made a pocket in which she hides her claw rings.

Home(s): An abandoned, boarded up house on Cole's side of town

History: Giselle was born to a very wealthy aristocratic family headed by Elizabeth and Henry Tancredi. The two were extremely powerful and were notoriously ruthless and greedy and were known to have shady dealings that the authorities either didn't know about or were being paid not to know about. Giselle was the youngest of three and adored her older brothers more than anything in the world. In absence of her parents' affections - they weren't cruel, just always too busy making sure the family maintained it's level of wealth - she could never really relate to adults much.

On the night her parents held a large banquet in honour of the mayor, she as, as usual, was staying out of the way. She would sit on the stairs and watched the glitz and glamour of the guests, the decorations, the dancing and banqueting but stayed out of the way. She much preferred to be on the outside looking in. She doesn't really remember much else from the party itself, just that all of a sudden some uninvited guests appeared and forced their way in attacking the guests and her family. When she saw that they were drawing blood she realised they must be vampires and clambered up the stairs to hide. Unfortunately she did not go unnoticed, and an older male vampire, who would be her sire, followed her and forced the turning ritual upon her. Dazed, and scared out of her mind, Giselle tried to get away from the vampire when he was interrupted and killed by one of Giselle's brothers. He knew what his little sister had become and was about to do her the favour of putting her out of her misery when he was taken out by a trio of vampires who fed until there was no more to feed on. The three then turned on her, but before they could do anything a loud howl pierced through the background noise and caused them to scatter. Giselle climbed into the box beneath her window seat and waited, shuddering, rocking back and forth, until everything was over.

Whether they couldn't smell her because of the overwhelming smell of death already filling the previously opulent manor or because they got distracted by the vampires attempting to flee the massacre she didn't know. All Giselle knew was that when she eventually climbed out of the cupboard the place was devoid of any life, including her own. She could hear howls outside getting further away, and soon it was replaced by a deafening silence. The wolves had done a good job clearing the place of vampires - they had left it totally empty of any of the creatures.

Still not fully understanding what had just occurred, she caught a glance at the mirror. It was then that she realised what she had become: that she was now one of the creatures that had massacred her entire family; she was one of those bloodthirsty monsters her brother used to scare and tease her with. She refused to accept it. She crouched down and held her head in her hands and began to rock back and forth, trying to block it out of her mind as if it would turn back time, make things better again.

Hearing a cooing noise, Giselle glanced up to see her double sitting in front of her looking at her with an odd mixture of sympathy and glee. Smiling, she introduced herself as Scarlett, then she put a hand to Giselle's cheek and promised that nothing was ever going to hurt her again; she would protect her for as long as they both needed each other. Scarlett picked up Giselle's teddy from the floor and handed it to the grief-stricken girl, saying that she and this teddy would be her friends from now on. Nobody was to be trusted.

Giselle then left the house, not daring to look for any survivors, and wandered alone for the entire night. Scarlett "led" her away, and down underground where she was safe from the Sun's rays and the peering eyes that would soon be aimed towards the house. She would live under the ground for over a century, surfacing at night to find food and to satisfy "Scarlett's bloodlust". She would move along the underground networks that were available to her, leaving behind her a trail of death and urban myths that Scarlet made sure nobody would ever uncover the truth of.

When Giselle surfaces to look for food, she would sometimes cross the paths of unwitting victims who would either try and help the little girl or do something unspeakable to her. For the former, Scarlett would offer a swift and honourable death, using them only to feed on, but for the latter, she would vent her unspent rage, using her ring blades to cause excruciating damage to the person, all the while talking as if they were the best of friends. She would most often leave the poor sod to bleed out, dragging his body somewhere she could easily hang it up for all to see. On these ones, she would never feed.

Giselle has managed to steer well clear of werewolves, seemingly from some sort of in-built sense that "Scarlett" has. Giselle fears them, but what she still fears more than anything in the world is being alone, which is why she clings onto the notion that Scarlett is actually a different person. For now, she feels safe in the knowledge that she will be looked after by someone who understands her.