Post by Algernon on Dec 24, 2007 16:57:33 GMT
Name: Algernon Vaughn
Nicknames: The societies he mingles with don't really do nicknames, but he would accept being referred to as "Al" or by his surname.
Race: Vampire - bitten
Occupation: Rogue
Gender: Male
Skin Color: Caucasian but pale, as are most of his race.
Age: 473; appears to be in his 50s
Clothing: Whatever the setting requires at the time - he doesn't dress for fun or fashion or any other vain reason but dresses in order to deceive others into thinking he is something he's not, so he doesn't really have a trademark or normal attire to speak of. Of course, at parties he attends, only the best suits will do. When at home he sticks to whatever is comfortable, liking to stroll around in his dressing gown more often than not.
Height: 5' 9"
Weight: 175lb
Tattoos: None
Piercings: None
Jewellery: He owns a considerably amount of jewellery which is all kept in safes and at banks, but he keeps a pair of diamond cufflinks and a diamond tie-pin for those parties.
Body Modifications: A scar on his neck from when he was turned
Hair
Length: A couple of inches at the most
Style: He has a receding hairline but doesn't bother to cover it up, instead he greases his hair back.
Color: Grey
Facial Hair
Length: Clean-shaven
Style: Algernon makes a point of staying clean-shaven.
Eyes
Color: Blue
Oddities: Turn red when he feels bloodlust, or any intense emotion.
Personality: The main words one could use to describe Algernon at face value are 'suave', 'charming', 'intelligent' and probably 'handsome'. He is every inch a gentleman who attends social soirees and exclusive parties in order to make a name for himself in higher social circles since that's nearly as important as actually having the wealth to back him up. He uses his intellect and the knowledge that he has amassed over the centuries to blind people to his true nature, easily convincing people that he is anybody they want to think he is.
He finds it easy to manipulate all those around him so that any situation is moved in his favour, even convincing the vast majority of the small group of people who are considered the most powerful people in aristocracy that he has an allergy of the sun to explain why he is only ever seen at night.
However, under this charming exterior lies an extremely sadistic nature who loves to cause pain and suffering, both physical and psychological. He is constantly assessing people, judging how interesting they are and how much he'd want to pick at their brain a little more... and that's meant in a very literal sense. You see, his large, beautiful manor holds a secret chamber in the basement which isn't dissimilar to a torture chamber, where Algernon brings (and has brought for many, many years) victims to literally dissect and pull apart to see how exactly they tick.
He has done this for a few centuries now, always avoiding detection by taking just enough people for there to be some buzz about the whole affair, but never so many that the police would suspect anybody part of the social group themselves. After a few hundred years of this, of experimenting on humans to learn everything there is to know about their physical and, to a certain extent, psychological capabilities and anatomies, he started to become intrigued by werewolves, whom he had come across from time to time. He then began his sadistic experiments on these creatures, feeling more than a little excited about the prospect of learning new things and stepping into new territories because at the core of it, that was his true passion; learning. He does it in a bit of a gross way, but he's still learning.
His curious nature and need for knowledge means that his 'experiments' will probably never end, because he enjoys his methods as well as the end product of what he has learned. His sadistic nature often presents themselves in a totally undiluted form when he's conducting these 'experiments', as he loves to cause pain and make as much mess as possible; to him it's just another means of testing the resistance and pain threshold of the creatures in his control. This is also why he practises his intrusive dissection methods whilst his victims are still alive and 'fresh'.
Weaknesses: All of the weaknesses that come with being a vampire: intolerance to sunlight and holy symbols, holy water, garlic, and would die from a beheading or stake through the heart.
His main weakness is probably the feeling of superiority and the thought that he is somehow 'untouchable' by anyone. Humans don't worry him, especially not the thought of human cops coming to question him about some disappearances in circles he's a part of. He is slightly weary of werewolves because he realises that they are far more powerful than humans but his arrogance always wins out over common sense, dictating to him that he can overcome them easily. He also believes he's the most intelligent person in the state at least, and will constantly make this opinion clear to whomever is in his captivity at the time.
He has no conscience and in no way feels guilty about his actions when taking a life, or putting someone through such misery, though whether this counts against him remains to be seen. His need to be in control of things means that he tends to twist any situation so it seems as if he is totally in charge of everything. Nobody can escape from him because he won't let them, and if they do escape it is because he allowed them to do so.
Another problem he has is that when he starts slicing, he just can't stop. He'll keep poking and prodding and cutting and snapping, trying to know all there is to know about this particular person, until he suddenly realises that they actually died about five hours ago.
Abilities: All of the skills vampires possess; speed and agility, balance, strength and heightened senses. His incredible speed allows him to pick mortals off during the night and drag them into the shadows unnoticed.
He's able to convince people that he is who they want him to be, and uses this skill to great effect when picking up unsuspecting victims. Linked to this is his incredible knowledge of the anatomy of humans and werewolves, gained by his strange operations and dissections held in his basement.
Algernon is a very accomplished at playing the violin, having studied under and been friends with some of the most famous violinists in history; he loves to play to unwind, relax and let his troubles drift away. His love of the violin stems for his general love for the classical genre of music and sometimes plays along to one of the many classical CDs he owns and plays on a regular basis. He's also a fluent speaker of Latin, German and Dutch as well as English.
Weapons: On his person when out and about he carries a champagne knife that he keeps in the inside pocket of his jacket and a folding knife he keeps in his trouser pocket. On display in his house he has an assortment of decorative weapons including axes and swords, all of which are kept in glass cases. In his torture chamber he keeps a set of surgical knives, as well as some machetes (both new and rusted from blood). Algernon's not a fan of guns but he owns a Glock 19 just in case.
Prized Possessions: The collection of Stradivarius violins he owns, two of which he still plays, and his vast library of books which includes many rare and priceless items of literature.
Home(s): A large manor on the outskirts of the suburbs
History: Algernon was the son of a very wealthy couple who had inherited their wealth and estate. They didn't really do much except make sure their money was well looked after; because of their diligent saving and investing in various businesses their wealth grew instead of shrinking. As soon as he was old enough, Algernon began to work, wanting to see what it was like to have to earn yourself money. Whether it was because he just didn't like work, or he was too used to having his every whim catered for, he didn't like it, and didn't last a week at his first job. Well, it was an experience, at least.
Algernon had always been a cold, calculating and frighteningly intelligent young boy with a morbid fascination with death and illness. He was hoping that he could one day conduct some research into the human body; how it worked and why it eventually stopped working. He didn't want to know so he could work to prevent this, mind, since he loved to see death and its effects on people. As he grew older, his sociopathic tendencies became more apparent, with his lack of empathy and conscience earning him some rather unfavourable names among the townsfolk.
Unbeknownst to anybody, including his parents, he had been capturing local stray animals and dissecting them to see how their internal organs worked, so that he could learn as much as he could by prodding and poking. Eventually this wasn't enough, and one night he went out to find a human victim to dissect. Since the most conveniently placed humans were his parents, he decided that they would be his first. He drugged them and then did all manner of unspeakable things to them in his efforts to work out how the human body worked. When they died he had to find a way to dispose of them without casting suspicion on himself so that he wouldn't miss out on his inheritance. He drove their car a considerable distance (though not very far, since he would have to walk home) and, after placing the bodies in the front seats, set the car on fire and walked away without so much as a glance over his shoulder.
Unfortunately he couldn't do anything else to further his studies because he had to play the part of the grieving son, but as soon as that was all done and dusted he went back to his sociopath self, this time venturing out in the night to find some unfortunate soul to test. Mostly they were homeless, so he was able to lure them to his manor with the promise of food or shelter. The next 30 years went by with him sporadically taking people, those who wouldn't be missed by anyone, thus able to keep his dirty secret a dirty secret.
One night he was out on one of his 'strolls' when he came across the scene of a woman flailing helplessly as another, seemingly more powerful woman bit her neck. His curiosity was piqued, and he approached slowly. The vampire, aware of the fact that she had an audience, discarded the body and turned to stare at him.
Algernon motioned to the twitching body of the terrified woman, who was staring at him with terror in her eyes, letting out the odd gurgle because her throat had been ravaged. He wasn't interested in helping her, he was wondering if she'd finished eating, and he said as much. The vampire gave a short laugh, and the two went back to his manor to 'discuss' things. She told him her name was Isabella, and that the only reason he's still alive was the fact that she didn't like to dine without smelling the fear on her victims' breath. The two talked through the night about their escapades, finding strange similarities between themselves. Eventually Isabella offered Algernon the chance to hold immortality in the palm of his hand so the two of them could continue his work together throughout the centuries. He gladly took her up on the offer and soon found himself a vampire. So the fact that he couldn't be out during the day was a bit of a bother but not something that he wasn't able to work around in some way.
Regrettably for Isabella, Algernon was rarely a man of his word. Instead, he later used her to find out more about his new vampiric self, noting that her body was all but dead. She died on his table, angry at his betrayal and angry at herself for ever trusting this man.
As the decades turned to centuries he continued to amass his fortune by investing in companies, adapting his way of thinking as things changed around him. Of course, now he had to find victims to satisfy his bloodlust as well as his hunger for knowledge. Luckily for him, there were two things that didn't seem to change: firstly, that there would always be a higher echelon of people, the high-society for him to mingle with; secondly, that there would always be people around whom nobody would miss if they just vanished into thin air. Mostly, they were put down as abduction victims who just vanished, never to be seen again. In the past Algernon would stitch the bodies back together and leave them somewhere to be found so that any suspicion that was aimed dangerously in his general direction would be shifted away from himself entirely. It has nothing to do with guilt, though he does try to put a worried face on when hearing of how bodies had been discovered. In more modern times, with advances in the humans' ways of solving crimes he's had to be more careful about how he leaves bodies around the place.
As time wore on he got bored of dissecting humans, since he was reaching the limit as to what he could learn from them. On his wanderings during the night he came across the home of a werewolf couple whom he later found out were the Langleys, a pair of rogues. Not one to miss such an opportunity he waited for one of them to exit the home - the woman had been taking out the trash - and then attacked her, knocking her out cold before going into the home and doing the same with the man. He managed to get them back to his manor without being seen and then began his torturous research on them, using them sparingly and alternately so they had a little chance to recuperate and heal from the invasive surgery. They lasted much longer than any of his humans ever had, which wasn't particularly surprising. He had a feeling if he'd not used silver implements they may have lasted a little longer. He made a note of that for next time.
Unfortunately werewolves are ordinarily very hard to capture and apparently he'd been lucky on that night, so he went back to snatching the occasional human around once every few weeks, but he hasn't given up his quest to find out everything there is to know about werewolves, from the inside out.