CoS Application

[prodigalvampire]

Application | City of Sin

Player

Name: Heather
Age: 32
Characters played: None

Character

Name: Thomas Raith
Canon: the Dresden Files
Journal: prodigalvampire

Age: Thomas is 35, his birthday is February 14th

Appearance: Thomas is described as standing a shade under six feet, with lithe, well-defined muscles he doesn't have to work for. His perfect physique is attributed to his Hunger, the demon that makes him supernaturally appealing, both to the same and opposite sexes. He has shoulder-length black hair that is described as being so dark light has trouble escaping it. Like his half brother, he has long, angular features and a strong jawline, and his eyes are the color of summer storm clouds. He has a charming, brilliant smile Harry describes as a Rembrandt (like the toothpaste) smile, and calls him the "Forgotten Greek God of Body Cologne". Harry describes his complexion and skin tone as pale and perfectly sculpted, like a Greek statue. While some species of vampire have teeth, claws, and the like to catch their prey, White Court vampires are psychic predators, and their appearance is augmented by precisely how they choose to court their prey. Thomas is a member of House Raith, who chooses to feed through sex. As such, he's naturally seductive, moves with a fluid, alluring grace, and is described, by Harry, to even be attractive to him, who is painfully straight.

Reference/History: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Raith#History

Personality: Thomas is cunning, adaptive, resourceful, and a gifted actor. He uses those gifts in various instances and situations, both to get his way and to keep people around him from knowing things he doesn’t want them to know. Those things can be as simple as keeping them from knowing exactly how smart he is or as complex as hiding exactly whose side he’s on. His personas are as varied as the people he’s deceiving, and they’re not mutually exclusive. Thomas’ deceptions leave even the person closest to him, his half-brother Harry Dresden, guessing as to what he’s really up to.

To his family, he appears to be a flippant pretty-boy, incapable of anything except feeding, carousing, and carrying on in one form or another. Before his sister Lara’s less-than-hostile takeover of the House, his carelessness and lack of intelligence was so well known and detested that he was often sent in his father’s stead for various invitations where insult to the inviting party was intended. Thomas always hated being used in such a manner, of course, and would make the insult even worse by varying means. He was sent to respond to an invitation sent by Bianca St. Claire, for instance, and he chose to ally himself, though rather subversively, with Harry (who also wasn’t exactly liked at the party). Later on, he was sent to be Duke Ortega of the Red Court’s second in a dual against Harry Dresden. He showed up intoxicated in more than one respect and wearing a Buffy the Vampire Slayer t-shirt.

Thomas’ alliance with Harry at the party, and the fact that he met with Harry secretly before the dual to inform him that it was rigged, stem from his unerring loyalty to his family. Thomas would lay down his life for Harry, and expend even the last dregs of his energy to keep him safe. In all honesty, he’d lay down his life for any member of his family, save his father, and that aspect of his personality is one of his defining characteristics. That fact is also one of his most closely guarded secrets, though it’s well known to only a few (namely his eldest sister, Lara, and Harry himself).

He detests his demonic side, knowing that its thirst for the life-force of humans is unending and insatiable, but also knowing that feeding it is unavoidable. After he drained Justine to the point of death and was cast out of his family’s holding by Lara, he lived with Harry for a while, trying to get by on single encounters with random people, and barely sating the Hunger. He learned from his experience with Justine that, no matter how much he, the human side, may yearn for a loving, caring relationship, the demon inside him would always keep that from happening. What he did to Justine keeps him in charge of the demon inside, though, giving him the strength of resolve he needs to keep it in the cage he’s built for it in his thoughts, lest he let it have its way, and there be nothing left of him.

In order to keep Justine safe both from his family and from things she need not know, he would often use the power his demon had over her to distract her and keep her from asking questions. He’s learned now, having spoken to her without the influence of the Hunger, that he barely knows her, having never let her just be herself, and that fact makes him hate his demonic side all the more. It’s because of his secrecy around her that not even his love truly knows him. The only person who really does is his brother, Harry. He lived with Harry for a time, after Lara kicked him out of the house, and Harry has seen the darkest parts of his personality. Harry knows exactly how much Thomas hates what he is, and hates even more the fact that there is no controlling it.

Harry is often subjected to Thomas’ crass and often sarcastic humor as well, because of their closeness. Thomas is much like Harry in his banter, though unlike his younger brother, he knows when to shut up and get serious. In contrast to how he portrays himself to the outside world, in private Thomas is knowledge, capable, caring, loyal, and stubborn to a fault.

Powers/Abilities: When Thomas isn't tapping into the Hunger, he is still super-humanly strong, agile, and fast, can heal very quickly, and see in the dark. He's skilled in the use of kukris (large, curved knives) and shotguns. Much to many peoples' surprise, he's very intelligent and capable of acting quickly in tense situations. He's also a hair-stylist.

The Hunger, which must be fed regularly through either sipping at human psyches or through the act of sex, greatly increases all his preternatural skills, but it's very taxing on his reserves. Because Thomas refuses to feed through sex, his reserves are lower than the usual white court vampire, and he doesn't use them if he doesn't have to. They allow him to regrow appendages. He can also extend psychic tendrils into the minds of potential prey, convincing them that what he wants from them they want to give, and can inspire the unbridled desire and lust in them. His demon makes him supernaturally beautiful and he's always surrounded by an aura of desire that makes women and men both follow him around when he's hungry.

His greatest strength, the demon, is also his greatest weakness. While other vampires are vulnerable to sunlight, holy water, crosses, and objects of faith, white court vampires are burned by the touch of one protected by selfless love. It burns them just like an acid.

He's no wizard, but he can cast a few of the simpler spells, he's trained as a hair stylist, is a strategist, and is very good at making a quick exit.

Languages: Thomas' native language is English, but he also speaks ancient Etruscan fluently and some Latin

Inventory: Thomas will come into the game with his wallet, complete with ID and credit cards, the clothes on his back, and a silver pentacle on a plain cord around his neck.

Reason for playing this character: Ever since he was first introduced, Thomas' dichotomy between being a good person and being possessed by a non-removable demon that only wants to feed appealed to me. His constant struggle with this demon makes the setting exceptionally appealing in that he will constantly be fighting the Hunger's need to feed. It's something he struggles with in day to day regardless, and his strength has only grown because of it. He's also adaptive, inventive, and intelligent, which makes him a fun dynamic in any setting. More than anything, though, Thomas' loyalty and dedication to those he cares for, which often put him at odds with his own vices, makes for an entertaining and fulfilling play.

What is your character's sin? Gluttony; Ever-hungry and prone to indulgences, when Thomas chooses meals, he often does so to suit his own mood at the time, which is ever-shifting

Samples

First Person

[The video clicks on to show a beautiful man of pale complexion and chiseled, almost perfect, features. HIs storm grey eyes are scanning the surface of the device with a quizzical expression. Curtains of ebony ringlets frame his face.]

Sweet. Charon gave me an iPad. [He smiles, his teeth perfectly white.] Hell only uses Apple product. Heh. Go figure.

[His brow creases slightly that next moment.] And it's on. [His eyes dart to the upper-left corner of the device.] Transmitting...?

[He blinks, then he turns his gaze to the camera itself, sliding on a charismatic smile with effortless grace.] Well, this isn't fair. I didn't even get to check my hair. I wonder who this is transmitting to. You don't have to be shy, you know.


Third Person
Work was never easy, but some days were easier than others. Some days, he could come in, take his clients, and leave satisfied enough to catch a couple hours of sleep before the roiling hunger of his own personal demon woke him with a rattle at the bars of its mental cage. Others, like today, he'd had to use the Hunger, the preternatural force entwined with his soul, and it was hungry.

Annette, chipper and happy as she always was on a hair day, whispered the same secret desires to him she did every visit. Not to him, no. The Hunger knew, as a ravenous beast scented a potential meal, it knew, and it told him. It teased him with images of ropes, spikes, melted wax, and the sweet whimpers of pleasurable pain she would make as he took her. It was difficult to ignore. The Hunger's urging was a subtle voice, sinister and sweet, at the edge of his mind. Take. Take. Take. It's voice was drowned by a tune he hummed mindlessly as he worked, an effort to stifle the urge to invite her to the back and have his way with her. He sipped at her psyche as it pooled so easily at his fingertips through the shampoo, the cut, her trust in him, her favorite stylist, easing the flow of her energy to his parched mind. The Hunger lapped it up and it was only through sheer force of will that he shoved it back into its mental cage enough to remove her smock at the end of the session.

He laughed with her, teased her playfully, and didn't notice he'd walked her to the door of the establishment until the chime cut through his revelry. She was smiling up at him, her eyes heavy with desire and he reached a hand to brush a stray bit of her hair behind her ear. It would be so easy to follow her home, to give her everything she dreamed of and leave her a desperately addicted shell in the process. The demon raged and Thomas turned the rage-filled grimace he felt at the thing into a pleasant smile at his client, opened the door, his knuckles going white with the effort of staying put and bidding her a good day.

One day, the Hunger would win their mental battle. One day, it would break down the last of his mental barriers and drink the world as it so desired and what remained of Thomas would be no more.

But not today.

Notes: When Thomas' Hunger touches another person, it learns all their deepest, darkest sexual desires. I'll provide a permissions post for this. Seeing as it can also be used to manipulate peoples' emotions, that will be included in the permissions post.

code bases by tricklet