My AB OCs: Cornelius Locke
Sep. 10th, 2013 09:43 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
a_sporking_ratOne night I was playing around with this dollmaker
http://www.dolldivine.com/vampire-maker.php
And I came out with a dark-skinned fellow who had yellow eyes and white dreadlocks. I really liked this look, so I decided to draw him. In drawing him, I couldn't help thinking up a thing or two about him. That led to me giving him a name, Cornelius, and drawing him again, which led to more thinking about him. Eventually, he started fleshing out more, and I made plans to make him a character in roleplay and writing. Since most of the vampires in roleplay (and the vampires in my own writing) start as humans and don't undergo pigment change (beyond, uh, turning white in Twilight and VC 0_o) he got normal human-type pigmentation of black hair and brown eyes, and then I started on a background for him, and, well, here he is!
Cornelius "Adze" Locke, everyone!
LOOKS
He's a black man in his early 30s with dark to medium dark brown skin, a slightly long face, brown eyes, and a long straight almost-Roman nose that some people take to indicate he might have European in his heritage (though he does not as far as he knows...I have no idea, personally). His black hair is worn in well-conditioned dreadlocks that reach about on his arms where the short sleeves on a T-shirt would. I reckon he's around 6'3, and built quite nicely muscle-wise. Great legs and thighs. Personally, I think he's quite handsome, but tastes will vary.His great ass, however, is an objective fact and cannot be denied
Clothing-wise, he's one dapper mofo. Vests, nice shirts, nice trousers, tall boots and nice shoes make up the basics of his wardrobe, accessorized with top hats, pork pies, bowlers, gloves, and even spats depending on how flamboyant he's feeling. He has lovely sets of cuff links, buttons, and tie pins too of course, and one item often seen in particular is a small ornately-but-cheaply-engraved faux-gold cross with equilateral arms and a little fake ruby in the center, on a very slender gold chain. It seems to have some significance to him, but just what is unknown. His general style isn't exactly old-fashioned nor directly lifted from one period, but it has that sort of feel the same way some goth and steampunk styles do.
As mentioned earlier, he likes to play with vampire tropes and stereotypes (he's about as genre savvy as he can reasonably be without being a parody character or breaking the fourth wall) and that extends to his clothing. You'll never catch him going so far as a frilly shirt or poured-on tight leather pants with corseted sides, but he's not opposed to going for a cravat, cummerbund, rather tight jodhpur-like trousers, and, at his absolute most hammy, a cape, though this last item is saved for special occasions where he really wants to make a (ridiculous) statement. And you know what? HE MAKES IT LOOK GOOD! And he has fun, which is just as important to him.
PERSONALITY
Moderately dashing, immoderately daring, smooth, always quite calm (especially when in conflict with someone who isn't--yes, it's a taunt), has a gift for always seeing the humor in a situation even when said situation is a bad one for him, and likes to play around with stereotypical vampire cliches. He's a friendly, charming guy, very social and loves a party but he could also spend hours in a museum or with a book on his subjects of interest. He's fun, funny, and fun-loving, overall an enjoyable person to be around for most folks unless something about him and them just doesn't mesh. Cornelius is a dude I think you could really be buds with, hang out with, see as a really human vamp. But he's NOT a 'human' vamp. He does not see things like, saying, killing people, in a human way, and his own existence at the bloody expense of others is something he is completely comfortable with. This does not mean he is hiding who he is. He's not. He genuinely does like people and friends and all that. He's not faking that. And yet he feels no conflict of interest about it either. And I think that's what kind of makes him scarier than if he was just a slaughter machine with a fake amiable face.
He has this certain dignity that allows him to do totally undignified things and yet still seem, well, dignified the second he stops. Like he can steal JC's shirt and hijack a bachelorette party at Guilty Pleasures and Gangnam Style around a hotel lobby with Max and make terrible jokes while drunk about putting a flashlight in his ass BECAUSE FIREFLY GET IT...and still be this very cool, very badass guy that you have to take very seriously. I think this lies in that he doesn't take himself too seriously, perhaps. This is a quality better shown than told, of course, and I'll be attempting my best to show in in SvS as well as anything I write with him in the future (which I hope will be a lot). He's got a self-assured, laidback attitude most of time, but he becomes loud when he gets truly angry. If he's at the point of yelling, then you're in trouble.
He finds it confusing, in a sad sort of way, when other immortal beings do not use their infinite lifespans to have some FUN now and then as he does (though he also disdains those who are “trying to be just humans with fangs”). He finds it amusing when vampires who were nobles/royalty/etc. in life long ago act as if think that their former rank still MEANS anything in this day and age. On a similar note, he dislikes vampires who were only turned because their maker found them attractive. He feels that they are glorified bed toys that have no place among the preternatural elite. Given this combined with his possible thing on art and function, I think maybe he's someone who strongly appreciates aesthetics (as evident by his clothes) but still always values function and practicality first, and dislikes seeing the latter ever sacrificed for the former. He also dislikes most gay white male vampires. It’s not because of their race or sexuality or any singular part of that combination. No, it’s that when all those separate parts comes together into a whole, it more often than not, in his experiences, just tends to yield the most "insufferable ponces" as he calls them, and he doesn’t know why. (I based this on my own experience with gay/bi white male vampires in RP. Every single one except for two I've ever encountered had a certain..je ne sais quoi...and while I don't think "ponce" is quite the right term, I know whatever it is, it'd get on his nerves too. As a note, those two exceptions were both played by actual LGBT folks, while to my knowledge all the others were not, so take from that what you will. Just putting it out there.) His other majors dislikes are people pulling his dreads, the scolding sounds that squirrels make, and when people openly dislike or deny religion. Any religion, not just his own. He believes strongly in the Spirit World, and sees ALL paths as leading to it, not just his own, and thus all as worthy of respect.
Speaking of religious, Cornelius is a practitioner of Voodoo/Vodou/Vodun/etc. This is NOT a magic ability and he does not get any powers from it (not even in the Anitaverse), it's just his faith, same as any other. As a human, his Loa of choice were Zaka and Jean Petro, but since becoming a vampire he has turned towards the more well-known Ghede family. Jean-Petro symbolizes resistance, force, uprisings, and a sort of black power ideology (not to be confused with Ti-Jean-Petro, a violent one-footed dwarf who protects and assists black magic sorcerers) and Zaka is the Loa of agriculture, the less sophisticated younger brother of the more stylish Papa Ghede, who is a gentle simple peasant but greatly respected since he is a very hard worker. These two seemed to work best for him, I thought, since he began life as a field slave but also was interested in rebellion the first chance he got. He'd look to Zaka for help with bearing the hard agricultural work of slavery, and Jean-Petro for help in escaping the cruelty of it. As for why he'd switch over to Ghede once he was undead, it's actually a little more complex than just "oh well Ghede represent death and he's dead now" as I imagine most people assume. Papa Ghede and his ilk aren't just Loa of death, they're Loa who are the masters of the crossroads between life and death, and where are vampires but at these crossroads? Who but the Ghede helps them pass through this crossroad every dawn and dusk when they die and reanimate over and over? And yet, Papa Ghede is not a menacing Grim Reaper, nor are his family; they are beloved figures, some crass clowns and some suave and sophisticated, whose appearance always brings laughter and joy, singing and dancing, known as much for their sensuality and sense of humor as for their 'darker' aspects. They are neither good nor evil, but they're sure fun. Pretty much perfect for who Cornelius is now!
POWERS & TALENTS
+ His faith in Voodoo may not grant him any magical abilities, but they do come in handy when it comes to using objects of his faith against other vampires that they don't see coming. You'd think that vampires would go out of their way to recognize holy symbols in lots of faiths, even those that aren't major in the areas they live in, but Anitaverse vampires seem so Eurocentric that I'm betting while they might recognize a verve symbol design as meaning something, they probably won't realize that, in the hands of Cornelius, a bottle of raw rum infused with twenty-one goat peppers is the equivalent of holy water. I know it was never covered in canon if the faith of a vampire could power a holy object against other vampires, but I go with the assumption that they do because I like the idea and there's no evidence against it either.
+ Cornelius is a locksmith by profession, and has been for over two hundred years. He's kept up with modern developments in the field, of course, and therefore is just as capable of installing (or breaking) a modern lock for a house or locker as an antique one from any century or decade past. So if you need to get into somewhere, or keep others out, he's your man. This extends to digital locks as well; as someone who has been around since the first computer, he's been able to keep up with the security systems of them from the beginning, and learn how to both penetrate them and make them better, same as he does with physical locks in the real world. I kind of worried about making him a hacker in addition to his lock-making/lock-breaking skills as being 'too much' and Mary Sue-ish, but he's lived long enough and had enough time to learn that I think it's reasonable and believable, and they do, as I've noted, go together and flow into each other. One thing I've had to learn to adjust to with making and writing nigh-immortal characters is accounting for the level/amount of skills they would/could realistically have, since that's a level/amount that would normally be unrealistic for characters of regular lifespans (which is what I worked with until a few years ago)
+ In addition to their intended purpose, he also uses keys as weapons in ways such as, say, putting them between his knuckles and then punching/stabbing his opponent. HE WILL LITERALLY PICK YOUR BRAIN. THROUGH YOUR EYE SOCKET. Also, key pistols!
http://www.cracked.com/article_19702_7-awe...ually-used.html
+ He most likely is combat-capable with pistols, blades, and good ol' fashioned hand-hand-to-hand but not to a super remarkable point. He's no Gaspard with swords, no Sig with firearms, etc. but he still knows how to do it and do it just fine, and when you add in being a vampire, well, I wouldn't wanna fuck around with him, would you? I figure this is pretty normal for vamps and not remarkable in any way, since, well, it just makes sense that if you're going to be living in a hierarchical society that puts you in competition with other vampires that you'd want to know these things. Sure, you've got super-powers and all...but so do all the other vamps! Cornelius is definitely too clever to let himself be in the position of relying solely on his preternatural abilities.
+ He's no faster or stronger than the average vampire, but he is QUITE acrobatic, which comes in handy in lots of ways
+ As a reference to the adze, which can take the form of a firefly, his Animal to Call in the Anitaverse is fireflies. That admittedly doesn't seem like much; they're not big glamorous animals, they can't bite or sting, and they're not even gross like Morella's creepy-crawlies. But if you think about it (and Cornelius does) there are numerous ways one could use this gift...
- Using fireflies to spell out messages; heck, you could sky-write with enough of them!
- Use them to send coded messages that enemies won't be able to read; for instance, if exactly five fireflies appear before you and flash their light all at once together before dispersing, that could mean "abort mission, return to base" or something.
- Using a swarm of fireflies as a diversionary tactic or to conceal yourself within
- Making the fireflies cover a person. Just because they can't sting or bite doesn't mean that would be CREEPY for the victim, not to mention probably itchy as hell. I'm sure it'd make most people at least pause in whatever they were doing!
- Making the fireflies blind someone by going in their eyes, or deafen them by going in their ears
- Choking/suffocating someone by making the fireflies go in their nose and mouth
- Okay, well, since we've covered them going into all the other orifices...no, wait, I'm not gonna go there. But you're thinking it now, aren't you?
The fireflies are his little buddies. He can distinguish them from each other, and there's often a few hanging around him, perching on him, buzzing around his hands for emphasis when he gestures, or even expressing his moods for him in various ways (way cooler than color-changing eyes!)
+ Adze are also said to be able to posses people, so as another reference to that myth I made his Anitaverse version a Traveller-line vamp. He displays extreme telepathic abilities in Sue versus Sue, namely being able to mentally hook up everyone in Lucille's group in constant contact, as well as letting them mentally talk to people who are states away, such as Padma or Ghislaine and her boyfriend in Louisiana. This, however, is not due to his own power, but is a result from the Traveller himself funneling these powers and abilities into him to help Lucille & Co. The Traveller having these abilities is not from the AB canon, but it's my own headcanon that, in addition to the possession powers, Traveller-vamps also have a variety of psychic powers that other lines don't (like telepathy or telekinesis), or have the same psychic abilities as other vamps (rolling, hypnosis, mind-reading) but to a much stronger degree. After all, Traveller vampires are also called "psychic" vampires and I figure there should be more to earning that title than just body-hopping. As for what Cornelius himself is packing when he isn't getting help from his Sourdre de Sang, I'd say he's capable of possession/mind-control over weaker vampires/shifters (and humans, but most vamps can do that), telepathic communication, and hooking up lesser numbers of people mentally over smaller distances, plus all the normal vampire psychic abilities (and again, every time I think I'm making him over-powered....I look at what he's up against in AB canon. I swear he will not have half this mojo in my original works, since vampires are not nigh-demigods in my envisioning why yes I do think AB vamps get too much power especially compared to the other AB species)
HOBBIES & INTERESTS
+ I know that he likes gargoyles and and prehistoric Native American pottery. This makes me think he probably has an appreciation in general for 3D works of art that are pretty, but still also functional (pots hold things, gargoyles are basically rain gutters, etc.), which is further supported by his admiration for clever metalwork and blacksmithery. I also know he got his liking for the latter when he was reading up on the original inhabitants of Barbados (Caribs and Arawaks) and so he might be interested in pre-colonial peoples in general.
+ He also likes fossils, especially ammonite-type shells, the skulls of humans and pre-human hominids, and the skulls of dinosaurs. Oh man, dinosaurs. He thinks dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures are SO AMAZING OMG! He is still wigging out to this over them being discovered! I mean, can you imagine how that was for someone who didn't grow up knowing they existed from childhood but for an adult whom it was a totally new thing? Just...mind-blowing, oh man. Mind-blowing.
+ Back on gargoyles...since those are a real animal in the Anitaverse, not just statues, I like to think that they're the favorite animals of his Anitaverse version and he may once have kept one as a pet (or at least tried to, possibly with disastrous/hilarious results)
ON KILLING & OTHER MORAL SHIT
I've found that most vampires in media are either woobies that angst tremendously over every drop of blood, or wanton sadists who relish in slaughter. Cornelius is neither, and it's not because, like Angel with his bloody bags or AB vamps with their pomme de sangs, that he has a regular viable source that takes the killing dilemma out of the equation (my vampires *have* to kill in order to get enough blood, unless they do multiple victims...which leaves multiple witnesses alive to squeal on the Masquerade) but because he does what most vampires in my universe do: He adjusts. This was one of the most interesting things to figure out about him for me, because it required me to try to and think of a moral code from a perspective on morality that was not human, but also wasn't evil or even amoral, just somewhat alien yet not completely removed from humanity either. A hard note to hit, but I think I got the basics down.
- If he saw someone being attacked by, say, a mugger or rapist, he would save them. If they were being attacked by another vampire, he would not. The vampire needs to eat; the rapist doesn't need to rape, and while the mugger might need money, a mugging victim is not the only source of money. Humans, however, are the only source of human blood.
- He would prefer not to prey on humans he knows and interacts with, but if he had to (say, was locked in a room with one for a week) he would be just fine with it. His reasons he prefers not to: First, if he enjoys their company, why sacrifice that when there are plenty of other meals walking around he can pick off instead? Secondly, it's suspicious if people around him tend to disappear.
- He feels absolutely zero moral dilemma or guilt about the previous two jots
- When he meets one of those angsty-type vampires who laments their existence, he is happy to end it for them because they annoy him and, hey, are literally asking for it. He doesn't see a moral dilemma in this either because they WANT to die. It's not murder if they want it.
- When it comes to child abuse and molestation, he's definitely opposed to and utterly revolted by that, albeit more in the way most humans would be about the idea of torturing a cow for kicks even if they themselves eat hamburgers (again, humans are food, but that doesn't merit causing them pointless pain). Ditto for torturing/hurting humans in general when you don't have to. (I just mention the kids thing specifically because it came to me when I was pondering about why AB vamps are so repulsed by that...as a note, Cornelius' reasoning wouldn't work for them because, unlike him, they're fine with and relish everything else horrible, he doesn't, so this is more consistent for him but would be inconsistent for them) He also takes a religious opposition to killing children even for food, since the Ghede Loa are the protectors of children in addition to representatives of death and fertility.
- He might be happy to feed on humans guilt-free, but he also doesn't see vampires as being inherently better or superior to humans just because they're higher on the food chain, and is suspicious of, if not downright disgusted by, vampires who claim (and there's always at least one in RP) to be the rightful rulers over humans or that humans are worthless or what-all. Humans have made the bulk of the art and technology and all other progress in this world, for one thing, and for another, if you look at nature, predators actually *aren't* better than prey. Lions eat zebras, but they aren't objectively 'better' animals, especially since they really have to work to get a meal and they fail most of the time too because prey animals are damn tough. Just because you eat something doesn't mean you're its rulers, especially if it's another sentient being. You're just eating it. That's all. Get over yourself.
OTHER BITS AND BOBS
+ He never considers reciprocity a given
+ I think he thinks babies are pretty neat, at least short-term, and is even pretty cool about stuff like changing, crying, etc., but has no desire for it in his life either. He's definitely more cool uncle material than dad, but if he did somehow have kids I think he would step up to the plate and take some role in their lives (especially considering they'd be downright miracles, since he's a vampire and all), though perhaps not be a full-time father. He actually probably did have children as a human, as slaves were encouraged to marry (or at least to breed), but they would most likely have been sold at a very early age and not 'his' by any legal right.
+ Cornelius likes the ladies, and as far as his preferences go, he's not a breast man or an ass man or a leg man...he's a waist man. He loves the visual (and, when he puts his hands around it, feel) of a tiny waist on a woman, whether the rest of her is slim or voluptuous. He tends to go for women who are Indian, Latina, black, Native, or mixed with any of these, though he's not exclusive in this, it's just a pattern.
+ I know that he has an accent, but I have no idea quite what it should sound like since I don't think there's any real-world counterpart. Yes, he was born and raised on Barbados, but that was *long* before the modern Barbados accent even existed. When alive, his way of speaking probably was, like many slaves, a mixture of the accents of the older slaves around him who were actually from Africa, such as his parents, and the British slave-owners. After joining up with French and Spanish vampires, he would have gradually started taking on some of their speech traits too after he spent enough time with them. And then he just went lots of places, I don't even know how many or which, but if I had to take a tentative guess I'd say he's been to countries in Africa, India, and a lot of Western Europe, as well as going back to Barbados as well as visiting other countries/islands in the Caribbean on multiple occasions, not to mention, of course, how he's in North America now. Since I don't have his speech patterns fully figured out or set in stone yet, I'm still really experimenting with different styles when I write him, but right now he mainly seems to use "proper" modern English peppered with occasionally bits of other things here and there.
+ Since Voodoo and its variations have continued to evolve and change in the New World since his turning, he has used his long lifespan to keep up with these changes and absorb them into his own faith, which was originally pure West African Vodun. Now his personal way of practicing it is a mishmash of every style that he has ever studied, heard of, or come in contact with in all the times and places he's been in.
+ Far from being offended by popular misconceptions about Voodoo, Cornelius actually likes it when people think his faith is something spooky and evil---it makes them much easier to scare!
+ When it comes to vampire groups and belonging thereof, Cornelius always tends to walk this odd ambiguous line between being one of them and not. In AB roleplay, when he can get away with it, he tends to be a sort of half-way rogue, not living with the rest of the Kiss nor being blood-oathed to the Master of the City, but still playing by all the rules the Master has set up for said Kiss to follow. Usually, as long as he does this he won't be forced to blood-oath against his will nor driven from the city/killed as is commonly done with rogues in canon, though it always depends on who plays the Master.When he was played at a non-AB board, he was a member of the 'nice' vampire group (the ones who wanted to stay hidden) but that was really more out of revulsion for the other group (who wanted to take over the world/enslave humanity) than anything else. He didn't agree with all of their beliefs, however, but since they still gave him the protection that a group allows despite this, he respected them enough to also follow their rules for the most part, though he was inclined to roguishly bend them here and there.
BACKGROUND
Born in 1655 on a British-owned sugar plantation in Barbados to two slaves, both of them Ewe people taken from Ghana. West African Vodun (from which all other forms of Vodou/Voodoo/etc. would later spring) was and still is the majority religion of the Ewe, and his parents practiced it in secret, teaching it to him as well. Life as a plantation slave, as I'm sure you can imagine, quite frankly sucked, enough that Cornelius willing to risk his life to escape or participate in revolt, and he kept his ear to the ground for the best chance to be able to do both.
Barbados was owned by the British at this time, but they were far from the only Europeans coming by. Raids on Barbados by French and Spanish pirates were common then, and slaves would often wait until such a raid was going on before they acted. Then, while the plantation-owners were distracted by the pirates, the slaves would take advantage of this and escape or riot. That's what happened in 1688 on the plantation where Cornelius lived, when new laws justifying slavery had been passed that year were sparking revolts all over the Barbados.
He took part in the revolt, and was captured when it failed. While he awaited execution in his cell, he was approached by people who revealed themselves not only as pirates, but also vampires. They offered him the chance of escaping his fate if he would agree to help them prolong the chaos that the revolt had started, since they wanted to continue their raids but needed further distraction. He agreed, was turned into a vampire, then publicly 'executed' by hanging (at night of course) and even buried before a crowd as well (it was so hard to keep still and a straight face during that!), after which he terrified plantations for miles around, especially the one where he had come from, by appearing as a spectre, a vengeful ghost come to strike guilt and terror into the slave-owners. The reason that the vampires could not just do this themselves is that Cornelius was a *known* face to slaves and slave-owners thanks to his participation in the rebellion, and the idea of a rebel slave returning from the dead struck a much more significant psychological note for both slave-owners and slaves alike than just some random people popping up would have, even if they'd drunk blood or done some other vampire tricks.
The plan worked; Cornelius' appearances inspired fear in the masters, fire in the slaves, and altogether too much of a tizzy for anyone to much mind some more theft that was going on in the process. As for any odd deaths that occurred, well, that was chalked up to the doing of the ghost, and certainly no one would think even pirates would have anything to do with those who died in such a strange manner. In the AB version, where everyone would have known about vampires and thus would have known exactly what he was, it still worked out about the same way, since the idea that someone was turning their slaves into super-powered beings with a thirst for blood is pretty intimidating as much as a vengeful ghost is.
When the vampire pirates left Barbados with their ill-gotten gains, they took Cornelius with them, for their law dictated that they must look after those they had made, and though they had no regard for human rules, their own were another matter. He went along willingly, for he had no more life on Barbados now that his face was famous as that of a dead man. He has never regretted becoming a vampire. It made him free forever, and has been a grand adventure. He has traveled the world, learned a trade (he became a locksmith, and that is why he picked the occupational surname Locke for himself, as he had no last name before), and, as his vampire powers developed further and he gained (in the AB version) his powers of possession and calling fireflies he took on the nickname Adze, a vampire creature from Ewe folklore that can posses people as well as take the form of a firefly. Convenient, since he hasn't really found a nickname for "Cornelius" that he likes half as much!
http://www.dolldivine.com/vampire-maker.php
And I came out with a dark-skinned fellow who had yellow eyes and white dreadlocks. I really liked this look, so I decided to draw him. In drawing him, I couldn't help thinking up a thing or two about him. That led to me giving him a name, Cornelius, and drawing him again, which led to more thinking about him. Eventually, he started fleshing out more, and I made plans to make him a character in roleplay and writing. Since most of the vampires in roleplay (and the vampires in my own writing) start as humans and don't undergo pigment change (beyond, uh, turning white in Twilight and VC 0_o) he got normal human-type pigmentation of black hair and brown eyes, and then I started on a background for him, and, well, here he is!
Cornelius "Adze" Locke, everyone!
LOOKS
He's a black man in his early 30s with dark to medium dark brown skin, a slightly long face, brown eyes, and a long straight almost-Roman nose that some people take to indicate he might have European in his heritage (though he does not as far as he knows...I have no idea, personally). His black hair is worn in well-conditioned dreadlocks that reach about on his arms where the short sleeves on a T-shirt would. I reckon he's around 6'3, and built quite nicely muscle-wise. Great legs and thighs. Personally, I think he's quite handsome, but tastes will vary.
Clothing-wise, he's one dapper mofo. Vests, nice shirts, nice trousers, tall boots and nice shoes make up the basics of his wardrobe, accessorized with top hats, pork pies, bowlers, gloves, and even spats depending on how flamboyant he's feeling. He has lovely sets of cuff links, buttons, and tie pins too of course, and one item often seen in particular is a small ornately-but-cheaply-engraved faux-gold cross with equilateral arms and a little fake ruby in the center, on a very slender gold chain. It seems to have some significance to him, but just what is unknown. His general style isn't exactly old-fashioned nor directly lifted from one period, but it has that sort of feel the same way some goth and steampunk styles do.
As mentioned earlier, he likes to play with vampire tropes and stereotypes (he's about as genre savvy as he can reasonably be without being a parody character or breaking the fourth wall) and that extends to his clothing. You'll never catch him going so far as a frilly shirt or poured-on tight leather pants with corseted sides, but he's not opposed to going for a cravat, cummerbund, rather tight jodhpur-like trousers, and, at his absolute most hammy, a cape, though this last item is saved for special occasions where he really wants to make a (ridiculous) statement. And you know what? HE MAKES IT LOOK GOOD! And he has fun, which is just as important to him.
PERSONALITY
Moderately dashing, immoderately daring, smooth, always quite calm (especially when in conflict with someone who isn't--yes, it's a taunt), has a gift for always seeing the humor in a situation even when said situation is a bad one for him, and likes to play around with stereotypical vampire cliches. He's a friendly, charming guy, very social and loves a party but he could also spend hours in a museum or with a book on his subjects of interest. He's fun, funny, and fun-loving, overall an enjoyable person to be around for most folks unless something about him and them just doesn't mesh. Cornelius is a dude I think you could really be buds with, hang out with, see as a really human vamp. But he's NOT a 'human' vamp. He does not see things like, saying, killing people, in a human way, and his own existence at the bloody expense of others is something he is completely comfortable with. This does not mean he is hiding who he is. He's not. He genuinely does like people and friends and all that. He's not faking that. And yet he feels no conflict of interest about it either. And I think that's what kind of makes him scarier than if he was just a slaughter machine with a fake amiable face.
He has this certain dignity that allows him to do totally undignified things and yet still seem, well, dignified the second he stops. Like he can steal JC's shirt and hijack a bachelorette party at Guilty Pleasures and Gangnam Style around a hotel lobby with Max and make terrible jokes while drunk about putting a flashlight in his ass BECAUSE FIREFLY GET IT...and still be this very cool, very badass guy that you have to take very seriously. I think this lies in that he doesn't take himself too seriously, perhaps. This is a quality better shown than told, of course, and I'll be attempting my best to show in in SvS as well as anything I write with him in the future (which I hope will be a lot). He's got a self-assured, laidback attitude most of time, but he becomes loud when he gets truly angry. If he's at the point of yelling, then you're in trouble.
He finds it confusing, in a sad sort of way, when other immortal beings do not use their infinite lifespans to have some FUN now and then as he does (though he also disdains those who are “trying to be just humans with fangs”). He finds it amusing when vampires who were nobles/royalty/etc. in life long ago act as if think that their former rank still MEANS anything in this day and age. On a similar note, he dislikes vampires who were only turned because their maker found them attractive. He feels that they are glorified bed toys that have no place among the preternatural elite. Given this combined with his possible thing on art and function, I think maybe he's someone who strongly appreciates aesthetics (as evident by his clothes) but still always values function and practicality first, and dislikes seeing the latter ever sacrificed for the former. He also dislikes most gay white male vampires. It’s not because of their race or sexuality or any singular part of that combination. No, it’s that when all those separate parts comes together into a whole, it more often than not, in his experiences, just tends to yield the most "insufferable ponces" as he calls them, and he doesn’t know why. (I based this on my own experience with gay/bi white male vampires in RP. Every single one except for two I've ever encountered had a certain..je ne sais quoi...and while I don't think "ponce" is quite the right term, I know whatever it is, it'd get on his nerves too. As a note, those two exceptions were both played by actual LGBT folks, while to my knowledge all the others were not, so take from that what you will. Just putting it out there.) His other majors dislikes are people pulling his dreads, the scolding sounds that squirrels make, and when people openly dislike or deny religion. Any religion, not just his own. He believes strongly in the Spirit World, and sees ALL paths as leading to it, not just his own, and thus all as worthy of respect.
Speaking of religious, Cornelius is a practitioner of Voodoo/Vodou/Vodun/etc. This is NOT a magic ability and he does not get any powers from it (not even in the Anitaverse), it's just his faith, same as any other. As a human, his Loa of choice were Zaka and Jean Petro, but since becoming a vampire he has turned towards the more well-known Ghede family. Jean-Petro symbolizes resistance, force, uprisings, and a sort of black power ideology (not to be confused with Ti-Jean-Petro, a violent one-footed dwarf who protects and assists black magic sorcerers) and Zaka is the Loa of agriculture, the less sophisticated younger brother of the more stylish Papa Ghede, who is a gentle simple peasant but greatly respected since he is a very hard worker. These two seemed to work best for him, I thought, since he began life as a field slave but also was interested in rebellion the first chance he got. He'd look to Zaka for help with bearing the hard agricultural work of slavery, and Jean-Petro for help in escaping the cruelty of it. As for why he'd switch over to Ghede once he was undead, it's actually a little more complex than just "oh well Ghede represent death and he's dead now" as I imagine most people assume. Papa Ghede and his ilk aren't just Loa of death, they're Loa who are the masters of the crossroads between life and death, and where are vampires but at these crossroads? Who but the Ghede helps them pass through this crossroad every dawn and dusk when they die and reanimate over and over? And yet, Papa Ghede is not a menacing Grim Reaper, nor are his family; they are beloved figures, some crass clowns and some suave and sophisticated, whose appearance always brings laughter and joy, singing and dancing, known as much for their sensuality and sense of humor as for their 'darker' aspects. They are neither good nor evil, but they're sure fun. Pretty much perfect for who Cornelius is now!
POWERS & TALENTS
+ His faith in Voodoo may not grant him any magical abilities, but they do come in handy when it comes to using objects of his faith against other vampires that they don't see coming. You'd think that vampires would go out of their way to recognize holy symbols in lots of faiths, even those that aren't major in the areas they live in, but Anitaverse vampires seem so Eurocentric that I'm betting while they might recognize a verve symbol design as meaning something, they probably won't realize that, in the hands of Cornelius, a bottle of raw rum infused with twenty-one goat peppers is the equivalent of holy water. I know it was never covered in canon if the faith of a vampire could power a holy object against other vampires, but I go with the assumption that they do because I like the idea and there's no evidence against it either.
+ Cornelius is a locksmith by profession, and has been for over two hundred years. He's kept up with modern developments in the field, of course, and therefore is just as capable of installing (or breaking) a modern lock for a house or locker as an antique one from any century or decade past. So if you need to get into somewhere, or keep others out, he's your man. This extends to digital locks as well; as someone who has been around since the first computer, he's been able to keep up with the security systems of them from the beginning, and learn how to both penetrate them and make them better, same as he does with physical locks in the real world. I kind of worried about making him a hacker in addition to his lock-making/lock-breaking skills as being 'too much' and Mary Sue-ish, but he's lived long enough and had enough time to learn that I think it's reasonable and believable, and they do, as I've noted, go together and flow into each other. One thing I've had to learn to adjust to with making and writing nigh-immortal characters is accounting for the level/amount of skills they would/could realistically have, since that's a level/amount that would normally be unrealistic for characters of regular lifespans (which is what I worked with until a few years ago)
+ In addition to their intended purpose, he also uses keys as weapons in ways such as, say, putting them between his knuckles and then punching/stabbing his opponent. HE WILL LITERALLY PICK YOUR BRAIN. THROUGH YOUR EYE SOCKET. Also, key pistols!
http://www.cracked.com/article_19702_7-awe...ually-used.html
+ He most likely is combat-capable with pistols, blades, and good ol' fashioned hand-hand-to-hand but not to a super remarkable point. He's no Gaspard with swords, no Sig with firearms, etc. but he still knows how to do it and do it just fine, and when you add in being a vampire, well, I wouldn't wanna fuck around with him, would you? I figure this is pretty normal for vamps and not remarkable in any way, since, well, it just makes sense that if you're going to be living in a hierarchical society that puts you in competition with other vampires that you'd want to know these things. Sure, you've got super-powers and all...but so do all the other vamps! Cornelius is definitely too clever to let himself be in the position of relying solely on his preternatural abilities.
+ He's no faster or stronger than the average vampire, but he is QUITE acrobatic, which comes in handy in lots of ways
+ As a reference to the adze, which can take the form of a firefly, his Animal to Call in the Anitaverse is fireflies. That admittedly doesn't seem like much; they're not big glamorous animals, they can't bite or sting, and they're not even gross like Morella's creepy-crawlies. But if you think about it (and Cornelius does) there are numerous ways one could use this gift...
- Using fireflies to spell out messages; heck, you could sky-write with enough of them!
- Use them to send coded messages that enemies won't be able to read; for instance, if exactly five fireflies appear before you and flash their light all at once together before dispersing, that could mean "abort mission, return to base" or something.
- Using a swarm of fireflies as a diversionary tactic or to conceal yourself within
- Making the fireflies cover a person. Just because they can't sting or bite doesn't mean that would be CREEPY for the victim, not to mention probably itchy as hell. I'm sure it'd make most people at least pause in whatever they were doing!
- Making the fireflies blind someone by going in their eyes, or deafen them by going in their ears
- Choking/suffocating someone by making the fireflies go in their nose and mouth
- Okay, well, since we've covered them going into all the other orifices...no, wait, I'm not gonna go there. But you're thinking it now, aren't you?
The fireflies are his little buddies. He can distinguish them from each other, and there's often a few hanging around him, perching on him, buzzing around his hands for emphasis when he gestures, or even expressing his moods for him in various ways (way cooler than color-changing eyes!)
+ Adze are also said to be able to posses people, so as another reference to that myth I made his Anitaverse version a Traveller-line vamp. He displays extreme telepathic abilities in Sue versus Sue, namely being able to mentally hook up everyone in Lucille's group in constant contact, as well as letting them mentally talk to people who are states away, such as Padma or Ghislaine and her boyfriend in Louisiana. This, however, is not due to his own power, but is a result from the Traveller himself funneling these powers and abilities into him to help Lucille & Co. The Traveller having these abilities is not from the AB canon, but it's my own headcanon that, in addition to the possession powers, Traveller-vamps also have a variety of psychic powers that other lines don't (like telepathy or telekinesis), or have the same psychic abilities as other vamps (rolling, hypnosis, mind-reading) but to a much stronger degree. After all, Traveller vampires are also called "psychic" vampires and I figure there should be more to earning that title than just body-hopping. As for what Cornelius himself is packing when he isn't getting help from his Sourdre de Sang, I'd say he's capable of possession/mind-control over weaker vampires/shifters (and humans, but most vamps can do that), telepathic communication, and hooking up lesser numbers of people mentally over smaller distances, plus all the normal vampire psychic abilities (and again, every time I think I'm making him over-powered....I look at what he's up against in AB canon. I swear he will not have half this mojo in my original works, since vampires are not nigh-demigods in my envisioning why yes I do think AB vamps get too much power especially compared to the other AB species)
HOBBIES & INTERESTS
+ I know that he likes gargoyles and and prehistoric Native American pottery. This makes me think he probably has an appreciation in general for 3D works of art that are pretty, but still also functional (pots hold things, gargoyles are basically rain gutters, etc.), which is further supported by his admiration for clever metalwork and blacksmithery. I also know he got his liking for the latter when he was reading up on the original inhabitants of Barbados (Caribs and Arawaks) and so he might be interested in pre-colonial peoples in general.
+ He also likes fossils, especially ammonite-type shells, the skulls of humans and pre-human hominids, and the skulls of dinosaurs. Oh man, dinosaurs. He thinks dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures are SO AMAZING OMG! He is still wigging out to this over them being discovered! I mean, can you imagine how that was for someone who didn't grow up knowing they existed from childhood but for an adult whom it was a totally new thing? Just...mind-blowing, oh man. Mind-blowing.
+ Back on gargoyles...since those are a real animal in the Anitaverse, not just statues, I like to think that they're the favorite animals of his Anitaverse version and he may once have kept one as a pet (or at least tried to, possibly with disastrous/hilarious results)
ON KILLING & OTHER MORAL SHIT
I've found that most vampires in media are either woobies that angst tremendously over every drop of blood, or wanton sadists who relish in slaughter. Cornelius is neither, and it's not because, like Angel with his bloody bags or AB vamps with their pomme de sangs, that he has a regular viable source that takes the killing dilemma out of the equation (my vampires *have* to kill in order to get enough blood, unless they do multiple victims...which leaves multiple witnesses alive to squeal on the Masquerade) but because he does what most vampires in my universe do: He adjusts. This was one of the most interesting things to figure out about him for me, because it required me to try to and think of a moral code from a perspective on morality that was not human, but also wasn't evil or even amoral, just somewhat alien yet not completely removed from humanity either. A hard note to hit, but I think I got the basics down.
- If he saw someone being attacked by, say, a mugger or rapist, he would save them. If they were being attacked by another vampire, he would not. The vampire needs to eat; the rapist doesn't need to rape, and while the mugger might need money, a mugging victim is not the only source of money. Humans, however, are the only source of human blood.
- He would prefer not to prey on humans he knows and interacts with, but if he had to (say, was locked in a room with one for a week) he would be just fine with it. His reasons he prefers not to: First, if he enjoys their company, why sacrifice that when there are plenty of other meals walking around he can pick off instead? Secondly, it's suspicious if people around him tend to disappear.
- He feels absolutely zero moral dilemma or guilt about the previous two jots
- When he meets one of those angsty-type vampires who laments their existence, he is happy to end it for them because they annoy him and, hey, are literally asking for it. He doesn't see a moral dilemma in this either because they WANT to die. It's not murder if they want it.
- When it comes to child abuse and molestation, he's definitely opposed to and utterly revolted by that, albeit more in the way most humans would be about the idea of torturing a cow for kicks even if they themselves eat hamburgers (again, humans are food, but that doesn't merit causing them pointless pain). Ditto for torturing/hurting humans in general when you don't have to. (I just mention the kids thing specifically because it came to me when I was pondering about why AB vamps are so repulsed by that...as a note, Cornelius' reasoning wouldn't work for them because, unlike him, they're fine with and relish everything else horrible, he doesn't, so this is more consistent for him but would be inconsistent for them) He also takes a religious opposition to killing children even for food, since the Ghede Loa are the protectors of children in addition to representatives of death and fertility.
- He might be happy to feed on humans guilt-free, but he also doesn't see vampires as being inherently better or superior to humans just because they're higher on the food chain, and is suspicious of, if not downright disgusted by, vampires who claim (and there's always at least one in RP) to be the rightful rulers over humans or that humans are worthless or what-all. Humans have made the bulk of the art and technology and all other progress in this world, for one thing, and for another, if you look at nature, predators actually *aren't* better than prey. Lions eat zebras, but they aren't objectively 'better' animals, especially since they really have to work to get a meal and they fail most of the time too because prey animals are damn tough. Just because you eat something doesn't mean you're its rulers, especially if it's another sentient being. You're just eating it. That's all. Get over yourself.
OTHER BITS AND BOBS
+ He never considers reciprocity a given
+ I think he thinks babies are pretty neat, at least short-term, and is even pretty cool about stuff like changing, crying, etc., but has no desire for it in his life either. He's definitely more cool uncle material than dad, but if he did somehow have kids I think he would step up to the plate and take some role in their lives (especially considering they'd be downright miracles, since he's a vampire and all), though perhaps not be a full-time father. He actually probably did have children as a human, as slaves were encouraged to marry (or at least to breed), but they would most likely have been sold at a very early age and not 'his' by any legal right.
+ Cornelius likes the ladies, and as far as his preferences go, he's not a breast man or an ass man or a leg man...he's a waist man. He loves the visual (and, when he puts his hands around it, feel) of a tiny waist on a woman, whether the rest of her is slim or voluptuous. He tends to go for women who are Indian, Latina, black, Native, or mixed with any of these, though he's not exclusive in this, it's just a pattern.
+ I know that he has an accent, but I have no idea quite what it should sound like since I don't think there's any real-world counterpart. Yes, he was born and raised on Barbados, but that was *long* before the modern Barbados accent even existed. When alive, his way of speaking probably was, like many slaves, a mixture of the accents of the older slaves around him who were actually from Africa, such as his parents, and the British slave-owners. After joining up with French and Spanish vampires, he would have gradually started taking on some of their speech traits too after he spent enough time with them. And then he just went lots of places, I don't even know how many or which, but if I had to take a tentative guess I'd say he's been to countries in Africa, India, and a lot of Western Europe, as well as going back to Barbados as well as visiting other countries/islands in the Caribbean on multiple occasions, not to mention, of course, how he's in North America now. Since I don't have his speech patterns fully figured out or set in stone yet, I'm still really experimenting with different styles when I write him, but right now he mainly seems to use "proper" modern English peppered with occasionally bits of other things here and there.
+ Since Voodoo and its variations have continued to evolve and change in the New World since his turning, he has used his long lifespan to keep up with these changes and absorb them into his own faith, which was originally pure West African Vodun. Now his personal way of practicing it is a mishmash of every style that he has ever studied, heard of, or come in contact with in all the times and places he's been in.
+ Far from being offended by popular misconceptions about Voodoo, Cornelius actually likes it when people think his faith is something spooky and evil---it makes them much easier to scare!
+ When it comes to vampire groups and belonging thereof, Cornelius always tends to walk this odd ambiguous line between being one of them and not. In AB roleplay, when he can get away with it, he tends to be a sort of half-way rogue, not living with the rest of the Kiss nor being blood-oathed to the Master of the City, but still playing by all the rules the Master has set up for said Kiss to follow. Usually, as long as he does this he won't be forced to blood-oath against his will nor driven from the city/killed as is commonly done with rogues in canon, though it always depends on who plays the Master.When he was played at a non-AB board, he was a member of the 'nice' vampire group (the ones who wanted to stay hidden) but that was really more out of revulsion for the other group (who wanted to take over the world/enslave humanity) than anything else. He didn't agree with all of their beliefs, however, but since they still gave him the protection that a group allows despite this, he respected them enough to also follow their rules for the most part, though he was inclined to roguishly bend them here and there.
BACKGROUND
Born in 1655 on a British-owned sugar plantation in Barbados to two slaves, both of them Ewe people taken from Ghana. West African Vodun (from which all other forms of Vodou/Voodoo/etc. would later spring) was and still is the majority religion of the Ewe, and his parents practiced it in secret, teaching it to him as well. Life as a plantation slave, as I'm sure you can imagine, quite frankly sucked, enough that Cornelius willing to risk his life to escape or participate in revolt, and he kept his ear to the ground for the best chance to be able to do both.
Barbados was owned by the British at this time, but they were far from the only Europeans coming by. Raids on Barbados by French and Spanish pirates were common then, and slaves would often wait until such a raid was going on before they acted. Then, while the plantation-owners were distracted by the pirates, the slaves would take advantage of this and escape or riot. That's what happened in 1688 on the plantation where Cornelius lived, when new laws justifying slavery had been passed that year were sparking revolts all over the Barbados.
He took part in the revolt, and was captured when it failed. While he awaited execution in his cell, he was approached by people who revealed themselves not only as pirates, but also vampires. They offered him the chance of escaping his fate if he would agree to help them prolong the chaos that the revolt had started, since they wanted to continue their raids but needed further distraction. He agreed, was turned into a vampire, then publicly 'executed' by hanging (at night of course) and even buried before a crowd as well (it was so hard to keep still and a straight face during that!), after which he terrified plantations for miles around, especially the one where he had come from, by appearing as a spectre, a vengeful ghost come to strike guilt and terror into the slave-owners. The reason that the vampires could not just do this themselves is that Cornelius was a *known* face to slaves and slave-owners thanks to his participation in the rebellion, and the idea of a rebel slave returning from the dead struck a much more significant psychological note for both slave-owners and slaves alike than just some random people popping up would have, even if they'd drunk blood or done some other vampire tricks.
The plan worked; Cornelius' appearances inspired fear in the masters, fire in the slaves, and altogether too much of a tizzy for anyone to much mind some more theft that was going on in the process. As for any odd deaths that occurred, well, that was chalked up to the doing of the ghost, and certainly no one would think even pirates would have anything to do with those who died in such a strange manner. In the AB version, where everyone would have known about vampires and thus would have known exactly what he was, it still worked out about the same way, since the idea that someone was turning their slaves into super-powered beings with a thirst for blood is pretty intimidating as much as a vengeful ghost is.
When the vampire pirates left Barbados with their ill-gotten gains, they took Cornelius with them, for their law dictated that they must look after those they had made, and though they had no regard for human rules, their own were another matter. He went along willingly, for he had no more life on Barbados now that his face was famous as that of a dead man. He has never regretted becoming a vampire. It made him free forever, and has been a grand adventure. He has traveled the world, learned a trade (he became a locksmith, and that is why he picked the occupational surname Locke for himself, as he had no last name before), and, as his vampire powers developed further and he gained (in the AB version) his powers of possession and calling fireflies he took on the nickname Adze, a vampire creature from Ewe folklore that can posses people as well as take the form of a firefly. Convenient, since he hasn't really found a nickname for "Cornelius" that he likes half as much!
