-- app.

[abbatis]

PLAYER
Player name: Jenni
Contact: pm & sparklepire
Characters currently in-game: n/a

CHARACTER
Character Name: Edgar Portsnell
Character Age: 14 (over 200).
Canon: The Poe Clan
Canon Point: Somewhere from 1940-1950s, so after meeting with Orbin but before the case of Robin Carr.
History:

In 1744, Edgar, the illegitimate child of Duke Evans, who was barely 5 years old was abandoned in the woods with his infant sister. Luckily though they were soon found out by older woman named Hanna who took both of children with her to her home near the Scotty village and raised them as her own. Years passed and both Edgar and his sister, Marybell, grew up to be carefree and happy children despite their rough start and abandonment. However, in the Scotty mysterious deaths among the people began to occur, and rumors about the curse of the undead started to spread around. Few villagers even went as far as digging up graves in secret to ensure that the corpses were truly dead. The fear and stress of the people were all pointed towards the old lady Hanna. Edgar, who had grown to be very fond of his guardian, ended up in several fights with the kids from the village because of this.

One time when Edgar was being bullied by some of the kids he was saved by a beautiful young woman. She introduced herself as Sheila and told him she was to be bride of Baron Frank Portsnell, a distant relative of Hanna who they wished to grant approval for their marriage. And for the couple's delight Hanna accepted Sheila and promised to arrange a party in their honor after the children were put into the bed. But curious Edgar sneaked out of their bedroom to take peek of the party. Much to his surprise the room where the party was held was completely dark and filled with people he had never met or seen before. In middle of room Hanna stepped forward and asked Sheila if she truly loved the Baron and wanted to be part of their clan -- to which she answered yes. Then the old woman proceeded to touch Sheila's chin and neck, promising to make her immortal like them. Shocked, Edgar made accidentally noise, letting the people inside the room know he had been watching them in secret which caused them to chase after him. At first Edgar run off to the forest but he knew he couldn't stay there for long because Marybelle was still with the vampires. Reluctantly he returned to Hanna's house and promised to become part of the Poe family once he was adult as long they wouldn't harm his sister. To ensure her safety Hanna agreed to send her away to be adopted by Baron Art.

Unfortunately, Edgar never reached the adulthood. When he turned 14 the fear and anxiety among the villagers had reached the peaking point. They attacked Hanna when she was alone in the woods with her maid and drove a stake through her heart which killed her, making her to disappear into thin air. Her death encouraged the villagers to storm into her house and to kill everyone in there. Hanna's death awakened the old Poe -- one of the oldest vampires. He grieved the loss of his partner and decided to fulfil her last wish: turning Edgar into a vampire. It took over three days for the changes take place in Edgar's body and to become a vampire completely. After waking up he became the adopted son of Baron Portsnell and Sheila, who taught him how to drink blood and use his new abilities. In a whim Edgar ended up killing a young girl living close to them, which forced them to move away before the people could figure out the reason behind her death.

As the years went by Portsnell family moved from a place to another until one day they came across the family that had adopted Marybell. Edgar, who had missed his younger sister, couldn't keep himself away and kept secretly following her around until they eventually met. At first, she was shocked to find out that her brother had turned into a vampire but ended up pleading he'd take her with him. With a heavy heart Edgar turned her into a vampire as well and thus adding her into their family. Marybell's transformation didn't take long, which caused her to grow rather weak and frail. She needed more new blood than anyone else and couldn't stand being in a bad weather. Partly because of this and children's young appearance the family needed to change their location frequently.

In 1879, the Portsnell's family move to quiet town near the harbor, hoping to find a new member to their family to help Marybell. Meanwhile both Sheila and Baron became immediately interested in a young handsome doctor Edgar himself was drawn towards a 14 years old boy named Allan Twilight. Allan, the heir of local trading company, came from dysfunctional family and he took out his frustrations to other kids at school. Edgar refused to give into his whims and foolish wishes and instead treated him like any other, which both aggravated Allan further but also gained his interest. After some difficulties the boys became close friends and Allan even formed a small crush on Edgar's sister. However, just in few weeks Portsnell family fell apart as the young doctor had grown suspicious of Baron and his wife. When he was alone with Sheila he noticed she didn't have a pulse and attacked her, tearing her skin and flesh apart from shoulder to stomach. Sheila managed to flee back to her husband, but both died very soon (Baron died while trying to escape). Meanwhile the doctor hurried to place where Marybell was and shot her in the heart.

After witnessing the death of his family Edgar felt strangely liberated and light as for the first time he was able to do whatever he wanted and only for himself. Before leaving the town, he appeared in Allan's bedroom and asked him to come with him so that neither of them would have to be alone ever again. Hesitantly Allan agreed to take Edgar's hand and join the Poe family. After disappearing from the town, they continued to travel all around the world, staying in one place only for short amount of time, doing whatever they wanted while also trying to cover their tracks (this went on until 1970s).

Personality:

Edgar keeps quite lot to himself and acts with carefully practiced caution to keep a low profile. Even his appearance is quite collected and mild aside from the bright blue eyes, he doesn’t dress in gaudy clothes or wear much jewelry. He needs to blend in within normal humans and avoid catching attention as much as possible. Because of this he also needs to be observant both to his physical surroundings (he needs to be aware of any possible reflective surfaces for an example) and to the social state. He follows the news, politics, culture and whatever happens around the world. Knowing the mindset of the people helps him to pick out the places where to settle down: do they believe in myths? How to behave among the people not to raise suspicion and so on. He knows he can’t exists outside of the world and the people, so he must keep up with the developments, change and breathe along with the history.

The company he’s seen with is not always a question of a preference. He's painfully aware of his physical appearance and how it affects the way people perceive him. That is why Edgar is often seen around the children and teenagers despite himself being mature and mentally far closer to an adult than a child. But because of this he doesn’t look down on children any more than adults and believes them to hold knowledge and wisdom that adults don’t. However, Edgar doesn’t really change his behaviour according the people he’s with which alienates him from rest of the people. Kids don’t always understand him or get along with him while adults think he’s smart ass kid who speaks about things he doesn’t know about. He’s bold with his words, doesn’t shy away from difficult topics that might be sensitive to others (because oh, he's observant enough that he can spot the weaknesses in other people) and yet there’s sense of playfulness to the way he interacts with people. Sometimes he teases them by leaving small hints and clues about his supernatural identity or other information they might be after. He shows his arrogant side by acting cocky and all-knowing – it’s like he knows he’s completely untouchable as humans and him are not equal.

The need of survival has also taught Edgar to be cold and ruthless in the right time. He knows how dangerous it is to form affection or care towards human beings as they will never be able to understand him and might even turn around against him. Humans as general concept, as another species, doesn't move him much. He doesn't care for their demise and is prepared to kill whenever needed.

Of course, he doesn't stay completely unaffected by others around him. Just like said above, he’s part of this world and even though he’s submitted to a watcher’s role he still sometimes steps outside of these boundaries and allows himself to effect and be effected by those around him. Because in the end Edgar is awfully curious when it comes to humans and indescribably lonely. He likes towns and cities and prefers to walk among humans rather than staying holed up somewhere. Whenever he meets someone interesting, who defies the norms and logic of the era for an example, he wants to get to know them despite the limitations his immortality sets for him. There have been people who he’s been attracted to, too, such as Elzury -- a grown up lady who raised roses and continued to dream about a quick romance she had with a man during her teenage years. She helped Edgar to come to terms with his grief about losing Marybell. And then there is of course Allan with whom he felt connection right away as both were experiencing isolation and loneliness. In this sense he’s drawn to people with who he believes to have something in common.

But his interactions with others doesn’t only limit to killing, attraction and playing. The focus of Edgar’s life for most of the part has been keeping Marybell happy and safe, which has give him great sense of responsibility – even though it often pushed boundaries of self-sacrificing. Even after death of his sister this trait transferred into his relationships with others. He adopts a small infant girl after killing her parents while searching for blood. Without his help the girl would certainly have died on her own and there wasn’t enough blood in her, so he saw the only option to be take responsibility of his actions. Edgar and Allan both raised the girl until she was 8 years old and found her grandmother who could look after her. This is one example how he broke the role of passive observer and got thoroughly involved in human’s life, in more reconstructive manner than destructive (nurturing instead of killing.)

Edgar also feels responsibility and need to protect his loved ones. He has learned to take his own interests and needs into consideration more but the for an example his love for Allan manifests through the said traits and feelings. Allan, who had very difficult transformation, is weak and vulnerable both physically and mentally which makes him dependent on the other: Edgar is always the one to provide housing for them and is the one to hunt (Allan can’t stand the sight of blood). And while he is rather stern with rules, what they can do and what they can’t, he still puts up with a lot when it comes to Allan’s mood swings and temper tantrum. Sometimes their relationship resembles a guardian and child than soulmates. Patience is his virtue. After all, what wouldn’t he do for love?

However, even though the years have come with maturity and wisdom it can’t be said that Edgar doesn’t also have his childish side. He always stays in control of his own emotions and approaches things on rational end but that certainly doesn't stop him toying and teasing others. He does whatever he pleases to and even pulls pranks on people. This is behavior that sparked in him only after meeting Allan.

He's also stubborn and prideful to some extent, reacting badly to authority. While still living with his family he often defied the father and his undeniable power as head of the family. As years passed and Edgar grew older he started hard time to swallow the seemingly unquestionable authority when it came to father's decision making (ironically enough, he shows this same kind of behavior with Allan). But that is because he felt incredibly lonely and suffocated within the family. In the family he had only one part to play, the son of baron and brother to Marybell, which remained the same from day to day. He couldn't relate to anyone and there was no one he could talk to. Only after their deaths he felt finally free, independent and capable of controlling his own life. And now that he's had several decades of the said freedom he has difficulties to let go and submit into a follower rather than a leader.

Immortality is a heavy burden, especially when it's being supported by death of others. And even though Edgar has adjusted well to it he still has some conflicts about it. He can never rid himself completely free from the loneliness that's stuck to his very being. If patience can be count as his virtue then envy is his vice, envy towards humans. He often refers to himself as a monster compared to humans and his most silent wish is to be like them. He envies their connection and love to each other. In the end, everything that Edgar does, his curiosity in humans and desire for company, are all motivated by his intense fear of being alone. When he asks Allan to become a vampire for him he admits that being on his own is too much for him to bear. But this fear, along with the constant loneliness, are revealed to originate from his early childhood when he was abandoned by his mother. The canon has an open ending, leaving the audience unsure what happens to Edgar, but it's heavily implied that he takes his own life after Allan dies in an accident.

In many ways Edgar resembles a character from a romantic era's monster tale (funnily enough, he’s also born during that era in canon). He’s yearning for love and affection while also being prone to deep melancholy. Both the human curiosity and danger of unknown are embodied in his character along with tenderness and rage. He's highly civilized yet more in touch with the nature and his primitive instincts than any human. His freedom from duties to mankind and culture makes him intriguing yet alien. When put out like this he does bear lot similarities to such as Bram Stoker's Dracula but there are some very important traits that sets them apart. They both are romantic characters but while Dracula can be seen representing the dark sexual desires of human kind, Edgar, on the other hand, is asesexual and represents liberty: he is free to shape his own identity as he wants as none of the expectations or the norms of the society touch him.
However, what he lacks in sexuality he makes up with compassion and sensuality.


Inventory: His clothes (trousers, shirt, vest, jacket and boots) and a small bottle of rose essence. He travels very lightly!

Abilities: Being over two centuries old vampire does give you some sweet perks:

Immortality. To some degree at least. He doesn't grow old and can't get sick (some vampires in the series actually are very sickly, Edgar just has strong blood in him to prevent this) but he can be killed by either fire or by piercing his heart.
Healing. Edgar heals from injuries faster than any human being. Simple flesh wounds and scratches heal in no time but with more severe injuries like a gunshot to the head for an example takes time. In the latter case he’ll also need fresh blood to recover faster.
Reflection manipulation. Normally he doesn't have a reflection but as long he's aware of the mirror's (or any other reflective surface) presence he can make one appear.
Speed and agility. We're not talking about Sonic the Hedgehog kind of speed but Edgar can move much faster than any normal human. His movements are also very light and lithe that it looks like he's gliding through the air.
Super natural senses: Edgar has better hearing and eyesight than a human being along with sensitive touch. However this is balanced out by his lack of taste… Or rather he can taste things but they don’t appear to him same as to humans while he can tell differences between blood.
Hypnosis/persuasion. This is very vaguely shown and explained in the series but Edgar can put people to sleep and he can place ideas in people's mind with his voice. This is something that is used almost always while hunting for blood -- he can make the people start approaching him etc. (Example here!) This isn't 100% effective though and people can defy him if they have strong willpower or manage to distract him.
Energy draining. This happens whenever he drinks blood. Edgar has two ways to gather blood from his victims: he can 1) stick his fangs to their neck like good old fashioned vampire or 2) drink their blood/energy through his finger tips but even then he needs to place them somewhere near the veins. And seeing that it's "life energy" he's after, Edgar also can survive by eating roses. He can make roses wilt with his touch and take the life from them.
Making new vampires. Edgar has the rare ability to make other vampires. For this he needs to injure and transfer some of his own blood to his victims. This, however, doesn’t always work. There are cases when his blood isn’t compatible with his victim, which will lead the latter to die.

Of course there are non-supernatural abilities:

Education: Right, so I should clarify that Edgar hasn’t had a formal education so to speak. But he’s read lot of books and gotten to know different cultures and languages through the years.
Combat: Edgar knows how to use bow and arrow and how to use guns (from hand guns to hunting rifles). Thanks to his super natural senses he has quite keen eye and is good at aiming. He’s also skilled at using a sword and knife in a combat as well.

Flaws:
It can be easy to forget when interacting with Edgar that he is, in fact, a killer. He kills humans to survive and does it with a little care. He’s very aware of his power to take a life and grant a new if needed and he doesn’t hesitate to use them. However, it should be said that he’s not a ruthless killer. While a death of humans, as a species in general, doesn’t bother him that much but he does feel and mourn singular identities and persons among the group.

Edgar is also quite arrogant stubborn person. He and Allan have several fights thorough of the series because of this. It’s true that he’s more suitable for making plans and arrangements than his sensitive partner but he rarely consults with Allan about what to do and where to go, automatically believing him to know better. Other than that, he’s not that good at opening up to people, which is another cause for the arguments with Allan. There’s deep loneliness and sorrow within Edgar’s heart regarding the loss of his sister Marybell but hardly ever talks about it, which then only fuels Allan’s jealousy. Honestly, all their problems could be solved if they tried to communicate better together.

SAMPLES
Action Log Sample: my top level at tdm and a thread