Name: Kadir Aksoy Location: Celestial Hills Gender/Pronouns: Cis Man, He/Him Age: 238 Place of Birth: London, England Occupation: Owner of Sucré and Puck’s Luck Faceclaim: Alperen Duymaz Species: Vampire Clan Position: (soon to be) Second-In-Command Age at Transformation: 30
Quick Facts (Blood TW):
The bastard child of a high-society mother, Kadir was born in secret and then raised by his father, a poor fisherman. As a teenager, he began working at a gambling house, learned his boss was a hunter, and was indoctrinated into the world of the supernatural. After falling in love with a witch he was investigating, he was killed and turned by a vampire he was hunting.
He hated what he’d become for years and will often go on cycles of not-drinking, followed by blood-lust binges when he finally snaps.
He owns two businesses in town, Puck’s Luck and Sucré. He knows a lot about gambling and almost nothing about baking. The last time he was in town was six years ago, briefly, to set up Sucré.
He’s been popping in and out of Lunar Cove (officially) since the 90′s, but he was that weirdo checking it out from the shadows periodically for decades before that. He has never stayed in town more than a few years at most.
He’s been in love twice, two very serious relationships, both of which ended badly, and is now very anti-feelings.
Technology? Never heard of it. He is a grumpy grandfather when it comes to the twitters and the instagrams. He still hand-writes letters, pays in cash, and no, he probably doesn’t understand that reference.
He loves fishing and he’s had a boat docked for years that he’ll now be spending all his free time fixing up again.
Possible Connections:
Connections around the world: Kadir is an old man who has been traveling the world for two centuries, so if your character ever lived somewhere else, we could definitely make a connection of it.
Employees: Both his businesses are run by competent managers, so Kadir is that owner you’ve probably never actually met before, until suddenly mr. boss man is back in town.
Fight Club: As a human, Kadir used to compete in underground fights for money. As a vampire, he still engages in fighting competitions, but now only with other supernatural beings (gotta keep it fair)
???: I’m open to all the things
Full bio under the cut!
Trigger Warnings: Murder, Suicide Attempt, Terminal Illness, Gambling, Blood
Kadir was born a child of two worlds, and it became very clear very quickly which side would win out. Though his mother came from a family of great renown in London, when she fell in love with his father--a poor fisherman and trader--their affair lasted only a few short weeks before she was found out and forbidden from seeming him again. When her family learned that she was pregnant, they did all they could to marry her off as soon as possible in hopes of passing off the child as her future husband’s. Unsuccessful, her family sent her away to hide the pregnancy instead and, once the child was born, gave him to his father with enough cash to buy his silence and his promise never to contact the family again.
And so Kadir grew up on the docks, helping his father with the ship, learning to work the nets and to trade fish in the market. The hush money paid to his father was enough to buy a small house fit for two and a better boat, and for a time, they lived comfortably--not in the mansions his mother roamed, now married off to another man of high society, raising three “proper” children who would be given all the right clothes and tutors, music lessons and etiquette courses--but they had enough to get by, to be happy. Kadir never even imagined a life of more and, as his father had told him his mother died in childbirth, the idea of a spurned inheritance was completely foreign to him. Then, when he was fourteen, Kadir’s father fell ill. Unable to work and with all their extra cash going toward medicines and treatments, their savings began to dry up. The fish Kadir was able to catch sold for barely enough to get by, and soon Kadir was finding other jobs to make ends meet. He ran various errands for neighbors until one day, he met the man who would change his life forever: Edwin Calstock.
A successful, well-dressed, fast-talking man, Edwin Calstock owned the most exclusive gambling house in the city, and when he took Kadir under his wing, Kadir thought he was the luckiest kid in the world. For the next few years, Kadir worked at Edwin’s side, running various errands, working the door, then the bar. As time went on, Edwin let Kadir in on more and more of the business, trusting him with larger projects and more responsibility. Then, when Kadir was eighteen, his father died, finally succumbing to his long-term illness, and Edwin became even more like a father to Kadir, allowing the boy to sleep in the flat above the casino. Finally, when Kadir was twenty-one, Edwin let him in on the biggest secret of all: that behind one successful business was another.
Edwin explained to Kadir the unbelievable: that their city was plagued with magical beings, vampires and werewolves and witches and more. Edwin and his associates had made it their business years ago to rid the world of such dangers and keep their city safe, and they now offered Kadir a spot beside them. Kadir had gotten into more than his fair share of fights on the docks and over the years, had realized that fighting could even be profitable, having joined more than a few underground fighting rings to make some extra cash. But hunting was like nothing else he’d ever done before: more intense, more time-consuming, and far more brutal. On his first assignment, Kadir was sent out with several of Edwin’s best men; together, they corned a vampire who had been terrorizing the city for months. They handed Kadir the stake and told him to prove himself, to make his first kill, that it was all to protect the innocent. But Kadir couldn’t do it. He froze, the stake shaking in his hand, and watched as the other men attacked the vampire without him, staking her in the heart before she could get away.
Kadir went back to the gambling house after that, doing his normal jobs and continuing his training. Another year passed before Kadir gave him a second chance to prove himself: follow the rumors of supernatural events within London’s elite. Edwin sent him to the Pleasure Gardens, a popular amusement park in which anyone from any social status could attend if they could afford entry. It was there he first began to observe the behavior of London’s finest, searching for the threat. Instead, Kadir met a woman that stopped him in his tracks. He was almost positive he had never seen her before, and yet there was something about her that was like looking in a mirror: his eyes, his nose.
The second she saw him, the woman burst into tears and embraced him. You look just like your father, she told him. By then, Kadir was twenty-five, and his mother’s new husband had been gone for several years. Her eldest son, the head of the family now, was married off, but the younger children--a boy and a girl--were at home, preparing to partake in the next season. His mother insisted on making up for the years apart and invited him to several high society events, sending him first to the family’s tailor to be dressed properly and then for rapid lessons in etiquette. But it became very clear, very quickly to Kadir that this was not his life, not the place he fit in. The clothes all fit wrong, and he stumbled over the dinner formalities. The dances were like none he’d ever practiced in the clubs he’d attended--all too stiff and without passion. The conversations all went over his head in seconds.
Kadir allowed himself to be dressed up and paraded around--the scandalous bastard son--for only two nights before he snuck out the back of the ballroom and never came back. He continued to go to the Pleasure Gardens, however, because there, he didn’t feel so out of place, and it was during one of these nights, when he was dodging his mother and keeping an eye--and ear--out for rumors of supernatural activity, that he began to pick up on rumors of a magical family and a young witch. Kadir reported back to Edwin at once, excited to be on the right track finally, to feel like he had purpose and a goal. High-society would never be his life, but he could do this. He might not revel in the kill, but he loved the hunt, the mystery, the searching and putting together of clues. He had no idea how that job would change his life, but he did know, the second he set eyes on the might-be-witch, that he was in way, way over his head. It was impossible not to fall for Meena Raja. Kadir might have told himself--again, and again, and again--that he was spending so much time with her simply to make absolutely sure of what he suspected, to get proof that she was really using magic, and to see if she could lead him to more beings like her. But the truth was, Kadir was falling for the woman, and he was falling fast.
During this time, Kadir was still unsure if Edwin had the right idea about things. The more he got to know Meena, the more he wondered if maybe the supernatural wasn’t really as bad as Edwin thought it was. Then he met Theordore Moore. Theodore was a regular at the gambling hall, and in time, Kadir came to know him as the man he had to kick out night after night. Soon, Kadir was tasked with kicking Theodore out before he could even make it through the front doors, and the next time Kadir would see him would be in the early hours of the morning as he fought with Edwin about repaying his longstanding debts. Then, one day, while Kadir was cleaning up after a long night, he heard screams from the back room. Mop still in hand, he hurried to the scene only to find a true horror laid out before him. Edwin and five others, men Kadir had worked with day in and day out, men who had become like fathers to him in their own right, lay now in puddles of their own blood, eyes open but unseeing. Above them stood Theodore, his mouth dripping, fangs still peeking out from between his lips. On instinct, Kadir snapped the mop he was holding in two, crafting a makeshift stake like he’d been taught to, but it was too late. With a bloody grin, Theodore was gone.
From that moment on, the threat became real to Kadir. Whatever he’d thought was possible, whatever fairytale magic he’d been imagining, it was all a rouse. The supernatural, just like Edwin had always warned him, was dangerous, deadly. Now, with everything he’d ever known gone, Kadir sought out his mother for help. He would not become part of her world, but if she still wanted to help, he had an idea now: she could give him the money he needed to take over the gambling house and help Edwin’s dream live on. His mother agreed, and Kadir took on the business himself: both businesses. For when he wasn’t running the hall, he was training, searching, on the lookout for any hint of what had become of Theodore Moore. In the meantime, he continued to see Meena. He had learned his lesson about trusting magic, but perhaps she was the exception, not the rule. His heart tugged him in two directions, and one would always lead right back to her. Night after night, he would meet her in secret, and day after day, he would prepare tor the next fight. Next time he met Theodore, he would be ready.
But he wasn’t ready. The vampire was faster, stronger, and in the end, none of his training meant anything. As he lay in the alleyway, bleeding out, his life flickering away, he remembered hearing her voice, remembered her hands in his hair, remembered blinking up toward the sky and seeing her face instead. At least she would be the last thing he saw. At least, he would be with her for his last moments on Earth. And then he woke up, not just covered in blood, but hungry for it. Starving. He stumbled away, stumbled back home. He would not feed. He would not become a monster like Theo was. Determined to ignore the hunger, Kadir planned to lock himself at home and wait for death to come, but hour by hour, the hunger grew. He wasn’t sure how much time had passed, except that the sun was rising and there was a knock on his front door, a familiar voice calling out to him. He didn’t remember much of what happened next. For the next thing he knew, Kadir was kneeling over his mother’s pale, drained body. She must have come to bring the money, come to help him; Kadir couldn’t remember. All he knew was that she was dead, and it was his fault. He was the monster now.
Horrified at what he’d done, Kadir attempted to kill himself, only to wake up a few hours later, perfectly fine. He stayed inside that day, hating himself, hating Theo, hating Meena for making this deal for him. And then, the next night, when the sun had finally set, Kadir took his things, the money his mother had given him to keep up Edwin’s business, and he fled town. In a way, he had always been a creature of the night, used to sleeping in the day and working when the moon was at its peak. He was used to skating the law, doing what it took to survive. And now that he’d crossed that line--the line he’d feared for so long: taking a life--there was little to hold him back. He started up a new business in another town. The business grew, and the decades passed in a blur of booze and blood.
Kadir knew about Lunar Cove, of course. For years, he did all he could to stay away from his sire and to keep from ever again seeing Meena. Those were lost years for Kadir, a haze of his own self hatred and his hatred for the world. Kadir’s bloodlust was particularly strong, and his resistance to feed would often leave him in a dangerous cycle: starving off blood, trying his best to resist, only to lose control all over again. One night, Kadir was out with a few other vampires, determined to do things right this time--simply catch and release, drink, compel, and let go--but the vampires he was with had other ideas. These particular vampires drank fae blood and had corned a pixie. When Kadir realized what they intended--not just to drink from but kill the fae--Kadir did not drink from him but stepped in to protect the man instead.
From that day on, he offered the man, James, a place of protection at his newest establishment, a gambling hall in which James was tasked with keeping the luck on the side of the house. In exchange, Kadir would protect him from the vampires who were hunting him. For the second time in his life, Kadir fell in love, and the years that followed were some of the happiest he’d ever had. He learned to feed safely, taking only what he needed and never killing to survive. For nearly a century, they lived together, traveling the world, changing towns every few decades before anyone could notice that they’d both stopped aging. It was James who convinced Kadir to go to Lunar Cove. He wanted to settle down, to stop running, to stay, finally, in one town for good. In the 1950′s, they moved together to the little town, and for the first time in over a century, Kadir came face to face again with Meena and Theodore.
In those years, Kadir did what he did best: he opened a casino, Puck’s Luck, and for a time, that was enough. Some days, he could even see Meena and not feel like his heart was being ripped out of his chest. Some days, he could see Theo and not want to finish the job he’d failed to do all those years ago--a feeling at war with a sort of horrible, instinctive pull toward the man, his sire. But Kadir had learned not to stay in any place for too long. After years of running the casino successfully--with the help of a pixie by his side--he grew restless, and so they left town and did not return again until the mid 1990′s when they decided, finally, it was time to go back.
James, as it turned out, had always wanted to open his own bakery and had spent the last century teaching himself recipes, Kadir serving as his taste tester. Once they had settled in, reclaimed their vacant house, and got things organized with Puck’s Luck--which seemed to have been doing fairly well in their absence--they would open a bakery in town. But the two never got that far. Just before they were set to fly back to Rhode Island, they were attacked, and after a century of protection, Kadir failed in his job. James was killed by vampires, though in his last seconds, he chose to regenerate, vanishing into thin air to be reborn who knows-where. Kadir hadn’t killed in a century, but that night, he killed without hesitation.
Kadir could not bear to go back to Lunar Cove, to pick up that life with all the plans they’d now never finish. He continued to travel the world for several years, checking in on the casino from time to time, but otherwise avoiding the little haven that might, this time, have been his final home. And so the haze started again. Another love lost. Another decade spent in grief and hate, in violence and blood. Those were years without any sense of control, no sense of right or wrong, no plan. And then one day he woke up and saw the mess of his life he’d made yet again, and once more, he found himself on Lunar Cove’s proverbial doorstep, ready to put the pieces back together. He didn’t need another business, of course--after all those years, he had plenty of cash to spare--but this time, Kadir did as he promised: he opened James’ bakery, even if James wasn’t there to see it. He played nice with Meena and Theodore--or as nice as he could--but again, the restlessness came.
Maybe it was the old heartache of seeing Meena every day, maybe it was living in a town Theodore controlled. Maybe it was the crazy hope that he’d find James, reborn and thirty-something now, though Kadir knew he would not remember him--but again, Kadir couldn’t stand to stay in town. He knew little about running a bakery anyway, and so after finding Beatriz Ramos and leaving the business in her more than capable hands, he departed again from Lunar Cove. It was years later that he heard about Theodore’s death, though heard was hardly the right word. He felt it. Felt it like he’d been stabbed in the heart. But even then, it was many months before he came back. Back to check on his businesses, to check on Meena, and to maybe, just maybe, stick around for once.
