The smoke settles to reveal HAN SEOLYOUNG, a 52 year old vampire---but like most things in Sunseong, there must be more to her than meets the eye.
FACECLAIM: han sanghyuk, vixx
APPEARANCE:
almost indistinguishable from a human, her transformation into a vampire has changed little about the way she appears to others. However, she is unskilled and has had little practice with her new body, and so her fangs and claws become visible at the slightest agitation, not ‘retreating’ back into her body till she feels calm again.
BIOGRAPHY:
sweetling, youngest of four - so spoilt, so dear, it won’t be long till it’s clear: there is nothing more to you, nothing but sparkling eyes and a saccharine smile. you pick up after your brothers: their habits, their hobbies, their talents, and find that nothing quite suits you as well as they do them. there is so much you will never live up to.
you count to ten, to twenty, to a hundred - seconds, days, months, turn to years and the unavoidable comes. your voice is no longer the light, airy sound of the androgynous child, but cracked, fractured, vocal cords twisting and growing as fate moves against you. there is only so long you can stay silent, only so long you hide the hairs on your arms, the thing growing between your legs. your body is not yours - only what they make of it.
average
you never quite lived up to the greatness of your brothers - what else was left for you to accomplish, when they had already done it all? you burn your test papers in the alleys behind your school, distract your parents with misdemeanor after misdemeanor because you’ve learned every way to not disappoint them and you avoid them all.
boring, you are so boring - the last among your friends, always lingering behind, always the last to be picked, acknowledged, liked. you can’t find the words for your anger, for your frustration, for your desires. so where they go, you follow - dangerous, dangerous as that always is.
average
hands shaking around the bottle - it tastes awful, it’s so loud, there’s so many people, why are you here - your eyes search in the crowd for your friends. you want to go home but you want to tell them first, even if they’re too drunk to care. the rush of going to a club before they’re of age is enough to make them forget to pretend they like you. you don’t belong here.
but you’re there again, and again, nervous, twitchy, watching as that handsome man comes and leaves with a different someone every weekend. you have never been good at reading people, never understood he had a type - pretty, young, unassuming, naive. you think you are special.
when you tell him, whisper against his shoulder in the dark, fingers playing with the necklace he always wears - wooden, carved in a strange figure, always strangely warm - that you are a woman, he smiles, says you’re the most beautiful woman he’s ever known. your heart swells so bright you cannot hear the insincerity in his voice. he’s not a good actor but he doesn’t have to be.
you become consumed with those moments, longing for them, distracted, distant from the friends and family you lie to. they just want to know, they’re worried about you, but you know better than to tell them the truth or anything at all. disappointment is better than disownment. it’s not long till you make that jump yourself though - you spend so much time in his apartment you might as well be living in it.
he only ever wakes up at night, and soon you do too, just to be near him, be with him while he’s awake - even if he’s distracted, uncaring, greedy, possessive, coming home with marks that are yours. you’d die for him, for the words he whispers late at night, just enough emotion to set your heart ablaze. you’ll settle for anything, anyone that loves you. you just want to be loved.
you didn’t ask for this.
it hurts it hurts so much - the skin of your fingers as claws grow from your nail beds, the excruciating pain of fangs erupting from your jaw. he says it’s only painful the first time but you never asked for this, not this. what hope do you have for yourself now?
you used to pass out at the sight of blood. even now, you still do, but there’s only so many times you can throw up your feed before even a sire grows tired of you. but he can’t make you kill, no one can make you kill. you are not a killer. you don’t have the heart for this. now you cannot even dream of seeing your parents again - they would have you dead.
there are a great number of witches in this city, more than you could ever think, but you only know one, a name your sire (your lover, your life, your ex) had mentioned in passing. you beg them, plead for a quick, painless death. you just want this to be over, to forget it ever happened, to destroy the abomination you’ve become. you do not expect them to be so pitiful.
eternal slumber. it sounds so peaceful. so quiet. to live without ever waking up.
but you do, some decades later - bound to a rogue, some deathly creature, a warlock with a love of chaos. when you awaken - forced from your sleep, dragged back into the world of the living with new chains around your body, a new master to serve - you wail. you never wanted to be alive, not like this.
CHARACTERIZATION:
she’s been on this earth a long, long time, and she’s spent most of it stuck in the same, agitated, fluctuating pubescent body for the better part of it. life would be a lot better if she’d been bitten after her body had settled into itself, but she never really got a choice in that. frankly, she’s never had much of a choice in anything - too much of a pushover, too insecure, too guilt-ridden to say no when someone walks all over her.
seolyoung is filled with shame, shame for the things she knows she shouldn’t feel bad for but does anyway. a product of the time she grew up in, but one she’s never quite been able to shake off.
from the first impression, such things are easy to tell - whether one knows she’s a vampire or not, seolyoung carries her guilt with her everywhere, eyes soft and sad, too agreeable, too desperate for people to like her. she cannot sit still, full of anxious energy, too shy to talk to the people she wants but hating herself for her lack of courage anyway. there is no one harder on her than seolyoung herself: a cruel twist of fate, given how she’s gotten here so far.
she blames no one but herself.
the ones that don’t use her as their doormat might claim she’s too soft (she is), a bit of wet blanket (she is), but kind hearted, gentle, sweet, but so fucking clumsy. there are some things that vampirism just can’t change, but she swears she wasn’t like this in her first life. no one’s really sure, and she can’t recall those memories the way she wants to, so no one will ever know for sure.
one thing is certain: she is unhappy. helpless, desperate, pitiful. but she is trying. no one can ever say that she isn’t trying to be happy.
SPECIALTIES:
Enhanced speed and strength (0 points): Such conditions were enhanced due to her vampirism.
Enhanced senses (0 points): She gained skills such as enhanced smell, hearing, and night vision due to her vampirism.
Natural weapons (0 points): She has retractable claws and fangs due to her vampirism. Because she is unskilled and still perceives herself as ‘ignorant’ to her new form, she cannot control these weapons well, and at the slightest agitation they tend to show, even when she does not want them to. These visible characteristics of her vampirism nullify what protection her ward gives her, as it only hides her magical presence.
Regenerative healing factor (0 Points): At the cost of blood (her energy, which she must replenish by drinking), she has regenerative healing abilities due to her vampirism.
Major ward against presence detection (10 points): This protects her from being sensed by those who specialize in detecting magical beings. This ward also prevents her from setting off the instinctive fight-or-flight responses in normal humans, who would otherwise feel bothered by the magical presence of a vampire in the area. The ward is worn as a charmed necklace that she keeps on her person at all times. This ward cannot be 'turned on or off’, but it has no effect unless she is wearing it around her neck, as opposed to simply holding it in her hand.
