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Entry tags:
Save the Earth App
OOC Information:
Name: Azi
Are you over 15? Yes.
Contact:![[plurk.com profile]](https://plurk.com/favicon.ico)
azikins or PM this journal.
IC Information:
Name: John Mitchell (Prefers to be called Mitchell in his preincarnation and John in his reincarnation.)
Canon: Being Human (UK)
Age: 117 (preincarnation) / 24 (reincarnation)
Preincarnation Appearance: Here!
Any differences: Outwardly speaking, none!
Preincarnated History:
[ wiki ]
In 1917, John Mitchell was just an Irish boy thrown into the madness of World War I. While in a forest in France, he stumbled upon a small group of vampires searching the battlefield for humans to feast upon. When he learned that they intended to turn his fellow soldiers into monsters, he volunteered himself to be taken, on the condition that they would spare the others, and that was the beginning of his life as a vampire.
Through the ages, Mitchell would slaughter and drink, debauching himself as he sank ever deeper into the lifestyle of a vampire. The times would change, but his habits remained firmly ingrained until the 1960's, when his morals would finally start to catch up with him. Oh, the feedings would continue for a few years more, but in 1969, he would meet a woman named Josie, who would challenge his very desire to kill--something that had become such a part of him that he could see no way out of it. It was through her bravery and assertion that Mitchell could control the slaughter that he tried to go clean--to go without blood--for the first time.
In a way, this could be said to be the beginnings of Mitchell's problems. From that point onward, he would go through phases of trying to stop the monster within to devolving into a killing machine. Like an addict, Mitchell would go back and forth, and the guilt would always haunt him. Without an anchor like Josie, though, he could not maintain his clean status.
Then he met George Sands.
George had been a werewolf a mere six months when they met, and Mitchell would save him from a trio of vampires who had taken to beating up the werewolf in an alleyway. While the connection between them was not exactly friendly at the start, they would eventually become best friends and move into a flat together, which is where they would meet Annie Sawyer, who had been a ghost for a year.
At last, everything seemed... somewhat normal; Mitchell could almost be human with these two around. He worked as a janitor at a hospital and tried to keep his nose clean, but trouble would continue to follow him. William Herrick, the man who turned Mitchell into a vampire and mentored him for a good fifty years, swept back into his life, asking that he return to the vampiric fold to assist in a glorious revolution.
Mitchell would at first refuse, but when he was able to help someone by turning them into a vampire, he relented. Welcomed back with open arms, he would be complicit with Herrick's plans for world domination--a world free of death--up until he realized that the plan was not quite as pure as originally thought: the world would not be made up of only vampires--there would still be a group of humans around, their sole purpose to be food for their masters.
To stop the revolution, Mitchell tried to take out the ringleader, essentially challenging Herrick to a duel. On the promised date, however, it would be George who would take on and kill the vampire, much to Mitchell's initial horror and protest.
For a short period of time following Herrick's death, everything seemed okay again. The revolution had been averted, but with Herrick gone, another problem arose: there was a power vacuum. The vampires were now leaderless, and the precious connections they had with humans who knew about vampires--who kept them out of trouble when their killing rampages went public--died along with Herrick. Now, mankind was on the verge of discovering the existence of the supernatural, and Mitchell worried about the prejudice, the fear, and the hate that would follow.
He would go on to become "king" of the vampires, reorganizing the pacts with the humans, and much to the amazement of all, Mitchell would try to get all of his kin to follow in his footsteps--to go clean. In his new position as leader, he would punish those who would step out of line and encourage his fellows to take part in the "Blood Addicts Anonymous" meetings that he started up.
Mitchell would also find another person who could be his so-called anchor: Dr. Lucy Jaggat. Unbeknownst to him, Lucy was actually in league with a man named Kemp, who was hell-bent on eradicating all supernatural beings. They killed werewolves in the process of trying to "cure" them, they exorcised ghosts, and they staked any vampire they could find. Mitchell and his flatmates became objects of interest for the group for their attempts at being human, but everything would eventually come to a head.
Lucy would betray Mitchell's trust, resulting in the death of a large number of vampires, while Kemp would ensnare both George and Annie. Mitchell would go on a murderous rampage as he once again fell to hating humans, and the slaughter that followed would take many innocents until he landed on the doorstep of Lucy and Kemp.
That incident would later become known as the Box Tunnel 20 massacre.
His rage would only continue when he found out that Kemp had sent Annie to the great beyond against her will, but strangely enough, neither Lucy or Kemp would die at his hands that day, even if they got dangerously close to that point. The end of their conflict would come far away from the city. Kemp would be the one to take Lucy's life after she came to try and apologize for what she'd done, and Annie would spirit Kemp away, bringing him into the world of Purgatory that she was now trapped inside, before any more harm could be done.
Mitchell was determined to save Annie from her fate--a journey he undertook after the group moved to Wales.
When he went after her, though, he was confronted, rather savagely, by his own murderous past--including his most recent killing spree. His guide through Purgatory, Lia, was one of the victims, and she would go on to tell him that a werewolf would come to kill him soon before sending him on his way, allowing Annie to be reunited with him.
Following her rescue, Annie would finally act on her feelings toward Mitchell, and he would try to reply to them in turn. At the time, it made sense that he'd put his faith in her, considering how important she was to him already, but finding a new reason to live and live like a human only compounded the two problems that now plagued him: his guilt over the Box Tunnel 20 massacre and his prophesied death. Both items threatened his now happy existence, and he would do a great many things to try and preserve the peace he'd at last found.
A solution to the problem of death was the first to present itself, arriving in the form of a most curious reincarnation: Herrick, apparently, was back from the dead. While he initially wanted to kill Herrick on the spot, Mitchell eventually came to realize the importance of his presence: he could find out how he came back to life--or as much to life as a vampire could be.
There was just one problem: Herrick was now an amnesiac and couldn't remember a thing about being a vampire.
Mitchell would spend the next few weeks trying to encourage the man's memories to return (through snarly persuasion, if not physical force), but as he was doing this, the noose was tightening as the police were getting nearer and nearer to pinning him as the murderer of the Box Tunnel 20 incident.
Oddly enough, his friends would actually have a hand in expediting the police's investigation into him--some on purpose and others inadvertently, but through it all, Mitchell kept his lips sealed about the matter, never telling any of them that he was behind the entire thing. Of course, this would eventually lead to everything exploding in his face at the worst possible moment.
With a bit of shrewd detective work (read: snagging Mitchell's fingerprints), the police were able to place him at the scene and nail him for the massacre. There was just one problem: throwing Mitchell in jail meant that he had to be processed, and to be processed meant getting his photo taken.
That was the problem: vampires can't be captured on film.
Now horrified that the entire existence of the supernatural was about to be blown open, Mitchell sought to escape from the police, but Annie demanded that he stay and turn himself in--something that he would do with incredible reluctance.
As his stay at the prison lengthened and questions about what he was started to arise, Mitchell was broken out of jail by Herrick, who had regained his memory after feasting on all of the investigators at the house where they had been staying. That said, the trust between the two vampires was limited at best, and after a rather sour reunion, Mitchell would eventually leave the area with Herrick, only to kill him--properly this time--a little later.
He never got around to learning the secret behind getting resurrected, but by this point, Mitchell was beyond that. Having disgusted and betrayed his friends with the brutal massacre of so many, there just didn't seem to be a point anymore, and it was then that he finally came to terms with something: no matter how hard he tried, he would always kill again.
With that in mind, Mitchell returned to their home and demanded that George kill him so that he'd never murder again and that he'd finally be free of all his guilt. While his friend was originally unwilling to go through with the idea, when another vampire turned up on their doorstep and openly stated that he was going to use Mitchell as an attack dog in the future, George staked him.
Mitchell was finally free.
Reincarnated History:
[ Trigger warning: Discussion of alcoholism and underage drinking below. ]
Born in Dublin, Ireland, John was the younger of two children, his sister being three years older than him. His father was a devout Catholic and an engineer, and his mother was an architect--at least, she was until after she had John. See, something broke inside of her after his birth. Some doctors would say that she had a case of post-partum depression that had gone bad, but others would go on to claim that her problems had another source, whether it be stress, genetics, or a mental breakdown. Either way, she ended up developing a drinking problem a mere four months after his birth, and by the time he was three, she was a raging alcoholic.
On his seventh birthday, she shoved a bottle of beer in his hands, and not knowing any better, John became his mother's drinking buddy whenever his father's back was turned--and it was turned a great deal. He was always busy with work, and if he wasn't at the office, then he was fixated upon church activities, all but ignoring the problems in his own home. It was only after he found John passed out on the floor one day that he took notice.
While his mother's addiction had already made the marriage rocky, that incident would increase the number of arguments between them and how heated they were. John's parents would put up with each other for another year before divorcing. His mother would fight for custody over him (and only him), but she'd lose, what with the court, rightfully, citing her alcoholism as a major problem. Thus, he was forced to live with a man that he felt rather estranged from.
Two years later, at the age of thirteen, he was uprooted once more: the family was moving to Locke City so that his father could be with the new woman in his life. His father's girlfriend would quickly become his stepmother, and John would have two new stepbrothers, one older and one younger than him. His relationship with these new siblings was hardly friendly; in fact, it was even worse than the one he had with his perfect, straight-A's, goodie-two-shoes sister.
John was, in short, the problem child of the family: he was constantly arguing with his parents, his grades in school were poor, he got into a lot of fights, he hated going to church, and his drinking problem had only gotten worse as he grew older--a habit he supported through shady, if not outright illegal, transactions. After all, his mother had once been his main source of alcohol, and with her out of the picture, John was forced to get it himself. More often than not, he was able to grab a few bottles from the parents of his friends, but once or twice, he'd actually managed to charm a few drinks off of some older girls by sweet-talking them. (John had learned early on that a lot of Americans react well to pretty foreign accents, and it was one of the main reasons he made it a point not to lose his after moving to the States.)
His father had tried a very religious take on curing his son of his alcoholism, sending him to a variety of strict Catholic schools and forcing him to visit their local church every day for counseling, but it would actually be his stepmother who would put her foot down and make him go into rehab.
He was fourteen at the time.
The first seven months were hell, and John would constantly be trying to run away from the facility. Just a week shy of his eighth month in rehab, he would land himself in a hospital for alcohol poisoning during one of these fleeing stints, and after almost dying because of the complications and the aspiration pneumonia that followed, John made the resolution to finally shape up. He would go on to complete his rehabilitation program without any more major problems, and while his relationship with his parents was never really repaired, he still returned home, completing his high school education before moving out on his own.
The stress of supporting himself and starting university would have John falling back into alcoholism late in his freshman year at Locke City University, so he'd ended up taking another year off to clean himself up one more time. Since that last incident, though, John has managed to remain free of alcohol, and he continues to maintain a presence at the local AA meetings even now.
At the age of twenty-two, he would graduate from college with a degree in social work. John would find a job at a local homeless shelter, setting people up with resources and even doing a small amount of counseling, and while the pay wasn't great, he found it fulfilling. Besides, it was enough to cover for his dingy studio apartment, and John could work off his college debt. Slowly.
Other than that, he remains relatively estranged from his father and that half of his family. As for his mother, John would fall out of touch with her following the divorce. He has never harbored a grudge toward her for handing him that first beer bottle years ago, but he doesn't feel any real sense of warmth or loss either. The next time he hears anything about her is during his last year of college: she'd passed away, losing her battle with liver disease.
First Echo:
John had gone to visit one of the regulars of the homeless shelter at the local county hospital, and while he was making his way toward the entrance, an ambulance came screaming by him. The paramedics brought a woman covered in blood out on a stretcher, a soaked towel pressed tight to her throat; it turns out she'd been mugged and stabbed in the throat in the process.
This triggers memories of another woman bleeding out in front of him, but she's lying in a dark alleyway. There's a man shouting at him to do something to save her, but for whatever reason, he's not doing anything to help.
Preincarnation Personality:
[ wiki ]
Vampires are known to lack morals, empathy, and any care for human life. They lead hedonistic lives that are filled with lust, for both blood and sex, and they kill and feed with little care as to whom they may hurt in the process. Vampires also tend to think themselves above the other species, and violence always hums just below the surface of their skin.
For decades, Mitchell was like any other vampire. He was arrogant and debauched, and the lifestyle of the vampires destroyed whom he used to be. After all, he'd originally become one of them for altruistic purposes, and his first kill even had a hint of humanity to it: he'd drugged the man so that he wouldn't experience any pain. As the years passed, though, that compassion would fade until there was essentially nothing left but the monster, ever thirsty for the next kill.
Such was his infamy and charisma as a vampire that, decades later, his kin would still be speaking of his feats, and it would be that very respect that they had for him that would allow Mitchell to become their "king" after Herrick's death. He is not the epitome of a leader, no, but he has the force of personality and the will to see things through that make him admirable enough to follow, even if he is not the most powerful or even oldest vampire in the community. That said, when he eventually turns against his kind, it is also his potential as leadership material that make him so very dangerous, and it's why the other vampires try so very hard to bring him back into the fold.
The first time his humanity catches up to him is in the 1960's, and when it does, it hits him hard. Mitchell is forced to come to the realization that he actually has had a choice all of these years, and that "being a vampire" is no excuse for all of the killing that he's done. From here on out, he treats his blood lust as an addiction, and he is the addict who always gets so close to quitting but ultimately fails.
On his good days, Mitchell is a huge advocate for humanity: he aspires to be like them and to live a normal life. He keeps it clean, stays out of trouble, connects with the humans in his life, and protects them against any vampire attention that may come along. On his upswings, Mitchell is a light-hearted, easy-going, and charming person; he laughs and jokes, parties and drinks, and hopes and dreams. He's highly supportive and protective of his friends, and because of how much older he is, Mitchell even acts a bit like their older brother at times, dishing out pieces of advice when appropriate.
When the going gets rough, though, Mitchell's first reaction is often to get angry. Largely because of his vampiric nature, his temper is very quick, and he can become extremely violent just as fast. Mitchell feels betrayed easily, and he has no problems with exacting revenge upon those whom he feels have wronged him--regardless of what species they are. All in all, his problem solving methodology is usually quite violent unless his friends are there to temper his thoughts and plans.
Of course, following the anger, there is the guilt--the single emotion that consumes him the most. Mitchell hates himself for the blood already on his hands, and he agonizes over those he may yet kill in the future, despite his best efforts to never take another life. In fact, he uses that guilt to hold himself in check. Mitchell thinks about how disappointed those people he cares for would be if he fell to temptation, and many times, that is enough to stave off the hunger.
In addition to feeling guilty about taking lives and drinking blood, Mitchell also feels that he taints any and all whom he encounters in life. He has a lot of baggage, and whenever he gets close to anyone, that baggage seems to make those people lose something or someone precious to them. This makes him push those who care for him away at times, but ultimately, Mitchell will come crawling back to them, if only because they are the only ones who can serve as a buffer between what remains of his humanity and the monster within.
--which can make him seem a bit selfish, forcing himself upon others like that. Unfortunately, Mitchell can be a bit self-centered at times. He'll create excuses for his behavior, make promises (that he'll ultimately break) of never making the same mistakes, and victimize himself, blaming everything on being a vampire. There are also times when he'll drown himself in his own problems, becoming completely and utterly unaware of any issues his friends may be going through.
This is not to say that there aren't times when his friends aren't oblivious of his problems, but typically speaking, that happens because Mitchell is keeping things close to the chest. He can be intensively private and secretive about things, and while Mitchell may eventually open up about some items, there are others that only come into the light in a flurry of negativity and unhappy happenstance.
When it comes down to it, Mitchell's life is a study in opposites. Here he is, struggling to be human, while there is this monster that threatens to break out of his skin at any given moment. One day, he'll love humans and all that they represent, but all it takes is the wrong doing of one individual, and that love turns to hate in a second. He abhors killing and changing people into vampires, and yet, there will be times he'll celebrate his status as a monster or use his ability to grant immortality for what he deems as good. Mitchell wants his nightmare of a life to end, but then he panics when presented with the possibility that he'll be dying in the near future.
He struggles daily with his humanity--or, one could argue, his lack of it. For Mitchell, it's the ultimate argument of whether nature or nurture is more important, and unfortunately for him, his nature wins out more often than not.
Any differences:
One of the biggest differences between John and Mitchell is that the former does not have the immense feelings of guilt that govern so many of the latter's actions. Certainly, John is not proud of his past as an alcoholic, but he's not so ashamed of it that he wishes he could hide and lock it away forever. He's come to terms with this problem in his life, whereas with Mitchell, his status as a monster and his blood lust is still something that he can barely manage.
Because of this, John does come across as more consistently light-hearted compared to Mitchell. He isn't carrying around several decades worth of baggage and is much more willing to share himself with other people. He is more giving on an emotional level, and John isn't as prone to keeping secrets. His temper is considerably less volatile as well, and he's definitely not going to be trying to bite people when he's caught up in the moment. John is also much less reliant on other people to keep himself emotionally buoyed and centered.
On the flip side, Mitchell has more will power than John and is more likely to see something through, while also working under pressure a bit better. (That said, this probably won't be all that evident unless John is placed under an extremely stressful situation.) Mitchell is a little more charismatic and much more worldly compared to his human counterpart, while John is not really the type to step into leadership roles, even when pressed.
Abilities:
[ wiki ]
In the Being Human universe, vampires are gifted with superhuman strength, reflexes, senses, and endurance. They also have improved healing abilities and, of course, a lovely pair of fangs that withdraw when they're not in use. Additionally, vampires can be distinguished by their eyes: their pupils can dilate to cover the entire visible part of the sclera, making their eyes look black. Typically speaking, though, this only occurs when a vampire is about to feed, lose control of him or herself, feeling particularly aggressive, or in the mood to scare a few mortals on the street.
Vampires look exactly the same as normal human beings, but they cannot be seen in anything that is silver-backed (e.g. mirrors) and do not show up on film--both traditional and digital. Vampires can tolerate sunlight but prefer to be covered up if going out during the daylight hours, and while religious symbols and words can't kill them, they are shown to cause enough pain to a vampire that they'll probably think twice about getting any closer. It should be noted, however, that if the person wielding the religious object or speaking holy text holds no ill will toward the vampire, then they aren't affected by it. Case in point: Mitchell's werewolf friend wears a Star of David at all times, but he has no problems with its presence.
Additionally, they cannot walk on sanctified ground, so entering churches, for example, is out of the question. Garlic, a useful tool in dealing with vampires in many other mythos, is more likely to cause disgust and do nothing more. On another note, vampires from this universe cannot enter a private building, such as a home, without express permission, and defying that rule will cause the vampire to burn for as long as they are within the confines of the structure.
Vampires are immortal, and the only permanent ways to kill them and keep them dead are to stake them through the heart or expose them to werewolf blood. Getting beheaded, bleeding out, being blown to bits, and other means of disposal can actually be reversed, if there are any vampires around willing to give some of their own blood to resurrect their fallen kin. That said, the process of resurrection is a pretty well-guarded secret, so vampires don't typically come back from less than permanent methods of killing.
On the note of blood, though, vampires do not actually need it to survive, but going without will leave them a little weaker than if they were drinking and leaves them in a perpetual state of withdrawal. Fresh human blood is obviously the best, but in a pinch, feeding off of another vampire can quench the thirst temporarily. Sadly, stored blood doesn't do the trick, as the life force is already gone from the blood by that point, and it's actually that that the vampires enjoy so much, not the blood itself.
Vampires are also capable of picking out their fellow supernatural beings. They can see ghosts and pick up the scent of a werewolf with just a whiff, and even for species that they're not familiar with, they can at least tell that the person is not human. This skill tends to improve with age--for that matter, all vampire abilities do. They become stronger, both on a physical and magical level, with time, and certain things that used to be able to hurt them (e.g. religious symbols) no longer do them any harm.
As a vampire, Mitchell, of course, has all of the above going for him, and his age grants him a pretty decent level of power. On a more personal level, though, he was once a soldier during WWI. His skills are likely to be very rusty, but Mitchell can still handle firearms with some semblance of accuracy. Will that come into play often? With all of the abilities given to him as a vampire, probably not. Mitchell is more likely to use any hand-to-hand combat training he received, given that vampires typically fight fist and fang.
Roleplay Sample – Third Person:
Jim Harris, aged seventy-six. The man had been a regular at the shelter for the past four months, and John couldn't imagine the place without him anymore. He'd always turn up bright and early, singing songs about God's glory, before taking his usual tour of the place and greeting everyone with a smile, his cup of coffee and blueberry bagel still in hand.
So when the morning didn't start with a hymn and a smile, John wasn't the only one worried about the man's well-being. Several calls were placed, and a few hours later, they'd traced him to the local county hospital, where he'd been admitted a few hours prior. It wasn't anything life-threatening, really, but John had volunteered to pay Jim a visit anyway, which was how he ended up showing up at the hospital with the numbers 345-2 scrawled on the back of his hand a few hours later.
The ink had already started to smear as he was walking up to the entrance, and he was just berating himself for not writing the room number down on a post-it note when he heard the sirens growing louder and louder. Lights flashing, an ambulance was careening down the road, while a team of nurses and doctors gathered outside, waiting to pick up the patient. Curiosity getting the better of him, John lingered, standing well out of the way, but the second he saw that woman being wheeled off on a gurney, he wished that he'd kept going; the sight was far more gruesome than he'd been anticipating.
Eyes lolling back into her head, she was covered with blood, the red fluid smeared all over her pale face and smudging the white sheets of the stretcher; it had completely soaked the towel they'd pressed against her throat. The paramedics were saying something about a mugging and knives, but John was too fixated on all of the blood to really pay their words any heed. He felt empty, like he was watching everything from afar; the noise around him was muted, and then there was a beat--just a single beat loud and clear in his ears.
As the woman was rushed to the emergency department, John remembered a similar scene: she was pretty and blond, and he had his hands pressed to her throat as blood continued to gush out. In that dark alleyway, there was a man beside him, shouting at him to do something, to save her, but what could he do? Nothing.
--Nothing.
Feeling numb, he started again for the hospital entrance. While the room number was still scribbled on the back of his hand, it would be another set of digits that would preoccupy his thoughts as he wandered the halls, and when he finally ended up in Jim's room, he still couldn't shake the image of the blond dying in his arms from his thoughts.
It wouldn't be until much later that he'd wonder about when this had ever happened to him, and to his horror, he didn't have an answer.
Roleplay Sample - Network:
[ handwritten, post-it note ]
[The handwriting is tiny and smushed, like it's being crammed into a small space.]
This isn't normal. When has a post-it note ever been the portal to an online forum? Look, I know I'm not the most up-to-date person with electronic devices, but I'm pretty sure no one's invented something like this yet. I shouldn't be able to scroll on a piece of paper, much less connect to the internet.
Not like I can really read anything on this thing anyway. The zoom function is complete
[The text ends there, as if the author has suddenly run out of space. A few minutes later, though, more posts start to appear. They never contain more than a few words; for all appearances, it looks like John is writing and entering his number into just about anything he can get his hands on: printer paper, a white board, the computer, and his phone. The last message appears to be a text.]
Okay, still don't understand this, even if the resolution is better now. Anyone care to explain what it is that I'm connected to? Or *how* I'm connecting to it? I feel like I'm intruding on something private. :\
Any Questions?
How much wood can a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?
Name: Azi
Are you over 15? Yes.
Contact:
IC Information:
Name: John Mitchell (Prefers to be called Mitchell in his preincarnation and John in his reincarnation.)
Canon: Being Human (UK)
Age: 117 (preincarnation) / 24 (reincarnation)
Preincarnation Appearance: Here!
Any differences: Outwardly speaking, none!
Preincarnated History:
[ wiki ]
In 1917, John Mitchell was just an Irish boy thrown into the madness of World War I. While in a forest in France, he stumbled upon a small group of vampires searching the battlefield for humans to feast upon. When he learned that they intended to turn his fellow soldiers into monsters, he volunteered himself to be taken, on the condition that they would spare the others, and that was the beginning of his life as a vampire.
Through the ages, Mitchell would slaughter and drink, debauching himself as he sank ever deeper into the lifestyle of a vampire. The times would change, but his habits remained firmly ingrained until the 1960's, when his morals would finally start to catch up with him. Oh, the feedings would continue for a few years more, but in 1969, he would meet a woman named Josie, who would challenge his very desire to kill--something that had become such a part of him that he could see no way out of it. It was through her bravery and assertion that Mitchell could control the slaughter that he tried to go clean--to go without blood--for the first time.
In a way, this could be said to be the beginnings of Mitchell's problems. From that point onward, he would go through phases of trying to stop the monster within to devolving into a killing machine. Like an addict, Mitchell would go back and forth, and the guilt would always haunt him. Without an anchor like Josie, though, he could not maintain his clean status.
Then he met George Sands.
George had been a werewolf a mere six months when they met, and Mitchell would save him from a trio of vampires who had taken to beating up the werewolf in an alleyway. While the connection between them was not exactly friendly at the start, they would eventually become best friends and move into a flat together, which is where they would meet Annie Sawyer, who had been a ghost for a year.
At last, everything seemed... somewhat normal; Mitchell could almost be human with these two around. He worked as a janitor at a hospital and tried to keep his nose clean, but trouble would continue to follow him. William Herrick, the man who turned Mitchell into a vampire and mentored him for a good fifty years, swept back into his life, asking that he return to the vampiric fold to assist in a glorious revolution.
Mitchell would at first refuse, but when he was able to help someone by turning them into a vampire, he relented. Welcomed back with open arms, he would be complicit with Herrick's plans for world domination--a world free of death--up until he realized that the plan was not quite as pure as originally thought: the world would not be made up of only vampires--there would still be a group of humans around, their sole purpose to be food for their masters.
To stop the revolution, Mitchell tried to take out the ringleader, essentially challenging Herrick to a duel. On the promised date, however, it would be George who would take on and kill the vampire, much to Mitchell's initial horror and protest.
For a short period of time following Herrick's death, everything seemed okay again. The revolution had been averted, but with Herrick gone, another problem arose: there was a power vacuum. The vampires were now leaderless, and the precious connections they had with humans who knew about vampires--who kept them out of trouble when their killing rampages went public--died along with Herrick. Now, mankind was on the verge of discovering the existence of the supernatural, and Mitchell worried about the prejudice, the fear, and the hate that would follow.
He would go on to become "king" of the vampires, reorganizing the pacts with the humans, and much to the amazement of all, Mitchell would try to get all of his kin to follow in his footsteps--to go clean. In his new position as leader, he would punish those who would step out of line and encourage his fellows to take part in the "Blood Addicts Anonymous" meetings that he started up.
Mitchell would also find another person who could be his so-called anchor: Dr. Lucy Jaggat. Unbeknownst to him, Lucy was actually in league with a man named Kemp, who was hell-bent on eradicating all supernatural beings. They killed werewolves in the process of trying to "cure" them, they exorcised ghosts, and they staked any vampire they could find. Mitchell and his flatmates became objects of interest for the group for their attempts at being human, but everything would eventually come to a head.
Lucy would betray Mitchell's trust, resulting in the death of a large number of vampires, while Kemp would ensnare both George and Annie. Mitchell would go on a murderous rampage as he once again fell to hating humans, and the slaughter that followed would take many innocents until he landed on the doorstep of Lucy and Kemp.
That incident would later become known as the Box Tunnel 20 massacre.
His rage would only continue when he found out that Kemp had sent Annie to the great beyond against her will, but strangely enough, neither Lucy or Kemp would die at his hands that day, even if they got dangerously close to that point. The end of their conflict would come far away from the city. Kemp would be the one to take Lucy's life after she came to try and apologize for what she'd done, and Annie would spirit Kemp away, bringing him into the world of Purgatory that she was now trapped inside, before any more harm could be done.
Mitchell was determined to save Annie from her fate--a journey he undertook after the group moved to Wales.
When he went after her, though, he was confronted, rather savagely, by his own murderous past--including his most recent killing spree. His guide through Purgatory, Lia, was one of the victims, and she would go on to tell him that a werewolf would come to kill him soon before sending him on his way, allowing Annie to be reunited with him.
Following her rescue, Annie would finally act on her feelings toward Mitchell, and he would try to reply to them in turn. At the time, it made sense that he'd put his faith in her, considering how important she was to him already, but finding a new reason to live and live like a human only compounded the two problems that now plagued him: his guilt over the Box Tunnel 20 massacre and his prophesied death. Both items threatened his now happy existence, and he would do a great many things to try and preserve the peace he'd at last found.
A solution to the problem of death was the first to present itself, arriving in the form of a most curious reincarnation: Herrick, apparently, was back from the dead. While he initially wanted to kill Herrick on the spot, Mitchell eventually came to realize the importance of his presence: he could find out how he came back to life--or as much to life as a vampire could be.
There was just one problem: Herrick was now an amnesiac and couldn't remember a thing about being a vampire.
Mitchell would spend the next few weeks trying to encourage the man's memories to return (through snarly persuasion, if not physical force), but as he was doing this, the noose was tightening as the police were getting nearer and nearer to pinning him as the murderer of the Box Tunnel 20 incident.
Oddly enough, his friends would actually have a hand in expediting the police's investigation into him--some on purpose and others inadvertently, but through it all, Mitchell kept his lips sealed about the matter, never telling any of them that he was behind the entire thing. Of course, this would eventually lead to everything exploding in his face at the worst possible moment.
With a bit of shrewd detective work (read: snagging Mitchell's fingerprints), the police were able to place him at the scene and nail him for the massacre. There was just one problem: throwing Mitchell in jail meant that he had to be processed, and to be processed meant getting his photo taken.
That was the problem: vampires can't be captured on film.
Now horrified that the entire existence of the supernatural was about to be blown open, Mitchell sought to escape from the police, but Annie demanded that he stay and turn himself in--something that he would do with incredible reluctance.
As his stay at the prison lengthened and questions about what he was started to arise, Mitchell was broken out of jail by Herrick, who had regained his memory after feasting on all of the investigators at the house where they had been staying. That said, the trust between the two vampires was limited at best, and after a rather sour reunion, Mitchell would eventually leave the area with Herrick, only to kill him--properly this time--a little later.
He never got around to learning the secret behind getting resurrected, but by this point, Mitchell was beyond that. Having disgusted and betrayed his friends with the brutal massacre of so many, there just didn't seem to be a point anymore, and it was then that he finally came to terms with something: no matter how hard he tried, he would always kill again.
With that in mind, Mitchell returned to their home and demanded that George kill him so that he'd never murder again and that he'd finally be free of all his guilt. While his friend was originally unwilling to go through with the idea, when another vampire turned up on their doorstep and openly stated that he was going to use Mitchell as an attack dog in the future, George staked him.
Mitchell was finally free.
Reincarnated History:
[ Trigger warning: Discussion of alcoholism and underage drinking below. ]
Born in Dublin, Ireland, John was the younger of two children, his sister being three years older than him. His father was a devout Catholic and an engineer, and his mother was an architect--at least, she was until after she had John. See, something broke inside of her after his birth. Some doctors would say that she had a case of post-partum depression that had gone bad, but others would go on to claim that her problems had another source, whether it be stress, genetics, or a mental breakdown. Either way, she ended up developing a drinking problem a mere four months after his birth, and by the time he was three, she was a raging alcoholic.
On his seventh birthday, she shoved a bottle of beer in his hands, and not knowing any better, John became his mother's drinking buddy whenever his father's back was turned--and it was turned a great deal. He was always busy with work, and if he wasn't at the office, then he was fixated upon church activities, all but ignoring the problems in his own home. It was only after he found John passed out on the floor one day that he took notice.
While his mother's addiction had already made the marriage rocky, that incident would increase the number of arguments between them and how heated they were. John's parents would put up with each other for another year before divorcing. His mother would fight for custody over him (and only him), but she'd lose, what with the court, rightfully, citing her alcoholism as a major problem. Thus, he was forced to live with a man that he felt rather estranged from.
Two years later, at the age of thirteen, he was uprooted once more: the family was moving to Locke City so that his father could be with the new woman in his life. His father's girlfriend would quickly become his stepmother, and John would have two new stepbrothers, one older and one younger than him. His relationship with these new siblings was hardly friendly; in fact, it was even worse than the one he had with his perfect, straight-A's, goodie-two-shoes sister.
John was, in short, the problem child of the family: he was constantly arguing with his parents, his grades in school were poor, he got into a lot of fights, he hated going to church, and his drinking problem had only gotten worse as he grew older--a habit he supported through shady, if not outright illegal, transactions. After all, his mother had once been his main source of alcohol, and with her out of the picture, John was forced to get it himself. More often than not, he was able to grab a few bottles from the parents of his friends, but once or twice, he'd actually managed to charm a few drinks off of some older girls by sweet-talking them. (John had learned early on that a lot of Americans react well to pretty foreign accents, and it was one of the main reasons he made it a point not to lose his after moving to the States.)
His father had tried a very religious take on curing his son of his alcoholism, sending him to a variety of strict Catholic schools and forcing him to visit their local church every day for counseling, but it would actually be his stepmother who would put her foot down and make him go into rehab.
He was fourteen at the time.
The first seven months were hell, and John would constantly be trying to run away from the facility. Just a week shy of his eighth month in rehab, he would land himself in a hospital for alcohol poisoning during one of these fleeing stints, and after almost dying because of the complications and the aspiration pneumonia that followed, John made the resolution to finally shape up. He would go on to complete his rehabilitation program without any more major problems, and while his relationship with his parents was never really repaired, he still returned home, completing his high school education before moving out on his own.
The stress of supporting himself and starting university would have John falling back into alcoholism late in his freshman year at Locke City University, so he'd ended up taking another year off to clean himself up one more time. Since that last incident, though, John has managed to remain free of alcohol, and he continues to maintain a presence at the local AA meetings even now.
At the age of twenty-two, he would graduate from college with a degree in social work. John would find a job at a local homeless shelter, setting people up with resources and even doing a small amount of counseling, and while the pay wasn't great, he found it fulfilling. Besides, it was enough to cover for his dingy studio apartment, and John could work off his college debt. Slowly.
Other than that, he remains relatively estranged from his father and that half of his family. As for his mother, John would fall out of touch with her following the divorce. He has never harbored a grudge toward her for handing him that first beer bottle years ago, but he doesn't feel any real sense of warmth or loss either. The next time he hears anything about her is during his last year of college: she'd passed away, losing her battle with liver disease.
First Echo:
John had gone to visit one of the regulars of the homeless shelter at the local county hospital, and while he was making his way toward the entrance, an ambulance came screaming by him. The paramedics brought a woman covered in blood out on a stretcher, a soaked towel pressed tight to her throat; it turns out she'd been mugged and stabbed in the throat in the process.
This triggers memories of another woman bleeding out in front of him, but she's lying in a dark alleyway. There's a man shouting at him to do something to save her, but for whatever reason, he's not doing anything to help.
Preincarnation Personality:
[ wiki ]
Vampires are known to lack morals, empathy, and any care for human life. They lead hedonistic lives that are filled with lust, for both blood and sex, and they kill and feed with little care as to whom they may hurt in the process. Vampires also tend to think themselves above the other species, and violence always hums just below the surface of their skin.
For decades, Mitchell was like any other vampire. He was arrogant and debauched, and the lifestyle of the vampires destroyed whom he used to be. After all, he'd originally become one of them for altruistic purposes, and his first kill even had a hint of humanity to it: he'd drugged the man so that he wouldn't experience any pain. As the years passed, though, that compassion would fade until there was essentially nothing left but the monster, ever thirsty for the next kill.
Such was his infamy and charisma as a vampire that, decades later, his kin would still be speaking of his feats, and it would be that very respect that they had for him that would allow Mitchell to become their "king" after Herrick's death. He is not the epitome of a leader, no, but he has the force of personality and the will to see things through that make him admirable enough to follow, even if he is not the most powerful or even oldest vampire in the community. That said, when he eventually turns against his kind, it is also his potential as leadership material that make him so very dangerous, and it's why the other vampires try so very hard to bring him back into the fold.
The first time his humanity catches up to him is in the 1960's, and when it does, it hits him hard. Mitchell is forced to come to the realization that he actually has had a choice all of these years, and that "being a vampire" is no excuse for all of the killing that he's done. From here on out, he treats his blood lust as an addiction, and he is the addict who always gets so close to quitting but ultimately fails.
On his good days, Mitchell is a huge advocate for humanity: he aspires to be like them and to live a normal life. He keeps it clean, stays out of trouble, connects with the humans in his life, and protects them against any vampire attention that may come along. On his upswings, Mitchell is a light-hearted, easy-going, and charming person; he laughs and jokes, parties and drinks, and hopes and dreams. He's highly supportive and protective of his friends, and because of how much older he is, Mitchell even acts a bit like their older brother at times, dishing out pieces of advice when appropriate.
When the going gets rough, though, Mitchell's first reaction is often to get angry. Largely because of his vampiric nature, his temper is very quick, and he can become extremely violent just as fast. Mitchell feels betrayed easily, and he has no problems with exacting revenge upon those whom he feels have wronged him--regardless of what species they are. All in all, his problem solving methodology is usually quite violent unless his friends are there to temper his thoughts and plans.
Of course, following the anger, there is the guilt--the single emotion that consumes him the most. Mitchell hates himself for the blood already on his hands, and he agonizes over those he may yet kill in the future, despite his best efforts to never take another life. In fact, he uses that guilt to hold himself in check. Mitchell thinks about how disappointed those people he cares for would be if he fell to temptation, and many times, that is enough to stave off the hunger.
In addition to feeling guilty about taking lives and drinking blood, Mitchell also feels that he taints any and all whom he encounters in life. He has a lot of baggage, and whenever he gets close to anyone, that baggage seems to make those people lose something or someone precious to them. This makes him push those who care for him away at times, but ultimately, Mitchell will come crawling back to them, if only because they are the only ones who can serve as a buffer between what remains of his humanity and the monster within.
--which can make him seem a bit selfish, forcing himself upon others like that. Unfortunately, Mitchell can be a bit self-centered at times. He'll create excuses for his behavior, make promises (that he'll ultimately break) of never making the same mistakes, and victimize himself, blaming everything on being a vampire. There are also times when he'll drown himself in his own problems, becoming completely and utterly unaware of any issues his friends may be going through.
This is not to say that there aren't times when his friends aren't oblivious of his problems, but typically speaking, that happens because Mitchell is keeping things close to the chest. He can be intensively private and secretive about things, and while Mitchell may eventually open up about some items, there are others that only come into the light in a flurry of negativity and unhappy happenstance.
When it comes down to it, Mitchell's life is a study in opposites. Here he is, struggling to be human, while there is this monster that threatens to break out of his skin at any given moment. One day, he'll love humans and all that they represent, but all it takes is the wrong doing of one individual, and that love turns to hate in a second. He abhors killing and changing people into vampires, and yet, there will be times he'll celebrate his status as a monster or use his ability to grant immortality for what he deems as good. Mitchell wants his nightmare of a life to end, but then he panics when presented with the possibility that he'll be dying in the near future.
He struggles daily with his humanity--or, one could argue, his lack of it. For Mitchell, it's the ultimate argument of whether nature or nurture is more important, and unfortunately for him, his nature wins out more often than not.
Any differences:
One of the biggest differences between John and Mitchell is that the former does not have the immense feelings of guilt that govern so many of the latter's actions. Certainly, John is not proud of his past as an alcoholic, but he's not so ashamed of it that he wishes he could hide and lock it away forever. He's come to terms with this problem in his life, whereas with Mitchell, his status as a monster and his blood lust is still something that he can barely manage.
Because of this, John does come across as more consistently light-hearted compared to Mitchell. He isn't carrying around several decades worth of baggage and is much more willing to share himself with other people. He is more giving on an emotional level, and John isn't as prone to keeping secrets. His temper is considerably less volatile as well, and he's definitely not going to be trying to bite people when he's caught up in the moment. John is also much less reliant on other people to keep himself emotionally buoyed and centered.
On the flip side, Mitchell has more will power than John and is more likely to see something through, while also working under pressure a bit better. (That said, this probably won't be all that evident unless John is placed under an extremely stressful situation.) Mitchell is a little more charismatic and much more worldly compared to his human counterpart, while John is not really the type to step into leadership roles, even when pressed.
Abilities:
[ wiki ]
In the Being Human universe, vampires are gifted with superhuman strength, reflexes, senses, and endurance. They also have improved healing abilities and, of course, a lovely pair of fangs that withdraw when they're not in use. Additionally, vampires can be distinguished by their eyes: their pupils can dilate to cover the entire visible part of the sclera, making their eyes look black. Typically speaking, though, this only occurs when a vampire is about to feed, lose control of him or herself, feeling particularly aggressive, or in the mood to scare a few mortals on the street.
Vampires look exactly the same as normal human beings, but they cannot be seen in anything that is silver-backed (e.g. mirrors) and do not show up on film--both traditional and digital. Vampires can tolerate sunlight but prefer to be covered up if going out during the daylight hours, and while religious symbols and words can't kill them, they are shown to cause enough pain to a vampire that they'll probably think twice about getting any closer. It should be noted, however, that if the person wielding the religious object or speaking holy text holds no ill will toward the vampire, then they aren't affected by it. Case in point: Mitchell's werewolf friend wears a Star of David at all times, but he has no problems with its presence.
Additionally, they cannot walk on sanctified ground, so entering churches, for example, is out of the question. Garlic, a useful tool in dealing with vampires in many other mythos, is more likely to cause disgust and do nothing more. On another note, vampires from this universe cannot enter a private building, such as a home, without express permission, and defying that rule will cause the vampire to burn for as long as they are within the confines of the structure.
Vampires are immortal, and the only permanent ways to kill them and keep them dead are to stake them through the heart or expose them to werewolf blood. Getting beheaded, bleeding out, being blown to bits, and other means of disposal can actually be reversed, if there are any vampires around willing to give some of their own blood to resurrect their fallen kin. That said, the process of resurrection is a pretty well-guarded secret, so vampires don't typically come back from less than permanent methods of killing.
On the note of blood, though, vampires do not actually need it to survive, but going without will leave them a little weaker than if they were drinking and leaves them in a perpetual state of withdrawal. Fresh human blood is obviously the best, but in a pinch, feeding off of another vampire can quench the thirst temporarily. Sadly, stored blood doesn't do the trick, as the life force is already gone from the blood by that point, and it's actually that that the vampires enjoy so much, not the blood itself.
Vampires are also capable of picking out their fellow supernatural beings. They can see ghosts and pick up the scent of a werewolf with just a whiff, and even for species that they're not familiar with, they can at least tell that the person is not human. This skill tends to improve with age--for that matter, all vampire abilities do. They become stronger, both on a physical and magical level, with time, and certain things that used to be able to hurt them (e.g. religious symbols) no longer do them any harm.
As a vampire, Mitchell, of course, has all of the above going for him, and his age grants him a pretty decent level of power. On a more personal level, though, he was once a soldier during WWI. His skills are likely to be very rusty, but Mitchell can still handle firearms with some semblance of accuracy. Will that come into play often? With all of the abilities given to him as a vampire, probably not. Mitchell is more likely to use any hand-to-hand combat training he received, given that vampires typically fight fist and fang.
Roleplay Sample – Third Person:
Jim Harris, aged seventy-six. The man had been a regular at the shelter for the past four months, and John couldn't imagine the place without him anymore. He'd always turn up bright and early, singing songs about God's glory, before taking his usual tour of the place and greeting everyone with a smile, his cup of coffee and blueberry bagel still in hand.
So when the morning didn't start with a hymn and a smile, John wasn't the only one worried about the man's well-being. Several calls were placed, and a few hours later, they'd traced him to the local county hospital, where he'd been admitted a few hours prior. It wasn't anything life-threatening, really, but John had volunteered to pay Jim a visit anyway, which was how he ended up showing up at the hospital with the numbers 345-2 scrawled on the back of his hand a few hours later.
The ink had already started to smear as he was walking up to the entrance, and he was just berating himself for not writing the room number down on a post-it note when he heard the sirens growing louder and louder. Lights flashing, an ambulance was careening down the road, while a team of nurses and doctors gathered outside, waiting to pick up the patient. Curiosity getting the better of him, John lingered, standing well out of the way, but the second he saw that woman being wheeled off on a gurney, he wished that he'd kept going; the sight was far more gruesome than he'd been anticipating.
Eyes lolling back into her head, she was covered with blood, the red fluid smeared all over her pale face and smudging the white sheets of the stretcher; it had completely soaked the towel they'd pressed against her throat. The paramedics were saying something about a mugging and knives, but John was too fixated on all of the blood to really pay their words any heed. He felt empty, like he was watching everything from afar; the noise around him was muted, and then there was a beat--just a single beat loud and clear in his ears.
As the woman was rushed to the emergency department, John remembered a similar scene: she was pretty and blond, and he had his hands pressed to her throat as blood continued to gush out. In that dark alleyway, there was a man beside him, shouting at him to do something, to save her, but what could he do? Nothing.
--Nothing.
Feeling numb, he started again for the hospital entrance. While the room number was still scribbled on the back of his hand, it would be another set of digits that would preoccupy his thoughts as he wandered the halls, and when he finally ended up in Jim's room, he still couldn't shake the image of the blond dying in his arms from his thoughts.
It wouldn't be until much later that he'd wonder about when this had ever happened to him, and to his horror, he didn't have an answer.
Roleplay Sample - Network:
[ handwritten, post-it note ]
[The handwriting is tiny and smushed, like it's being crammed into a small space.]
This isn't normal. When has a post-it note ever been the portal to an online forum? Look, I know I'm not the most up-to-date person with electronic devices, but I'm pretty sure no one's invented something like this yet. I shouldn't be able to scroll on a piece of paper, much less connect to the internet.
Not like I can really read anything on this thing anyway. The zoom function is complete
[The text ends there, as if the author has suddenly run out of space. A few minutes later, though, more posts start to appear. They never contain more than a few words; for all appearances, it looks like John is writing and entering his number into just about anything he can get his hands on: printer paper, a white board, the computer, and his phone. The last message appears to be a text.]
Okay, still don't understand this, even if the resolution is better now. Anyone care to explain what it is that I'm connected to? Or *how* I'm connecting to it? I feel like I'm intruding on something private. :\
Any Questions?
How much wood can a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?