Post by daniel on May 27, 2009 20:31:04 GMT -7
Out Of Character
What would you liked to be called?: Stranger
Are you over the age of 13?: Yup.
Have you read and understood all the rules?: –thumbs up-
In Character
Name: Daniel
Age: 246
Gender:Male
Species: Night-Crawler
Special Power: Extra Speed
Father: Victor Paloir [deceased]
Mother: Victoria Haden Paloir [deceased]
Sibling/s: Edwin (older brother) and Abigail & Glinda (younger twin sisters) [deceased]
Partner: Nope
Appearance:
Daniel is not by any means unattractive. But then, not many, if any, Night Crawler's are. He stands just shy of 6 feet, with a strong, lean build. His hair, worn short and usually spiked, is blonde with dark undertones. Sometimes it looks almost white in the sunlight, and practically silver in the moonlight. He has a dark freckle on the right side of the bridge of his nose, and a small birthmark below the left corner of his mouth.
His eyes are green/blue, with little gold flecks sprinkled in around the pupils. Sometimes his eyes will look green, and other times they'll look blue. The shade usually depends on his emotion. If he's in his usual mild temperment, they're light blue-gray and kind of murky, and if he's angry, they take on a deep ocean sort of blue and get really dark. They used to be a vibrant green or greenish blue almost all the time, but ever since he became a Night Crawler, they're usually that same murky blue-gray color. His family used to joke that they always knew when he was happy because his eyes would turn green.
His face is thin and heart-shaped, and his shoulders are broad, but not in a football-playing-jock short of way, more like the I'm-lanky-but-I'm-strong kind of way. His hands are big but his fingers are long and nimble, which was a good thing or playing the piano might have been a whole lot harder. He doesn't pay much attention to what he wears anymore. Various t-shirts and tank tops and long-sleeve shirts, occasionally button-up shirts, always jeans, and a simple, faded leather jacket. He wears a pendant around his neck: a japanese coin on a brown leather suede band.
100 high x 50 wide px Avatar Image of your character:
No bigger than 300 high x 530 wide px Signature Image:
Personality:
Daniel doesn't have much of a personality to describe. When he was human, he was kind, polite, and old-fashioned. He was earnest and a hard-worker. He respected his parents and took care of his younger sisters. Danny was compassionate about every living thing, always bringing home stray animals when he was really young before he knew any better. He got a job as soon as he was old enough, and worked as long as he made money for his family. When he discovered his talent for playing piano, his passion for it was obvious.
He was always so happy and cheerful, a real optimist. He cared for his family more than anything, and he loved performing for people and making them happy. When he fell in love, he was completely committed to it. He had a good sense of humor, and was always laughing. When he became a Night Crawler, his sunny demeanor changed so durastically that his own family might not have recognized him if not for his physical appearance. He became angry, though he pent his frustration up. He was submissive, and followed orders without questions. After a short time, when he was left to live the rest of eternity by himself, he became unresponsive, barely aware of his surroundings. Except, he's always super aware of his surroundings. He just doesn't respond to it. When people talk to him, it's like he's looking through them. As if he doesn't even know why they're there. He represses his feelings, and at some points might even seem depressed. The only thing he knows or likes anymore is running. He feels like the only thing he can do is run away.
Strengths:
[x] Running
[x] Playing piano
Weaknesses:
[x] He runs away from problems
[x] He's soft (if he allows himself to get caught up, he cares too much)
Mental Health:
Stable. Repressed. Possibly clinically depressed.
Likes:
[x] Running
Dislikes:
[x] Life
Past:
Daniel Victor Paloir was the second son born to a middle class family. They were not incredibly poor, but they weren’t at all rich. They all had to work in order to provide enough for the family. At least, that’s the way it started out. Victor and his beautiful wife Victoria had met at a young age. Their parents had set up the arrangement, hoping to bring the two unsociably shy adolescents out of their shells. Both sets of parents also found humor in their similar names, and thought it made them “all the more compatible!” They fell for each other instantly, though it took a few years for their relationship to blossom. They married at 20, and had their first son, Edwin Marco Paloir, a year later.
Edwin was named after Victoria’s grandfather, who was the only one in the family that bore the same strawberry blonde hair as their newborn son. Victoria had been very close to her grandfather for a time, but he had fallen ill and died a few years before. Marco was the name of Victor’s older brother, who had mysteriously disappeared shortly after his marriage to Lindsey Klair. Lindsey was later found in a traumatized state at the edge of the wood, mumbling something about “horrible, evil yellow eyes… and teeth! Teeth as sharp as broken glass!” Her family took her home and she hasn’t been heard from since, though Victor used to visit her once in a while to see if her stability has improved at all. It never did.
Both Victor and Victoria wanted more children, but it wasn’t until six years after Edwin was born that they finally conceived their next son, Daniel. Although Daniel and Edwin were six years apart in age, they were still pretty close. Edwin had no quarrels with having is little brother tag along, until he reached thirteen. But by then, Daniel knew his brother needed space and he had already made new friends anyway. Edwin began working at age twelve, for a shop keeper. He would sweep the floors, stock the shelves, and run errands.
When Daniel was seven, his parents had the twins, Abigail and Glinda. Danny was always helping take care of his younger sisters, and to be honest, he liked it. When he turned thirteen, he found a job working for a blacksmith. He kept that job until he was seventeen. Victor worked for a printing press, helping put out the local newspaper. Victoria was a dressmaker and sold the fruit and vegetables she grew in their backyard. When Daniel wasn’t working for the blacksmith, he would help his mother with deliveries. It was on a delivery for his mother when he discovered his passion, and talent, for playing the piano.
"Mrs. O'Donoghue?" Daniel's voice rang through the foyer as he stepped over the door's threshold. He glanced around the large room with it's tall windows, beige walls, and glossy tiled floor. There was a Welcome Neighbor! mat under his feet, and three arched doorways in the opposite wall. "Mrs. O'Donoghue? I've got your dress!" he tried again.
"Daniel! Come in dear, come in!" Mrs. O'Donoghue's sweet, high-pitched voiced filtered into the room through the doorway to his right. "Make yourself at home!" Daniel stepped further into the room and shifted the square package in his right hand to his left. He ran his free hand through his short blonde hair as he gazed up at the ceiling. He'd always admired Mrs. O'Donoghue's house, ever since he was a little boy when his mother brought him with her when she visited her old friend. He was looking around the room, taking in the familiar sights, when something caught his eye.
A grand piano? In Mrs. O'Donoghue's foyer? He was sure that it hadn't been there last time he'd delivered a dress here. He sauntered closer to it, taking in the unusual site. He's seen pianos before, but none quite as exquisite as this one. It was old, but the polished wood shined. The black and white keys seemed to be inviting him to sit and play, though he'd never learned. The top was propped open so he could see all the strings and tiny gears that made it's sound deep and resonant. He ran his fingers over the keys, suddenly longing to be able to play something beautiful. Only, he wouldn't know where to begin.
"It's lovely, isn't it?" Mrs. O'Donoghue had entered the room so quietly that Daniel nearly jumped when he heard her voice behind him. He cleared his throat appoligetically as he turned to face a woman a few inches shorter than himself with graying brown hair. "Yes, ma'am." She smiled, the corners of her eyes crinkling, and held out her hand. He gently passed her the brown paper package. She undid the tape that held the package together, letting the paper fall to the floor, and slowly unfolded the dress, holding it away from her to get a good look at it.
"Allow me." Daniel offered, nodding toward the dress. He gripped the shoulders of the pretty black dress and backed away a few paces so she couold see it better. Mrs. O'Donoghue nodded in satisfaction, a mischevious smile playing across her lips. "A very beautiful gown, but not your color I'm afraid. Perhaps green would better suit you, Daniel."
Daniel laughed and ducked his head. "Yes, I suppose. But it should look fabulous on you, Mrs. O'Donoghue." She nodded again, taking the dress and draping it over her arm before fixing her eyes on something over Danny's shoulder. When he followed her gaze, his blue eyes landed back on the piano.
"Play me something." she said. He looked at her in surprise."I don't know how." he replied. She placed her hand on his arm and guided him to the bench. "Try. I knew when I saw you standing beside it. Go on." She leaned her weight on his shoulder until he sat. "Trust me. Play me something nice."
Daniel looked from her to the piano. He didn't know how to play, but he wanted to. He could feel the urge inside him. So even though he had no idea what he was doing, he lifted his hands and placed them softly on the keys. First he just played individual notes, figuring out how each of them sounded. Then he started playing them in a pattern. And then he started putting them together. He heard Mrs. O'Donoghue sigh behind him and he smiled. He was playing! And it actually sounded okay. He felt like he was walking on air. He didn't know doing something like this could make him feel so good, and now, he never wanted to stop.
Daniel's parents starting sending him to teachers all over the town. He soon mastered every song they through at him. He began writing his own songs, and studying Beethoven and Mozart. He especially loved ragtime music. Soon, his former piano teachers insisted he try performing. So he did.
Danny found that he loved performing. It made people happy. He quit his job when he began making money performing. Every cent he made went to helping his family. He played in public professionally at least once a week. When he was twenty, he was not only playing shows, but he took up whatever gig he could because he loved the piano that much. It was actually at one of those gigs that he met the girl he would have, at the time, called the love of his life.
It was at O'Neily's pub that he met her. He sat at the piano in the front of the room, playing a classic, romantic song softly while the people around him sat at round tables dining and drinking, laughing at jokes he couldn't hear, discussing things that didn't concern him. He was so wrapped up in his playing that he only heard they're voices faintly in the background. The bell on the door jingled when more people entered. That's when somebody thumped Dannny on the back roughly. His fingers fumbled over the wrong notes, but he quickly recovered, throwing in an improvised scale and returning to the song almost seamlessly.
"Danny boy!" said the man now standing at his side. "Scooch over!" Daniel slid to one side of the bench and let his brother sit beside him with his back to the keys. Edwin ran his hand through his strawberry blonde hair and said, "What, you don't do enough playing at home and at your concerts so you have to play here too?"
Daniel smiled. "You know I like playing here. And it's not like you don't benefit from it." Edwin laughed.
"That I do! That I do. Do you know how many girls swoon when they see me with you? I don't know what it is about musicians, Daniel, but they love you. And what they love even more? They love the musician's quirky brother." He laughed again and put his hand on Danny's shoulder. Daniel's laughed along. Edwin's laugh was infectious. He liked hanging out with his brother.
"Oh, don't look now, but I think you've got an admirer." Edwin said under his breath. Daniel laughed again and looked over his shoulder. His eyes met those of a beautiful young woman with long, scarlet hair. Her dark eyes were pools so deep he felt like he could see into her soul. Her skin was nearly as white as paper and smooth as porcelain. Everything about her was perfect. But her most dazzling feature was her sly smile. As if she knew something he didn't, and she wanted to share her secret with him.
Something inside him warmed his body heat until he felt like he would surely melt. This feeling was strange to him, but he like it. It made him feel good. The girl held his gaze, fixating him. Her smile broadened, looking friendly. He smiled back, feeling the heat crawl up his neck and turn the tips of his ears pink. He didn't know how he kept playing levely. He wasn't even paying attention to his hands anymore.
"Earth to Daniel." Edwin said, punching his arm. He looked at his brother in surprise, having forgot for a moment that he was there. "Be cool. I think she likes you." he said, grinning coyly. He obviously found it amusing. Daniel smiled returned.
"You think?" He glanced at her again, trying to be discrete. She was still watching him, leaning her arms against the table. He noticed she was sitting with two other girls who seemed to be paying no attention to either him or her. Again, the feeling that they were the only two in the room washed over him. He turned away reluctantly, looking down at his fingers as they continued to play. That's when a brilliant idea struck him.
"Watch this." he muttered to his brother. His fingers flew over the keys, quickly but flawlessly switching from the soothing song he'd been playing into a lively ragtime beat. The people around him stirred, turning to listen. A few smiled, catching the mood of the song. Soon, they were all laughing and chatting loudly about the music that reminded them of an old-time saloon.
Edwin chuckled and slapped his knee to the beat, then threw back the rest of his drink before setting the glass filled with icecubes on a coaster ontop of the piano. "I think it's working, bro." he whispered in Danny's ear. Daniel grinned and looked back at the girl's table to see her and her friends giggling and casting glances his way. He caught her eye again and she smiled sheepishly at him. He knew then that he had to have her. He hadn't ever thought much about love before, but he knew already that he had fallen deeply, truely, irrevocably in love with this girl, and he didn't even know her name.
Her name was Lorraine. Everything about her seemed perfect to Daniel. Her face, her hair, her sweet but coy personality. They spent every waking minute together. She would come to every show. He would follow her blindly around town. It was clear to everyone how in love they were. They would sneak away at night and stroll the town, enjoying the moments spent alone together. They shared their favorite spots and laughed over little, meaningless things.
Daniel would write songs for her, and she would sing along. They made quite a team. They did everything together. But Daniel's family was worried. Daniel was so taken with Lorraine that he would loose track of time, do chores he'd already done or forget to do them at all, and even walk out of the house without shoes sometimes. They also knew next to nothing about Lorraine. When they approached Daniel about it, he refused to listen. In order to keep from pushing him further away, they didn't bring it up again.
Nearly a year later, Daniel learned something about Lorraine that would change his opinion of her forever. It's true that he was in love with her, and would gladly follow her to the ends of the earth, but when he found out she was a Night Crawler, and that she wanted to make him one too, it was too much to ask of him. He found out not from her, but from another Night Crawler whom she had turned. He told Daniel that Lorraine had been planning this all along. In fact, he was surprised she hadn't done it already.
Daniel now felt torn. He loved her, but how could he after he found out what she'd kept from him. The next time he saw her, he told her that he knew. She showed no remorse for what she had done and insisted that he become a Night Crawler so they could be together forever. He said he couldn't, that he was too confused. He ran back home, wanting to talk to his family. When he got there, his house was ablaze. When the firemen finally put the fire out, the house was in shambles. They told him that there was no way anyone inside had survived, and because it was the middle of the night, Daniel knew that his entire family had been inside.
Devastated by this turn of events, he was too distraught to notice Lorraine swooping in out of no where and leading him away from the charred scene. He couldn't believe his family was gone, just like that. When he finally came to, he was still uncertain about Lorraine's plan. But this time, she didn't give him the chance to make a choice.
"Don't worry, my love. It'll all be over soon." she said, inching closer to where he was backed against the wall. He flinched as she stood on her toes and kissed him gently. Then she quickly sank her fangs, which she had cleverly concealed until now, into the base of his neck. He gasped for breath, pushing his self further against the wall as if trying to escape. His vision faded slowly, and the next thing he knew, he was waking up somewhere unfamiliar. It was Lorraine's house, and he realized then that he'd never actually been inside. He had fallen for her, but he knew next to nothing about where she had come from. He'd been so blinded, and now, it was too late.
Human Daniel and Night Crawler Daniel had almost nothing in common. Whereas Danny had been happy and caring, this new Danny was quiet and angry. He soon found out that he was only one of Lorraine's many followers. He was no longer blindly in love with Lorraine, but he continued following her obediantly, and he still felt a tug at his heart when he was around her. He couldn't just forget about his love for her, even after what she had done to him. But more than that, he felt betrayed.
He stopped playing the piano, feeling no more passion for anything. She begged him to play for her, but whenever he sat behind a piano, he couldn't bring his fingers to play. When he did, they stumbled clumsily over the keys, totally lackluster. He lived like that for three months before Lorraine's past caught up with her. It happened so fast, Daniel wasn't quite sure what had happened. All he knew was that a former lover had appeared, and Lorraine was driven to accidental suicide.
Daniel slipped into the stone tomb quietly, his eyes trained on the ground. He sauntered over to the wall on the left side and fixed his eyes on the name plate above him.
'Lorraine Elizabeth Gall'
Danny's icy blue eyes glared at the plaque menacingly. "How dare you?" he asked quietly. Then again, this time shouting. "How dare you?" His hands curled into fists. "How dare you do this to me? You damn me to this life, and then you leave me." He was pacing now, throwing his arms up angrily. "You damn me to live the rest of eternity without my family, without you, without anything! How dare you?!" He glared at the name plate again, as if looking there for an answer. When he didn't get one, he turned and fled. He ran faster than ever before. All the angry, hurt feelings drained from him with every step he took, but so did all the happy ones. When he finally stopped, he didn't feel anything.
Sample Post: (Made up, with Daniel, something that’s happened to him in the past, probably multiple times. Rated PG-13 not R, I swear. Just keep reading.)
The loud creaking that echoed in the marble hall was like a banshee screeching in Daniel’s ears. He tucked a mental note into the back of his mind to get the door, which he was now being pulled through, fixed. If anyone else was in Daniel’s place, they might not have noticed the door at all. But Daniel wasn’t anyone else. He was just Daniel. Or Danny. It alternates.
You see, Danny wasn’t just being pulled through the big French of his large, empty house, he was being towed in by a beautiful, long-haired, female Night Crawler, and she had her hands all over him. She had pushed him against the door, fitting herself against him, her lips never leaving his neck. She had turned the knob at some point, swinging the door open behind him. She’d then turned and hauled him into the room, her long nails digging into the arms of his leather jacket.
He stood as she continued to wrap herself around him, kissing his neck and his jaw. Her hands moved up his chest, grasping the collar of his jacket. She tugged his jacket off, the pulled him closer, guiding him toward the door that he knew led to his bed chamber. Her hands kept moving as she kissed him viciously, hungrily. She carefully undid each of the buttons on his shirt. When she reached the last one, she slipped inside, her cool skin like stone as they slid up his back.
Daniel just stood there. He let her do all these things, but he didn’t respond. His mind was elsewhere. He wondered whether it would be better to oil the door’s hinges, or to simply replace it. He let her steer him across the great hall toward the room, her face still buried in his neck.
“Aww.” she moaned against his skin before tipping her chin to look up at him. “Aren’t you going to make this any fun for me?” she asked. She ducked in for another few pecks along his jaw line, her lips velvety but cold. He just stared at her. “Come on. I like meaningless sex as much as the next girl,” As much as the next slut, you mean. he thought. But if she was a slut, that probably made him one, too. “But can’t at least act like I’m not the only one enjoying this?” She smiled coyly up at him. He knew she thought he really was enjoying this, but was putting on a face to hide it.
“I can’t act worth crap.” Daniel replied bluntly. Her smile faded, darkening her well-balanced features. Her hands recoiled from him, but she didn’t step away. Despite all the effort she seemed to be putting into her performance, there wasn’t a drop of sweat on her, or a single hair out of place on her head. Her dark brown hair hung straight down to the small of her back, gleaming in the soft light drifting through the windows ten feet above them. There wasn’t a flaw anywhere on either of them, as was common for Night Crawlers.
When she recovered, she smiled sweetly, tugging him around so she was facing away from the front door. “Can’t we make this a little more fun? Let’s play a game.” She said, pressing herself against him again. Danny frowned, his eyebrows drawing together in irritation.
“This isn’t enough for you?” he asked coolly. His blue eyes were beginning to look icy. Her smile grew. It was clear that she thought if she could irritate him enough, he would come around.
“What if I told you it isn’t?” she inquired, her arms sliding around his waist. “Why don’t you bite back for once?” He glared down at her, reaching his own hands back behind him to grab her wrists. He pulled them around in front of him and shoved her away.
“Fine. You want to play a game? Let’s play a game.” he said, still glaring hatefully at her. “I’ll be the hunter, and you’ll be the prey.” He lunged for her, thrusting her to the floor with him on top. With his hands flat on the floor on either side of her, he saw the shock mixed with satisfaction in her eyes just before he dug his ivory fangs into her shoulder. She gasped in surprise as he bit down harder.
He kept sinking his teeth farther and farther into her flesh until she exclaimed, “Ow! Danny!” He released his hold on her briefly before moving up along her neck, and then sinking his fangs in once more. This time he burrowed deeper and deeper until she began to struggle against him. “Ow Daniel, stop! Stop!” she shrieked. He obliged, liberating her of his grip before shoving himself off the floor. He turned his shoulder to her as she clamored up off the floor as well, her hand on her neck. That would teach her.
“Get out.” he growled, glaring straight ahead. It was her turn to stare, unable to keep the horror-struck expression from her face. “Leave, now. Get out of my house!” he shouted, finally turning to her. She backed away a few steps. Then she straightened herself out and pulled her face back together. Spinning around on her heel, she walked stiffly across the room and out the door, slamming it behind her.
Daniel didn’t bother waiting until she was gone. He turned and strode toward his room. He jiggled the old-fashioned knob and pushed it open, it hit the wall with unnecessary force. Danny always had to remind himself of his strength, unless he wanted to break something. It was only too easy to do just that. He closed the door, gently this time, and glided toward his bed. He fell onto the lavished mattress, his legs hanging off the side, and stared up at the star-covered canopy overhead. Just another typical night in the life, or afterlife, of Daniel Paloir. Or what was left of him, anyway.
He wasn’t angry. Or upset. Or anything really. Not at her, or at himself. He didn’t feel anything. The only thing he could feel was his desire to run. He inclined his head back to look out the window. The moon was full and there wasn’t a cloud in sight. Climbing off the bed, he opened the window and leapt out. The second his feet hit the ground, he was off. He didn’t stop to close the window behind him, or even to redo the buttons on his shirt. He didn’t care. All he wanted to do was run. And run he did.
