"It's them or us, and I vote for us; how 'bout you?"About
Name: Nick Ferrin (Nicky to elderly female relatives and very close friends)
Age: 32
Gender: Male
Sexuality: Straight
Physical description: Tall (about 6’2”) with a lean, wiry frame. He has quite pale colouring – his hair is light to mid brown worn slightly too long to be tidy, he has alert blue eyes and (if you look very closely) a few freckles; he’s the sort who’ll burn before tanning. He has rather hard features that may give him something of a forbidding look, but he has an appealing lopsided smile when he uses it. He has an old scar on his left shoulder where a vampire tore a lump out of his shoulder a few years ago. Nick has a surprisingly rich voice, with a distinct British accent. He wears hard wearing, casual clothing (jeans and a plain shirt or T-shirt) and always has a slim silver chain with a couple of plain gold rings threaded on it around his neck under his shirt.
Personality: Nick comes across as distant and reserved, which he is to an extent – he’s perfectly polite and friendly, but tends to keep people at arm’s length until he gets to know them. Despite his reserve, he’s very much a team player and will do what’s required of him without any complaints, though if he thinks something is a bad idea he’ll point out his objection and the reasons behind it. But still waters run deep – he does have emotions, just doesn’t like sharing them with everyone. Rub him up the wrong way and he will eventually snap; get close to him and he’ll be one of the most loyal friends you could hope to have. He has a very dry, ‘British’ sense of humour.
Background: Born in the small town of Whitstable in Kent, Nick’s early years were happy until his father died when he was eight and his mother remarried two years later. Nick disliked his step-father with more than a young child’s typical animosity – he couldn’t explain why, just that he ‘felt wrong’. Over the next few months his mother gradually became ill, getting more and more pale and listless. Nick started spying on his parents and eventually spotted his step-father feeding on his mother. He didn’t quite understand what was happening but was repulsed by it and flew at his step-father. He was easily batted aside, but the sight of his step-father’s face twisted into something animalistic made him scream with terror and fury. While his mother tried to deal with the thing her husband had become, Nick snatched the bayonet left from his grandfather’s service in the war and stabbed him repeatedly until a lucky blow took him in the heart. A story of intruders and a botched robbery satisfied the police, and Nick and his mother left the area, hiding themselves amongst the millions in London.
As Nick grew older he realised his step-father was only one of the monsters that teemed in the country. He took to carrying his grandfather’s bayonet with him, originally for protection, but he started to consider killing the monsters if he got the chance. He took out a couple of vampires (more through luck than anything else) and while trailing one ‘monster’ he ran into a group of hunters and after being shouted out for almost ruining their operations, he was recruited to join them – he was given proper training with his blades and took exercises to improve his stamina and agility, which eventually led to him taking up parkour. He married when he was twenty five and ‘retired’ from the field for a year or so, training younger hunters instead, but his wife was caught and turned by the vampires (was she targeted deliberately? Yes). He had to kill her himself when she broke into the house (the scar on his shoulder came from where he hesitated long enough for her to tear into him), and his hatred for the vampires grew more intense, particularly as his wife had told him a fortnight before she was pregnant. He doesn't know why he didn't turn from that bite - probably because he got treatment as soon as possible from people that actually knew what they were doing. Now he lives to kill vampires – it’s all he has left.
Skills
Talents: : Stamina - Nick has strong endurance and a high pain threshold.
Agility - His training has left him fit and agile – he’s not an Olympic athlete, but he could still do basic parkour if he had to.
He is an expert with his blades, ranging from his grandfather’s bayonet to a foot long seax. He can fight with them or unarmed with a hotchpotch mix of fighting skills – a mix of martial arts moves he’s picked up (no one set discipline) and simple dirty fighting.
Good with a crossbow – he usually uses a mini crossbow due to it being easier to conceal, but could manage a full size one.
Experience – he’s been fighting these things most of his life; he knows a lot about how to find them and kill them.
Stubborn - when he's on the trail of a vampire, it'll take a lot to throw him off.
Weapon(s): He has a variety of blades that he uses – he normally has four or five concealed on him at any one time. He always keeps them sharp.
If he’s wearing a longer coat, it’s because he’s got his seax or mini-crossbow on him.
Extra
Has semi-adopted a stray cat he calls Stoker - it doesn't come in the flat, but he leaves food out on the fire-escape for it.
Used to play guitar before his wife died, but now there’s dust gathering on his guitar case.