[b]Name:[/b] Maxwell Oldham (True Name: Inviticus Julius Maximian) [b]Known Aliases:[/b] Buck, Nurse Buck [b]Age:[/b] 1,942 (Born 72 AD, turned 93 AD) [b]Species:[/b] Vampire [b]Title:[/b] Upper Complex Head Nurse, Osmond’s Institute [b]Appearance[/b] [indent]For a male, Buck is fairly unintimidating. He stands 5’6” in his bare feet, a little taller with shoes on, and his build is distinctly on the slender side of average. If you were to catch him without his clothes on, however, you’d find his body made of lean, well-defined muscle, and masculine in a way that you wouldn’t expect from his fine, uncalloused hands and beardless, angled jaw. Like most Kindred of his race and age, Buck’s skin is alabaster pale and completely flawless. His hair is a shade of light brown that would seem unremarkable if not for its silky sheen… also a result of his vampiric nature. It falls just across his eyes, roughly parted on the left side and perfectly tousled at all times. Buck’s face is narrow; a thin, straight nose, gently arched brows (not generally visible under his bangs), slightly pointed chin, his mouth well-shaped but not full. There’s not a trace of stubble anywhere, either, which gives him a distinctly youthful air despite his advanced years. Buck would be almost unremarkable were it not for one feature: his luminous golden eyes. Twin pools of molten, glimmering, multi-faceted gold and yellow and amber and something almost white. These incredible eyes are the reason Buck keeps his bangs so long: the shadows and fringe do much to camouflage his heavy, hypnotic gaze. At first glance, it is always Buck’s eyes that mark him as something supernatural. Even in a dimension like Orrace, where strangely and brightly colored eyes are pretty much the norm, Buck’s gaze is still generally found unnerving and unusual. Truly, it’s the complex power which lies directly behind that shimmering stare in Buck’s brain that lends them their supernatural light.[/indent] [b]History[/b] [hider=Ancient History] [indent]Inviticus Julius Maximian was the son of a well-to-do Roman farmer. He was born and raised in the Po Valley region of what is modern-day Italy. Maximian did well for himself and his family. By age 21 he was married to Tryphosa, an enchantingly beautiful redhead and the fourth daughter of a very wealthy merchant, with whom he had a three year-old son named Velius. Though Maximian’s plot of land was not exceptionally large, nor his herd of cattle unusually numerous, the land he owned was rich and yielded big, healthy crops. His cattle were a strain originating many generations ago in his family: sweet-tempered, healthy, yielding beautiful meat and rich milk. His handful of slaves and hired servants were carefully picked and thoroughly, kindly trained. He treated them all exceedingly well and was rewarded with their not only their best efforts, but also their genuine admiration. He was intelligent, with a good head for both agriculture and business, an even temper and a kind but firm hand in most of his personal relationships. All in all, Maximian was well-disposed to leading a long and happy life with his family. Maximian’s mother died of a fever when he was a toddler, and while he did not have a close relationship with his stepmother, he adored his younger half-brothers and half sister. One thing his family had never kept or bred were horses, and Maximian had been eager to show off the still-green four year old colt he’d purchased as a foundation stallion for his own herd. Though Tryphosa cautioned him to take one of the more well-trained horses that day to his brother’s house, Maximian had assured her that the young stallion would suit just fine for the short ride. He’d kissed her goodbye in the thin yellow rays of dawn, stroked her burnished copper curls fondly, and then rode off into the promise of the day. And Maximian never saw his wife or son again. The flashy cremello stallion of which Maximian was so proud did indeed perform admirably on the way to his brother’s house, and most of the way home. Unfortunately, the young horse had never been ridden in darkness. When Maximian attempted to cross the last bridge on the journey home, a scant three miles from safety, the horse managed to throw him. Maximian struck his head on the side of the bridge and fell into the deep stream below. Unconscious, he sank to the bottom as his stallion fled into the night. Maximian would have died then, if someone hadn’t been following him. When the young Roman regained consciousness, he was laying on thick and comfortable sleeping cushions… but locked in a cage of wood and iron that looked to have been made for a lion. He could lay and sit, but not stand. In the coming days he would learn that his ‘savior’ was a vampire named Vincentius. He’d been a physician of dubious standing before being turned, and now had built a coven of them beneath the ruined city of Pompeii. Maximian learned that vampires who are not sired by one another share a faint telepathic bond, and that there is an automatic bond between the sire and fledgling that forces the new vampire to obey his maker’s will no matter what. Vincentius had been trying to use his group of vampires to sire a new breed of vampire collectively: he wanted to see if it was possible to create a Kindred bound to none and able to “hear” all others. Though he did not say so outright, Maximian suspected that Vincentius wanted to use this new vampire for his own personal gain, somehow. The farmer was also horrified to learn that the coven had been trying to create this vampire for more than three years, and had experienced only loss. Nearly two hundred men had met their bloody, painful deaths at the fangs of Pompeii Coven and failed to rise again. Maximian despaired and refused food or drink, trying to starve himself before they could attempt it on him. Vincentius didn’t give him enough time. Maximian endured the elaborate pre-change rituals, and then the pain of sixty pairs of fangs piercing him in turn. He was forced and coaxed into drinking the blood of nearly all of them, save for three who terrified Maximian enough to send him into inconsolable screaming fits. As a result, he drank twice from the three oldest vampires in the coven: an unassuming brunette man going by the Roman name Appius, a raven-haired female with incredibly gentle blue eyes called only Ari, and an unusually tall, stocky male with olive skin and deep brown hair and eyes named Tinacles. In this alone Maximian differed from all the others, and apparently this was the key. Where all the other innocent men kidnapped by Vincentius had died… he lived. After three days in an unusually long death-sleep, Maximian rose again. As Vincentius had hoped, the newborn fledgling was not bound by the Maker’s Will to any of the Coven’s vampires and could hear each and every one of their minds. In an attempt to then bind Maximian to the Coven and gain control of his unusual, powerful mind, Vincentius ordered that Maximian be entombed in a sleeping catacomb for days on end and only let out long enough to be fed from the ten most powerful vampires in the group. It made him incredibly strong and hungry almost to a point of madness. When he was finally released to feed upon something other than powerful vintage vitae, Maximian immediately killed the first prey he came across on the journey to town for a human: a beautiful male deer. It earned him the nickname Buck… which has followed him through the centuries. Vincentius’ attempt to make Buck loyal to the Coven was ultimately in vain. Though Buck was fond of several older vampires, and purposely spared them, he beheaded Vincentius and burned a majority of the Coven in their catacombs. Maximian contemplated returning home to visit Tryphosa and Velius one last time, but Ari convinced him that this would only hurt him and endanger his loved ones. Uninitiated in proper vampiric society and assuming he’d be hunted by other vampires for such a slaughter, Buck fled east. Several years later he found a Buddhist monk who’d been vampirized against his will, and the story of a Roman farmer named Maximian ended so the story of Buck the Vampire could begin.[/indent][/hider] [hider=More Recent History] [indent]Buck the Vampire was living on the fringes of the shadow world that co-existed with Earth’s human society in America near the end of the nineteen forties. Under the fabricated identity of Maxwell Oldham III, Buck owned an international shipping company with home offices in Norway, an Indian-based manufacturing company, and a rather successful nationwide American real-estate company with offices in New York and San Francisco. He was quite happy with his personal and professional lives when his vampire life interfered in a powerful and dangerous manner. Thanks to Buck’s destruction of the Pompeii Coven, all evidence of his creation was lost. As a result, he managed to live out his long ages concealing the fact that his five hundredth year as a vampire passed unmarked by a very important ceremony. Vampire society answers to a group of the twenty one oldest members of the vampire race. They are called, simply and unimaginatively, the Council of Elders. It was traditionally necessary to bind the older and stronger members of the vampire race to this Council through the exchange of blood. Those who do not go willingly are eventually found and given a choice: the blood or the sun. It is, however, occasionally lucky for vampire society that some escape the notice of the Order to grow old and powerful without being bound. Such an instance where the Order would be glad to see this bondless vampire would be in the event that the eldest member of the Council should become irredeemably insane and not feel the need to fling himself into a fire. This was exactly what happened in the fall of 1944, and the Order found they needed a powerful vampire they did not know existed… and they needed him to assassinate the vampire who was essentially their king. No creature bound to him would be able to commit the crime. Reluctantly, The Roman agreed to perform the feat, on conditions of anonymity and continued unbound status. The mad Elder’s blood was still wet on Buck’s hands when the new Elder betrayed him and did her best to force a Bond. The Roman managed to escape, but the Order (powerful and well-supplied lapdogs of the Council) hunted him mercilessly through the remainder of ‘44. In February of 1945, Buck was approached by a fellow bondless vampire (though this one through ordinary diablerie - the consumption of one’s sire) and directed to an agent of the Orrace Institute. They were willing to provide paperwork to the Order that Buck had been irrevocably transported to an off-Earth exile (for which they would claim the price on his head), though contrary to this they privately offered him a standard asylum agreement which included one free transportation back to his home dimension at a future time, whenever the vampire deemed it was safe. He was allowed to bring a substantial portion of his wealth along with him, though it was to be paid out in trust fund increments every few years to ensure the stability of Orrace’s fragile economy. Buck agreed, and left his remaining accounts and holdings in the hands of a capable, trusted friend. This friend also committed to memory the contact information for the Orrace Institute and vowed to update it every few years. She would be the one to send word when it was safe for him to come home. It took a few months for Buck to adjust to life in Orrace. Though the sunlight in his new home lacked the lethal qualities of Earth's day star, the ancient vampire was immediately faced with something far more deadly: boredom. Right up until he’d agreed to the assassination, he’d been the shadow CEO of multi-million dollar businesses, consuming himself with work so he wouldn’t notice how shallow and lackluster all of his sexual affairs were becoming. Suddenly he’d lost all three of his jobs and all five of his lovers and had nothing but decorating his modest home to consume his time. In the short weeks it took him to complete that one objective, Buck contemplated a vast array of career choices based on things he'd done in the past. Ultimately, the Cainite decided on a path he'd never walked before. He'd always wanted to try his hand at being a doctor but had never gotten around to actually completing a university program. The vampire's business pursuits had always been a more lucrative use of his time than doctoring, but Orrace did not offer any sort of industry on the scale to which he was accustomed. It did, however, demand that his next profession be both entertaining and emotionally satisfying. Medicine seemed an almost natural choice, and while the University of Orrace was rather small it was also unbelievably well-funded and staffed with incredibly talented teachers. The timeless man enjoyed his education very much, and was sad to see its conclusion. By the end of 1952, Buck had completed his Doctorate in Undead Medicine with specializations in Vampire Internal Medicine and General Basic Medicine. Qualified as a V.M.D. and a GMPN (Vampire Medical Doctor and General Medicine Practical Nurse), Buck had only one decision left to make: would he sign on at his teaching hospital, or would he apply at the asylum on the hill? It was Orrace General Hospital who made the decision for him. They were only willing to offer a part-time, rotating shift nurse position in the Emergency Room. Osmond’s Institute, on the other hand, was quite eager to have him. The asylum offered him a full-time, generously salaried position as a GMPN and Vampire Care Specialist. They came across with a full package, too: paid vacation and private healthcare benefits, an allowance to pay for his continuing education courses, on-site quarters, a full staff gym and cafeteria membership, and five live meals a year, one of which was guaranteed to be at least one quarter fae descent. The Institute wanted more than Buck’s professional services in return, however. They wanted to monitor Buck 24/7, even at his private residence, they wanted to know his original name and details of his transformation, they wanted to know the reason he’d come to Orrace, they wanted samples of his blood, hair and semen. The ancient vampire recruited an attorney to help him draft an employment agreement which neatly avoided all those things. Though his paid ally was one of the slimiest creatures Buck had ever met, the contract was brilliant and would be absolutely binding in any court, most especially the one in Orrace. As a political refugee, he was entitled to protect the story of his origins for both his safety and the safety of the Institute itself. Buck disclosed nothing more than his listed immigration name, Maxwell Oldham, his species as vampire, his gender as male, his age at approximately 1,500 years, and his original location as ‘Earth with exact interdimensional coordinates unknown’. No samples, no surveillance, no elaborate explanations of his history. Osmond’s accepted. For sixty-one years now, Buck has been a staff member at Osmond’s Institute. There are a lot of things he knows about Morgan and the Institute, and more than a few of those tidbits are things even he really wishes he didn’t know. That aside, Buck finds his medical career so far to be entertaining and interesting… though not always exactly fulfilling. It’s still enough to keep him from going mad while he waits for the all-clear from home.[/indent][/hider] [b]Personality[/b] [center][i]If I told you what I was, Would you turn your back on me? And if I seem dangerous, Would you be scared?[/center][/i] [indent]Most people/vampires/creatures who say they know Buck well do not realize that they hardly know him at all. After his long centuries, and all the experiences contained within, Buck has become an undisputable expert at closing all the doors in his heart and mind in order to show others only and exactly what he wants them to see. The Buck you know depends entirely on how Buck feels about you. On first meeting, he habitually presents himself as coolly polite, detached, often bordering on condescending, arrogant or uninterested. His bedside manner is crisp and informative, not exactly caring but certainly kind, and Buck has an exceptional knack for helping his patients to understand what the treatment plan is, and why. (Though in Osmond’s, his bedside manner and explanation of treatments are affected both by Institute policy and the level of madness in his patients.) Most of his fellow doctors and nurses find him every bit as antiseptic and sterile as their work environment: he never discusses his history or personal life, makes only the very rare (and usually quite dark) joke over an open chest, and completely shuns staff social functions. Women he meets in bars find him quite the smooth operator, a talented conversationalist while being exceptionally evasive about personal questions, but unfailingly they feel they are the focus of all his attention and that he genuinely cares for them in at least some small way. (It’s absolutely not true. They’re cheesburgers to him.) Anyone who betrays the Roman, does harm to him or to those few individuals he really does care for, will come to know the true meaning of a vengeful man. To these sorts of people, Buck is bloodthirsty, cruel, relentless, merciless, and absolutely single-minded in the pursuit of whatever justice he feels is due.[/indent] [center][i]Can I clear my conscience If I’m different from the rest? Do I have to run and hide? I never said I want this, This burden came to me And it’s made its home inside![/i][/center] [indent]For all the different facets of himself that Buck isolates and presents to the world, deep down in his core is a single vampire who is the sum of those parts. Somewhere locked inside the shell of stone and blood still lives the faintest ghost of a man born nearly two millennia ago. This specter misses the feel of rich earth crumbling in his palm, remembers the silky-soft skin of a red-haired woman, wonders about a little boy who grew and lived and died without a single memory of his father. This corpse is buried, well and good, under layers of earth and ash and grass that have been laid down while the vampire known as Buck was born, destroyed, and reborn over and over again. Yet from its deep grave this long-dead man still whispers faintly, in dreams and occasional snippets of memory, to the vampire who exists today. This sum of himself, this man he genuinely is, is rarely shown to anyone. He is demanding, not quite a perfectionist but expecting the best possible attempt, both from himself and others. He is a dominant personality and becomes uncomfortable in situations where he isn’t in control. He has a problem with authority: he will cooperate to an extent when it suits him, but at the slightest hint of abuse or misuse of power he begins to do exactly what he pleases regardless of the consequences he’s threatened with. He has a great sense of humor, albeit dry, sarcastic and dark. He can be generous, giving, and warm. He is considerate, polite, even-tempered, and almost unflappably calm. He’s logical, practical, and intelligent. Material possessions matter little and less to him, as he recognizes that he can literally own something long enough for it to crumble into dust no matter how he might try to preserve it. That being said, he greatly values comfort: all the chairs and sofas in his house are oversized and overstuffed, all his floors outside the bathroom and kitchen are double-padded plush carpet, his fancy foam mattress has a down topper on it, and he sleeps exclusively in high-end jersey cotton or micro-fleece pajama pants. Wealth and riches are also transitory things for him: he’s built and lost and rebuilt fortunes many times before. Though having cash at hand makes life much easier, he’s got no problem taking things that he wants… especially if they’re currently in the possession of some human asshole who doesn’t value them for what they’re worth. Yes, at times, even this sacred center of Buck can be a complete bastard: cold, calculating, cruel, heartless, always willing to do what must be done. He can be brutal, unforgiving, and quite violent. He does not relish confrontation but cannot deny what the heat of battle does for him. Buck always feels at his strongest and sharpest when he is engaged in some sort of struggle, especially towards the end. Buck knows that this bloodlust, this deep-seated need for pain and the taste of death, is the part of him which is strictly vampire and feels no human emotion. Though he has done his best to keep this aspect of himself in check, he worries that someday it will swallow him whole and leave no trace of the person he’s been for eons.[/indent] [center][i]A monster, a monster, I’ve turned into a monster! A monster, a monster, And it keeps getting stronger![/i][/center] [indent]What matters to Buck, in fact the thing that matters most, is something he hasn’t admitted in at least three hundred years: love. He loved Tryphosa, and still mourns the life he didn’t get to live with her. He also accepts that the sort of love which existed between them is something he will never have again. There will be no more children of his loins, no wrinkles or sun-spots will ever touch his face, his hair will never turn grey. The only way he will ever age is on the inside, an inconstant and uncertain process he barely understands himself… so how could he ever expect someone else to not only understand it, but go through it with him for the countless centuries it still may last? More, with every passing year Buck feels his humanity drifting a little farther away. He can feel himself slowly becoming less caring, less kind, less connected. It is well-known among vampires that a few close, strong bonds are necessary to maintain sanity through the long eons of time and Buck had to sever all of his when coming to Orrace in the first place. He knows enough of himself to recognize that love calls out the best of him, and without a reason to use that best he worries that the worst parts of him, the parts he uses most frequently now, will consume him. Buck does not fear death, nor pain, nor suffering. The only thing he has left to fear is losing every last piece of himself before the end comes at last.[/indent] [center][i]I’m only a man with a candle to guide me, I’m taking a stand to escape what’s inside me. A monster, a monster, I’ve turned into a monster.[/i][/center] [b]Sexual Orientation:[/b] Pansexual (With an admitted fondness for red-haired women.) [b]Capabilities[/b] [indent]Buck is incredibly strong: he can lift and throw an old-school steel pickup truck, he can bend small to medium-sized steel beams, and he can punch through six inches of concrete uninjured. (He’s capable of going through more, but will likely break some of the bones in his hands.) Buck is very, very fast: he can move at speeds that render more than a few forms of life incapable of marking his passage with their eyes. He very rarely fails to surprise a patient with a sedative injection in their hip, and the ones that do notice never do so in time to react and stop him. Buck has game-ender level hand-eye coordination. Yes, he can catch a bullet. And not a trick one, either, one meant to kill him. He absolutely owns at video games, archery, football, sharpshooting, swordfighting, and other things of that nature. Speaking of swordfighting, Buck has been expertly trained on most personal weaponry that has existed since Roman times. Mace, whip, sword, halberd, staff, spear, shield, knives, throwing stars, battle axe, etc. He’s an exceptional marksman, though shrugs this off as a result of his vampiric nature and says that guns are cheating. He’s a very skilled hand-to-hand combatant, having trained in numerous forms of martial arts, boxing and wrestling. Buck is a wonderful tracker, thanks to his exceptional Kindred senses. An exceptional telepathic sense of the minds around him, coupled with his sight, smell and hearing, makes it nearly impossible for someone to hide from him. Finally but most importantly (and powerfully) are Buck’s unique telepathic gifts. He can clearly read the minds of most humans, telepathic ones or not, as well as the minds of other vampires. Even those who are practiced and skilled at closing off their minds have a difficult time repelling a telepathic attack from the little vampire. Lupians (weres and anthropomorphic wolves) are more difficult, and generally only produce presences and emotions in his head. Fae tend to be the most skilled at blocking him, but when they fail their defenses crumble completely. Forms of life that do not have brains which are humanoid in any sense register only as a presence with weak notes of emotions. Angels, demons, and other divine-natured beings can have whole conversations with Buck inside their head but can also block him completely, and ‘drop off the radar’ so to speak. His telepathic powers enable Buck to completely dominate the will of a human, and usually the will of another vampire. This ability is effective in varying degrees in all other species, but at the very least Buck can usually manage to convey relaxing and soothing feelings to patients in distress no matter their psychosis. It makes him exceptionally efficient in a clinical setting, and he is often called into rooms where patients are losing their shit simply for his calming effect. Though it doesn’t really rank as an ‘ability’ of any extraordinary power, Buck is also a very capable physician and nurse. Were he to work at Orrace Hospital instead of Osmond’s Institute, he would likely have a very high success rate and patient satisfaction rating.[/indent] [b]Miscellany[/b] [indent]Buck is a skilled musician. He can play the violin, cello, flute, harp, several sorts of drums, guitar, piano, and has a lovely tenor voice. Much to his chagrin, Buck is quite the seamstress and has, out of necessity, learned how to sew, knit, and even weave. Though Buck identifies as pansexual, his most likely partner for a one night stand would be a petite female. Buck’s smile is usually false, and intended as a gesture of intimidation that shows his sharp fangs. It is exceptionally rare for anyone outside his inner circle to make him laugh, and the ability to do so is generally one of the first traits that draws Buck to a new ally or friend. Buck has completely forgotten when his human birthday was, and is not entirely sure on exactly what day of the year he was born into unlife. He generally remembers celebrating his birthday sometime in late summer, near the end of July or in early August, but he's not confident in that guess. He says that New Year's Eve is enough celebration to mark the passing of yet another year, and never feels a need to throw a party literally to celebrate the day he was born. A few things Buck doesn’t admit about himself: first, he is terribly lonely, especially since coming to Orrace. He’s rather susceptible to someone who values him for who and what he actually might be instead of who they assume he is. He’s a highly likely to spot a fraud, but a little genuine affection would go a long way to securing his good graces and possibly his own affection in return. Second, though he has little respect for humans, lupians and other vampires, Buck is quite interested by and respectful of alien races, most especially those who are not humanoid in any way. This is part of what he likes best about his job: the opportunity to meet and interact with creatures that he never could have even dreamed of. Lastly, Buck adores the Fae. These are creatures who, like vampires, endure for nearly eternal periods of time. Yet, unlike vampires, they are bound to light instead of darkness and still have the ability to reproduce. He secretly thinks to himself that he’d be a better Fae than he is a vampire.[/indent] [b]OOC Notes[/b] [indent]This is Buck, version 2.0. I don’t think anyone who’s still around will remember, but Buck was originally an NPC for Twisted, who I intended to use as a complimentary character for one Remington Black. It quickly became apparent to me that I couldn’t use Buck as an NPC and share him with others, and the longer Twisted went on, the richer Buck’s backstory became. The more I got to know him as a character, the more I liked him. Eventually, he eclipsed Remington and became my primary character and his position as a nurse became essential to my in-game power during my time as a GM. As you can probably tell by the tremendous length (and hopefully the depth) of his character sheet, I now have a much better idea of who he is and how he operates. In this second version of the character, all but the last two hundred years or so of his history have remained unchanged. I have completely edited out the previous love story that brought him to Osmond’s in the last Twisted, and thus removed the contractual employment obligations to the Institute he had in his last run. I have also removed Remington. Though the Big Guy was an essential part of Buck’s creation, Buck no longer needs that mirror in which to see himself. Furthermore, much of his character development was romantically focused and I feel that I spent very little time exploring any of the other aspects of Buck’s personality. Between changing the employment contract and removing Remy, I have dealt a serious blow to the power Morgan Osmond holds over my vampy boy. This, too, I feel is important to the course I would like to see in the new version of the RP. If he seems overpowered, it’s because I need him to be, and you can rest assured that I will not God-Mod with him except in a GM capacity should it become necessary to the continued health of the roleplay. (In his last incarnation he had some pretty wicked awesome fights with patients. Ask Pumirya!) I also feel like the heavily romantic storyline of the last Buck was (more likely than not) totally out-of-character for him. When prompted, I could not offer a believable explanation for what it was that made Buck love his lost fledgling so much and focus so hard on Remington. The best I could come up with was something… [i]acceptable.[/i] Though his largest personal motivations are still based on love, this time around it will be an invisible element instead of such an overpowering one. The updated Buck has a much better Osmond’s arrival story and a much better perspective of the place. I feel like I’m going to have a lot of fun this time around in getting to know the aspects of Buck which are darkly amused by suffering, interested in learning about the homeworlds of unique species, and how he really behaves towards people who he genuinely does not care about. I’m so excited to play Buck again that I think it’s going to be my driving factor in getting the Twisted Reboot done quickly! The theme songs for Buck's creation and character are: - [i]Immortal[/i], Eve to Adam (Overall Character) - [i]Monster[/i], Imagine Dragons (Personality) - [i]Broken Crown[/i], Mumford and Sons (History) - [i]Pompeii[/i], Bastille (Overall Character) [/indent]