Rayth Mascorro
The Reaper
Age
106
Appeared Age
17
Sex
Male
Race
Vampire/Human
Circus Role
Blade Master (performs tricks with anything from daggers to scythes)
Birthdate
January 23, 1912
Birthplace
Albuquerque, New Mexico
Known Languages
English, Spanish
Appearance
Born to a vampire mother and a human father, Rayth has characteristics belonging to both races. Of his Hispanic father, he inherited a tan skin tone and thick, unruly hair as well as a few other general facial features belonging to Hispanic people. Of his vampire mother, he inherited striking blood-red irises and a relatively clear complexion.
For his physical build, he stands at about 5’11” and has a lean body type that is athletic, but not overly muscular. His innate fitness and lower weight are both traits that he gained from his mother as well.
Most of the time, he leaves his hair down and uncombed, however when he needs to keep it out of his face for his circus performance or anything else that requires his vision to be clear, he pins it back in a haphazard ponytail.
Distinguishing Marks
Mole above the upper right side of his lip; Fanged canines; Adorned with a large tribal tattoo across his right bicep that extends up his shoulder and down across the entire right side of his body. The tattoo was done by another member of the circus and functions as an aesthetic for his part in the show.
Clothes
Day to day, Rayth prefers to wear comfortable clothes such as t-shirts and blue jeans. Most of his shirts are darkly colored and/or printed with logos for alternative rock bands that he likes to listen to. His style could be described as a classic ‘teenage boy’ look.
His circus outfit consists of a pair of black pants and a red, satin sash that he wears tied around his waist. Doesn’t wear anything on his upper body to show off the tattoo on his abdomen.
Accessories
Wears a silver spearhead pendant strung on a leather necklace that was passed down to him by his father.
Paints his face with a black tribal pattern for circus acts.
Weapons
Extensive knowledge of blades, but currently only uses them for the purpose of his circus act. For actual self-defense, he’s spent years learning the ins and outs of Krav Maga (Israeli street fighting) that is enhanced by his own supernatural abilities and reflexes.
Personality
Despite having lived for just over a century, Rayth has maintained a child-like energy and enthusiasm for life. He hasn’t had the easiest go of it, but he’s determined to make the most of the hand he’s been dealt, and refuses to be a victim of his troubled past. He has a sharp sense of humor and an easygoing demeanor that make him likeable company to be around. Unfortunately for him, most of the other monsters in the circus are not social creatures, and they find him more troublesome than anything else. With so much energy and nowhere to spend it, he often does get himself into trouble when the circus isn’t performing to the point where the ringmaster has forbidden him from leaving the grounds alone for his own safety.
Major Positive Traits
Observant
Highly aware of his environment and the people in it. There isn’t much that slips past his watchful gaze, which helps him in dangerous situations and even in more benign cases where he just needs to be conscious of someone else’s body language.
Courageous
Rayth has a “leap before you think” mentality. While it can get him into trouble at times, it also helps him from overthinking a situation he’s capable of handling.
Quick-Witted
Not just useful for making sharp comebacks in an argument, his quick wit has saved him on multiple occasions when he found himself trapped in situations he didn’t expect. He is also skilled at thinking on his feet in a fight and making snap decisions about whether to stay or flee.
Flexible
Rayth doesn’t need a plan to be successful. He’s good at decision-making on the go and adapting to a situation in the moment if a plan doesn’t seem to be working anymore.
Major Negative Traits
Short Attention Span
While he has a keen eye for his surroundings, he isn’t great at staying focused on any one thing for very long. If something “shinier” comes along, his attention is apt to derail from whatever it was on before and transition to whatever seems more interesting or entertaining in the moment.
Bad Liar
Fidgety by nature, Rayth has a number of physical tics that tend to give him away when he tries to lie including: hesitating/fumbling over words, avoiding eye contact, shifting his weight back and forth, and toying with his clothing or hair.
Impulsive
Probably his biggest weakness, Rayth isn’t good at controlling his impulses. He tends to come up with ideas that seem foolproof at a glance, but when put into action get him into trouble.
Temperamental
Extending from his impulsiveness, Rayth can also be hotheaded. He is passionate about his convictions and isn’t afraid to defend himself if he’s accused of something he doesn’t believe he did wrong. This quality is heightened when it’s been a while since the last time he’s fed on human blood.
Physical Abilities
Supernatural Strength and Speed
Mostly self-explanatory. He is both stronger and faster than pureblooded human beings because of the abilities he inherited from his vampire mother.
Enhanced Reflexes
Similar to his heightened strength and speed, Rayth is also much quicker to react than a human could ever hope to be. His reflexes are fast enough that he can catch an arrow with ease and even dodge a bullet if he focuses hard enough.
Heightened Senses
All of Rayth’s senses are more powerful than a human’s. He can see farther, hear better, and smell more sharply. However, none of these skills are overly useful to him at the moment, since they all function as part of his predatory nature and he lives amongst monsters who do the work of gathering prey for everyone.
Fast Healer
Aside from wounds received from silver, Rayth is able to fully heal from most wounds within the span of a week without scarring. The only injuries he is unable to recover from are those which sever a body part or are immediately fatal.
Durability
Falls that would break bones in most people often only leave him with cuts and bruises, and he has endurance to run for miles at a sprinting pace.
Physical Weaknesses
Strength and Speed
While he is stronger and faster than a pureblooded human, he is no match for some of the other monsters in the circus. In fights against other supernatural creatures, he has to rely more on his learned skills rather than his innate abilities.
Enhanced Senses
While mostly good, his senses are sometimes a double-edged sword. If a scent or sound is too overwhelming to him, he can be left frozen and unable to function in a dire situation.
Racial Weaknesses
Silver
While its effects are diminished because of his human blood, Rayth still has an innate weakness to the touch of silver. He is able to handle the metal with ease as long as it stays on the outside of his body, but if it breaks the surface of his skin, it causes him intense pain and can leave a burn mark that takes longer to heal than regular wounds.
Sunlight
Similar to the effects of silver, sunlight doesn’t bother Rayth as much as it does other vampires because of his mixed blood. He is able to stand in direct sunlight during the day, but he can’t be exposed to it for longer than about an hour or two at a time (depending on the time of day) before it begins to burn his exposed skin. Concentrated UV rays harm him immediately.
Bloodlust
The one weakness Rayth inherited from his mother that is just as strong in him as it is in any of his kind is his thirst for human blood. When he smells it, he can become frenzied and lose sight of himself in his overwhelming desire to feed. He also grows weak when he goes too long without drinking any and can even exhibit symptoms of illness (headache, dizziness, nausea, etc).
Mental Weaknesses
Envy
With one foot in two separate worlds, Rayth often feels like he doesn’t belong in either of them. He harbors a deep seeded jealousy for pureblooded humans and monsters who know their places in the world. This manifests itself in the form of hidden insecurity in himself and is also a sore spot when brought up in conversation. If mentioned in a mocking or insulting manner, he might lose his temper and be drawn into a fight. The title “half breed” specifically irks him.
Fears
Autophobia
Stemming from his father’s death, Rayth is afraid of finding himself alone. He needs others around for both company and a sense of protection in a world that hates and fears monsters such as himself.
Claustrophobia
Somewhat ironic considering the stereotypes about vampires sleeping in coffins, Rayth is actually afraid of tight, enclosed spaces. If he ever finds himself in one, he has a panic attack and has to talk himself out of it.
Thanatophobia
Immortality is a surprisingly fragile thing. Even though as a vampire, Rayth is technically immortal, he knows he can still be killed by a well-placed silver stake. Because of this, he has what he likes to think is a healthy fear of death.
Quirks
Fidgety
To burn off some of his excess energy, Rayth fidgets quite a bit. He almost always has to keep his hands occupied and will pick up small objects (rocks, twigs, loose cobblestone, etc.) wherever he finds them. He also paces when he thinks and has a nervous habit of running his tongue over his fangs if he’s feeling anxious or especially eager about something.
Falls Asleep Easily
For Rayth, falling asleep is almost a talent in itself. He has the sleeping habits of a military man, able to slip unconscious in a matter of minutes even if he just lays down on a cold, stone floor. However, while he can sleep easily, he isn’t narcoleptic. He has full control over when he decides to sleep, and doesn’t pass out spontaneously.
Lounges in Strange Positions
Rayth finds comfort in usual positions when he’s lounging around. One of his most common stations is when he lays flat on his back with his head lolling off the edge of a surface. He enjoys the feeling of the blood rush and finds that it relaxes him.
Forgetful
Relating to his short attention span, Rayth is often forgetful of information that he doesn’t deem important enough to remember. As such, he tends to lose track of his things and can’t tie names to faces very well.
Daydreamer
Rayth spends a lot of his time daydreaming, especially since the other monsters in the circus aren’t very social during their down time between shows. Puzzling over the things of the world that he doesn’t understand gives him something to occupy his mind and keeps him out of trouble.
Family
Gabriel Mascorro (1892-1975)
Ilene Guisseau (1787-1930)
Other
Rayth found a Rubik’s cube once and it was pretty much the best day of his life. Unfortunately, he lost it after about a week and hasn’t been able to locate it since.
Bio
As the son of a human father and a vampire mother, Rayth has always had a foot in two worlds. He was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico within a month of the state’s inception as part of the Union. Because of this, his childhood was a complicated one. His mixed Hispanic-European blood brought conflict with other humans, and his “half breed” genes made him an outcast among other supernatural creatures. With nowhere else to turn to, he grew close to his parents and his father’s family, all of whom were the only ones that seemed to accept him for who he was.
Rayth lived in a large, communal home with his family for the next sixteen years of his life. Though he didn’t get to leave often, he found the time to be peaceful. He got along well with his cousins, and his aunts and uncles were fond of him. However, all of that changed in the summer of 1928 when he experienced his first vampiric frenzy.
When the weather had cooler during the monsoon season, he and his younger cousin, Antonio, had gone outside to play horseshoes. While they were out, a few boys from a nearby European-American settlement saw them and started shouting racial slurs. Antonio wanted to go back to the house to get away from their jeers, but Rayth, always the hothead, refused to run without standing his ground first. Naturally, his stubbornness led to a fight.
In the middle of the scrap, Antonio landed a punch to one of the bullies’ faces that caused his nose to break. The sudden and intense smell of blood was too much for Rayth, sending him into an uncontrolled mania in which he nearly killed the boy and even attacked his cousin when he tried to pull him off of the kid.
At the time, his parents had been out on an errand, but his aunt was close enough to overhear the commotion. She came outside to break up the scuffle and was shocked to find Antonio defending himself from a frenzied Rayth while the bloodied European boys fled from the scene in terror. Frightened that the half-vampire would kill her son, she struck him in the head with a broom handle. The pain of the blow was enough to make him come back to his senses, but by that time, the damage had already been done.
Still panicked from what she had just witnessed, his aunt gathered Antonio into her arms and screamed at Rayth to leave, and he was too dazed and confused from the mania to argue with her. Instead, he turned and ran, shocked by what he’d done to his cousin. He had nowhere to go, but he was too ashamed to return to his family, so he headed into the city to take shelter in an alley.
This was where his mother found him later that night. As soon as she heard what had happened, she sought him out and reassured him that what he’d gone through was normal for their kind and that it meant he had come of age as a vampire. Her promises to teach him how to handle his bloodlust were what helped him move on from the trauma of attacking Antonio.
Unfortunately, his family wasn’t so quick to forget. Worried that Rayth was too dangerous to be around, they asked him and his parents to move out.
For the next two years, they lived together in a small home on a Pueblo Indian reservation, where Rayth’s mother began to teach him more about what made him different as a half-vampire. With the lessons, he finally began to feel more comfortable in his skin. Though he didn’t have any particular group he could fit in with—monsters or humans; Latinos or Europeans—he gained some confidence in his individuality—
Just enough to be torn down again when she died.
On a cold night in the fall of 1930, Ilene went out to satisfy her own thirst for blood. While she was gone, she was found and killed by two hunters who happened to catch her with her fangs in the throat of her victim. Rayth and his father didn’t know what had happened until she didn’t return the next day.
Frightened that the hunters would come for his son next, Gabriel begged his family to let them move back in, swearing that no harm would come to them now that Rayth had learned to better handle his bloodlust. The rest of the Mascorro reluctantly agreed to take them in.
Rayth lived with his father’s family for the next thirty-five years, but even though he was safe with them, he no longer felt at home. By this time, he had stopped visibly aging. When his cousins all entered their forties and fifties, he still looked like he was in his late teens. No one ever said anything about it, but he could tell they were bothered by his perpetual youth. So, when his father passed away in 1975, he left of his own accord, deciding to build his own life independent from his human relatives.
He managed to get by until early 2018, when he was found and attacked by a group of hunters in a fight that he barely escaped with his life. Rattled by the experience, he reverted to the habit he’d been taught by his family: To seek safety in numbers.
Luckily for him, it was that same week when he happened to stumble across a circus filled with all sorts of supernatural creatures who took him into their protection. He’s been traveling with them ever since.
