Very important question. Could Gael have convinced anyone hypothetically to carry him up the last miles to Dracula's Castle. Because he is very smol and the path is very long and he would not have been too pleased to have to make it all the way there on his little toddler legs.
@Loony It’s cool, but thank you for the offer! Don’t Starve has always been a blast to play, but I’ll admit I prefer the multiplayer version over single.
@Loony I've always wanted to do an Epithet Erased/Anime Campaign thing, but every time I try to find a group it just falls apart for some reason. Also, I love your Rando icon, by the by!
@Loony I would be heavily interested in joining a campaign, either text based or otherwise, although since I've never played tabletop before I might need a little guidance if it goes that route, haha.
Name: Gael Valentine. Also known as the Antichrist, the Beast, the Abomination of Desolation, etcetera, etcetera. Take your pick, he’s tickled by all of them.
Inspiration: The Village of the Damned, The Omen, all the movies with creepy little spawns of darkness.
Appearance: Gael is a young child, around five or so, with curly blond hair and wide, chocolate brown eyes. He’s small for his age, and there’s nothing about him that openly suggests what kind of a creature he truly is; in fact, with his sweet face and shy smile, he looks downright cherubic, if not uncannily...doll-like, sometimes. His teeth are just a little too sharp, however. And that smile of his can look disturbingly hungry at times. And his eyes- well, it’s probably nothing. When using his powers, the disguise slips further, those same eyes of his glowing like a pair of embers.
Prolonged use of his powers can have...interesting effects.
He dresses much more neatly than any normal little boy, however, preferring suits, coats, and, oddly enough, ribbons. He does so adore ribbons and bows. He also likes to pick jackets and such that are just a mite too large for him, to make him seem even smaller than he actually is. The effect altogether only amplifies the doll-ness to him, to say the least.
Abilities/ Skills: Cunning: Gael’s strongest strength by far is his intelligence. He’s clever and fiercely manipulative, reading into those around him to try and figure out what drives them and makes them tick. Of course, he’s also well-aware of his innocent appearance, and uses it to his advantage. One of his favorite tricks is to play at being a scared child, and either lure victims in, or convince them to do something for him. Gael is quite proud of his acting abilities for that reason.
Psychic: Gael is capable of various feats, but none to any major extent. He can levitate small objects and himself and create small fires, but he can’t do anything particularly impressive. His strongest ability is his ability to read people, and influence them. Much like his father, Gael has an innate sense for what a person’s base desires might be, and he can give them a little “nudge” to do certain things. However, he can’t make anyone do what they wouldn’t have already done to begin with, and he can’t force people to do anything. Free will is something he can’t tamper with, after all. Additionally, if someone knows what he can do or is up to, they can pick up on that little nudge.
Aura: The darkness in people’s hearts just seems to come out more than usual when he’s around. Sinners might find themselves a little drawn to him.
Hard to Kill: It’s lucky for Gael that he’s a real pain to kill. Though he’s about as physically strong and capable as a regular little boy, it takes more than a bullet or a particularly rough smack on the head to put him out of commission. Holy objects, and the faith behind them, can expose his true form and make life considerably less pleasant for him.
History: Compared to the other beings on the Council of the Night, Gael is a recent addition.
Namely, because he wasn’t born all that long ago.
His mother, Anita, was a human woman- more of a girl, really. She was an aspiring actress, dreaming about the day where she would become famous, where she could go back home and spit in the faces of all the people who said she couldn’t, that she would never amount to anything. Of course, it was a lot easier said than done to become a star. There was always someone better, after all. Someone with a thinner waist or poutier lips, someone who could say the lines with just enough purr (no, that was too much, too much, I’m sorry). She was alone and unrecognized, and when Anita was tottering on the brink of despair, Gael’s father approached her.
If she did this one little favor for him, he whispered to her, she would become a star. No- there would be nobody who wouldn’t know her face. She would be a legend.
Desperate, Anita accepted, and went on to become the mother of the antichrist.
Her career boomed afterwards. She got her first gigs. She starred in a few advertisements, then a few shows, and, in the blink of an eye, her first movies. She even found herself a husband, one who smiled at her whenever he saw her, who hugged her and thought nothing less of her for being a single mother.
Gael was only a year old when tragedy struck. After receiving a hysterical phone call from the Valentine residence, police reported to find a massacre. Several friends of the Valentines were found dead, alongside Anita’s husband. They found Anita themselves locked up in the bathroom, clutching her child to her chest and babbling incomprehensibly. With some coaxing, Anita managed to explain that her husband and gone mad at a house party, and was responsible for the murders.
They believed her, of course. The murders had been so horrible, so ghastly, that they dominated the headlines. Every gory little detail. The blood. The limbs. The bite marks. So horrid. It was so traumatic, in fact, Anita lost her mind.
Poor Anita. Poor, poor baby. The Valentines became a household name, spoken about with equal parts sympathy and apathy. Anita, at least, had achieved her dream of becoming famous.
As for the child...the sad little creature’s name was changed, but it seemed that misfortune seemed to follow him wherever he went. Neighborhoods withered or turned against each other. Adults became paranoid or violent- either towards the poor little boy they took in, or anyone they might’ve already carried resentment towards.
It didn’t take long for Gael to become something not unlike a cuckoo. People would naturally seek to help the poor little boy, and for the most part, would come to regret it. In what little time that he has been alive, he has wandered quite far, sowing chaos and, in many cases, leaving his fair share of bodies behind (only rarely by his hand). He managed to snag the attention of a certain vampire, and when approached with the offer to join the Council, Gael accepted.
Gael is well aware that his status as a newcomer, as well as his tender age, puts him at a severe disadvantage. Nobody wants to listen to a child, after all, let alone be on equal footing with one. But charisma runs in the family, and he’s of the belief that this little power struggle that’s come about is the perfect time to bend a few ears his way.
Goals: Though Gael’s status as the Antichrist arguably puts a heavy destiny on his shoulders, he has little interest in apocalypses or world domination or what-have-you at the moment. At the end of the day, Gael is still a child, and what he strives for the most is entertainment (on top of his own survival, of course). Joining the council seemed like a delightful way of going about that.
Notes: He doesn’t have the resources or networks that many other Council members have backing them. A young boy can’t exactly run a business or own his own bank account, after all. This means that, until he’s older, he’s unfortunately dependent on others to do things for him.
Gael is also still a little baby antichrist. His powers are still woefully nowhere near the levels he would like them to be.
While he can’t remember too much about Anita, he still thinks fondly of her.
@Polyphemus Yeah, there was a bit of Rosemary's Baby thrown in there, good eye! When making the whole backstory with Gael's mom my thought was essentially "well I doubt that the actual devil of all people is going to be straightforward about wishes", so I went with more of a Monkey's Paw feel. I'm glad you like him! I look forward to using him.
I'm EchoicChamber, though I mostly go by Echo.
I'm in my twenties, and returned here on a whim.
I have no idea what's happening at any given moment.
<div style="white-space:pre-wrap;">I'm EchoicChamber, though I mostly go by Echo. <br>I'm in my twenties, and returned here on a whim.<br>I have no idea what's happening at any given moment. </div>
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