New Babylon Zelman Clock App

[eyes_on_fire]

PLAYER INFORMATION

Player name: Laurelas, or just Laure
Age: 34
Player's journal: quixotic_dreamer
Email Address: reflected.stasis@gmail.com
Other Contact Information: AIM: same as gmail
Played Characters: N/A


CHARACTER INFORMATION

Canon: Black Blood Brothers
Name: “Crimson-Eyed” Zelman Clock (eyes_on_fire)
Age: Looks about 18, is actually over 800 years old.
Canon point: Episode 10 of the anime.

History: The Wiki

Canon History: While we know that Zelman is well over 800 years old and the oldest vampire in the Special Zone, we don't actually know much more than that about Zelman's past. What we do know is that Zelman was alive and in Poland in the thirteenth century, when he was given the Kiss of Death at a young age, probably between sixteen and eighteen given his appearances. Unfortunately, Poland of that time was economically, socially, and religiously fragmented – full of unstable internal conflicts and plagued with civil strife, religious upheaval, and foreign invasion.

And it was during this time that the ‘Old Blood’ vampire, the “War God” Asura, sired him. It’s unknown how long he lived in Asura’s House after that, but it’s estimated that within roughly a century there was a war within this ‘Chaos’ bloodline that demanded his descendants prove their worth – as such, Zelman was the last vampire standing in the end. He is the last descendant and strongest of his bloodline, and the inheritor of the God Flames. After this, he’s been considered by the vampire world as the Hunter of the Ancient Night, the Child of the Fire God, and the Crimson-Eyed Prince.

There is little to no information about him between these events and the start of the anime – roughly 700 years’ worth of personal history, though for headcanon purposes, I will say that he spent his time traveling across Europe and Asia, building various networks and profiting off of conflict, war, and eventually organized criminal activity to stave off boredom in the lull that followed the war within his House.

And then The Kowloon Shock happened in Hong Kong.

Unfortunately for Zelman, he wasn’t there for that battle – possibly in Tibet at the time – but it was this conflict that confirmed the existence of vampires to the human population, thanks to the new and epidemic circumstances surrounding the creation of the Kowloon Children who, unlike the Old Blood vampires, don’t need to intentionally bestow the Kiss of Death (which involves feeding the human some of the vampire’s blood) in order to turn a human into a vampire. All the Kowloon need to do is bite their victim (Human OR Vampire alike) and they’ll turn - even if they were drained dry. It was in that battle between the Old Blood and the New that the Silver Blade, Jirou Mochizuki, killed the Kowloon King, whose ‘children’ were brought to the point of near-extinction before the Special Zone was created within a barrier that kept the Kowloon off of the island as a secret ‘haven’ for the remaining vampires – even as the media reported the complete eradication of vampires to cover the existence of the remaining Houses.

It was shortly after the Special Zone was established that Zelman arrived there. He didn’t waste time upon arrival – he immediately began gathering humans and vampires alike, regardless of the station or status of them. Broken bloodlines or street thugs – they’re all the same to him. Weak needing protection that he could use for his own purposes in order to create his own faction outside the main Houses: The crime syndicate called The Coven.

The Coven is notoriously lawless and his reach long through them, giving him connections on every level of society in the Special Zone, through all the Yards (districts within the zone). It was their presence and his influence throughout the city that earned him a seat with the city officials in less than ten years.

However, once The Coven was established, he lost interest in their daily mechanizations – in what I figure is a pattern for him, he simply got what he needed and got bored. Everything fell into a system of operations, there was little to no open conflict, and his attention drifted away from the mundane workings of his Coven. He found temporary amusement by taunting his human assistant, Sayuka, knowing of her desire to be the only human he fed from, though it wasn’t enough to alleviate the tedium of what life in the Special Zone had become for him.

And then Jirou returned with his little brother Kotarou, who is the reincarnation of Alice Eve, one of the two Source Bloods for all vampires.

While the other Houses turned Jirou away, Zelman welcomed them freely and even went so far as to tell them they had a standing welcome in his House, despite his Second-in-Command attacking them openly in the middle of the crowded float market. To him… both brothers were fascinating in their own ways and Jirou the harbinger of interesting times in the foreseeable future. His offer was politely declined by Kotarou, who stated that while he liked Zelman, Zelman was a ‘bad guy’ and he and his brother would rather fight for justice! Instead. If anything, this only served to pique Zelman’s interest even more, which prompted him to leave the offer on the table and say that he was looking forward to their next meeting, regardless of whether they were enemies or not.

Later, once Cassa Warlock entered the Special Zone and attempted a second Kowloon uprising, he busied himself helping a lost Kotarou find Mimiko and stopping Cassa from biting the Compromiser. He used his flames to destroy the stockpile of tainted blood packs meant for consumption by the vampires residing in the Special Zone before Cassa made a tactical retreat… but not before she told him about her giving his Coven samples of the blood packs. More annoyed than anything, he returned to his House and proceeded to ruthlessly and coolly burn down all his members to ash, to keep the Kowloon infection from spreading.

Once he’d gotten his own House back in order, he put in a token effort to help the other Houses in the war by tracking down Cassa and intercepting them from atop a bridge as they tried to escape via boat. He held them pinned down with his Fire for a long moment, though their ability to withstand as they were, caught between the ocean and his flames amused and vaguely impressed him enough to eventually have him relent conveniently as Kain neared the scene again, with the idea that if they couldn’t catch the invaders after that, he’d just have something to taunt them with later.


New Babylon History: Zelman has been in New Babylon for roughly six years and has his own penthouse in Level 7. Of course, he didn’t start in Level 7 – he started much like everyone else, by waking up on an operating table. After that, however, his path diverged from that of most…

Upon waking and finding a doctor still hovering over him post-operation, he did the most logical thing for an Old Blood: He sneered and burned every last person in the room down to little more than a pile of ash, save one. That person, the Eden Technologies representative, he extracted as much information as he could out of – after feeding on her, of course.

It’s just easier to get what you want after they’ve recovered from being bitten.

She, in turn, became his host in Level 4 and an ‘in’ with Eden and more recently… with Ceres Incorporated. He's got a few cops in his pocket on each of the levels, but no real influence with the Department itself - just enough to get eyes to look the other way when he needed while re-establishing his syndicate, the Coven.

If his influence with the corporation and to a small degree some law enforcement were used to sustain his surface appearance, his meticulous recruiting of criminals, thugs, scattered hackers and information brokers throughout the lower levels serve as the roots of all of his dealings and enable him to control the black market on the network. While his main products are all illegal bioware, he also has factions in his syndicate that deal in drugs, gambling, and ‘protective services’.

His most recent projects include the successful establishment of hydroponics labs down in the lower levels in order to grow tobacco, thanks to an enhanced leaf strain created by his contacts in the Ceres labs, which lead to negotiations with a certain mafia family in order to sell said product in the physical black market. Unfortunately, after so long, his assistant had become quite demanding in the most annoying way thanks, in large part, to her addiction to his feedings. He gifted her with one last... then arranged for an ‘accident’ to happen while she was down in Level 4 on business. He’ll have to see about replacing her soon...

Personality: Zelman is, in a word, bored. He has been for well over half of millennia, since the fall of his House, and yet it was that first century as a vampire that has shaped him the most.

He’s seen what happens to even the strongest of bloodlines when the patriarch loses the ability to ‘hear’ his Blood, how it devolves into an all-out war to prove themselves between the sire and his children. Because of that Zelman has a certain ruthlessness in him forged by that war that enabled him to kill and survive until he was left as the lone descendant of the warrior Asura’s bloodline. He alone inherited the Fire God’s flames from that implosion within his House and in doing so; it gave him a singular focus on himself and his Blood. To him, the weight of the ‘voice’ and guidance contained in the Blood that he inherited from his sire, the blood that carries a thirst for chaos and combat, is the true Legacy of their bloodline.

And it’s a weight he carries with ease, no guilt or remorse for being the last of them to be found. After all – he has no reason to feel either.

Thus, he’s careful to listen to the ‘voice’ of his Blood, lets it guide him more than anything that happens around him ever could. It is largely because of this that he has such fine control over both his actions and emotions considering he’s had roughly 800 years to observe humanity and vampires alike. He has a fairly long fuse on a cool burning temper, making him more prone to being annoyed than angry in most situations.

He’s usually calm and laid-back, but always watching those around him, especially those he finds fascinating – which is no easy feat, gaining his attention, given his somewhat jaded view on the vast majority of mediocre beings that surround him. To him they’re so boring because they’re easily manipulated through their wants and desires, their greed. They don’t offer any resistance; much less hold any particular mystery or originality that would make them interesting. And so for him, dealing with them is more a game than anything else.

Whether it’s his underlings, or someone to feed from, they’re there more for a moment’s amusement than anything else and once they’ve served that purpose… he doesn’t really care what they do. He often acts as if he can’t be bothered to reign them in when they do excessive things but then… they are criminals, cutthroats, and younger bloodlines of lesser vampires.

The concept of morality, of right and wrong, are not ideals that he’s invested in at all. As a matter of fact, when asked if he’s a bad person he’ll say yes, but there’s fun perks to being a ‘bad guy’. Laws, crime, honorable actions… they’re all polite faces to hide behind, so far as he’s concerned. He’d rather show you his confident, knowing smirk from the start then laugh at the surprise when they realize his fangs actually bite. In this way he comes across as more ‘human’ than the other vampires in his canon, save possibly Cassa. He’s one of the few Old Bloods that have constant contact with ‘regular’ humans and vampires instead of just the scions of the great houses, therefore he’s more comfortable with the modern world and it shows in everything from the way he dresses to the way he talks at times.

He’s got a sharp wit, which he often shows through sarcasm and taunting his peers… and in the way he reveals his more introspective side to Kotarou over ramen, when they were discussing the legacy of their Blood.

However, it’s the anticipation of real chaos, chaos that can make things move that he anticipates, and the possibility of true combat that earns a measure of excitement, all revealed in his eyes since his customary slouch never really changes. He’s looking and waiting for the one person that he can fight against without restraint. Someone that can truly match him in power and bloodlust but since he hasn’t found anyone that measures up yet, he’s content to sit back and watch the other Houses vie for power while he amuses himself pulling strings beneath them. In other words, he accepts the status quo with a touch of old acceptance and resignation… which all lead back to the fact that he’s bored, again.

Powers & Abilities:
His strongest ability is called "Eye Ignite." It is a focused attack that calls forth ‘God’s Fire’ – flames that move at his bidding, with nothing more than a shift of his eyes. He can choose what burns and how hot, as well as the duration of the flames – with the strongest level of this being a gigantic ball of flame as big as a medium-sized house. His control of flames is absolute, even to the lesser extent of snapping his fingers to light a cigarette or lighting candles without looking at them. And he can disperse said flames with nothing more than a deliberate blink.

He can use this ability to such a degree that he usually battles while standing in a relaxed slouch, both hands in his pockets.

**This power will be limited for game purposes, since it’s a highly destructive one. In this case, he’ll voluntarily refrain from using the stronger levels of flames because it doesn’t do him any good to burn his house down.

The "Eye Raid" is his second strongest ability which only requires focused eye contact to establish and allows him to physically control the bodies of both humans and vampires alike. It locks them in a stasis where they sit or stand so that they cannot move their limbs at all, though they’re still capable of speech. He can also use this ability to force those under his control unconscious – and while all vampires appear to have this ability, it’s the Old Bloods, like himself, that can control larger groups for longer times and with less overall effort.

**This power will be limited to one person at a time in game, and restricted to momentary influence over the one.

Like all vampires, he has naturally swift regenerative abilities, though feeding while injured will practically instantly heal him and he has considerably heightened sensory facilities as compared to a human’s. He possesses super-strength and quicksilver reflexes that enable him to jump to impossible heights or drop from them to land gracefully. His vision is sharper over longer distances – enough to be able to see clearly for nearly a half mile and his hearing exceptionally acute (enough so that when he focuses, he can listen to a person’s heartbeat). He has a sharp sense of smell that enables him to smell another person’s scent on someone… or tell which vampire has already been close to a human for feeding or otherwise.

He can eat and drink regular food and alcohol and does so quite often – though his favorite thing is a cool can of Coke – and he rather enjoys smoking.

He’s naturally immune to human disease and illness and the old superstitions of garlic, stakes, and crosses have no real effect on him, aside from annoying him. Salt water and sunlight, however, are more persistent problems. They don’t kill him, but they do weaken him to a literal skeleton state. Organs, muscles, and skin regenerate quickly enough once he’s dry or in the shade, but without feeding directly after such exposure he is in a weakened state.

**Game restriction: His abilities, super-human strength, hearing, and speed are 1.5x normal human capabilities.

Blood Resonance is another unusual ability that actually falls more in line with a weakness. When a vampire drinks a person’s blood, an ‘echo’ forms between them. Meaning that with their blood in his body they can not only read his thoughts, but feel any of his unguarded emotions as well. For the human, this also means that they can see and hear that which the vampire is seeing or hearing in addition to knowing his exact location. It’s because of this that the human can sometimes ‘sync’ movement to match Zelman’s, though not always. While the resonance is in effect, the human may receive fragments of memory from Zelman, especially if his guard is lowered (a rare instance).

However all of these effects have the caveat that the older vampires like Zelman can choose how much of all of the above that the human experiences. This effect usually only lasts for about an hour or so and the reason it occurs is because their blood, before it gets broken down by Zelman’s system, resonates with its own – the theory of like calling to like. Because of this, the effects are not reversed. He cannot read the humans thoughts or emotions at all because his blood isn’t in them to resonate back with him.

He can move about during the daytime, but he is nocturnal by nature. For the setting, I'd say that the regular artificial lighting would have no effect, however areas where there is a higher level of UV lighting would still make him smoke a bit if exposed directly. In canon an umbrella is enough to block the worst of the light, so I'd use that as a standard if he wanders out in 'daylight'. So in this sense.... the lower levels probably won't affect him too much, but he'd have to be more cautious if he goes out in the upper levels or else he'd be fairly conspicuous. I don't think the UV rays reproduced in the upper levels are enough to ash him though, so it'd be more like an irritant than anything.

And, of course, his biggest weakness is silver - which is capable of killing him.

**There will be a permissions post for the Eye Raid and Feeding abilities (to include resonance effects), however for a game restriction I’m going to say his ability to turn another character into a vampire is removed. (Not that he’ll ever find that out - 700 some-odd years and still the last of his bloodline means he’s not willing to share his Blood with just anybody.)

Equipment & Pets: He has no pets, save his human assistant Sayuka, so he’ll be arriving with nothing more than the black-and-white track suit, sneakers, and cap that he’s wearing along with a few pieces of jewelry, his wallet, and the pack of cigarettes in his pocket.

Anything else? A quote!

“Our true essence is our Blood. The Blood we inherit endlessly is the truth behind Black Blood. It is difficult to hear its voice, but when you’ve wandered off your path, it’s not wrong to clear your mind and listen to the Blood flowing within. Your Blood will not betray you. The Bloodline will end when one can’t trust his Blood Anymore.”

I think that this quote is the most honestly revealing thing he says - both about how the Black Blood works and his own past. Since we know that there was a war within his House, I’d say that Asura lost his trust in his Blood, which was the cause of the conflict, and that as the last man standing, Zelman had that lesson seared into his heart. So much so that he trusts to his blood more than anything and places little value on anything else when it involves dealing with others.

”It seems I’m not my usual self when I’m around you.” [To Kotarou after helping him save the Compromiser, Mimiko.]

It should be noted that sexuality for him is opportunistic at best and that for their canon, being fed upon is a sensation more exquisite than sex itself for humans and vampires alike. The one time it’s implied in canon, it’s with Alice Eve and Jirou fully dressed and feeding off each other.

Writing/voice sample:

It was the scent that has lingered on her for the past few days that finally does it.

What she’d been thinking he doesn’t know, and honestly he doesn’t care even now, when her light weight and soft flesh is pressed flush against him, caught as she was between him and the door. His grip in her hair, on her waist is almost hard enough to bruise because all he can really think is that she reeks.

Whether it’s the taint of drugs or the scent of one of his faction leaders on her skin that he finds so cloying he isn’t sure, but either way it’s there in the sweet taste of her blood like a bitter thread. Intolerable really, for all that she has been a useful toy these last six years.

At least enough to earn her the pleasure of a parting gift.

Which is why he takes his time with this last feeding, as if savoring the warm breath feathering past his ear as she gasps softly, the sweet iron-tang that coats his tongue as he draws slow and deep from her, his hold strong as he catches her close when her knees give way.

But there’s a sardonic smirk that curves Zelman’s lips as his fangs withdraw, before his tongue flicks out to catch the last few drops, rasping lazily over sweat-dampened skin while he receives the message he’s been waiting for: Everything’s set.

That’s when he pulls back the rest of the way and he leaves her there, leaning in a disheveled blissed-out haze against the door. He slips his hands into his pockets as he waits for her to come back to herself a bit, careful to project nothing more than a sated sleepiness while he stands there with a lazy grin curving his lips. The moment she does, however, he pulls a hand out of his pocket and offers her a sealed envelope, catching her hand in his, the paper between their fingertips, and brushes a playful kiss across the back of her hand before releasing it. “Delectable as always, Shandra, but I’ll be retiring now. See that Jack gets that payment yourself – I’ve just received confirmation that he’s completed a rather delicate assignment.”

She mumbles something then, though he isn’t paying close enough attention to decipher what it is. Instead he turned to head back into the dark recesses of his chamber, though he paused to smile back at her one last time over his shoulder. “Run along now, and be careful. I hear there’s been trouble down there lately.”

He doesn’t bother watching her go – not sorry in the slightest to see her leave. He is a little annoyed at having to find a suitable replacement for her in this place though.

But then again… humans like her were easy enough to find. Replacing Jack will take more thought though - and even then a half-dozen names and faces spring to mind.

Either way, he’d already started growing tired of her and had intended to let her go but now... they really should have thought it through before dallying together like that. Death was the only suitable reward now, but at least Jack had the decency to set himself up for their fall.

The hit on them both should follow through flawlessly; make it look like an accident for both their deaths. And it’s with that last thought that he slides into his bed and slips into a deep, dreamless sleep.