mask or menace app.
〈 PLAYER INFO 〉
NAME: Melissa
AGE: 18+
JOURNAL:![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
kreugan
IM / EMAIL: kreugan / loupgarude@gmail.com
PLURK: awarewolf
RETURNING: n/a
〈 CHARACTER INFO 〉
CHARACTER NAME: Nick Cutler
CHARACTER AGE: Late 80s, looks late 20s.
SERIES: Being Human UK
CHRONOLOGY: End of 4x07, just before Hal disrupts his plan.
CLASS: Villain, playing hero.
HOUSING: Random
BACKGROUND:
Not much is known about Cutler's childhood, just that he was born sometime in the 1920's and grew up to be a solicitor. He married a young woman named Rachel and passed the bar sometime in his early 20's. While working, he was introduced to the vampire Hal Yorke, who "recruited" him/made him a vampire in 1950. He became heavily reliant on Hal and his gang of vampires to provide blood for him after that, and although he was extremely addicted to human blood, he seemed reluctant to actively take human life. It became a point of contention between him and Hal, and when Cutler refused to harm his own wife in order to prove his loyalty to the vampires, Hal briefly abandoned him.
Desperate for more blood, Cutler eventually sought him out. Hal was prepared for this outcome, and he offered Cutler a pitcher of blood — only to later reveal that the blood belonged to Cutler's wife, whom he and his vampire lackeys had violently killed. With his last true tie to humanity dead, Cutler finally gave himself over to his addiction and vampire society. Using his position as a solicitor, he helped to cover-up vampire atrocities and keep their secret from getting out. He and Hal formed what he considered a friendship, and while both of them remember some of it with fondness, it was still founded on trauma and dependency.
Hal, conveniently, decided to renounce blood soon after wrecking Cutler's life. He up and vanished in 1955, leaving Cutler to fend for himself. Although he remained obscure, Cutler did an alright job of this; as of 2012, he appears to be healthy and successful, by vampire standards. He stills holds a job as a solicitor and doesn't seem to have a problem finding blood, mingling with other vampires in order to maintain stable source. As of his appearance on the show, he continues to do his part to keep vampires out of the public eye, abusing his position within the legal system to get them off the hook and cover up evidence.
Cutler isn't content with simply scraping by, however. He's got grand plans for himself and for vampires as a whole. While he seems interested in making vampires mainstream, he shows a general disregard for the old-fashioned approach of massacring and taking over the human race. Instead, Cutler comes up with an elaborate plan to get vampires good PR, thus encouraging humanity to accept them with open arms. To this end, he films a pair of werewolves transforming, then uploads the footage to the internet with the intention of showing humanity something more terrifying and uncontrollable than vampires, thus making vampires seem like a lesser threat.
This plan is incredibly stupid, and Cutler seriously underestimates the internet's capacity for skepticism. Most people dismiss the video as fake. As Cutler works on a better plan, he ends up crossing paths with the now sober Hal. Baffled and offended by the fact that Hal's off blood, Cutler pressures him into drinking again. When Hal still holds back, Cutler has him followed and finds out he's been seeing a human woman; in order to "fix" the weakness, he has the woman killed, then feeds her blood to Hal. Although Cutler seems to genuinely think it'll do the trick (worked on him, why not Hal), it also serves as a warped form of revenge for Hal's murder of Cutler's wife, so it's a two-for-one deal.
Following the relative flop of his first werewolf video, Cutler tries to up the ante by tricking a werewolf (Hal's roommate, Tom) into turning in a nightclub full of people. Hal and the dead girl (now a helpful ghost) thwart his plan, releasing the club-goers before they can be mauled, and then Hal helps lead the werewolf somewhere where it can't do any harm.
Right on the tail-end of his monumental failure, the creepy Old Ones (elders/leaders of vampire society) show up. They laugh him off as an idiot and completely dismiss his more nuanced attempts at world domination. Feeling spiteful and insulted and, less pettily, completely cut adrift from any kind of identity or tether — no longer human, and clearly lacking common ground with the vampires — Cutler turns coat. Having heard of a prophecy that says the death of a specific child (Eve, who of course also lives with Hal) will result in the death of all vampires, Cutler decides to get even with the vampires who rejected him by enacting the prophecy, thereby killing them all. This plan also fails, and he kills himself in the effort by entering a home without an invitation and slowly melting to death.
PERSONALITY:
Cutler's a really terrible vampire. Everything about him runs contrary to most of his vampire buddies, and odds are that's exactly why Hal decided to recruit him — he identified Cutler as a bad fit for the lifestyle and figured it'd be fun to remold him. As a human, Cutler's shown to be reasonably jaded and sarcastic, but otherwise he seems to be exceedingly average — decent job, nice wife, probably settling in to start a family. Despite his picket fence starter kit, however, Cutler craves more, and it's his ambition that Hal hones in on when they first meet. He gets Cutler to admit that he believes he's meant for more, and he exploits that ambition to draw Cutler into vampire society. It remains Cutler's driving motivation even after Hal abandons him. It inspires him to fill the perceived power vacuum left behind by Hal's absence, though he does so in a uniquely Cutler way — no matter how much he draws on Hal's lessons and often copies him directly, he's a pale imitation. Still, even without Hal around to directly pull his strings, Cutler's arrogant enough to believe that he's capable of bringing revolution to vampire society and ushering in a prosperous future.
By and large, Cutler's core personality conflicts with his basic vampire urges. Even during the height of his blood addiction, he struggles with the idea of taking human life, and he expresses a certain distaste for dealing with the aftermath. That said, he still happily benefits from the violence of others. If someone offers him blood, he'll take it — he's just squeamish about the act of killing.
On the surface, Cutler can either come across as friendly and genuinely polite (if he likes you) or wry and condescending (if he doesn't, though sometimes the distinction's not super clear). He even seems to mean it when he's nice to people, and he's reasonably good at reading them and giving them what they want. Due to Hal's emotional and psychological abuse, however, Cutler seems capable of expressing genuine affection for someone while completely divorcing himself from true empathy. He's got no problem with befriending someone, then throwing them under a bus the next day. Hal's taught him that caring about someone and hurting them aren't contradictory concepts, and unfortunately it's a lesson that's stuck with him for the past fifty years.
Cutler's naturally gentle. If he can avoid violence, he will, often trying to talk through problems or manipulate others to get his way. When he does engage in violence, he still expresses distaste for it, often blaming the victim for making it unavoidable. This is still a long ways from a sincere expression of remorse or empathy, and it's usually communicated in a way that's patronizing or dehumanizing towards the victim. Similarly, as a vampire, he is a killer — no matter how much violence isn't his first instinct, he seems capable of compartmentalizing his reaction to it. He doesn't like making a mess, but he definitely doesn't shed any tears over it.
Cutler's talents and his priorities rest with less physical means of domination. He's an opportunist with a knack for observation and manipulation — if he can talk his way out of something, that's always his first choice. For him, violence (and most other vampire habits) still don't come naturally, and in a lot of ways he finds them outdated and embarrassing. When he engages in violent and forceful behavior, it's almost always a learned behavior that he's parroting back. The way he deals with Hal's resistance to blood is an obvious example; he takes a page directly out of Hal's book, approaching Hal's resistance the same way Hal had approached his. He recycles Hal's speeches, sometimes word for word, and uses the same dumping ground for bodies that Hal had shown him fifty years ago. In order to charm and manipulate Tom, he falls back on tricks Hal used on him, appealing to Tom's desire for acceptance and attention — complimenting him, boosting his confidence, and making him believe Cutler has his best interest at heart.
The most obvious sign of Cutler's disconnect with other vampires is his disregard for tradition. He openly mocks talk of the Old Ones and of prophecies. For him, the future of the vampires is all about modernization. He's obsessed with social media. He spends a lot of his time on the internet and on twitter, gauging public opinion and trying to control it. He dresses in slick, modern clothes, and there's absolutely nothing to give away his 1920's upbringing. While this all plays into his desire to manipulate others, it's also a sign of Cutler's biggest problem: he still desperately wants to be human.
Keeping up with the times and in tune with humanity has tactical advantages, of course, but it's also a way for Cutler to feel connected. At the end of the day, however, he isn't human. Between that and his disconnect from vampire society, he's pretty much screwed. He says this outright to Hal when Hal tries to apologize for ruining his life, but it's important to note that Cutler doesn't just sit around feeling sorry for himself — he's a textbook example of get mad, not sad, and a lot of his actions are fueled by pure spite. His very messy, very slow death isn't about doing the right thing, or saving humanity — it's all in the service of a petty "fuck you" to the vampire race.
POWER:
VAMPIRISM (CANON): Not actually all that great. Pulse of one heartbeat per minute, mostly dead, and afflicted with an extreme addiction to human blood. They won't die without blood, but going without results in severe withdrawal symptoms. Vampires have longer lifespans than humans (theoretically immortal) and seem to be stronger than your average human, so long as they're well-fed. Their major weaknesses are religious symbols and werewolf blood, which is toxic to their system. They cannot entire a residence without being invited.
TECHNOPATH (NON-CANON): The ability to manipulate technology with one's mind. This will mostly focus on his interaction with the internet and involve stupid things like tweeting with the power of his mind, though theoretically (probably with help/training from other characters) it could extend to more useful talents like breaking encryptions or manipulating broadcasts/computer systems.
〈 CHARACTER SAMPLES 〉
COMMUNITY POST (VOICE) SAMPLE:
[ After about three drafts, the following appears on the network at a reasonable hour — right around lunch break for your average eight hour shift, aiming to catch people at the peak of boredom. ]
Hello, fellow imPorts. My name's Nick Cutler, and I'd greatly appreciate your help with a small project I'm putting together. What I need is information — on you, your abilities, where you come from. If you have any thoughts on your new home, I'd like to hear those, as well.
This is strictly voluntary. You're welcome to fill out as much or as little as you'd like, and anonymous responses are absolutely fine.
LOGS POST (PROSE) SAMPLE:
Test drive thread!
NAME: Melissa
AGE: 18+
JOURNAL:
kreuganIM / EMAIL: kreugan / loupgarude@gmail.com
PLURK: awarewolf
RETURNING: n/a
〈 CHARACTER INFO 〉
CHARACTER NAME: Nick Cutler
CHARACTER AGE: Late 80s, looks late 20s.
SERIES: Being Human UK
CHRONOLOGY: End of 4x07, just before Hal disrupts his plan.
CLASS: Villain, playing hero.
HOUSING: Random
BACKGROUND:
Not much is known about Cutler's childhood, just that he was born sometime in the 1920's and grew up to be a solicitor. He married a young woman named Rachel and passed the bar sometime in his early 20's. While working, he was introduced to the vampire Hal Yorke, who "recruited" him/made him a vampire in 1950. He became heavily reliant on Hal and his gang of vampires to provide blood for him after that, and although he was extremely addicted to human blood, he seemed reluctant to actively take human life. It became a point of contention between him and Hal, and when Cutler refused to harm his own wife in order to prove his loyalty to the vampires, Hal briefly abandoned him.
Desperate for more blood, Cutler eventually sought him out. Hal was prepared for this outcome, and he offered Cutler a pitcher of blood — only to later reveal that the blood belonged to Cutler's wife, whom he and his vampire lackeys had violently killed. With his last true tie to humanity dead, Cutler finally gave himself over to his addiction and vampire society. Using his position as a solicitor, he helped to cover-up vampire atrocities and keep their secret from getting out. He and Hal formed what he considered a friendship, and while both of them remember some of it with fondness, it was still founded on trauma and dependency.
Hal, conveniently, decided to renounce blood soon after wrecking Cutler's life. He up and vanished in 1955, leaving Cutler to fend for himself. Although he remained obscure, Cutler did an alright job of this; as of 2012, he appears to be healthy and successful, by vampire standards. He stills holds a job as a solicitor and doesn't seem to have a problem finding blood, mingling with other vampires in order to maintain stable source. As of his appearance on the show, he continues to do his part to keep vampires out of the public eye, abusing his position within the legal system to get them off the hook and cover up evidence.
Cutler isn't content with simply scraping by, however. He's got grand plans for himself and for vampires as a whole. While he seems interested in making vampires mainstream, he shows a general disregard for the old-fashioned approach of massacring and taking over the human race. Instead, Cutler comes up with an elaborate plan to get vampires good PR, thus encouraging humanity to accept them with open arms. To this end, he films a pair of werewolves transforming, then uploads the footage to the internet with the intention of showing humanity something more terrifying and uncontrollable than vampires, thus making vampires seem like a lesser threat.
This plan is incredibly stupid, and Cutler seriously underestimates the internet's capacity for skepticism. Most people dismiss the video as fake. As Cutler works on a better plan, he ends up crossing paths with the now sober Hal. Baffled and offended by the fact that Hal's off blood, Cutler pressures him into drinking again. When Hal still holds back, Cutler has him followed and finds out he's been seeing a human woman; in order to "fix" the weakness, he has the woman killed, then feeds her blood to Hal. Although Cutler seems to genuinely think it'll do the trick (worked on him, why not Hal), it also serves as a warped form of revenge for Hal's murder of Cutler's wife, so it's a two-for-one deal.
Following the relative flop of his first werewolf video, Cutler tries to up the ante by tricking a werewolf (Hal's roommate, Tom) into turning in a nightclub full of people. Hal and the dead girl (now a helpful ghost) thwart his plan, releasing the club-goers before they can be mauled, and then Hal helps lead the werewolf somewhere where it can't do any harm.
Right on the tail-end of his monumental failure, the creepy Old Ones (elders/leaders of vampire society) show up. They laugh him off as an idiot and completely dismiss his more nuanced attempts at world domination. Feeling spiteful and insulted and, less pettily, completely cut adrift from any kind of identity or tether — no longer human, and clearly lacking common ground with the vampires — Cutler turns coat. Having heard of a prophecy that says the death of a specific child (Eve, who of course also lives with Hal) will result in the death of all vampires, Cutler decides to get even with the vampires who rejected him by enacting the prophecy, thereby killing them all. This plan also fails, and he kills himself in the effort by entering a home without an invitation and slowly melting to death.
PERSONALITY:
Cutler's a really terrible vampire. Everything about him runs contrary to most of his vampire buddies, and odds are that's exactly why Hal decided to recruit him — he identified Cutler as a bad fit for the lifestyle and figured it'd be fun to remold him. As a human, Cutler's shown to be reasonably jaded and sarcastic, but otherwise he seems to be exceedingly average — decent job, nice wife, probably settling in to start a family. Despite his picket fence starter kit, however, Cutler craves more, and it's his ambition that Hal hones in on when they first meet. He gets Cutler to admit that he believes he's meant for more, and he exploits that ambition to draw Cutler into vampire society. It remains Cutler's driving motivation even after Hal abandons him. It inspires him to fill the perceived power vacuum left behind by Hal's absence, though he does so in a uniquely Cutler way — no matter how much he draws on Hal's lessons and often copies him directly, he's a pale imitation. Still, even without Hal around to directly pull his strings, Cutler's arrogant enough to believe that he's capable of bringing revolution to vampire society and ushering in a prosperous future.
By and large, Cutler's core personality conflicts with his basic vampire urges. Even during the height of his blood addiction, he struggles with the idea of taking human life, and he expresses a certain distaste for dealing with the aftermath. That said, he still happily benefits from the violence of others. If someone offers him blood, he'll take it — he's just squeamish about the act of killing.
On the surface, Cutler can either come across as friendly and genuinely polite (if he likes you) or wry and condescending (if he doesn't, though sometimes the distinction's not super clear). He even seems to mean it when he's nice to people, and he's reasonably good at reading them and giving them what they want. Due to Hal's emotional and psychological abuse, however, Cutler seems capable of expressing genuine affection for someone while completely divorcing himself from true empathy. He's got no problem with befriending someone, then throwing them under a bus the next day. Hal's taught him that caring about someone and hurting them aren't contradictory concepts, and unfortunately it's a lesson that's stuck with him for the past fifty years.
Cutler's naturally gentle. If he can avoid violence, he will, often trying to talk through problems or manipulate others to get his way. When he does engage in violence, he still expresses distaste for it, often blaming the victim for making it unavoidable. This is still a long ways from a sincere expression of remorse or empathy, and it's usually communicated in a way that's patronizing or dehumanizing towards the victim. Similarly, as a vampire, he is a killer — no matter how much violence isn't his first instinct, he seems capable of compartmentalizing his reaction to it. He doesn't like making a mess, but he definitely doesn't shed any tears over it.
Cutler's talents and his priorities rest with less physical means of domination. He's an opportunist with a knack for observation and manipulation — if he can talk his way out of something, that's always his first choice. For him, violence (and most other vampire habits) still don't come naturally, and in a lot of ways he finds them outdated and embarrassing. When he engages in violent and forceful behavior, it's almost always a learned behavior that he's parroting back. The way he deals with Hal's resistance to blood is an obvious example; he takes a page directly out of Hal's book, approaching Hal's resistance the same way Hal had approached his. He recycles Hal's speeches, sometimes word for word, and uses the same dumping ground for bodies that Hal had shown him fifty years ago. In order to charm and manipulate Tom, he falls back on tricks Hal used on him, appealing to Tom's desire for acceptance and attention — complimenting him, boosting his confidence, and making him believe Cutler has his best interest at heart.
The most obvious sign of Cutler's disconnect with other vampires is his disregard for tradition. He openly mocks talk of the Old Ones and of prophecies. For him, the future of the vampires is all about modernization. He's obsessed with social media. He spends a lot of his time on the internet and on twitter, gauging public opinion and trying to control it. He dresses in slick, modern clothes, and there's absolutely nothing to give away his 1920's upbringing. While this all plays into his desire to manipulate others, it's also a sign of Cutler's biggest problem: he still desperately wants to be human.
Keeping up with the times and in tune with humanity has tactical advantages, of course, but it's also a way for Cutler to feel connected. At the end of the day, however, he isn't human. Between that and his disconnect from vampire society, he's pretty much screwed. He says this outright to Hal when Hal tries to apologize for ruining his life, but it's important to note that Cutler doesn't just sit around feeling sorry for himself — he's a textbook example of get mad, not sad, and a lot of his actions are fueled by pure spite. His very messy, very slow death isn't about doing the right thing, or saving humanity — it's all in the service of a petty "fuck you" to the vampire race.
POWER:
VAMPIRISM (CANON): Not actually all that great. Pulse of one heartbeat per minute, mostly dead, and afflicted with an extreme addiction to human blood. They won't die without blood, but going without results in severe withdrawal symptoms. Vampires have longer lifespans than humans (theoretically immortal) and seem to be stronger than your average human, so long as they're well-fed. Their major weaknesses are religious symbols and werewolf blood, which is toxic to their system. They cannot entire a residence without being invited.
TECHNOPATH (NON-CANON): The ability to manipulate technology with one's mind. This will mostly focus on his interaction with the internet and involve stupid things like tweeting with the power of his mind, though theoretically (probably with help/training from other characters) it could extend to more useful talents like breaking encryptions or manipulating broadcasts/computer systems.
〈 CHARACTER SAMPLES 〉
COMMUNITY POST (VOICE) SAMPLE:
[ After about three drafts, the following appears on the network at a reasonable hour — right around lunch break for your average eight hour shift, aiming to catch people at the peak of boredom. ]
Hello, fellow imPorts. My name's Nick Cutler, and I'd greatly appreciate your help with a small project I'm putting together. What I need is information — on you, your abilities, where you come from. If you have any thoughts on your new home, I'd like to hear those, as well.
This is strictly voluntary. You're welcome to fill out as much or as little as you'd like, and anonymous responses are absolutely fine.
WHAT'S YOUR NAME?In the interest of fairness, I'll be filling it out myself ASAP. Thanks in advance for your participation, and either way, enjoy the rest of your day.
WHERE ARE YOU FROM?
DO YOU HAVE PRIOR EXPERIENCE WITH SUPERPOWERS?
DO YOU HAVE PRIOR EXPERIENCE WITH VILLAINS/MONSTERS?
IF YOU RECEIVED ABILITIES UPON ARRIVAL, HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THEM?
ON A TYPICAL DAY, DO YOU FEEL MORE OR LESS SAFE HERE THAN YOU DID AT HOME?
LOGS POST (PROSE) SAMPLE:
Test drive thread!