Charmaign, Master Vampire
Status: Approved
Mod Notes: Charmaign is a non-standard character, and thus the more extensive application to explain some of the unusual characteristics. Additionally, his and Fletcher's game mechanic of enforced neutrality allows them to be more powerful without unbalancing the game and enables maintaining a neutral gathering place for all characters.
Player Name: Mish
Player LJ: noblesseoblige
Player Email: mish_S_mail@yahoo.com
AIM/YIM/etc.: blueyedmatador (AIM)
Character Name: Charmaign
Character Type: Master Vampire, Belle Morte's line
Abilities: Charmaign's greatest powers depend on his proximity to Fletcher, the bond between them acting much as the bond between a Master and her Human Servant.
On his own, Charmaign is barely a Master vampire, though he does carry the weight of six hundred years. Without Fletcher's proximity, there are only hints of the power that can be called when the two are near. The standard powers of a vampire apply to him, speed, fascination, capturing with his gaze, hypnotism, flight, etc. He heals standard as per his age on his own, but only exceptionally well when Fletcher is near.
With Fletcher, Charmaign is a Master vampire powerful enough to hold a city, but that's really not how it works in vampire society.
Ardeur: Together Fletcher and Charmaign possess a unique variation of the ardeur. This is what gives them their power as master vampires, but as always with the gifts from the ardeur, it comes at a price that may be equal to or greater than the benefit.
They cannot use their ardeur on others; it has been attuned to the two of them from their first night as vampires. Is it the ardeur that made them love each other? Probably, actually, but after 600 years, worrying about that is moot. However, what does matter is that their ardeur is what makes their hearts beat and what keeps them together. They are each other's masters, and a vampire without a master does not rise at night. No matter how Fletcher and Charmaign may fight, no matter how they may rage and sometimes hate each other, they can never be too far from each other when the sun rises or they risk not waking when the sun sets that night.
If that were not price enough, there is another that both vampires must carefully consider every time they are together. Their ardeur does carry a sexual/sensual/emotional component that is the ardeur's hallmark, again only usable between the two of them. When they drop their shields to each other and touch intimately, the ardeur will bring them together in a joining so profound that boundaries between self are lost. It is an ecstatic sharing, but so difficult to draw away from when there is no metaphysical safety valve. Over the centuries, the two have shared so much that there are memories neither can truly differentiate as being uniquely Charmaign's or distinctly Fletcher's. Since neither vampire truly wishes to lose himself in the other, they must fight to come back each time, and work to resist the urge to touch each other that both feels almost constantly. If they are junkies, the other is the fix, and ODing won't be something as simple as death.
Animal to Call: Together, Fletcher and Charmaign can call canines - dogs, wild, lycanthropic, preternatural, etc. Not wolves or foxes, just dogs. Separately they retain the ability to call normal dogs, although both seem to have a particular affinity for small, yappy ones.
Hearing Truth: Separately or together, don't bother trying to lie to them. As always, they cannot determine a lie that the speaker is certain is true, but they can hear the intent of the words. Although between the two of them, the line is blurred, not because they cannot hear the truth or lie in the other's words, but because their jealousies and suspicions may cloud their judgment.
Dominate: No one short of a Council member can mentally dominate Charmaign and Fletcher when they stand together. Since coming to their full power, they haven't tested to know whether they could stand against a Council member and would not because it would violate their hard-fought positions as neutral forces amidst a world filled with factions. Separately, they are strong in will, but again, not fully master vampire level.
Early Waking: If Charmaign and Fletcher die for the day physically touching, they will wake hours before sundown. If they are not touching, but merely near one another, they will wake at sundown as normal.
Aura Touch/Slash: Again this is a power they possess only together and involves manipulating and/or turning another's aura of power against them. They can use it both as a delicate instrument - a caressing touch, or a bludgeoning tool - crushing someone to the ground with their own aura or even turning that aura inward to pierce or cut. This is particularly powerful when they touch, and they can and will turn the aura of power against every single person in DMZ in whatever way that's required if it's needed to quell violence and maintain their home's neutrality. As a side effect of this power, they can sense the aura of power of every person in their domain (in this case, DMZ) and get a reasonably good sense of what kind (shifter, wizard, vampire, faerie, etc.) and how strong. This can and will be adjusted based on players' notations on shielding and/or deception, of course. They aren't omniscient, just very perceptive.
Orgasmic Bite: Though this power is Charmaign's alone, it is activated only in proximity of Fletcher, which tends to make things interesting. Charmaign's bite is enough to bring about the most mind and load blowing orgasm, leaving one spent, weak of muscle and thoroughly sated. Careful not to enjoy it too much, Fletcher is watching.
Human Servant: In theory it may be possible for Charmaign and Fletcher to have a jointly held human servant, but it would have to be someone on whom they could both completely agree, and given their propensity for jealousies and argument, they haven't been able to find anyone they could agree on in more than six hundred years.Non-vampiric abilities: Speaks French, English, German, Latin, Italian, Swedish, and Spanish fluently, knows a bit of Welsh and Japanese and can ask for directions and a blowjob in a variety of other languages. He is skilled in fencing, and a variety of handwriting styles (calligraphy, carolingian miniscule, gothic, etc) as well as passable in horsemanship. He is an avid and very talented artist but also dabbles in a variety of other mediums with varying results.
Age: 626 (born 1383, became a vampire 1402)
Kinsey Rating: 5
Physical Appearance: Charmaign stands at 5'9 with a very lean and lithe frame. His hair is dark brown and falls in silky curls that he usually wears artfully mussed. Dark brown eyes, sculpted features and full lips fall into either an imperious sulk, or flirting sensuality depending on the mood between himself and Fletcher. Charmaign's skin is quite soft to the touch, a tell tale sign of his early life of luxury and wealth.
Depending on his mood, his style of dress ranges from flamboyant to sharp to grungy ripped jeans and a paint stained shirt that looks suspiciously large on him and, if one has a good nose, might just smell like Fletcher. No matter what he's wearing, he carries himself with an air of importance and an unintentional air of condescension, but in a manner that turns conspiratorial when he speaks to a person, as though letting them into his confidences.
PB: Louis Garrel
Personality: Charmaign is the very definition of mercurial. His default personality is imperious and sensual, listening to others with an amused air of indulgence and speaking with a low, conspiratorial tones while cutting his eyes to 'make sure no one else hears.' This, however, can change on a word, expression or the laying of Fletcher's attention on another. He can be bitter and cutting with the best of them, pursing his lips and looking through a person if he no longer feels like engaging them. On his own, when engaged in his particular artistic endeavors, he is typically quiet with a focused air of concentration that he does not like disturbed by any other than Fletcher.
His enjoyment of electronics and modern diversions is evident in his Facebook, Twitter and blog accounts that are constantly updated. Char has mastered one handed texting by touch alone and tends to do so while carrying on conversations. It isn't that he considers it rude, or you uninteresting, he just considers his attention too important to devote to any one person that isn't Fletcher.
When they are fighting, Charmaign will choose mature wizards around Fletcher's apparent age and mostly because they are situated in Fletcher's half of the club, to flirt with. He will rant and rave at Fletcher's faults, but point out that Fletcher does x or y better than the person he is currently idling with. Though, as much as he complains, agreement or bashing of Fletcher by a third party will end in the verbal ripping of a new asshole. Fletcher is his and that jealousy is nearly all consuming. When he is not trying to irk and anger Fletcher, he is hawking over the other man's movements, watching for the bois he might flirt with and interrupting with insults and general cattiness. In truth, he loves Fletcher so much it frightens him, knowing in the deepest parts of his being that he wouldn't mind melting into the other and using these fights and petty flaws to prevent that from happening.
Charmaign is gay. He was gay before he was turned and he remains gay. He has had sexual relations with women and gets absolutely no enjoyment out of it. Though he can appreciate the beauty of the female form, it's from an artistic point of view only. His tastes run to tall and broad with firm shoulders and rough hands.
Background:Wales: 1372 - 1402
Belle's Court, France: 1402 - 1612
Venice: 1612 - 1797
Copenhagen: 1797 - 1890
San Francisco: 1890 - present
Charmaign was born Charmaign Burgundy-Valois in 1383, the sixth son of the Duke and Duchess of Burgundy, blood relations to the French line of Valois kings. His early life was an easy passage of days spent in luxury and learning. He was schooled in Latin and Greek, the trivium and the quadrivium, taught penmanship, fencing and riding. Charmaign never took to hunting, but did take to one of the stable boys with which he had his first, sweaty and panting encounter behind a mound of dirty hay.
Because the duchy of Burgundy included parts of England, he learned English (as well as German) early on and was often sent to England after particularly scandalous homosexual encounters. Some couldn't fault him, he was beautiful to look at more than handsome, and had a lithe air of sensuality that came naturally. As he grew older, Charmaign realized this life was not to be his forever, as, by the laws of primogeniture, he would inherit nothing unless the five brothers ahead of him died. Which, Charmaign was strangely okay with. His plotting was clumsy and often sidetracked by parties and affairs. Because he was not set to inherit and they were actually busy governing a duchy, his father and brothers mostly ignored these antics. Until his return from the latest exile in England coincided with the appointment of a particularly handsome new Cardinal.
The Cardinal was recalled but the damage had already been done (the poor nun did eventually regain her sight and ability to speak and the witnessing orphans blocked the event entirely from their minds) and Charmaign's eldest brother had had enough. The Duke was vaguely aware of what the brother had planned for Charmaign, but neither consented nor condemned it. Late one evening, with the entitled sense of immortality that only the very wealthy and spoiled can manage, Charmaign met with a potential assassin of his siblings. Unfortunately for him, the potential assassin was a vampire of Belle's court to whom Charmaign had been sold by said elder brother.
With one look into that vampire's eyes, Char's last thought before fading was -rien.
Charmaign and Wilim spent their last nights as humans trapped together, quite probably for the amusement value of those who could observe their clashing personalities and the arguments conducted in the only language the two shared in common - English - rather than Wilim's native Welsh or Charmaign's native French. They served as entertainment for the court as a whole in those final nights, but neither will speak of those things. Entertainments in Belle Morte's court took only a few directions and Charmaign's cooperation was obtained through promises of freedom and assistance in taking head of his family.
Fletcher and Charmaign were brought over on the same night by Sander as part of an experiment at Belle's behest. What powers a vampire comes through the change with vary wildly, and Belle wanted to know if two very different men, brought over at the same time, by the same master, might have the same powers, or if they would still have different abilities from vampirism. The two men were different in age, education, social standing, nationality, sexual preference and experience, personality, faith, and even appearance. The question was, would they be the same or different as vampires?
After receiving the final bite from Sander, the two men's bodies were returned to their gilded prison to wait the three days until they would rise as vampires. Sander returned to them three days later before the sun had even set, expecting to find them still dead, as new vampires do not rise while the sun still rides the sky. He had planned to be there at their waking to give them his blood and bind them to him as their maker and master before taking them to feed. What he found instead was the two vampires locked in an embrace, feeding from one another with no awareness of the world around them. As they were pulled apart, they exchanged the words that vampires have shared from time immemorial to bind servant to master, Blood of my blood, flesh of my flesh, breath to breath, my heart to yours.
Charmaign's first memory as a vampire is of these words and the feel and smell of Fletcher around him, the taste of the other man- vampire's blood in his mouth. Of magic.
They were curiosities after that - the two vampires who had bound themselves to one another. Sander tried to break their newly forged blood oath and succeeded in nearly killing both. Since Belle had wanted them as an experiment, it was by her order that the experiment continued with this new and unique variable.
That they were curiosities to Belle Morte didn't change the fact that they were new meat in a vampire court and thus the least among the vampires there. Fletcher and Charmaign learned to work together because they had no choice, and because they soon came to understand that they were in an "us against the world" situation. Their little metaphysical oops upon waking together their first night, left them bound to each other, and as time went on, their binding grew closer and closer until even the staunchly heterosexual and devout Fletcher was lost in love for Charmaign. And Charmaign to Fletcher.
The first night their shared ardeur fully manifested, they might have been lost entirely if the sudden burst of metaphysical energy hadn't attracted the entire court's attention and drew Belle Morte herself to their room. Fletcher and Charmaign were locked in an embrace that neither would have been equipped to draw back from if she hadn't slid her own energy through theirs, planning to just take a taste of what they had created between them. It was enough to bring them back to themselves, and Fletcher to this day shudders at the memory of her foreign touch in that moment of intimacy.
The stories of their 210 years in Belle Morte's court could be endless, although most of them are simply typical for what was expected of any vampire in her service. They learned together and slowly worked their way from the bottom of the pecking order to somewhere in the middle. They served Belle in whatever manner she commanded. Charmaign's uses were mostly sexual, though his education and, when it was relevant, his knowledge on the political front were used. They were both occasionally sent to seduce pawns in Belle's power games, although they were not her favorites for that task because they could not be separated.
And as with any vampire in Belle Morte's court who was fair of body and face, one or both of them was expected to serve her desires in more personal ways whenever she required it. Belle remains to this day convinced that all love her, particularly those who have tasted her ardeur. Both Charmaign and Fletcher have been subject to the full power of Belle Morte's ardeur and both have felt the maddening heat of desire for her, but neither love her; their own ardeur protects them from that addiction with the love it fostered between them.
Unfortunately, that led to the slip that resulted in one of the most traumatic events in their long lives and started them on the path to making their escape from Belle's court. The facts are these:
One of them was with Belle and slipped in an intimate moment, calling out the other's name in an excess of passion.
Belle was of course enraged and chose to punish both vampires. One was put into a cross-wrapped coffin, the other was left free and told that he could earn his lover's freedom if he was good enough.
The one in the coffin received occasional visits from vampires telling tales of how his partner was disobedient and deliberately doing things to prolong their separation.
The free one was given impossible tasks to complete with the promise that as soon as they were completed, his partner would be freed.
This went on for nearly five years. When the imprisoned one was released, it was the free one who took him through the careful process of bringing him back to the world. It was he who kept the newly-freed vampire from killing the wereleopard who was his first meal in five years. It was he who fed him his blood and restored their blood oath, not their maker, and it was he who held him in the warm water and eased him back to life. And when he finally dropped his walls to their ardeur, he found that his partner had no strength to hold back his side of the ardeur and it nearly washed them both away in a sharing so profound that to this day, they both remember the whole experience as though they had been both the free partner and the imprisoned one. Neither remembers which of them was truly freed and which spent those five years in a cross-wrapped coffin. When both remember it so personally, perhaps the difference is moot. It was at this time that they obtained the first in what would be countless generations of the babies, six small, no-strings-attached balls of warmth (Scottish terriers) to keep the vampires company when they had to be apart for even the space of a night.
When they recovered, they knew that neither could endure something like that ever again and that they had to find a way to be free of the court.
They couldn't turn to other vampires to aid them against a Council member, nor to the lycanthropes who were too scattered to be a true power and too hostile to vampires anyway. The White Council cared only about their own and wouldn't care to make a deal with a pair of vampires who wanted to run away from home.
This turned their attention to the Faerie Courts as their only possible hope. They presented their case at the Spring Equinox when both Courts were equal, offering themselves up as keepers of neutral ground in the mortal realm if only the Courts would back them with their power to keep them free of the Vampire Council. They were forced to undergo four trials to prove their worthiness to take this position, the last being to survive the Wild Hunt in the Nevernever for a full night without running to the mortal realm. The last they barely survived, but in the process learned that their ability to call and control dogs and hounds extends even to the hounds of the Wild Hunt, although even together and touching, the most they could do was bay the hounds when the hounds were targeting them specifically.
Still, neither Court had expected the two vampires to survive. The Winter Court is Charmaign's "sponsor" outside the Nevernever. The Summer Court took Fletcher. The Wyldfae offered one of their own to help watch over them and ensure that the balance is maintained. "Tinkerbell" has traveled with them ever since, but his history is his to tell. As long as the pair are not forsworn in their oath to maintain a place of neutrality for all preternatural beings in the human world and a safe entrance to and from the Nevernever, they have the Faerie Courts' backing in maintaining their freedom from vampire obligations.
In the nearly 400 years since then, they have never given any of the factions cause to regret allowing them their neutrality. They may be arrogant on their home ground, but they adhere scrupulously to rules of non-violence and neutrality in the areas they have maintained, first in Venice, then in Copenhagen, and now in San Francisco. As powerful as the two are together, all sides may silently agree that it's in everyone's best interests to see them maintain that neutrality... or see them destroyed. At least this way they're useful, and if the two of them have devolved into an ongoing cycle of being together or being at each other's throats, outsiders see that as being for the best as well, as they always seem distracted with each other.
They enjoyed their time in Venice, but left when Napoleon destroyed its millennium-long tradition as a republic. From there they went to Copenhagen, fostering an association with the mermaids of Copenhagen (an association is what neutral people have instead of an alliance ^.~ ) and from there, were asked to go to San Francisco. While they were not asked to negotiate with the San Francisco Bay's mermaids, it was hoped that their understanding of mermaid culture would help the mermaids come to the bargaining table under Charmaign and Fletcher's roof.
The vampires have enjoyed their years in San Francisco, and the Castro district may or may not have them to thank for its role as one of the leading gay neighborhoods in the world. Certainly Charmaign and Fletcher were there before it took that role and they plan to stay for many more years to come.
Perhaps it was hypocritical of Charmaign, after all, he had been the first to cheat (though Fletcher did claim to have forgiven him), but for Fletcher- his very not gay Fletcher- to seek out this youthful male lover on his own, Charmaign couldn't take it. He took the six babies and told Fletcher he was leaving, waking up the next night be damned. Needless to say, it was only Fletcher's agreement to exile the lover from San Francisco that kept Charmaign staying. But this, this was the last straw.
They split their shared quarters in half to two apartments. They split the club in half down the middle in terms of decor and "ownership" leading to DMZ's rather peculiar setup. They even arranged joint custody for the babies, switching off which night either vampire has care of the dogs. For the past forty-two years, things have been alternately chilly and unpleasantly hot between the two of them, with both vampires certain that since they're broken up, the other is screwing every man in sight.
Charmaign remains loyal to Fletcher. Though he's not above a hand job or oral sex, or even letting Fletcher think there is far more going on, there's simply something missing between himself and any of these flings that Char takes on. In fact, in recent years, the flings have been more and more for the sole purpose of evoking a reaction for Fletcher. Whether or not the fling realizes this, Charmaign does not care.
And thus we come to San Francisco today, where Charmaign and Fletcher jointly hold their shared territory, small though it is. Sometimes they hate each other, sometimes they love each other, and in love and in hate, they cannot be apart.
RP Sample:
He absolutely despised those puffed up old chickenhawks who willfully misunderstood the meaning of one night flirtation. Or who insisted on trying to up the ante and get upstairs. No one got upstairs. If it weren't for the reaction pulled from Fletcher, Charmaign would give up on the whole outfit entirely. Which was why he hadn't bared fangs and dismissed the man breathing hotly across his neck.
“You're just a little boy, aren't you?” The man, not much older in appearance than Fletcher, murmured, nosing moistly at Charmaign's ear.
A momentary look of distaste danced across his features, Charmaign could practically hear the man spelling it 'boi' and not boy, not to mention the vampire was likely six hundred years this wizard's senior. Of course, Char thought drolly, he brought it upon himself tonight, wearing a child sized Boy Scout shirt thrifted from some attempt at finding a few authentic Queen tour t-shirts (Char's own were worn to bits by now). Though, upon close inspection, the merit badges were obviously not the genuine article and ranged to the obscene.
“A little boy up past his bedtime,” Char replied with a blithe smile, disengaging himself from the wizard and making to stand. To his lack of surprise the man rose with him, tall and broad, but not quite to Char's particular tastes.
The wizard smiled, a handsome smile to be sure, but one Charmaign was profoundly uninterested in, “I could tuck you in?” Char laughed gave a small negative shake of his head, eyes dancing and posture already distancing himself from the other man. Until he closed that distance once more.
Frustration welled and he quashed it in case his other half was watching. Instead, he leaned in and murmured, “Perhaps another time, hm?” Then pulled back with a wink and headed toward Tink at the bar, avoiding any more unfortunate company for the evening.
The leather clad fairy raised an eyebrow at Char's approach but didn't stop polishing a glass as the vampire perched on a barstool and asked, “Where is he?”
Tink set the glass down and began mixing a Tom Collins, “Not Fletcher's social secretary.” It kept the peace not to get in the way of two vampires, much to Charmaign's immediate sense of being put out.
“Just a hint? Balcony? Roof? Boi-” And frowned as Tink just walked away to serve said drink. “That's very rude, you ill-mannered creature.” Then straightened imperiously and set off to distract himself.
Mod Notes: Charmaign is a non-standard character, and thus the more extensive application to explain some of the unusual characteristics. Additionally, his and Fletcher's game mechanic of enforced neutrality allows them to be more powerful without unbalancing the game and enables maintaining a neutral gathering place for all characters.
Player Name: Mish
Player LJ: noblesseoblige
Player Email: mish_S_mail@yahoo.com
AIM/YIM/etc.: blueyedmatador (AIM)
Character Name: Charmaign
Character Type: Master Vampire, Belle Morte's line
Abilities: Charmaign's greatest powers depend on his proximity to Fletcher, the bond between them acting much as the bond between a Master and her Human Servant.
On his own, Charmaign is barely a Master vampire, though he does carry the weight of six hundred years. Without Fletcher's proximity, there are only hints of the power that can be called when the two are near. The standard powers of a vampire apply to him, speed, fascination, capturing with his gaze, hypnotism, flight, etc. He heals standard as per his age on his own, but only exceptionally well when Fletcher is near.
With Fletcher, Charmaign is a Master vampire powerful enough to hold a city, but that's really not how it works in vampire society.
Ardeur: Together Fletcher and Charmaign possess a unique variation of the ardeur. This is what gives them their power as master vampires, but as always with the gifts from the ardeur, it comes at a price that may be equal to or greater than the benefit.
They cannot use their ardeur on others; it has been attuned to the two of them from their first night as vampires. Is it the ardeur that made them love each other? Probably, actually, but after 600 years, worrying about that is moot. However, what does matter is that their ardeur is what makes their hearts beat and what keeps them together. They are each other's masters, and a vampire without a master does not rise at night. No matter how Fletcher and Charmaign may fight, no matter how they may rage and sometimes hate each other, they can never be too far from each other when the sun rises or they risk not waking when the sun sets that night.
If that were not price enough, there is another that both vampires must carefully consider every time they are together. Their ardeur does carry a sexual/sensual/emotional component that is the ardeur's hallmark, again only usable between the two of them. When they drop their shields to each other and touch intimately, the ardeur will bring them together in a joining so profound that boundaries between self are lost. It is an ecstatic sharing, but so difficult to draw away from when there is no metaphysical safety valve. Over the centuries, the two have shared so much that there are memories neither can truly differentiate as being uniquely Charmaign's or distinctly Fletcher's. Since neither vampire truly wishes to lose himself in the other, they must fight to come back each time, and work to resist the urge to touch each other that both feels almost constantly. If they are junkies, the other is the fix, and ODing won't be something as simple as death.
Animal to Call: Together, Fletcher and Charmaign can call canines - dogs, wild, lycanthropic, preternatural, etc. Not wolves or foxes, just dogs. Separately they retain the ability to call normal dogs, although both seem to have a particular affinity for small, yappy ones.
Hearing Truth: Separately or together, don't bother trying to lie to them. As always, they cannot determine a lie that the speaker is certain is true, but they can hear the intent of the words. Although between the two of them, the line is blurred, not because they cannot hear the truth or lie in the other's words, but because their jealousies and suspicions may cloud their judgment.
Dominate: No one short of a Council member can mentally dominate Charmaign and Fletcher when they stand together. Since coming to their full power, they haven't tested to know whether they could stand against a Council member and would not because it would violate their hard-fought positions as neutral forces amidst a world filled with factions. Separately, they are strong in will, but again, not fully master vampire level.
Early Waking: If Charmaign and Fletcher die for the day physically touching, they will wake hours before sundown. If they are not touching, but merely near one another, they will wake at sundown as normal.
Aura Touch/Slash: Again this is a power they possess only together and involves manipulating and/or turning another's aura of power against them. They can use it both as a delicate instrument - a caressing touch, or a bludgeoning tool - crushing someone to the ground with their own aura or even turning that aura inward to pierce or cut. This is particularly powerful when they touch, and they can and will turn the aura of power against every single person in DMZ in whatever way that's required if it's needed to quell violence and maintain their home's neutrality. As a side effect of this power, they can sense the aura of power of every person in their domain (in this case, DMZ) and get a reasonably good sense of what kind (shifter, wizard, vampire, faerie, etc.) and how strong. This can and will be adjusted based on players' notations on shielding and/or deception, of course. They aren't omniscient, just very perceptive.
Orgasmic Bite: Though this power is Charmaign's alone, it is activated only in proximity of Fletcher, which tends to make things interesting. Charmaign's bite is enough to bring about the most mind and load blowing orgasm, leaving one spent, weak of muscle and thoroughly sated. Careful not to enjoy it too much, Fletcher is watching.
Human Servant: In theory it may be possible for Charmaign and Fletcher to have a jointly held human servant, but it would have to be someone on whom they could both completely agree, and given their propensity for jealousies and argument, they haven't been able to find anyone they could agree on in more than six hundred years.Non-vampiric abilities: Speaks French, English, German, Latin, Italian, Swedish, and Spanish fluently, knows a bit of Welsh and Japanese and can ask for directions and a blowjob in a variety of other languages. He is skilled in fencing, and a variety of handwriting styles (calligraphy, carolingian miniscule, gothic, etc) as well as passable in horsemanship. He is an avid and very talented artist but also dabbles in a variety of other mediums with varying results.
Age: 626 (born 1383, became a vampire 1402)
Kinsey Rating: 5
Physical Appearance: Charmaign stands at 5'9 with a very lean and lithe frame. His hair is dark brown and falls in silky curls that he usually wears artfully mussed. Dark brown eyes, sculpted features and full lips fall into either an imperious sulk, or flirting sensuality depending on the mood between himself and Fletcher. Charmaign's skin is quite soft to the touch, a tell tale sign of his early life of luxury and wealth.
Depending on his mood, his style of dress ranges from flamboyant to sharp to grungy ripped jeans and a paint stained shirt that looks suspiciously large on him and, if one has a good nose, might just smell like Fletcher. No matter what he's wearing, he carries himself with an air of importance and an unintentional air of condescension, but in a manner that turns conspiratorial when he speaks to a person, as though letting them into his confidences.
PB: Louis Garrel
Personality: Charmaign is the very definition of mercurial. His default personality is imperious and sensual, listening to others with an amused air of indulgence and speaking with a low, conspiratorial tones while cutting his eyes to 'make sure no one else hears.' This, however, can change on a word, expression or the laying of Fletcher's attention on another. He can be bitter and cutting with the best of them, pursing his lips and looking through a person if he no longer feels like engaging them. On his own, when engaged in his particular artistic endeavors, he is typically quiet with a focused air of concentration that he does not like disturbed by any other than Fletcher.
His enjoyment of electronics and modern diversions is evident in his Facebook, Twitter and blog accounts that are constantly updated. Char has mastered one handed texting by touch alone and tends to do so while carrying on conversations. It isn't that he considers it rude, or you uninteresting, he just considers his attention too important to devote to any one person that isn't Fletcher.
When they are fighting, Charmaign will choose mature wizards around Fletcher's apparent age and mostly because they are situated in Fletcher's half of the club, to flirt with. He will rant and rave at Fletcher's faults, but point out that Fletcher does x or y better than the person he is currently idling with. Though, as much as he complains, agreement or bashing of Fletcher by a third party will end in the verbal ripping of a new asshole. Fletcher is his and that jealousy is nearly all consuming. When he is not trying to irk and anger Fletcher, he is hawking over the other man's movements, watching for the bois he might flirt with and interrupting with insults and general cattiness. In truth, he loves Fletcher so much it frightens him, knowing in the deepest parts of his being that he wouldn't mind melting into the other and using these fights and petty flaws to prevent that from happening.
Charmaign is gay. He was gay before he was turned and he remains gay. He has had sexual relations with women and gets absolutely no enjoyment out of it. Though he can appreciate the beauty of the female form, it's from an artistic point of view only. His tastes run to tall and broad with firm shoulders and rough hands.
Background:Wales: 1372 - 1402
Belle's Court, France: 1402 - 1612
Venice: 1612 - 1797
Copenhagen: 1797 - 1890
San Francisco: 1890 - present
Charmaign was born Charmaign Burgundy-Valois in 1383, the sixth son of the Duke and Duchess of Burgundy, blood relations to the French line of Valois kings. His early life was an easy passage of days spent in luxury and learning. He was schooled in Latin and Greek, the trivium and the quadrivium, taught penmanship, fencing and riding. Charmaign never took to hunting, but did take to one of the stable boys with which he had his first, sweaty and panting encounter behind a mound of dirty hay.
Because the duchy of Burgundy included parts of England, he learned English (as well as German) early on and was often sent to England after particularly scandalous homosexual encounters. Some couldn't fault him, he was beautiful to look at more than handsome, and had a lithe air of sensuality that came naturally. As he grew older, Charmaign realized this life was not to be his forever, as, by the laws of primogeniture, he would inherit nothing unless the five brothers ahead of him died. Which, Charmaign was strangely okay with. His plotting was clumsy and often sidetracked by parties and affairs. Because he was not set to inherit and they were actually busy governing a duchy, his father and brothers mostly ignored these antics. Until his return from the latest exile in England coincided with the appointment of a particularly handsome new Cardinal.
The Cardinal was recalled but the damage had already been done (the poor nun did eventually regain her sight and ability to speak and the witnessing orphans blocked the event entirely from their minds) and Charmaign's eldest brother had had enough. The Duke was vaguely aware of what the brother had planned for Charmaign, but neither consented nor condemned it. Late one evening, with the entitled sense of immortality that only the very wealthy and spoiled can manage, Charmaign met with a potential assassin of his siblings. Unfortunately for him, the potential assassin was a vampire of Belle's court to whom Charmaign had been sold by said elder brother.
With one look into that vampire's eyes, Char's last thought before fading was -rien.
Charmaign and Wilim spent their last nights as humans trapped together, quite probably for the amusement value of those who could observe their clashing personalities and the arguments conducted in the only language the two shared in common - English - rather than Wilim's native Welsh or Charmaign's native French. They served as entertainment for the court as a whole in those final nights, but neither will speak of those things. Entertainments in Belle Morte's court took only a few directions and Charmaign's cooperation was obtained through promises of freedom and assistance in taking head of his family.
Fletcher and Charmaign were brought over on the same night by Sander as part of an experiment at Belle's behest. What powers a vampire comes through the change with vary wildly, and Belle wanted to know if two very different men, brought over at the same time, by the same master, might have the same powers, or if they would still have different abilities from vampirism. The two men were different in age, education, social standing, nationality, sexual preference and experience, personality, faith, and even appearance. The question was, would they be the same or different as vampires?
After receiving the final bite from Sander, the two men's bodies were returned to their gilded prison to wait the three days until they would rise as vampires. Sander returned to them three days later before the sun had even set, expecting to find them still dead, as new vampires do not rise while the sun still rides the sky. He had planned to be there at their waking to give them his blood and bind them to him as their maker and master before taking them to feed. What he found instead was the two vampires locked in an embrace, feeding from one another with no awareness of the world around them. As they were pulled apart, they exchanged the words that vampires have shared from time immemorial to bind servant to master, Blood of my blood, flesh of my flesh, breath to breath, my heart to yours.
Charmaign's first memory as a vampire is of these words and the feel and smell of Fletcher around him, the taste of the other man- vampire's blood in his mouth. Of magic.
They were curiosities after that - the two vampires who had bound themselves to one another. Sander tried to break their newly forged blood oath and succeeded in nearly killing both. Since Belle had wanted them as an experiment, it was by her order that the experiment continued with this new and unique variable.
That they were curiosities to Belle Morte didn't change the fact that they were new meat in a vampire court and thus the least among the vampires there. Fletcher and Charmaign learned to work together because they had no choice, and because they soon came to understand that they were in an "us against the world" situation. Their little metaphysical oops upon waking together their first night, left them bound to each other, and as time went on, their binding grew closer and closer until even the staunchly heterosexual and devout Fletcher was lost in love for Charmaign. And Charmaign to Fletcher.
The first night their shared ardeur fully manifested, they might have been lost entirely if the sudden burst of metaphysical energy hadn't attracted the entire court's attention and drew Belle Morte herself to their room. Fletcher and Charmaign were locked in an embrace that neither would have been equipped to draw back from if she hadn't slid her own energy through theirs, planning to just take a taste of what they had created between them. It was enough to bring them back to themselves, and Fletcher to this day shudders at the memory of her foreign touch in that moment of intimacy.
The stories of their 210 years in Belle Morte's court could be endless, although most of them are simply typical for what was expected of any vampire in her service. They learned together and slowly worked their way from the bottom of the pecking order to somewhere in the middle. They served Belle in whatever manner she commanded. Charmaign's uses were mostly sexual, though his education and, when it was relevant, his knowledge on the political front were used. They were both occasionally sent to seduce pawns in Belle's power games, although they were not her favorites for that task because they could not be separated.
And as with any vampire in Belle Morte's court who was fair of body and face, one or both of them was expected to serve her desires in more personal ways whenever she required it. Belle remains to this day convinced that all love her, particularly those who have tasted her ardeur. Both Charmaign and Fletcher have been subject to the full power of Belle Morte's ardeur and both have felt the maddening heat of desire for her, but neither love her; their own ardeur protects them from that addiction with the love it fostered between them.
Unfortunately, that led to the slip that resulted in one of the most traumatic events in their long lives and started them on the path to making their escape from Belle's court. The facts are these:
One of them was with Belle and slipped in an intimate moment, calling out the other's name in an excess of passion.
Belle was of course enraged and chose to punish both vampires. One was put into a cross-wrapped coffin, the other was left free and told that he could earn his lover's freedom if he was good enough.
The one in the coffin received occasional visits from vampires telling tales of how his partner was disobedient and deliberately doing things to prolong their separation.
The free one was given impossible tasks to complete with the promise that as soon as they were completed, his partner would be freed.
This went on for nearly five years. When the imprisoned one was released, it was the free one who took him through the careful process of bringing him back to the world. It was he who kept the newly-freed vampire from killing the wereleopard who was his first meal in five years. It was he who fed him his blood and restored their blood oath, not their maker, and it was he who held him in the warm water and eased him back to life. And when he finally dropped his walls to their ardeur, he found that his partner had no strength to hold back his side of the ardeur and it nearly washed them both away in a sharing so profound that to this day, they both remember the whole experience as though they had been both the free partner and the imprisoned one. Neither remembers which of them was truly freed and which spent those five years in a cross-wrapped coffin. When both remember it so personally, perhaps the difference is moot. It was at this time that they obtained the first in what would be countless generations of the babies, six small, no-strings-attached balls of warmth (Scottish terriers) to keep the vampires company when they had to be apart for even the space of a night.
When they recovered, they knew that neither could endure something like that ever again and that they had to find a way to be free of the court.
They couldn't turn to other vampires to aid them against a Council member, nor to the lycanthropes who were too scattered to be a true power and too hostile to vampires anyway. The White Council cared only about their own and wouldn't care to make a deal with a pair of vampires who wanted to run away from home.
This turned their attention to the Faerie Courts as their only possible hope. They presented their case at the Spring Equinox when both Courts were equal, offering themselves up as keepers of neutral ground in the mortal realm if only the Courts would back them with their power to keep them free of the Vampire Council. They were forced to undergo four trials to prove their worthiness to take this position, the last being to survive the Wild Hunt in the Nevernever for a full night without running to the mortal realm. The last they barely survived, but in the process learned that their ability to call and control dogs and hounds extends even to the hounds of the Wild Hunt, although even together and touching, the most they could do was bay the hounds when the hounds were targeting them specifically.
Still, neither Court had expected the two vampires to survive. The Winter Court is Charmaign's "sponsor" outside the Nevernever. The Summer Court took Fletcher. The Wyldfae offered one of their own to help watch over them and ensure that the balance is maintained. "Tinkerbell" has traveled with them ever since, but his history is his to tell. As long as the pair are not forsworn in their oath to maintain a place of neutrality for all preternatural beings in the human world and a safe entrance to and from the Nevernever, they have the Faerie Courts' backing in maintaining their freedom from vampire obligations.
In the nearly 400 years since then, they have never given any of the factions cause to regret allowing them their neutrality. They may be arrogant on their home ground, but they adhere scrupulously to rules of non-violence and neutrality in the areas they have maintained, first in Venice, then in Copenhagen, and now in San Francisco. As powerful as the two are together, all sides may silently agree that it's in everyone's best interests to see them maintain that neutrality... or see them destroyed. At least this way they're useful, and if the two of them have devolved into an ongoing cycle of being together or being at each other's throats, outsiders see that as being for the best as well, as they always seem distracted with each other.
They enjoyed their time in Venice, but left when Napoleon destroyed its millennium-long tradition as a republic. From there they went to Copenhagen, fostering an association with the mermaids of Copenhagen (an association is what neutral people have instead of an alliance ^.~ ) and from there, were asked to go to San Francisco. While they were not asked to negotiate with the San Francisco Bay's mermaids, it was hoped that their understanding of mermaid culture would help the mermaids come to the bargaining table under Charmaign and Fletcher's roof.
The vampires have enjoyed their years in San Francisco, and the Castro district may or may not have them to thank for its role as one of the leading gay neighborhoods in the world. Certainly Charmaign and Fletcher were there before it took that role and they plan to stay for many more years to come.
Perhaps it was hypocritical of Charmaign, after all, he had been the first to cheat (though Fletcher did claim to have forgiven him), but for Fletcher- his very not gay Fletcher- to seek out this youthful male lover on his own, Charmaign couldn't take it. He took the six babies and told Fletcher he was leaving, waking up the next night be damned. Needless to say, it was only Fletcher's agreement to exile the lover from San Francisco that kept Charmaign staying. But this, this was the last straw.
They split their shared quarters in half to two apartments. They split the club in half down the middle in terms of decor and "ownership" leading to DMZ's rather peculiar setup. They even arranged joint custody for the babies, switching off which night either vampire has care of the dogs. For the past forty-two years, things have been alternately chilly and unpleasantly hot between the two of them, with both vampires certain that since they're broken up, the other is screwing every man in sight.
Charmaign remains loyal to Fletcher. Though he's not above a hand job or oral sex, or even letting Fletcher think there is far more going on, there's simply something missing between himself and any of these flings that Char takes on. In fact, in recent years, the flings have been more and more for the sole purpose of evoking a reaction for Fletcher. Whether or not the fling realizes this, Charmaign does not care.
And thus we come to San Francisco today, where Charmaign and Fletcher jointly hold their shared territory, small though it is. Sometimes they hate each other, sometimes they love each other, and in love and in hate, they cannot be apart.
RP Sample:
He absolutely despised those puffed up old chickenhawks who willfully misunderstood the meaning of one night flirtation. Or who insisted on trying to up the ante and get upstairs. No one got upstairs. If it weren't for the reaction pulled from Fletcher, Charmaign would give up on the whole outfit entirely. Which was why he hadn't bared fangs and dismissed the man breathing hotly across his neck.
“You're just a little boy, aren't you?” The man, not much older in appearance than Fletcher, murmured, nosing moistly at Charmaign's ear.
A momentary look of distaste danced across his features, Charmaign could practically hear the man spelling it 'boi' and not boy, not to mention the vampire was likely six hundred years this wizard's senior. Of course, Char thought drolly, he brought it upon himself tonight, wearing a child sized Boy Scout shirt thrifted from some attempt at finding a few authentic Queen tour t-shirts (Char's own were worn to bits by now). Though, upon close inspection, the merit badges were obviously not the genuine article and ranged to the obscene.
“A little boy up past his bedtime,” Char replied with a blithe smile, disengaging himself from the wizard and making to stand. To his lack of surprise the man rose with him, tall and broad, but not quite to Char's particular tastes.
The wizard smiled, a handsome smile to be sure, but one Charmaign was profoundly uninterested in, “I could tuck you in?” Char laughed gave a small negative shake of his head, eyes dancing and posture already distancing himself from the other man. Until he closed that distance once more.
Frustration welled and he quashed it in case his other half was watching. Instead, he leaned in and murmured, “Perhaps another time, hm?” Then pulled back with a wink and headed toward Tink at the bar, avoiding any more unfortunate company for the evening.
The leather clad fairy raised an eyebrow at Char's approach but didn't stop polishing a glass as the vampire perched on a barstool and asked, “Where is he?”
Tink set the glass down and began mixing a Tom Collins, “Not Fletcher's social secretary.” It kept the peace not to get in the way of two vampires, much to Charmaign's immediate sense of being put out.
“Just a hint? Balcony? Roof? Boi-” And frowned as Tink just walked away to serve said drink. “That's very rude, you ill-mannered creature.” Then straightened imperiously and set off to distract himself.