OOC; Ash's Personality and Backstory
CHARACTER:
Name:Ash
Source: The Tarot Cafe
History: Ash’s story is a long and complicated one. Where it began, no one knows (except perhaps his friend Alecto-and really, would you like to be the one to ask him?), but it has certainly lead him down a long and twisting path. What’s known is that he raised Pamela after her mother’s death several hundred years ago, eventually falling in love. As he was a dragon and Pamela was a human, this seemed to be somewhat controversial-and his best friend, the black dragon Alecto, didn’t like the situation or Pamela at all-but Ash refused to pay any heed whatsoever. “After all,” he would say, “we dragons are immortal. What’s the point in suffering with an empty heart?” Alecto, however, would not listen, and constantly berated his friend for his stupidity as the years (which to the dragons seemed to pass in the blink of an eye) went by.
Unbeknownst to anyone else, however, Ash’s heart had been affected by his long life and he no longer felt fully alive. He longed to escape the stagnant nature of his immortality and made a deal with a high-ranking devil named Belial to allow him to die and become a mortal, unaware that Alecto watched unseen. “I love Pamela,” he told Belial, prompting the devil to remark upon the beautiful dragon’s cold heart, “but not as much as I love myself.” The next day, the deal took effect, and Alecto was brutally wounded by a corrupt church official while protecting Pamela. He apologized to the woman he had grown to love deeply and died in her arms, bequeathing his immortality to her.
The centuries passed with Belial keeping the red dragon’s true form encased in ice as part of his collection, and eventually Belial, bored and wanting to keep Pamela with him as part of a game, created a jewel from Ash’s soul and caused him to be reborn-and that is where this Ash begins. He was raised by Cora, the Divinator and Queen of the Dead, from the time when he was four years old. Despite the woman’s kindness to him, he could not rid himself of the tempest within his mind and heart, causing him to constantly get into fights even as he grew into a beautiful young man-and that’s where Belus came in. Taking an interest in the youth, he took Ash as his student and friend, teaching him how to use his powers and keeping the school bullies away from him. When Belus was near him, Ash felt a foreign happiness well up in his heart, and the inexplicable anger which had haunted him his whole life seemed to vanish-but this was not to last.
Eventually, Belus felt that it was time to return to Pamela, whom he had a contract with, and left in the night, with only a simple and callous “Goodbye” scrawled on a piece of paper for Ash to find. Betrayed and abandoned, Ash set out to make Pamela’s life as miserable as he felt she had made his, using Cora to help him in the matter. He staged an attempted kidnapping by a group of religious extremists (an easy task, as one of the members-the rebirth of the very official, named Victor, who had killed him before-had fallen into a dangerous and obsessive longing for Ash’s charm and beauty), only to be rescued by Pamela-or so it seemed. That night, he and Pamela were successfully kidnapped by Victor and his cronies and were put on trial as witches. As Ash refused to belong to Victor and do as he said, he was tortured on the rack and on his way to death when Pamela flew into a rage and freed him, after which they were both rescued by Belus.
The next day, Ash flew into a rage of his own and brutally killed every last member of that order but Victor, who was reclaimed by Cora. He rebuked Belus for his careless and false information (and for calling Ash his princess). “You’re mine,” he told Belus, “so anything that belongs to you is mine as well.” With that, he took his leave and headed back to Pamela’s café, bearing sweets in order to charm her further and draw her closer to his web. However, this plan was put on hold with the arrival of none other than Alecto, who still grieved his best friend’s death centuries earlier-and recognized Ash, which was something he shouldn’t have been able to do. After confusing and frightening Ash (and nearly breaking his arm), the fierce black dragon took his leave-only to knock out and kidnap Ash with the intent to take him to his castle.
All did not go as planned, however, as Ash woke up somewhere quite different from Alecto’s territory…
Personality: At first glance, Ash is an innocent and vibrant young man, full of fun and life to all who know him. This is nothing more than a clever ruse, however; at his jeweled heart, Ash is a wounded boy who wants nothing more than to be loved-and, more sinisterly, to get revenge on Pamela (whom he both loves and hates), who stole the only person he could truly rely on away. This anger and resentment causes Ash to be cruel and almost heartless, and he’s more than willing to use his charm and beauty to seduce or trick others into giving him what he wants-and to discard or even kill those he finds to be of no further use to him (even threatening to do this to Cora, who has raised him with genuine love and affection).
Despite his fickle cruelty, Ash has moments of vulnerability and is clueless regarding his own past and true nature. This can make him an easy pawn for those who know the real Ash. He remembers nothing of his life as a dragon and only thinks of himself as human, albeit better than all of those boring, mundane creatures out there. When his temper is aroused, he can become violent quickly-but this can fade just as quickly, leaving him feeling empty and lost. He naturally doesn’t like these moments, and will stop at nothing to make them go away.
Biggest Fear: Ash’s biggest fear is abandonment. He despises being or feeling utterly alone and will do anything to get away from it.
Powers: Ash has the power of hypnosis. By looking into someone’s eyes and concentrating, he can get them to do whatever he pleases. This does not, however, seem to affect dragons or high-ranking demons and devils-and as his victims need to be able to see his eyes for it to work, it naturally doesn’t affect the blind.