Application
User Name/Nick: Naomi
User LJ: asyndeta
AIM/IM: metonumia
E-mail: asyndeta@gmail.com
Other Characters: Shego, Iroh, Toshiko Sato, Merlin
Character Name: Count D
Series: Petshop of Horrors: Tokyo
Age: Hard to nail down since D stops ageing at a certain point - he, his father and his grandfather look identical. When members of his 'family' die they are reincarnated into new bodies - babies that will grow up identical to their former selves - while maintaining their previous memories, or at least a strong racial memory of their genetic line. As a result, D is (effectively or literally) hundreds or even thousands of years old. He looks about mid-20s-ish.
From When?: Since PSOH Toyko hasn't really acquired an overarching plot yet, this barely matters, so let's put his arrival after the events of 'Dhampir' in Volume 7.
Inmate/Warden: Warden. Just about. By the time of the Toyko series, D seems to have become much less brutal; although he's still very much about teaching people life lessons in unorthodox ways and (at least on a theoretical level) still doesn't care an awful lot about human life, he no longer habitually goes about his work in ways that are going to get people violently killed.
Item: Pon. She is a raccoon. I know that's a bit unorthodox, but IIRC Giselle's item was her chipmunk and the Fourth Doctor has K-9 so there's precedent there. :c
Abilities/Powers: D is a nature god: an incarnation of Earth's animal life (roughly modelled on the sokuketsu, a dryad-like being in Japanese mythology). This encompasses the following:
+ He can talk to animals, and perceives them in human shape - a perception he can extend to other people if he feels like it. He also has a certain level of control over animals, certainly to the extent of being able to calm and tame creatures that would otherwise be lethally dangerous. It's shown a couple of times that he can summon animals by shedding his blood.
+ He has accelerated healing compared to an average human, although he's far from invulnerable. Ordinarily, killing him would result in his immediate reincarnation as a newborn baby - obviously this will be suspended for Barge purposes.
+ Apparently a skilled martial artist, certainly capable of self-defence against several larger opponents.
+ He can fly, or possibly teleport - once or twice he or his predecessors are shown scaling buildings, or moving from one place to another faster than the eye can follow. He hardly ever does this, though.
+ D is a telepath. He can read minds to ascertain people's greatest desires and weaknesses. He also has considerable powers of suggestion; he can alter memories, enter and control dreams, and may use hypnotic suggestion on some of his customers.
+ He grows vines around his body when he's depressed or injured, probably as part of a healing and/or defensive process.
+ This isn't really an ability but as a point of trivia, his blood is insta-kill vampire poison.
+ Not really an ability either, but a possession: his cabin will be his 'shop', which is a sort of animal-filled TARDIS of unknowable size which changes its content according to the needs of its 'customers'. It is known to encompass several different landscapes, lakes, possibly a small ocean etc. - it's big. But it only reveals its secrets to D and anyone else he decides is worthy of the grand tour. Most people who try to go beyond the main body of the shop will only see an empty storeroom.
Personality:
In the recent past, much of D's behaviour was characterised by his perception of humanity; he saw humans as being selfish, greedy and destructive, without regard for the world to which they are born or the other species which live alongside them. He was (and still is) much more at home with animals, and continues to carry a deep sense of grief and anger for their pains and losses at human hands. Although at first glance his business seemed to involve doling out natural justice of a sort, the execution of this could go vastly overboard; sometimes dozens of people were hurt or even killed in the process of punishing one person's misdeeds. He was/is deeply manipulative and is always satisfied to see this 'justice' done but he's ever been actively sadistic.
More recently, though, he seems to have mellowed. The good-natured humanity of Chris and Leon Orcot left a deeper impression on him than he would care to admit. He tends not to sell pets accompanied by a death-sentence 'contract' any more, and many of the animals he sells from his Tokyo shop are intended to help rather than punish their owners. As a few examples, he sells a borzoi to a yakuza underling, thus starting a series of events which free a girl he loves from a relationship she's trapped in; he lends a dream-eating tapir to ease the nightmares of a mother terrified that her young son will grow up to be like his abusive father; he uses a lizard to destroy the dozens of multiple personalities threatening a famous actress who internalises every character she plays. This is not to say that things always go well for the people involved - for example, the aforementioned mother is killed by the father while protecting her son, after recurrent nightmares of using him as a shield - or that D's contributions are always positive. In one instance, he orchestrates a night of terror against two human traffickers who have conned their 'clients' out of all their money; in another, one of his pets enables a young woman into such desperate obsession to 'own' a man at a host club that she embezzles money from her workplace and is imprisoned for it. He also guides Woo Fei through a dream where thousands of people in Kabuki-cho, the area of Shinjuku he wishes to take over, are massacred to prevent a bird flu epidemic breaking out in Toyko.
The major difference between his current and former behaviour towards humans is that now, he (usually) lets people live to appreciate the lessons they've learnt and make reparations for the damage they've caused. He also has a much greater focus now on helping animals (often to human cost, for example, causing a complete blackout across Tokyo to allow a family of crabs to find their way back to the ocean); overall, he is less malevolent but no less uncompromising. And he still doesn't care much about humans as a species, continuing to see the majority of them as being parasites upon the earth they inhabit.
As well as this apathy towards humanity, D often seems to lack comprehension of it in some ways; he admits outright that he does not understand how humans can love each other, and the friendships and business associations he himself develops are almost wholly superficial. Although he develops a fondness for two humans, in his own mind he seems to temporarily promote them to the level of 'pet' rather than let his regard for those individuals influence his regard for the rest of their species. And though he did clearly regret having to let both of them go, even going so far as to cry when he abandoned Leon (see History), his mourning period was brief; however, as discussed above, his less brutal approach in his new premises was possibly influenced by his relationship with Leon and Chris. It's unlikely that he would ever admit that, even to himself.
Ironically his 'public face' can display many of the features he despises in others. From a distance he seems prissy, vain, hedonistic and quite lazy, always perfectly turned out and with a fondness for sweet tea and confectionery that borders on the pathological. He keeps odd company, his clientele ranging from society's best and brightest to leaders in organised crime. When cornered he can get sarcastic, snippy and even physically demonstrative - the long nails aren't just there for decoration. He can flirt and get into people's space if he thinks their response will be useful to him, although as mentioned, it would likely never even occur to him to get involved in an actual relationship (physical or otherwise) with a human being.
Most often, he projects the face of a consummate businessman: soft-spoken but authoritative, knowledgeable, generous and superficially friendly - and this is the persona he would largely show to the Barge, while quietly gathering ammunition on its other denizens to use against them later on. As a Warden he would be no less unorthodox with his Inmate (or anyone else's Inmate, or a Warden or two if he saw a need) than he is with his customers. He would have a very, very limited interest in building a rapport with his Inmate or earning their trust: he would just want to get straight to the heart of the matter and then destroy it by any means necessary. I anticipate this won't make him many friends.
History:
D originates from a race of people from China who were capable of speaking with animals and sharing their wisdom. Roughly one thousand years ago they came to the attention of a royal family and became revered by the humans around them, treated with great respect. This changed when the affections of a young prince were rebuffed by a priestess of D's people. Humiliated, the prince turned the Emperor's army and subjects against them; all but one of that race were hunted down and killed. The one survivor, the 'original' D, swore vengeance upon the human race, joining with the animal kingdom in their suffering and need for retribution. He also became a genetic template for his successors, all of whom are identical save for varying eye colour. (Bonus fact: D's people reproduce asexually, not needing to interbreed with humans.)
D himself was raised by his grandfather, who had run a string of petshops across the world, and followed in his footsteps by taking over the shop in Los Angeles' Chinatown. While settled there, he guided numerous customers to pets who had 'chosen' their new owners - often for punishment but also for help, protection or to right injustices done against them. His customers signed contracts - usually stipulating three terms - with the clear understanding that the shop would not be held responsible for the consequences of these terms being broken. Which they frequently were. This caused a string of suspicious deaths that attracted the attention of LAPD detective Leon Orcot, who spent almost two years fruitlessly investigating the Count. Over this time they became somewhat friendly, if still antagonistic - and D became as good as a surrogate father to Leon's young, mute brother Chris, who lived with the Count for about a year.
The situation went steeply downhill, however, with the appearance of D's father, grandfather and the FBI agent who had long been investigating D, believing he and his predecessors to be one immortal man. Where D had been slowly softening towards humans, his father had never veered from their ancestors' path - and had created a virus that would destroy humanity, leaving only animals behind. He was killed by Leon, his final words to D being that he should never again embrace hope or forgive the humans who hurt them. His dying act was to detonate a bomb, destroying the building where their final meeting took place. He was reborn as a baby and his father, D's grandfather, took him away to raise him as he had D.
D survived the blast, also saving the injured Leon in the process, and took him to his 'shop' - which by then had taken its natural form, a flying ship, as D was intending to escape Los Angeles. Although it deeply hurt him to do so, he forced Leon to return to his hometown.
For an unknown period of time afterwards, possibly as long as ten years, D travelled the world, attempting to open shops in various places - it is known at least that he visited Germany and Italy - but with Leon now attempting to track him down, he rarely stayed in one place for any length of time. Eventually he settled in the Kabuki-cho area of Shinjuku, Tokyo, setting up shop in Neo-Chinatown: a single building dedicated to Chinese shops, restaurants, theatres and culture. This place was operated by Woo-Fei Rau, a megalomaniacal businessman with ties to organised crime in Shanghai; due to links between their families, D was given a last-minute place on the building's thirteenth floor and Woo-Fei was given a warning not to mess with him. Regardless, Woo-Fei quickly came to the conclusion that D was running a brothel and/or slave trading out of his shop, and became determined to shut him down - not so much because what he was doing was illegal, more because he was doing it without permission.
D was relatively generous in sharing the true nature of himself and his shop with Woo-Fei; for example, showing him a panda cub that he had in his shop, thus making the businessman complicit in what could have become an international incident between Japan and China. He also allowed Woo-Fei to see the impossible size and complexity of his shop, and - during a quest to find a mythological creature - let him witness an exchange with a dragon god. Woo-Fei wisely concluded that D was too dangerous to seriously engage with, but soon became a regular visitor to his shop, hanging around and making a nuisance of himself. Their stalemate was mistaken for friendship by many witnesses to it, although D never seemed to build the rapport he had with Leon.
During his time in Woo-Fei's building, then, D's work has been divided between his human customers and the animals and pets already living in the area who needed his help (some examples given in the Personality section). His most recent ventures involved the care of Tamamo-no-Mae, a fox demon who survives by eating jewels, the reconciliation of a ghost and his former friends, and a favour done for a pet cat who wanted her young owner saved from abusive parents. It's possible that around the time of being invited to the Barge by the Admiral, D heard a rumour about some shady blond American asking questions and decided it might not be a terrible idea to get out of harm's way for a while.
Sample Journal Entry:
[The video screen shows a half-lit, ornately decorated room that could be from the eighteenth century if not for the electric lighting. D is seated comfortably on a plush sofa and so are a number of animals - he's flanked by a young raccoon on one side and an odd goat-like hybrid on the other, a few cats are stretched out along the headrest, there are a couple of snakes curled up on one armrest and a rabbit on the other, etc. When he speaks, his voice is soft and lilting.]
Strange. I had quite forgotten that I was ever here. They say that time slows down in times of crisis, don't they...? But that single moment when I was so certain my body would be destroyed, became weeks on board this ship.
But that moment passed. More than ten years ago. [A little reluctance, here:] And I suppose that I am changed, for the Admiral to have offered me a place as a Warden rather than cage me here as an Inmate.
[He's silent for a moment, and sips from a teacup held delicately in one hand. When he lowers the cup, there's an unreadable little smile on his face, and his eyes meet the camera for the first time.]
But please forgive my rudeness. There are many newcomers here, and I have no desire to remain a stranger. I am D, and this...
[He makes an expansive gesture that covers everything around him.]
This is my home, and my shop. And all of you are welcome here.
Sample RP:
Somewhere in the shop, a clock chimed. D paused, halfway through the turn of a page. He'd read the book many times before, almost had the words committed to his memory; he was just marking time. Next to him, Pon shifted, large eyes gazing up at him.
"It's been hours, Count."
"A little longer, I think." He turned the page, carefully flattening it against those that had gone before.
The business of rehabilitating an Inmate was odd to him. In some ways, it was nothing new at all: his life's work was to draw humans away from their selfishness, their vices, their greed and rage. Once he had simply placed them in prisons of their own making and watched them break the rules that were in place to keep them alive. More recently he had left their redemption in their own hands, or those of their loved ones, or even to the human judicial system. What was expected of him on the Barge was new. He had never before been expected to see through a single person's entire transformation from bad to good - or at least better, since allowances had to be made for humanity's inherent failings.
It was all rather novel, certainly. But that did not mean he intended to break tradition. He would not consider the methods that so many others used; he hadn't the slightest interest in befriending his Inmate or earning their trust. He wasn't even particularly interested in their respect. As if he had any of those things to offer in return.
Seemingly abruptly, he placed the book to one side and rose from his seat, walking silently to the double doors at the back of the shop. The branching corridors opened for him and only a few moments later had he reached the second set.
Beyond these doors, the air smelt of incense and blood. There were soft snarls in the blackness, and something unlike them: a human making a wounded, animal sound. Crying, or injured, or both, he couldn't make it out just yet.
The dark slowly began to coalesce into shapes. D cleared his throat softly.
"How are you feeling?"
User LJ: asyndeta
AIM/IM: metonumia
E-mail: asyndeta@gmail.com
Other Characters: Shego, Iroh, Toshiko Sato, Merlin
Character Name: Count D
Series: Petshop of Horrors: Tokyo
Age: Hard to nail down since D stops ageing at a certain point - he, his father and his grandfather look identical. When members of his 'family' die they are reincarnated into new bodies - babies that will grow up identical to their former selves - while maintaining their previous memories, or at least a strong racial memory of their genetic line. As a result, D is (effectively or literally) hundreds or even thousands of years old. He looks about mid-20s-ish.
From When?: Since PSOH Toyko hasn't really acquired an overarching plot yet, this barely matters, so let's put his arrival after the events of 'Dhampir' in Volume 7.
Inmate/Warden: Warden. Just about. By the time of the Toyko series, D seems to have become much less brutal; although he's still very much about teaching people life lessons in unorthodox ways and (at least on a theoretical level) still doesn't care an awful lot about human life, he no longer habitually goes about his work in ways that are going to get people violently killed.
Item: Pon. She is a raccoon. I know that's a bit unorthodox, but IIRC Giselle's item was her chipmunk and the Fourth Doctor has K-9 so there's precedent there. :c
Abilities/Powers: D is a nature god: an incarnation of Earth's animal life (roughly modelled on the sokuketsu, a dryad-like being in Japanese mythology). This encompasses the following:
+ He can talk to animals, and perceives them in human shape - a perception he can extend to other people if he feels like it. He also has a certain level of control over animals, certainly to the extent of being able to calm and tame creatures that would otherwise be lethally dangerous. It's shown a couple of times that he can summon animals by shedding his blood.
+ He has accelerated healing compared to an average human, although he's far from invulnerable. Ordinarily, killing him would result in his immediate reincarnation as a newborn baby - obviously this will be suspended for Barge purposes.
+ Apparently a skilled martial artist, certainly capable of self-defence against several larger opponents.
+ He can fly, or possibly teleport - once or twice he or his predecessors are shown scaling buildings, or moving from one place to another faster than the eye can follow. He hardly ever does this, though.
+ D is a telepath. He can read minds to ascertain people's greatest desires and weaknesses. He also has considerable powers of suggestion; he can alter memories, enter and control dreams, and may use hypnotic suggestion on some of his customers.
+ He grows vines around his body when he's depressed or injured, probably as part of a healing and/or defensive process.
+ This isn't really an ability but as a point of trivia, his blood is insta-kill vampire poison.
+ Not really an ability either, but a possession: his cabin will be his 'shop', which is a sort of animal-filled TARDIS of unknowable size which changes its content according to the needs of its 'customers'. It is known to encompass several different landscapes, lakes, possibly a small ocean etc. - it's big. But it only reveals its secrets to D and anyone else he decides is worthy of the grand tour. Most people who try to go beyond the main body of the shop will only see an empty storeroom.
Personality:
In the recent past, much of D's behaviour was characterised by his perception of humanity; he saw humans as being selfish, greedy and destructive, without regard for the world to which they are born or the other species which live alongside them. He was (and still is) much more at home with animals, and continues to carry a deep sense of grief and anger for their pains and losses at human hands. Although at first glance his business seemed to involve doling out natural justice of a sort, the execution of this could go vastly overboard; sometimes dozens of people were hurt or even killed in the process of punishing one person's misdeeds. He was/is deeply manipulative and is always satisfied to see this 'justice' done but he's ever been actively sadistic.
More recently, though, he seems to have mellowed. The good-natured humanity of Chris and Leon Orcot left a deeper impression on him than he would care to admit. He tends not to sell pets accompanied by a death-sentence 'contract' any more, and many of the animals he sells from his Tokyo shop are intended to help rather than punish their owners. As a few examples, he sells a borzoi to a yakuza underling, thus starting a series of events which free a girl he loves from a relationship she's trapped in; he lends a dream-eating tapir to ease the nightmares of a mother terrified that her young son will grow up to be like his abusive father; he uses a lizard to destroy the dozens of multiple personalities threatening a famous actress who internalises every character she plays. This is not to say that things always go well for the people involved - for example, the aforementioned mother is killed by the father while protecting her son, after recurrent nightmares of using him as a shield - or that D's contributions are always positive. In one instance, he orchestrates a night of terror against two human traffickers who have conned their 'clients' out of all their money; in another, one of his pets enables a young woman into such desperate obsession to 'own' a man at a host club that she embezzles money from her workplace and is imprisoned for it. He also guides Woo Fei through a dream where thousands of people in Kabuki-cho, the area of Shinjuku he wishes to take over, are massacred to prevent a bird flu epidemic breaking out in Toyko.
The major difference between his current and former behaviour towards humans is that now, he (usually) lets people live to appreciate the lessons they've learnt and make reparations for the damage they've caused. He also has a much greater focus now on helping animals (often to human cost, for example, causing a complete blackout across Tokyo to allow a family of crabs to find their way back to the ocean); overall, he is less malevolent but no less uncompromising. And he still doesn't care much about humans as a species, continuing to see the majority of them as being parasites upon the earth they inhabit.
As well as this apathy towards humanity, D often seems to lack comprehension of it in some ways; he admits outright that he does not understand how humans can love each other, and the friendships and business associations he himself develops are almost wholly superficial. Although he develops a fondness for two humans, in his own mind he seems to temporarily promote them to the level of 'pet' rather than let his regard for those individuals influence his regard for the rest of their species. And though he did clearly regret having to let both of them go, even going so far as to cry when he abandoned Leon (see History), his mourning period was brief; however, as discussed above, his less brutal approach in his new premises was possibly influenced by his relationship with Leon and Chris. It's unlikely that he would ever admit that, even to himself.
Ironically his 'public face' can display many of the features he despises in others. From a distance he seems prissy, vain, hedonistic and quite lazy, always perfectly turned out and with a fondness for sweet tea and confectionery that borders on the pathological. He keeps odd company, his clientele ranging from society's best and brightest to leaders in organised crime. When cornered he can get sarcastic, snippy and even physically demonstrative - the long nails aren't just there for decoration. He can flirt and get into people's space if he thinks their response will be useful to him, although as mentioned, it would likely never even occur to him to get involved in an actual relationship (physical or otherwise) with a human being.
Most often, he projects the face of a consummate businessman: soft-spoken but authoritative, knowledgeable, generous and superficially friendly - and this is the persona he would largely show to the Barge, while quietly gathering ammunition on its other denizens to use against them later on. As a Warden he would be no less unorthodox with his Inmate (or anyone else's Inmate, or a Warden or two if he saw a need) than he is with his customers. He would have a very, very limited interest in building a rapport with his Inmate or earning their trust: he would just want to get straight to the heart of the matter and then destroy it by any means necessary. I anticipate this won't make him many friends.
History:
D originates from a race of people from China who were capable of speaking with animals and sharing their wisdom. Roughly one thousand years ago they came to the attention of a royal family and became revered by the humans around them, treated with great respect. This changed when the affections of a young prince were rebuffed by a priestess of D's people. Humiliated, the prince turned the Emperor's army and subjects against them; all but one of that race were hunted down and killed. The one survivor, the 'original' D, swore vengeance upon the human race, joining with the animal kingdom in their suffering and need for retribution. He also became a genetic template for his successors, all of whom are identical save for varying eye colour. (Bonus fact: D's people reproduce asexually, not needing to interbreed with humans.)
D himself was raised by his grandfather, who had run a string of petshops across the world, and followed in his footsteps by taking over the shop in Los Angeles' Chinatown. While settled there, he guided numerous customers to pets who had 'chosen' their new owners - often for punishment but also for help, protection or to right injustices done against them. His customers signed contracts - usually stipulating three terms - with the clear understanding that the shop would not be held responsible for the consequences of these terms being broken. Which they frequently were. This caused a string of suspicious deaths that attracted the attention of LAPD detective Leon Orcot, who spent almost two years fruitlessly investigating the Count. Over this time they became somewhat friendly, if still antagonistic - and D became as good as a surrogate father to Leon's young, mute brother Chris, who lived with the Count for about a year.
The situation went steeply downhill, however, with the appearance of D's father, grandfather and the FBI agent who had long been investigating D, believing he and his predecessors to be one immortal man. Where D had been slowly softening towards humans, his father had never veered from their ancestors' path - and had created a virus that would destroy humanity, leaving only animals behind. He was killed by Leon, his final words to D being that he should never again embrace hope or forgive the humans who hurt them. His dying act was to detonate a bomb, destroying the building where their final meeting took place. He was reborn as a baby and his father, D's grandfather, took him away to raise him as he had D.
D survived the blast, also saving the injured Leon in the process, and took him to his 'shop' - which by then had taken its natural form, a flying ship, as D was intending to escape Los Angeles. Although it deeply hurt him to do so, he forced Leon to return to his hometown.
For an unknown period of time afterwards, possibly as long as ten years, D travelled the world, attempting to open shops in various places - it is known at least that he visited Germany and Italy - but with Leon now attempting to track him down, he rarely stayed in one place for any length of time. Eventually he settled in the Kabuki-cho area of Shinjuku, Tokyo, setting up shop in Neo-Chinatown: a single building dedicated to Chinese shops, restaurants, theatres and culture. This place was operated by Woo-Fei Rau, a megalomaniacal businessman with ties to organised crime in Shanghai; due to links between their families, D was given a last-minute place on the building's thirteenth floor and Woo-Fei was given a warning not to mess with him. Regardless, Woo-Fei quickly came to the conclusion that D was running a brothel and/or slave trading out of his shop, and became determined to shut him down - not so much because what he was doing was illegal, more because he was doing it without permission.
D was relatively generous in sharing the true nature of himself and his shop with Woo-Fei; for example, showing him a panda cub that he had in his shop, thus making the businessman complicit in what could have become an international incident between Japan and China. He also allowed Woo-Fei to see the impossible size and complexity of his shop, and - during a quest to find a mythological creature - let him witness an exchange with a dragon god. Woo-Fei wisely concluded that D was too dangerous to seriously engage with, but soon became a regular visitor to his shop, hanging around and making a nuisance of himself. Their stalemate was mistaken for friendship by many witnesses to it, although D never seemed to build the rapport he had with Leon.
During his time in Woo-Fei's building, then, D's work has been divided between his human customers and the animals and pets already living in the area who needed his help (some examples given in the Personality section). His most recent ventures involved the care of Tamamo-no-Mae, a fox demon who survives by eating jewels, the reconciliation of a ghost and his former friends, and a favour done for a pet cat who wanted her young owner saved from abusive parents. It's possible that around the time of being invited to the Barge by the Admiral, D heard a rumour about some shady blond American asking questions and decided it might not be a terrible idea to get out of harm's way for a while.
Sample Journal Entry:
[The video screen shows a half-lit, ornately decorated room that could be from the eighteenth century if not for the electric lighting. D is seated comfortably on a plush sofa and so are a number of animals - he's flanked by a young raccoon on one side and an odd goat-like hybrid on the other, a few cats are stretched out along the headrest, there are a couple of snakes curled up on one armrest and a rabbit on the other, etc. When he speaks, his voice is soft and lilting.]
Strange. I had quite forgotten that I was ever here. They say that time slows down in times of crisis, don't they...? But that single moment when I was so certain my body would be destroyed, became weeks on board this ship.
But that moment passed. More than ten years ago. [A little reluctance, here:] And I suppose that I am changed, for the Admiral to have offered me a place as a Warden rather than cage me here as an Inmate.
[He's silent for a moment, and sips from a teacup held delicately in one hand. When he lowers the cup, there's an unreadable little smile on his face, and his eyes meet the camera for the first time.]
But please forgive my rudeness. There are many newcomers here, and I have no desire to remain a stranger. I am D, and this...
[He makes an expansive gesture that covers everything around him.]
This is my home, and my shop. And all of you are welcome here.
Sample RP:
Somewhere in the shop, a clock chimed. D paused, halfway through the turn of a page. He'd read the book many times before, almost had the words committed to his memory; he was just marking time. Next to him, Pon shifted, large eyes gazing up at him.
"It's been hours, Count."
"A little longer, I think." He turned the page, carefully flattening it against those that had gone before.
The business of rehabilitating an Inmate was odd to him. In some ways, it was nothing new at all: his life's work was to draw humans away from their selfishness, their vices, their greed and rage. Once he had simply placed them in prisons of their own making and watched them break the rules that were in place to keep them alive. More recently he had left their redemption in their own hands, or those of their loved ones, or even to the human judicial system. What was expected of him on the Barge was new. He had never before been expected to see through a single person's entire transformation from bad to good - or at least better, since allowances had to be made for humanity's inherent failings.
It was all rather novel, certainly. But that did not mean he intended to break tradition. He would not consider the methods that so many others used; he hadn't the slightest interest in befriending his Inmate or earning their trust. He wasn't even particularly interested in their respect. As if he had any of those things to offer in return.
Seemingly abruptly, he placed the book to one side and rose from his seat, walking silently to the double doors at the back of the shop. The branching corridors opened for him and only a few moments later had he reached the second set.
Beyond these doors, the air smelt of incense and blood. There were soft snarls in the blackness, and something unlike them: a human making a wounded, animal sound. Crying, or injured, or both, he couldn't make it out just yet.
The dark slowly began to coalesce into shapes. D cleared his throat softly.
"How are you feeling?"