(no subject)
Personality:
How do you even start to describe a man like him? King is a mix of a lot of different personality traits that most people usually find appalling in general situations. On the outside he's the sort of man that someone might see at the bar wanting to get the pretty girl's number for a quick roll in the sheets before sneaking out the next morning. Which is actually how he ended up being a vampire for a five year stretch. He's the sort of guy that always has a quip or piece of sarcastic advice at the ready even if the situation doesn't warrant it. See this is his defense mechanism. The whole point of him being sarcastic and having a tiring sense of humor, in the most wrong of situations, is how he's learned to deal with bad situations. For him it's the easiest way for to block out pain that might be done towards him or to focus more on what needs to be done. Sure it's not something that is common, but King is not your common man.
King really is not that bad of a guy deep down. He's very protective of his close friends almost to the point of being reckless. This whole tough guy thing is more of an act that has become like a second skin to him. Hannibal has his serious side that his humor manages to keep skewed in different forms and fashions, but he's the sort that a person would easily know when he is really pissed off and not joking around any more. The jokes come less and there is this slight narrowing of his eyes that hold this glint in them. Sure it's rare for King to have his moments of serious, but they do happen and it's generally best for those to avoid him for a while if they can.
Getting to the core of things brings up the point there is one thing that scares him in the most in the world. Which is funny because of the tough guy appearance he tends to put on, but one Danica Talos always seems to know how to exploit it out of him. He's afraid of becoming a vampire again. Not just him but the people he has grown close to like Sommerfield, Hedges, Dex, Zoe, and most definitely Abigail Whistler. Sometime in his stint as a vampire the man pretty much lost the will to do anything. He was a pet and nothing else to Danica finding that the lifestyle, while it had probably been enjoyable at first, was something he didn't want. This is where he feels he owns Abby a debt beyond anything he'll ever be able to repay and has a chip upon his shoulder when it comes to things with fangs.
Abby managed to give him that spark of hope with the cure, not to mention give him a chance to give the vamps a one-two shot where it hurts. Hannibal also is a kid in a man's body. This is evident by his love of cartoons, all things sugar, and need for new shiny toys... that are usually in the form of a vampire killing tool. He likes to have his fun whether it being generic television watching to playing basketball with Dex and Hedges. A person can't be a total vampire killing machine like Blade all the time right? Which is probably why the two never seem to get along.
History:
Hannibal was born the only child of his parents in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Growing up he had a normal childhood- playing sports, okay grades in school, and wanting to be like his dad. For the most part some people could have called him spoiled. What only child isn't in some ways? His father was the disciplinarian in the family often driving a younger King to push the limits of his parents tolerance levels. Having a cop for a father only seemed to drive the young man to do more to break the rules or limitations that were placed upon him.
During High School things seemed to even out. The teenage boy found sports to be a good out for a lot of his pent up energy just barely keeping his grades on the level he could still stay on the teams. It wasn't that he wasn't a bright person, that was to the contrary. Everything just wasn't a challenge he wanted to push himself toward. There were sports games and cheerleaders or spirit shakers to chase after. By the time he was in college rolled around the ideas of what he wanted to do 'when he grew up' were limitless. It was just a matter of actually growing up and picking something.
One night he went to a local bar at the age of twenty-two with his friends and his life changed forever. This is where his story truely starts.
See King had always been a player or something close to it. When he slinked up to that dark haired vixen sitting alone at the bar he had every intention on getting her to go back to his place with him. There was just something exotic and unworldly about the pale beauty that he had set his eyes on that it still sends his head spinning trying to figure it out. His choice wasn't just anyone but one Danica Talos. A vampire. She had an attitude that matched his wit for wit and she even played along with his silly little jokes. With enough drink in his belly the young Hannibal asked her back to his place and, not surprisingly to him, she agreed to go. Before they even made it halfway there he had been pulled aside down some dark alley already enjoying the thrill of what was going on. It wasn't until the woman had bit his neck that he realized the ramifications that were going on.
Becoming one of the undead was not something the young man had planned in his life. Yes it was a change and yes it was a decision not exactly put on to him, but there was something about him that Danica wanted to keep around. Perhaps it was his jester-like quality he had displayed to the woman. King never asked. He didn't want to know. The first year as a new vampire was exhilarating. There were physical changes and a new carnal need that he'd never experienced before. Being the 'cabana boy' to Danica wasn't something he was honestly thrilled about but he had to learn show how right? Then he started having to kill for food. It wore on him. Seeing the light in someone's eyes drain every time he had to feed just to survive. King had never killed a person before that and with each life he took he felt a part of himself dying.
He won't deny he tried running away and never being successful at it. The man learned the nastier side to the Talos family as well as those who followed them. King felt trapped in more ways than one having learned quickly to give up on the day and live only for the night. During the fifth year of being a member of the undead there was one chance encounter that, as King would later put it, turned his frown of a life upside down. King would deny actually feeling like he had given up on himself though other people would probably have said differently. It was Abigail Whistler's first mission on her own where the two encountered each other and the start to a rather interesting friendship. She had given two choices- fight or get staked where he sat watching the club he was in. Hannibal being who he was, was quick to raise to the challenge. Their match was brief and quick, ending only when the woman had gotten him in to a position that he simply stopped trying to fight back. Her decision to give him the cure wasn't a light one. Sommerfield needed someone to test it out on and that just happened to be King. Neither of them knew if it was going to work or not; leaving the people who were working with Whistler ready to kill him if they had to.
The pain was like nothing he had ever felt before, not even when he had been turned. Restrained in a room by himself so he could be monitored it wasn't until the morning after the cure had been given to him that his captors pulled back the blinds bathing him in sunlight. King had half expected it too all be to good to be true and that instant that he saw sunlight for the first time in five years he thought it would also be his very last. Talk about the surprise when he didn't burst in to a flaming pile of ashes. Hannibal was more than thankful for what they, and Abigail, had done for him. King was quick to answer their questions taking the promises that he could help destroy the people that had turned him to heart. He knew codes, names, locations, everything that he had picked up while being a pet to Danica and he was more than ready to talk.
Quickly the Nightstalkers became a thorn in the Vampire's sides. Working as Blade's backup; the sleeper cells of humans trying to bring about the downfall of the vampire empire were efficient. Especially with the ability to cure those who wanted it and were willing to turn on their former masters. King and Abby became close- closer than he had been with anyone before in his entire life. Not one of those romantic relationship closes, but the kind where you always knew you had someone watching your back. Hannibal believed that he owed Abby and her team more than he could ever repay them for saving his life. In turn he'd protect them to the best of his abilities and get them anything that he could possibly widdle out from his former masters. Which is why, two years later, he was there for the stoic Abigail Whistler when she found out her father was dead and that Blade had been captured by the F.B.I. With rumors that Drake had been found and was awake their time of being in the shadows was coming to an end. They needed Blade in order to help properly deliver what was to hopefully be the final nail in the proverbial coffin. No matter what was going to happen he was going to be by her side. There was no way he was going to take this lying down. Blade needed to be freed and they were exactly the ones to do it.
Strengths/Abilities:
First and foremost King was a former vampire. When he was cured some of the traits that make up vampires in his world were retained if only to a certain degree.
Strength- Vampires generally have superhuman strength. King... not so much any more. Generally he is stronger than the average male who has been working out and can easily kick a human's ass if he has to. The one draw back to this is that he does tire, but probably not after going through five or more opponents in a single match. Now having some of this strength leftover for him gives him only a little edge in a match against a vampire. In the movie we see that he's able to hold out in a fight against Grimwood and just barely come out victorious. A normal human getting an ass kicking like that probably wouldn't have lasted as long as he did.
Senses- Hannibal can't hear a butterfly breath or the sound of a pin dropping. His senses are just above average for a normal human. Smells are a little stronger, some sounds a little louder, and touching things a little more sensitive. It's easy to compare him to someone who has lost one of their senses where the others step up to make up the difference.
Fighting- Personally King is not a trained fighter. He's excellent with a gun and with a stake for those fights with vampires or their familiars. His style of hand-to-hand is sort of street fighterish. While Abby and Blade were trained in martial arts, King just sort of pieced things together in a way that suits his attitude more. Patience is not one of his strong points so taking out an opponent swiftly is something he'd prefer over a long fight with a single enemy.
Weaknesses:
Now since it has been established that King is a former vampire there are a few certain traits that the cure for his vampire-ism didn't exactly take away. There are some physical things he managed to retain to a small degree but one of the most peculiar ones is the fact he has a mild allergy to silver things. He can touch silver objects and even wear them for small amounts of time against bare skin. However, if prolonged exposure to silver objects occurs, he breaks out in to a mild rash where the object was at. King has even tested this out finding that after five hours of wearing a silver charm he broke out in hives. It wasn't something he was quite thrilled explaining to Abby about.
Ingesting anything silver can cause a little bigger of a reaction than just wearing a silver object. Mostly it all depends upon the degree in which the silver has been ingested or punctured through the skin on how he will react. A silver steak to the chest would bring about a fair amount of hemorrhaging and pain where swallowing a few flakes of silver would give him an awful case of food poisoning. Being shot with silver bullets hasn't happened yet in his lifetime and is generally something he is going to try avoiding.
Third Person Sample:
A stretch of his arms brought his shoulders to popping in a comfortable way. It was early in the morning, the sun had just barely started to rise against the cityscape and particularly where the Nightstalkers base was located at. Even if it had been a year since he had been cured the half dressed man still found it hard to adjust to what most humans could define as 'normal' hours. The one thing he had never grown tired of was watching the sun rise. Five years of never being able to see those precious rays made it feel more like ten.
Standing on the balcony overlooking the basketball court/weapons room, King closed his eyes feeling the first warm rays of light brushing against his toes from where he leaned against the railing. In the back of his mind he couldn't help but wonder what the feeling would have been like. That feeling of having already dead flesh and bone being seared away by what most people took for granted. Morbid thoughts, yes, but it came with the job sometimes. You couldn't kill vampires after being one and not think about it some times.
Hannibal scrubbed his fingers back through his hair. The man was more than grateful for Abby saving his life. Well all of the people here, really, but Abby was the one who had dragged him back at gunpoint to the hideout when he had agreed to it. Brown eyes closed as sunlight hit his face. Oh the man couldn't help but grin a little childishly at it. Nobody could deny that King was still like a kid a heart. A twisted kid in his sense of humor, but a child nevertheless. Perhaps it was why he got along so well with Zoe.
It was a Saturday morning and the daily routine of eating a large bowl of frosted flakes then watching cartoons with the rugrat were in order. Padding his way down the steps King actually had to pause. Where was the kid at anyway? Usually she beat him up in order to claim the best spot on the couch while indulging in the sugary goodness that he spoiled her to. Abby often chided him about it, telling him it wasn't good for her to get in to a habit like him. Zoe was a kid though and deserved to be spoiled a little like that. Not to mention Abby sometimes joined in with the cartoon watching.
As soon as he hit the bottom step the sound of something moving about the lower level close to him caused the man to pause. It was only a soft shifting of fabric, the soft sounds of feet on concrete. King glanced to his left then right seeing nothing of the source of the sounds. With a roll of his shoulders the Nightstalker brushed it off moving once again away from the stairwell. Again he heard the soft sounds of movement behind him trying to follow his path. Turning and crouching low he only had just enough time to catch the wild haired child as she charged at him. Hannibal laughed, reaching out to scoop Zoe up then over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. Quickly he shifted the little girl to where she was hanging upside down with him holding on tight to her knees to prevent her from falling. "Good morning, Rugrat. You're getting better at that you know."
"Maybe one day I'll be as good as you and Abby," the little girl said between fits of giggles as King swing her around gently from side to side.
"One day yeah. Right now we have an important date to keep. X-men or Fraggle Rock?" It was hard to determine the answer from the little girl as King walked forward laughing himself at her attempts to actually respond.