Von Van Ghoul
"The day of my birth, my death began its walk. It is walking towards me, without hurrying. -Jean Cocteau
===IDENTITY===
Full Name: Von Van Ghoul
Nickname(s): Ghoul
Codename: Canary
Alias(es): Jackson Kaspar
Age: 24
Classification: Demon
Affiliation: Chaotic Evil/ Chaotic Neutral
===PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION===
Hair Color: Straight black. His hair is slightly messy and unimpressive, bangs hanging limply down in front of his face.
Eye Color: Usually his eyes are a timberwolf silver with s black ring around the iris.
Gender: Male
Height: 6'2
Weight: 180 lb
Other Traits: Von has a parasitic Demon that can change his appearance when the demon takes over. But there is always a mouth varying in size present on his skin. It usually stays on his chest but has the ability to move across his skin. The mouth likes to bite off fingers if one gets too close. So stay away.
Outfit: Not much for style, Von wears a charcoal grey collared shirt, usually unbuttoned one of two at the top. He wears black jeans easy to move around in, and black combat boots laced up to his ankles. There's the icon X shaped weapon strap across his chest over his shoulders and across his back. A simple black belt. And sometimes hiding all this, a black trench coat. Unlike his optional coat, Von always wears fine black leather gloves so he doesn't accidentally touch people.
===POWERS===
Powers: Glance
Von can lift memories and intentions off of a person by touching their skin. He can also implant memories, forcing one person to live the memories of another. Usually he can focus the information he gets but there is always a couple random memories thrown into the mix. Because it's hard having the memories of two people in your head, Von can only hold so many glances, about 5-10 depending on the harshness of the memory. If he takes too many, they will jumble around in his head, causing temporary insanity, pain, and in the most severe cases the regurgitation of blood. This isn't a power he can turn on and off so if someone grabs his face and doesn't let go, both parties will suffer, as the memories will just randomly exchange between the two if contact is maintained for too long, ending up with both parties feeling the severe side effects. The glances last anywhere from a couple seconds to a few minutes. It all depends on the memories Von receives.
Power Words
There are certain words in the language of Demons that have the ability to manifest. Words like fire will cause a small fire, explode will cause an explosion, the Word bow will force people to bow down. Von has to discover each Word. Then he has to fight with it. If the power of the Word is too much for Von to handle, the Word will simply devour Von and grow in strength. Each Word in its own right is sort of like a willing entity. Right now Von knows the Words: Silence, Stop, and Bow. An entity can only use a Power Word when in their homeland. As such, the Demon cannot use any Words even though he knows the whole language. The Demon cannot return to his homeland in the UnderWorld while possessing Von. Von can use some Words because he was born on Earth and he has some of the Demon's power, but none of any great power because he is, for the most part, human. But to use them Von has to be in control of himself. If the Demon is in control of Von's mind the power is nulled. Anyone with great will or a nullifying power can disobey a Power Word. This doesn't mean it doesn't affect someone if they don't want it to. You have to be willing to make a great sacrifice to disobey the Word. Something like losing a limb or even your life. Not that it will happen, just an example of how determined one must be.
Bad Blood
Courtesy of his Demon, Von can enter a sort of 'Beast Mode'. In this mode the Demon takes over Von, turning his hair white, the whites of his eyes black, and the irises of his eyes a glowing red. There are in-between stages of this such as just red eyes, if Von is highly emotional. His Demon feeds off of emotion after all. The Demon uses its own blood as a weapon. It will cut itself, and once the blood is no longer in the body, the Demon can cause it to explode, corrupt with sickness, or form into tentacle like appendages to use in battle. While in Demon form, the amount of blood in Von's body doubles, but still if he runs out, he'll bleed out and die. The potency of the power depends on how much blood is spilled. A couple droplets causes a small bang equivalent to a firework or a common cold if using the sickness aspect. A large puddle will be equivalent to a bomb or a deadly disease that's highly contagious, like Ebola. All effects of the blood are nullified the second Von returns back to his human form. The only part of the Demon still active when Von is in human form is the mouth that stays usually on his chest. Depending on the size of the mouth, it could eat a couple fingers or a small human being. Von's stomach isn't that big though, so if the out eats a human Von has to puke most of it back up.
Skills:Bang Bang Baby
Von is a skilled marksman. He is also ambidextrous. Using both of these qualities, he can handle twin pistols at the same time with great precision.
Slice And Dice
He also carry's an assortment of knives that he is adept with, just in case combat gets in close quarters.
Awkward Penguin Style
He knows a little of a lot of martial art styles, and had combined his small fragments of knowledge in each to create a completely unique style of his own.
Weaknesses: Psychotic You Say?
Von struggles with his parasitic Demon. The Demon constantly seeks to overtake Von's mind and devour his body. He's been with his Demon for half his life, so Von's mental stability is currently on a fine line between bat shazzam crazy and just plain weird. There are a lot of acts Von doesn't want to do that his Demon forces, so often times he will fight against it. When this happens, the Demon like to cause pain in Von's head, rendering him incapable of most action unless there is a great will to not do it. Such strain makes him prone to bouts of insanity and cynicism.
You Need Jay-zus
Holy Water, Crosses, Crucifixes, Churches, Priests, Sanctified Grounds...sensing a pattern? Direct contact with a very holy item can severely burn. Holy Places, depending on what they are either prevent entrance all together or simply great discomfort and eventual combustion with prolonged exposure. A Temple would completely ban Von, a place that had burning Sage in it would make him uncomfortable. He could enter the Church of a Corrupt Priest or the house of a strong believer but any longer than an hour in such a place and he would risk burning.
Suicidal
Von wants to die. He's alive, but he's not living. The only problem is that his Demon disagrees. The Demon's life span is linked to Von's so if Von dies before the Demon can completely possess him, the Demon dies too. As such Von is unafraid to walk into dangerous situations with little amounts of preparation, but his Demon always tries to force him out of the situation.
Whimsical
Due to the Von's depression, he really just doesn't care. He'll high jack a train one moment, and then decide its not worth the time and energy next to kill everyone inside and just leave. Not even Von knows what he wants. He's basically a live and decide in the moment guy.
Can't Kill A Kid
This is literally the only good thing about Von. He can't kill a kid. He can't harm the kid, or even make one sad. But for a villain, that's a majour problem. An entire operation can be compromised because a kid is involved.
Equipment:Marrie and Carrie
Two beautiful silver twin pistols that shoot medium sized rounds of ammo, almost never misfire, and get cleaned and doted on obsessively by Von. They have engravings of leaves and vines on the sides of them.
Misc.
An assortment of knives that are cleaned well but not cared about. The knives and guns are held by an X strap that crosses Von's chest, goes over his shoulder, and crosses again across his back.
Esmeralda
His I-Pod. A small, silver, bullet proof, water proof, cased machine with speaker powers like a radio. All programmed with his favourites.
===PSYCHOLOGICAL PROFILE===
Personality: For the most part Von is unenthusiastic. He's seems like a boring, chill, guy that doesn't care about what happens around him. Inside him there's a war between who Von used to be: a pretty good guy with a strong moral compass, and his Demon: a twisted sucker that wants to cause as much mayhem, chaos, and suffering as possible. As such the best word to describe Von is chaotic. He doesn't trust his own mind. The war inside it has caused the walls to crack. There's always this beating hunger, a pressing instinct, to do terrible things brought on by his Demon. So he doesn't get close, he doesn't form attachments, and he walks a fine line of control. The textbook definition of a lost soul. He knows he can never fully control his demon, so he hangs out with villains so that if something does happen because of him, it happens to bad people. 48% bad guy, 48% doesn't care, 2% good.
Strengths: Von has a lack of empathy towards just about anything. If something bad happens it rolls off of him. For the most part, emotions don't hinder his ability to act. Unless it's a kid. A lot of people find him surprisingly easy to get along with because he just stands back and let's you do whatever you want. Of course, hero's aren't so happy about his random explosions of violence either.
Interests/Habits: The Demon is like a fire. Music is like water. Music soothes the fight against his Demon. The songs are louder than his Demon. So Von always carries around an I-Pod with at least one headphone in his ear. He likes to listen to Jazz, Classical, R and B, anything calming or catchy. The oldies are usually his pick. Because of this constant stream of music, Von will often hum or make song references in his speech.
===PERSONAL BACKGROUND===
Family Members: Von had a father. Valberg was a scientist of sorts. He engineered his son by alerting genetic material. Basically Von is a test tube baby. Because of that, Von has no mother and no siblings.
Place of Origin: Iceland. Grew up at the base of Hekla, a volcano nicknamed 'The Gateway To Hell.'
History: Von grew up with his father, peaceful for the most part. Hanging around his fathers lab, discovering the forest. When he became more capable, Valberg brought over his ex Navy Seal friend and the two started training Von in self defense and martial arts. He learned how to shoot, kind of how to fight, and how to use his powers. It was actually a lot of fun. But Valberg a long time ago had made a deal with the devil. Said devil came to collect, and Valberg couldn't pay up the price. So instead he offered over his son, Von, at a tender twelve years of age. The demon possessed Von. Von fought against it. And in the madness, his father was killed. So Von left, opting for the life of a nomad, and never staying in one place for too long. By a lucky roll of the dice, Von was in Jump City when he decided to finally quit running and let death come to him. So he hasn't left. And now he works solo or on call for villains, hanging around the shadier places of town.
Sample RP: Von leaned against the uncomfortable corner of a brick wall. The neighborhood was shady, exactly where he needed to be. Drug addicts, convicts, and felons all prowled the area, as primed for violence as the demon inside him. Every warm body that passed by elicited a fierce need to attack simply for the fun of attacking. But Von didn't listen, he had 'Favourite Things' by Coltrane blaring in his ear, the smooth peppy jazz overpowering his destructive instinct. Too bad no one told the robber behind him that it wasn't enough to stay peaceful if provoked.
"I need cash. Pull out your wallet and hand it over or I'll shoot." A tiny voice behind him demanded.
Von spun on his heel slowly, facing the small man with a slight build. He had on a knit cap, heavy winter jacket, and baggy pants in the cold. Nothing intimidating there.
"How about you come and get it?" Von suggested, putting his hands behind his head and lacing them there.
The thief, not knowing any better, kept his gun trained on Von, inching closer and stabbing out with a hand to search the insides of Von's trench coat. When the mans hand brushed across the mouth on Von's chest, the Demon went wild. The mouth closed around the robber's hand, comically large and blocky teeth pulling the man in further and further until the entire arm had disappeared. The robber screamed, dropping his gun and hysterically trying to pull his arm out of Von's chest. The mouth closed. A sickening snap pierced the air and the man's bellowing screams of pain followed, a symphony to his demon who howled in satisfaction.
Von toed the man on the ground as he rolled around in pain clutching the stub where his arm used to be. Pathetic. Just like him. The demon may be happy, but Von was dissatisfied.
The glistening dark shades of blood had ruined the beauty of the snow.
Mon Jan 22, 2024 9:45 pm by 
Subject: Von Van Ghoul 
