August
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Name: August Henry Whitmore Epithet: The Cleopatra Age: 159 years old Gender: Uranian male Species: Kindred (Nosferatu) Nature/Demeanor: Sadist/Curmudgeon Sect: Camarilla Favorite Food: Opium-rich human blood Likes: Poetry Dislikes: Himself, Men in general Best Traits: Charming conversationalist, Has moments of clear-headedness and mercy Worst Traits: Obsessive, Cruel, Demanding, Enslaved by his own self-loathing psychoses |
Appearance
Like all those embraced into clan Nosferatu, August has been permanently disfigured. It is only by illusions and trickery, the "Mask of a Thousand Faces", that he can seem human to the eye and ear, if not the touch.
His body is emaciated, the skin dry and pulled in tight against his bony frame. His teeth are jagged and rough and browned, such that no amount of brushing can smooth or whiten them, and much the same can be said of the nails jutting out of his thin, knobbly fingers. Of his hair, all that remains are long, thin, silvery wisps on an otherwise bald head. His voice is harsh and jagged, and yet almost elegant in its perfect, bitter hatred.
And what about the aforementioned illusion? While he can look just about any way he wants, copy any human within reason, he does tend toward a particular disguise. He becomes a beautiful and androgynous young man, approximately 25 years of age, with long, full, golden hair, shimmering blue eyes, and soft pink lips with a defined cupid's bow.
Only rarely does he wear this mask around other Kindred. More often it is worn for the sake of hunting prey. Seamlessly he slips into their bars, their parties, and feeds with all the ease and precision of a spider catching a fly.
Cleopatra
Among Nosferatu, there is a cruel practice of using the embrace as a punishment, a means of torture. First by the prolonged physical pain of their transformation, a process which can last days or weeks, then by the isolation and humiliation that follows.
A "Cleopatra" is a spoiled bitch knocked off her high horse, a pretty queer put in his place before some love-struck Toreador can offer an undeservedly lovely death. The typical victim is vain and cruel, all the better to justify their mutilation. But their sire's motive isn't just at all. It's an act of spite and hatred.
It should hardly come as a surprise that August's favored disguise is, in fact, a snapshot of who he was before his embrace.
The Nosferatu embrace is not an easy thing to cope with at the best of times. The creation of Cleopatras is obviously discouraged and looked down upon – for practical reasons, if nothing else. In a clan that takes such pride in the loyalty of its members, the danger in creating a vampire that hates its sire is self-evident.
August, however, doesn't seem especially resentful of his fellow Nosferatu, nor the Camarilla whose laws and law keepers approved of his Embrace. Not enough to reject them, defy them, and make an enemy of so great a number. None of these people are his sire, his sire is dead. And August is rarely stupid or reckless enough to lash out at those who might overpower or outrank him.
Those he does resent, and who take the brunt of his misplaced revenge, are those who remind him of the things he lost. Even when he isn't actively cruel, when decorum or hierarchy demand he keep himself in check, there's a sense of indifference toward other men's feelings and inner lives, an implicit objectification. Men are abusive, or they are abstinent, or they are things for other men to abuse.
Women don't suffer nearly the same scrutiny. As far as he's concerned, even the cruelest and most excessive women he knows are, at worst, distasteful. There are worse Ancillae to get chummy with if one is a woman, or of high enough age and status to safely trade favors. Otherwise, the smartest choice is to steer clear.
Connections
Chiyo — "She's a lovely woman. Her sire shouldn't have embraced her."
Ignat — "Really now. Some count he is. He would rather have everyone else play along with his sad fantasies than see the truth of what he is and was; an ugly little cockroach. Let's talk about something else."