[b]Name/Alias:[/b] Darek Birch, formerly  Dariusz Brzezcki

[b]Age:[/b] 28 when turned, 68 years as a vampire, 96 years old total

[b]Physical Description/Picture:[/b] 6’1’’; 180 lbs, lean muscled, appears around 30
Dark brown hair that is thick and wavy, grey eyes, high cheekbones and rather chiseled features. He can often appear stylishly disheveled, his tousled hair, scruffy beard that is calculated to be casual but send a hint of roguishness though he cleans up well when he has to be at his sire’s side.


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[b]Strengths:[/b] Presence, Darek has an unsettling aura much like his sire. His presence is something that is hard to ignore or deny when he sets his sights on someone. Charming, mesmerizing or when he needs to be, intimidating, in order to persuade mortals to trust and obey him. Auspex, he can sense and read the aura of individuals to know their emotional states. 

[b]Weakness:[/b] He can be easily distracted by beauty, either of a mortal or his own creations. It can leave him distracted and even immobilized if something truly catches his eye. If he is distracted, he can be very offputting, his unsettling aura overwhelming to mortals around him. He has to concentrate on coming off as charming, rather than potential death. If he comes on too strong he can trigger his own immobilization and disraction.

[b]Motivations:[/b] His motivations would be revenge of the murder of his wife by the same vampire that turned him, desiring him for his looks and his artistic talents. His history of rebelling against heavy handed governments that force their brutal will on the populace is something not forgotten. He chafes under the rigid structure of the vampire society, unable to break the invisible chain that binds him to his sire. 

[b]History: [/b] Born in Febuary 1920 in Warsaw, Poland as the son of a history professor and former ballet dancer, he was well educated and early on developed a passion for art. When he was 19, Germany invaded his homeland and he quit university to take up arms against the Nazis. Darek joined the Home Army, the largest resistance movement in Poland and was involved in the defense of his city until it fell. Through the war he participated in sabotage  of German forces and smuggling people out destined for deportation. Once Germany was defeated, he and his fellow ‘cursed soldiers’ turned their rebellion against the occupying Soviet forces. A long bloody struggle against one invading dictatorship turned into another and by 1946 he had lost many friends and his hope Poland would ever be free. He decided to emigrate to the United States, a bastion of peace and plenty, a place he could rest and focus on his art. 

With proof he was a member of the Home Army, he was allowed passage to Britian where considered briefly staying but after his encounters with American servicemen in the past, he decided he wished to go to the US. In 1947 he arrived in Richmond, VA to attend the Virginia Commonwealth University’s arts program. He had never heard of the school let alone the city or state but after some research into universities and talking to various American soldiers stationed in London, he decided to forgo New York. He wanted some peace and to be away from reminders of the war and NYC was full of immigrants such as himself. 

In Richmond, he attended a course to learn English more fluently and that is where he met and fell in love with Ruth Carlton, a young teacher originally from South Carolina. Her soft southern accent and warm hazel eyes soothed his ravaged soul and he soon found his muse again. They dated and were engaged within the year, though her parents were not happy with her marrying a man they considered little more than a worldly vagrant. He was able to sell some of his artwork but took a job at a shipping yard to bring in more money. They married in the spring of 1948, he was 28 and she was 25. They chose to honeymoon in Charleston for the city was renown for its romantic charm. 

It was there he met a strange woman, young and beautiful with striking red hair and piercing blue eyes. There was something unsettling about her and Darek spoke briefly to her when she asked his name. She had bought some of art, it turned out and was eager to meet him. His defenses were up, he spent too many years worrying about being betrayed by collaborators to trust anyone with information such as she had and no real way to explain it. When she tried to embrace him, he struggled with his strange, fierce desire for the stranger. He was able to push her off and left her in the hotel lobby. That night he strolled near the waterfront with his new wife, enjoying the soft southern night and the sound of the tide coming in. He did not tell her about the fan who had come onto him, keeping it to himself so not to ruin their honeymoon but he found it hard to think of much else but the woman and the guilt it made him feel.

The attack happened fast and even with his war honed instincts he could not save Ruth who was grabbed by the redhaired woman who snapped her neck with one swift movement. The woman moved faster than he had ever seen anyone move and she was strong, very strong. She pounced on him, knocking him to the ground and before he could fend her off, she bit his neck, the pain searing through his body. 

That was the last he remembered before he woke to his new life and to serve a new master. Cora Finch who owned a large gallery and was a patron of the arts in Charleston. She was what was known as ‘old blood’, a descendent of some of the first families of the old southern city and a vampire for nearly 100 years.

Darek resented her but could never raise a hand to the creature that had stolen his love and his life. The only upside was now he had all the time and financial support to work on his art that had been neglected for war and making a living. Over the years, into the 1950s and 60s his artwork gained a fanbase and he sold many paintings and sketches. It was not until an article in an underground NYC based art magazine got his attention and made him realize he could not keep going forever the way he was. The story was titled “The Real Dorien Grey?” and it documented his span of work and his consistent youthful appearance. It had a lighthearted tone, more complimentary of his chiseled good looks and ability to evolve with the changing arts than anything but it made Darek worry. He retreated into seclusion, living as far as he dared from the Cora and her minions who enjoyed touting his success at champagne parties and using him to attract new artists into the dark underworld they lived in. It was then he decided to kill himself, not literally of course, he still was not at his wits end but to kill the artist Dariusz Brzezcki. It was a sailing accident in 1973, a broken boat and a body never recovered. He continued his life as Darek Brzezcki, long lost son of the semi famous artist and he kept a low profile, earning money by auctioning ‘long lost pieces’ done by his ‘late father.’ 

By the current time, 2016, he has changed his identity to Darek Birch, a great nephew of the artist who still lives off of the occasional auctioned painting that is sold anonymously and the money deposited in an offshore account. He has separated himself as much as he can without cutting ties altogether, unable to give up the last shreds of the identity of his former life. 

Now he works from home as a graphic artist, able to fill custom orders for animation or graphic designs from his well equipped computers in his studio. He still paints and draws but few of these pieces ever see the light of day. He is relatively obscure, never using his real name but a pay account and an internet handle everyone in the online communities he visits know him as ‘Hussar843’. When he has the need to feed he still  prowls the bars and nightclubs but has also come to utilize the internet for the meat market sites that flourish online. Young women are easily taken in by his rather intense look, there is a hunger in his grey eyes that they mistake for lust. His powers of emotional reading and manipulation make it fairly easy for him to find someone to feed on. He does not make thralls very often but those he does all share a superficial appearance to his late wife. Darek is aware what he does is nothing short of trying to substitute those feelings he once had with a hollow imitation but it does not stop him from trying over and over. Those he keeps around until the novelty has worn off and he has to get rid of the lovesick girls. 

As of this time he has been a vampire for 68 years and has learned to temper himself and that it is more than blood that keeps a vampire ‘alive’ but the need for cover from the outside world. He never goes out in the day, the sunlight of the southern city too painful but his job allows for him to remain indoors. He quite enjoys the proliferation of 24 hour stores, able to do his shopping at night. Not that he needs food or drink or toilet paper but he’s had living guests and when the first commented how odd it was that he had none of those things he made sure to stock them. The food he kept minimal, some non perishables that a bachelor who did not cook might have and a few bottles of wine and beer. He can eliminate his Polish accent from his speech if needed, sounding like a home grown Carolinian though he's found many women find the hint of an accent exotic.

Cora has become unhappy at his current choice in art mediums, her old fashioned tastes not running to the new computer generated artwork or animation. She has demanded he go back to his painting but he tells her he no longer feels the muse to paint as he once did. The truth is that his work has become darker, reflecting his restlessness and need to express his hatred for those keeping him in his current life. Darek longs for his freedom from the rigid hierarchy and revenge against his sire, to break the bond that holds him to her side. The old partisan spirit flicked in his stilled heart and he gave his attention to the rumblings of discontent. 

[b]Connections:[/b] WIP Hit me up if you want to discuss possible connections.