ayzrules

The Blood Compact

@Remipa Awesome ooo yay gotcha, will try to have a post for you sometime this weekend!

The Blood Compact

@Remipa Awesome ehhh it's up to you, basically I guess it's just Covenant members found hank and see that he's hurt (and since I'm assuming he does work for the covenant? Or did I miss something?) they're like yoooo we got this girl who can heal u

The Blood Compact

@Remipa Awesome gotcha :) yeah I just figured Eloise could heal him n stuff plus convenient way to get super uninvolved character...involved ;D

Also no worries, take your time!

The Blood Compact

@Remipa Awesome I hope it's okay that I included Hank at the end!

Post is finally up, sorry for the length and delay

The Blood Compact

Three months ago...

Snow was falling. Eloise was shivering violently, soaked to the skin. Her thin cloak and worn shoes did nothing to keep the cold out.

She stumbled through the howling wind, an empty bucket grasped in her numb fingers. Mistress wanted a bath, she said. So a bath Eloise was drawing, and she knew she that Mistress would hurt her later on, because she was too slow.

Eloise grimaced. She was always too slow.

By some miracle, the snow had subsided to a light flurry by the time that Eloise reached the well. She was hungry, so very hungry. The hunger gnawed at her stomach, which was cramping painfully, and she felt the emptiness ricochet through her gut. Every time she passed the house of one of the villagers-there was the widowed midwife's cottage, and just past that was the butcher's brother, and past that was the tailor-Eloise felt dizzy and lightheaded. The faint smell of human blood was driving Eloise insane, but she could not-could not-disobey Mistress, even if she had wanted to.

Eloise filled her bucket with water from the well. She was turning away, ready to make the trek back to where Mistress was staying, when the smell of human blood became so strong that Eloise dropped to her knees, water sloshing out of the bucket as she fell. Her fangs elongated on instinct, and Eloise gasped at the sensation.

Her vision was filled with stars, but even so, she still recognized Sarah, approaching at a brisk pace. The smell of her blood hit her again, and Eloise crumpled in a heap in the snow.

"Sarah," she breathed, and for one single, glorious moment, she wasn't covered in bruises and her body didn't hurt all over and she wasn't ravenously hungry. All that mattered was Sarah's concerned brown eyes staring down at her.

"Eloise-what? We all thought you were dead; where have you been? What-what happened to you?" Sarah's face was inches from Eloise's.

And then Sarah saw the fangs. "Sarah, please, help me," begged Eloise, tears welling up in her eyes, but Sarah was already backing away in horror.

"Eloise-I'm sorry-I can't be...I can't be around you anymore-" and just like that, she was gone.

But Eloise stayed there in the snow, the cold numbing the pain in her bones and in her heart. And slowly, she lost consciousness...

...and when she woke up, there was nothing but darkness and the quiet sounds of rats scurrying to and fro.

Eloise would have groaned out loud, but she hadn't used her vocal chords in so long that she doesn't know if they still worked or not. She would have wept, but she didn't have the energy to.

She shifted slightly, ignoring the way that the chains chafed at her raw, bloody wrists. Eloise rested the side of her face-bloody and bruised, yes, but it didn't really hurt anymore, thanks to Mistress, who was possibly dead-and lay very, very still. It was not a particularly trying task, given Eloise's exhaustion and her broken, mangled arms and legs.

She waited, listening to the rats. And she let them come to her, staying completely motionless until one of them was directly on her face-

-and she struck, opening her mouth to reveal a set of grimy fangs, and she sank them deep into the rat, choking on the horrid taste but drinking anyway, because she was so hungry.

She sat up, then, moving the carcass away so that she wasn't constantly touching it. Eloise couldn't be sure just how many rats she'd killed after she saw her sire for the last time. Ah, no matter. It wasn't like Mistress was giving Eloise human blood before she disappeared, anyway.

Eloise sank back against the stone wall, which was covered in dried blood. She closed her eyes and listened to the pounding of her heart, disjointed images and faces floating through her vision behind shut eyelids.

Her youngest daughter's face. What was her name again? Verity? Victoria? Veronica? Eloise stopped trying to remember; it made her head hurt. And her son, only eight years old when Mistress killed him. Was it Edward, or perhaps Edwin? Or maybe it was Edgar?

Finally, her oldest daughter, and her husband. Eloise didn't know her daughter's name anymore, but she remembered her smile and her giggles and the way that she liked to play with John's sacks of flour.

John. Eloise was strangely relieved; she remembered her husband's name this time. Most times, she couldn't.

Eloise didn't know how long she'd been down in the darkness, chained up in Mistress's cellar. It had to be a hundred years by now. She dimly wondered if Mistress had killed another woman's family and turned another woman into a vampire so that she would have someone to do her laundry and scrub her floors for her, after even Eloise's naturally enhanced healing that came from being a vampire couldn't fix her mangled legs. What year was it now? God, Eloise didn't know. All she knew was the deep, throbbing pain in her bones and the constant hunger that was slowly driving her insane.

It seemed like an eternity and then some had passed when Eloise heard someone approaching the cellar.

At first, she thought it was Mistress. Was she alive after all this time? Had she simply forgotten about Eloise, or had she determined that Eloise wasn't worth the effort to keep alive anymore? Or was she there to hurt Eloise even more, so that she could take Eloise's pain and slam it into her opponent?

But no; beyond the smell of blood and rats and death, Eloise smelled humans.

Suddenly, she was very, very afraid. The Covenant was here.

They got through the lock on the door all too quickly, and rays of light flooded the cellar. Eloise flinched and covered her eyes, turning away. After so many years in the dark, even the dim light of the corridor leading to the cellar made her eyes sting painfully. She cowered against the wall as the vampire hunters approached. They saw her, she was sure of it; bright beams of light were sweeping across the cellar.

She heard one of them mutter a curse. Fear filled Eloise's veins as they warily approached her. Against her will, her fangs shot out, and Eloise felt nauseous at the smell of warm, rushing blood so close to her.

"Vampire," the one closest to her snarled softly. Bright white light hit her again, and Eloise whimpered, squeezing her eyes shut. "Do you have a name?"

Eloise froze, her heart racing. Name. She wants my name. What is my name?

When Eloise failed to answer, the beam of white light hit her full-on in the face, and Eloise whimpered again, squirming against the chains. She would have screamed if her throat wasn't so dry.

Eloise licked her parched, papery lips, and let out a few painful coughs. "I-I-I don't know," she stammered out. "P-please. I promise I'm telling the truth...I can't remember. Please. It hurts...it hurts so much..."

A few muttered whispers. The light disappeared, and Eloise breathed a sigh of relief. A different vampire hunter approached her. He was so close that Eloise could have sunk her fangs into her neck if she had the courage.

"Let me see your eyes, vampire," he said, not unkindly. Trembling, Eloise lifted her hands away from her face and stared at the hunters. There were two men and two women in the cellar with her.

"Have you come to kill me?" whispered Eloise, her palms slick with sweat.

The vampire hunter in front of her gave Eloise a small half-smile. "Is your name Eloise Portsmouth?" he said in reply, ignoring Eloise's question.

Eloise's mind whirled. She felt lost, confused-was her name Eloise? Half-remembered memories flooded her vision. Wildflowers under a sunny sky. A wooden table speckled with flour. John's wicked smile, Sarah's solemn eyes.

"I-I-How did you know that?" Eloise breathed, looking at the hunter, bewildered.

An indiscernible emotion flashed across his face. "You are mentioned in certain documents that we obtained from your sire's chambers above," he told her gently.

Eloise nodded quickly, unsure of what to say. A wave of dizziness swept over her-all the human blood smelled so, so good.

"Enough of this nonsense," a brusque voice said, and Eloise realized that it was the hunter who had first spoken to her. The Covenant member in front of her returned to the small knot of people near the stairs of the cellar, and they conversed quietly amongst themselves, glancing suspiciously at Eloise every now and then. Eloise, for her part, lowered her eyes meekly and waited.

The hunters freed her from the chains, and for the first time in many, many years, the blisters and sores on Eloise's wrists and ankles weren't constantly chafing against the iron cuffs. The hunter who had been almost kind to her gave Eloise a brief look before wrapping the very same wrists and ankles in thick strands of garlic. Eloise gave a raspy cry. The garlic burned, like the hot cooking oil that Stella used to be so fond of dumping on top of her.

"Please, it hurts," she croaked, but her pleas fell in deaf ears.

She was then blindfolded (for the sake of her sensitive eyes, if anything else) and gagged, presumably to keep her from sinking her fangs into the nearest breathing being. Eloise felt herself being roughly dragged across the floor of the cellar and up the stairs, and she gasped and groaned against the gag as her useless legs banged against the sharp stone steps. Thankfully, once they realized how little she weighed, Eloise felt herself being picked up and carried away. When they reached the main foyer of her sire's home, Eloise felt a sharp sting in her forearm before she slipped out of consciousness.

*****

Eloise dreamed of snow and sadness before she woke up, feeling strangely light. Where am I? she wondered groggily. She began to sit up, and stifled a scream as her wrists rubbed against the strands of garlic that bound them behind her back. Eloise sank back down onto the thin cot that the Covenant had left her on, her breathing shallow. A trickle of sweat ran down the back of her neck as she waited there for lord knows how long, wondering why the Covenant hadn't simply killed her already, like they had with her sire. She began to feel lightheaded, and once again, Eloise was reminded of her roaring hunger.

An hour or so later, one of the hunters came in. Eloise looked down, terrified.

"Here," the hunter said carelessly, tossing a...Eloise's mind went blank. It looked like a plastic bag of some sort, the kind that her sire had used to transport blood-a Ziploc bag. It was a medium-sized Ziploc bag, filled with blood, being tossed at her by the hunter. Eloise's hunger reared up and roared, and suddenly, there were tears in the thin plastic, and the blood was rushing out of it and filling Eloise's mouth...

Dog blood-not as good as human blood, but infinitely better than rat blood. Eloise finished drinking, her hunger satiated for the moment, and glanced up at the hunter, who was glaring at her with a barely concealed disgust. Eloise lowered her eyes again, shrinking away from her.

"Pay attention to what I'm about to say, vampire. I will not repeat myself." Eloise nodded meekly, keeping her eyes downcast.

"Records indicate that your sire-a certain Stella Havisham, if I am correct-believed that with time and age, you would develop healing abilities that could be used not only on yourself, but on others as well, human or...not. So, here is what's going to happen; we will feed you and bathe you and bandage your wounds, and in return, you are going to heal anyone who needs it. Is that clear?"

Eloise was stunned. "Healing" abilities? Where were these healing abilities all those times that Mistress hurt her?

"I-I'm sorry, ma'am, but I don't-I don't have any...abilities," Eloise stammered, too afraid to look up at the hunter's face.

"Your sire purposefully kept them from manifesting. And if they don't end up manifesting here, either, then we will simply kill you and be done with it. However, if they do end up manifesting, you will do what you are told. Trust me on this-the Covenant is just as talented as your sire, when it comes to keeping people chained up and half-alive."

Eloise shuddered involuntarily. It seemed as if she had no choice than to become the Covenant's glorified slave, if these mysterious healing abilities ever manifested. Well, they certainly can't be worse than Mistress, she thought, a tad glumly. Eloise nodded her acquiescence. "I'll do as you say," she whispered.

The hunter stood up. "Good." She strode over to Eloise and shoved her up into a sitting position, ignoring Eloise's flinches as the garlic dug into her flesh. The vampire hunter attached something to Eloise's ankle. Eloise looked up at her, wide-eyed and confused. It was black and shiny and resembled an anklet, except that there was no way for Eloise to remove it-it was too tight around her ankle.

"This is a tracker, which also can be used to administer an electric shock. Do as we say, and I see no reason why it should have to be used." And with that, the hunter turned on her heel and left, leaving Eloise alone with her thoughts.

Present day

It took two months for Eloise's healing abilities to manifest.

Eloise watched with numb wonder as cuts healed over, leaving nothing but scars. Bruises faded away, bones knit themselves back together, and a little bit of the color returned to her cheeks. True to their word, the Covenant took care of her, to some extent-they gave her blood, and they gave her an actual bed, and they let her slowly regain some semblance of strength.

After Eloise discovered her capabilities, though, the rest was easy.

Within a day, her mangled, useless legs were functional once more, thanks to those miraculous sparks that shot from her fingertips. Eloise walked for the first time in sixty years, gasping at the sensation-it felt so...unusual. Her broken bones, kept in place by casts and splints, were suddenly perfectly fine. Eloise could have wept with wonder; for the first time since she was turned, more than one hundred years ago, nothing hurt.

The Covenant put her to work then, and some days she healed their hunters until she passed out, but it was infinitely better than her miserable existence with her sire. When she passed out, they revived her (most often with a painful electric shock), gave her a small cup of blood (usually some sort of animal blood-never human), and she continued. They gave her new, strange clothes (apparently, it was acceptable to wear pants that showed a lot of skin now, and women didn't have to wear dresses and skirts) and sometimes, they let her listen to music on a peculiar device called an iPod. Eloise loved that iPod.

She hadn't known that any of this existed, cooped up as she was in the cellar under her sire's house.

There were dreams, too, and plenty of nightmares, but those were to be expected. She dreamed of the life she once knew the most, followed by horrible nightmares concerning her sire. But all in all, Eloise was the happiest that she'd ever been as a vampire, despite the fact that she was basically the Covenant's property.

It had been three months since the Covenant found her when they put her aboard an airplane (and Eloise was enraptured by the sensation of flying, unable to tear herself away from the window) and flew her to the US, then put her in a car and started driving down to Tennessee. Eloise didn't know why she was being sent to Tennessee, and she didn't question it, instead marveling at all the sights and sounds that twenty-first century America had to offer her.

Of course, Eloise spent most of her time in the trunk, her wrists bound tightly together and a gag over her mouth, but that was a nonissue.

They were bouncing along a road one day, when the vehicle skidded to a stop. Eloise couldn't make out much from where she was, even with her vampiric hearing, though she could have sworn that she heard gunshots. There were a few muttered curses, and Eloise picked up the static of a radio. She shifted into a more comfortable position, and one of the hunters began opening the trunk. Eloise whimpered into the scarf wrapped around the bottom half of her face as thin beams of light hit her eyes, the only part of her not covered by clothing.

Eloise watched with apprehension as the trunk was fully opened, resisting the urge to scream as the light blinded her eyes. Eloise still wasn't used to bright lights after being locked away in the darkness for decades and decades. She caught a glimpse of a finger covered in blood, wearing a trench coat and a gas mask, and shrank back from the group of vampire hunters, keeping her eyes away from the sun.

The Blood Compact

am currently working on a post. typing it all on my phone so it's a pain in the ass, plus it's getting super long because I have a lot of intro stuff I need to set up, but yea. Should be up in a couple of days at most

The Blood Compact

Eloise Wilhelmina Portsmouth

Name: Eloise Wilhelmina Portsmouth

Age: 175 (appears in her late twenties)

Height: 5 feet and 2 inches

Weight: 65 pounds

Race: Nosferatu/Vampire

Gender: Female

Appearance:

Eloise always been somewhat scrawny due to her family's financial hardships. She stands at a mere five feet and two inches, and there was always something fragile-looking about her-like a strong gust of wind could blow her away. She has wavy, dirty blonde hair ending just under her shoulder blades that was usually pulled back from her face in a messy bun, though as of late it has been thin and brittle. Her eyes were a bright, shining blue before she was changed, but they have since turned watery and listless. Eloise has a pale complexion, and her cheekbones jut out of her face like knives. Eloise has a frail, diminutive stature and has frequently been described as "bird-like". Before her life (or should I say unlife?) went to hell in a hand basket, Eloise was never anywhere without a cheerful smile on her face. Nowadays, she can't even remember the last time she wasn't hungry or scared.

After being turned into a vampire, Eloise has become unhealthily thin and gaunt, her skin stretched tightly over her hollow cheeks. She has also become much paler, even for a vampire's standards. Her expression always appears to be nervous and anxious, and her eyes flit around the room erratically, filled with wariness and a thinly veiled fear. There is a haggard air to her, and Eloise looks like she barely has the energy to stay on her feet. She walks with a heavy limp.

Sexuality: Heterosexual

Personality: Scared. That's how most people describe Eloise when they first see her. Scared and frightened and weak. Nervous, anxious, apprehensive; timid.

Eloise herself can't remember much beyond the fear and exhaustion and hunger that pervades every fiber of her being, most days.

Once upon a time, she had been a gentle, cheerful woman who ran a bakery with her husband. Once upon a time, she had children she loved and happiness in her heart.

But that woman is gone.

Ever since she was changed, Eloise has been meek and obedient, her fearful, melancholy eyes perpetually lowered submissively. She keeps her head down and does what she's told without complaint. She doesn't speak unless spoken to. She doesn't ask for anything, and she makes herself scarce unless someone summons her.

Before, Eloise was carefree and kind. She was always an optimist, and she stubbornly saw the good in everything. Friendly, talkative, and impulsive, Eloise lived to laugh and loved to live. She was known to welcome anyone and everyone into the bakery that she and her husband ran with open arms. She was quite a gossip, but never in a mean-spirited way, and she would never, /ever/ intentionally hurt anyone's feelings. Loyal to people (but not ideas, nor causes), Eloise had been as flighty as a bird and as chirpy as one, too. An excellent listener despite her loquacious nature, Eloise was well-liked by the people of her village and famous for her delicious blueberry scones.

Before.

Now, though, Eloise knows there isn't much too her other than the never-ending cycle of pain and exhaustion and hunger and fear. She lives only because her sire allows it, and she is well-aware of this fact.

Eloise has become skittish and afraid, jumping at the slightest sounds and as timid as a mouse. She has begun to unconsciously try to shrink into the corners and make herself appear small and insignificant in order to avoid confrontation. Eloise doesn't really have a personality besides deferential obedience. She is a shadow of a shadow of a shadow of her former self-indeed, Eloise has been through enough to last her twenty lifetimes.

Biography: Eloise had always known that vampires existed.

Everyone in her village knew this: after all, it was a Covenant base in the middle of the secluded English countryside, selected for its proximity to London. The Covenant needed to keep an eye on the vampires of London, after all. The name of the village doesn't matter; it's gone now, and besides, Eloise doesn't know if she remembers the name of it anyway.

Some days, she doesn't even remember her own name.

But more on that later.

Eloise had a happy childhood, though her family was on the poorer side. All the people of her village were poor, minus the members of the Covenant. They were extravagantly rich. All the young men talked of joining the Covenant; joining meant glory and gold. It meant instant fame (at least, in a tiny little village in the English countryside) and the admiration of their fellow villagers. They always seemed to forget the whole part about hunting and killing vampires, though.

Eloise had many friends as a child, but her best friend was a tall brunette named Sarah. Nobody was sure why or how they became friends-Sarah was quiet where Eloise was irritatingly talkative; as steadfast as a mountain where Eloise was as flighty as a bird. The two were inseparable growing up, and even if Eloise can't remember Sarah's name half the time, she still remembers her soft laugh and twinkling brown eyes and comforting presence.

Eloise married the baker's son, John Portsmouth, when she was sixteen. She had children with him-three, in fact-but their names elude her, on most days. She remembers their faces, though, and she holds the memories tight and close when she's conscious enough to think and remember. Eloise loved John; he was kind and sweet and funny, and he made the best bread in the entire world. She was happy with him. That much, she remembers.

Sarah, on the other hand...when Eloise was twenty and Sarah twenty-one (and unmarried!), she joined the Covenant. It turned out that she had some distant aunt or uncle in the Covenant, which made her eligible to join, provided she go through all the required training. Although Eloise didn't see Sarah as often after that, their friendship never wavered.

Then, the winter of 1870 rolled around. It was one of the coldest yet, and one night, Eloise came home to her beloved bakery to find-

-to find an evil, sinister form hunched over her husband's body, blood dripping from its fangs, Eloise's three lovely little children already dead-

-and the thing looked up at stared right at Eloise with emerald-green eyes that glittered like ice in the moonlight-

-and faster than humanly possible, the vampire had Eloise in her impossibly strong hands, and a searing pain tore up the side of Eloise's neck, and she thought that she was going to die, right then and there. But instead, the vampire turned Eloise, and suddenly she was weak with hunger, longing for the taste of human blood.

Eloise's sire is (was? Eloise isn't so sure if she's alive anymore) a vampire named Stella Havisham. After Eloise was turned, Stella immediately etched a rune into Eloise's forearm that bound her will to Eloise. From then on, Eloise would have to obey everything that Stella said.

Stella was a frighteningly powerful vampire who, along with binding others to her will, could manipulate pain (namely, transferring pain from one person to another). She was also a skilled assassin, sent to Eloise's village to kill a few key members of the Covenant. Stella had learned of Eloise's connection to Sarah, and Eloise became a pawn in Stella's plans to expel the Covenant from the village. At first, Stella ordered Eloise to do nothing more than cook and clean (which was still a nerve-wracking task, especially since Stella had quite a ferocious temper in those days), and she forbade Eloise from drinking enough blood on purpose; Eloise was to be nothing more than a temporary storage place for pain that Stella could readily transfer to her opponents in a fight. She needed Eloise's fast vampiric healing to be nearly nonexistent for her plan to work.

The last time that Eloise ever saw Sarah, she had been so hungry that just the smell of human blood made her dizzy. She remembers a heavy bucket and a well an hour before sunrise; the scent of blood and the the feeling of snow soaking through her thin skirts as she fell to her knees, her fangs elongating as the hunger moved through her in waves; Sarah's horrified face, the sound of her own voice weakly begging for help, Sarah's retreating footsteps and the snow feeling strangely warm against her gaunt, bruised limbs. And then Eloise's head starts to hurt and she can't remember anything except pain and exhaustion and hunger.

Shortly after that incident occurred, Stella beat Eloise bloody and then locked her in the cellar before leaving the house. Eloise didn't understand what was going on until the pain was suddenly sucked out of her, leaving her exhausted and empty.

When Stella returned, she ordered Eloise to clean the blood off her blades.

And so the years passed like this. Stella moved back to London, bringing Eloise with her, after finishing her work in Eloise's village. Eloise cooked and cleaned and obeyed, and Stella did nothing but hurt her. Eventually, she grew too weak to perform even simple household tasks, so Stella simply locked her in a closet or cellar and summoned her when she needed Eloise to feel pain. Ever since the 1950s, Stella has simply left Eloise chained to the wall in the cellar, and Eloise spends most of her time in a half-conscious haze. She doesn't have the energy to think, and remembering hurts too much. Stella keeps her alive-just barely-and Eloise's enhanced healing still works, technically, though it doesn't do more than keep her half-alive at this point.

Recently, though, Stella had been using her more often. The beatings had increased exponentially, and there was something wild and frantic about Stella's blows, whereas they were even and methodical before. Eloise won't allow herself to hope-hope is such a dangerous, dangerous thing-but she speculates. Was her sire panicked because the Covenant was closing in?

The Covenant has found Stella, Eloise knows. Her sire has been missing for a month now...well, what felt like a month to Eloise, anyway. She knows that it will not be long before the Covenant finds her as well. Eloise can only hope that the Covenant will spare her any further pain and kill her when they do indeed find her. At this point, a quick, painless death would the greatest gift that anyone could give her.

Faction/Side: If given a choice, Eloise would not affiliate herself with anyone, but as for now, she is technically affiliated with the vampires

Abilities: Unbeknownst to anyone, even Eloise herself, Eloise is able to heal wounds and injuries with her bare hands, provided that she is physically strong enough to use her power. Silver sparks shoot from her fingertips, and when they make contact with the wound or injury, they start knitting the skin back together.

Skills: Eloise can cook (though Stella only ever required her to prepare blood for her) and clean very well, for 19th and 20th-century standards. Doing laundry and scrubbing floors is another area of expertise (she does know how to use a washing machine, surprisingly). Before she was turned, Eloise was a very good baker alongside her husband, and she had the neatest, tiniest stitches in the entire village. Eloise was a skilled seamstress and enjoyed embroidery, but now she reckons that her hands shake too much to embroider, though her eyesight has improved.

Strengths: Eloise is a good listener and a very empathetic person in general. She was very well-liked in her village before she was turned for her friendly disposition and delectable baked goods.

Weaknesses: Eloise has little to no knowledge on how to use any technology beyond the 1950s-1960s. She is more than useless in a fight, and she can be easily manipulated by others. Eloise's healing ability saps strength and energy just like any other physically exerting activity, throughout her entire time as a vampire, Eloise has never been strong enough to use her ability, let alone hone it to perfection. Her healing abilities cannot be used to heal diseases.

Likes: sunny days (as rare as they are in London and the English countryside), birds, flowers, scones of all shapes and sizes, fresh fruit (especially blueberries), the smell of bread baking, tea with plenty of milk, sugar, and honey, the color blue, lavender, the village that she grew up in, horses, cats, spring and summer afternoons, early mornings and sunrises, meadows and streams, gossiping, socializing, not feeling hungry or thirsty, soft blankets, sewing and embroidering

Dislikes: Stella, rainy days and thunderstorms, the darkness, being a vampire, rat blood, violent people and vampires, the smell of death that always seems to cling to Stella, emeralds, sleeping on the floor, the cold

Other: N/A

The Blood Compact

Here she is! Let me know if I need to change anything :)

Eloise Wilhelmina Portsmouth

Name: Eloise Wilhelmina Portsmouth

Age: 175 (appears in her late twenties)

Height: 5 feet and 2 inches

Weight: 65 pounds

Race: Nosferatu/Vampire

Gender: Female

Appearance:

Eloise always been somewhat scrawny due to her family's financial hardships. She stands at a mere five feet and two inches, and there was always something fragile-looking about her-like a strong gust of wind could blow her away. She has wavy, dirty blonde hair ending just under her shoulder blades that was usually pulled back from her face in a messy bun, though as of late it has been thin and brittle. Her eyes were a bright, shining blue before she was changed, but they have since turned watery and listless. Eloise has a pale complexion, and her cheekbones jut out of her face like knives. Eloise has a frail, diminutive stature and has frequently been described as "bird-like". Before her life (or should I say unlife?) went to hell in a hand basket, Eloise was never anywhere without a cheerful smile on her face. Nowadays, she can't even remember the last time she wasn't hungry or scared.

After being turned into a vampire, Eloise has become unhealthily thin and gaunt, her skin stretched tightly over her hollow cheeks. She has also become much paler, even for a vampire's standards. Her expression always appears to be nervous and anxious, and her eyes flit around the room erratically, filled with wariness and a thinly veiled fear. There is a haggard air to her, and Eloise looks like she barely has the energy to stay on her feet. She walks with a heavy limp.

Sexuality: Heterosexual

Personality: Scared. That's how most people describe Eloise when they first see her. Scared and frightened and weak. Nervous, anxious, apprehensive; timid.

Eloise herself can't remember much beyond the fear and exhaustion and hunger that pervades every fiber of her being, most days.

Once upon a time, she had been a gentle, cheerful woman who ran a bakery with her husband. Once upon a time, she had children she loved and happiness in her heart.

But that woman is gone.

Ever since she was changed, Eloise has been meek and obedient, her fearful, melancholy eyes perpetually lowered submissively. She keeps her head down and does what she's told without complaint. She doesn't speak unless spoken to. She doesn't ask for anything, and she makes herself scarce unless someone summons her.

Before, Eloise was carefree and kind. She was always an optimist, and she stubbornly saw the good in everything. Friendly, talkative, and impulsive, Eloise lived to laugh and loved to live. She was known to welcome anyone and everyone into the bakery that she and her husband ran with open arms. She was quite a gossip, but never in a mean-spirited way, and she would never, /ever/ intentionally hurt anyone's feelings. Loyal to people (but not ideas, nor causes), Eloise had been as flighty as a bird and as chirpy as one, too. An excellent listener despite her loquacious nature, Eloise was well-liked by the people of her village and famous for her delicious blueberry scones.

Before.

Now, though, Eloise knows there isn't much too her other than the never-ending cycle of pain and exhaustion and hunger and fear. She lives only because her sire allows it, and she is well-aware of this fact.

Eloise has become skittish and afraid, jumping at the slightest sounds and as timid as a mouse. She has begun to unconsciously try to shrink into the corners and make herself appear small and insignificant in order to avoid confrontation. Eloise doesn't really have a personality besides deferential obedience. She is a shadow of a shadow of a shadow of her former self-indeed, Eloise has been through enough to last her twenty lifetimes.

Biography: Eloise had always known that vampires existed.

Everyone in her village knew this: after all, it was a Covenant base in the middle of the secluded English countryside, selected for its proximity to London. The Covenant needed to keep an eye on the vampires of London, after all. The name of the village doesn't matter; it's gone now, and besides, Eloise doesn't know if she remembers the name of it anyway.

Some days, she doesn't even remember her own name.

But more on that later.

Eloise had a happy childhood, though her family was on the poorer side. All the people of her village were poor, minus the members of the Covenant. They were extravagantly rich. All the young men talked of joining the Covenant; joining meant glory and gold. It meant instant fame (at least, in a tiny little village in the English countryside) and the admiration of their fellow villagers. They always seemed to forget the whole part about hunting and killing vampires, though.

Eloise had many friends as a child, but her best friend was a tall brunette named Sarah. Nobody was sure why or how they became friends-Sarah was quiet where Eloise was irritatingly talkative; as steadfast as a mountain where Eloise was as flighty as a bird. The two were inseparable growing up, and even if Eloise can't remember Sarah's name half the time, she still remembers her soft laugh and twinkling brown eyes and comforting presence.

Eloise married the baker's son, John Portsmouth, when she was sixteen. She had children with him-three, in fact-but their names elude her, on most days. She remembers their faces, though, and she holds the memories tight and close when she's conscious enough to think and remember. Eloise loved John; he was kind and sweet and funny, and he made the best bread in the entire world. She was happy with him. That much, she remembers.

Sarah, on the other hand...when Eloise was twenty and Sarah twenty-one (and unmarried!), she joined the Covenant. It turned out that she had some distant aunt or uncle in the Covenant, which made her eligible to join, provided she go through all the required training. Although Eloise didn't see Sarah as often after that, their friendship never wavered.

Then, the winter of 1870 rolled around. It was one of the coldest yet, and one night, Eloise came home to her beloved bakery to find-

-to find an evil, sinister form hunched over her husband's body, blood dripping from its fangs, Eloise's three lovely little children already dead-

-and the thing looked up at stared right at Eloise with emerald-green eyes that glittered like ice in the moonlight-

-and faster than humanly possible, the vampire had Eloise in her impossibly strong hands, and a searing pain tore up the side of Eloise's neck, and she thought that she was going to die, right then and there. But instead, the vampire turned Eloise, and suddenly she was weak with hunger, longing for the taste of human blood.

Eloise's sire is (was? Eloise isn't so sure if she's alive anymore) a vampire named Stella Havisham. After Eloise was turned, Stella immediately etched a rune into Eloise's forearm that bound her will to Eloise. From then on, Eloise would have to obey everything that Stella said.

Stella was a frighteningly powerful vampire who, along with binding others to her will, could manipulate pain (namely, transferring pain from one person to another). She was also a skilled assassin, sent to Eloise's village to kill a few key members of the Covenant. Stella had learned of Eloise's connection to Sarah, and Eloise became a pawn in Stella's plans to expel the Covenant from the village. At first, Stella ordered Eloise to do nothing more than cook and clean (which was still a nerve-wracking task, especially since Stella had quite a ferocious temper in those days), and she forbade Eloise from drinking enough blood on purpose; Eloise was to be nothing more than a temporary storage place for pain that Stella could readily transfer to her opponents in a fight. She needed Eloise's fast vampiric healing to be nearly nonexistent for her plan to work.

The last time that Eloise ever saw Sarah, she had been so hungry that just the smell of human blood made her dizzy. She remembers a heavy bucket and a well an hour before sunrise; the scent of blood and the the feeling of snow soaking through her thin skirts as she fell to her knees, her fangs elongating as the hunger moved through her in waves; Sarah's horrified face, the sound of her own voice weakly begging for help, Sarah's retreating footsteps and the snow feeling strangely warm against her gaunt, bruised limbs. And then Eloise's head starts to hurt and she can't remember anything except pain and exhaustion and hunger.

Shortly after that incident occurred, Stella beat Eloise bloody and then locked her in the cellar before leaving the house. Eloise didn't understand what was going on until the pain was suddenly sucked out of her, leaving her exhausted and empty.

When Stella returned, she ordered Eloise to clean the blood off her blades.

And so the years passed like this. Stella moved back to London, bringing Eloise with her, after finishing her work in Eloise's village. Eloise cooked and cleaned and obeyed, and Stella did nothing but hurt her. Eventually, she grew too weak to perform even simple household tasks, so Stella simply locked her in a closet or cellar and summoned her when she needed Eloise to feel pain. Ever since the 1950s, Stella has simply left Eloise chained to the wall in the cellar, and Eloise spends most of her time in a half-conscious haze. She doesn't have the energy to think, and remembering hurts too much. Stella keeps her alive-just barely-and Eloise's enhanced healing still works, technically, though it doesn't do more than keep her half-alive at this point.

Recently, though, Stella had been using her more often. The beatings had increased exponentially, and there was something wild and frantic about Stella's blows, whereas they were even and methodical before. Eloise won't allow herself to hope-hope is such a dangerous, dangerous thing-but she speculates. Was her sire panicked because the Covenant was closing in?

The Covenant has found Stella, Eloise knows. Her sire has been missing for a month now...well, what felt like a month to Eloise, anyway. She knows that it will not be long before the Covenant finds her as well. Eloise can only hope that the Covenant will spare her any further pain and kill her when they do indeed find her. At this point, a quick, painless death would the greatest gift that anyone could give her.

Faction/Side: If given a choice, Eloise would not affiliate herself with anyone, but as for now, she is technically affiliated with the vampires

Abilities: Unbeknownst to anyone, even Eloise herself, Eloise is able to heal wounds and injuries with her bare hands, provided that she is physically strong enough to use her power. Silver sparks shoot from her fingertips, and when they make contact with the wound or injury, they start knitting the skin back together.

Skills: Eloise can cook (though Stella only ever required her to prepare blood for her) and clean very well, for 19th and 20th-century standards. Doing laundry and scrubbing floors is another area of expertise (she does know how to use a washing machine, surprisingly). Before she was turned, Eloise was a very good baker alongside her husband, and she had the neatest, tiniest stitches in the entire village. Eloise was a skilled seamstress and enjoyed embroidery, but now she reckons that her hands shake too much to embroider, though her eyesight has improved.

Strengths: Eloise is a good listener and a very empathetic person in general. She was very well-liked in her village before she was turned for her friendly disposition and delectable baked goods.

Weaknesses: Eloise has little to no knowledge on how to use any technology beyond the 1950s-1960s. She is more than useless in a fight, and she can be easily manipulated by others. Eloise's healing ability saps strength and energy just like any other physically exerting activity, throughout her entire time as a vampire, Eloise has never been strong enough to use her ability, let alone hone it to perfection. Her healing abilities cannot be used to heal diseases.

Likes: sunny days (as rare as they are in London and the English countryside), birds, flowers, scones of all shapes and sizes, fresh fruit (especially blueberries), the smell of bread baking, tea with plenty of milk, sugar, and honey, the color blue, lavender, the village that she grew up in, horses, cats, spring and summer afternoons, early mornings and sunrises, meadows and streams, gossiping, socializing, not feeling hungry or thirsty, soft blankets, sewing and embroidering

Dislikes: Stella, rainy days and thunderstorms, the darkness, being a vampire, rat blood, violent people and vampires, the smell of death that always seems to cling to Stella, emeralds, sleeping on the floor, the cold

Other: N/A

The Blood Compact

Working on a character ATM. Should have her up soonishh

Why We Fight? (WWII with superpowers)

Maria was the happiest that she'd been ever since her dimwit father had her arrested. A little persuasion (the skin-to-skin kind) had her a gorgeous black evening gown, an expensive pearl necklace with matching earrings, a tube of blood-red lipstick, and a pair of black satin gloves. And, finally-a mission where she knew what she was doing. This was familiar territory for Maria (though it was not so for the others), and even if she was doing this at the behest of the damn government, Maria would take this over "running" up and down Currahee any day. She was even allowed to curl her hair!

Maria relished the time she was given to prepare for the mission. She pretended that she was preparing for a night out in Chicago, on a mission to gather information for her own purposes. Her normally stick-straight hair was curled in the latest fashions from Hollywood (for despite the war, fashion still lived on), and her dress was all refined, old-age elegance-a welcome change from her usual glamorous seductress look, Maria found. The black gown did wonders for her figure, emphasizing her long, graceful limbs, and the long sleeves and skirt hid the angular boniness of her elbows and knees, which was another plus. The low neckline was perfect for showing off the shiny new strands of pearls that she'd acquired.

Thick, smoky eyeshadow and an equally thick layer of red lipstick, mascara sharp enough to cut someone, heels so high that they could kill, pearls dangling from her ears and around her slender neck, a pair of tiny daggers tucked into the bodice of the gown and a small, military-issued hand gun strapped to her thigh under the long skirt-Maria was ready. She only hoped that she wouldn't have to be more intimate with someone that night; her daggers and the gun were so placed under the assumption that extreme intimacy would not be required. Though, with Anton by my side the entire night, it should be fine, Maria mused as she slipped on the satin gloves. They could easily be taken off at a moment's notice, just in case she needed to persuade someone.

Maria would be posing as Ms. Adaline Veringworth, a wealthy widow with a Spanish mother and an English father who had married an extremely rich but extremely secluded Englishman. Her cover story was that she had come from Europe to America to seek refuge from the war, bringing a French officer along as her escort (to "protect" her and represent the French delegation to the US, or so Maria was told). Anton seemed agreeable enough, as far as Maria was concerned. But were his acting skills up to snuff? It took practice to don a new persona as easily as one would don an evening gown, Maria knew, and she was willing to bet good money that the majority of the team had almost no experience doing this kind of work-Anton himself included.

Maria sighed. It was too late to dwell on that now. She supposed she would have to deal with any slip-ups as they came.

Maria closed her eyes, drew in a breath, and channeled Ms. Adeline Veringworth. Adaline was charming and charismatic, agreeable and polite. She had all the imposing elegance and impeccable manners of a proper British lady, but she had a touch of her own scintillating wit. She was rich and powerful, and well aware of her own wealth and power, yet she carried herself with enough poise and timeless grace that people couldn't help but respect her.

Maria opened her eyes. She glided out into the main area of the apartment, her warm brown eyes alighting on Colonel Philipe Artoue, 68th Infantry Division of the 1st Free French Army (more commonly known as Anton G'iscard), and gave him a composed smile. Maria made her way over to him, the cold aloofness that was present in her eyes when she was in Camp Toccoa completely gone. In its place was deep solemnity with a mischievous hint of mirth.

"I'm ready if you are, Colonel," said Maria as Adaline. She tilted her head slightly, surveying him with obvious interest. Anton had donned the uniform of a French officer for the occasion, and Maria let a small half-smile grace her lips. "I must say, my dear Colonel, that uniform suits you very well."