Adlai

NAME
Adlai Wenceslaus
A name given and a name adopted.


GENDER
???
Responds to 'it', 'they', 'he', and 'she', interchangably.


AGE
Strange.
They appear to be quite young due to their stature, but there is something aged to their glinting eye...


SPECIES
Dhampir
Half vampire, half human, the slithery spawn of a most brief union.


ORIGIN
Unspoken of.
Some backwater shithole.


FATHER
A vampire they know only as Orien.
They have never met him, and have no pressing desire to do so.


MOTHER
Unknown.
Adlai remembers only brief snatches of Mother and there was a lot of pained shrieking involved. Something about a copper bathtub.





HEIGHT
5'3"
Diminutive. Useful to get into little spaces.


BUILD
Lithe, lissome, languid.
Their build echoes their height; not much to it. Moves with a slow grace that drags the eye along whatever path they so tread.


EYES
Reflective and pale.
In high light, they appear near-white. In darkness, it seems they are a mint, glittering silver, like little nickels embedded in the skull.


HAIR
Utterly without.
See: alopecia universalis.


SKIN
Pale and unmarked.
Unscarred, hairless pale skin with soft gray, lavender, and baby-blue undertones in flushed places, like a menagerie of occasional weird bruises.


SCENT
Like the moon's garden.
Adlai cultivates fragrant night-blooming plants, enjoying their physical company immensely in those cool, moonlit hours. Their scent follows him. (Evening primrose, night-blooming jasmine, moonflower, et c.)


VOICE
Quiet, slightly deeper tones with a bit of smokiness to them.
Emma D'Arcy


CLOTHING
Tight, dark, and elegant.
Adlai prefers the secure feeling of fitted clothing and the freedom it gives their limbs when well-tailored to their specific measurements. Black clothing, always, likes to layer themself in inky things that hug. Exposes their legs quite frequently with skirts and shortpants and then covers them in an assortment of patterned lace stockings. Thigh length, heeled boots for the approaching sound, or low-rising boots with a similar heel. The boots usually have a 3 inch heel, raising their overall height to 5'6".


JEWELRY
Much bedazzlement.
Earrings that dangle and move with each turn of their head; their chiefest choices are a little pair of guillotines, a pair of swords, and a pair of axes. Rings on every finger, sometimes doubled or tripled and even bedecking the latter knuckles. All jewelry is silver, or silver inlaid with opal or moonstones.

MAKE UP
A bit of dark drama.
A pale, clear complexion requires no additional TV white! But the eyes, shrouded and smudged in kohl and smoke, and the lips much the same, give the appearance of necrosis that Adlai admires and enjoys embodying.





PERSONALITY
Depends on who you ask. To some Adlai is a tender-hearted confidante, always attentive and helpful and even sweet with their honeyed stone tones and the way they always seem to come to a wonderful compromise solution, to any one whose heart so ails. They strike some as a good friend, a good entertainer, one to be depended on not only for support but for bread and circuses as well.

Adlai knows how to ply an ear, how to wheedle and gently suggest. How to dip their little white spiders of hands into many, many pies at once to gather the information they need like a farmer reaping grain. They trade in secrets, little snippets of gossip, all the while having an air of innocence. Adlai has the power of suggestion, and the power of suggestion is quite an impactful one.

They like to plant their little nightseeds and watch the blossoms unfurl.

Adlai's motives seem to be muddled, or hard to discern. The reason for their gossip begs the reader to wonder what the gossiper perchance has to hide, as though maybe all of that misdirection of attention is for an explicit reason... Secretive as a spider, and just as stealthy as, Adlai keeps their true nature close to their chest and lets not even a drip of it escape. They thrive in their little bubble of ambiguity, preferring to avoid direct personal questions with deflections and leave even the most simplest of questions or facts an absolute smokecloud of nothing.

Their position in certain circles only enables the proclivities they have. Adlai is a somnophage, an eater of dreams that leaves nightmares in their wake. Adlai is able to suppress these urges but chooses not to, instead indulging themself and gorging whenever they can upon unsuspecting sleeping victims who then find themselves plagued with the same recurring nightmare, sometimes for years depending on how many times Adlai visits them.

This is one of their secrets and they keep it well, sipping on fruit juices and pretending to taste petit fours whenever they are in the company of mortal food. But to them, nothing quite compares to the pillowy, clotted fullness and warmth they receive from those surreal labyrinthine mind-reels they siphon away from those who are blessed enough to sleep.

CW: A more sinister aspect of their feeding is the consumption of cerebral spinal fluid. This is a more rich and tantalizing food for them, something they gorge upon somewhat more sparingly as they do not prefer to cripple or kill their victims, instead making repeated visits. Their extraction methods vary from situation to situation and it can be assumed that a bit of drugging is involved.

LIKES Nocturnal plants, spiders, beetles, taxidermy, black lace, pomegranate and blood orange, sweet pickled beets, felines, cool and cold weather, storms and rain.

DISLIKES Direct sunlight, written correspondence, inconveniences, hot climes, those with sharp noses, others with sharp tongues, unpleasant smells.

POSTURE [1928]