The Spirit
-
The Beast Within
"Whitehart... it all makes sense now."
PHYSICAL INFORMATION:- He stands at a hulking, muscular 8'5" while shifted, not including his antlers, which top him out at around 9'5"
- Covered in thick, slightly wavy white fur. The guard hairs are wirey and shaggy, with the longest length being at his hocks/ankles and nape. His eyes are the same hazel-green as in human form, but the sockets are sunken and black.
- Shift occurs upon moon rise of half-moons between 50-55% full (three nights out of the month)
- When Donaghan is in control, he is able to use telepathy to communicate, as his vocal chords and tongue are not able to form human speech. So far, he has only been able to do so with those he shares blood or a strong bond with.
- He regards the werestag as a seperate entitiy to himself. He calls it the 'Beast' or the 'Creature' or sometimes simply 'It.'
ABILITIES- He heals most wounds during shifting, leaving only scar tissue. Other-wise fatal shots in human form automatically trigger his shift to save his life.
- Able to run of speeds up to 50 MPH in deer form, and leap and run twice as fast and far as a normal human in his human form.
- Easily able to crush any normal human bone with his hooves and fists, and puncture holes in materials/tissues as strong as two-inch-thick steel.
- He see about 5 times better than normal humans, but is far-sighted
- While shifted, he see shades of yellow and blue, but has trouble seeing reds or greens. In lighting so low that a mundane would be utterly blind, he can still see, though everything is in black-and-white since color requires light to exist.
- He can detect even the slightest movement - a blink, a change of expression, the rise and fall of a breathing chest, etc.
- To get a 3-D look at an unfamilar but stationary object that might present danger, he has to see it from several angles. That’s why alert deer shift their heads from side to side and bob them up and down so often.
WEAKNESSESSee more[*] He heals most wounds during shifting, leaving only scar tissue. Other-wise fatal shots in human form automatically trigger his shift to save his life. Broken bones (depending on severity) will heal almost completely upon shifting, but compound fractures will require several days of rest instead of weeks as per normal humans.
[*] Decapitation, suffocation, silver bullets to the heart or brain will kill him, Burning alive will (unfortunately or fortunately) only cause him intense agony and put him into a coma-like state, should it happen. His regenerative abilities would work fast enough to keep him alive in those cases. - He stands at a hulking, muscular 8'5" while shifted, not including his antlers, which top him out at around 9'5"
-
His Story
BACKGROUNDDonnie was born in a small town in Scotland, about twenty minutes west of Edinburgh. Until age fourteen, he and his family subsisted on his father's meager policeman's salary. It was tough, but honest work, and Donaghan always idolized his father. His mother, a seamstress from Spain, made enough to supply the boys with a small allowance. Little Donnie used it to buy toy guns and plastic police badges before blowing the rest on trips to the city to go to the cinema.
His great-aunt, Louisa in Darien City, New York suddenly took ill when Donaghan was 14. With no one around to take care of the old crone, Donaghan's parents took it upon themselves and uprooted the family. Not long after, however, Louisa died. The family had used most of their savings to ship all of their things overseas, and thus decided to just stick it out and make their home in his aunt's high-rise apartment.
Everything was pretty uneventful for a time, though school-life for Donaghan was difficult, where his accent and disability were a source of constant, merciless ridicule. To make things even worse, his budding sexuality was a cause of severe mental conflict: his parents were devout Catholics, and though he wasn't really all that into the God stuff himself, his fancying other boys made him feel like a pile of shit.
So, like a good Christian child, he bottled it all up, resolving never to reveal his true feelings to anyone, let alone his peers.
Time passed and Donaghan (eventually) passed senior-high after being held back to repeat the 10th grade and immediately enrolled in the Darien City Police Academy and promptly failed the admissions. Three times. Frustrated but not deterred, Donaghan took a few classes at the community college and managed to get an A.S. in Criminal Justice. Then, he tried to get into the DCPD again and passed the test with flying colors at the age of 23.
A few female co-workers made passes at him on the job, especially when they were assigned the same beat. He always sputtered out some awkward reply or another, leaving them baffled and hurt. Some of his buddies on the force started making jabs at him, joking that "he must be a fag not to wanna get with Officer XYZ," to which Donnie just laughed and changed the subject. He refused to let them know how much their comments struck bone, and soldiered on for a few years until finally being promoted to Detective.
During this time, he met and fell in love with the only woman he's ever been attracted to: Bina. They were to wed, but he broke things off after coming clean about all the dirty little secrets he'd kept from her. The 'B' tattoo above his heart is his lasting tribute to her.
(The following history has either been role-played or mentioned in role-play as having happened)
Some things went down in Darien City, and Donaghan found that the unit didn't need him all that much anymore. Thus, he had himself transferred to the police unit all the way down south, in San Angeles, California, in the spring of 2018. For a time, it was pretty dull... He met a foreign-sounding woman named Stella in-between double-shifts. She had a cat, which he complimented, despite not really liking cats all that much, and they chatted a bit before he got called away. He's pretty sure she didn't understand a damn thing he was saying. Still, pretty uneventful in San Angeles.
That is, of course, until his first official assignment to the crime scene of a Shrike attack. He was joined soon after his arrival by a Doctor Dia House filling in for a forensics specialist (since there are few, if any, to speak of in the precinct). She wore nice, new sandals to the scene, which was in a dirty back alley coated with blood and garbage in the midst of vampire territory. He offered her his slipcovers to protect her shoes, and they got started collecting samples. They were just finishing up when a young-looking vampire named Devon appeared from the warehouse behind them and mocked Donaghan before lunging at Dr. House. Terrified himself, but trained to stay calm and perform his duty despite fear, he took the monster out with a rain of holy bullets; one struck the vampire's heart and he disintegrated. Dr. House, clearly not used to dangerous missions, screamed throughout the ordeal and vomited once it was over. Donaghan escorted her to her car and after writing a report of the incident and checking the ashes for any ID (there was none), he went home and had a stiff drink (or three).
A few days after this, he ran into an old friend, Michael (Marte). He hadn't seen the younger man since he was a lad, so they caught up a bit, and Don learned that he had a committed partner with whom he shared a home, and also that the pyromancer had gotten into glass-making. They promised to meet again for a drink some time.
One evening on his way back to his apartment from the station, Donaghan came across an assault in progress. The victim, Atreus, had been robbed of his wallet and phone after being attacked by the vampiric thug. Don helped him get back to his cabin in the woods, just to be sure he was alright... but the two shared a moment of tension that had the detective remembering those feelings from boyhood.
Not long after this, the two discovered they shared feelings for one another, and decided to have a go at being a couple. Don celebrated by buying them both McDonald's and showing him his flat. Smooth.
On New Years Eve of 2018-2019, Atreus' father came for an unexpected visit and got to know Don a bit, right before launching into a terrifying warning about some bloke that could change into whomever they wished. He (Acaeus) said that they had only to summon him with a bit of paper and a ritual should they find themselves in trouble, but Donaghan was starting to see how nutters that family really was. It didn't matter, in the end: the couple shared beers on the rooftop and snogged while fireworks lit up the sky. Good way to ring in the new year.
By January of 2019, Donaghan and Atreus had settled into a cozy life together at the latter's cabin. Despite a slight scare at the precinct when a drug-addled perp broke loose and attacked while both Atreus and Michael were visiting, the detective received a promotion that night and became a captain of the police.
He rushed home to tell his partner (their chosen titles, instead of boyfriend) the good news, when Tre (Don's nickname for him) revealed that there had been a newscast about something called The Purge. Supernaturals all over the city were poised to be gathered up, tagged, bagged, sent off to LABs, or even 'terminated'. The two decided they would turn themselves into the authorities, but not before meeting with Atreus' father and littler sister.