RECOLLÉ APP

[halfvampire]

PLAYER
YOUR NAME: Redd
18+?: Yes!
CONTACT: pokerap | Discord: pokerap#0934
CHARACTERS IN GAME: Yeager (scythegun) and Shigure Rangetsu (morgrim)
RESERVED?: Here

CHARACTER: CANON SECTION
NAME: Adrian "Alucard" Ţepeş
AGE: Canon doesn't state his exact age, but he's twenty at the oldest. (He says he physically "grew up quickly", so it's possible that he's younger. He's mentally an adult, however.)
CANON: Castlevania (Netflix series)

CANON HISTORY: Alucard @ Castlevania Wiki
CANON PERSONALITY:

Alucard is a man driven by his family. In part this is due to his heritage - as the son of Dracula and a human woman named Lisa Ţepeş, he has to find a balance between the two worlds. In his youth he was given the nickname Alucard as the reverse of his father, but his mother didn't like him defining himself like that. Later on, Alucard chose to take the name when he decided to kill his father to end Dracula's war on humanity. Alucard even says that everyone is a slave to their family's wills, and he is certainly an excellent example of that. His mother never would have wanted Dracula to kill humans, so he takes up his sword in her name to put a stop to his father, by any means necessary.

"By any means necessary" means picking a fight with the strongest vampire, a fact that Alucard is all too familiar with. While he does enlist help in the form of following a tale told by Speakers, he's merciless in his testing of Trevor Belmont, one of his allies. The tests start right away, from the moment he meets him, and continue in the form of barbed jabs whenever he can get them in. He's eager to tease Trevor about the Belmonts practicing black magic, and he's quick to counter whatever jabs Trevor throws back at him, no matter how immature. This highlights one of Alucard's more human sides - he's actually not nearly as mature as he presents himself, and feels the need to assert himself in order to make himself feel better about his choice to trust Trevor. At first, he doesn't believe he can, and thinks he's made a mistake, and this is his way of attempting to toughen Trevor up.

It certainly doesn't end there, because his idea of a good first test is to fight Trevor without explaining anything. This is obviously something he inherited from his father, and Alucard is very bad about it initially. He doesn't explain himself until Trevor has proved his strength and Sypha has shown her magical prowess, and even then they have to pick the right questions to get the answers they're looking for. He tests them through his own questions, all without giving too much away.

Alucard keeps people at arm's length. This isn't necessarily because he doesn't trust them, although he does have problems trusting Trevor initially. Alucard is polite and well-spoken, often coming across as intelligent and mature, but the reality is a deep loneliness born from his strange place in the world as neither fully human nor fully vampire. He's capable of love and compassion and trust, but it isn't something that comes easily to him and as a result, he finds himself in a strange place where he can never really let others in - not even Sypha and Trevor know the full extent of his loneliness.

But that brings us to another human side - he does trust them. Sure, it starts out entirely because he believes their skills will be useful in killing Dracula, but by the time the three of them enter Dracula's castle, they're a trio that works well together and knows how to balance each other's weaknesses. Alucard assists them without complaint or hesitation, and he fully trusts Sypha and Trevor to watch his back against any threats.

Unfortunately, Alucard isn't exactly the best at teamwork. He's used to being alone and fighting alone, and that really shows whenever he's up against anyone. He takes the lead and he goes all out, often to the point where his human companions can't keep up. His battle against his father is an extreme example, one driven by emotions and a near-desperate desire to see Dracula's war ended, but nonetheless Alucard rushes off ahead and nearly gets himself killed because he thinks he can handle everything on his own. He really can't in this case - he's completely outclassed by Dracula in every way. Still, his own confidence in his abilities isn't unfounded, nor is he overconfident. He goes so far because he needs to stop his father, just as much as his mother needs him to.

Relying solely on himself isn't limited to combat, and Sypha notes it as well. She says he's like a cold spot in the room, where even if you're near him you can still feel lonely. His sadness is undeniable - he's lost his mother at the hands of the church and his father's devotion to destroying all humans means he's lost Dracula as well. Alucard felt his only option was to kill his father, and that leaves him completely alone in the world, at least before he accepts Trevor and Sypha as companions. The grief he feels is something he sets aside until after Dracula's death, and only then does he allow himself to experience it in full. That isn't to say he regrets killing his father, but he does regret that it had to come to this.

The grief he feels is so immense, he considered allowing himself to simply go back to sleep beneath Gresit again, and after killing his father he changes his mind, and decides he'd prefer to die instead. Trevor is able to talk him out of it and hands him the Belmont Hold to look after as well as taking care of Dracula's castle, but when he's left alone, Alucard is an absolute wreck. He's lost everything in a short amount of time and he has to find a way to pick up and keep going. There's no telling how that will go for him since the third season isn't out yet, but right now he's a complete wreck of a person, lost to the despair of losing the family that so defines him.

Thankfully, Alucard isn't a completely selfish person, despite his actions toward Trevor mentioned earlier. He's capable of empathy and expresses this in Sypha's direction multiple times. He feels bad for the humans caught up in Dracula's war, and he understands the pain Sypha's going through in leaving her family to take up arms with them. He can be a caring person, but that is not nearly as important to him as killing his father.

And speaking of that whole "killing his father" thing, let's talk about how bizarre the logic here is. Alucard genuinely believes after talking to his father once (and receiving a grievous injury from him) that the only option is to kill Dracula. He goes so far as to rely on a tale passed down by the Speakers to hope that he'll find two people who fit the description in the myth to help him, and then they carry this wild and crazy plan out, and two humans and a half-vampire succeed in taking Dracula down. All while Alucard is mourning the loss of his mother from one year earlier. There's no denying Alucard's conviction that this is right and that it is the only way to stop Dracula, but the logic here is so crazy it's amazing it works at all. Part of this can surely be attributed to his grief, but part of this is just that Alucard's kind of crazy in general. It's a vampire thing, they're all mad.

Even though so much of his being is tied into his family, it isn't all bad. Alucard is remarkably well-read and very intelligent. He's able to compare with Sypha's experiences, and the Speakers have a lot of knowledge they pass down. He's not nearly as smart as his father though, and he laments that Dracula's knowledge will be lost when he's dead. That isn't entirely true, since Dracula's collection of books and those within the Belmont Hold are all in Alucard's possession at the end of the second season. He has plenty of time to learn more and he does seem to enjoy learning - though he really wasn't big on the knowledge collected by the Belmonts on how to kill his people.

In the end, Alucard is the product of two worlds. His human half gives him more emotions and empathy than he really knows what to do with, while his vampire half gives him strength and abilities almost beyond compare. His people are the vampires, but they're also the humans, and seeing his father kill his mother's people for what happened to her is heartbreaking. He's bound by his family ties to do what he believes is necessary, no matter how crazy that really is. And he succeeds in killing his father, only to be a broken mess at the end, left all alone with nothing but the knowledge of both humans and vampires.

SKILLS/ABILITIES:

Alucard is a dhampir, a being that is half-human and half-vampire. Because of this, he's inherited quite a few useful abilities from his father, Dracula. I'm going to split this into sections to (hopefully) make it easier to read. Alucard is absolutely overpowered and I am fine with any nerfs on his powers!

Firstly, as a dhampir, Alucard does not need to drink blood. He can consume blood, but he spends an entire year asleep and then the duration of his time with Trevor and Sypha without needing blood or food. He does have fangs, and he does threaten to rip Trevor's throat out, so obviously he can consume blood, but it seems as though he doesn't require it to survive. I am perfectly fine removing this ability entirely if you guys don't want to deal with that (does anyone want to deal with that?? I don't want to deal with it either). Alucard's also capable of being out in the sunlight without pain or injury, and he has a reflection. Running water also probably won't hurt him, though it's arguable whether it hurts vampires in general in the series. (There's a scene devoted to not clearing that up at all, thanks Castlevania.)

As for general vampiric powers, Alucard has access to the following:

★ Superhuman strength. Alucard is capable of lifting and moving things that most humans would have difficulty with, such as debris. This also extends to his fighting, causing him to hit much harder than any human. While he is undeniably strong, he's by no means the strongest character in the series; Dracula is way more powerful than he is.

★ Superhuman speed. Like all vampires, Alucard can move so quickly it appears to normal humans as though he's teleporting. There's no actual teleporting involved (that isn't something he can do at all), but he's capable of running and moving much faster than a normal human can keep track of. This is by no means infallible, however; if one can predict where he's going to go, they can still hit him while he's moving. Like the previous point, Alucard is not the fastest vampire, although he does seem to be able to outspeed the majority of them. This "teleporting" illusion can also be broken by smoke or fog, and anything that will slow him down will obviously prevent him from managing any fancy flashstepping.

★ Increased durability and high endurance. All vampires are able to take quite the beating before they go down, and Alucard is no exception. He can take a lot more punishment than a human can, and he usually doesn't show any signs of feeling it. Against Dracula, he is severely injured and does show pain, but continues to push through it anyway. This increased durability does not leave him completely invulnerable to attacks, and he certainly can be killed with enough hits and determination.

★ Regeneration. Alucard was able to heal from something that should have been a fatal wound with a year of recovery asleep underground. This wound absolutely would have killed a human, and most likely would have severely injured - if not killed - any vampire. His regeneration also comes into play for minor wounds; Alucard is able to keep throwing himself at his father during the final battle despite his injuries, and shows signs of healing by the time the battle is over, even while Trevor and Sypha still have their wounds. This regeneration is not powerful enough to always be able to save him from near-mortal wounds, however; he'd require a lot of time to sleep uninterrupted for major injuries, and it couldn't heal him from something like decapitation or massive burns. Being staked would probably also end him, although this isn't confirmed (and it took beheading and setting Dracula on fire for the death to stick for him).

★ Levitation. Calling it "flying" is giving it a bit too much credit, but even "levitation" doesn't fully cover it. Alucard is capable of floating around and fighting while doing so. He can move at high speeds through the air to chase his target down or put distance between them, and all of his other powers still work while he's airborne. He is never shown using this power to fly great distances or fly upwards by any sort of massive amount, and only really uses it in combat with Dracula.

★ Telekinesis. While not all vampires are shown to have this power, Dracula is capable of moving objects with his mind and this is something Alucard can do as well. Right away I'm going to say if he gets to keep this, it is absolutely limited to only his sword. In the series, Alucard is only shown using it to manipulate his sword, using it as a separate means of attack while he uses hand-to-hand combat. It's not clear if he can manipulate anything besides his sword. He's capable of using the sword seamlessly alongside his own strikes, and his control is perfect. This can be stopped by distracting him enough, and obviously it is just a sword, it doesn't have a mind of its own and it isn't a particularly special weapon, so if something happens to that, Alucard can't exactly use any other telekinetic powers. Again, I'm fine nerfing this further or removing it as well, since he's already ridiculously overpowered.

★ Pyrokinesis. I wasn't actually sure what to call this one, since this is a power Alucard uses only briefly and in one very specific way. Alucard can set his sword on fire (and the sword can take the heat), thus letting him burn things while stabbing them. He shows no other signs of being able to set things on fire with his mind, but he doesn't do anything to light the sword on fire either, so this is the only thing I can figure. Dracula is shown to be capable of this, though obviously he's much more powerful and able to do much more with it, which is why it's here under vampire abilities, even though other vampires don't seem to be capable of it. The perks of having Dracula as your dad, I guess.

★ Nail manipulation. A more minor ability, but Alucard can extend and shrink his nails at will, and his nails are hard enough to cut through metal. He only extends his nails by about an inch, so it's unknown whether he could make them any larger than that. This wasn't used in combat, as he usually wears gloves, but it's worth mentioning for thoroughness.

★ Shapeshifting. This is the last vampire power, I promise. Alucard is shown to shapeshift into a white wolf, in which he can attack fiercely and quickly. His wolf form is stronger and faster than any sort of normal wolf, but he still does have weaknesses and can be taken out - perhaps even easier than normal in this form. He's also able to turn into bats, but since this is only shown in the intro and not in the series proper, I won't be regaining that.

On top of all of these, we also have Alucard's specific powers and abilities:

★ Hand-to-hand combat. Alucard is capable of holding his own in battle without weapons - even when he's up against them. His strikes are incredibly strong because of his superhuman strength, and he's capable of taking a lot of punishment as well.

★ Swordsmanship. While he is capable of using his sword with telekinesis, Alucard can also use it like a normal person. He's strong and fast and his strikes are quick and efficient. It's a very elegant sword fighting style, but it looks more fancy than practical at times, which might be why he opts for telekinesis while fighting sometimes.

As I stated earlier, there's a lot here and I understand if you all want to nerf or outright ban any of these! Some of them do have workarounds, but they might be entirely too specific or difficult to regulate in a game, but I can promise that he isn't going to go around using his powers to destroy everything. With that said, anything you want to nerf/ban, I am totally fine with! I would definitely like to regain his fangs at some point, but since he is not shown as requiring blood to survive, we can just leave the fangs as cosmetic and not actually useful, if that works for you guys!

And finally, to briefly touch on things that are not powers or abilities but are still useful skills: Alucard is both incredibly intelligent and he can be quite charismatic. While nowhere near as smart or as well-read as his father, Alucard is a clever man and more than capable of formulating plans and determining peoples' skill very quickly. He's very interested in learning more, and enjoys reading. He's also well-spoken and charming when he wants to be. He's pleasant to be around and he gets along just fine with humans. He can get snippy and unpleasant as mentioned in the personality section, but usually he's got a charisma stat to use. His skills are primarily in fighting, however, even if he isn't nearly as powerful as his father.

CHARACTER: AU SECTION
AU NAME: Adrian Harker
AU AGE: 21
PHYSICAL DIFFERENCES:

Adrian is (obviously) not a vampire, so he's lacking Alucard's fangs and yellow eyes. Instead, his eyes are light blue. He's also more frail than his canon counterpart. Adrian doesn't have the large scar across his chest that Alucard sports for most of the series as well. He does still have long blond hair, but he keeps his tied back in a ponytail most of the time.

AU HISTORY:

✩ The only child of two loving parents. His mother was a cardiologist and his father is a history professor at Recollé University. Both of them were thrilled to welcome Adrian into the family.
✩ He grew up in a very loving home; his father taught only a few classes while Adrian was growing up so he would always have at least one parent around to help him.
✩ Not that he really needed it, Adrian was an incredibly bright child and excelled at school. He was in all sorts of gifted and advanced classes, and his parents were very proud of him.
✩ He was sickly as a child and spent most of his time playing video games or reading.
✩ He wasn't isolated though, and still had friends during this time. He ended up interested in more traditional "nerdy" hobbies, especially anything that involved letting him create stories.
✩ Adrian was well-behaved, at least until high school when he decided to start acting out in all sorts of typical teenage ways. He had a pretty bad goth phase and spent a lot of time complaining about how his parents were ruining his life and stifling his creativity. (They really weren't, but they backed off anyway to let their son get a taste of freedom.)
✩ During high school he held down two part-time jobs, the first as a waiter (which he quit after several months) and the second as a cashier at a book store. His work ethic was excellent despite his moody nature and he made a surprising amount of money for a teenager. He also continued working at the book store part-time during college to save up for a place of his own after school.
✩ His exceptional grades continued through high school and Adrian was accepted to Recollé University. He was undecided on what he wanted to pursue during his first few semesters there, but eventually decided he wanted to be a writer.
✩ Unfortunately, things took a turn for the worse early on. A year after graduating high school, Adrian's mom was in a car accident. She passed in the emergency room before Adrian and his father could see her.
✩ Adrian was understandably grief-stricken and took a semester off while he tried to figure out how to handle his mother's death and also his father's reaction. His father withdrew almost entirely, becoming bitter and angry at the doctors and first responders who failed to save his wife's life. He was also furious at those who had been in the other car that night.
✩ Adrian's father eventually started teaching again, while Adrian himself returned to school. Though he struggled more than he had previously, he still managed to maintain good grades and continue his studies.
✩ He's currently in his last semester, with a job with the local newspaper lined up after he graduates. He's going to be helping with editing rather than writing, but Adrian likes that too, so it's fine.
✩ Graduation is going to be stressful, but he's prepared for that and eager to move out. He's saved up enough money and with a full time job he shouldn't have any problems on his own. Since his mother's death, his father has been increasingly distant and angry, and Adrian really wants to put some distance between himself and his father.
✩ He's currently working on a fantasy novel, though there's no telling if he'll actually finish it or if he'll end up scrapping it and moving on to something else, like he has before.
✩ Adrian still enjoys playing video games and reading; it's rare to find him not either working on his novel, with his nose in a fantasy book, or messing around with whatever game he's currently obsessed with.
✩ He has a very fluffy white dog named Minnie. Okay, so she's the family dog, but she loves him the most and she's coming with him when he moves out.
✩ Things are tense between him and his father now, but Adrian still does love him. He's just under the impression that being away from his dad would help them both. He's ready to start his life after school, while his father is stuck in the past.

AU PERSONALITY:

The biggest difference is that Adrian is no longer defined by his family. Adrian has chosen the path he wants to pursue in life, and his parents have been nothing but accommodating and helpful in convincing him to follow his dreams. He's taken that advice to heart, and even now has chosen to pursue his passions. He's going to become an author someday (he hopes) and he's very happy working toward that. He's kept his love of learning and thoroughly enjoys school, but he's also looking forward to the future, something Alucard wasn't able to do.

But his freedom has certainly come at a cost; he's no longer quite as caring towards his parents as he once was. Part of this is typical teenage rebellion (he's gotten over that, but it was pretty bad for awhile) and part of that is because his own desires are the most important thing to him. He's aware that his father is suffering, but instead of reaching out to him and attempting to help, as Alucard would have at least tried to do (before receiving a grievous wound for it), Adrian has chosen to distance himself and try to focus on himself first and foremost. He's grieving too, of course, but his way is to try to shove it down and focus on the future. Maybe he'll feel less upset about his mother's passing once he's managed to get his first book published.

Fighting was an essential part of who Alucard was, both because he needed to fight and because he was good at it. It obviously has no place in Adrian's life, and he has no interest in it whatsoever. He was never bullied and never got into fights, and he doesn't even know how to throw a punch. He's firmly of the belief that arguments can be solved with words and not fists, and to be honest, the idea of actually getting in a fight makes him nervous. Perhaps it's a little naive of him to believe that so whole-heartedly, but he doesn't want to fight if he can avoid it.

With that said, Adrian is the sort to stand his ground, and should push come to shove and he needs to fight to defend himself, he will. He's much more likely to fight to protect others, however. It's something he'd greatly prefer to avoid, but if it isn't possible to avoid it, he will absolutely do everything in his power to protect people. Too bad he's nowhere near strong enough for that (right now).

Adrian was never lonely, and always had friends and family around him when he was growing up. Even now he has people close to him, who he leans on to help him when he needs it, and who he offers aid to when he can. He does still care deeply about people, he's just a bit more blind to the suffering of those closest to him, especially when it could potentially force him to deal with his own issues. Adrian believes his own problems are something he can properly deal with later, but right now he has to focus on finishing school, and then starting his job and finding a stable living situation, and then maintaining his job... Basically, he's procrastinating on dealing with his feelings, which is really not a healthy approach to take. Is he aware it's unhealthy? Ehhh, kind of. But he's doing it anyway. He's never really had to deal with loss like this before, and he doesn't know how to handle it. Maybe he'll figure it out someday. Or maybe he'll keep putting it off in the hopes that it'll sort itself out somehow.

With a normal upbringing and caring family, Adrian has never had to deal with being a part of two separate worlds. He's never had to worry about the potential genocide of his mother's people, and he's never had the extreme stress Alucard has had to deal with. That isn't to say he's never experienced suffering at all, but he is incredibly lucky in that his life has mostly been free from anything terrible happening. The death of his mother was of course the one big exception, but even now he still has his father and other family members nearby. Adrian never has to worry about being alone, and this has in turn made him so reliant on others that he wouldn't know what to do if he was alone. It's something he's not really aware he needs so badly.

Adrian's life is very different from Alucard's, and it's certainly made him a very different person. He's a bit more naive and a bit less devoted to one cause, but in turn he's found his own calling and wants to create a life for himself. He isn't as tied to his family anymore, but that comes at the cost of not really realizing how much pain his father is in. Adrian's not really doing his best to sort himself out; he ignores his own feelings when he's worried they'll get in the way. He's not a bad person by any means, but he's still figuring himself out, something Alucard never really had time to do.

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