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Name: Catena MacCarnage
Any other names: Gives his name as Gnar. Addressed as kitty, or variants thereof, by a handful of people, which he feels is overly familiar in some cases and just dandy in others.
Age: 49 (Born Mar. 22, 1856, current date is 1905 by his personal timeline)
Sex: Male
Species: Shapeshifter. (Shorten it to 'shifter and he will twitch. Ape True Blood and call him a 'supe' and he will laugh you out of the room). Capable of true organic shapeshifting within 2 size categories in either direction- anything vertebrate and alive, although new animals must be studied and practiced in order to get it right. There are Stories in the culture about hundred-percents, shapechangers who can turn into anything, organic or inorganic. Fridge horror: a shapeshifter corpse remains in the shape they died in.
Despite their versatility, shapechangers are a clannish and secretive species. They have unique rules, and customs, and taboos among their culture. There is a Register- a roster of every living shapeshifter, their lineage, and their marital status, which is used in determining good breeding matches among clans. The reasoning is not quite as bloodless as those outside shapechanger culture might imagine- their documented population worldwide is, proportionately, quite small, and growing progressively more inbred. Shapeshifters cannot outbreed- they are, on a fundamental level, too genetically different from any other sentient species on the planet, although they can ape their forms and functions seamlessly. Tracing the evolutionary history of shapechangers through the fossil record has proved understandably headache-inducing.
There are many theories as to why this is, but not even shapeshifters themselves are uniformly certain. All they know is that it makes certain things a necessity, and they must live with it.
A fringe theory has postulated that they're from outer space. That's just silly. But you should ask Gnar about his dad sometime.
Powers/special abilities: General magic casting. He is spec'd to battlemage, but abreast of theories and methods of a wide range of magic due to doing a lot of teaching of it. He has no talent for healing, attempting it will leave him exhausted and having done a poor job of it anyway. If in possession of some form of a person's biomatter, he can track them and cast spells on them at a distance. He requires props and preparation for wards, enchantments and summonings (although he goes to a lot of work behind the scenes to make it look like he can do things like summon a bottle of whiskey on the fly), although usually no more than chalk, string, and occasionally a can of paint. He can teleport, but there is a weight limit. In a fight, he can call fire and direct it seamlessly, as well as redirect force and cause explosions. Has a measure of talent for necromancy, which is illegal in his home country, so please don't ask him about it. He can see and sense magic, abilities known as magesight and magesense respectively. None of these abilities are uncommon to magic-users of his world.
Where he is unique, however, is how he comes by the raw magic that he uses to cast. He is a poison-mage, capable of metabolising poisonous ingested substances into magical power. By this virtue he is basically unpoisonable, although it is unclear precisely how much of a hardship the process is on his system. Dr Hand postulates that the metabolisation takes place in his liver and kidneys, where it would ordinarily, which also explains Gnar's description of the sensation of casting as coming from his blood. He occasionally complains of an 'itch' in the veins in his arms when casting large magics, and can be caught rubbing the insides of his forearms when in the presence of large or particularly arcane casting.
See also natural shapeshifting, detailed under previous heading.
Height: 5'10" in his boots.
Weight: 130lbs
Physique: Compact and wiry. Not particularly muscled, but lithe and flexible still despite his age. Walks digitigrade often without realizing it, which adds to his percieved height although not by much.
Complexion: Sallow and waxy-pale, though not to the extent of jaundice.
Hair: Long and thick, about down to his mid-back, uneven and full of split ends. Deep, shiny black, highlights green like a crow's feathers.
Eye color: The phrase 'absinthe-green' gets thrown around a lot.
Any other notable physical attributes: Black kitty ears and tail. A small face, like a woman's. Pointy cat eyeteeth. Mottled, thick scarring, as from from knife and bite marks, along his wrists, inner arms, and neck. Notches in ears, scars present from other past injuries across shoulders, torso, back, and knees. Bum left wrist.
Intelligence level: He is not the gifted sort of intelligent; anything he possesses in that area can be said to have been the result of hard work and tears. He knows his failings, however, and a natural curiosity and ability to force himself to be studious means that he can and does regularly fill gaps in his own knowledge. He is intuitive and empathetic. He will insist that he is not terribly bright.
Mental condition: Relatively neurotypical. A bit of a martyr complex. Codependant. Alcoholic. Insomniac.
Style of speech: Simple and direct. Highly expressive in tone. Has an inconspicuous vaguely Northern accent, the result of repressing a thick Scottish accent, which will come out if you get him drunk or upset enough.
Religion: Agnostic. Ask him how that's working out for him, sometime.
Occupation: Wizard-for-hire. He takes out an ad in the paper occasionally. Most frequently, he is occupied tutoring children in magic, which he enjoys immensely.
Socioeconomic status: Lower middle-class. Has been homeless and penniless in the past. Nowadays he does have some savings put by, and is surprisingly conscientious about his finances, although he consistently puts himself into the red every Christmas.
Social status: His granddad is a country squire, and his grandmother had the ear of the Queen. Little enough of that has trickled down to him, however. He could, at best, call himself a gentleman fallen on hard times.
Likes: Gardening, philosophy texts, practical jokes, liquor, taking the mickey, cozy little corner pubs, meeting new people, his friends and family.
Dislikes: Irresponsible use of authority, organized religion, being manhandled, dreaming, hyenas.
Personality: Easygoing to a fault, near endlessly patient, slow to anger, attentive, and friendly. Charismatic and empathetic, overwilling to disregard his own safety and comfort for the sake of others. Often petty and childish in expressing his distaste. Stubborn. Prone to poor life choices.
Ambitions: Get through next year without losing any hair, limbs, or significant financial assets. His usual New Years resolution.
Habits: Drinks, smokes, stays up late, gets high and starts fights.
Sexuality: Primarily homosexual, although he's had a couple relationships with women.
Marital/relationship status: Unmarried. Newly boyfriends with one Dr Samuel Carswell.
Known family/friends:
Family: Grandfather Claudius MacCarnage, Grandmother Vivien MacCarnage, nee Elles. Mother, Rufilla MacCarnage, father Callidus, both deceased. Uncle, Tiberius MacCarnage, deceased. Aunt, Metella MacCarnage, 'Aunt Tella'. Cousin Kate. Assorted Scottish roughneck shapeshifter cousins.
Friends: Dr Samuel Carswell, Armand le Boucher, Piress, Dr Boris Hand, Cyneburga Hand, Assorted Hand, leBoucher, Cojocaru and Carswell children, Flavus Aper, Lord Cashiel, Arica Sancho, the Clan Solus vampires (most of them anyway).
Relationship to family/friends:
Family: Overall strained. His parents died when he was quite young, and his uncle, who raised him, was generally a terrible person, and cast a shadow over the whole of Catena's early years, a shadow which persists to this day. His grandmother is estranged. His cousin Kate has also in the past decade become estranged to him, although they were quite close when they were young. Aunt Tella is still kind to him, although this has worn thin since Catena made her daughter's s**t-list. Granddad Claudius is a difficult man to get along with no matter the circumstances. Nonetheless, Catena and Claudius have more in common than they would care to admit, and theirs is arguably the best relationship Catena has with any of his family members.
Friends: His friendships are his most valuable possessions, although lately he has been heavily prioritizing his relationship to Dr Carswell. Has a special adoration for all of his friends' children, and is Uncle Gnar to many of them.
Brief history: A member of the vampire Clan Solus due to his intimate and long-standing relationship with it's leader, Sherringford Veneziano. Up until a few years ago, he lived in their headquarters, acting as clan mage. People change, though. When Laurent, Armand and Piress' child was born, and they moved out of the clan house, Gnar went with them. He's been living with them since- up until a few weeks ago. Now he's living with Dr Carswell and his children as well, in their town apartment.
As to his earlier life- well, you'd probably better ask him about that.
 Catena Carswell · Mon May 06, 2013 @ 11:01pm · 0 Comments |
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