OOC
GAME: With Wolves
DESCRIPTION: Paranormal Biblical OC game.
DATE: July 2008
PB: George Clooney
JOURNAL: temeluchus
CONCEPT: The deal-making demon protecting the son of Rian's Amy. Also, an opportunity to break stereotypes and use George Clooney — the consummate hero — for evil. :D
IC
Name: Temeluchus. A transliteration of the Greek Telémakhos; literally, "far-away fighter", which is surprisingly appropriate for this demon. Since losing his powers, he has become a long-term planner and schemer rather than the heavy-hitter he used to be.
Alias(es): The Tartaruch. People who know his real name often call him "Tem". In a not-all-that-creative departure from that identity, his human pseudonym is Thomas Harper, usually just "Thomas".
Race: Fallen demon.
Apparent age: 45
Actual age: He was cast out (or upwards, if you will) approximately two hundred and fifty years ago.
Nationality: N/A, but he's spent most of his time in the United States, and possesses a fake American passport.
Occupation: N/A
Location: Chicago
Sexuality: What with having been a genderless demon for such a long time, well. The answer is: Whatever strikes his fancy.
Appearance: Tem's mortal form is, to put it lightly, a bit of a silver-haired fox; he may have been slammed to this mortal coil somewhat against his will, but he can't argue with the body fate seemed to have assigned him. Thomas Harper has a gentlemanly aspect and faintly Italian good looks: dark eyes against ruddy skin, hair shot through with mostly grey, and an insufferable smirk. His sense of dress tends towards formal rather than casual, but not enough that he stands out in a crowd. His voice is slow and measured.
Hair: Grey.
Eyes: Brown.
Personality: Temeluchus, the Tartaruch, is an example of what happens when a supposedly unbiased judge gets a bit too close to what he's actually judging. Iron-clad objectivity is a hard mantle to carry for centuries and millennia, and after enough time, Tem simply tired of it all. He questioned the validity of his tasks, and wanted to see what the other way was like — and predictably enough, as soon as his demonic identity was ripped from him, Tem became acquainted with the other side of the coin. Only after a few decades of wallowing in his own misery, of course — but today, he has adjusted. He does enjoy the mortal body. And like most demons, he's a new-born hedonist and rides his pleasures and excesses hard, though with an extra edge of caution; unlike your everyday possessions, after all, he is not on a temporary lease. He's stuck in this meat-suit permanently, mortgage and all.
Getting stripped of his powers has made him bitter. He wasn't entirely sold on the whole 'rebelling' thing when he did it, and it's resulted in more than a few regrets; Temeluchus loves his new freedom (no more hellfire and brimstone! joy!), but he hates, hates, hates his powerless existence. He abhors this loss of respect and admiration. He's getting shit kicked in his face by demons who used to bow and scrape to the head Tartarchus — consequently, Tem's carrying a lot of simmering resentment. He's still trying to hold his own clout with the hierarchy, but that obviously doesn't work very well; he's trying to weasel his way back into favour with Lucifer and Beelzebub, but sauntering back downwards is proving harder than getting thrown out of hell.
Shortly put, he regrets his choice.
But he is practical, as all goal-oriented individuals are. Temeluchus is slowly rebuilding his reserves of power: cultivating contacts with a sort of wheedling, deal-making technique. He's turned to adopting allies and acquaintances with powers (typically Watcher descendants), to foster their abilities as a resource instead of his own nonexistent powers. He is calm and steady, and presents a patriarchal exterior to the mortals. Most of the time, the demon tries to seem gentle — trustworthy, even — but there's always a dangerous spitfire rage simmering beneath the surface. Hello, inextricable reminders of hell.
He is not a sadist, but he is merciless and driven. He is wholly apathetic to pain (centuries as a torturer can do that to you) and capable of, er, causing great discomfort. To put it mildly.
Likes: Good art, good music, dark chocolate — plenty of things to do with the senses, really. Photography. The beach and sailing. Pitbulls. Loyal Watchers. Martinis.
Dislikes: Smoking. Hospitals. War movies. Cooking. Sleeping. Hunters.
Skills: Trapped in mortal form, his ability now requires the laying-on of hands, but he can still do it: physical agony, increasing and diminishing of. If you've got nerve endings, he can make them writhe; if you're in pain, he can make it go away to the extent that you cannot feel anything anymore. It's been a useful bargaining chip in his deals. He also has a well of protective spells in his repertoire, to dull the senses and dull other beings' surveillance powers; he keeps people safe by keeping them unnoticeable.
Additionally, as par for the course as a demon watching over the agony of childbirth, he has a special stake in children: he can sense if they have something paranormally special or promising about them.
Limitations: Close physical proximity needed for any of his powers, as well as time to focus and gather his strength. He can't fly or teleport or move particularly fast anymore, either; all otherworldly forms of transportation have been cut off from him, and Temeluchus is constrained to the body of a forty-five-year-old man and all its limitations, like a) not being in prime physical condition, b) only holding his own in a fistfight if it's against someone without any particular abilities. His strengths are mental, these days, not physical.
FOR ANGELS/DEMONS AND FALLEN.
(Former) Name: Temeluchus.
(Former) Rank: The head of the Tartaruchi, the keepers of Hell, the tormenting angels of Tartarus.
(Former) Abilities: Punishment and pain, in all its myriad forms. Temeluchus could have looked right into your soul and observed which of the cardinal rules you'd broken, which of the ten commandments had gone neglected, and he could make you suffer for it. He did this with an unwavering certainty for thousands of years; he was particularly reknowned for the agony he could bring forth with the three hooks, and with red-hot razors. It was a delicate task, and he was known as a merciless angel, all fire. He used to be able to evoke pain just by willing it to be, but most of his finer abilities as torturer have been stripped away.
History: Temeluchus did not fall from hell due to wantonly desiring the earthly flesh. Being in a human body turned out to be quite alright once he got used to it — but no, it was not the reason he left. He left from sheer boredom. He was a merciless representative of the Tartaruchi, but not a sadistic one — his torture was his job, not his sick twisted pleasure, and he saw it just as boring as some human's menial archiving position. It was the same thing, day in, day out: unrepentant sinners, hypocrites, blasphemers, adulterers. Burn in the river of fire, rip their entrails out, twist the hooks through their flesh… et cetera, et cetera, ad nauseum. Ever the ambitiously conniving demon, Temeluchus wanted more. What use was it being the punishing demon if you couldn't take enjoyment in it?
So he rebelled.
And rebelling against your position is, shortly put, not the most popular course of action above and below the mortal earth. Stepping out of line is not encouraging; defying your destined role is unacceptable. He got what he briefly wanted, which was freedom, but it also meant having his wings and privileges torn from him and shunted to Earth in the body of a forty-something man.
Since then, Temeluchus has been rebuilding. He bode his time, slowly gathering his strength and abilities — some of them came back, but unfortunately not all — and exploring the world and getting to know the humans he'd always been in charge of judging. It's led to a more relaxed opinion of things; Earth means options and endless improvising, and Tem can't really say he minds. He gets to eat chocolate, after all, and have sex, and indulge in all the little sins he used to be such a hard-ass about. He is a demon without purpose, cut free of Lucifer's apronstrings, painfully powerless, but free nonetheless. He's been rubbing shoulders with paranormal specialists and other Fallen for the better part of two centuries since then.
After an initial fascination with the sea, and dozens of ocean voyaging to match, Temeluchus finally settled on a job he knew he could still do. His past role as looking over the birth of infants has become a bit more twisted — now, he protects them in order to make them into future assets. More than a few parents around the globe now possess the dubious history of having had a demon play watchdog for their family. A few have even grown up and are adults now. For the past two years (a blink of an eye in demonic timespan), Tem's attached himself to the Lucases, guarding Amy and her child Henry against a pesky family of hunters and whatever supernatural nasties might give two glances at a small child with the seeds of massive aerokinetic power within him.
He won't admit it — in fact, he always maintains an infuritating quiet front regarding his new, Fallen version of humanity — but "Thomas Harper" is starting to get used to this sort of thing. In amassing a close connection with various Watchers, his ambition had always been to find a way to break the punishment, get the fuck back into hell and usurp (incapacitate, maim, kill, etc) the demon who took over his job.
But now he's not too sure he wants the job back.
Trivia:
- appreciates fine art (mmmm sight, colours! everything's not so red anymore!);
- feels vaguely terrified by the ocean, therefore had to challenge himself with braving it. so over the past centuries, he's taken part in several virgin sea-voyages and explorations, and eventually learnt to appreciate the sea (a fixture in Thomas' apartment: painting of a wind-torn crag of rock & lighthouse);
- does not smoke, has had enough of tar and fire thankyouverymuch;
- … does have a rather incapacitating love of dark chocolate.
