Post by firdarrig on Apr 13, 2010 20:53:26 GMT -7
THE HANDLER
NAME: Ea Daire Colquhoun
NICKNAME: Ea, "Doctor", "Doc","Dr. Thaddeus Highworth"
CLASSIFICATION: Fir Darrig/Fear Dearg
GENDER: Male
AGE & BIRTHDAY: 185 yrs. October, 1824
APPEARANCE: About 3 feet tall, he takes the appearance of a wizened old man with a beard about a foot longer than his own height, small beady eyes, and a bluish hue at the end of his long, crooked nose. His leathery, wrinkled skin scarcely features an inch not playing host to several small, white hairs. His spindley, slender arms, terminate in large, thin hands whose fingers end in a bluish color similar to that of his nose. His hunched form is supported by a pair of bunion laden feet clad in what look to be a pair of shoes of leprechaun make.
Skilled in the application of Glamour magic, he often alters his appearance to fit in whereever he may find himself. While he as able to take on a variety of appearances, his most preferred forms are those of an old West Highland White Terrier (Westie) with a bright red bandana tied about it's neck, a tall, white-haired man in a dark red overcoat, or a large, bearded Ogre often brandishing a rather fearsome looking club.
ATTIRE: He wears a large, thick, dark red patchwork coat and within it's spacious confines he hides a variety of knicknacks such as rodent bones, his favorite pipe, and his cane. His tattered old shoes are leather and appear to be of leprechaun design.
PLAY BY: N/A
THE CREATION
NAME: Doctor
POWER LIST:
1) Glamour/Pishogue - He is able enchant the senses and make things appear to others as they are not
DETAILED POWER:
Ea has the natural gift of Glamour present in all members of the Fae, with a variant specifically known as Pishogue in Ireland. With this magic he is able to change the appearance of himself, others or inanimate objects at will. Like all Glamour magic, the spells eventually wear off in absence of the caster, or they may be seen through by using various techniques or special items.
In many cases this magic can be used to make a corpse seem alive, a tree appear as a house, or a cesspool appear as an inviting, warm bath. He's used it to disguise himself or his traps on a number of occasions and it is quite often useful as a psychological weapon, also a method he's been known to employ.
The variant known as Pishogue is Gaelic for "Black Magic" and is particularly sinister in nature. Fir Darrig are renowned for it's use, especially in grotesque pranks. It's notable for it's tendency to require food for it's execution, such as butter, milk, or grain, and is recognizable for it's penchant to spoil all food in the vicinity (cheese and honey are immune to this).
THE POTENTIAL
ALIGNMENT/OCCUPATION: Nuada's Regiment
WEAPONS: Various small knives, shards of metal or glass, and his cane on occasion.
PERSONALITY:
The Fir Darrig are solitary creatures by nature and delight in practical jokes, particularly those of an especially gruesome nature. This has earned the species infamy as a kind to be either humored or avoided all together. Staying true to his natural calling, Ea is something of a loner. He is never quick to request the assistance of others and would sooner gore you than greet you.
Despite this innate misanthropy, Ea is a very curious creature like most members of the Fae. He is particularly interested in what the Humans call Science and the inner workings of various living beings. He's terribly greedy and possessive and fiercely loyal to any cause he devotes himself to.
Even so, it's difficult to describe him as much more than a crotchety old man. He's grumpy, prone to grumbling, loud tirades of undiscernable ranting in a heavy gaelic accent, and swift strikes with his walking stick, and he looks down on younger creatures for their youth and immaturity. He enjoys smoking and drinking and has a disturbing penchant for sadism.
Among the various quirks he has, he retains a Fir Darrig's natural attraction to the color red. Where many other species of Fae possess an acute aversion to the color, a Fir Darrig adores it.
SKILLS:
Given his strong attraction towards anatomical study and science, Ea has developed into something of a self-taught surgeon, using his deft hands to aptly sew up wounds or treat various injuries. He also enjoys experimentation and often uses his skill as a surgeon to create rather disturbing, biological amalgamations.
Ea is also markedly good at devising various ways of inflicting pain or injury, ranging from a well placed pair of scissors to a bear-trap concealed with Glamour to look like an ordinary patch of grass. He's quite good at inflicting suffering.
Ea Colquhoun also happens to have an expansive knowledge of chemistry, being well acquainted with various poisons, antidotes, and (on a less scientific note) techniques to ward off spells. Legend says that a Fir Darrig would be willing to trade secrets in exchange for whiskey. He would not be inclined to deny it.
Having been a particularly well traveled creature, he has taken it upon himself to endeavor the understanding of all things possible. Of course this would not be possible without understanding the languages of the world. As such he has learned to understand and speak a good many European languages as well as a few old languages of the Fantastic Realm such as Elvish and Dark Elvish. He has no real knowledge of many Asian languages however.
STRENGTHS: Ea Colquhoun's greatest assets are his intellect, steady and deft hands, and use of Illusionary Magic. His profound curiosity doesn't hurt much either.
WEAKNESSES: Being a 3 foot fairy can have it's drawbacks. This is especially evident when faced with a combat situation in which he'd likely be significantly weaker than any opponent pitted against him. Also, should anyone be aware of the various ways to combat Glamour illusions, as many B.P.R.D. agents are, they could easily see through his disguises and illusions. He also has the typical aversions to standard techniques used to ward off fairy-folk.
THE STORY
HISTORY:
Ea came into being in Autumn of 1824. Created from the tears of a sick child, He was born as he is, aged and misanthropic, if not a little more naive. His name was conceived alongside him, he did not know why or how he knew his name, he just knew it.
As one might think, Ea spent most of his early life pilfering farmhouses and remote camps for anything that might have caught his eye. Of course this ranged from random silverware to floral bedsheets to socks and cold campfire coals. What caught his eye most was red. Be it a hat, a shoelace, or a blanket, Ea wanted it. And he normally got it.
His first face-to-face encounter with a human was April of 1834. He had been relieving himself in a nearby bush when a curious farmhand heard him and thought to investigate. The boy couldn't have been older than 15. Upon discovering the small, old man, he gasped and Ea turned around to discover what he thought to be an ugly, hairless creature gaping at him(for the boy was truly gaping). Rather insulted, Ea bewitched the boy's eyes and vanished. From that day forward, the boy would see all other humans as horrific monsters. Needless to say, he was quite traumatized and was quickly admitted into an asylum for the mentally unsound. After about a month, the spell wore off but the boy never actually recovered from his trauma.
Having become curious as to the effects of his spell, Ea had followed the young farmhand and quickly found himself grinning in amusement as the boy shrieked at every person he encountered, eventually huddling up in a corner and soiling his trousers.
This was the first instance of magical trickery that the Fir Darrig had actually performed. Eager to recreate the amusing scene, Ea went on to travel along the roads of Ireland, terrifying unwary travelers by taking on the visage of some enormous monster, a floating ball of flame, or even the traveler themselves( this entertained him the most).
Aside from his hobby of terrifying humans, Ea lived a rather uneventful life for a few decades. It consisted mostly of traveling for a few hours out of the day, scaring a human senseless, and stealing all their belongings only to dump most of it over the edge of a cliff or mountain and devour all their food on the spot.
It was in this manner that Ea discovered Whiskey and Tobacco. He would often see travelers sucking away at their hollow sticks and puffing out clouds of white smoke while at night they'd often take swigs from a flask that contained what he later discovered was not water. Upon sampling the drink, he was at first a little repulsed, but upon trying it more and more, developed a taste for the beverage and quickly drained the traveler's entire supply. A similar instance happened when he attempted to smoke tobacco for the first time, it ended in a similar fashion.
For many decades Ea wandered the highlands aimlessly. He'd pull pranks on various passers-by, giving rise to more than a few ghost-stories, or steal something of little significance from farmers or travelers. His main form of sustenance came from stolen milk, butter, or, if he was lucky enough to encounter any, porridge. He liked porridge and often thought to himself how commendable the person to first invent it must have been.
On his aimless trekking across the British Isles he'd often encounter other Fairy-folk who, upon discovering his nature as a Fir Darrig, were often quick to go about their business and act rather busy so as to ward off his potentially unpleasant attentions. Even so he'd often find a fairy or two caught up in a trap of his because he would often forget that humans weren't often as fond of various plants or trinkets as he may be. More often than not, he'd flip a small coin to decide whether or not to free the fairy from it's entanglements, he'd often take pity on it anyway and let them go.
It wasn't until one day in May of 1847 that he learned to be particularly violent. He'd been wandering a lonely road as per usual when he discovered himself an old, ruined fort. The Cyclopean make proved it to be truly ancient and, as fairies often are, he was drawn inside through sheer curiosity. Within the stone walls laid the skeletons of many humans, they wore leather and iron garments that he found profoundly ugly and distasteful, wondering why anyone would adorn themselves in such rubbish unless they were trying to keep something away, he kept particular distance from the iron. Among the dead soldiers, for this is what they were, Ea found many sharp metal things, all to large for him to carry and slightly tarnished, but each appealing in their sheen and sharpness. He climbed a few steps and found himself atop a tower, affording him a vast panoramic view of the field that surrounded the fort. Then something caught his eye: what looked to be a kind of goblin was holding up one of the sharp metal things that he'd seen sprawled about the various skeletons. Though from the end dangled what looked to be a human's head. It was an odd sight for him as he had never seen a human's head removed from their body before, his curiosity bode him to keep watching.
From the head fell a consistent flow of red, a most beautiful and deep red that Ea found almost intoxicating. The goblin creature, much to Ea's surprise, then removed it's cap, which was a rather dull brown, and proceeded to bathe it's hat in the red that flowed from the human's head. Quickly, the goblin held in it's hand not a dingy brown cap but a bright crimson one, a brilliant red cap that invoked a sense of envy in the Fir Darrig. Never had he known living beings to be full of that beautiful color, nor had he ever thought that he could possibly wear that brilliant shade, since his own red coat had grown significantly dusty and dull.
He came away from that place pondering the Red Cap, for that was what he'd just witnessed, with great depth. The next morning, he set a trap.
The trap itself consisted of just a few simply pulley's and wedges made from trees and one or two of the large metal tools he'd discovered in the fort.
The trap itself was something of a masterpiece by his own standards. Often he had crafted a trap in which elfshot (sharpened flint arrowheads) bits would be flung at passersby, rendering them comatose, or in which large heavy things would fall atop unwary strangers, pinning them to the ground with a satisfying but unexplained crunch followed by cries of what he thought to be fear (though they were likely pain). This particular trap was slightly different in it's make as he had never before used the large metal things in his traps.
Sure enough, a traveler eventually happened by, and triggered the ingenious mechanism, by which a large, rusty axe was thrust beneath him, effectively rending his legs from his body and sending him to the ground in shock, fear, and agony.
The man would then hear a little tune that sounded as if sung by an old man, but with an oddly childishly playful tone...
How't screams
How't yell
How th'funny man did fell
How't pours
How't gushes
How'ts lov'ly red does rushes...
How't yell
How th'funny man did fell
How't pours
How't gushes
How'ts lov'ly red does rushes...
This he sang in glee as he witnessed the brilliant red pour across the ground. In the joy of his success at emulating the admirable ingenuity of the goblin, he congratulated himself as he took up the severed leg of the man who was then crying upon the floor. He sang to himself as he then bathed his red coat in the blood cascading from the severed limb.
So proud was he of this discovery that he completely forgot his victim, bawling on the ground of the remote road. Happily he walked away, humming to himself in his bright red coat as his poor victim bled to death on the road.
It was a little over a month after that first incident that Ea Colquhoun had next contact with humans.
His coat had begun to grow dull again and this time it was far less red than it had ever been, appearing more similar to the ugly brown of the goblin's cap before he'd bathed it. This he would not stand for and resolved to rectify the matter. By this time, he'd managed to find a small town. It was full of stone and horses trotted about noisily while humans rode atop their backs or in strange, wooden rooms pulled along by the horses while the rolled about on wheels. Easily fooling the humans into thinking him a small dog, Ea followed one of these horse-drawn rooms until it arrived at a stable. He slept there for the night on a comfortable bed of straw until the next morning. Es was found by the stable boy when he arrived early that morning to tend the horses, as fate would have it, this boy was the seventh son of a seventh son of a seventh son, thereby providing immunity to the effects of Glamour. Ea was intrigued by this, almost as much as he'd been intrigued by the thing the boy held in his hand, for the stable-boy had been reading.
The Fir Darrig had never before learned to read and inquired enthusiastically about the book. In his innocence the boy explained it's function and over the course of two weeks, taught the Fir Darrig to read. To the other residents and servants of the house, it appeared as if he had merely taken on a pet dog that accompanied the boy as he went about his chores. And so they went on in that manner for a period of a few weeks until the old Fairy had grasped the concepts of the written word firmly enough to read the pages of a book, which, with him being of the rather clever sort, did not take very long. When he'd decided that he'd learned enough from the boy, Ea told the boy that he would have to be off to have his coat re-dyed. Saddened at his friend's departure but understanding, the young boy bode him farewell as he took the appearance of a dragonfly and rode away on the back of a carriage, for that is what he'd learned they were called.
A few days later, a man was discovered dead in a nearby stable with a pitchfork thrust through his throat, it was assumed that he'd accidentally fallen atop the tool and no investigation was pursued.
Ea continued to wander the country, now more frequently finding himself among the small towns full of people, and often finding himself bartering a shiny piece of brass he'd found on the floor or an elfshot arrowhead with a dwarf or elf for some kind of fruit or other thing that may have caught his fancy (the boy had told him that humans did that a lot as well). Like this he'd continue his meager existence while occasionally puncturing an unlucky human and staining his clothes with the lovely colors that spilled out.
It was not until a year after he'd learned to read that Ea came across his first library. It belonged to an old man he'd slaughtered and he'd found it while rummaging through the old man's belongings and the various rooms of his house. profoundly intrigued by the large amount of books, Ea picked one up and began reading. In it he was surprised to find various drawn pictures of things that appeared to be humans but with parts of them missing so as one would be able to see directly inside of them. From his reading, Ea discovered the old man to be a retired surgeon to the tired old village in which he lived. Taking incredible interest in the insides of things, Ea remained there for a good long time, devouring book after book as eagerly as any scholar. In this manner he grew, and his mind expanded as he learned of the tings in the body called muscles and bones, and how they were connected by tendons and ligaments and how one could fix them if they were ever broken. he learned that the red that would pour from the humans was called blood, and even poked himself with a sewing needle, wondering if he had any inside of himself. He did. But it was blue.
Meanwhile, the denizens of the village had noticed that the old surgeon had taken up the peculiar habit of wearing a long, red overcoat, and rarely ever left his house anymore unless it was to buy more milk, cheese, butter, or grain, the only things he ever seemed to buy anymore.
A few years passed in this fashion and eventually, the people of the village were surprised to learn that the old man had reopened his practice and was once again a practicing surgeon. This they found curious considered that by this time, the man was aged about 97 years, the longest anyone had ever lived in their town. Nevertheless, they discovered that his aptitude was as worthy as ever and that he was almost better than he ever had been before. Some found this curious as he'd retired mainly because he'd begun to get arthritis in his hands and could no longer properly stitch up a wound or even set a broken bone.
The old man, known to the villagers as "Doctor Thaddeus Highworth", lived on for another 17 years in the small village on Shetland Island. And on his 113th birthday on August 22, 1866, more and more of the denizens of the village had become suspicious of the old man who'd hardly aged a day since he began wearing that odd, red overcoat.
Eventually, "Doctor Highworth" was confronted by a small mob on one of his early morning visits to the market. They held in their hands many large sharp things, like pitchforks and shovels, and one or two brandished torches. They demanded to know precisely how the doctor had managed to achieve such longevity and how he'd miraculously recovered from his arthritis.
Ea, who had in fact disguised himself as the now long deceased doctor, was rather taken aback upon discovering that his ploy had in fact not been as foolproof as he'd first believed.
What happened next was never again mentioned in the town in little more than a strained whisper, for few believed their own eyes when it happened. The strangely long-lived Doctor quickly spun around and in the blink of an eye, the red coat melted into a pool of dark red blood, and in place of the Doctor's apparently healthy body, laid an old skeleton. It was also remarked upon immediately following the fantastical event that all the milk, butter, and grain in the market at the time had immediately become horribly spoiled.
Some bold villagers would even venture to whisper that they'd hard a distant tune on the wind when it happened that sounded as if sung by very old man.
Upon investigating the old Doctor's house, they found it covered in dust except for the library in which piles of books had been left sprawled across the floor and small, footprints left marks in the dust with many dirty bowls and plates littering the room that reeked of old cheese.
Ea wasn't seen again in another town, village or city for many years. However, that's not to say that he didn't continue his studies or regular habit of re-dying his coat.
Twenty-two years later, he once again ventured into the company of men. It was London this time that played host to the Fir Darrig in 1888. In his time wandering abroad, he'd intercepted many medical texts and writings, wanting terribly to study the anatomy of all living things that he possibly could, though he still found humans to be most intriguing. Unfortunately, he had difficult time coming across many good diagrams of a female's organs and wondered intensely how they must differ from those of a man. He'd come to London via the canal, by stowing away aboard one of the many fisherman's boats, this was his usual method of traveling between the Isles.
It was a brisk October evening and he'd discovered along his travels that the tissue of living things was actually edible. This he tried by biting into one of the fish aboard the boat he was riding in. He loved it and in his excitement he then tried biting into a rat, it was significantly less savory. Judging from the varying flavors of the meat, the Fairy decided that he should try as many different kinds of "meat" as he could so as to decide on which animal provided meat of the best quality.
On this cool, dry evening, he would cleverly find the solution to two experiments at once. Venturing through the streets under the guise of "Dr. Highworth," Ea Colquhoun found himself surrounded by poverty. The streets were strewn with garbage and filth and poor humans lingered along the pavement and cobblestone roads, hardly avoiding the passing carriages and horses.
This was a perfect place for his experiments. He had learned from his previous attempt that he must pick people of little social standing in a community in order to be overlooked, they must be expendable. Everyone here fit the bill.
The next day, police would find the corpse of a woman strewn across the rat infested floors of a Whitechapel back-alley, her throat slit and her abdomen mutilated, a few of her organs were reported missing.
Ea found the anatomy of a female human most intriguing in it's differences from males of the same species. Simultaneously, he'd decided that the flesh of a woman was far tastier than that of a fish, rat, dog, or man.
The attacks in Whitechapel continued and consistently boggled police as to what monster of a man may do something so gruesome.
Eventually though, Ea stopped. He'd had his fill of the meat of women and had learned enough about their anatomy to satisfy his curiosity for the time being. Nevertheless, the newspapers continued to report on similar cases, dubbing the culprit behind the attacks "The Whitechapel Murderer" and "Jack the Ripper." He found the idea that others might try to emulate him childish but was proud that he'd inspired such mimicry despite himself.
Ea would go on to travel to numerous countries within the next several years in his search for further knowledge. He would follow the efforts of the worlds leading medical heads from discarded newspapers and magazines, often in the guise of an old man in red or a small Westie dog. He'd often perform various "Experiments" in this manner, often testing the psyche of human beings or their physical endurance.
Over the coarse of many decades, Ea played witness to numerous wars, often posing as a slain soldier or medic.
In 1914 Ea posed as a German medic and was present at the Siege of Antwerp though mostly as a spectator. He would also be present for the first discovery of Oxymorphone that same year.
About a year afterward, on January 1 of 1816, He was present for the first successful blood transfusion of the Royal Army Medical Corp using previously stored and cooled blood. His notes on this would later serve him well.
Later that year he was somewhere in Saint Petersberg around the time of the murder of Grigori Rasputin.
Ea was later found traveling across France and Spain where he'd find hisorical records of both bloody histories of either country. It delighted him that the year of his birth fell so succinctly into the end of the French Revolution but found himself wishing he'd been present. He was so enthralled with the histories that he kept them. The library from which they were derived still misses a few pieces of their collection of historical encyclopedias.
He was later present in the United States, curious as to the nature of this foreign country across the sea, during the 1920's. His presence led to the disappearance of three prohibitionists in the year of 1924 when they discovered him drinking vodka (something he'd discovered while in St. Petersberg) from a flask.
Rather put off from the United States and their attitude against alcohol, Ea found himself in Mexico. He delighted in the traditional bullfights and the curious annual celebration of death but found it ultimately boring, eventually moving down into Brazil in 1931.
He would spend the next year or so moving in and out of adventures into the Amazon forest and those traveling with him always found it curious that animals never seemed to shy away from him and even predatory creatures left him be. He lost about 9 human exploring companions in those years and acquired a thorough understanding of the effects of various diseases and poisons on the human body.
In 1946 we find him back in Europe, exploring Greece and the violent history of Rome. He also spent about 4 years in Italy, working as a physician in Florence though he occasionally traveled to other cities, his favorite was Venice, it was so crowded that thievery was too hard not to commit and he felt quite at home.
In 1960, he managed to get himself to Australia. The aborigines intrigued him but it was difficult to gather much from their culture and he found them far too savage for his liking.
By 1968 he worked as a physician in South Africa where he learned of the various diseases there, including Malaria, Ebola, and African Sleeping sickness. It was there that he managed to procure a sample of all three and now keeps them well secured.
In 1974 we find him back in Italy and that August he misplaces an experimental home-made explosive only to find it on the news for detonating aboard a train between Italy and West Germany, neo-fascists took responsibility.
In 1980 we find him back in the United States(giving it another chance). This time he spends most of his time in the Fantastical Realm, close to the Troll Market and often lamenting the great absence of forests and ruins.
It was also during this time that he developed a taste for fairy flesh, noting that tooth-fairies were often a bit grainy and pixies were often sour. He enjoyed wood-sprites but it all rather paled in comparison to the taste of human female flesh.
(He still has a small book of various meats and their taste)
Only recently did he make acquaintance with Prince Nuada, after becoming quite curious as to why there was a demon jumping about the city shooting at a Forest Elemental.
(If that is alright with Nuada's player of course)
