InsaneJournal

BLOOD TYPE: O-
RACE: Vampire, Wayward Son
POWERS: Good luck charm, mesmerizing.

Special Skills/Abilities: Davin is insanely good at doing a lot of little things that don’t mean much of anything in the grand scheme of things. He plays the guitar and the piano expertly well, and is a mean bartender, thanks to growing up in a saloon that became a speakeasy during the Prohibition. He can cook rather well, which doesn’t make a lick of difference now that his diet is strictly liquid. He can clean up certain things that the more unsavory types would be proficient in, and he knows a thing or two about using weapons. He’s by no means a weapons expert, but he knows his way around guns and knives, augmenting his supernatural speed and strength with more fire power. Davin also has a decent singing voice, though he is by no means anywhere near Frank Sinatra, one of his favorite singers. While he still has a bit of a Boston accent, he can drop it at will if he needs to.

Personality: Even before he was turned, Davin was a bit of a smooth-talking douche. He knew he was pretty and he used that at almost every turn. He’s definitely a womanizer, and he’s damn good at it now that he’s had over a century to practice. He’s a pretty mellow guy, and has a very odd, dry sense of humor. He is always trying to make jokes, but he either delivers the punch lines wrong because of ignorance, or he does it on purpose just to see how people will react. For all intents and purposes, Davin is sort of awkward. But for some reason that just works, and it helps to lower people’s guard around him slightly. His ability to talk his way out of most situations is nearly his only redeeming quality, as Davin has gotten quite good at talking people down. Beyond that, if he’s anywhere near attractive women, he turns into a completely one-track-minded kind of guy. You would think that after over a century of getting into women’s pants, he’d be over it, but now it seems as if the game is even more exciting, seeing as he’s a walking disaster. When it comes to people he cares about, those numbers on that list are few and far between for Davin. He was never really serious about anything in life and only seemed to resolve into something bordering on responsibility once Luke came into his life. Beyond any need he feels to protect his childe, Davin doesn’t seem to give a shit about much else. He knows his life is basically shit so he just tries not to care too much when things go wrong. He meets adversity with as calm an exterior as possible, all the while freaking mentally if shit starts to go sour. He will resort to physical means if he needs to but Davin prefers to solve problems verbally. He’s not the most intelligent person in the word but he has a vast amount of common sense and street smarts to make up for that -- he had to learn that sort of stuff to survive what his life as a vampire became! He tries to just roll with whatever his life throws at him, and some days are better than others. Really, to Davin, it’s nothing a little spiked blood can’t fix.

PERSONAL WEAKNESSES:

Walking Disaster: Part and parcel to the Wayward Son gig, Davin has the worst luck ever imaginable. He’s had nearly every bad thing happen to him since he’s been turned, and like his sire before him, he does his best to just roll with it. There’s only so many spontaneous fires one man can go through before he gets really good at putting them out, right? Still, it makes it incredibly hard to fly under the radar when bad luck follows their house like a deadly plague. Davin is no stranger to tragedy, but sometimes it just really gets him down. He never shows that to anyone. Not Arthur, and definitely not Luke. They don’t need to see that he suffers a little bit more each time something goes wrong. He’s always been as optimistic as someone in his position can be, but bad luck makes it hard to live. That and Davin can’t seem to keep a job to save his life, even if he wanted to.

Womanizer: Ah, the sweet balm that warms the lonely nights of his existence. One of Davin’s many addictions would be the thrill of the chase, and he’s insanely full of himself when it comes to just how many women he’s had the pleasure of sleeping with. It’s almost to the point of a compulsion, and the harder it seems to win a woman over, the harder Davin will try. That is, until he finally sleeps with her, and then he just walks the hell away. He uses his charm and his somewhat awkward way of speaking to gain a woman’s trust and once he gets what he wants, he leaves. That’s the way its been since Davin was a teenager and got his heart smashed by his first sweetheart, and he is not about to change. It amazes him the people who actually buy into the whole marriage thing. He thinks that women can be very useful, but he is only interested in them for one reason, and one reason only. He’s pretty much the definition of a douche-bag, when it comes down to it, especially when he regularly uses his mesmerization to his advantage. He just encourages women to speak to him a little longer, to look a little harder at how handsome he is. And if they aren’t really interested, well.. that’s what mesmerizing them further is for, right?

Arms-Length: Underneath the pride and the charm and the ego, Davin is just a broken, fractured form of himself. He keeps nearly everyone at arms length and finds it insanely hard to trust people. The only people he’s let in have hurt him, or died, or both. Gaining his trust is something that seems next to impossible, and there are literally only two people in the world who have it. And even after all is said and done, Davin is not even able to trust Arthur and Luke completely, so its not a true sentiment. Sure, he trusts them, and he is even willing to trust Arthur with his life, but the fact of the matter is that he is just not comfortable doing so, thanks very much. Everyone in his life either leaves, dies, or betrays him, and he’s pretty much just waiting for the ones he trusts to do just that.

Grief: Davin has never really ever dealt with his parent’s death. As in, ever. He picked up and moved and pretended to get over it, when really, all he did was stuff that shit down and bury it. His grief is still in there, and at times of great weakness, he can feel the fractures in his spirit and know that he’ll never truly get over it now. The path of grieving their loss was lost to him long ago, and there’s no real way he can try. He never talks about his parents, to anyone. If anyone ever brings the subject of parents up, he generally changes it immediately so he won’t ever have to say anything about them. If someone were to ask him about his parents outright? Oh yeah, he gets downright pissed and throws a fit. He refuses to talk about them and will get violent if he has to. It’s a stupid, irrational way of dealing with it, but that’s all Davin has ever done, and likely all he will ever do.

Luke: Now, the kicker here is that while Davin doesn’t completely trust Luke, it doesn’t mean that he wouldn’t do anything he could to protect the guy or help him. Wayward Sons don’t abandon their sired, and even though Luke is a sire himself, Davin still keeps to that. He will do whatever it is he needs to to help his childe, even if it means meeting the true death. He wasn’t around to save his parents, so at least he can be around to be there for Luke. It’s taken him a long time to come to the resolution that dying for Luke would be the only way he would feel like he would be square with what happened in the first place. He knows that doesn’t make sense, but it’s how he feels and he’s sticking to that. He will never truly feel like he did anything other than ruin Luke’s life, and he feels eternally damned because of it. He only wishes that Luke would be able to know how sorry he is, even though he’s sure that he says something to that nature far too often.

Smoking: In life, Davin was a chain-smoker, and now that he’s been turned, he is addicted to the blood of smokers. Its not as hard to come by as one might think, which makes it even the more addictive. It’s insanely strong if he drinks it straight from the source, but its still not quite the same as lighting up a smoke of his own, and Davin will always feel like he’s gone a little crazy because of it. There is almost no way for Davin to pass an entire day without drinking at least a little bit of smoker’s blood, and for him to even try is unthinkable. He’s addicted to most other drugged blood simply by being a member of the Wayward Son family, but nothing as bad as he is when it comes to his drug of choice. The longer he goes without it, the more he acts like a huge asshole. He gets cranky without his smokes, okay? So he generally keeps some cigarette laced blood on him at all times in a flask.

The Night Life: It is natural for Davin to have developed a taste for the nightlife after growing up in a speakeasy, and the same holds true to this day. He loves to party and to be out with people. He loves to meet new people, and loves any excuse he gets to go out. Only problem is, the more he parties, and the more he’s around people, the more he feels drawn toward it. It’s another one of his addictions, and it makes for a very interesting night, should his bad luck strike. It makes it hard for him to lay low when enough people start to notice that their luck is better when he’s around, too. That, and the more people around to notice how bad shit always happens to him is not good, either. Really, its a double-edged sword, and though Davin could restrain himself a bit more, he mostly doesn’t.

PERSONAL STRENGTHS:

Connections: Davin is pretty good at getting on people’s good side. He did it when he was just a teenager and he still has that gift to this day. Perhaps even more so, now that he has the power to mesmerize people. He doesn’t consider this cheating in any way and he uses it to his advantage. Davin usually doesn’t feel safe or secure in a place until he’s made several contacts, and he likes to make sure he can count on people without having to resort to using his influence to do it. It doesn’t mean that he necessarily trusts them, but he’s good at getting people to work with him to get what he needs. Gig at the local bar? Landed. Odd job that may or may not involve the blood trade? You name it, Davin tries to do it to get money, provided he has the right connections.

Charmer: Even apart from his powers as a vampire, Davin is just good with people. He is charming in a disarming sort of way, mostly because he’s pretty friendly and sort of awkward. It puts people at ease, generally, and he tends to like them that way. It makes things like wooing women and getting people to like him enough to be willing to let him bite them so much easier. He doesn’t always use his ability to be charming to his own advantage, but when he does, he really knows how to turn on the charm. His powers of mesmerizing are only something he goes to if his natural ability fails him. Davin can be pretty manipulative and likes to get what he wants, and he generally does whatever he has to to get it. He prefers to use natural means, so he will feel a little less like he’s doing things against people’s will, but it really just depends on the situation.

Musician: There’s no two ways about it, Davin was born to play a musical instrument. He’s best at the piano, and next the guitar. He has perfect pitch and while he is better at playing than he is at singing, he’s not too bad at that, either. He loves to play the piano, and he will play at nearly every opportunity. It is soothing to him, and makes him feel a sense of peace he doesn’t get anywhere else. The more he plays, the happier he is, and the happier he is, the less likely he is to go around mesmerizing people for his entertainment. Oh, Davin still uses his skills to get women -- what woman alive doesn’t have a soft spot for a starving artist of the musical variety? Davin plays the part all too well, and he has the talent to match.

Family:
Mark and Gale Franklin: parents, deceased

Arthur Remington: sire, location unknown

Luke Blackfeather: childe, sometimes roommate, dumpsterfire

History: Born March 26 in 1902 to Mark and Gale Franklin, Davin was immediately thrust into a world of music and alcohol. His parent’s owned a modest saloon in Boston, Massachusetts and for being such a small establishment, they did rather well for themselves. The bar had first been owned by Mark’s father Derek, and he had since inherited it when his father passed before Davin was born. Even as a child, Davin loved the music, and he would sit with the piano player and watch his hands on the keys until he would demand to play by himself. Most of his early days comprised of charming people into letting him play during the day. During the night, the atmosphere completely changed into a place that wasn’t necessarily fit for a young child, but Davin was ever the little troublemaker, running through the crowded place, giggling like a little madman. For the most part, Davin’s childhood was happy, and while a bar wasn’t the most reputable place to grow up, Davin flourished. It wasn’t long at all before he was big enough to touch the pedals under the piano, which he took to mean that he would be allowed to play for the guests. Reluctantly his father allowed it, and Davin couldn’t have been happier. Not only did they do better with getting more people in the bar -- who didn’t want to see the owner’s teenaged son tickle the ivories like a pro? -- but Davin finally realized that women specifically had a thing for musicians. The very first time he had a young woman come up to him while he was playing and singing, Davin was a goner.

The woman’s name was Rose, and Davin was absolutely and completely smitten on sight. She had soft blonde hair and bright blue eyes and she doted on him, asking him to play her a song. Davin always would, but it always meant so much more to him than it did to Rose. He even told her he wanted to run away with her, and she played along, if only because he was young and beautiful and could play like nobody’s business. Davin was just shy of seventeen when he’d set aside enough money to take Rose away with him -- to where, Davin had no clue, he was just a boy in love. When the day came that he had told Rose to be ready, she was nowhere to be found. Davin was crushed, and returned home to his parents and the saloon. Not days later, Rose was back, with an older, wealthier looking man. Davin was so devastated that he swore he would never let some broad hurt him like that again. He threw himself headlong into his music and tried to forget her blue eyes and the sting he felt every time he saw her. After he stopped caring, he found it was so much easy to actually get women to do exactly what he wanted. He had little care for their feelings anymore -- all women had become a conquest, a secret enemy that he would seduce and bed and then forget. Life went on in the way for a few more years before disaster struck -- the Prohibition of 1920 was passed and Davin’s parents were furious! Their livelihood was so suddenly stripped away and they were at a loss. For a little while after the law was passed, they tried to make it by with just Davin’s skills on the piano, but it just wasn’t enough.

Like many a bar in those days, Davin’s family’s saloon began to sell alcohol illegally, and Davin only saw it as an adventure, despite the danger. They still masqueraded as an honest saloon, selling food and other beverages during the day with their son playing away on the keys. When night fell, they became what they always had been, and Davin loved it. He loved the thrill and the potential of getting caught, and didn’t see the undercurrent of upheaval that was about to break. Davin’s playing drew quite the crowd, and a rival speakeasy was not doing so well as a result. Whether or not the other saloon had members that were truly involved with an underground crime ring, Davin would never know, but when he came back to the bar one night drunk from one of his late night excursions away from his home above the saloon, he found his parents shot and killed in their bed. The message was clear to him, but instead of backing down and giving up, it only made Davin want to keep the bar in working order that much more. He used what connections he had to make it so he had a little more protection than before. It wasn’t as if he could go to the police about the situation, so he used his ability to win people over to keep his parent’s place open. He buried his grief down as deeply as he could, never really having the opportunity to grieve the loss of his parents. Life went on mostly as it had before, with the difference being that more instances of people trying to mess with Davin’s establishment began to occur. Some days Davin would wake up and go downstairs to find the place trashed. Some days all the furniture downstairs was simply rearranged. Whatever it was, Davin always met it with the same calm exterior while he died on the inside a little more. No one threatened his life, really, but the threat of making him unable to make money was always there. Davin did what he could to get more people to help him protect his place, and after a while it started to work.

In 1933, when the Prohibition ended, Davin threw a huge -- completely legal! -- party to help with the grand “re-opening” of his saloon as an establishment that sold alcohol. Now that he did not have to illegally procure alcohol, his bar flourished. He enjoyed a solid seven or so years of financial growth before World War II erupted and the United States was drawn into the conflict after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Rather than accept that he would be drafted, Davin evaded it as best he could. There was no way that he was willing to go to war -- yes, he loved his country, but he was not a born fighter. He was a musician, and like hell was he going! When it became clear that he would have to register himself, Davin boarded up his bar and left, trying to outwit the system. For a few days this worked, but since he hadn’t made it out of Boston yet, Davin was not doing too well. No matter how many connections he had, he could not outrun Uncle Sam. In true Davin fashion, he made the mistake of skirt-chasing the wrong woman and ended up in a fist fight with a bunch of men that were about to ship out overseas. He made fun of their crew cuts and their fucking fatigues the entire time they beat the shit out of him, a smile on his face until his mouth was split open and his face was swollen grotesquely. His continued taunts of the soldiers meant certain death for him, and he lay there in the street, finding it difficult to breathe. He passed out long before an older gentleman found him, using the scent of blood on the wind to find this broken excuse of a human being. Arthur Remington was his name, and he was a vampire of the Wayward Sons, an extremely secret family that only turned men and only those who were knocking on death’s door. Davin came to right at the moment that Arthur’s fangs pierced the vein in his neck and he screamed. He had little energy to do much else, but he sputtered and choked as Arthur opened a vein for him, saving him. To this day, Davin still resents this act, but only just the slightest bit. It meant that Davin didn’t die, but man, what a life he was thrown into.

Arthur did his best to help Davin transition and accept the changes in his life -- after all, Wayward Sons do not abandon their sired, not since Michael and the gypsy. Or at least, that was what Arthur told him. Becoming a vampire had its perks, that was true, but damn if life wasn’t so much harder for Davin. He had had a few streaks of bad luck in his human life, but that was nothing next to the luck that awaited him beyond the veil of humanity. When it became clear that even as a stronger, faster version of himself, there was no way that Davin would survive it if he went off to war, the two of them set off in search of a safe haven. That quest would prove unfruitful; no matter where Arthur and Davin went, misfortune followed them like a plague. Still, no matter how bad things got, Arthur never left Davin behind, and that was the first time since his parents were killed that Davin felt like someone gave a shit about him. Arthur said it was only natural that he look out for him and that Davin would do the same once he sired a Wayward Son. Davin was so completely against this idea that he swore he would never go looking for someone to make into his childe. Once WWII was over, Davin and Arthur didn’t really have to run so much anymore, but that didn’t stop them from relocating as often as possible. Arthur didn’t want to draw too much attention to them if they could help it -- who wouldn’t want someone who was a walking good luck charm to keep around? Arthur himself had been kept by a wealthy businessman for a few years before the Great Depression before he escaped. The man had blamed his disappearance on his misfortune, and not on his own poor skills in investing, but then that was the standard. No, it was better to leave before anyone could remark on their sudden good luck.

While a part of Davin hated that he couldn’t just settle down, a part of him thrived by moving around so much. There was no shortage of adventure to be had, and even Arthur could be said to be enjoying himself. If nothing else, the more they moved around, the less likely it was that they would cause too much damage in one place. After making their way all the way south down the east coast, they moved inland and worked their way back up. Decades went by before Arthur began to grow weary of the road. Davin had no shortage of new women to sleep with, so he was in his version of a heaven, but he could understand why Arthur would want to settle in one place. Surely they could keep what they were under wraps? The passage of time was something that Davin only remarked in so far as he needed to to blend in, and it didn’t phase him much at all when it became clear that several decades had passed since he and Arthur went on the run. Arthur’s home was actually in Scarlet Oak, Michigan, and before he wanted to settle there, he wanted to give Davin his bike, once it became clear that Davin had no intention of staying put in one place. Davin had been fascinated by motorcycles since they were created and that Arthur had one holed up somewhere shocked him. Arthur just explained that he had a lot more going on in his life that he ever paid attention to. The more hands off he was with his life, the more he would be able to protect it from himself and his bad luck. Whether or not that always worked, Davin didn’t know, but he really took that message home with him.

Now, the only reason why Davin knew it was sometime in 1976 was because of later. All he knew was that he had a sweet motorcycle that made it much easier to travel around, provided he didn’t break down or it didn’t explode anytime soon. He was riding through Detroit, Michigan when a man walked right out into the street and in front of Davin’s bike. Even with supernatural reflexes, there was little Davin could do and he collided with the man, the blood scent heavy on the air almost immediately. Without even thinking, Davin knew what he had to do to save this man’s life. The idea still bothered him, but not as bad as it did once he realized that the man he was turning was a psychic of some kind. It was too late to go back, so all Davin could do was apologize and finish the process. His first words to his new childe were “I’m sorry, man. I’m so fucking sorry.” That set the tone for their first days together, when Davin was suddenly plunged into the role he never wanted to play. He handled it as best he could, doing everything he could for Luke Blackfeather, the newest member of the Wayward Sons. To say that his new childe was devastated over losing his psychic abilities was an understatement, and to this day Davin feels like the worst person ever. He tries to remind Luke as often as possible that he never meant to do that to him, that he only wanted to save his life, but he knows that no words can ever give him his powers back. Instead of leaving Luke, Davin did the only thing he could, and that was to travel with him and teach him as much as he could about being a vampire. Their house rules were pretty standard, but he stuck around with Luke until his childe decided to strike out on his own, promising that they’d keep in touch as best as they could.

Since he was thrust so swiftly into becoming a sire, Davin took a little harder to his addictions than he normally would have. Anything to disconnect him from the knowledge that he ruined someone’s life by saving it. He did a little more travelling after that, going so far as to vowing to see every one of the continental United States on his bike. Why the hell not, right? He kept in contact with his own sire, who was having an okay go of it staying in one place. It was tempting to try to settle in one place, but until he could come to a better way of looking at the situation with Luke, Davin was content to just rove around. He could hurt less people the more he moved around, right? Granted, he was a good luck charm to most others, he would never ever forget how he was transformed from vampire to murderer to sire all in one night. The only thing that was able to change his mind over settling down was the word he got from Luke about the bar he managed to be given in Scarlet Oak. Seeing as Arthur lived there, Davin was a little reticent to move back when there were already one too many Sons there in the same place. Would the town be safe? He contacted Arthur and asked what he thought about it, and was only reassured that he should at least try to come see everyone. Without telling Luke, Davin made his way to where both his childe and sire were. Because why the hell not? Arthur even made arrangements for Davin and left him a house. It’s run-down and in need of a dozen repairs, but it’s something at least, and more than Davin would have started out with.


Since the Light of May: Well shit, ain’t that something? Davin isn’t impressed by the Light of May, and some say he’s even downright pissed about it. The Wayward Sons aren’t a “public” family, and there’s good reason why they like to keep to themselves when it comes to the spotlight. It isn’t that they are extremely hunted, but bad luck follows them like the plague. Who knows what might happen if the details of their family got out? Who wouldn’t want their own little pocket good luck charm? Davin tries to keep a low profile by any means, and he encourages Luke to do the same.