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[proteus]

Player Information

Name: Kat
Personal Journal: hoar
IM Service: empurata @ aim
Plurk Name: immolates.
Current Characters: Aoba (DMMd)

Character Information

Character Name: Deanne Bader
Canon: Vampire: the Masquerade - Bloodlines
Canon-Point: Directly after the Independent ending. Deanne has left the building. Los Angeles is in chaos with both LaCroix and the leader of Kuei-jin dead and the city now in Anarch control.
Age: Technically immortal, but not enough time has passed for that to have any bearing on her age. Approximate age was given as early- to mid-twenties. Keeping that in mind we're saying 26 for the sake of having a definite number.
History:

A generalized summation of the Protagonist in VtMB. Because it is sparse I'm providing a run down of the character's history below. Educated guesses about the character's back story and personal history will be made based on what vague information was provided in the canon.

Born Valentine's Day in 1978 to Rudolf and Margot Bader a small second generation French-Armenian family in central California. Deanne enjoyed a blue-collar, uneventful childhood and adolescence until moving to the Los Angeles area after college. Prior to being Embraced, Bader was a beat cop outside of Los Angeles with a bachelors in sociology and public administration under her belt. All with the goal in mind to file out in a few years and work towards her masters her life was all but planned out to the letter. Unfortunately, her tenure as an officer was cut short after only three years after an incident wherein a drug addict she had arrested left her with a thoracic spinal cord injury with a dirty knife.

After recovery and unable to continue running beats, Bader was regulated to deskwork. This dead end job left her dissatisfied and embittered with a need to vent in unusual outlets. Pain killers and one night stands became routine and Bader's work suffered for it. With bills piling up and threatened with termination more than once she now a step away from turning into one of the addicts she used to scrape off the streets. Bader then settled to throw caution to the wind and have her last one night stand before getting cleaned up. This proved to be one of the worst mistakes of her life. In a dirty motel just outside the Santa Monica area, a Gangrel vampire Embraced Bader in a moment of impulse.

In vampire society the act of Embracing someone is viewed as sacrosanct so much so that it cannot be done without the approval of the local Camarilla Prince. The Camarilla being the sect of vampires from various clans who impose order on Kindred society to protect themselves from being exposed to humanity with a Prince set to maintain peace over his or her jurisdiction; usually a large city. The act of hiding themselves from the mortal world being known as "the Masquerade." The rules and thereby the Masquerade was broken when Bader had been Embraced without permission of the newly appointed Los Angeles Prince, Sebastian LaCroix.

Already there had been long-standing disquiet among the Los Angeles Kindred. Between Los Angeles having been considered a "free state" by the California Anarchs; a group of vampires who disagree with the Camarilla and believe strongly in the idea of the free-living dead and that the Masquerade is only common sense, the Camarilla arriving unannounced claiming control, the Sabbat moving in; a group of murderous, wild "classic movie villain-type" vampires that ignore the Masquerade entirely and revel in wholesale destruction and disregard for human life, and lastly the Kuei-jin; another race of Undead originating in China seeking to benefit from the chaos and take over the western seaboard for themselves. Bader being thrown into the mix made her the match on the gasoline leak.

When both Bader and her sire were brought before the Camarilla to answer for the crime of an illegal Embrace, Bader was nearly put to death until the leader of the LA Anarchs protested putting both sire and childe to death. LaCroix made the calculated risk and put Bader's sire to death but left Bader alive with the stipulation she work for him to pay the debt of being the product of a Masquerade infraction. Seeing no other options, Bader agreed to the terms and became a fledgling vampire working under the thumb of the Camarilla. Her first few nights were spent learning the ins and outs of Kindred society all the while unraveling the turmoil brewing under the California city streets.

Personality:

Make no mistake: Bader is not a human and is, in no uncertain terms, a predatory wild animal. That does not mean she cannot be compassionate, capable of rational thinking, or any complex range of emotion. What is does denote is that Bader has willingly given into instinct as her ruling nature. As a Gangrel she is driven by self-preservation and independence leaving her scope for the concern of others rather narrow. While far from heartless she prefers to remain on the sidelines until a situation arises where the outcome affects her in the long run. In actuality, she is considered uncommonly kind by Kindred standards even for a neonate still close to their humanity. Do no harm and no harm will come to you is her mantra for survival. Results albeit varied.

From her first night up until she left Los Angeles behind her, Bader has shown to be the better part of her Gangrel and vampiric natures as both an adaptive creature of the night and street wise rival for Kindred in all four sects. Individualistic to a point there was never any real interest in the underground war brewing between the Anarchs vs. Camarilla or the free for all among the Sabbat and all other Kindred. Her hatred for the Sabbat and Kuei-jin had always been practical and an embrace of her own humanity; she was hunted by them for fighting against their plans to wreck havoc on innocent life (hers included), and her desertion of the Anarchs and Camarilla is out of simply indifference to vampire politicking. Bader has always made a point to simply make the best out of a shitty situation with little collateral.

Bader is individualistic and stubborn, but not stupid. She learned early on in her unlife that personal pride didn't count for much when you were a mutt vampire with no sire and anyone with a week of seniority over you was more than prepared to get you killed to further their own agenda. Cautious and loathed to be cornered, Bader shows an aptitude for lip service. Whenever possible she prefers to talk her way out of trouble or turn it on its head to her favor. While no mastermind or great manipulator, she does have a good read on people and their intentions. This coupled with a healthy distrust of everything but herself has kept her alive more times than sheer dumb luck or brute force. Not that she's lacking for those. Merely she knows when to keep her head down and when to bust heads.

Like most other Gangrels, she's a loner who wasn't close to her sire and was not all that bothered by his final death. The absence of a sire for a Gangrel is all par for the course as they are rarely part of a new vampires' upbringing. Not once did she feel his death wasn't out of the ordinary or upsetting. Instead she chose to latch onto what, to her, were more sensible choices of mentors and advisers. Seeing other Kindred as help or hindrances demonstrates her calculating nature (not common for a Gangrel) and how she places her own survival as her first and foremost priority. Unlike the power players like those in the Camarilla upper crust who share this credo, Bader is happy to live and let live so long as she is left well the hell alone. Neither does she reduce human life or Kindred unlife to statistics. Saving her own ass never factored in pulling the rug out from under someone else.

Her relationship with humanity is complicated. While she doesn't deny nor try to stop her natural need to feed on humans for blood, she hasn't once found herself so far gone that she has had to take human life out of anything but self-defense. One of her first lessons was that one didn't need to kill a person to feed, and could in fact feed without causing much or really any harm on a person. From then on she has made a conscious effort not to harm an innocent life or think of people as cattle ready for the slaughter. That doesn't mean her heart is bleeding, however. She will throw a few extra twenties to homeless woman on the street and feed on her all in the same breath.

Humans to her are neither her enemies nor her allies, and she doesn't want to be overly involved with them. For example, the idea of "ghouling" a person (feeding a human vampire blood or 'vitae' to control them) offends her and she abhors the practice despite it being a common occurrence. Whether that is the byproduct of her own morals or her loner streak is moot point. Especially heinous attacks on people such as a rogue vampire killing runaways will catch her attention and is enough to get her into action, but she's hardly some fallen angel crusading for justice. People are alright and the odd reminder she used to be one of them is all she gains from interacting with them. The occasional meal doesn't hurt either.

Bader doesn't mean any harm and really would like to be left alone as would any wild animal looking to make it in the harsh unforgiving environment they were born into.

Abilities/Powers:

+/- Vampire (Fortitude, Animalism)

Becoming a vampire offers several physical and emotional changes after the Embrace. The standard vampire starter set includes what you might expect from one of the deadliest predators prowling the night. Bader can see in absolute dark, sniff someone out a mile downwind and hear a pin drop in crowded room. Her stamina and physical strength are impressive compared to the average human as well. There is enough brute force in her dead bones to bench press a steel frame or punch a hole clear through a brick wall. In addition, it's easier for her to sharpen these more animalistic abilities as a Gangrel who are for lack of a better word the dogs of the 'civilized' vampire clans. 

Of course nothing comes for free and there are setbacks. It would only take one sunrise and she suffers her Final Death, and this also holds true for large fires. Avoiding the sun and fire is just as important as getting fed every night. Everything she does from rising at night to using her abilities drains her of a little vitae (the blood-like fluid that a vampire converts from drinking blood) each and every time. She can become catatonic and fall into a sort of hibernation if she becomes completely drained.

Emotionally she can also become a danger not only to others but herself as well. Every vampire is at war with themselves. Their instinct comes down to the Beast inside; their animal nature and desires made real. Anytime a vampire falls further away from their humanity they come close to the Beast inside them. The closer they are to becoming more animal-like the more likely a vampire is to frenzy. A frenzy is a supernatural flight-or-flight response when a vampire flies into an uncontrollable rage to such an extent they can no longer recognize friend or foe. They go completely berserk until whatever it was that sets them off is gone, and anything that stood in their way. A Gangrel is especially in danger of frenzy.

+/- Protean

The Protean discipline is the Gangrels' bread and butter. A clan-specific inherit ability that allows for a Gangrel to change and alter their body to become more animal-like. Bader herself is especially adept and considers it her trademark. As an adept user of the Protean discipline, Bader can grow ferocious claws or longer fangs. She can turn into a wolf or switch into her "war-form" which is a bi-pedal, werewolf like creature. War-form is a higher level Protean ability than turning into a wolf, and not one she uses lightly.

Anytime she changes, while Bader doesn't become closer to the Beast using it she does exhaust herself. As a wolf she is incapable of speech and finds it increasingly difficult to keep a hold on her animal urges like unprovoked feeding or aggression. Fortunately, she can change back and forth and still keep her clothes.

Items:

- The clothes on her back.

Samples

Sample I
Sample II