Vapour

[vapour]

{VAPOUR}

Name: {Vapour}
Nicknames: {Known by many names, the most common ones are The Shadow, Skuggan (Swedish), L'ombra (Italian), The Smoke, The Unknown, Ignoto (Latin), Fumei (Japanese), Wèizhī (Chinese), Neizvestno (Russian), Skyggen (Danish), Anwedd (Welsh).}
Age: {Publicly unknown - 113 years old}
Occupation: {N/A}

Eye color: {N/A}
Hair color: {N/A}
Playby: {N/A}
Canon/Original: {Original}
Powers: {Yes}
{1} {Possession - Vapour is able to possess whoever they choose. This requires effort and energy, both of which they need to build up once a possession is completed. The faster Vapour tries to possess someone, the more energy is used. Slower possessions can take months depending on the person but require less energy in the long run. This takes them out of action for the amount of time it takes to possess the victim. Faster possessions injure the person Vapour is trying to possess and thus alerts them to Vapour's presence.

Possession only works with bad thoughts, ideas, nightmares or dreams. Victims of slower possessions often have reoccurring nightmares of a shadow falling over them. Vapour can both pull at bad or depressing thoughts to gain access to the mind or plant worse ones. It's impossible for them to enter a mind that has too much to fight for or someone who's genuinely good and it is also impossible for them to plant a bad thought to begin with instead of manipulating pre-existing ones. While memories can give Vapour an access point, there needs to be more than one and even then the victim must not be aware of Vapour's presence. If the person has something to fight for - brought on by the presence of a loved one or a happy memory/thought - then Vapour has great difficulty in possessing said person. Once again, they must be aware of Vapour's presence first, though.

During possession, Vapour merely becomes an entity controlling a body. Hurting the body will not hurt Vapour, but will cause Vapour to leave the body. Premature expelling of the entity will injure the victim and Vapour.}
{2} {Corporal Form - In addition to being able to possess, Vapour has the ability to shift into a smoke form. As they are, essentially, made of smoke, they can control the smoke particles and become a form. Most of the time, it's that of a body which is neither male nor female and featureless. They can be any height from three foot to eight foot and the outline is somewhat blurry with smoke curling along it. Vapour can move in this form, though tends not to. The downside to this form is that Vapour is almost blind and cannot smell. As such, they must rely on other senses though they can tell who is easier to possess and who is harder to possess while in this form. It is possible to injure Vapour in this form with anything sharp - from a sword to keys. Any spray will also injure them as well as concentrated light, such as a flash light.}
{3} {Smoke Form - Being made of smoke means that Vapour can be a literal cloud of smoke. Heavier than normal air particles, it's impossible for any part of them to be blown away though they can move to allow humans through or past. The down side of this is that they cannot hear or smell and must rely on touch and blurry sight to make up for it. The up side is that while in this form, they can only be hurt by any form of spray.}

Parents: {James Herbert (deceased)} {Victoria Herbert (deceased)}
Siblings: {Annabel 'Light' Herbert - 110 years old} {Henry Herbert (Deceased)}
Children: {Oxygen} {Nitrogen}
Other: {Soot - a pet Vapour makes when lonely. Either a cat or a parrot.}

Likes:

[/b][/color]The nightmares they create}
{Feelings of being powerful}
{Being smoke}
{Freedom!}
{Dark chocolate.}
[/ul]
Dislikes:

{Corporal Form}
{Being trapped in air vents. (You'd be surprised how many times it's happened.)}
{Being called the Devil.}
{Their sister.}
{When possessions don't go well...}[/ul]
Personality: {Vapour's personality is hard to pinpoint. If spoken to in corporal form, they cannot talk back. While in possession of another, they almost seem to take on the possessed party's personality. In a way, Vapour is an adapter. It is obvious when Vapour speaks that they are a clever entity, though becomes angered when placed into a gender. Dangerous and vicious, they are truly ruthless and a little bit lonely. So lonely, in fact, that they have become somewhat bitter. Vapour seems to bore easily, though is cunning and sly. They are usually listening and able to retain information for long periods of time after first hearing it.

Despite being easily angered and vicious, Vapour knows when to back down and when to stop fighting someone. They may be arrogant - or just certain of their abilities - but they can let something go when they recognise that they will lose. In fact, they are a good sports-person in the event that they are beaten. They will attempt an escape, but will often want to shake the hand of their opponent before departing as a way of telling the opponent wordlessly that they aren't unhappy about losing.

Vapour's personality, though hard to pinpoint is, in short, that of a pleasant person. An angry, bitter, dangerous and vicious person, but a pleasant person none the less.}

History: {Born sometime in 1900, Vapour's real name is unknown amongst the public. Public records only list them as 'The Vapour', 'The Shadow' or any other name they've picked up over the years. Vapour wasn't born as a smoke being, though. They were born as a healthy, happy young child in a male body. They never liked to be referred to as a 'he', though. They were brought up as Vincent Herbert - eldest child of James and Victoria Herbert. They were born in London, England. Their childhood was a happy one, though somewhat lonely due to a small mutation that caused smoke manipulation. They created smoke pets for themself to keep from being completely alone, though the creatures often died after a short amount of time due to Vapour's inexperience with their abilities. When their sister, Annabel, was born, it was discovered that Vapour was not the only one who could manipulate things. Annabel could produce and manipulate light in the same way that Vapour could smoke. Annabel and Vapour often practised with each other, giving them both someone who they could talk to. Annabel was better at hiding her power, though, and so wasn't treated as a freak amongst the other children. Vapour couldn't hide their smoke, due to the fact that it would often leak from them involuntarily.

After a number of years of being seen as an oddity, Vapour began to thrive on the fear of the local children. Vapour rarely spoke and often used the smoke to push people away as they would fear that they would be injured by Vapour's harmless smoke. It was assumed harmless, anyway. But this was how their life began; a smoke manipulating child by the name of Vincent whose sister could manipulate light and whose brother was not able to manipulate anything. Early on, Henry Herbert passed away from smoke inhalation. Vapour had been asked to look after the youngest child and, upon finding their brother had died, set fire to the house to cover it up. It almost killed Vapour, though they discovered a useful ability: the ability to become smoke.

After the accident of Henry's death, Vapour was isolated by their family. The parents couldn't accept their youngest child's death and Annabel had somehow figured out what had happened and as such blamed Vapour for Henry's death. Vapour, too, believed that the death had been their fault and refused to do anything with the family, even when asked. The, at the time, teenager had also begun to spend more time as a smoky cloud, travelling throughout the house with ease and eventually outside into the streets of London.

For many years, Vapour existed as just that: a vapour. A cloud of smoke which had disappeared one night in a puff and left a note saying sorry to their family but that they would survive on their own just as they felt they had for so long. Vapour often went back over the years, though never as the corporal form they'd been born in. The freedom they felt while in the smoky form of a cloud made them not want to change back. This caused the mutation to mutate further and it became impossible for Vapour to change back to a human, even if they'd wanted to. The closest they could come was a smoky figure and a number of times that was exactly what they became in order to let their family know that they were still alive. The visits became few and far between and, after their twentieth birthday, Vapour stopped visiting altogether and made their way in the world as smoke and a figure.

When they were twenty three, Vapour came across a poet, now known as T.S. Eliot, while they were writing a poem called The Hollow Men. It was that poem that influenced Vapour to build on their powers and learn how to better themself in them. It was also from Eliot that Vapour took one of their names 'The Shadow'. Their favourite line from the poem was from the fifth part. The line? 'Falls the Shadow'. They took this with them, thanking T.S. Eliot silently for this and disappeared to begin a new life as an entity without colour or true form - as a shadow.

Floating weightlessly through the skies as a cloud of smoke and nothing more, Vapour had plenty of time to decide what to call themself. The Shadow was their original and favourite, though they knew it didn't suit them as they weren't a shadow. It took many years before they decided on the name which they kept to this day, though not while they were in the skies. They reached America and moved through the streets of one Gotham City with ease. It was here that Vapour first decided to stretch their powers and began trying to possess people they came across. At first it was messy. People would literally implode upon Vapour's exit from the body, which caused confusion amongst those who found out what killed the people because people did not generally implode on their own. Vapour practised on the drunks that they came across, deciding that it would probably be easier and it was as those who drunk usually did so to forget. It was while practising this that Vapour discovered that certain people were harder to possess or impossible to possess than others. Those who were happy or had merely one bad, or many not so bad, memories or thoughts were harder or impossible to possess and as such, Vapour had to try finding a way to tell before wasting energy and effort.

There was a lot of trial and error for Vapour as they practised, though they soon began to sense those who would be easier to possess and those who wouldn't. This only worked while in the smoky form, as they discovered. Unfortunately, they also discovered that they could be injured in this form as well during a bar fight in which someone panicked and attacked Vapour with a smashed bottle. For a number of minutes, Vapour returned partially to the body of Vincent, one which they didn't think they would have able to have again and it was in those few minutes, while trying to stop the bleeding, that Vapour discovered that they didn't age while in smoky forms. It was only in human form that they aged, and then it was with the same speed as a human. As such, despite being around thirty at the time, Vapour had the appearance of a twenty year old for a few minutes that night. That was truly the last time they managed to become Vincent, though, despite how hard they tried after that moment.

From 1933, when they practised their powers around Gotham, to 1938, Vapour moved around America making a name for themself. They discovered that there were many, many more states than they originally thought and spent nine years exploring as smoky forms - both cloud and corporal. When 1939 came around, though, Vapour made their way to Sweden. They knew that in the First World War, Sweden hadn't taken much part in it and had remained neutral and hoped it would be the same this time round, too. Their hope was proven to have paid off as Sweden did remain neutral and so Vapour held out in Sweden while World War II raged through the countries around Sweden. After the war ended, Vapour began moving through Russia and to the eastern countries. It took them roughly a decade to fly halfway around the world while they didn't bother to keep up with any of the events of the world. Once they got to the eastern countries, Vapour began moving back around to America through the rest of the world and once again built up a name for themself while perfecting their powers.

The possessions became better and didn't include implosion upon exit, and the forms became more stable and easier to use. Vapour began to gain the ability to move like air while in the smoke form of a cloud. With no need to eat, sleep, relieve their bladder or speak to anyone, Vapour enjoyed being a cloud of particles which floated through the skies.

Upon reaching America again in 1967, Vapour roamed the states and explored a little more while also going up to Canada and down to Mexico and the continent of South America. Vapour also went to explore the continent of Africa, having somehow missed it on the journey back to America. Vapour returned to the states again in 1973 and found that there were whispers of them amongst small groups. Some swore that they'd been possessed while others swore that a shadow would watch people. Some of the rumours even Vapour was a little insulted by - such as one they heard in Florida which said Vapour ate children - and some that were quite frankly laughable. One such one was that Vapour could turn to water and drown people.

During the 1970s, a number of deaths occurred in which the causes were smoke inhalation without any fires being present at any point. Vapour found themself liking the feeling of possessing someone only to kill them by filling their lungs with smoke until they died, at which point the body would drop and Vapour would remain as a smoky figure. While this got them shot in Alabama, Vapour got great joy from the feeling of leaving the body because they wanted to. Upon returning to Gotham, though, Vapour discovered the pain of being forced out of a body. They had possessed someone and, upon a loved one coming home to find them in the middle of a killing, the loved one injured the body. This forced Vapour to leave the body, giving them a lot of pain as they escaped, and put them out of action for a short amount of time as they gained their strength again.

In the 1980s, Vapour decided to lay low though remained in Gotham. This continued through to the 1990s, at which point they decided to start the possessions again though slowly. One victim was a Miss Wright, though Vapour never fully possessed her. In 1997, Vapour floated their way quite happily to Ireland. Upon reaching the small country, they went to Dublin and came across a Mister Smith. Over the next three years, Vapour influence Mister Smith to kill his father. Remaining with Smith for a small number of years after the murder, Vapour then disappeared again and found themself in Vegas. It was roughly 2008 when Vapour appeared in Vegas and found themself near a small family... A two person family. Death had recently taken a loved one, giving Vapour the perfect moment to slip a little possession in. While slowly possessing the elder of the two remaining family members, many arguments broke out between them and one of them - the elder one - drank. Many months passed with neither of them ever knowing that Vapour was there. Upon the departure of the youngest of the pair, though, Vapour decided to move on again and found themself back in Gotham.

Having remained in Gotham, Vapour continued to possess people and scare people and keep the rumours alive. They haven't been as overly active as when they first reached Gotham, though. There have certainly been less deaths on Vapour's part, but more slow possessions which led to unusually dark behaviour from their victims...}

RP Sample: {EVERYONE NEEDS TO DO THIS BECAUSE JOINT ACCOUNT.}


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Your name: {YOU!}
Random Fact about you: {You are able to play this character too. Ask Crow or Silence for the login information.}
Custom Title for Character: {The Shadow}


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