{application | beastly roses}

[untilmydarknessgoes]

Player Information

Name: Crystal
Personal Journal: nerdangel
IM Service: AIM: kyotoshowgirl
Plurk Name: roomwithamoose
Current Characters: N/A

Character Information

Character Name: Damon Salvatore
Canon: The Vampire Diaries
Canon-Point: 3x05 - Mid-kiss with Katherine instead of paying attention to the road.
Age: 170, but typical vampire and never aged past 24.
History: VD Wikia
Personality:

At face value, Damon is not a very likeable person. He's smug, very self-centered on top of being incredibly self-serving and he has absolutely no reservations about admitting to it. In fact, he seems to almost revel in being called cold or a monster and even brags about it from time to time. Damon almost always has something incredibly rude to say to everyone he encounters whether it's just a snappy comeback or completely unwarranted insults. He especially has that sort of snappy remark if it's some way to fluff his own ego or point how/why he thinks he's better than whoever the insult is being slung at. Damon is also extremely cold and calculating such as when he set Lexi (who happens to be a very close friend to his brother Stefan) up and killed her to come across as one of the good guys to the sheriff who was part of the council designed specifically to deal with the vampire problem in Mystic Falls. However, despite how Damon appears to be and the awful things he sometimes does, that's not who he is and it's really just a deflection from his insecurities about being accepted for who he is as well as living in the shadow of his younger brother.

Damon's inferiority complex goes back to his life before he became a vampire. Damon did not feel entirely accepted by his father, Giuseppe Salvatore, especially after he ran away from the Confederate Army. (Note: This relationship is not as heavily emphasized in the TV series as the book series, but I believe the implications are strong enough to say there was disapproval towards Damon that Damon perceived as favoring Stefan.) This was further compounded with his rivalry with his brother over Katherine Pierce. Out of the two, Damon was the only one who knew and wasn't compelled to forget that Katherine was a vampire. Regardless though, Katherine also having a romantic affair with Stefan drove a wedge between the two brothers and resentment turned into absolute loathing when Stefan broke his promise to Damon to not reveal to everyone that Katherine was a vampire. (Stefan also didn't help thing when he forced Damon to transition when he thought Katherine was dead.) Damon felt he had done better by Katherine and loved her more than Stefan, but he ultimately felt inferior and hated his brother because he had the one thing he never got from Katherine and that was her love.

Much of Damon's motivation for the next hundred years was making his brother's life hell when the opportunity would arise and saving Katherine from the tomb (because oops, not actually dead). After Katherine made it more than perfectly clear to Damon that he came second to Stefan, his focus and attention shifted. Instead of working against Stefan so much, he learned to work with his little brother and especially in regards to protecting Elena from everything that's out there. In both of these motivations - reviving Katherine and protecting Elena - Damon's gone to extreme lengths to reach his goals (ex. torturing and killing Tyler's uncle for information or a little less messier, compelling Jeremy to forget things upon Elena's request to keep him safe).

At his core, Damon is a good person (and he does recognize that out loud to Elena, but that's later than his canon point). Deep down, Damon is the type of person that if a friend or if a lover came to him with a problem, he would do everything in his power to fix that problem even to the point of self-sacrifice if he really loved them as he does this very thing multiple times in canon. But Damon keeps this goodness in him hidden from the world because, as he says, he doesn't want to have to live up to anyone's expectations. While he says this more as a "I just do what I want," really, Damon is afraid of disappointing, of not being enough, and of being rejected. Would he want to be accepted? Yes. But he's afraid of the alternative, so often he won't put himself on the line to be accepted more often than not. Instead of taking a chance on other people, he just assumes that he's not going to be worth it because he's had that driven home so many times over by people that meant a lot to him. He's simply used to being the "bad" brother and it's "always Stefan" and accepted the role a long time ago. He more or less assumes the worst out of people because he's so used to have the worst assumed out of him. And it makes sense that they'd assume the worst out of him since, again, he doesn't put forth the effort to really prove otherwise.

Damon also has a tendency to be self-destructive. You could easily boil it down to something a little more petty and childish and say that Damon doesn't get what he wants, so he throws a temper tantrum. But really, what it is, is Damon lashes out when he's hurt. Pardoning my French, he will take a "fuck it" attitude when he's met with rejection or his feelings are hurt. He's ultimately trying to hurt the other person, but in the end - he's only really hurting himself. So, for example, he snapped Jeremy's neck after a very heated argument with Elena. Yes, it hurt Elena (and Jeremy), but in the end that hurt him because it puts him in the dangerous category and definitely drove a wedge between him and Elena which is the exact opposite of what he really wants. So, he often regrets/feels guilt over the things he does in moments like that. (Though you probably won't be able to get him to say so.) Basically, in the end, he isolates himself through his lashing out. It's the opposite of what he needs/wants, but he does it because choosing to isolate himself is much easier on him than "someone doesn't want me."

So, essentially, Damon is a caring and selfless individual behind the bravado. But he hides behind the bravado because he's afraid of disappointing and being rejected while at the same time, which he assumes will happen no matter what. So, no matter how much he crave approval and acceptance, he won't pursue it very actively without a damn good reason.

Lastly, it's impossible to talk about Damon without talking about his feelings/opinions regarding being a vampire. Damon originally had a very romantic view of being a vampire and saw it as an escape. The whole reason he even wanted to turn was so that he could spend eternity with Katherine. But without her, he didn't see much of the point in eternity so therefore Stefan forced him to make the transition as I mentioned earlier. So, at first, Damon was about as miserable as Stefan was in being a vampire. It was a long, lonely life that he didn't want, but one he persisted because he had hopes of freeing Katherine from the tomb. But then along came Sage, a much older vampire, who taught him to really enjoy being a vampire.

Damon learned that being a vampire still meant power and freedom even without Katherine in his life - things he really seemed to ultimately lack as a human. Being a vampire meant he could make people want and respect him - it was about seduction. Damon also likes to use being a vampire as an excuse for his bad behavior. He says he can essentially do whatever he wants because he can flip the switch that's inside him to not feel. So obviously, that's why he's being such a dick. Duh. But really, Damon just has a huge tendency to act before he thinks when he's hurt and he can't 100% shut out the guilt over those really stupid decisions later.

Abilities/Powers:

STRENGTHS
Compulsion: By making eye contact, a vampire can compel a human to say/do anything as well as erase whole memories or change characteristics of their victim. Victims are unaware that they've been compelled. Vampires like Damon are only able to compel a human through eye contact, but Originals are able to compel vampires and hybrids as well as humans. The older a vampire is (and with more practice), the stronger and better their compulsion is. Compulsion is also affected by diet. A vampire who is feeding on human blood over animal blood has an easier time compelling their intended victims. Also, if the victim is wearing or consuming vervain, they are immune to compulsion. This is also true in the case of an Original compelling a vampire.

If a human has been compelled and then is turned into a vampire, they remember everything they were compelled to say/do or forget.

Dream Walking: Vampires are able to manipulate and project themselves into the dreams of others, including other vampires. This isn't often utilized in the show so there's really no firmly established limitations, but it's generally safe to say if someone has been ingesting or wearing vervain, this becomes impossible like compulsion.

Healing: Vampires heal at a much faster rate than a human would. Also most injuries that would be fatal to a human (ex. breaking their neck), they'll be knocked out for a while, but will eventually come to again.

Immortality: Vampires live forever and stay young forever, but that doesn't mean they can't be killed. More on weaknesses below.

Super Senses/Agility/Strength: Vampires can smell, hear, see, and taste above what a normal human can. They basically have the nose of a bloodhound, can eavesdrop from quite a distance away even above other noise, have the eyes of a cat when it comes to night vision, and they've got pretty sensitive taste buds that I lack some sort of analogy or description for beyond it's hype. Diet & age also affect strength and agility for vampires. They are generally able to move at inhuman speeds. They have faster reflexes and when running appear to be blurs to the human eye. They're also able to jump to and from high places with ease and would look a bit like flying, but it's not. They use their strength in conjunction with their agility to fight/throw people/things. Vampires are stronger than werewolves when the werewolf hasn't changed shapes. But once that happens, a vampire's more likely to run than try to fight (if they're smart anyways).

Day-walking Vampires need the assistance of a witch to walk in the daylight. Damon possesses a ring that allows him to walk in the sun, but it's not 100% foolproof as the magic can be tampered with and make it useless.

WEAKNESSES
Starvation: A vampire weakens without consuming blood. Starving a vampire will cause them to gradually dessicate/mummify.

Vervain: Arguably a vampire's biggest weakness is vervain. Touching vervain burns a vampire and causes intense pain. It often cancels out many of a vampire's powers as mentioned above and injecting a vampire with vervain can weaken or otherwise incapacitate them. Vampires are able to build a tolerance to vervain over time in order to avoid compulsion by an Original, but they're never fully immune to vervain itself.

Fatal Weaknesses: Staking a vampire in the heart will do exactly as the movies tell you it will. Vampires can also be severely injured by wood if stabbed with it anywhere else. For example, running a vampire through with a sword hurts, but it's more likely to piss them off. Run them through with a tree branch though and you'll still piss them off, but it will take a while for them to rip it back out and get enough strength back to twist your head off. Vampires can also be burned to death either by fire or through exposure to sunlight (without the help of a ring). It's not an instant burn-to-death though when it comes to sunlight. It would require a few seconds before they would really catch fire. Ripping out a vampire's heart or decapitating them is another way of destroying a vampire permanently. Finally, if an Original vampire dies then its entire bloodline will soon follow.

Werewolf Bite: A bite from a werewolf is also fatal. Werewolves have a venom that once it gets into a vampire's bloodstream will result in a very slow and awful death for the vampire. The vampire often becomes delirious and exceptionally violent. The only known cure for a werewolf bite is drinking Klaus' blood. Same rules apply to a bite from a hybrid.

Magic: Vampires are affected by witchcraft for better or for worse. Examples would be the day-walking rings or when Bonnie more or less crippled Damon by giving him intense head pain.

Invitation: Vampires cannot entire a private residence (so a hotel room would not count) without being invited by a living occupant first. (So, a trick most vampires use to create a safehouse is after being invited inside to compel the human to not let in anyone else without their permission.) There's no way to rescind the invitation other than changing the ownership to someone else. The only way around the invitation is if the owner dies. So the aforementioned trick does have a work around. (Murder the human occupant.)

Items:

Daylight ring - Once the magic in it is restored, it will only work for him because that's the way these things work. Someone else wearing it won't have anything special 'cept a really gaudy ring.

Cell phone

Wallet with dinero, cards, etc.

Clothes

Samples
Log with Mal @ distantskies
Thread with Katherine @ paradisa