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[untilmydarknessgoes]

User Name/Nick: Crystal
User DW: nerdangel
AIM/IM: kyotoshowgirl
E-mail: octoberrain08 [at] gmail [dot] com
Other Characters: Polly Perks (pvtparts), James Stark (outofclothes), Daneca Wasserman (advocacy), Alana Bloom (praesidium), & Ezio Auditore da blahblah (outlets.

Character Name: Damon Salvatore
Series: The Vampire Diaries
Age: 170 (permanently 24 in appearance)
From When?: Katherine does not manage to get Damon the cure to his werewolf bite in time in the season two finale and Damon ends up dead for real. Oops.

Inmate/Warden:

CW: Mentions of rape & abuse.

Inmate. While Damon is a protagonist in his canon, he has an incredibly difficult time making better decisions than the ones he makes. He has a tendency to be selfish to the point he disrespects the choices of people he cares about. (For example, he keeps secrets from people even after giving his word that he's not lying or hiding anything. Or, even worse, he forced his blood on Elena more than once and once just to get back at his brother.) Damon is also highly self-destructive and puts his pain before the pain of others. When he's in pain, he lashes out at people around him through violence--such as killing Jeremy Gilbert when Elena thought it was absurd Damon thought she would kiss back when he thought he kissed her instead of Katherine--and cruel words to tear people down. He also quickly throws himself into a hedonistic lifestyle where he's the one in control to bury the pain and inflict it on others instead. Damon will sometimes regret the things he does later, but he still impulsively goes straight into the same patterns when something comes up and he's hurting. Usually this is seen in his use of compulsion to psychologically torment, abuse, nearly kill, and rape women. I don't think I need to elaborate why this is a bad thing and why it needs to change.

Abilities/Powers:

I am just going to list everything out for if he was running at full steam at first and then discuss how it will be reduced just for the sake of simplicity. I'm also just going to divvy it up by power because canon is absurd and they have a bunch of abilities.

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.
On the Barge: Damon will not have access to his compulsion until it's given back to him. Basically smart people will not give him this ability back at all.

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.
On the Barge: Another ability that Damon will not have access to until given back.

Healing/Immortality
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. Vampires live forever and stay young forever, but that doesn't mean they can't be killed.
On the Barge: Damon still has the pause button on the whole aging gig, but he's more susceptible. Fatal wounds for humans will actually kill him instead of being an annoying inconvenience and while he will have a faster recovery time for non-fatal wounds, it will not be at the absurd speeds vampires in his canon would. If someone were to stab him (and it's not fatal), he would recover from it within days rather than weeks.

That said, he is also still weak to all the usual vampire weaknesses. Stabbing him with something wooden will hurt a helluva lot more for him than if it was metal, vervain burns and weakens him, and sunlight will suck if he doesn't have his daylight ring/said ring is being screwed with. A bite from a werewolf is still also fatal and will cause the usual hallucinations, fever, aches, chills, & vomiting. He also still needs an invitation to enter private residences and if he is denied blood, he will desiccate as per usual.

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).
On the Barge: Damon will be at peak human performance. Not to be confused with superhuman abilities though. Basically his senses will be the very best of human capabilities, he'll have the speed of a pro/Olympic track runner, and the strength of a bodybuilder. So, he can still easily be taken down if the need arises.

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.
On the Barge: Damon will still have his ring, but it can be taken away from him or messed with per usual!

Fog & Raven
Damon, in particular, was shown to be able to control fog and a raven very early season one. While the show dropped it and didn't abuse it to the extent the novels did, this has comedic value, you guys, and it still super was a thing that happened.
On the Barge: Nada! This is something that Damon learned to do over time and while drinking human blood.

Personality:

On the surface, Damon Salvatore is a dick. Actually, he's also a dick on the inside. He's just not as much of a vapid dick as he tries to pretend to be. He has more substance than he would like to acknowledge and numerous insecurities that he tries to bury beneath sarcasm, alcohol, and bad behavior that's going to piss people off. To really understand Damon, one must know both who Damon tries to be and who he really is deep down. Having only one piece of the puzzle--regardless of which it is--quickly misrepresents Damon and leaves him two-dimensional.

Damon is incredibly charming and witty without much effort. He carries himself with confidence and says what's on his mind without hesitation--usually with excessive smarm and snark--regardless of who it may or may not offend. Even when people are offended, they cannot help but still respect him and still crave after his attention and approval because he's only handing out harsh doses of reality. Most of the time, people don't want to like Damon, they just can't help themselves. And even if they didn't still respect him, it wouldn't make a difference to Damon because he doesn't care. In other words, Damon has very carefully crafted a particular power dynamic in which people are dependent upon him, but he is not dependent upon other people. Damon is the reluctant antihero who does the bad things that no one else is willing to and people always like him or they're always trying to save him.

There's one slight problem with this: it's a load of bullshit.

Damon tries desperately to convince himself that he is that construct he has created for himself in his head, but it's littered with half-truths that make it quickly fall apart with the underlying reasons for Damon's behavior and that boil down to an insecurity related to rejection from others due to his own shortcomings and inadequacies.

Much of this insecurity is rooted in Damon's life as a human. Although the television series is not as explicit as the book series, it is still implied that Damon's relationship to his father was combative and resentful because of the constant comparisons between Damon and his younger brother Stefan. In their father's eyes, Stefan could do no wrong while all Damon could do was wrong. Damon did not shift the blame away from their father to Stefan (that came later with Katherine), but he did quickly attempt to convince himself that he no longer wanted his father's approval. Instead, he wanted to do everything he could to anger and irritate his father since he appeared to be better at that than gaining his praise. Damon saw history repeat itself with Katherine as well. Although he never had to be compelled to stay with her and he was eager to turn in order to spend eternity with her and although he spent 145 years waiting to release her from her tomb, Katherine avoided him and still chose Stefan over him.

Damon barely existed while he waited for Katherine in the beginning. He was still somewhat the mild-mannered man he had been as a human, simply waiting for the one person he thought gave a damn about him and accepted him exactly as he was. It wasn't until he met the older vampire Sage that things drastically changed for Damon. Sage taught Damon to not just indulge in the hedonistic and addictive qualities of being a vampire, but to thrive in them. Damon learned quickly that he could have the power over and attention from people he never had as a human. If he could not charm on his own merit, he could fall back on compulsion. Damon didn't have to feel miserable about his sheer existence any longer. He could bury his insecurity about his worth beneath a very convincing and charming bravado. That's when Damon's rejection of Stefan through avoidance and ignoring quickly turned into malicious attempts at actively disrupting and destroying every part of his life.

But Stefan is not the only person that Damon actively tries to destroy. He also repeatedly tries to destroy parts of himself throughout his lifetime. While Damon does have a sense of victimhood that comes along with any addict, Damon is not like his brother in that he possesses learned helplessness. The opposite is true of Damon and, despite usually very insistent claims he doesn't care about the consequences, he accepts responsibility for the things he does. Deep down, Damon fears the pain he experiences in response to rejection. He is so acutely aware of rejection that rejection by proxy when someone dies is enough to set Damon off. And when that happens, Damon quickly resorts to lashing out. His usually light verbal jabs meant to just deflect the minor things he doesn't want to talk about--or stroke his own ego--become accurately fired weapons of mass destruction. He hurts people and makes them angry, shoving them away before they have a chance to reject him. To Damon, pushing people away and actively isolating himself is the lesser of two evils when compared to the thought of disappointing someone else to the point they reject him instead.

When in one of these episodes, Damon also quickly falls back into hedonistic behaviors. He starts compelling people--particularly women--to want to be with him and ready/willing/eager to fulfill his every need. He drinks both blood and alcohol to excess. He starts to refuse to lift a finger to help with anything. He does everything in his power to convince everyone around him and himself that he is the bad guy and he sure as fuck doesn't need anyone's approval with further rebuffing. He even goes so far as to kill and torture people important or unimportant to whoever he is trying to avoid rejection from. Damon does these things without any signs of remorse and, in fact, with both eagerness and some enjoyment because this is when he subscribes to the idea that he is the vampire who doesn't care or need anyone else most. While normally Damon is stubborn and adheres to the notion that he is always right with very minimal wavering, he is adamant when he lashes out that he's in the right with everything he does. He acts on every impulse he has because thinking things through seems more like second-guessing himself.

Now, as mentioned earlier, Damon is, in fact, a dick. He knows it and rarely apologizes for it. However, just because Damon does despicable things and does a pretty convincing job of seeming as though he has no positive qualities to speak of, he is capable of doing good things. The biggest lie he's ever told is not that he is a bad guy who does bad things or the lie that he doesn't need anyone; it's actually the lie that he does not care. When Damon is self-destructive in response to rejection, he feels horrendously guilty about the terrible things he did to hurt and push other people away. He also cares enough to want to change and to try and make better decisions. (It's also really important that it's Damon who wants to change as well. He views any attempts to make him change in a way he has not agreed upon or too difficult as a form of rejection in of itself.) Damon is just not always very successful in that venture because, once again, he's afraid of disappointment and rejection from other people. Making the right decision is not something that comes naturally to Damon. He's not comfortable in being the hero and would so much rather be the antihero who makes those tough decisions that no one else has the balls enough to make.

In short, Damon is someone who has experienced so much rejection in his lifetime that he's developed an acute sensitivity to it. For Damon, it is better to be feared and hated than to disappoint someone. When someone is disappointed and they reject him, he lashes out and pretends as though he doesn't care. Normally, he simply deflects or strokes his own ego with his sense of humor and sharp sarcasm, but once he's been rejected he turns it into a weapon. In fact, he turns everything he does into a weapon if need be. Otherwise, he buries himself in hedonism and his addiction to power and control over other people. But Damon is not a victim and he is not helpless. While he is paranoid and fearful of that rejection, Damon understands that he causes the rejection that happens to him (or, at the very least, worsens it) through his behavior and, try as he might, he can't ignore the guilt and pain he feels as a result. However, despite these bundle of problems in his behavior, Damon is still someone that other people can like. He knows how to flirt and charm people as he sees fit and his sarcasm can actually sometimes even be a touch affectionate. Damon knows how to make connections, he knows how to make better decisions, he just really struggles with his fears of rejection to actually go about things in the right way and instead convinces himself he's as bad as he behaves. To an extent, he's right. To an extent, he's not. It just depends on the day.

Barge Reactions:

Damon is not going to be a happy camper. He'll be in peak human condition, but that's a problem. He's in peak human condition. At this point in his life, Damon enjoys being a vampire. He likes the perks that come with it. That doesn't mean he won't try to cause some damage though. It can be expected that he's going to be pissed about being trapped on the Barge. He's probably going to eat someone (or multiple someones) on his very first day. Which, it's important to note, he's not going to probably take very kindly to the blood substitute either. He likes the biting part a lot. Damon will quickly find someone to either convince or coerce into letting him feed directly from them and he will not be forced to go back to the substitute, dammit.

Damon also will not take very kindly to supernatural creatures. And by that, I mean werewolves. Damon will instigate things with the pack of/stray werewolves running around on the Barge with nary a second thought. He's going to be especially leery of magic users, too. It won't be as volatile as it will be with the fleabags, but witches and Damon aren't exactly known besties either. Basically, he will tolerate people who use magic and try to decapitate werewolves. Okay? Okay! Damon will also likely make targets/victims of people who are semi-unstable in the mental department and/or women he views as easy to pushover and manipulate. He will make their lives hell and/or start taking immediate advantage of them in one way or another. (Super Important Note: that I will not be getting into sexual abuse territory! Personally not that interested in playing that and do not feel there is a justifiable reason to put any character through that. Damon can and will be awful in other ways. Believe me, I/he can be creative.) But not all of Damon's interactions will be abrasive. He will flirt and charm with people he feels are like-minded or worthwhile and be a little more genuine in those relationship with less motive outside of simple companionship.

Damon will be generally fuck yo Barge when it comes to floods and breaches. He will likely enjoy the things that don't affect him and make everyone else do things that are embarrassing or horrific though because mmm sadistic douchebag streak ahoy! He may be more agreeable on the whole when it comes to ports though simply because it will be a chance to get the hell off that goddamn boat for a little while. Lastly, he won't really give a fuck about the technology. He's not a Trekkie so fuck yo holodeck!!!!

Path to Redemption:

Damon is going to be a tough project, lemme just lay that out for you right now. He is not suited for wardens who are easily cowed or intimidated because he will take advantage of that and quickly shift the power dynamic in his favor. Likewise, Damon would not be suited for a warden who relies heavily on punishment even the creative kind. That acts as a total reinforcement for Damon because it feeds straight into his "people are assholes & I don't need them" pattern. Instead, it would be more effective on the part of his warden to ignore most of his bad behavior. Of course, that doesn't mean never punish him. If he's going on a murder spree or something like that, there needs to be some kind of consequence. But understand that it will only put a temporary stop to whatever it is he's doing and not really be a long-term solution.

The other really important thing to know about Damon is that he will never not be a dick. Redemption for Damon is not going to be making him a nicer person. Damon is always going to Damon it up and be rude and sarcastic. He's always going to be abrasive to certain kinds of people. That's just the person that he's grown into and what he's comfortable in communicating through because dumb vampire/Salvatore bullshit. You also aren't going to be totally eliminate or curb his selfish tendencies either. Damon is going to always have that struggle between his pain and the pain of others. What redemption for Damon is going to look like is a reduction in his selfishness, a reduction in bad decisions. It will be easier for Damon to not give into that impulsive urge to destroy everything and make it worse when things don't go his way or he's facing pain.

A good warden/tactic for Damon is going to be acknowledging that he does have strengths and that there is every good reason to like or even love him. Damon is willing to make tough calls that aren't necessarily going to popular. It will be tricky to not feed into his ego when doing this, but it is possible to point out what he is willing to do. As time goes on and Damon make genuine bonds with people this will be easier for his warden to highlight for him because Damon will go out of the way to protect and care for people that matter to him. Damon also has a fairly unspoken and untouched feeling about becoming human again. That is something that a warden may be able to wear down/out of him over time, but it's going to take an extreme amount of patience for him to reveal that to anyone considering the last person he did, he killed shortly thereafter. Finally, there is the obvious route of Elena to consider. Damon, at this point in his canon, is developing strong feelings for Elena and part of his drive to do/be better stops being about "stealing" his brother's girl and about doing what he can for her. He doesn't go about in the right way, of course, but that doesn't mean it's not an untapped resource. Likewise, Damon may have tried to ruin Stefan's life and/or kill him a handful of times, but they are brothers. That's something that can definitely be taken advantage of in the hands of the correct warden without necessarily needing Stefan around.

The last overall note for wardening Damon is to use tough love. Damon has pain and experienced a lot of hardship in his long life, but that doesn't mean that he needs a hug and everything will be better. That's actually something Damon will readily also take advantage of. Call Damon out on his stupid behavior when he does something stupid. Rail against him when he says he doesn't care. Tell him what a fucking dick he is and make sure it goes through his thick skull. Damon, too often, can and will brush aside comments like that. He can find a thousand and one justifications for the things he does. Don't let him have any outs and don't coddle him when he screws up. More importantly, don't let him be a victim. If his warden lets him stay in that cycle without commentary, without pushing, Damon will spin his wheels forever.

History: TVD Wikia

Sample Journal Entry:

Test Drive Meme

Sample RP:

Damon unceremoniously lets the body drop to the ground with a loud thump. It was filling, but not satisfying. He still doesn't have any of his normal abilities back. He's still weak. So, he moves on down the hall to find his next victim.

Damon doesn't have an explanation for any of this. One second he's running a fever, hallucinating, and with Elena who's urging him to hold on until Stefan gets back even though he's pretty sure doesn't get a say in that and is royally fucked. The next, he wakes up here, fine and dandy if you could overlook the distinct lack of everything that made him a vampire outside the fangs and need for blood. Damon's pretty sure this isn't the afterlife. Not that he exactly knows for sure what the afterlife is, but there's supposed to be a lot more fire and brimstone or winged people running around singing with harps and flowing robes. Or something. Hell, maybe all he'll do is just stick around and watch everyone he left behind. He doesn't know. But this just isn't it.

His first thought is that he just passed out and this is some kind of ridiculous dream he's experiencing. Someone is crawling around in his head because he's not strong enough right now to push them back out. That's far more annoying than just being straight-up dead because that means another vampire or a witch's gotten involved.

Why couldn't Elena just let him go?

It's not that Damon had a particular death wish. He happened to like the prospect of staying alive for an eternity all thing's considered. He could have fun and do what he wanted that way. But Damon was also realistic. He watched Rose deteriorate the same exact way he had started to fade. She was possibly in even more pain than Damon with how long she held on. Damon just gave up and stopped trying to fight it almost right away. It's baffling and endlessly frustrating for him that Elena couldn't just do the same damn thing and save herself some goddamn pain. There's no reason she should care anyway. It's not like she didn't have every right or reason to hate him. But she still did. She still thought that he could be saved.

Damon spots a young twenty-something standing on her own on the deck. Perfect. Maybe if he feeds enough on these people, whoever's crawling around in his head will come out finally. Either way, he approaches with the full knowledge that Elena--and even Stefan--cannot seem to accept.

He can't and he won't be saved.

Special Notes: