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Username: Katze Allemon-Schatten
Name: Pëllumb Gjoni
Age: 251 years
Gender: Male
Eye Color: Deep pink to blood red
Hair Color: White
Hair Length: Just a hint of bounce as it falls a little past midway down my back
Height: 186 cm (6ft 1in)
Weight: 68 kg (150 lbs)
Scars/Tattoos: No real of scars of note, just normal kid stuff (like falling out of trees or playing too rough with my siblings.) I actually do have a tattoo, and a rather large one at that. In the center of my breast, right over my heart, I have a tattoo of my family's crest, in full color, with a pair of bat wings extended from it.
Sexual Orientation: Omniromantic Bi-curious (leans hetero)
Ethnicity: Albanian
Marital/Relationship Status: Widower
Weapon(s): I'm actually rather defenseless, surprisingly.
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Species: Dhampir
Abilities:
> See Invisibility: Well, back when I could see, I could see invisible people.
> Ageless: I grew up just as fast as a normal person, but once I became an adult, I stopped aging completely.
> Blood-Aid: wow, bad pun there...but the point is I can heal myself by drinking the blood of other sapient beings.
> Darkvision: back when I could see, I could see in the dark as well as most people see in daylight.
> Unnatural Beauty: ok, I know beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but the point here is that I inherited my father's vampiric beauty and grace, just to a lesser extent.
> I don't know if I need to list it, but I don't have a vampire's weakness of sunlight. Well, besides the constraints of my complexion.
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Personality: I'd say I'm a fairly amicable person. I treat others as I would like to be treated, give people the benefit of the doubt, be hospitable, and help whenever I can. That said I'm a bit of a shut in (or a recluse as my son sometimes calls me). I would say I am adequately protective, but my children are more of the inclination that I can be protective to the point of overbearing. For the most part I think on the bright side, but I have my fair share of demons and painful memories, so I do have the occasional melancholy. However, I can never stay in a foul mood when music is around, especially if I am the one playing it: it truly is an elixir for the soul! I confess I do have a short temper when it comes to my...predicament. I understand people wanting to help out, and I appreciate it, but I am fully capable of taking care of myself, and any efforts to usurp my independence are far from tolerated. Finally, I use echolocation to get around, but if a place is too noisy, I can't hear the reverberations correctly. In these instances I become panicky and anxious. If this occurs, please rescue me.
Bio: First, I feel I must correct a misconception: dhampirs are not always created through monstrous acts upon an innocent victim. My mother was kept locked away by her family as they thought her an ill omen. My father was out hunting (for human blood cause he's a vampire) when he came across my mother. Instantly he was infatuated and sought to get to know her. She said she would rather lose her life in caring for one who loved her than live one hundred years locked away like a prisoner. So the next night my father declared his intention to marry the poor girl. Her parents, all too eager to get rid of her, gave her away that very night and had all of her belongings sent over the following day. They still are married and are as enamored as Morticia and Gomez Adams. Actually, I suppose we were sort of like that family: decidedly different from others, yet a tight-knit unit that loved each other and worked well together. All said, my parents had eleven children, of which I was the fourth. I know it seems an inordinately large number, but I can assure you it was the fashion of the day (well, that and there was a high infant mortality rate and many children died before reaching adulthood, so the more you had the more likely one would survive to adulthood). Many of us inherited Mother's albinism, but of those, only a handful of us eventually became blind due to it. Of those few, I was the first. Father wished to coddle me (though frankly he was the mother hen type, always trying to keep his babies close and spoil them rotten), but fortunately Mother took charge and taught me (and the others eventually) how to be just as independent as our sighted siblings. Oh, and about my start in the world of music: my parents believed that every child should learn to play the piano, even if they stopped learning after they knew a few songs and could read music. I genuinely loved playing, so my father hired tutors to teach me anything they could, eventually going so far as to import them from Austria, Italy, and the German Principalities alike!
As the third son, I really had no hope of inheriting any sort of sizable land (not that father was likely to die, but he had expressed interest in some of us prematurely inheriting parcels of father's demesne). Frankly, I had no such interest in such political matters, my only love was music and with her I wished to spend my days and nights. After my twenty-fifth birthday (it took much coaxing from mother and I before father finally permitted my leave,) I headed towards Munich and sought every opportunity to play before the wealthy patrons of the city. Of course I would keep the windows of my chambers open, so that even the poor could stop and listen if they so desired. After a few years of lean living (I was not about to retreat back to my father and ask for an allowance) I was finally invited into the elite circle of those who were permitted to entertain the upper echelons of society. That’s basically how things continued for the next century and a little more. Only the Napoleonic Wars caused a real stir. So many countries were involved and torn apart during the battles. My parents, most of my siblings, and myself managed to hide amongst the outskirts and avoid it; however, my second brother, Dardan, enlisted and fought against Napoleon. He was killed during the battle at Waterloo. Not only was it a cause for mourning, but also it came as a terrible shock: we were a family of vampires and dhampirs, nigh immortal and with great power! How could one of us have died like that? The very night after we heard the news, father and my eldest brother Ilir set out to reclaim our fallen brother's body. The cold certainly helped, but he was not in the best of shape upon his arrival. That didn't worry us, my mother and sisters still cleaned him up as best they could and patched his uniform while father made all of the arrangements for him to be interred in the family crypt. It was especially hard on my father, who seemed to take it as a personal failing that he had not been able to protect his child. For a while afterwards, Father was more doting than usual, but eventually this too passed.
Advancing to 1891, I had just finished up a rather successful American tour which had ended in the mostly civilized state of California. Whilst enjoying a night of frivolities, I heard someone singing outside. Though I could not understand the words, her voice was the most beautiful sound I had ever heard, so beautiful, in fact, that it put all of my work to shame. I followed the voice, running into many many obstacles as I could not gather my thoughts sufficiently to recall how to navigate. After several mishaps, I finally managed to approach her, and knelt down on one need pleading with her to allow me to invite her back to Europe where I would introduce her to the nobility and guarantee a promising career as a singer. I had sort of thought she would relay the message back to her father or brother or whichever male was in charge, but she was a modern woman and accepted the invitation herself. She did inform me her name was Zhihao and told me to return to this spot tomorrow, and she would be ready to head off. On the trip back to Germany, she admitted my offer still sounded crazy, but she couldn’t stand to watch a blind man begging at her feet, that and she had become bored with the city. We worked together very closely, she performed alongside me at every concert I gave, and all said it was an absolutely blissful time. Less than a year later we were engaged (I believe my father was almost as happy as I about the news,) and a few months later she discovered she was with child. Given my noble status, it was of the utmost importance that the child was born in wedlock, so our wedding was a rather quiet affair back at my parents’ castle. Given travel times of the day, we did not think it prudent to try the long journey home until after the child was born. Thus we spent many months at my parent’s home until one bright night, just as the north star came into view, our son was born. He was named Ylli, which means star, because it was as if he came into being as the star grew brighter.
Five years later, our second son, Alban, was born. We were trying to space them out a bit so we had a chance to keep up our musical careers while still being able to responsibly raise our children ourselves (though of course we did hire a nanny, primarily so there was someone we trusted watching over our children when we were out giving a performance.) And eight years after Alban we were going to have another child. At the time, we were ecstatic and thought it would be wonderfully efficient, having a fourteen and an eight year old son who could help look after a new sibling. What we failed to acknowledge was the fragility of mortality. Even from the beginning, Zhihao had complication after complication. Even early on, I told her I would not be upset with her if she wished to have my father turn her into a vampire (and thus lose the child and never have any more), or even if she wished to terminate and potentially never try again. All that mattered to me was having her by my side for the rest of our days. That did not suit her, however. She was never going to give up on the child, never let her own “weakness” to overcome her. My wife died so that our daughter would live. I miss her every second of every day, but even through my sorrow I know that at least she died carrying out her will, and what a strong one it was at that. Day after day our little Fen became more and more like her mother, as if their spirits had intertwined the moment she was born.
Unfortunately, the deaths did not stop there. When war broke out in 1914, both Ylli and Alban immediately enlisted. I can’t say I was happy about that, even though it had been eight years, I was still reeling from my wife’s death, and I couldn’t bear the thought of losing either or even both of my sons. After the Battle of the Somme, Ylli was sent home with half the artillery in his leg, but Alban was lost in No Man’s Land. Even still, we have never been able to find the body. I believe after the war we went to live with my younger sister, Teuta, at her manor in Italy, but frankly I remember very little of those years. From what Teuta and Ylli have since told me, I seemed to live in a dour haze, like an old machine in dire need of oiling. I was particularly a burden on my children. At first, my constant vigilance meant Ylli never wanted for anything and had round the clock care, whilst Fen never knew danger for I would never allow her out of my hearing. As years passed, Fen would often bilk at the constraints I put on her, and very frequently would flee from my care any way she could. Ylli was a bit more polite about it, but he too often found reasons to go out and escape my clutches. For six years this was the state of our diminished little family. However, after that was mostly a change in appearances only; I knew it was wrong of me to keep them sequestered as I had, but the thought of losing even one of them was the source of all of my nightly terrors. They were allowed out, but I begged them to tell me what they were planning on doing and when they thought they would be home. Sometimes I would follow them and then bribe others about to report to me what they were doing, but sometimes there were eyes on me so I could not slip out. If I were stuck at home, I would wait up to all hours, placed conveniently within hearing range of both the front and servants' doors, until I heard them returning. Surprisingly, we even all went on a trip 1925. Ylli had decided he wanted to live as a vampire rather than a human, and so the whole family gathered back at Father's castle for the initiation ceremony. It was a momentous occasion, and it warmed my heart to finally see those of us who remained back together again.
The next eight years were spent thusly, though I believe it was not until much later that I ever managed to escape this form of paranoia. The year was 1933, and well, we all know what was happening in mainland Europe at that point. None of my relatives seemed particularly perturbed, but in my...less than rational state, I just knew this was going to be a disaster. I tried coaxing them into leaving, but no one listened; finally, I made one last desperate plea to my children (so desperate that in my weakened state I fell unconscious) and this act was enough to convince them they needed to take me somewhere away from the clamor. We moved in to the summer retreat of my older sister, Gentianna. As it was her retreat, she would come down for a while, but for the most part we had the stately rural home to ourselves. My children had truly found the cure for my mental ailment, and after a year or so even Ylli thought I was as cheerful and bright as I had been when he was little. It was a joyful five years but it seemed to last only a fleeting moment. World War II had dawned.
This time there was a reason to fight: a genuine tyrant was grabbing up all of the territory he could, even if he had to rip it out from under the natives' feet. And while we did not know the extent of the horror, everyone (yes, all governments and many many civilians) knew that Jews, and the mentally and physically unstable were being persecuted in all Nazi-held lands. Fen joined the WACs, Ylli searched through conquered lands to find people who needed to escape and safely conduct them to the rest of the underground railroad (so to speak). My sister and I went to work in the factories, manufacturing bullets for our boys overseas. Even though the factory owner was loathe to employ a blind man, when I said I would work for half wages, he reluctantly gave me the job. All of us were sheltered in the knowledge that we were doing something to help the war effort and save lives, and that is what kept us going throughout the Blitzkrieg and battles. Still, no one was prepared for the discovery of what had really been going on inside the camps. I…I can’t even see yet the images have been burned into my memory…
Sorry, I truly cannot linger upon those days, not even now. And frankly I feel I have been a bit long-winded thus far. I will summarize the remaining years by saying that my son eventually settled down in America, and even married and had children of his own. Fen moved back to the homeland, where she is managing my lordship. I have been traveling all around the world, never really staying in one place for more than a year or two. My children think I should try my hand at settling once more, and have suggested Soleil as a nice city. Apparently it has good ratings, plus I am close enough to Ylli so that if anything horrific occurs, he can swoop in to save me, but far enough away that I “will still feel free to go about my life however I choose.” Frankly, I think they want me to get married again, which I doubt will happen, but I am open to anything. I just hope that it will bring some relief to Ylli and Fen, knowing that their father is staying put for a time and is safe and (presumably) happy. They really are the dearest, aren’t they?
Likes:
○ The evolution of pianos' roles in music (yes, I play Beethoven and Little Richard, among others)
○ Cool nights
○ Cats
○ Blood sausage
Dislikes:
● Summer days
● Pity
● Noisy places
● Sour foods
Skills:
➢ Echolocation: no, this isn't a dhampir thing, I've practiced this skill and managed to master it. (You know, so I can actually get around on my own.)
➢ Master Pianist: sounds very vain of me to say, but I have been practicing ever since I was two years old.
➢ Actually a rather good chef
➢ Linguist: I pick up languages rather quickly, which comes in handy as I have lived in many different places.
Body Type: Lithe
Health: My vampiric side gives me a wondrous constitution, but that doesn't make me immune to anything. Oh, and I should note that I do have albinism, and did end up inheriting the unpleasant ocular side effects (meaning I'm legally blind and completely color blind).
Strengths:
≥ Patient
≥ Independent
≥ Kind/Gentle
≥ Highly curious/open to new things
Weakness:
≤ Severe anxiety when I can't use echolocation
≤ Can't abide by pity
≤ I tend to avoid letting people get too close to me
≤ Wanderlust
What you look for in a partner:
♡ Someone who loves music; doesn't have to play or sing or anything, just an appreciation.
♡ A tidy person. I know I sound mean saying it, but if someone moves something and doesn't put it back, there's a chance I'll faceplant (I generally don't use echolocation in familiar places).
♡ Someone who sees me as an equal, not as a patient or a ward.
♡ Preferably, someone long-lived or not opposed to becoming a vampire. I'm truly not ready to lose someone else.
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Theme Song: "Shine On" by Jet
Extra: I do possess a title: Bey (equivalent of lord,) however I rarely use it. Further, my full name is Pellümb Gentius Gjoni, but I only use my full name when legally necessary (cause it sort of works like Pellümb, son of Gentius, of house Gjoni).
Housing District: 1507 Lumiere Housing District
Occupation:
yum_cupcake
