"Esk"

Name (& pronunciation): "Eskalen" (aka Esk) - (Es kael en) / Stellan Freidman

Date of Birth (& age): 176-1791 or 19/6/1791 by the Imperium calendar (The Imperium's dates are based on a 412 day year as observed from the core planet. This is followed by how many of these years have passed since the founding of the empire. ) - He's in his early 20s

Place of Birth: Melanoc lunar colony, Part of the Sataré Reich

Gender: Male

Species/Racial Origin: 1/2 Hexenfolke/ 1/2 "Incubus"

Social Class/Community Status:  Hexenfolke (Just a step above total scum within the Reich)/Dishonorably discharged from military service.

Language: Satare, Galactic common.

Family/Friends/Pets/Etc: Probably better not to ask.

Height: 6'2"

Weight: ~190lb

Hair: Blueish black

Eyes: Amber/yellow

Limb Dexterity: Right

Manner of speaking: Esk generally speaks flatly without much inflection. He has a very thick Hexenfolke accent (Which sounds rather like Norwegian if anyone needs a point of reference)

Detailed Physical Description:

Esk is relatively average height for his mother’s race, standing a little over 6’2” and much like the Hexenfolke, he's lean with elongated limbs. His skin is a deep golden brown tone, flecked with tiny golden scales around his amber eyes. His nose is straight and features angular. He has small sharp fangs and ever so slightly pointed ears. His hair is a deep blue-black colour, sloppily hacked short so it flicks up haphazardly. Tangled and unkempt, personal grooming isn't a priority to the guy. His shoulders are freckled with the same gold scales as his face and his left shoulder bears his traditional id tattoo, a pair of interlocked runic initials. Two vertical lines run across his left collar bone, military tattoos labeling him a private and nothing more.

Typical Clothing/Equipment: Esk dresses in pretty much whatever he's managed to scrape together, over that, lightweight armor. He always has thick gloves on and heavy boots.
He always looks a bit unkempt.

Personality type: ISTJ-A

80% Introverted
92% Observant
92% Thinking
68% Judging
62% Assertive

Personality/Attitude:

Esk often has little time or sympathy for other people. He comes across as cold, detached and he generally projects this image of a somewhat sociopathic asshole.
He's smug, smarmy, aloof and generally extremely frustrating to be around.

He usually sounds bored or disinterested, he has a tendency to speak in an unsettlingly flat, emotionless manner.  

He has a nasty, vicious sense of humor. He seems to actually enjoy making some people uncomfortable. Particularly his half brother, who's usually the brunt of most of his abuse. He seems to think it's funny to threaten Kay, Kay just thinks he's a dick.

Esk is disturbingly accustomed to violence and doesn't scare easy at all. He has a strong stomach and even sturdier resolve.

He can open up, he is capable of acting somewhat like a functional person, he just doesn't want to. He prefers his own company, it's what he's used to, so he pushes people away with his toxic attitude and snide remarks. That said, even when he's not being intentionally nasty, he's not particularly good at knowing how to talk to people. He comes across as rude and abrupt even when he's genuinely interested or trying to be decent. He's had very little in the way of genuine socialization, particularly during his formative years, so it's left him severely inept at interaction.

He has a lot of anger and resentment, but he's not one to whine about his past. He's far more likely to make some flippant remark about it than to wallow in angst. He has absolutely no patience for angst and finds pity revolting. Nothing pisses him off faster than someone feeling sorry for him.

He's fiercely independent and while he's slowly learning how to accept help from others, he's still not so good at taking advice.
He has extremely high emotional walls that are near impossible to scale and is used to relying on ONLY himself. Having other people to lean on is such an alien concept to him, he really doesn't know how to handle it. He certainly doesn't often ask for help.

He's antisocial,  he genuinely finds social interaction frustrating and exhausting. While he's extremely perceptive, he's not so good at knowing what to DO with that information. He tends to opt for negative interaction rather than positive, using his perception as ammunition.

He's completely and utterly clueless when it comes to romantic interest. Flirting baffles him, people being interested in him in that way baffles him, it all just makes him rather uncomfortable. He doesn't like how clueless it makes him feel, it makes him uneasy to be so lost, and when he's uncomfortable the emotional walls go up and the nastiness comes out. He's a little paranoid and seems to think people are mocking him when they aren't. He can't quite accept people might find him attractive, so they MUST be making fun of him. This angers him... a lot. He really doesn't much understand sentimental feelings and fails to recognize them in himself. He also really struggles to separate sexual and romantic feelings, under the mistaken belief they are one and the same. In his mind, if he doesn't want to sleep with someone, he can't be in love with them, duh.

Though not overly well educated, Esk is EXTREMELY intelligent.

He's not so good at forward planning, he's a very impulsive, act on the moment sort of guy. He just doesn't have the patience or the forethought for complicated schemes. He takes opportunities as and when they arise, plays his entire life by ear and never plans for anything.
That said, he is very good at predicting other people's actions and preempting them.
He prefers to follow, not to lead. He doesn't want to be the guy with the plan, ever.

He's mean, he's bitchy, but he actually does care about people. He just doesn't really show it that well. Emotions are hard, feelings are hard, other people are really really hard. He'd rather just be left alone with his sketchbooks and his own company thanks.

Growing up Esk was the one who was left to fix stuff. Matt dealt with people's emotional needs, Esk did all the jobs that had to be done that the others either didn't want to or couldn't bring themselves to do (Like disposing of corpses). He still does this, he protects his crew, he keeps them safe as best he can and he'll deal with perceived threats efficiently. He'll always have some emotionless practical excuse for WHY he's protecting them, "If you're dead I need to find a new job" "I'm still waiting on my next pay check." "We need our medic." and so on, but really he does it because it's what he's always done. It's habit, and it makes him feel worth something. He fully expects to be taken for granted though, that's what he's used to. He NEEDS to feel useful.


Skills/Talents: As a bounty hunter and an ex soldier, Esk knows his way around a fair few weapons. Firearms, knives, he can even wield a sword pretty effectively.

He can pilot a ship too.

Growing up in the middle of nowhere means Esk has a broad range of survival skills from trapping, to butchery to fishing. He also knows basic first aid.

He can also build shelves, repair fences/walls, fix generators and other relatively simple mechanical devices, tile roofs and a load of other household DIY chores.
He knows how to repair mining drills. His prison time had him working in a mine, he rather quickly worked out that the drills weren't that complicated and if he could be useful there, he didn't have to dig. He really hated digging.

Art- Life drawing. - Esk is an extremely talented artist. He draws from life, portraits and scenes in pencils usually. He doesn't like showing his work though, he's weirdly private about it. While he'll claim he only does it to "pass the time", the fact he's so secretive about it suggests otherwise. His art is a deeply private hobby, and one he has no desire to share with anyone else.

Life drain - Esk inherited his father's psychic vampire ability, in that he can drain the life energy out of living things with physical contact. UNLIKE his father however, he has zero control over it. This is why he wears gloves.
It has it's uses though, draining the life from another living being speeds up his healing process, allowing him to fast heal injuries and gain a little boost of energy in the process. Problem is, it's a bit addictive.
It takes a while to drain enough energy out of a person to actually do them any real harm, but his touch will wither plants and strike dead small animals like birds and mice pretty rapidly.

Strengths:

Killing things.

Eiditic memory - Faces - Esk NEVER forgets a face. He's astoundingly good at faces. He can draw portraits from memory and they'll be as close as if he was drawing from life. Sadly, it only seems to be faces he can remember with such precise clarity. This, coupled with his perceptiveness means that he can tell apart people who would look identical to anyone else. It's a useful skill for a bounty hunter, he can pick out an imposter very quickly.

Emotional disconnect - Esk is very very good at detaching. It means he can make tough choices others would allow sentiment to get in the way of.

Weaknesses:

His inability to actually touch people without hurting them has screwed up his social development.

He's terrible at forward planning, Esk is a guy who seldom really HAS a plan, and struggles to come up with one on the fly. He tends to act on impulse, guided mostly by his emotions. As a result, he gets in a lot of fights and gets himself into a lot of problems simply by not thinking through the consequences before he acts. This is particularly true when he's angry or upset. His self preservation instincts seem to completely fail when he's mad.
He's not one for elaborate schemes or cunning, he's a strikingly simple person in this respect. He can think through consequences, but there's not much scope to how far into the future he can think. He deals with fixing immediate problems, he's not good at thinking long term.

He's pretty good at taking orders, least, when he doesn't completely disagree with the orders and doesn't hate the person giving him them. He doesn't mind following instructions though, it saves him having to think. He prefers someone else to be doing all the planning, he hates having to be the one with the ideas, he's not good at it damnit.

Animals HATE him.
He kills plants with a touch as well.
So he's never learned to ride a horse, he's never learned how to milk a goat (things his brothers can all do) and has no idea about herbology or gardening. His mother never bothered to try to teach him about plants, as he couldn't touch them anyway. The again his mother sort of avoided him mostly anyway.

Cripplingly low self esteem - Esk may project a lot of bravado and bitchiness but he's a very very insecure person. He's spent most of his life being treated like a monster, it's screwed up his sense of self worth.
This is why he can't accept that people genuinely like him, care about him and indeed have any feelings toward him that aren't annoyance, hate or fear. He expects to be feared and hated, it's strange to be around people who treat him like an actual proper person.

Fears: Horses. Getting too close to horses causes terrible things to happen, he really... really hates horses. He's not going anywhere near anything horse shaped thanks.

Infected - Like all Imperium citizens, Esk has a healthy fear of Lycanthropy and a mistrust of all things canine.

Hobbies/Interests: Guns, swordsmanship, punching things. Sketching. Finding new ways to make others miserable.

Philosophy of Life: Well i'm saddled with it, may as well make the best of it.

Attitude Toward Death: It's inconvenient.

Religion/Beliefs: Atheist, like all Imperium citizens.

Fetishes/Strange Behaviors: He doesn't have much in the way of social grace, he has a habit of picking at his nails and chewing them. He puts his feet on tables/desks a lot too.

Most Instructive/Painful/Memorable Experience: Nobody really wants to delve into this guy's mommy issues and generally screwed up childhood.

Sexual Preference/Experience/Values: Heterosexual/very little/not overly interested in relationships and terrible at showing his interest anyway. It's not like he can touch the object of his affection anyway right? So what's the point. Bah.

Education/Special Training: Military training (Imperium), barely literate (Certainly he's never reading for enjoyment).

Place/Type of Residence:  Silver Devil

Occupation: Ex Bounty Hunter/security

Place of Work: Silver Devil

Work-related Skills:

Past Occupations: Bounty Hunter

Memberships:

Notes:

Esk has a small chip embedded in his collar/shoulder like all those within the Reich. His information is incomplete, as he didn't have a birth certificate till the age of 10.
His date of birth is a guess, and his parents are listed as "Mother: Olin Freidmann (Deceased) Father: Unknown." His birth name is Stellan Freidmann.
His ethnicity is listed as Hexenfolke.

His military history has a long list of misdemeanors and assault charges. Insubordination, violent outbursts, defiance and lack of respect... etc etc. He did complete his military training, but shortly after leaving the academy was dishonorably discharged for attacking a superior officer.
He served prison time.

He has a note in his record talking about Psychic vampirism and warning medics not to touch him, regardless of his injuries.

There's a series of psych reports that list him as an unstable sociopath with emotional disconnect and violent tendencies.

His criminal record is long, mostly a series of minor assault charges and animal cruelty.

Jessana Baeker (nee Ackermann)  is listed as his legal guardian.

His blood is black, like ink.
He apparently smells of death to those who can sense such things.

Inventory/things on his belt:

A small firearm
A phase pistol
A pair of anti magic handcuffs from the mirror universe
A portable medical scanner
A hunting knife
A sabre

A bag containing a sketch book, various pencils, sharpener and erasers etc.

Energy drain: rules

It's a conscious power. Esk has to be actually conscious for it to work. If he's unconscious it doesn't activate.

When he touches someone or something with a huge amount of "life energy", like a god, a keeper, an avian vessel etc, it's much like sticking your finger in a power socket. Both parties will be thrown away from one another at the jolt.

Prolonged contact with something with immense life energy will burn him from the inside out. Not a good thing.
The jolt/throw is a sort of safety mechanism, a failsafe that prevents this happening.

It feels good draining energy out of things, making it really hard for him to stop himself from doing it. It's kinda.. addictive.
He hates the whole death aspect enough to keep himself mostly in check, after all, most people don't do stuff even when it feels good all the time right? Still, it's hard to stop once he starts.

When he's injured his body prioritizes healing, sending the drained energy into that. The healing isn't perfect, it is, in most cases, accelerated but still "natural" healing. Broken bones will need to be set before healing or they'll heal broken and twisted, bullets need to be dug out and any wound WILL scar.
When he has a LOT of energy thrown into his body, his body doesn't really know how to deal with it. Blood will clot instantly, which isn't always helpful, wounds will immediately fuse closed messily and the scarification is ever worse due to the rapid nature of the healing process.

When he's not hurt, the energy is more like an infusion of energy and endorphins. This is why he'll drain energy even when he's not hurt, it feels good and he can't really help himself.

He WOULD have control if he actually tried, but his subconscious is against him. he expects to fail, and so he fails.