![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Name/Handle: Kura
Age: 20
Gender: Female
Time zone: EST
Email Address: shuichi210@hotmail.com
Personal LJ username: Kurama_chan
AIM/other messenger screen name: YoukoKurama210
Character you're applying for: Count D
Series the character is from: Petshop of Horrors
Character's age: Unknown (looks mid/late-20s)
Character's gender: Male
Character’s “Real Name”: Damien Duan
How long have you role-played your character, if at all?: I’ve roleplayed Count D a few times a while ago, for about a year.
Where have you role-played in general and/or with this specific character?: I’ve played Count D in IM conversations. In general, I’ve RPed in various IMs, chatrooms, cosplays, and other characters in Landel’s.
Have you played the game/watched the movie or anime/read the book or comic, etc. that your character hails from?: I’ve read the entire series several times, and watched the anime.
Please give us a detailed personal history of your character:
In ancient China, there was a race of people with a strong connection to animals. These people were treated as priests and priestesses because they could communicate with animals and convey the prophecies told to them by the sacred beasts. One day, the emperor’s son asked one of the ‘priestesses’ to marry him. She ‘politely’ (I doubt it) refused him, and the man was heartbroken. In a rage caused by his rejection, he declared that these people were not human, that they were monsters and every one of them should be slaughtered.
And thus, this race of people was diminished to a single person. All alone and severely injured, he lay down on the ground to die, bequeathing his anger and pain to the afterlife. He vowed revenge on the humans for their violent ways, for mercilessly slaughtering both his race and many of the races of animals.
This person was D’s ancestor. Their race reproduces asexually, passing genes from one person straight to the next, which causes them to look like exact replicas. When one of them is killed, a new one is reborn in his place. They seem to never age, never die, but they can be killed just as easily as a human can.
From a young age, D was raised by his grandfather and taught to care for animals. The story of his ancestor was repeated to him several times over, ensuing that he knew how terrible humans were. To play his part in fulfilling the revenge, he set up a pet shop in Los Angeles. Here, he sold exotic animals with contracts attached. The general rule was simple: “Should you break the contract, the pet shop cannot be held responsible for the outcome.” Usually, this meant the death of the pet’s owner. Sometimes it was worse. And almost always, it was because of some moral defect in the owner.
Still, if an owner could adhere to the rules, the pet would grant them their deepest desire, whatever it may be. Once in the back rooms and under the influence of the strong incense, the customers would be able to see the animals’ human forms, though D would convince them that they were still just animals.
Catching wind of the mysterious deaths by wild animals, a homicide detective by the name of Leon Orcot began frequenting the pet shop, hoping to catch D in some suspected illegal act, like drug-selling or slave-trading. Leon was quite inventive with his imagined crimes. Eventually as time passed, the two formed a sort of friendship, though they fought constantly. Still, Leon began coming to D for advice and company, rather than trying to lock him away. Though, he would claim the latter was still a top priority.
At one point, he brought Chris, his mute kid brother, and began leaving him for D to baby-sit while he was on the job. At first, D was appalled that Leon would leave a child in his shop, but he took a liking to the meek boy when he found out that he could see the animal’s human forms without his help. And despite being mute, the boy could speak to the animals through his thoughts and the animals could understand him.
A little less than two years after meeting Leon, D was tracked down by an FBI agent by the name of Howell, who was searching for his father. Having given Chris back to his aunt and uncle, D quickly packed up and left, carrying only a briefcase. Mysteriously, the animals were also gone. Realizing D had fled, Leon began to search for him and stumbled upon D’s father (Also named ‘D’), mistaking him for D. With Leon in tow, D’s father returned to his indoor garden home, situated on the upper three floor of a building complex. It was here that he abandoned Leon with the wild animals that lived with him, giving the cop the ultimatum of the wild: Kill or be killed.
At the same time, D was being chased down by Agent Howell outside of town. After being shot on the run, D threw himself into a river gorge. With D gone, Howell checked the ground for blood for a DNA sample, but found none. Only mysterious flowers left along the trail. Eventually, D’s briefcase washed up and Howell confiscated it, heading back to town.
Meanwhile, D was dragged out of the river by his animal friends. When Howell wasn’t looking, he somehow slipped into his car and hid in the backseat. While the agent was driving, D slipped a knife to his throat. After failing to convince Howell that he and his father weren’t the same person, D suggested that Howell turn the car around and head back to LA to meet his father.
Upon reaching the garden complex, the two parties joined and D discovered a very injured, but still alive, Leon. Worried that Leon might die from his severe injuries, D quickly tended to his wounds, though the bleeding persisted. It was then that D’s father revealed his plan to rid Earth of the human race with biological warfare: a virus that would only target humans. As he was planning to unleash this virus, D tried to stop him. I believe because, unlike his father, D still held out for some small hope that the human race wasn’t entirely terrible. After all, he was fond of Leon and Chris. And there were customers who had kept to their contracts.
Still, D’s father wouldn’t listen to him, and it was ultimately Leon who stopped him the only way he could: With a bullet to the head. Doing this, however, caused D’s father to hit the button that he claimed would release the virus into the air. Instead, it created an explosion which set fire to the entire upper part of the building.
Dying, D’s father instructed his son not to embrace hope again. To never forgive the humans for what they had done. With his death came a burst of energy, figures of animals swirling through the rooms, mingling with the fire. Agent Howell was caught in the burst and died instantly. Amazingly, in the place where D’s father had died now rested a newborn human child. D’s grandfather, who had been present at D’s side the entire time by masquerading as a pet, took the child to raise once more and left the building, leaving D and Leon to themselves.
Instead of killing Leon for shooting his father, which is what the cop expected, D helped him to his feet, heading for the roof to escape the growing fire. Perplexed by his behavior, Leon informed D that he had no intention of dying with him. D merely smiled and jumped from the roof, taking Leon with him. The world faded to black as they fell.
When he came to again, Leon found himself miraculously flying, spotting D not a moment later in a large boat sailing through the clouds. Climbing on board, he found it was really the pet shop, and he could finally see the animals’ true forms. D explained that this way, he could travel the world without worrying about the borders than humans had drawn. But this was where Leon’s journey would end. With a tear running down his cheek, he pushed Leon from the boat, returning him to his world where his family waited in the hospital for him to wake. The only explanation he gave was “Humans have not earned the right to board this ship. Not yet.”
Please give us a detailed description of your character's personality:
D has a complex personality. On the outside, he very well-mannered and polite to those who show him respect. He almost never yells and rarely gets upset (with the exception of being around Leon). He always has a cool temper and a superior air about him. He’s also very proper and dislikes unnecessary violence and vulgarity, something that he claims Americans, like Leon, excel at.
On the inside, D’s mindset is very convoluted. He’s been raised to exact revenge on the human race, something he feels obligated to do for the sake of animals. Something his kind has done for generations. And yet at the same time, unlike his ancestors, I think he wishes that he could stop it. I believe he embraces the hope that there might be humans who aren’t guilty of the cruelties that the rest of the race has been charged with, but he is almost always disappointed.
Generally, he dislikes those who are cruel or hurtful, usually finding a way to punish them, while tolerating those who are kind. There are very few humans he truly likes, Leon and Chris more than likely being the only two. Despite being human, he cares for their safety, whether he admits it to himself or not. He sometimes even contradicts his own standards for their sakes. These two have come the closest to being ‘worthy’ in his eyes, both Orcots being true to their feelings and instinctively noble, wishing to protect those weaker than them, rather than destroy them.
Please give us a detailed physical description of your character:
D is a young Chinese man with short, straight black hair. His left eye is violet, while his right eye is gold, though the right eye is usually obscured enough by his hair that the odd color isn’t noticed. He has very feminine features (several people have mistaken him for a woman) and a slim figure with perfect posture. He also has very long, sharp nails.
What point in time are you taking your character from when he/she appears at Landel's?:
I’m taking D from post-series, sometime after he pushes Leon from his boat, but before he sets up shop elsewhere, as he will probably eventually do.
What kinds of magical/special/crazy powers does your character have, if any?:
Count D has a strong connection to the animal kingdom, and has the ability to speak to any animal. I imagine that through this connection he would also be able to sense if an animal has been changed to a human, as with some of the other patients.
His main ability is that he can summon both plants and animals. All he needs is a drop of his blood. He can also manipulate the minds of humans; though it’s never discussed in great detail just how far he can go with that. He’s constantly warping the reality of his customers once they step inside his shop, and he once erased someone’s memories for one evening.
If present, how do you plan to tweak those powers to make him/her appropriately hindered in the setting of Landel's?:
I plan on allowing D to keep his power to speak with animals (it might give the people playing creatures an interesting new twist if they’d like to have them ‘speak’ back).
As for summoning plants and animals, I’m definitely not going to give him that. =3 There’s enough man-eating creatures running around Landel’s as it is.
Same goes with the ‘manipulating minds’ thing.
Does your character have any other non-magical skills or abilities that we should know about?:
Count D has very sharp nails, sort-of like claws. If possible, I’d like to let him keep those, since otherwise he’d be entirely defenseless. (And he’ll bitch and moan up a storm if someone cuts them.)
Not really an ability, more like a disadvantage, but I don’t know where else to put it: D has a heart condition that doesn’t allow for very much endurance. He can run around and everything, but he tires quickly if he does.
How about improbable appendages?:
None.
Please give us an idea of where you'd like to take your character within the scope of the Landel's Damned RP:
D’s not really a ‘people person’. He wouldn’t make many friends (if any), but he might ally himself with others once he finds the building to be more than he can handle alone. After seeing what Landel’s does to the animals at night, D would be mainly interested in finding the Head Doctor to pay him back for the things he’s done.
What kind of psychological effect do you see Landel's Institute having on your character?:
D would be most greatly disturbed by the change in the animals. He wouldn’t really care about what the building does to the people. He’s sort of in the same business, after all, so he kinda turns the other cheek to human-on-human cruelty, though he’ll still scoff at it.
Given that this RP takes place in an unsettling and outright horrific environment, how do you justify your character as being appropriate in both body and mind for this kind of setting?:
Petshop of Horrors is part of the horror genre, and essentially a collection of macabre tales. Count D is, for the most part, the cause for the horror in these tales. He sells animals to people that he knows will brutally slaughter them if they don’t keep to the guidelines he sets. He’s fed people to wild animals and smiled about it. Some of the stuff in Landel’s will undoubtedly disturb him, but it’s nothing his mindset can’t handle.
Third-Person Sample:
The door shut softly on the back of his latest customer and Count D allowed his business smile to fade. Another contact. Another broken contract, more than likely, but there was always the slim chance that this human would be decent.
D turned away and lifted the contract, tossing it onto the growing pile on the desk. He could get to it later. A later that didn’t seem to ever come, considering the mess that the desk was in. But it was tea time now, and he couldn’t be bothered with mundane paperwork.
Once it was certain that the customer was gone, Tetsu crawled out from under the couch and voiced his opinion. “Geez, why don’t you just let us eat them when they come in? You know it’ll be the same outcome.”
D smiled as he moved to fetch the tea tray from its usual place, glancing back to watch the totetsu flop himself onto the cushions and stretch out lazily. “Now, now, there is always that slim chance that they might listen, right?” Tetsu gave a grunt of disagreement, but couldn’t do much more than that before the door slammed open. For a moment, D thought it might have been broken and was fully prepared to shower Leon with a healthy dose of annoyance. He knew it was Leon because, of course, no one made an entrance like his detective…
“Alright D! What kind of deal did you make this time? Opium? Weed? Little indonesian children? Fess up, I’m onto you!”
D frowned at the accusations and had to wonder from where exactly where Leon got his material. Indonesian children? Hardly. Not only would it be implausible to even stock those (not like you could ship them in a box or something), but he hated children quite passionately. Nothing but a bunch of lawless heathens.
“Nothing quite that illegal, my dear detective,” D replied smoothly as he brought the already prepared tea tray to the coffee table where he entertained only his most important clients…and the detective that was now seated there. “I merely sold him a griffin. A female one, at that. They grow to a smaller stature then the males, so they make better pets. I believe that one will be approximately six feet at maturity.” He poured himself and Leon a cup of tea as he rattled off this information, an almost cat-like smile gracing his dark lips. He was quite pleased with the baffled expression on Leon’s face. Perhaps this was why he kept the detective around...
“Bullshit.” Leon was a far cry from believing this, but he wasn’t above accepting (taking advantage of) D’s hospitality, namely the teacup offered to him. D wondered to himself when Leon had stopped suspecting poison in each cup of tea. Probably about the same time he started visiting D’s shop on an almost daily basis, which was more often for kicks than for actual police work.
“Stop giving me this stupid mythology crap and tell it to me straight! You know as well as I do that those things aren’t real.”
Ah, there it was. A common factor that graced most of humanity. It didn’t exist if you couldn’t see it with your own eyes. Nothing was real if you didn’t have proof that it was there. Humans were so deluded by their own senses. D couldn’t help but think of his pet shop as ‘charity work’. ‘Helping’ one human at a time.
“Are you quite sure of that, Mr. Detective?” Count D smiled again, his fey-like eyes narrowing on Leon’s form. He took a sadistic sort of pleasure in the fact that this look always gave Leon chills. This was going to be a very interesting conversation…
First-Person Sample:
Count D wouldn’t write in a journal on the off chance that the staff would have access to it. He could write in characters, but he wouldn’t trust them to be Chinese-illiterate, either.
Age: 20
Gender: Female
Time zone: EST
Email Address: shuichi210@hotmail.com
Personal LJ username: Kurama_chan
AIM/other messenger screen name: YoukoKurama210
Character you're applying for: Count D
Series the character is from: Petshop of Horrors
Character's age: Unknown (looks mid/late-20s)
Character's gender: Male
Character’s “Real Name”: Damien Duan
How long have you role-played your character, if at all?: I’ve roleplayed Count D a few times a while ago, for about a year.
Where have you role-played in general and/or with this specific character?: I’ve played Count D in IM conversations. In general, I’ve RPed in various IMs, chatrooms, cosplays, and other characters in Landel’s.
Have you played the game/watched the movie or anime/read the book or comic, etc. that your character hails from?: I’ve read the entire series several times, and watched the anime.
Please give us a detailed personal history of your character:
In ancient China, there was a race of people with a strong connection to animals. These people were treated as priests and priestesses because they could communicate with animals and convey the prophecies told to them by the sacred beasts. One day, the emperor’s son asked one of the ‘priestesses’ to marry him. She ‘politely’ (I doubt it) refused him, and the man was heartbroken. In a rage caused by his rejection, he declared that these people were not human, that they were monsters and every one of them should be slaughtered.
And thus, this race of people was diminished to a single person. All alone and severely injured, he lay down on the ground to die, bequeathing his anger and pain to the afterlife. He vowed revenge on the humans for their violent ways, for mercilessly slaughtering both his race and many of the races of animals.
This person was D’s ancestor. Their race reproduces asexually, passing genes from one person straight to the next, which causes them to look like exact replicas. When one of them is killed, a new one is reborn in his place. They seem to never age, never die, but they can be killed just as easily as a human can.
From a young age, D was raised by his grandfather and taught to care for animals. The story of his ancestor was repeated to him several times over, ensuing that he knew how terrible humans were. To play his part in fulfilling the revenge, he set up a pet shop in Los Angeles. Here, he sold exotic animals with contracts attached. The general rule was simple: “Should you break the contract, the pet shop cannot be held responsible for the outcome.” Usually, this meant the death of the pet’s owner. Sometimes it was worse. And almost always, it was because of some moral defect in the owner.
Still, if an owner could adhere to the rules, the pet would grant them their deepest desire, whatever it may be. Once in the back rooms and under the influence of the strong incense, the customers would be able to see the animals’ human forms, though D would convince them that they were still just animals.
Catching wind of the mysterious deaths by wild animals, a homicide detective by the name of Leon Orcot began frequenting the pet shop, hoping to catch D in some suspected illegal act, like drug-selling or slave-trading. Leon was quite inventive with his imagined crimes. Eventually as time passed, the two formed a sort of friendship, though they fought constantly. Still, Leon began coming to D for advice and company, rather than trying to lock him away. Though, he would claim the latter was still a top priority.
At one point, he brought Chris, his mute kid brother, and began leaving him for D to baby-sit while he was on the job. At first, D was appalled that Leon would leave a child in his shop, but he took a liking to the meek boy when he found out that he could see the animal’s human forms without his help. And despite being mute, the boy could speak to the animals through his thoughts and the animals could understand him.
A little less than two years after meeting Leon, D was tracked down by an FBI agent by the name of Howell, who was searching for his father. Having given Chris back to his aunt and uncle, D quickly packed up and left, carrying only a briefcase. Mysteriously, the animals were also gone. Realizing D had fled, Leon began to search for him and stumbled upon D’s father (Also named ‘D’), mistaking him for D. With Leon in tow, D’s father returned to his indoor garden home, situated on the upper three floor of a building complex. It was here that he abandoned Leon with the wild animals that lived with him, giving the cop the ultimatum of the wild: Kill or be killed.
At the same time, D was being chased down by Agent Howell outside of town. After being shot on the run, D threw himself into a river gorge. With D gone, Howell checked the ground for blood for a DNA sample, but found none. Only mysterious flowers left along the trail. Eventually, D’s briefcase washed up and Howell confiscated it, heading back to town.
Meanwhile, D was dragged out of the river by his animal friends. When Howell wasn’t looking, he somehow slipped into his car and hid in the backseat. While the agent was driving, D slipped a knife to his throat. After failing to convince Howell that he and his father weren’t the same person, D suggested that Howell turn the car around and head back to LA to meet his father.
Upon reaching the garden complex, the two parties joined and D discovered a very injured, but still alive, Leon. Worried that Leon might die from his severe injuries, D quickly tended to his wounds, though the bleeding persisted. It was then that D’s father revealed his plan to rid Earth of the human race with biological warfare: a virus that would only target humans. As he was planning to unleash this virus, D tried to stop him. I believe because, unlike his father, D still held out for some small hope that the human race wasn’t entirely terrible. After all, he was fond of Leon and Chris. And there were customers who had kept to their contracts.
Still, D’s father wouldn’t listen to him, and it was ultimately Leon who stopped him the only way he could: With a bullet to the head. Doing this, however, caused D’s father to hit the button that he claimed would release the virus into the air. Instead, it created an explosion which set fire to the entire upper part of the building.
Dying, D’s father instructed his son not to embrace hope again. To never forgive the humans for what they had done. With his death came a burst of energy, figures of animals swirling through the rooms, mingling with the fire. Agent Howell was caught in the burst and died instantly. Amazingly, in the place where D’s father had died now rested a newborn human child. D’s grandfather, who had been present at D’s side the entire time by masquerading as a pet, took the child to raise once more and left the building, leaving D and Leon to themselves.
Instead of killing Leon for shooting his father, which is what the cop expected, D helped him to his feet, heading for the roof to escape the growing fire. Perplexed by his behavior, Leon informed D that he had no intention of dying with him. D merely smiled and jumped from the roof, taking Leon with him. The world faded to black as they fell.
When he came to again, Leon found himself miraculously flying, spotting D not a moment later in a large boat sailing through the clouds. Climbing on board, he found it was really the pet shop, and he could finally see the animals’ true forms. D explained that this way, he could travel the world without worrying about the borders than humans had drawn. But this was where Leon’s journey would end. With a tear running down his cheek, he pushed Leon from the boat, returning him to his world where his family waited in the hospital for him to wake. The only explanation he gave was “Humans have not earned the right to board this ship. Not yet.”
Please give us a detailed description of your character's personality:
D has a complex personality. On the outside, he very well-mannered and polite to those who show him respect. He almost never yells and rarely gets upset (with the exception of being around Leon). He always has a cool temper and a superior air about him. He’s also very proper and dislikes unnecessary violence and vulgarity, something that he claims Americans, like Leon, excel at.
On the inside, D’s mindset is very convoluted. He’s been raised to exact revenge on the human race, something he feels obligated to do for the sake of animals. Something his kind has done for generations. And yet at the same time, unlike his ancestors, I think he wishes that he could stop it. I believe he embraces the hope that there might be humans who aren’t guilty of the cruelties that the rest of the race has been charged with, but he is almost always disappointed.
Generally, he dislikes those who are cruel or hurtful, usually finding a way to punish them, while tolerating those who are kind. There are very few humans he truly likes, Leon and Chris more than likely being the only two. Despite being human, he cares for their safety, whether he admits it to himself or not. He sometimes even contradicts his own standards for their sakes. These two have come the closest to being ‘worthy’ in his eyes, both Orcots being true to their feelings and instinctively noble, wishing to protect those weaker than them, rather than destroy them.
Please give us a detailed physical description of your character:
D is a young Chinese man with short, straight black hair. His left eye is violet, while his right eye is gold, though the right eye is usually obscured enough by his hair that the odd color isn’t noticed. He has very feminine features (several people have mistaken him for a woman) and a slim figure with perfect posture. He also has very long, sharp nails.
What point in time are you taking your character from when he/she appears at Landel's?:
I’m taking D from post-series, sometime after he pushes Leon from his boat, but before he sets up shop elsewhere, as he will probably eventually do.
What kinds of magical/special/crazy powers does your character have, if any?:
Count D has a strong connection to the animal kingdom, and has the ability to speak to any animal. I imagine that through this connection he would also be able to sense if an animal has been changed to a human, as with some of the other patients.
His main ability is that he can summon both plants and animals. All he needs is a drop of his blood. He can also manipulate the minds of humans; though it’s never discussed in great detail just how far he can go with that. He’s constantly warping the reality of his customers once they step inside his shop, and he once erased someone’s memories for one evening.
If present, how do you plan to tweak those powers to make him/her appropriately hindered in the setting of Landel's?:
I plan on allowing D to keep his power to speak with animals (it might give the people playing creatures an interesting new twist if they’d like to have them ‘speak’ back).
As for summoning plants and animals, I’m definitely not going to give him that. =3 There’s enough man-eating creatures running around Landel’s as it is.
Same goes with the ‘manipulating minds’ thing.
Does your character have any other non-magical skills or abilities that we should know about?:
Count D has very sharp nails, sort-of like claws. If possible, I’d like to let him keep those, since otherwise he’d be entirely defenseless. (And he’ll bitch and moan up a storm if someone cuts them.)
Not really an ability, more like a disadvantage, but I don’t know where else to put it: D has a heart condition that doesn’t allow for very much endurance. He can run around and everything, but he tires quickly if he does.
How about improbable appendages?:
None.
Please give us an idea of where you'd like to take your character within the scope of the Landel's Damned RP:
D’s not really a ‘people person’. He wouldn’t make many friends (if any), but he might ally himself with others once he finds the building to be more than he can handle alone. After seeing what Landel’s does to the animals at night, D would be mainly interested in finding the Head Doctor to pay him back for the things he’s done.
What kind of psychological effect do you see Landel's Institute having on your character?:
D would be most greatly disturbed by the change in the animals. He wouldn’t really care about what the building does to the people. He’s sort of in the same business, after all, so he kinda turns the other cheek to human-on-human cruelty, though he’ll still scoff at it.
Given that this RP takes place in an unsettling and outright horrific environment, how do you justify your character as being appropriate in both body and mind for this kind of setting?:
Petshop of Horrors is part of the horror genre, and essentially a collection of macabre tales. Count D is, for the most part, the cause for the horror in these tales. He sells animals to people that he knows will brutally slaughter them if they don’t keep to the guidelines he sets. He’s fed people to wild animals and smiled about it. Some of the stuff in Landel’s will undoubtedly disturb him, but it’s nothing his mindset can’t handle.
Third-Person Sample:
The door shut softly on the back of his latest customer and Count D allowed his business smile to fade. Another contact. Another broken contract, more than likely, but there was always the slim chance that this human would be decent.
D turned away and lifted the contract, tossing it onto the growing pile on the desk. He could get to it later. A later that didn’t seem to ever come, considering the mess that the desk was in. But it was tea time now, and he couldn’t be bothered with mundane paperwork.
Once it was certain that the customer was gone, Tetsu crawled out from under the couch and voiced his opinion. “Geez, why don’t you just let us eat them when they come in? You know it’ll be the same outcome.”
D smiled as he moved to fetch the tea tray from its usual place, glancing back to watch the totetsu flop himself onto the cushions and stretch out lazily. “Now, now, there is always that slim chance that they might listen, right?” Tetsu gave a grunt of disagreement, but couldn’t do much more than that before the door slammed open. For a moment, D thought it might have been broken and was fully prepared to shower Leon with a healthy dose of annoyance. He knew it was Leon because, of course, no one made an entrance like his detective…
“Alright D! What kind of deal did you make this time? Opium? Weed? Little indonesian children? Fess up, I’m onto you!”
D frowned at the accusations and had to wonder from where exactly where Leon got his material. Indonesian children? Hardly. Not only would it be implausible to even stock those (not like you could ship them in a box or something), but he hated children quite passionately. Nothing but a bunch of lawless heathens.
“Nothing quite that illegal, my dear detective,” D replied smoothly as he brought the already prepared tea tray to the coffee table where he entertained only his most important clients…and the detective that was now seated there. “I merely sold him a griffin. A female one, at that. They grow to a smaller stature then the males, so they make better pets. I believe that one will be approximately six feet at maturity.” He poured himself and Leon a cup of tea as he rattled off this information, an almost cat-like smile gracing his dark lips. He was quite pleased with the baffled expression on Leon’s face. Perhaps this was why he kept the detective around...
“Bullshit.” Leon was a far cry from believing this, but he wasn’t above accepting (taking advantage of) D’s hospitality, namely the teacup offered to him. D wondered to himself when Leon had stopped suspecting poison in each cup of tea. Probably about the same time he started visiting D’s shop on an almost daily basis, which was more often for kicks than for actual police work.
“Stop giving me this stupid mythology crap and tell it to me straight! You know as well as I do that those things aren’t real.”
Ah, there it was. A common factor that graced most of humanity. It didn’t exist if you couldn’t see it with your own eyes. Nothing was real if you didn’t have proof that it was there. Humans were so deluded by their own senses. D couldn’t help but think of his pet shop as ‘charity work’. ‘Helping’ one human at a time.
“Are you quite sure of that, Mr. Detective?” Count D smiled again, his fey-like eyes narrowing on Leon’s form. He took a sadistic sort of pleasure in the fact that this look always gave Leon chills. This was going to be a very interesting conversation…
First-Person Sample:
Count D wouldn’t write in a journal on the off chance that the staff would have access to it. He could write in characters, but he wouldn’t trust them to be Chinese-illiterate, either.
