✞Profile for Abraham Van Helsing☧

[master_helsing]

"You are clever man, friend John; you reason well, and your wit is bold; but you are too prejudiced. You do not let your eyes see nor your ears hear, and that which is outside your daily life is not of account to you. Ah, it is the fault of our science that it wants to explain all; and if it explain not, then it says there is nothing to explain."

Van Helsing laments the narrow and prejudiced vision of Seward, the rational man of science who understands nothing about the ultimate cause of Lucy's death and the Un-dead Lucy's preying upon children. If Seward has no "data," he is unable to draw any conclusion and therefore unable to act. He does not believe in vampires because there is no proof, so he is vulnerable to the Count's evil. Van Helsing, in contrast, knows this territory because he has kept an open mind and has drawn upon a broad base of knowledge, from modern science to ancient lore.

Player Information

Name: Bram
Age: N/A
AIM SN: N/A
email: N/A
Have you played in an LJ based game before? Yes
Bonus: How did you hear about Siren's Pull? Through untamable_angel

Character Information

General
Canon Source: Hellsing
Canon Format: Animanga
Character's Name: Professor Abraham Van Helsing, M.D., D.Ph., D.Litt, etc.
Character's Age: late-50's
Conditional: If your character is 13 years of age or under, please clarify how they will be played. N/A

What form will your character's NV take? Phelps' Electro-motor Printing Telegraph from circa 1880 with portable Caton Lineman's Pocket Relay "Test set" AKA the portable wire-tapper circa 1871.

Recently upgraded to a Portable Data Processor

Abilities
Character's Canon Abilities:

Professor Van Helsing is most notably a reputed polymath, with an erudite's wealth of knowledge in many different disciplines. Not only has he revolutionized therapeutics by his discovery of the continuous evolution of brain-matter, he has done extensive research in the fields of metaphysics, law, and philosophy, earning him thus the string of letters after his name.

While most easily identified as a medical doctor, his considerable array of Doctorates amass to classify him as someone whose contributions to the humanities have benefited academia/society in a significant way. This would coincide with his honorary title of Literrarum Doctor, in addition to his life-long devotion to the study of the human condition.

A man of infinite passions, his keen interests in the minute details of the world make him one of the most brilliant minds of his time. When it comes to the unusual and obscure in particular, he is master of his craft.

Among other less-than-orthodox things, Abraham is well-versed in the works of the Occult and granted Indulgence in Vatican Exorcism. His extensive knowledge spans to the expulsion of dark forces through the binding of demons, the protoscience of alchemy, and hypnosis. His most distinguished, albeit privy, trade is the extermination of Vampires and other creatures of the preternatural.

As Hellsing brings out most especially, he is the sole figure to have brought Dracula under his control through the use of ‘binding seals’. Through their bonded blood, Abraham can control the vampire’s every move, allow him use of his vampiric power, and disallow the use of his power entirely. Dracula is Abraham’s slave, fully and completely.

Conditional: If your character has no superhuman canon abilities, what dormant ability will you give them?

As the Patriarchal Antithesis to vampirism, Abraham has perfected his trade over a number of decades. Well into his late 50's now, while his mind and vigor have not waned, his age is beginning to show. To counteract this menace to humanity, upon a spike in his adrenaline, Abraham will be taken back to his prime.

His power, essentially, is to regenerate his body into the figure he was at 30 years old. The zenith of his life. If extreme call for alarm is afoot, the Superficial Regeneration will kick in, causing him to grow young temporarily, turning back the clock in that any injury he might have sustained before the transformation, will have also healed.

Weapons:
Standard Vampire Hunter Kit.
White silver-braided whip.
Standard Medical Bag.

History/Personality/Plans/etc.

Character History:

Abraham’s Hellsing Wiki Article
Abraham’s Wikipedia Excerpt
Abraham’s OVA debut
Manga volumes in which he appears: Volume 4, Volume 8, and Volume 10

" For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: But the word of the Lord endureth for ever."

~ 1st Peter 1:24-25 by Abraham Van Helsing—Volume 4, Order 5: Call to Power

Abraham Van Helsing is the cornerstone of his family’s blood-written legacy. As Alpha and Omega of the Destruction of all things Abominable in the eyes of God, his knowledge was passed down through generations, leaving behind the blueprints to the cleansing of Darkness from this world. Introduced to the public eye through the epistolary publication “Dracula”, he makes a prodigious entrance that brands itself as the terror of the supernatural. He is the nightmare to the things that make nightmares.

The manga Hellsing brings the man’s great accomplishments to the forefront through a series of flashbacks--The first of which highlights the dawn of the 6th of November, 1897, the aurora of Dracula’s second death.

It was said at the final confrontation at Dracula’s castle, the brave men, Van Helsing, John Seward, Arthur Holmwood, and with the sad loss of Quincey Morris, did away with Dracula by way of a silver dagger to his heart and a machete to his neck. With Mina freed of the curse with the monster’s death, the final chapter of their nightmarish tale had been thought to have come to a close.

Yet as Integra Hellsing, Abraham’s grand-daughter brings out, all of this became documented as a fantasy written by one Abraham "Bram" Stoker, the pen name of Abraham Van Helsing. He published it to the world so that Dracula’s legacy would be seen as nothing but a boogeyman tale to tell to children at night. He would be a farce. Forever enslaved on written page, never again to be feared as a real threat to humanity. The book itself, as Integra instructed to the mercenaries, the Wild Geese, would serve as their guide-book to the destruction of all vampiric enemies they would encounter.

Every word written was truth but the very tool in which Dracula was slain. In volume 10, Walter reveals that Dracula indeed did live, which with great misfortune, left the blood still infected in the body of Mina Harker, of which she had drank. The first flashback in Volume 4 unveils that instead of a silver dagger, a wooden stake, a tool used only to paralyze the creature into submission, was what ended Dracula’s reign. With the creature immobilized and by his colleague’s invocation, Abraham then took the body of Dracula to ‘dispose of’, yet instead had the creature sent back to his home in Amsterdam where he sought to imprison it.

Through the arts of the occult, Abraham managed to create a binding sigil which could fetter the monster to the will of his blood. Upon Dracula’s hands were branded the markings of Heaven and Hell. Scarifications that would never heal and allowed Abraham and all his offspring thereafter to use Dracula as the vaccine to the viral infestation of vampirism plaguing the earth.

With this task fulfilled, he created what was known as The Hellsing Organization: A secret institution that hired soldiers to be trained in the art of vampire extermination and other-worldly creatures. Dracula, enslaved to Abraham’s bloodline, would serve as his personal trump-card and weapon against the vampire’s own kind. With his life reversed from King to Slave, so in turn was his name. Dracula to Alucard.

"Reverse the life, reverse the name."

Point in Canon: Shortly after Sealing Dracula. A year after the events of Dracula the Novel, Abraham has put a stranglehold on the legendary beast and taken the King of the Night and made him into a Slave of Mankind. To expand his research on the powerful beast, he uproots his entire estate in Amsterdam and moves to London where he procures land not far from the original Carfax Abbey and erects Hellsing Manor.

A facility built with the keen specifications of keeping the monster Dracula contained and for many of his unfortunate kind to be kept and experimented on in the ghastly lower-reaches of the mansion. Dracula has been rendered into a dog to be kept at Abraham’s feet, and with the fruits of his labor finally starting to grow; he begins to make arrangements to announce to the only man of whom he would call ‘Brother’, just what he has accomplished.

Conditional: Brief summary of previous RP history: N/A


Character Personality:

" He is a seemingly arbitrary man, this is because he knows what he is talking about better than any one else. He is a philosopher and a metaphysician, and one of the most advanced scientists of his day, and he has, I believe, an absolutely open mind.

This, with an iron nerve, a temper of the ice-brook, and indomitable resolution, self-command, and toleration exalted from virtues to blessings, and the kindliest and truest heart that beats, these form his equipment for the noble work that he is doing for mankind, work both in theory and practice, for his views are as wide as his all-embracing sympathy. "

~Dr. John Seward

In the Victorian age, where science was advancing, and beliefs of the superstitious were slowly fading away, men like Abraham Van Helsing were few and far between. Some would say his mind was so open his brain could fall out. He was seen as a witchdoctor and a quack, for the prejudice of men of science at that time did not account for his unorthodox methods of treatment. The development of systematic medical education in teaching hospitals and universities throughout Great Britain and much of Europe during the latter half of the nineteenth century ignored the potential for “extraneous” or peculiar thinking to such a profound degree that the ingenuity in which Van Helsing fashioned his practice would have been quickly suppressed by any “established” committee for fear that the unusual would breed queer and/or problematic theory.

Van Helsing's brilliance made him impatient with the constraints and rigidity of the conventional medical sciences, which were then purely experimental, yet anything seen remotely less than “logical” was damned as a farce. His eccentricity can partially be attributed to how frustrated he became by the narrow-minded perspectives of scientists during that time. When he's attempting to convince his friend John Seward that Lucy has succumbed to the disease of vampirism, he says: “. . . Do you not think that there are things which you cannot understand, and yet which are; that some people see things that others cannot? . . . It is the fault of our science that it wants to explain all; and if it explain not, then it says there is nothing to explain.”

Equally a philanthropist and humanitarian, his sympathetic nature gives him an inherent inspiration to work towards the betterment of mankind, even to such an extent that he would place himself into harm's way for his fellow man. He is, in a word, the embodiment of humanity itself, having a nerve of steel and a heart of the purest gold. The good Professor is almost a saviour-like figure in the sense that he would thwart all manners of sorcery and demons in order to save the souls of those he loves, going to such lengths as to conceal the ungodly truth from them if only to protect and shield their hearts from what atrocities hide within the night rather than out of any fear of doubt. He would take on the sins of the world if only to keep the sanity of men intact, having suffered much heartbreak throughout his life that to lose a friend, new or old, would devastate him.

He was a stalwart man, with a kingly disposition. His presence called to command and his voice soothed to the ears. Stern but blithe when need be, he had all the grand furnishings of a great patriarch. Devout not only in his faith as a strict Catholic, he dedicated himself to the sciences, and remained loyal even to his so-called “not-wife” who detained lost in schizophrenia in an insane asylum.

Describing his adventure in London and Romania as the first time he had made so many allies in so little time, Abraham was one to keep to himself. His work and vast tomes secluded him from the world for many years, making him somewhat of a shut-in after his wife lost her mind with the death of his first-born son. Figures in books replaced people, food, and other necessities of life.

It was not until his student’s call to him that he was reintroduced to the world he had shied himself away from. This detachment from the public left him with a rather peculiar and cynical sense of humor. His words come oft unorthodox, perhaps even offensive. Yet rest assured, Abraham always means well in the things his says; Never wishing ill on any human soul.

This condition however does not pertain to the creatures which wish humanity harm; to whom his countenance turns mercilessly wrathful and violent, perhaps even sadistic in nature.

Personality Quirks: Abraham tends to hiss inwardly when physically upset by something or to freeze and draw in his breath when something ultimately profound seizes upon him whether it be an idea or a cause for horror. His hiss is oftentimes a precursor to a climactic event. He is also quick to anger when his train of thought is disrupted.

As a Victorian Dutchmen his convoluted English speech-patterns are oftentimes grammatically erroneous, prone as well to slipping quips of German, most especially when he is perturbed. The only person he is known to show his true distressful feelings to is his student, Seward. Otherwise, Abraham is a well reserved gent who will sugar-coat most grievances with a kind smile if he feels his words will do more harm than good.


Conditional: Personality development in previous game: N/A

Character Plans: To uncover the mysteries of this new land, destroy all creatures who are a threat to humanity, and set up a clinic for the betterment of the public.

Appearance/PB: Abraham’s appearance will be that of which he takes in the Hellsing OVAs. A man of intimidating stature; cloaked in a red duster (one of which is seen later worn by Alucard), a black ascot, a dark grey suit and matching slacks. His hair is long graying, auburn-red, and wiry past his ears, but kept swept back. Distinguishable markings are that of his piercing blue eyes and a jagged scar upon his left eye; this scar gives him a faint lazy-eyed appearance.

For RL icons, his PB shall be the Anthony Hopkins version of Abraham Van Helsing, whose appearance is similar, save for his height.



Writing Samples

First Person Sample
[A sequacity of beeps filters through the crackling of static. Seemingly erratic at first, the sequence shows a keen articulation and anyone who knew such a sound would recognize it as Morse Code through a Telegraphed line. It was against his better judgment to have broken into this run-down flat. A sort of modern architecture he attributed to the Americas rather than merry old England from which he hailed from.

Yet this was for the good of humanity, or perhaps himself, for the good and purity of his spirit. Something had gone terribly wrong. One moment he was staring into the eyes of his most hated foe and enslaved monster, the next... he was crouched in this dingy room, braiding strange circuitry to his telegraph in order to send out a distress signal.]


S-O-S


[The distress signal was universal, yet for him it held to its archaic meaning:

Save Our Souls.]


I am bamboozled. Stop.

Surely shanghaied on foreign soil. Stop.

I am Van Helsing of Amsterdam. Stop.

If you receive of this message please enlighten me. Stop.


Third Person Sample


A year passed since that fateful dawn in the Carpathians. A year past since London was covered in a fierce shadow of death, and with the hand of God’s right, it was ripped away as a veil. Light shined again upon the misty city and that shadow was sentenced to a cruel fate. One as cruel as it’s very abhorrent existence and rightly deserved.

Van Helsing sat in the orange glow of lamplight at a desk prepared in the deepest reaches of his mansion. The Dungeon. Quill-pen in an articulate hand, he went about writing a letter of his most recent accomplishment. Steel-borne eyes glanced up at a mirror upon the polished desktop, noting only a pair of fiery orbs staring back at him with starving intent.

The sterling mirror could serve no other purpose but to capture those disembodied embers. For across from him, behind silver-plated and blessed bars of iron, was his soulless enemy and servant. Chained to a wall, fetters so tight they were biting into it’s ashen flesh and had long scalded it to the bone, was a creature so garish it looked as if it had been rejected from the Gates of Hades. Abraham’s life work, and soon to be the laurel of his very bloodline. He as master, called this beast: Alucard.

A desecrated name that embodied everything that this thing now was. A name, that reserved, marked it as a royal, a tyrant, a figure to be lauded. This was what Dracula once was. Now he was nothing but a dog, a pauper, a slave. Reverse the life, reverse the name. This was the first blow that Abraham struck the monster with after defeating him and making him tame.

A victorious little smirk etched the old man’s weathered mouth to see the beast so lethargic and lambasted, barely able to keep it’s own head up. The way the chains jingled when their eyes met was like music to Abraham’s ears. It was the sound of Alucard’s terror; how his body quivered from just a look from those harsh Nordic eyes piercing down into him like lightning bolts from unmerciful God. Satisfied with the beast’s quavering reaction, the professor continued with his penning.

“2nd September, 1898

My dearest Friend—

Far and too long have we been apart, and before I begin, I ask in advance for your patience and forgiveness. My work since the venture, of which we do not speak, has taken a toll on my mind and body.”

He paused to wring his fingers for a moment, as if to loosen invisible binds that were threaded around them. What that feeling was, was the blood he had braided with the devil across from him. The blood was once that creature’s life, now it was the one thing that kept it chained to the soul of a man who conquered it.

“An excuse I wish to make double the amends for and as well to tell you of imperative news that I would whisper to no other man. News so much so staggering it will change the course of mankind’s history. To you, I send a fly quickly, so that we be part for not a day more.

To please, you will stay for a long repast, and tell me of all of your marvels. In turn I will reveal to you my long awaited milestone. Till I hear from you then goodbye, my friend John.

Van Helsi--”

The jangle of the chains sparked his peculiar anger at being interrupted by a single sound. An order he had given the beast prior to him beginning his letter. Staring back at the monster, that fear he delighted in was replaced by red-hot defiance, and upon the creature’s serpentine lips, Van Helsing could clearly see a brave little simper.

“What has you so amused, Vampir, that you break the single order I give, and thus forfeit your meal for the night?” Such a waste. He had been sure the beast knew better by now than to test his master’s reserve. A long silence met him before he took note of the demon’s wandering eyes, that looked not at his own, but far below his chin. To the scrap of parchment upon which he was writing.

“Speak, slave!” Abraham’s sharp command shuddered the walls and reverberated through the gaunt frame of the beast.

“Are you so bold to believe, Master, that your consort will not reject your news? News that I, I who drank from the very woman of which he so lusted for, still live?”

The chair upon which Abraham sat clattered against the wall as he stood with a violent fury. How dare this abomination still have the gall to think he can mock him, let alone pry his voyeuristic eyes at his privy business.

“What drank from that pure women is long dead! The Count of whom you once were is no more, gone, ash scattered to the crossroads. What you are is only a shadow of it to be stepped under foot. Mire to be scrapped off the heels! This, the pathetic mongrel that you are, is what the man who helped in your demise, will surely see!”

With those wrath-filled words, Abraham fished into his claret-colored duster and reeled in his grasp a daunting weapon of punishment. A whip, white with the finest leathers and shimmering in threaded strands of silver smelted from a Cross from Lancaster Cathedral.

“Turn your back so that your shrill howling will remind you that you are nothing.

Nothing but a dog.”