Thread:Cperez13/@comment-8483090-20151127050327

Okay, so it took me like over a month, but I finished my WoP character af! So, here it is! Hope chu enjoy. If you have any questions or wish to change just things, just hit me up. I don't got a theme yet, but when I do I'll let you know.

  Portrayed by: Paul Blackthorne

DATA

 * Age: 45
 * Ethnicity: Caucasian-American
 * Origin: United States of America
 * Gender: Male
 * Occupation: Vigilante, Cab Driver
 * Info needed:
 * He is a heavy drinker and addicted to pain killers
 * He uses Escrima Sticks during combat, although he can do just fine without them

Costume wise it looks like Ezio from Revelations, minus the cape-like fabric.

PERSONALITY
Tackling insurmountable odds, Douglas Graham faces every situation with a 'John McClane' type wit and a very dark sense of humor which joins his nothing-to-lose demeanor. Doug has a poetic sense of describing his actions. He does not believe his doings are heroic and he believes he should be punished for his actions. Doug's pessimistic view on life and his inability to have fun is very noticeable. Doug has a dark and dry sense of humor. He can be very sarcastic, and jokes in the face of death. Doug, along with his humor, is very morbid.

Doug pursues his enemies with deep perseverance, some even say fanatically. No matter how injured he might be or how many laws he might be breaking, when he sets his sights on his target, he refuses to let go of them. Whatever it might be that impedes serving his revenge Doug is not hesitant to overcome. Doug seemed to have started to experience a more pronounced degree of PTSD currently, and has feelings of emptiness in his life, possibly due to the fact that Doug no longer had an actual purpose to live for having fulfilled his vengeance. He is in complete depression resorting to substance abuse with alcohol and painkillers. Whatever motivation that Doug holds on to is desperation and survival. Despite this he seems at times to display a certain sense of honor, even with his dark and melancholic perception of the world around him.

While not an introvert, his lack of social life tends people to mistake him as one. Having been betrayed too many times, Doug prefers to stick to himself, but has no problems with having company; however if he ever has company, most are put off by his attitude. He is an expert sharpshooter and great at hand-to-hand combat. Douglas, at heart, holds a love for the others, and it is this that has turned him to being a vigilante.

ABILITIES

 * Peak Human Conditioning
 * Honed Senses
 * Marksmanship
 * Tracking
 * Hand to Hand Combat
 * Investigation
 * Interrogation
 * Acrobatics/Freerunning
 * Master of Stealth

POWERS
Although Douglas has magical abilities, he hasn’t expanded on them, and only uses them when needed. Due to his basic skill, the abilities he does know aren’t as powerful as they can be, but if he trains on her inner magic they can be much more powerful. The stuff below are only the stuff he knows, but he can learn to do more tricks if needed:
 * Basic Magic
 * Exorcism
 * Telekinesis
 * Necromancy
 * Electricity Manipulation
 * Illusion Manipulation
 * Abjuration

PRE-APOCALYPSE
Douglas was born to Michael Nester and Mariah Diekman, but the family was far from idyllic. In fact, Michael and Mariah never planned on having a child. In fact, Mariah was a prostitute who Michael hired one lonely night. Unable to go through with the abortion, Mariah decided to keep the baby with Michael, who was very reluctant. In the end he stuck around.

During his early childhood, his parents were not close. Michael, a soldier in the war, was off fighting in the war, leaving Douglas left with Mariah. Mariah, who was only in her mid twenties (unlike Douglas, who was in his late thirties), kept her job as a prostitute in order to raise money. Douglas grew used to having different men over every night, and there were even more times when he walked in on his mother and the man. Point being, while Mariah’s job position was not the best for a child, she still did care for Douglas.

When his father returned home, Douglas was the age of five, and obviously excited to finally spend time with his father. However, Michael didn’t come home the same man. Instead he came home battered and scarred, with a heavy case of PTSD. He was no longer the same person that the prostitute Mariah stuck around for, instead he was darker, more distant, and paranoid. He fell into drinking to keep his anger tamed, but yet, Mariah stuck around, believing that the man she accidently for fell for was still in there.

Poor Douglas was stuck watching this happen. He would watch as his father came home in his fits of rage and abuse his mother. To Douglas, Michael showed no little affection (missing his birthday, etc..). Instead, Michael wanted to toughen Douglas up for the dark world. During this time his mother would grow distant and more fearful, and while she tried comforting Douglas whenever she could, she was to afraid of Michael to show affection toward Douglas.

When Douglas was around ten, his home life completely fell apart. As it turns out, Michael has been cheating on Mariah for some time now with many different mistresses. The revelation completely shattered Mariah, and in a moment of desperation, popped a bunch of pills in her mouth; like expected she died from it. It wasn’t her plan to commit suicide but that’s how it went. The incident trashed little Douglas, but Michael moved on quickly. Two nights later he invited over one of his mistresses into his dead wife’s house. It was around this that Douglas began to blame all his problems on his father

While Michael and his mistress were in the living room, Douglas took out a toy revolver and intimated Michael with it. Michael, having heavy PTSD of his war experiences, was freaked. It only got worse when Douglas pulled the trigger and pretended to shoot his father in the head. Michael freaked out and had a panic attack in the middle of the room. For the few months Douglas would torture Michael with memories of his war history, until finally, when Michael died. How did he die? Michael was killed in just an ordinary bar fight, but nethertheless, he was dead. Douglas felt nothing.

With nowhere else to go, Douglas was shipped off to where he lived up until his teenager years. In the orphanage he was very secluded, often spending more time with himself than other kids. It’s not that he was shy, just angry. He was a young boy filled with rage, and most of the other kids were in fact scared him. However, still, he stayed at the orphanage because he had nowhere else to go. It wasn’t until fourteen when Douglas finally ran away from the orphanage.

Out onto the road as an angry young man, he had nowhere to go and no idea what to do. Most kids would have died or crawled back to the orphanage, but not Douglas. Luck was on his side because when he was at his most desperate he met William Ricketts. William Ricketts was quite the story. He was an altruistic and idealistic rouge who honestly believed he could make a difference in the world. How did he want to make a difference? Through violence.

William was a very loyal and charismatic man, who willingly took in Douglas. Being a young boy filled with rage, Douglas was drawn to the way William worked, seeing it as a way to let loose some of his rage. William trained Douglas in survivalism (gun training, fighting, etc…), while at the same time, filling his head with his philosophy. William fashioned himself as a Robin Hood figure, taking money from those who had more than they ever needed, and giving it to those who had very little and truly needed it. He saw himself as a symbol of hope and champion to the people by opposing government control, the advancement of technology, supporting individual liberty, and punishing general human cruelty and selfishness. Over time, Douglas fell into his mindset and planned to change the world with him and the other members of the gang.

There were only a few other members of the gang, all of them around Douglas’s age. William only took in those filled with anger toward the wrong reason, and in turn, pointed their anger in the right direction. There was Zachary Dickens, an arrogant sonuvabitch, Javier Alvarez, a slimy bastard who takes the easy way out, and a man known as “Brick”, the silent henchman type. There was also the young, brash girl named Paige Roberts, who acted as the ‘medic’, ‘cooker’, ‘getaway driver’, and finally, the group whore who slept around with them when needed.

Once the gang was ready, they began their effort to change the world. They committed robberies, murders, raids, kidnapping, and other crimes across the States. While they did want to elicit change across the States, they were slowly becoming notorious and feared instead of being seen as ‘saviors’. If anything, people saw them as hypocrites. Still, they kept proposing to change the States.

While all this was still going on, the gang were still close. William kept being a father figure to them, and he imbued the gang with a strong sense of loyalty and cohesion; in a way, they were almost like family. During this time, Douglas and Paige formed a strong friendship. Instead of mindless mistreating her like the others, he treated her like a human (although he still did tap dat). It wasn’t until one day when there relationship was pushed to the next level when Paige became pregnant with Douglas’s child. She gave birth to the child and the two decided to keep their new baby girl. Her name was Rachel.

After this, Paige and Douglas formally betrothed, with Paige becoming fully devoted to Douglas (who is now 19). Still, despite having a baby, the two kept in their gang and traveled across the States. However, Douglas began to notice changes in William. William had slowly began to realize the futility of their cause. The government only got more powerful with new technology, the violence and greed of humanity had not stopped, with no one being inspired by his example. His dream had changed nothing. But worse, while his gang tried to change the world, they had become the worst humanity had to offer. After this, William’s idealism turned into anger and descended into madness.

Douglas began to notice these changes in the gang’s activities. They began performing more violent deeds with meaningless murder. With his baby girl getting older, Douglas began to wonder if he really wants her growing up in this sort of environment, and if he really wants her growing up to become like him. Over the next two years Douglas began to think about leaving with his family, but at the same time, felt like he couldn’t just give up on the man who practically raised him.

The decision became much easier during a failed bank robbery. It started like normal at first. They got in, held hostages, got the money out of the vault…..but it all went wrong when William killed most of the hostages for no reason whatsoever. The cops came down on them like hellfire, and they were forced to ditch the money. The four (Paige and Maidson stayed back at the hideout) were forced to run through the subway in a shootout with the police, were finally, Douglas was shot in the stomach. He expected his friends to save him and carry him to safety, but instead, they left him behind to save their own skin. They left Douglas to slowly bleed out and die in the subway. Luckily, Douglas crawled to safety and managed to hide from the cops, while at the same time, fixing his bullet wound (luckily the bullet went straight through).

After hiding out for the night, Douglas returned to their hideout the next morning and found his family and the gang there. While Rachel and Paige rejoiced his return, the gang simply greeted him, not caring that he almost died. This was the last straw for Douglas, and the next morning, he snuck out with his wife and daughter, leaving only a note behind. (This happened when he was around 24, btw).

The family of three snuck away from the gang’s current city and out to the countryside, thinking that’s where they can easily invade the police. After a few narrow escapes from the Police (who were hunting the gang), the three made it out of the state. Douglas could start a new life with his family, however, he just couldn’t get the thought of what happened to his former family out of his mind.

Deciding to live a remote life (because they had a less chance of being caught), the family of three started a life by opening a restaurant in a small town. Now, obviously, it took them awhile to get used to it. They weren’t restaurant owners, hell, they were fresh off the heels of being criminals. No way were they cut out to being real workers, but right now, it was one of the only options.

After awhile that had something small going. It wasn’t much, but it was something. Still, while he did have a new life that was safe for his daughter, he always thought about his old friends. Did they survive? He hasn’t heard any news reports about them in two years, in fact he stopped hearing reports a few years after he left. Even his daughter would ask about “Uncle William” or “Uncle Zachary”, and every time, he wouldn’t know how to answer.

POST APOCALYPSE
The end of the world was a tragedy, of course. Douglas watched with as the world fell apart, and in doing so, became dedicated to protecting his family. As the fall of cities became more rapid, and knowing there was not much the military could do, Douglas took his family into the countryside, starting up a farm for his family. Shielding this farm with fences, Douglas mostly took care of his family, but offered shelter to any friendly survivors if needed. For a while this worked.

He couldn’t escape his past forever, however. One sunny evening a couple of survivors arrived at his farm. Douglas took them in and cared for them, and in doing so, got to know them. The leader of this group, Andres Rivera, told Douglas how their safe zone, Detroit, has grown too corrupt due to a crimelord named William Ricketts. According to them, William secretly runs the city from the background and he has turned the city into his own criminal playground. The good cops there can’t get any evidence on him due to his corrupt men destroying it. The group admits that they tried tracking down with William, but the man’s paranoia has grown so strong that he constantly switches locations, so it is impossible to find him. (Ftr, it isn’t just one city. William and his men have control of most cities in Michigan, and they are creating their own empire. So, p much, all of Michigan is under their control. Detroit is just his capital.)

It is that night that the group’s leader, Andres Rivera, pulls out a badge and reveals himself as former FBI, who was among the men hunting down Douglas. Andres reveals that he wants Douglas to go eliminate William, as Douglas knows William better than anyone under his command. He also admits that he wasn’t searching for Douglas and was actually retreating, but now that he has a postivie ID on Douglas, he is gonna make him his puppet. When Douglas questions what happens if he doesn’t go, Andres ensures Douglas that if he doesn’t help Andres than Andres will make sure Douglas and his family will pay for his previous sins.

After a few days he arrived in Detroit, ready to do whatever it takes to take down his mentor. For the first few days he went around the city, asking and searching for any leads on where William could be. After a few days he managed to get a list of names of people involved with William, and after another few days, managed to get at least some of his old safehouses. However, while he was getting leads, William’s location was not clearer at all. The case was going nowhere.

One fateful evening, while stalking a bar that is known location for William’s men to drink, he notices a very familiar face; Brick. Quickly, and silently, Douglas follows Brick back to one of the hideouts, where much to his satisfaction, he sees William alive and well. This was his chance to take out William and go back to his family. After sneaking into the hideout, Douglas managed to get the perfect aim of William with his pistol. All he had to do was pull the trigger…..but he couldn’t. William was his family, he can’t just kill him. During this moment of hesitation he was caught by one of the guards. Quickly, Douglas attempted to escape the apartment while being shot at. He managed to escape out the side window, but not before William got a glance at him. After escaping the hideout a car chase ensured, with most of William’s men trying to kill him. Douglas killed most of them, but in the end, was forced to hide out the night.

Badly bruised from this fight, and knowing he can’t do this, Douglas blamed himself for being so irrational and trying to do this. Heading back to his hideout, Douglas debated his next move. However, upon arriving at his hideout, Douglas was met with a sight that still haunts him to this day. Hanged by their necks were the bruised, bloody, mutilated, naked bodies of Paige and Rachel. Douglas immediately broke down at the sight. His whole life just ripped away from him, just like that. This all soon turned into a fury, however, when he saw the message on the wall, written in their blood: YOU SHOULDN’T HAVE FUCKED WITH THE BOSS.

Douglas knew who did it, though. It had to have been William. Who else could it have been? William saw him the day before, then the next day his family is dead. In that moment all the pain and anger from his younger days came back to haunt him. William...needed to die. He no longer gave a fuck if he was former family or not: William deserved to die. Douglas needed vengeance.

He spent the next few days mourning and burying his family before finally heading back out there. He tracked down William this time with passion and fierce. He was holding out on killing William before, but now he wasn’t. He questioned anyone he thought was connected to William, killed them, and tracked them better than ever. It took him two fucking years before he finally found the location of Brick, who would surely lead him to William. He broke into Brick’s known location and soon confronted his old friend in the office room. Brick, like always, stayed silent and refused to answer Douglas’s questions. As time went on Douglas got blind in his rage, allowing Brick to get the surprise on him. Due to having no gun, Brick hit Douglas with a glass vase before making a run for it. Douglas chased Brick around the hideout, until Brick decided to escalate the game and ran onto the rooftops. Douglas kept pursuing him across the rooftops, and in a moment of desperation, Brick jumped on top of a moving train. Douglas, intent on getting his vengeance, jumped after him. Douglas and Brick fought it out (Douglas didn’t shoot him because he needed Brick alive), and although it was difficult since the train was moving at high speeds, both were keeping their balance. However, as the fight got more and more violent, Douglas was forced to shoot Brick to death.

As the train came to a stop at the next station, Douglas searched Brick’s body (which he held onto) and found a notebook containing all the hideouts for William, including a highlighted one which indicated the current one. What idiot would just keep information that important in his pocket? Douglas didn’t even dare ask that because he now had everything he needed to find William and put a bullet in his head.

Douglas spent no time getting to the hideout, which happened to be a penthouse. Sure, the penthouse was probably guarded by numerous guards, but Douglas didn’t care. With the few weapons he had, Doug broke into the penthouse and shot through all the henchman, until finally, arriving at the office where William was held up. This was the moment of truth. Doug kicked down the doors and held up his gun at William, who like expected, was sitting at his desk, a coffee in hand. He didn’t even try to stop Doug from killing him, in fact, he greeted Doug like a friend. Instead of escaping, William explained how much he missed Doug and what Doug missed after he left. After William got more insane, Zachary left them just like Doug, and Javier tried selling them over to the cops in exchange for a free slate. Only Brick stayed around. Doug didn’t say anything to William, instead he just let William vent about how he knew one day he was going to die, and about how fucked up the world is. “The world is beyond saving.” William explained said to Doug, and that was a line that stayed with him forever.

With his last words, however, William said that he didn’t kill Doug’s family, in fact he even said that he wouldn’t even touch them out of respect for Doug, who he considered to be his greatest product. Doug didn’t believe him. “I’m not your ‘greatest product’,” Doug assured him, “I’m your worst enemy.” Upon saying those words Doug shot William numerous times, in fact the force of the many bullets sent his body flying out the window behind him, crashing his body into the streets below.

The feeling Doug felt afterwards was….amazing. He felt satisfied, like he could breathe again. The man who murdered his family is finally dead. That night he slept better than he ever did before.

The next day he arrived back at his farm, not knowing what to do with his life. After a day or two, he was met with by Andres, who heard about William’s death. He congratulates Douglas on his success while apologizing that it was at the cost of his family. Doug said that William needed to die.. He then goes on to say that Andres is no different from William, with the only difference being how they’re on the opposite sides of the law. Andres smirks and says “actually, no”, and pulls a gun out on Doug. In that moment he calls Doug an idiot and reveals that he was never a cop. Instead he is a member of the mob led by Javier Alvarez, his old friend and another one of William’s students. Javier wanted to start his own criminal empire, but William was in the way, so he had the bright idea of using Douglas as their puppet, for as Javier put it, “Douglas was a dumbass, we can make him do this.”

Doug was being played by the start. He was being tricked by another criminal to get rid of William. Doug’s anger came back in that moment, and while Andres was to busy gloating, Doug leaped across the table and strangled him to death. His thirst for vengeance rose back up, and now he was going to find the mysterious man who has been tricking him since the start. Javier fuckin’ Alvarez.

It was from then on that Douglas began his pursuit of Javier, the man who has manipulated his life. He sent himself back into the criminal underworld, using many different aliases to get leads on Javier. After months of acting as a hitman for the mob, Douglas began getting tracks on his old brother in arms. Finally, he got a track on his location.

With only a few grenades and a rifle, Doug attacked the heavily armed warehouse, killing all who stood in his way. Finally he managed to corner Javier in the corner, where they met face to face for the first time in years. Doug’s attempt to kill him proved useless as Doug ran out of bullets and Javier was able to escape. He continued to chase Javier for a year. The two had many runs in, but each ended with Javier getting away.

The conflict came to a head when Javier was held up alone in a house. Having gotten paranoid from the time he spent running away from Doug, and losing all his power from Doug’s assault, he didn’t trust anyone, and thus stayed alone. That’s exactly how Doug wanted it. That night Doug calmly walked into the house, ready to finally kill Javier. There was no way he would escape now. Javier, after seeing Doug enter the house, managed to fatally stab Douglas in the stomach and jjumped from the window and landed on the street, where he fortunately broke his leg. However, to his luck, there happened to be a nearby horde of infected. Using his gun, Javier lured the infected to their location as he escaped into a nearby alley, leaving the infected for Douglas. Douglas, not willing to let Javier get away, fought his way through the horde with nothing but a revolver and machete.

The next morning, Douglas continued to follow Javier’s blood trail, soon finding him alone on a highway, limping to safety. Seeing Douglas nearby, he tried to limp faster, but his leg gave out on him, allowing Douglas to approach him. Javier begged for his life, and while begging, revealed he had Paige killed because she discovered the truth about Andres after overhearing a conversation. “It was just business, amigo. I’m sorry, Doug. Me and you, we’re family, we can come back from this.” Javier pleaded. Javier then went on to beg some more, saying he could help Doug, but before he could finish, Douglas began to strangle the man. Slowly, Douglas watched as the coward’s face turned purple, and soon enough, Javier was dead in his hands.

A smile on his face, Douglas slumped against the highway. His vengeance was now complete, and after years of fighting, he can finally die in peace. Resting his head against the railing, Douglas closed his eyes, accepting that his death is near due to the fatal stab wound. He was ready to see his family again. As he felt his life slipping away, he was soon surrounded by hooded men, who quickly kidnap Douglas.

Douglas awakens at a ritual, where a group of hooded man are sacrificing Douglas to their god. (Note: If you want this god to be someone important in any of your stories, it can be. Or it can be just some random god. Up to you). As they proceed to burn Douglas alive, and chant around him, a sudden light shines down from above, blowing out the fire and causing Douglas to glow. Within seconds strange tattoos appeared on his body, stunning the hooded men.

Douglas stood onto his feet, feeling more powerful than before, almost as if he wasn’t human. The members of the hooded men suddenly began bowing, proclaiming him to be “one of the gifted”. As they bow before him, Douglas feels rage at what they did to him, keeping him from death, and he suddenly shoots electricity from his hands, killing the hooded men.

Following the event Douglas breaks onto his knees, seeing he became a “freak”. Grabbing a sword from a nearby hooded man, Douglas stabbed himself in the stomach, hoping he could leave this earth. However, despite his trying, he finds himself unable to stab himself. So, he simply throws the sword onto the floor and departs from the area.

Within the next few days he began to realize that he has no purpose in life now. His thirst for vengeance consumed the past few years of his life, and now that he has fulfilled it, he has nothing else to do with his life. No friends, no family, no life. He has nothing. During this time he got into taking pills and drinking, mostly because he didn’t have the will to end himself.

Around this time, Douglas tried to find out what they did to him. To his surprise, Douglas finds himself holding abilities he used to think were fictional. He finds himself connected to this world and the worlds beyond like a sorcerer. Out of curiosity, he explores his abilities. He can manipulate electricity (similar to Cole from inFAMOUS--including the need to recharge), abjuration, illusion manipulations, telekinesis and exorcisms.

As he explores his new abilities, Douglas comes to the conclusion that he could raise his family from the dead with necromancy. Arriving to where he buried them, Douglas performs the ritual to resurrect to them, and to his glee, finds that it works, as both Paige and Rachel stirr awake. Filled with glee, Douglas reunites with his family, hoping everything can go back to normal. They return home to their farm, where Douglas hopes life can go back to the way things used to be.

However, within the next day, the symptoms begin to show. They are depressed, suffer from memory damage, are angry and don’t feel comfortable in the living world. Despite his best to deny it, Paige tries to convince him to let them die, saying he can’t change the past. Over the next few days he watches as his beloved family turns into something they never once were. Their souls were turning demonic due to “Death” having infected their souls, and now they are losing what once made them human.

Paige, feeling herself turn, begs Douglas to end it;but asks that Douglas continue to live and find a new purpose. Douglas, in his tears, is forced to accept that he cannot bring them back. So, before they turn into complete monsters, Douglas uses his electricity to give them a quick death, which of course breaks Douglas. Upon burying them, a rage filled Douglas burns down his farm before departing. After this day, Douglas refused to ever use his powers again.

He continued to mope around about his life, until he arrives in Cimmerian City and saw an ad asking for law enforcement. Seeing it as a way to distract himself from the emptiness of his life, Doug joined the law enforcement. For years he worked as a beat cop until he became a detective, all the while continuing to live his same empty life. His drinking and pill problems didn't’ get any better either.

While working as a detective he came into conflict with others easily, who disagreed with the way Doug lived his life. The police force put him on leave, after his drinking and pills have almost got him killed. Instead of taking the leave, Doug left the force completely, feeling as if the law didn’t get anything done.

Now back alone, Doug wandered around without purpose, until one night at a cafe he met a young woman, whose husband was recently murdered by a street gang. She knows for a fact it was them, as her husband tried to expose them, but there is no evidence for the police. Knowing he can’t let this woman’s vengeance go unnoticed, and knowing the law can’t help, Doug took matters into his own hands.

Tracking down the leader of the gang, Douglas captured him and tortured him to near death until he was willing to confess. With the gang leader put behind bars, the woman got her justice, and Doug felt satisfied. Seeing as how people need help from a force that the law or criminals won’t satisfy with them, Doug decides to become the answer. A man who walks the fine line between, a dishonorable man holding onto honor.

Donning his makeshift costume, Douglas began a new crusade. Although he refuses to magical abilities out of fear, denial and seeing himself as a freak (he will only use them in necessary situations), Douglas uses the skills taught to him by William to protect the unfortunate. Is it a death wish? Maybe, but it is one Douglas is ready to go down with if it means finding purpose. With the media donning him “Midnight Specter”, Douglas Graham is beginning a new chapter. Dedicated to his newfound vigilante life style, Douglas uses his civilian persona to be a cab driver to get some informants on the streets and make connections to criminals as a means to understand the streets better and get information on their deeds.

Does he think of himself as a hero? No, not at all. He is no hero; just a man willing to do what others can’t when it comes to justice. It is these methods, however, that will bring him into conflict with others. 