Maurice

Artwork

Personality

The supernatural world leaves him wide-eyed. Being undead for a whopping half-a-year or so has made him question everything. He often jumps to paranormal explanations before even thinking about looking for a normal explanation. EVERY BUMP IS A GHOST. So far, Maurice has been exposed to only a few supernatural things: vampires, scary tentacle starfish aliens that stab you, and supposedly werewolves. He hasn't seen Bert transform yet. He's not entirely convinced the others aren't pulling his leg. See, there's that paranoia. Things have been pretty unstable for Maurice lately and he teeter totters between being painfully gullible and stubbornly paranoid.

Maurice is shy. Though comfortable around people older than he is (he's used to getting pats on the head for being a 'good ole boy') it's rare for him to make small-talk with people his own age. He feels alienated by them because he doesn't have a cellphone or a computer. He can't afford to go see the new movies or buy things like a PS2. He's very much stuck in the 80's with his 'dude' slang, bad haircut, Walkman, and the like. When he does speak, it's a toss up between him mumbling a few stray words to the floor or overflowing with WAY TOO MUCH INFORMATION. He hasn't been socialized enough to find that happy medium. When in a group, Maurice hovers near the edges, timidly trying to judge everyone's mood and staying on the look-out for any disturbances like a fat shaky deer.

He tries to be a good boy, and succeeds for the most part. He helps out where he sees help needed and tries to fix or replace anything he breaks. He means well and likes nothing more than everyone getting along. Conflict within a circle of friends tears him to pieces. He'll have a horrible time trying to find a side to be on and end up bailing out of fear of making one end of the argument angry with him for associating with the other. He doesn't like the idea of somebody being angry with him and will usually roll belly-up in attempts to fix whatever he's done even if he isn't sure what that is. He's prone to bouts of, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" and lots of fidgeting and hovering until whoever he's offended is like IT'S OKAY, MAURICE, JESUS, QUIT IT. He has even entertained the idea of mugging a human being and bringing the unconscious body to his undead nest-mates as a token of apology.

It'd probably be adorable if he were a cat or something.

But he isn't.

He's easily persuaded with bullying and pleading alike and aches to please and be accepted. He will go as far as chameleon-ing his body language and speech patterns to better fit in with any group of people he's trying to impress regardless of age or sex. He will go from spinning intricate webs of profanity to greeting others as 'gurl'. Any kind of positive attention will cause him to trip all over himself.

He feels guilty when he has to do his vampire business. He takes pains to drink as little as he can afford and to leave as small a wound as possible. He hasn't learned that this is a good way to cause people to get infections by not letting the wound bleed freely. He's only been on a few solo hunts before his pull point. He's gotta be a big kid now without Horas holding his hand. He's actually only mastered a few undead tricks so he depends on blunt trauma to render his victims unconscious instead of hypnotism or any other creative means. He usually does more damage knocking people out than drinking from them.

Decision making is not his best skill. Neither is impulse control. The several years' worth of alcohol addiction, generic 'mom' heart tattoo, and several minor scrapes and bumps that decorate his person are testaments to this. Maurice is one of those guys who can be heard uttering, "Hold my beer and watch this!" before landing himself in the emergency room--especially if he thinks it'll impress someone. Since he's died, this has gotten even worse. You survive enough stabbings and being hit by a car and suddenly you're INVINCIBLE. TENTATIVELY. He's aware there are probably more scary things out there and he should keep an open mind...BUT LOOK AT HIM HE CAN THROW A TRUCK.

Maurice is an incredibly warm person. He hates to see anyone feel lonely or suffer. He's a great shoulder to lean on and is always willing to offer an ear--both out of honest compassion and the want to please others. He's the kind of person who will pick worms off the sidewalk when it rains and then not know what to do with them. While awkward, Maurice almost finds it impossible to keep from giving people compliments when he thinks they deserve them. You! That shirt is awesome on you! You! You punched that guy REALLY GOOD! Unfortunately, he is as good at putting himself down as he is at building himself up. Harsh words from peers and family--especially his sister--have worn a deep groove in his psyche.

And yet, as much of a marshmallow as the vampire can be, he was still a bully at one point and that animal in him is not dead--just buried. He knows he's bigger and heavier and stronger than a lot of the people he meets. If pushed and prodded and bullied just enough, he can actually pass straight through being a wibbling lump and break a man's jaw and then keep yanking on it to see just how broken it can get. He's his mother's son. This isn't "I'm going to hurt this thing so I can get away from it/feed off it." This is "I'm going to hurt this thing and then sit here and listen to it hurt and make it hurt more until I feel better about myself." He's the youngest of four. He knows how to wrestle. Part of him really LOVES a good fight! Play-fighting and horsing around is probably one of the best ways to get to know him.

He loves being around kids--being a big kid himself. Helping take care of his sister's daughter for a couple of years and just watching his family in general (lots of cousins and aunts and uncles) made him realize that he really wants to be a father himself. Becoming a vampire stomped that plan out and good (being undead means the party bus has left the station) but he still really yearns for a family--any kind of family. He happily takes on the role of big brother or cool uncle or anything else that makes him feel wanted and depended on. This isn't a wish he talks about too often though. He worries that something like that would come off as weird or creepy or 'not manly' enough thanks to his mother filling his head with all the things he SHOULD be liking at a young age.

Special Attributes and Abilities

His appearance differs from a normal human by:

• Ashy blue skin when underfed
• Red eyes
• Large fangs and sharper teeth over all
• Thick dark nails that curve into claws
• The lack of a reflection and shadow

A rundown of his abilities:

• Super strength
• Heightened senses including night vision
• Shape shifting
• Wall crawling
• Hypnosis, known among the DTM vamps as "The Eyes"
• The ability to pass on the curse

His weaknesses are:

• Sunlight
• Loud sounds and strong smells
• Garlic
• The need for fresh blood to stay lucid
• The compulsion to count small objects

History

His father was an introverted cotton farmer so Maurice ended up being very close to his mom who was a loud, rambunctious retired trucker. He got his love of mechanics from both of them, but the gift from his dad was music and the gift from his mom was a love of cooking.

Maurice got into 80s glam rock when left alone with the tv. At first, his parents were okay with it and let him join the middle school drama club. Even though he'd veered away from country like his dad liked, he was still making music.

When Maurice was 14, his sister became pregnant and their mother flew into a drunken zealot rage, determined to reset the entire family to the perfect down-home Christian aesthetic. Maurice was removed from drama because his mother deemed it 'unmanly'. She was impossible to get a word in edge-wise with since she was always fighting with his sister and his dad had started hiding in the garage so Maurice was alone.

Since he was a big boy, Maurice found it easy to take out his frustrations from home on smaller kids at school. He targeted those in the arts specifically and anyone who looked like they were having fun in their own niche interests. When he wasn't at school being a bully, he was a nervous wreck at home, stealing from his mom's liquor supply.

This went on for a few years until he got into a fight with the wrong kid and got his ass beat. He was finally caught and his mother was alerted to the issue. His mom erupted on him and the two of them actually got into a fist-fight in the school parking lot. This was when his mom realized exactly what she had caused and vowed to change her ways.

Even though things got better at home, for the entirety of his senior year, Maurice did not speak to a soul at school. He sat in the back of the class, did his homework, and went home.

Once he got to college and away from the confusing, back-and-forth aura of home, Maurice loosened up again and started finding parts of his younger self. He snuck into theater performances and started taking actual coarses in mechanics. Since he'd been drinking on and off since 14 and he was now entirely un-attended, Maurice developed full-blown alcoholism in college. He wasn't a party drunk, though, he was a black-out-in-his-dorm drunk.

Two years in, he left college to shadow under a man in a town called Dogtrot, which was even further away from Two Rock than his college was. He rented a little trailer and paid half of his rent by helping the landlord with his farm work. He didn't return home unless it was a holiday, to borrow money, or to wash his clothes. One night after a crappy day at work at the gas station, Maurice found 20 bucks on the ground and took it to the bar. There he met a beautiful woman who lured him out back to under the guise of needing his help to fix her corvette. She beaned him with a wrench from his own tool box and drained him dry. Of blood that is.

Fun Facts

• Maurice doesn't wear shorts out in public, only to bed.
• He's a lot better at math than he lets on.
• Maurice wants to learn French.
• Maurice was originally created as an AU of JW!