Name: Socrates

Real Name: Socrates Pulaski

Played By: Amanda Van Rhyn [osfic-goddess@excite.com]

Homeworld: Alternate Earth, original concept

Physical Description:

Socrates appears to be a young man in his early 20s (and, appropriately enough,
he is). He's about 5'10", with an average build veering slightly to the 
overweight; his cheekbone-length brown hair is perpetually fairly greasy,
and his overly pale skin still bears traces of what was obviously a bad 
adolescent case of acne. His gray eyes are somewhat obscured by a pair of
blood-red sunglasses with black wire frames. The remainder of his clothing
consists of a long blood-red leather trenchcoat (the same tint as the glasses),
a plain black T-shirt and black jeans, and a pair of badly beaten-up brown
army boots. 

Anyone who pays a lot of attention to Socrates's teeth might also notice that
his canine teeth are somewhat more pointed than the human norm; however, this
isn't that noticeable if it isn't being looked for. 

Powers:

None. Socrates is a half-vampire; however, his vampire race has no unusual
powers and are biologically very similar to humans (so Socrates isn't undead).

Weaknesses: 

Normal human weaknesses. (Just as Socrates's variety of vampire has no powers,
they also don't share traditional vampiric weaknesses.) Aside from this,
Socrates has very little tolerance for vampires and non-humans in general,
and his intolerance will probably prevent him from much positive interaction 
with such 'inhuman' sentients.

Skills:

Socrates was a computer science student on his homeworld, so he has a solid
knowledge of basic programming and computer-related concerns. He also fancies
himself a capable hacker and encryption whiz, but he's actually fairly 
mediocre at both. 

He also has a near-encyclopedic knowledge of vampire lore (as created by 
the paranoid, historically segregated humans of his homeworld); most of it
resembles the common knowledge about vampires, but the rest is quite obscure,
making it either highly useful or a complete sham (almost certainly the
latter).

Other than that, he has the essential knowledge foundation of a 20-year-old
college student in a modern society.

Equipment:

Aside from his fairly elaborate outfit, Socrates carries only a few things
in the pockets of his trenchcoat. Aside from his wallet and billfold, there
are only two objects of note:

PDA: A fairly simple PalmPilot-style personal digital organizer. It doesn't
have any particularly unusual functions of note, although it holds some of
Socrates's smaller documents and cheat sheets on hacking and encryption.

WOODEN DAGGER: More a ceremonial weapon than anything of actual combat value,
this dagger is essentially a sharpened wooden stake with a hilt. The 'dagger' 
itself is about 6" long, with the sides of the stake slightly sharpened to 
form rudimentary cutting edges. It's not a particularly effective combat 
weapon, especially since Socrates really doesn't know how to use it, but it 
could theoretically be dangerous in the hands of someone skilled with daggers
or stakes.

Personality:

Socrates is, at least in large part, an angry loser who desperately wants to
be someone. His background has caused him to blame vampires for the currently
rather unfulfilling state of his life, and he's likely to extend that
prejudice to other non-humans he meets. With humans, though, he will make every 
attempt to be friendly, even if he seems rather rough around the edges and 
won't budge from his dogma. He'll act especially respectfully, even 
subserviently, towards humans with supernatural powers.

His ultimate goal in life is to become a great and powerful vampire hunter; if
nothing else, he wants to end up as an antihero, the sort of man who lives a 
life of shadows and unquestioned power and dignity. He will attempt to seek 
out such antiheroes in Odain and, if possible, learn from them.

Background: 

The only product of the brief marriage of a vampiric publishing heiress and
her human lover, Socrates grew up in an oppressive home and had no contact
with his father. By the time he left home, his resentment and cold hatred
of vampires was cemented, along with something of a reverence for humankind.
Upon entrance to college, he sought out a group with his views and found the
Task Force, a group of magical human terrorists dedicated to "fighting back
against the vampire oppressors"; he quickly joined and began to work with
them as a covert operative, posing as a normal college student while working
within the university's computer systems to further Task Force goals. However,
after the college began to investigate one high-profile Task Force strike
and discovered a badly-encrypted electronic trail leading to Socrates, he was
judged too much of a risk and pulled into seclusion, officially disappearing.
Unfortunately for his Task Force future, a survivor of his career-fatal
strike (one Susan von Durchschnitt) returned home and went public with her
experiences to the media; at that point, he was officially too risky for 
the Task Force to keep, causing him to be sent off-world (and to Odain). 

Connections:

Socrates is aware of the existence of Susan von Durchschnitt and Johnny 
Montoya, given their actions that caused his exile, and he would recognize
any references to them; however, he has no active connections in Odain.