Name: Damon Salvatore Door: Submissive Door PassCanon: The Vampire Diaries / CRAU from ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png) station72Canon Point: Pre-3.01 "the Birthday + a month of CRAU from @station72 Age: appears 25 / chronologically 171 Appearance: As played by Ian SomerhalderHistory: Damon Salvatore on the TVD wikia.
The day before Elena's birthday, Damon was found and pursued by the Enemy, the multiversal entity bent on destroying life which the Nest protected all worlds from. Damon agreed to join the Nest to protect Mystic Falls from the Enemy, and woke up some undetermined time later on the Station.
While on the Station he met a version of Elena from ten months prior to his most recent memory of her, as well as his own brood and the rest of the nest. The bulk of his time was then spent on Waypoint Shril in pursuit of the prize to its most prestigious intergalactic competition—which Damon participated in only a little, because that sounds stupid, thanks—and during which time his brother Stefan appeared. The most important part of his time spent on the Waypoint was helping mount a rescue mission for the team of Nestmates who had elected to attempt to steal their objective, being instrumental in bringing them all back safely. After that it was more time spent on the Station, and most recently Elena and Stefan both fell into comas at the same time. Not a day passed before there was news of a new mission for the Nest to undertake.
Damon will be brought to Duplicity in the days before Mission Hyrypia. Personality: Damon Salvatore is The Bad Brother™. Ask anyone who knows him and they'll tell you: that man is trouble. Who you really want to talk to is his brother, Stefan. Stefan is The Good Brother™, and so nice besides! For over a century and a half—for their entire lives, really—that has been the way the world sees Damon, and eventually even how he came to see himself. He embraced his role as The Bad Brother™, and has even become uncomfortable with the idea of being anything else. Stefan has his role, and Damon has his, and never the twain shall meet.
As with most things, the truth is a great deal more complicated than that implies.
While it's true that Damon is much more given to violence, murder, and mind control than his younger brother, it is also true that he can be one of the most selfless people on The Vampire Diaries. There is, in fact, something of a disparity between the way he is described and the way he acts—which is not to say that he's never selfish (he is, often), but more that, for the way most people (including Damon himself) talk about him, you'd never know he's capable of selflessness at all. As the world would tell it, Damon is defined by the worst parts of himself—the moments when his volatile, impulsive nature get the better of him and he acts without thought given to how anyone else will be affected. Killing Ric purely out of annoyance, killing Jeremy out of heartbreak, promising his brother an eternity of misery because Katherine turned them both rather than just Damon—these are the kinds of actions that are intrinsic to Damon Salvatore as a person. That is the core of who he is. At least, that's what you'd believe if you didn't pay attention. It's true that Damon can be incredibly selfish, but it is just as true that he can be immensely selfless. Though Damon doesn't draw attention to his more selfless actions, he commits them nevertheless—things like giving Elena the necklace that represented her connection to Stefan, despite being in love with her himself, and lobbying Elena on Stefan's behalf multiple times when staying silent could have positively impacted his own relationship with her. Even when by rights he should be the person who ends up looking good in a given situation—he won the coin toss in season three to determine which brother would have to kill Abby Bennett, but killed her anyway—he selflessly chooses to let his brother look good instead. This is partly due to Damon's belief in the roles he and Stefan have been shoved into their entire lives, but it's a product of one of the core tenets of his personality.
One of the quotes that truly exemplifies Damon's personality is something he said himself: "When people see good, they expect good. I don't want to have to live up to anyone's expectations." Damon is perfectly capable of good, selfless acts, much as he acts otherwise. He saves lives, he protects his friends, and he loves with just as full a heart as his brother does, but the difference between them is that Damon hates the idea of being beholden to anyone's image of him, good or bad. There's a freedom in being the bad brother—bad people can do good things and get far less scrutiny for it than a good person who does bad things—and Damon enjoys being bad (at least, that's what he'll tell you). For so long in his life, he felt weak, so the power that comes with being feared is intoxicating to him. Similarly, he spent half his life miserable and restrained, so now that he's abandoned morality he likes being a hedonist. He doesn't particularly care for anyone trying to stifle these traits he's come to see as intrinsic to himself—so much so, even, that when Ric tries in season three, believing Damon is getting too close to Elena and trying to put a stop to it, Damon snaps his neck. Damon wants the freedom to follow whatever his bliss happens to be at any given moment, whether that's murdering people or easing the pain of a friend about to die. Much as he tries to convince everyone that he enjoys his life this way, however—and even though he has convinced himself of it— he truth is much, much sadder.
Being a vampire was never Damon's choice. He wanted to be a vampire only so that he could be with Katherine forever, and when that opportunity was taken from him, he elected not to complete the transition and die instead. It was Stefan's interference when he was near death that sealed his fate, and though by now it would seem that Damon has embraced the vampire lifestyle, the truth is he has never enjoyed it. Endured it would be a better term, probably—for the first fifty years after his transition he fed only as much as was necessary to keep him alive, dispassionately and with no real joy taken from the kill. For the near century after that he killed more and with more enjoyment, particularly after he shut off his humanity, but the truth never changed: he has always missed being human. He admits as much to a woman he's trying to decide whether to kill, deep in the throes of an existential crisis—he is a vampire, and he's embraced what that means, but just because that's true doesn't mean he has also escaped the guilt that comes with having to kill people to survive. "I'm not human, and I miss it. I miss it more than anything in the world!" For all that Damon prefers not to dwell on things he can't change, or let himself be paralyzed by the guilt he feels over any of the numerous terrible actions he's taken, he still feels it, and many of his actions are an attempt to run from that guilt more than they are anything else.
Though at the time he said it he was trying to manipulate Elena and cast doubt on her relationship with Stefan, Damon's assertion that he's a fatalist is not entirely inaccurate—though even more accurate would be to say that he's a pessimist. After all the torture, abandonment, and rejection Damon's lived through, belief in a benevolent future where everything turns out okay and life's not shit is just not something he finds himself capable of. Everything ends, and it rarely ends well. Yet even as that is true, he fights for that better future. He fights to protect his friends, even certain that it won't amount to anything in the long run. Despite everything he will tell himself and anyone who'll listen about how hope's a bitch, he never quite gives up fighting. Damon Salvatore does not go gentle, and no matter how useless he thinks the fight is, he still fights—for Elena, trying to save her from Klaus' sacrifice; for Stefan, searching for him throughout the entire East Coast; for Mystic Falls and everyone in it, trying to keep the tomb vampires and the Originals and the Travellers from running rampant. Hope is a bitch, and Damon doesn't hope things will turn out okay, but no matter what he tells himself about not caring what happens, he always end up fighting.
Though Damon tries to project an image of confidence, the truth is he's wildly insecure. From a young age, he suffered physical and emotional abuse at the hands of his own father—a father who, like so many throughout his long life, preferred his brother to him—and he's never really felt like he belongs or is even wanted anywhere. When he was human, these traits were what made him susceptible to Katherine's manipulations—more than anything, he wanted to believe that someone he loved finally loved him as much as he did them, and he was willing to do anything to hold onto that—and as a vampire, they're what make him so volatile. Whenever Damon feels insecure or vulnerable, he lashes out, preferring to hurt rather than be hurt. Later in canon, Elena even draws attention to this, saying "That's what you do, Damon! You sabotage things! Think about it, every time there's a bump in the road, you... lash out!" She's not wrong, much as Damon would like to be mad at her for saying it—whether it's killing people Elena cares about to prove to himself that he doesn't care or sleeping with women who have tried to kill her for the same reason, Damon's impulsive nature combined with his insecurity leads him to ill-considered, destructive (whether it be of himself or others) action more often than not.
If there's one trait that defines Damon above all others, it's his impulsivity. As a rule, he acts before he thinks, regularly getting himself into situations that he could have prevented if he'd just stopped for one second to think before acting. A great many of these actions, such as snapping Jeremy's neck after both Elena and Katherine rejected him, are done when he's in a state of stress, or when he's trying to protect people, like when he attacked Kol when he got too close to Elena later in canon—or both, like when he fed Elena his blood so that she wouldn't die in Klaus' ritual. When he actually does bother to slow down and think things through, he can be an effective strategist—if it weren't for Stefan's sabotage in season three, Damon would have killed Klaus—but for the most part, Damon ends up shooting first and asking questions later. For a long time, he didn't even bother to try curtailing his impulsive nature. He didn't have to; as a vampire, he could compel himself out of the consequences of his actions easily, and kill anyone that wouldn't work on. The lesson of self-control is one he's learning slowly—he went from killing an innocent stranger in the street during an existential crisis to merely biting Andie Starr and throwing her out of his room during another; a small victory, but more than he could have boasted before—but as he's realizing that he actually cares about the people around him and wants his relationships with them to be real, he can't rely on things like compulsion or murder to get his way anymore. Still, even as he realizes the mistakes he's making and tries to fix them—in the case of feeding Elena his blood, by rescuing Tyler and Caroline from Klaus so he couldn't perform his ritual—the lesson of forethought is never one he truly learns. Powers and Abilities: ABILITIESIMMORTALITY Vampires stop aging once they're turned and are immune to diseases. They also possess a healing factor which heals them from all but fatal injuries.
ENHANCED ABILITIES Vampires are far stronger and faster than humans and have heightened senses. These abilities become even stronger with time, and vampires who feed on human blood are stronger than those who feed on animal blood.
COMPULSION Vampires can control human minds and even alter or erase their memories by looking into their eyes and commanding them. As a subset of this ability, vampires can also manipulate the dreams of anyone weaker than them, even other vampires. Additionally, Damon is the only vampire ever shown to compel someone without speaking to them.
DAYLIGHT RING If they possess a lapis lazuli ring that is spelled by a witch, a vampire is not harmed by sunlight.
EMOTIONAL CONTROL Vampires can turn on and off their emotions and humanity like a switch.
HEALING BLOOD Vampire blood can heal people from grave injuries, but if they die while the blood is in their system they will begin transitioning into a vampire themselves.
ANIMAL CONTROL For a brief period in the first season Damon had a companion animal, a crow, which he seemed to be able to control or at least direct telepathically, and which seemed to also be undead. In the third season, he is shown with a crow in flashback, meaning he either bonds with a new bird when the original dies or the same crow has followed him for over a century. That said, Damon fed on the crow in the fifth episode when he was desperate for blood, and this ability has never been touched on since. I leave this ability up to mod discretion as to if it's viable or not—I love the idea of it, but it is a canonically abandoned power.
WEATHER CONTROL In the beginning of the first season, Damon was shown with the ability to summon fog from nowhere. After the first few episodes, this power was forgotten, never to be used again, so while I think it might be interesting to play with, it may also be that you don't want him to have it since, like the animal control, it is a canonically abandoned power. I leave the nerfing of this ability up to mod discretion.
SYMBIOTE In general, the symbiote pushes the limits of its Host's body and supplements its ability to cope with stress. Hosts start at a baseline of being about 25% more mentally and physically capable then they were prior to merging with the symbiote. This includes increased immune system, quicker healing time, increased strength and speed, greater information recall, enhanced senses, and increased ability to process information. It also includes a telepathic connection to all other Hosts, as well as to the Nest itself, and a specific symbiote specialization that is unique to each Host. This specialization grew stronger and more complex the more a Host trained it and developed their relationship with the symbiote—Damon remained at rank one of his ability for the duration of his time with the Nest, though he upgraded his telepathic connection to the other Hosts enough to have more control of the things he shared with them and to connect more easily to people outside his brood.
ILLUSION PROJECTION STAGE I. Once per day, Damon can cause a target to experience minor illusions for up to five minutes. Minor illusions include slight alterations in perceived physical appearances or minor visual aberrations. Damon must be within arm’s reach of his target and he cannot change a target’s perception of self. He experiences an intensifying headache for the duration of the time the illusion is maintained—the longer he causes his target to see the illusion, the stronger the headache will become. Illusions held for the full five minutes can cause some mild nausea.
WEAKNESSESSUNLIGHT Without a lapis lazuli ring, vampires are injured by the sunlight, and can even catch fire if they're in the sun for a prolonged period of time or are weakened from lack of blood.
HEART A stake to the heart will kill a vampire, as will any other form of taking their heart out of their chest.
WEREWOLF BITE A werewolf bite poisons and kills a vampire unless they ingest Klaus Mikaelson's blood. As Klaus doesn't really care for most other vampires, this is more often than not a death sentence.
VERVAIN Vervain harms vampires and, if drank or worn, prevents them from being able to compel a person.
FIRE Fire will kill a vampire.
BEHEADING Cutting off a vampire's head will kill it.
MAGIC Witches are capable of incapacitating vampires by concentrating and giving them the supernatural equivalent of an aneurysm.
FORBIDDANCE Vampires have to be invited into any residence that is owned by a living person—apartments and such are murkier ground and may or may not be entered.
VAMPIRE BLOODLINES If the Original Vampire who is the source of a vampire bloodline dies, their whole line dies with them. As Klaus is the source of Damon's bloodline, if he were to die, Damon would too.
HUNTER'S CURSE If a vampire kills one of the Five, a group of vampire hunters, they are cursed with hallucinations until they kill themselves or overcome the psychosis. Though it is possible to overcome it, it is very difficult, and most vampires don't. Inventory: Damon will arrive to Duplicity with the clothes on his back (including his daylight ring), as well as: - London, a six-eyed crow-like alien creature given to him as a gift on the Station
- The white oak stake, the only stake that can kill an original vampire
Samples: Log TDM, "Network" Thread |
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
