Deerington App.
IN CHARACTER
Character Name: Scarlett Harker AKA Scarlett Van Helsing
Canon: Van Helsing
Canon Point: Season 2, Episode 12
In-Game Tattoo Placement: On her throat, above her right collarbone. N.B. The mirror image of her twin sister, Vanessa.
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phreneticCurrent Health/Status: Alive. No injuries.
Apparent Age: Late Twenties - Early Thirties
Actual Age: 33
Species: Augmented Human. It's complicated? She's technically human but was exposed to the blood of The Dark One - The Original Vampire (Presumedly Dracula) - in utero. She appeared to be completely human for the first 33 years of her life until she was bitten by Vanessa and it seemed to activate something in her to give her some special abilities, as well as blood that is the cure for vampirism.
History: Character Wiki + Canon Wiki
Hometown/World: Northwest United States, Earth: Van Helsing is set in an alternate version of Earth where long-term pollution caused by volcanic ash, all but completely blocked out the sun and triggered what is referred to now as The Rising. No longer hindered by the sun, Vampires emerged from the shadows and three years on, North America is an apocalyptic wasteland inhabited by both intelligent vampires and ferals: Vampires pushed to the point of starvation, or those who try to live off anything other than human blood, become feral and lose any semblance of who they used to be, existing only to feed.
Personality: An event known by the world as 'The Rising' may well have thrown the majority of the world into chaos, but for Scarlett Harker, this was the first time in her life when she ever felt like she belonged. Raised by the people she believed to be her parents, Scarlett knew of the existence of Vampires long before the volcanic ash brought them out of the shadows. She'd been training to fight them for as long as she could remember, fighting and killing her first one when she was fifteen.
For two decades, Scarlett was an outsider. She was the weird girl whose family were known to locals as "The Doomsdays'. Her attempt at dating ended in her pulling a knife on a boy who dared to make fun of her and the torment and isolation she experienced finally culminated in her father faking their deaths so the two could live completely off the grid, after a Vampire tracked them down and tried to kill Scarlett.
The Rising found Scarlett her place in the world as if every bad thing that happened to her, actually had a purpose. There's an edge of arrogance about her because of it, an attitude of 'jokes on you' for all the people who mocked and tormented her growing up but she's probably earned the right to that feeling of superiority. She lost everything, any semblance of normalcy, even her (adopted) father to his own hand because of the life she'd lived Pre-Rising. The Rising may not have taken back the pain of the last 20 years, but at least it wasn't all in vain.
Scarlett appears almost unaffected by the violence and chaos that the world has been thrown into. She maintains an easy going nature, resorting to quips in times of extreme danger and even at the point of facing certain death, she never panics. Whether she's pulling out a grenade to show she'll take her attacker with her, or taunting a Vampire who could easily kill her right before cutting off his hand, Scarlett is almost always the picture of cool, calm and collected.
She can, however, be downright abrasive to deal with, rubbing people the wrong way with her sarcastic remarks and tendency to do things her own way. She's been alone for a long time, even before The Rising. Scarlett isn't accustomed to relying on others and is still trying to learn that following her fight instinct isn't always the best choice. She hasn't learned how to share, scolding Axel for 'touching her shit' and isn't very good at compromising, though she at least appears to be learning the longer she's around people.
She claims to enjoy her lone wolf existence and yet admits when we first see her that she'd been searching for Vanessa, following the stories she'd heard of the woman who had been taking on Vampires like she had. As much as Scarlett knows how to function on her own, and even tries to keep those around her from getting too close, she is still human. The fear she won't admit to feeling, and survival instincts might see her go it alone but it's natural for her to seek the company of others, especially after a life of isolation and now living in a world that's overrun by Vampires.
She's perhaps more calculating than she might appear to be, as comments she's made throughout the series might suggest. Scarlett has always had her finger on the pulse of all that's going on in the world of the Vampires. She knows exactly who the key players are, and the details of events she wasn't present for. Clearly she's been forced into social interactions in the past to know as much as she does, but she's still managed to do so without getting on the radar of those key players, which in and of itself shows her cunning and her ability to plan and gather information.
Despite being hardened by life, Scarlett doesn't keep all of her emotions behind a figurative - and at times literal - mask. We see the tears that form when the life she thought she knew was shattered when she discovered that her parents were not her parents and that Vanessa was in fact, her twin sister. Her face will often betray the vulnerability she tries to hide with her words and actions. While she can be emotionally constipated, something we see when she's talking about the deaths of her (adopted) parents, dealing with Axel and even her real mother, she's not so hard that she's incapable of feeling, and in turn, showing real emotion.
While one might expect a level of social awkwardness, given her unusual upbringing, Scarlett at least appears to be able to fit in with those around her. She is certainly standoffish at first, meeting all people with a scowl and closed off body language but she can adapt fairly quickly to any situation, even learning how to trust people the longer she spends with them. It's still fair to say that Scarlett has gotten more than some of her adopted father's intensity and paranoia. The only person she seems to trust (almost) immediately is Vanessa, whom despite hostility between them for the first five minutes, Scarlett very quickly falls into a relationship with, as if the bond formed in childhood had never gone away, even if the memories have faded.
She's somebody who is surprisingly open about her past, as we see not only when she spills her history to Vanessa, but again later with Axel. The Rising seems to have given her permission to live out in the open, Scarlett happy to share all the secrets she's been keeping for 20 years. She tends to stick to the facts, however, shrugging off the more emotional aspects of her experiences. While it might suggest that she's unaffected by them, Scarlett will at times let something slip, a small comment about the high price that came with being prepared for The Rising. She is clearly damaged by her past but hasn't been broken by it because, at her core, she is a survivor, somebody who will either overcome or adapt to the most extreme of situations.
Personal Moral Codes: While hardly what you'd call a cold-blooded murderer, Scarlett is completely at ease with the concept of violence and death. She lives by the rule of kill or be killed and while we mostly see that applied to Vampires in the series, she's been shown to have little trouble with pointing a gun at a human and doesn't at all seem fazed when they end up dead (even if not by her hand).
Until encountering Vanessa and the others, her world had been very black and white; if they're a vampire, she kills them. The only time she's ever shown restraint, was when Vanessa was willing to kill her in order to protect Axel (before he was restored), though it didn't stop Scarlett from running him through with a Katana.
While you wouldn't go so far as to say that she has a death wish, Scarlett will sacrifice her own life for the greater good, or at least her own version of that. She tells Vanessa not to allow Dimitri to have the key (that will release The Elder) when he said he'd kill Scarlett if Vanessa didn't give it to him and was happy to blow herself up if it meant taking Vanessa down with her when they first encountered each other.
She has no problem stealing from others to better help her own position, immediately planning to take weapons and ammunition from the smalltown cops they encountered who invited them for a meal and a shower, before knowing they weren't to be trusted. She won't kill to steal, though, otherwise, she would have done so as soon as they arrived at the compound and she didn't take all that they had, just enough to boost their own supplies.
Scarlett appears to be perfectly at ease, living her life in the grey area. She's somebody who aims for the good but won't lose any sleep over the death of somebody she feels deserves it, even if there are alternatives. She's been surviving the last three years, longer than that if we're being honest and Scarlett has learned to put herself first. She is changing, though, looking out for those she's traveling with as well so she's at least capable of evolving but she'll probably always be somebody who puts her own wants ahead of the desires of others if it means a better chance at survival.
Insecurities/Personal Demons: Scarlett has a tendency to keep people at arm's length due to her long history of abandonment; Adopted Mother died of cancer, Adopted Father killed himself, Real Mother gave her away and then shortly after reuniting with her, died. Even her twin sister, Vanessa was torn away from her at the age of five and the two of them only got to reunite for one day, before Vanessa is taken by the men in the helicopter. Anyone Scarlett has ever cared about has left her (whether by choice or not) at some point and while she appears to form superficial relationships, even romantic entanglements, she always seems to keep things casual as if it will stop her from getting too attached for when they inevitably leave her too.
Most of her life, Scarlett has struggled with being an outsider and never feeling like she belongs anywhere. Her upbringing forced her to be a loner before The Rising and while she acknowledges that the 'Vampire Apocalypse' meant that she finally knew her place in the world, she's continued to go it alone for the last few years. She can work with others but tends to call the shots as she's usually the most experienced person in the room.
There is a recklessness in Scarlett that shows itself from time to time, usually when she's been backed into a corner. In times of fight or flight, she defaults to fight, even when the smart option is to run. It takes others to pull her back from the edge and get her to focus on the bigger picture. She can listen to reason, there are merely times when she needs somebody around to be that voice. One can assume that if she were on her own, she would take bigger and more unnecessary risks.
The why behind it has yet to be revealed, but Scarlett really doesn't like being trapped. She's okay with confined spaces until she feels like there's literally no way out and the cool and calm exterior she seems to maintain in other high-pressure situations starts to melt away.
Abilities/Powers/Weaknesses:
Known Canon Abilities
Enhanced Hearing: Scarlett has the ability to hear things humans can't. Can be greatly strengthened through the drinking of blood. I.E Scarlett could hear Axel's heart beating while she was 50 feet away and he was buried underground. After consuming blood, Vanessa could hear his heart beating while they were a mile away in a car.
Enhanced Strength: Stronger than a human and can be made stronger through the drinking of blood. - One of 'The Sisters' says that she's strong, even for a Van Helsing, when fighting her.
Enhanced Sight/Night Vision: She can see in the dark and appears to be able to see clearly at greater distances than the average human.
Rapid Cellular Regeneration: It allows her to heal from any injury near instantaneously.
Reversion (Vampire-to-Human): Scarlett's bite and blood are capable of reverting vampires back into humans and rendering them immune to being turned again. Restored vampires blood tastes revolting to Vampires.
Bond: It appears that anyone turned human by Vanessa, now shares a bond with her. They can feel her in a way, something best described as a low hum and they share the visions she is sent by The Elder. Vanessa and Scarlett appear to have a similar kind of bond, though theirs existed before they reunited for the first time since childhood, even if Scarlett didn't understand what it was. We have no way of knowing if the bond goes both ways, but Scarlett said she could no longer 'feel' Vanessa after she was shot in Se02 Ep10. There's also no canon evidence to suggest that those turned by Scarlett are bonded to her in the same way, but this may be revealed in future canon. The extent of this bond has yet to be explored, either.
Animalistic Ferocity: N.B. This is listed as one of Vanessa's abilities/weakness on the Wikia but it's worth noting that we do see flickers of this in Scarlett, though never to the degree that is shown in Vanessa: When under attack, Vanessa has been known to go into animal-like state. When she is attacked, backed into a corner or feels threatened in any way, the rage overcomes her to the point that she loses control.
Combat Scarlett is seen to have trained in mixed martial arts. She is known to be adept at using the following weapons: Katana, Firearms, Bowie Knife, Dagger, Saber, Crossbow, Throwing Stars. One can assume she's confident in a variety of others as her entire life has been about learning how to fight Vampires.
Survival Skills Her family were seen to be Doomsdayers. Scarlett was raised preparing for The Rising as if it were inevitable and has managed to survive on her own without going into hiding for the past three years. She says in Se02 Ep06 that she was trained in Hunting, Killing, Traps, Combat & Weapons.
Unconfirmed Canon Abilities
Abilities not shown in canon as Scarlett using/possessing them but can be safely assumed she has them as she has been seen to possess Vanessa's other abilities after the bite. In all instances, I would be reluctant to explore them in game, unless canon confirms in the future that Scarlett can do this as well. I'm listing them all here as they have the potential to come into play without a canon update as Scarlett would already have them. Vanessa Van Helsing Wikia for reference.
Enhanced Smell: Stronger than a human but can be greatly strengthened through the drinking of blood.
Feral Poisoning: Unlike normal vampires, ferals have a negative reaction to not only Vanessa' blood but her bite, it kills them almost instantly.
Ability Boost: Vanessa has been seen to strengthen all of her abilities through the drinking of human blood. N.B. This is something Scarlett is unlikely to ever do (unless desperate) as it goes against her upbringing and something I would never explore in the game until Canon confirms she can do it.
Resurection Whenever Vanessa dies she goes into a hibernation death like state were her heart stops, she's dead but her blood continues to flow this has happened three times when she had her throat ripped out, being poisoned by a feral, and getting shot three times each time she was resurrected. It's believed this could be due to being born with The 'First Ones blood'. N.B. I would never explore this in the game until Canon confirms she can do it.
Ability/Power/Magic Warping:
N.B. As these abilities are shared by another character (and only one other character) from her canon, that is being apped, I have worked with the other player to develop a shared warping of abilities in order to have continuity.
Reversion: In the event of Scarlett biting another Vampire, or that Vampire drinking her blood, they will temporarily become human but during that time, she will temporarily become a Vampire. She would gain all of their natural abilities, but also all of their ability/power warping. If you go by how long it takes alcohol to be undetectable in your system, it can take anywhere from 12–48 hours for the two to return to their previous states. It could also be that somebody else would swap with the Vampire for the sake of variety and potential plot exploration for other players.
Rapid Cellular Regeneration: As per the FAQ. If Scarlett heals within ten feet of another person, that person will get the injuries they are healing themselves from.
Resurection I don't believe this should come into play in game, as the death itself should count in game before the resurrection can happen. Unless you want to say that in the event of another character intentionally killing her, Scarlett resurrects and they suffer her death. Same can be said if she kills somebody, that character resurrects and she suffers their death.
Feral Poisoning: This would very much depend on whether there are Vampires in the 'wilds' and if any of them are feral in any way. If yes, then her blood & bite will still be deadly to them but it results in Scarlett becoming violently ill. Fever, sweating, vomiting and delirium & hallucinations for a period anywhere from 2-5 days, with weakness, as if recovering from a bad virus for up to two weeks to follow.
Inventory:
I know there's likely access to some of this stuff in the game but Scarlett wants for very practical things
Writing Samples: Here
Set Post Arrival in Deerington.
The days since Scarlett had woken up in the unfamiliar house had been spent about the way you'd expect: Watching. Waiting. Gathering information. It was easy to assume that she was the kind of person who barged in and demanded answers - consequences be damned, but she hadn't survived three years among the Vampires without learning the value of knowledge. When money was as worthless as the paper it was printed on, information was the only form of currency out there for somebody like her, and knowing what was going on from city to city had kept her alive more times than she could remember.
The dining room table in the house she'd begrudgingly settled into was scattered with papers, the various bits and pieces she'd found upon waking up strewn about as if they were pieces of a puzzle. Her focus was at present drawn to the letter she'd discovered upon waking up, the words that filled the page, full of as many questions as answers provided. She'd never been one to trust easily in the best of situations, so trying to put faith in a faceless name who had a penchant for the cryptic was asking a bit much of Scarlett, but she couldn't deny that Sodder had been right about a few things already, as much as it pained her to admit it.
She'd tried to ignore the jar of strawberries, despite the insistence of the note. Spite could be a powerful motivator, particularly for somebody who'd grown accustomed to following her own rules but survival instincts would always win out. Perhaps she would have been smarter to have allowed herself to flake away. Maybe it would have seen her wake up in the narrow bed in Crooked Falls but in her experience, what-ifs and maybes were the kind of things that made you hesitate, the kind of things that got people killed. She'd come too far, learned too much to be taken down by a goddamn strawberry, but just because Sodder had appeared to help her in one way, didn't mean she was going to trust her new pen pal.
She'd thought the real answers might come from talking to the residents but what passed for the locals reminded her of something out of reruns of old television shows, while the ones in gas masks looked like they'd be more at home in a post Rising world than they did in this one. The former gave her nothing of use when she'd tried to question them, Just a bunch of oversaturated, Koolaid drinking freaks from what she could tell. As for the others? It was hard to interrogate anyone that was little more than a glimpse before they were scurrying away. There was something unsettling about them, which spoke volumes given how little could have that effect on her.
The high-tech phone sat untouched on the corner of the table, the plastic film that marked it as new, still covering the box. If she bought the dreaming line that Sodder had fed her in the letter, then Scarlett struggled to see the need for such a thing when she - perhaps foolishly believed - should be able to control the dream. On the other hand, if that was the load of crap she expected it to be? Then she didn't trust anything gifted to her that people could use to spy on or track her. It might be the only connection she might have to other 'visitors', but she didn't really need to have other people around to figure this out. They'd be liabilities, likely to get in the way, to get her killed. The smart play here would be to toss the phone the next time she left the house.
Unbidden thoughts of Axel began to crawl through her mind as her gaze settled on the box in question, a scowl forming, as much for the man as the object as she imagined the playful taunts he'd use to coax her into doing what he wanted. He wouldn't outright tell her to try and reach out to others, he'd merely mock her current choice of action. He'd tease her into submission by pulling at all her excuses before she could even make them. He'd do it all with a smug smirk, knowing she knew exactly what he was doing, distracting her with changes in topics and then dangling the possibility she hoped for as the carrot he knew she wouldn't be able to resist. He'd tell her she was smart to not trust this Sodder as far as she could kick them and that she was probably right to take everything they said with a grain of salt. Then he'd shrug and slip in there, that it couldn't hurt to play along. Get what she could out of doing so, then get out while the going was still good.
The furrows in her brow deepened, her eyes darkening as she kept her gaze on the box before a hand shot out to snatch it from the table, the sound of tearing plastic, filling the silence of the house. A single word passed her lips as she searched for the opening of the box, little more than a soft hiss that came from under her breath as she pulled the cardboard that held the phone securely inside of it and she hoped, idly that if this really was a dream somehow, and Axel happened to still be in the room with her in Crooked Falls? That he just might hear her talking in her sleep.
"Ass."
OUT OF CHARACTER
Player Name: Brooke
Player Age: Over 21
Player Contact:
Other Characters In Game: NA
In-Game Tag If Accepted: Scarlett Harker: Brooke
Permissions for Character: Here
Are you comfortable with prominent elements of fourth-walling?: Sure am.
What themes of horror/psychological thrillers do you enjoy the most?: Yes? LOL. Everything? Is that an answer? I really enjoy getting to explore how characters will react to high-pressure situations. Being able to force characters that might not interact, or may have trust issues, to work together and seeing what happens. Being able to find my character's weaknesses and seeing how they cope being forced into a reversal of roles. For a character like Scarlett? She's rarely ever the victim. She's either the one saving people or saving herself and I like the idea of being able to get her to not only need and accept the help of others but potentially have to ask for it too. Whether she will or not is a whole other matter but ya know.
Big fan of anything that sees people being trapped. Love me some psychological horror. Big beasties are always fun but that's Scarlett's day to day, so forcing her to deal with anything she can't fight with weapons is A+.
Is there anything, in particular, you absolutely need specific content warnings for?: Nada
Additional Information: There is an Elder Vampire in service to the Van Helsing family who must obey any order given by Scarlett (Or any Van Helsing for that matter). N.B. While it's likely he has a name, he is only ever referred to as The Elder, even after we meet him in canon. I don't see that coming up in the game just yet but I figured it was worth mentioning. He's basically Alucard. I'm sure it's fine :)