#edited Uri’s age because I can’t do math lmao?

[meowkavian]

vtm original character information - uriel

uriel / nonbinary (they/them) / malkavian 

full details below under the cut

(i thought I should post their information on my main blog as well!)

introduction

Uriel, or Uri for short, was born May 27, 1988 in a town outside Portland, Oregon. It’s not known if they were born with the name Uriel or if they chose it for themself, or if the name was chosen pre- or post-Embrace.

As a precocious child that grew up into a precocious teen, they eventually found their niche doing shows at the local community theatre throughout their youth and young adulthood, then began focusing less on acting than the analysis of texts and plays as they grew older. Uriel pursued English for their BA, with a focus in Literature and Shakespeare, and was in the middle of their Masters Degree in Theatre (Dramaturgy) at a university in New York when they were turned.

Scoping out job opportunities and visiting some actor friends in Los Angeles during Spring Break 2012 led them to being out at night a bit too late, and it all went downhill from there. They were 24 years old when Embraced, with a true age of 30 at the start of the LABN campaign (circa 2018).

Though everyone says they'd have been a great Toreador, as luck would have it, they were turned by a Malkavian. (Uriel can't exactly remember how it happened-- all they know is that they woke up  in a cheap motel room near Santa Monica with a blood bag and a messy, chaotic apology note.)

Their appearance is eccentric— pale skin, short and messy hair bleached bone-white, large round glasses, an expressive heart-shaped face, owlish brown eyes with long eyelashes. They have a petite frame, only standing at 5”0. Uriel’s style can be best summed up as “2010s twee/hipster”, a product of its time—lots of layered clothing in earthy, autumnal colors, mismatching socks, accompanied by various charms/trinkets. They have 3 piercings in each ear-- one cartilage, two in the lobe.

unlife

The thing about being a Malkavian is that it comes part and parcel with mental illness as well as a host of other problems. Aside from the pre-existing anxiety and depression that followed them into the afterlife, Uriel’s Bane is unique—their longing and hope to work as a dramaturgy scholar and actor as a human was transformed into a form of echolalia, where they cannot verbally express words that were not used in The Complete Works of William Shakespeare. 

While they work around this most of the time by augmenting their speech using sign language or writing, it can cause them significant trouble.  (As they gain a better handle on their Bane, over the course of years they are able to essentially combine, cut and paste words and phrases together to create more understandable expressions. With significant concentration and effort, they can eventually isolate syllables from the text and use them to create words that don’t exist within the Complete Works, but this is an extremely rare occurrence.)

Due to this Bane, they have earned the often derogatory nickname, “The Mad Bard”.

Their version of Malkavian delusion comes in the form of “flashes of inspiration”(truly prophecies and future sight)—frequently inspiring them to draw, paint or create music. They can become obsessed and fixated on these flashes of inspiration, and on creating works based on them for varying periods of time. Sometimes, the flashes will leave them nonverbal or nonresponsive for a span of minutes to hours while they process what they’ve seen. It can depend on the substance of the vision as well-- though more often than not their visions are frightening and disturbing.

plot

Not long after Uriel is turned in 2012, they're discovered half in a hunger frenzy and searching for more blood at a Santa Monica drug test clinic—a Malkavian who sees something of himself in them comes across them, subsequently vouching for them to Baron Therese, who they do odd jobs for over the space of a few years. Uriel and the Malkavian who vouched for them become friends, but to his chagrin, Uriel ends up spending a lot of time around Toreadors in the hopes they can hang on to what they enjoyed in life—the arts, theatre, music.

Through years of attempting to ingratiate themself and gain an artistic mentor, they are continuously looked down upon for being of a lower clan and moreover, a Malkavian. Needless to say, their pursuits don’t end well.

One of the only Toreadors who grows to care about them is Gabriel, the wayward Childe of a major Camarilla player in the area. Uriel ends up finding no reason to cavort with anyone related to the Ivory Tower after eventually being publicly humiliated/ excommunicated for their attempts to assimilate.

By around 2018, Uriel has given up any hope that they will be accepted by most Toreadors, and they think back on that several year period mostly with bitter cynicism. One of the only bright spots was meeting Gabriel, and at this point, he has not yet left his sire for greater pursuits. While Uriel wears the moniker “The Mad Bard” with pride now, their time attempting to ingratiate themself into Toreador society left them with a distrust of said clan and other higher clans, (Ventrue, etc) for fear that they will be treated poorly.

At this point, they have returned to Malkavian-populated Santa Monica in the hopes they can carve out their own way of life, and have spent the better part of a few years there. They gain a haven of their own—an abandoned theatre on the area outskirts where it leads towards Los Angeles proper--where they lead a mostly quiet life; one dedicated to honing their artistic talents, reading, learning new skills, etc. They belong officially to no coterie--preferring generally to keep to themself-- but find kinship with other Malkavians and Anarch-aligned coteries in the area.