Entry tags:

!ooc, character information

[ooc: character information]
[series]: The Cal Leandros Series
[character]: Caliban Leandros

[character history / background]:

Once upon a time, there was a woman named Sophia Leandros; a carnival fortune teller, and mother of one. The four year old Niko Leandros. With the popularity of fortune telling having gone down the drain a long time ago, and Sophia's love of all things alcohol-based, she found herself doing almost anything for money. And there lay an easy opening.

Cal was conceived through the union of one 'normal' human woman, and a creature first called a Grendel. Later, as they discover more about these creatures, the brothers come to call them Auphe. Auphe are, as Cal himself states:

"The other half of my gene pool – my inheritance from good old Dad. The Auphe were what mythological elves would be if they were born in the ninth circle of hell and passed through the other eight on their way out. Because hell couldn't hold them – nothing could. Most had pale, nearly transparent skin, pointed ears, molten red eyes, white filaments masquerading as the flow of hair, and what seemed like a thousand needle-fine metal teeth. So fine that when they smiled, never a good occasion, you could see your hazy reflection."

From the very moment Cal was born, Sophia was happy to call him a monster. Thus his full name; Caliban. He was named after the deformed antagonist from Shakespeare's The Tempest. Despite the name, Cal looks completely human, other than his extremely pale skin. And, as Sophia says: "[he is] a monster, but [he is] a beautiful one."

Due to Sophia's complete lack of interest in her two sons, the job of raising Cal was left to his older brother, Niko. Because of this, the brothers are extremely close, often going far out of their way to help one another. Despite how smart Niko is, he forewent the opportunity to go to University in favour of staying with Cal and Sophia. The three of them remained living in trailer parks, with Sophia trying to earn cash through further fortune telling, and Niko working full time, having to pay most of his money to Sophia to let him stay once he was old enough to leave.

Meanwhile, Cal turned in to the stereotypical troubled teen. He drank. He shoplifted. He skipped school. During this entire time, Cal wasn't ever given the opportunity to forget who or what he was. Frequent visits from 'his fathers' side of family prevented that. Even if they didn't ever come in to contact with him. Up until he was fourteen.

Niko and Cal had planned to leave the trailer park, and Sophia was more than happy to see the back of them. As long as Niko continued to pay their mother for the right to take Cal with him. After packing up and getting ready to go, Niko discovered that the car he had bought wasn't working. A few hours of work, and he got it up and running again, but it was decided that they would wait another night before leaving.

It was a bad idea.

That night, the Auphe decided to make their move. Attacking in the dead of night, the Auphe managed to kidnap Cal, and burn down the trailer, killing Sophia in the process. The whereabouts of Niko were left unknown as Cal was dragged through a portal to a place named Tumulus; the home of the Auphe. Or Hell.

For two years he was stuck there, before managing to make his escape back to the ruins of the trailer. Though only two days had passed on this side. There he found Niko, and the two were reunited, before beginning their escape. They would keep running to make sure that it never happened again. To keep the Auphe from ever getting ahold of Cal again.

Nightlife, the first of the series, begins four years after the events of that night. The brothers have been living in New York for two years, with no troubles. They have met a seer named Georgina King, and Cal now works in a bar.

The book begins with Niko sighting an Auphe in Central Park. After killing the creature, Niko informs Cal, and the two go to speak to a mud-based monster called Boggle. From that meeting, they then decide to speak with George, who tells them to stay. However, while leaving the ice cream bar where George does her readings, Cal spots her crying, but he doesn't go back to speak to her. It takes until a short time before he is due at work for Cal to even tell Niko what he's seen.

While Cal is at work, he meets a man named Samuel, who is a guitarist in a band that Cal's boss has hired. Meanwhile, Niko goes to try and speak to George again, only to be refused entry by George's mother. After the brothers meet again, they decide to leave. Or more precisely, Niko decides they are leaving. Cal goes to speak to George again the next morning, though she doesn't let him in. Instead, she draws an image of a car in the fog on the glass of the storefront.

After returning, Niko informs him that the car isn't working, and so the brothers go to try and buy another car. It is at the showroom that they meet a salesman who goes by the name Rob Fellows. Both Cal and Niko quickly pick up on the fact that Rob isn't human, and they corner him in his own office. There, he reveals that his real name is Robin Goodfellow, and he is a Puck. During this time, he also informs Cal and Niko of what he knows about the Auphe, and the trio agree to meet again the following night to try and find out what the creatures are up to.

That night, Niko and Cal work as bodyguards for a wealthy widow named Promissory Nottinger. During the walk home, the group is attacked by a man who turns out to be a vampire hunter. After knocking the man unconscious, the truth is revealed about Promise. She is a vampire, but she doesn't feed on human blood. Instead, she is able to survive using high-dose iron tablets.

After an early shift at work the next day, Cal and Niko go to meet Robin at a restaurant. They then go to speak to a troll named Abbagor who lives under the Brooklyn Bridge. After giving them some of the information they needed, Abbagor decides to attack the group in hopes of killing Cal so that the Auphe will come back out of hiding to give him something to do. The battle goes badly for the brothers and Robin, and eventually Niko is caught and 'absorbed' in to Abbagor's body. Cal manages to shoot the troll in the head, which knocks him out for long enough to get Niko free and for the three of them to escape.

Later that night, Cal hears the sound of humming coming from the bathroom. After making his way inside, he is convinced it is coming from the mirror, even after it has stopped. He covers the glass with a towel, and the sound doesn't return. Though the towel alerts Niko in the morning to something being wrong. As Niko tries to ask Cal about it, Robin arrives at the apartment, and the Puck is then informed that they are leaving because of the Auphe appearance in Central Park.

The trio then venture out for lunch. During that time, Cal tells Niko that he wants to stay. Eventually, Robin suggests that they use hypnosis to try and discover what had happened to Cal during his two year abduction in order to discover why the Auphe were after him still. Later, Cal agrees to the idea, and they go ahead with the hypnosis. Cal wakes up to find Niko and Robin beaten up, and his own throat hoarse, but retains no knowledge of what had actually happened. All he knows is that he had attacked both of them trying to escape, and had likely been screaming the entire time.

During a shift at work, Robin comes along, and he and Cal eventually start talking about the sounds that Cal has been hearing from the mirrors, dubbed 'Alice'. But Robin comes up empty on ideas. By the end of his penultimate shift, both Cal and Niko escort a very drunk Robin back to their home.

The next day, Cal arrives for his final shift. But on arrival, he finds that the bar has been trashed, along with the massacred bodies of both Merry (a barmaid) and Talley (his boss). Before he is able to move, Cal then comes across an Auphe. And it isn't alone. Barging his way outside, Cal sprints back home, only managing the briefest of warnings to both Niko and Robin, before they are gearing up in preparation for a fight. One which comes to them in moments. However, right before they enter the apartment, Cal hears humming once again, coming from the bathroom. This time, in his investigation, he finally sees the creature that had been the source of it all.

The Auphe make it inside, and the trio are forced to fight. Only Cal is immediately targeted by the creature from the mirror, who attacks Cal while the Auphe hold back Niko and Robin. While pinning Cal to the ground, the creature stares at him. And shortly enough, it manages to enter his mind. The two merge together, and Robin is finally able to identify the creature.

It is Darkling. A banshee. And it is now Cal.

With its job over with, Darkling/Cal and the Auphe leave the apartment and disappear through a gate.

Cal is left in a run down motel, with nothing in the way of supplies. He decides to remedy that in the morning, which first involves a visit to see Promise. When he arrives at her floor, he manages to duck in to a cupboard in time to avoid detection by Promise and Niko, who had just been arrived at her apartment. Giving up on the idea of stealing from the vampire, Cal instead goes to see Boggle. He talks the creature in to giving up all the money and jewellery that he has collected from his victims. Cal then heads to a pawn shop to sell it all, but after being ripped off by the owner, he then proceeds to burn the building down. He spends the money he makes on getting a better hotel, and is soon visited by an Auphe, who warns him to keep low.

The next day, Cal goes to a werewolf bar and hires some of them to kill George. He then moves on, planning to enjoy himself. After visiting a number of places that play music, he goes on to get a tattoo; the word 'MOM' in a heart. Eventually, Cal goes to see the Auphe again in order to check the progress of things. It is there that we discover what the Auphe end-game is; they plan to go back in time to cull the numbers of humans before they grew to the billions that they are today.

The next day, Cal awaits the results of the werewolf attack that he'd ordered. Only one wolf comes back and informs Cal that all the others had been killed by two people with swords. A human and a non-human. Niko and Robin. George hadn't been touched. Cal goes on to kill the last wolf, before leaving the hotel permanently.

He calls Niko with a threat against Promise, and soon enough, he and Robin turn up. It had been part of Cal's plan though, and he leads the pair through the park. Along the way, Promise literally bumps in to Cal, who only stops long enough to reject her request to come home, and tells her of what was to come once the Auphe plan becomes reality. Leading Niko and Robin in to a trap, Boggle then attacks the pair. Cal shoots Niko, only to find, once he's too close, that Niko had been wearing a bullet-proof vest. Niko stabs Cal in the shoulder, and holds another to his chest. Robin then tries to use the position to his advantage and is about to decapitate him, only to find his swing blocked by Niko. Twice. Eventually, Cal manages to kick Robin over, and Boggle attacks Niko. After cutting one of Boggle’s hands off, Niko uses a tranquiliser dart on Cal, before he is able to kill Robin.

Taking his body to Robin's office, they cuff him to the chair. Eventually Cal manages to break the chair and get free, before stealing a car and escaping. From there, he heads to see the Auphe again. While at the building, he finds Samuel, and discovers that the Auphe had hired him to keep a watch over Cal in exchange for them healing his brother. Cal informs Samuel that the Auphe couldn't heal anything, even if they wanted to, and then goes on to realise that Samuel is in fact George's uncle. By using George as leverage, Cal forces Samuel to bring all his band equipment while he stays with the Auphe.

The next afternoon, Cal continues to practice opening gates with an Auphe instructor. Something he has perfected by now. Samuel turns up with his equipment and is told to start setting up. Which he does. No sooner had it been set up than the Auphe decided the time was right to begin the opening of the gate. After absorbing all the energy that was stored beneath them, Cal begins to sing, and opens a gate larger than anything he'd opened before. This one led back to the past.

As the Auphe are about to make their way to the gate, Niko and Robin appear, having been hidden inside one of the speakers. Robin, now accompanied by Samuel, holds off the Auphe with shotguns, while Niko tries to force Cal to close the gate. Cal manages to hold him off by spitting a weak poison in his face and kicking his brother. But eventually, Niko stabs him through the abdomen, and the gate closes as Cal falls to the floor. With the sudden closing of the gate, the building begins to collapse around them. And in a split-second decision, Niko picks up Cal and they all escape, despite being chased by the remaining Auphe.

The group then gets in to the car, but Samuel sacrifices himself by staying behind to fend off the Auphe. With Robin driving the way to Staten Island, Niko does his best to keep Cal alive. They eventually arrive at Rafferty's. A healer. Rafferty begins to heal Cal, but Niko makes him send Cal to sleep before his strength returns any further.

Cal wakes up later with only Catcher (Rafferty's "dog") to keep watch. Cal finds he has been paralysed, and spends the time watching the others in the kitchen, only to find himself being ordered back to sleep by an angry Rafferty.

He wakes up again, later, to the sound of an argument in the other room. One in which Niko is asking Rafferty to kill Cal. After a long bout of silence, Rafferty agrees and the trio enters the room Cal is in. Niko takes a moment to apologise and to say goodbye, before Rafferty lays his hands on Cal and stops his heart.

And then he felt as though he was being split in two.

Darkling abandoned Cal's body as it lay dead. And those few missed heartbeats were all that were needed before Rafferty brought Cal back to life again. Darkling-free. He wakes up to find Niko and Robin being toyed with by Darkling. Grabbing a weapon, Cal goes to join the fight, and soon realises that Darkling now knows everything Cal does. Including how his brother fights. However, Cal manages to land a blow of his own. It takes three strikes to kill Darkling, but Cal continues to hack at the creature until he is forced to stop by Niko.

Cal then begins to try and keep his distance from the others, scared of having hurt them and doing it again. Eventually, Niko manages to keep Cal still long enough to have Rafferty make his memories of all that had happened fade away. He wakes up later, to find Robin in the room. The pair talk about what had happened with Niko, and he tells Robin the truth about Catcher.

After a wash, change, check, and talk with Rafferty, Cal finally makes some lunch and goes to wake up Niko. The pair talk about everything that had happened, and Cal tells his brother the truth about the whole ordeal; Cal was Darkling for the entire thing. He felt and did everything that Darkling did. A merger and not a possession.

The entire group finally gathers together at the end of the book, and Cal decides that he and Niko are going to stay in New York.

And then, because this one actually has a wiki page: Moonshine.

[character abilities]:

Cal has a number of different abilities, thanks to a combination of big brother teaching him from the start, and the Auphe blood that runs through his veins. Because of that blood, Cal has a highly attuned sense of smell. For better or worse. He also has the ability to open up 'gates', which are portals that allow instantaneous travel from one location to another. At first, these gates only open a way to Tumulus, and at a cost to himself. He is left bleeding from his ears and nose, and with strong headaches. He has even gone as far as to pass out from using the gates. However, after a lot of practice, Cal is eventually able to form gates without any side-effects. Other than the fact he finds them too comfortable to use.

As well as these "supernatural" abilities, Cal also has a wide range of basic, physical strengths. He and his brother have been on the run since his abduction. And as such, Niko has done everything he could to make sure that Cal is able to fend for himself in a fight. His weapon of choice remains a gun, despite big brother's protests, but he is more than capable of dealing in hand to hand combat, or using blades. He also has knowledge of a number of different "mythical" creatures. The kind that tend to turn up and decide that either brother would make a good lunch.

[character personality]:

Cal plays the role of a stereotypical teenager very well (despite being twenty years of age). As he himself states: "[he is] a coma with two legs and an endless appetite." And he's more than willing to live up to that reputation. Where his older brother prides himself on health and knowledge, Cal prefers junk food, laziness, and television. And is happier for it.

Due to the nature of their upbringing, Cal finds it difficult to trust others outside of his brother. It takes until the third book before Cal realises that he actually cares about Robin, despite the Puck having saved his and Niko's lives a number of times already. They have associates, they have acquaintances, and then they have family. It's only the final group that really matters to him. And then, it's only his brother that counts implicitly. Though by default, those that Niko are close to are factored in to the equation too. For example, people such as Promise, despite the fact she is fully capable of caring for herself. She is important to Niko, and so she is important to Cal. She is a semblance of normality for Niko, which is something Cal constantly regrets taking from him. To the few people that he's closest to, Cal shows a tremendous sense of loyalty and compassion. Even if it's constantly encroached upon by his general attitude toward life. He cares. He just doesn't always show it.

From the very start, Niko has been the single most important person in his life. And despite the fact that he knows he wouldn't have survived as long as he had without his older brother around, Cal feels as though he has been nothing but a burden to the man. If Cal hadn't been around, then Niko would have been able to have a normal life. One free from monsters, and one where he wasn't tied down. Cal is fiercely protective of his brother, and will willingly do stupid or dangerous things in order to keep him safe. When Niko is kidnapped in Moonshine, Cal opens a gate to Tumulus and faces down Hob; the oldest known Puck. All so that he can get Niko and George back. It's through the anger towards Niko's abduction that the gate is forced open at all.

Cal has a habit of being increasingly moody when he is angry or upset. He is often self-loathing at his heritage, and will hold it as an explanation as to why he behaves as he does. He knows he is a monster, and will call himself such, openly. When he has committed acts that emphasise his Auphe side, he will call himself by his full name instead of just Cal. This is to point out what he is, to other people.

Cal is sarcastic by nature. It makes it easier to deal with whatever situation he has been put in to. Sometimes, it is used as a defence. Sometimes, it's as humour. But most often, it's simply just the way he finds easiest to communicate. Especially when things are too serious at that point.

[point in timeline you're picking your character from]: Post-Moonshine. (Also: With some memories of his last stay, pre-Madhouse-update)