FAUST VAN ZIEKS
faust van zieks is an original character and the twin brother of barok van zieks. both brothers working as prosecutors in london, and each carries a curse of their own that is linked to their older brother's mysterious death at the hand of the notorious serial-killer, the professor. much like barok being known as the reaper of the old bailey due to the mysterious deaths of the defendants who's found innocent in trials he prosecutes, faust is known as the devil of the old bailey, due to seemingly similar circumstances. though where similarities are glaringly obvious, some differences might be found hidden in the darkest of shadows...
THE BASICS
NAME: faust van zieks
NICKNAMES: devil of the old bailey
AGE: in his early 30s (looks more around his mid to late 20s due to slowed aging)
GENDER: male / he / him
OCCUPATION: district attorney
SPECIES: vampire (present) human (formerly)
HEIGHT: 6'4' / 192cm
HAIR: a desaturated, cold purple
EYES: dark gray
FAMILY: barok van zieks (twin), klint van zieks (older brother by approx 10 years)
NOTEABLE FEATURES: a cross shaped, long scar with the longest part of the "cross" running from almost the top left of his forehead down to underneath his right eye and the shortest part of the "cross" running from right above his right eyebrow down to his left cheekbone.
POWERS & WEAKNESSES
IMMORTALITY: with his soul owned by the devil, faust's physical body has altered, rendering him immortal. he cannot die by any normal, human means. that said, he can still be killed in other ways, it just takes a lot more to do it.
SPEED / STRENGTH / AGILITY: faust has gained superhuman strength, speed and agility far beyond any human. with this, he is able to move around faster than a human eye can see, more silently, and move around in places normal humans might struggle to, such as quickly leap up trees, climb up buildings, etc.
HEALING: one of vampire's abilities include healing rapidly from any injuries they receive, but it also includes the ability to heal others if they wish. this means that a vampire can, in fact, heal up a corpse's bitemarks after feeding, thus leaving no traces behind of their prey having been bitten at any point.
MANIPULATION: vampires have a natural compelling air to them that draws people in and make them more prone to be vulnerable / trusting / honest around them. this isn't to say that a vampire will make everyone be immediately honest and that they're a walking truth sereum, just that people generally feel more comfortable around them without necessarily a
good reason.
THE CROSS: perhaps somewhat ironic, considering faust is branded with a cross-shaped scar on his face, but vampires are, in fact, vulnerable to the cross. it's not something that will kill them, but at the display of one, it does spark a strong fight or flight reaction in them. thanks to faust's scar, however, he has become more or less numb to this feeling, as he feels it all the time, so in fact, he is an exception to this rule, making it more difficult to pin him down as a vampire for anyone who knows a thing or two about vampires.
HOLY WATER: doesn't kill a vampire, but it does burn their skin, or if they were to consume it (say if someone put a few drops of holy water into an unsuspecting vampire's drink) it would cause them to become very weak, possibly even pass out for a while, depending on the amount they drank.
WOODEN STAKE: would in fact, kill a vampire. but it would also kill a human, so it would be hard to say if a vampire died from the wooden stake because they were a vampire, or if they were a human, unless it had been established beforehand some other way, that the vampire is, without a doubt, a vampire...
SILVER BULLETS: similar to holy water. will severely weaken a vampire and it will take far longer for them to heal, but it won't necessarily kill them. the only way a silver bullet will kill a vampire is if they're shot in the head or heart, but even then, there are a few exceptions where a vampire might survive (just as there are humans who have survived being shot in the head or heart)
BLOOD: a vampire does need human blood in order to survive. a sure way of killing a vampire is starving them to death. between one and two months without consuming blood, a vampire would gradually lose their strength and eventually die of starvation. of course, this relies on you actually being able to restrain a vampire for that long.
DECAPITATION: you can kill a vampire if you chop off their head, though you'd need to be fairy strong and have an extremely sharp blade to manage this, as a vampire's skin and bone is more resistant than that of a human.
FIRE: vampires can indeed be killed by fire. it's not like they're highly flammable so as soon as fire touches them, they'll go up in flames, but they basically have the same weakness towards fire as humans does, no more, no less.
BIOGRAPHY
when faust van zieks first became a prosecutor, his and barok's older brother, klint was already chief prosecutor. the two twin brothers were attacked by thugs multiple times for being the younger brothers of a noble, high-ranking prosecutor. once, they were attacked in the alleys of london late at night with a japanese exchange student named genshin asogi. although the thugs were really after genshin, the man saved both their lives and they became good friends. but things were about to change when genshin seemed to betray the brothers by being convicted for supposedly being the professor.
the professor, who was believed to be genshin at the time, used a huge hound dog to kill people of noble ranking. the fifth and final victim of the killings was the twin's older brother, klint van zieks. the two brothers had at one point suspected their brother to be the professor, since klint wasn't acting like himself, and had a history of being damaged greatly when fellow nobles would use the public to only strengthen their position. the professor's third victim was the chief justice at the time, whom prosecutor mael stronghart took the place of. the victim had been klint's mentor and benefactor, so barok discarded his suspicions of klint being the professor, as he 'knew his brother would never kill someone like that'. faust on the other hand, still held onto his suspicion, though he couldn't bring himself to fully believe it either.
upon hearing that his brother wanted to prosecute in the case against genshin, faust started to see a hatred fester in his brothers' heart that he disliked. unlike barok, faust was certain from the start that genshin was innocent of the accusations made against him. the professor case had shook the whole of london, and the trial was held in secret under orders from the queen to avoid war. barok, who wanted revenge for the death of his brother, pleaded stronghart multiple times to be allowed to prosecute the case. eventually, he was granted permission to prosecute genshin, and stronghart provided him assistance in court. faust, naturally, had made a similar request to be genshin's defense attorney, but this request was refused by stronghart as faust was a prosecutor, not a defense attorney. it was first after posing this request that faust was also refused to attend the trial which he was previously supposed to attend, which furthered faust's suspicions that genshin was, in fact, innocent, and that there was something far bigger at play. something involving stronghart.
the trial against genshin was barok's first ever case, which he won by securing a guilty verdict for genshin, after an autopsy revealed a "conclusive piece of evidence", much to faust's grief. barok lost his next case as a prosecutor after the defendant threatened the jury into giving him a non guilty verdict. three days later, he died after being crushed by a concrete block under a construction site. since then, barok was labelled as a death bringer. following that trial, all of the not guilty defendants had died under mysterious circumstances. in response, the people of london spread the rumor that the grim reaper, the force said to be causing the deaths, was actually the ghost of klint van zieks attached to barok. it was said he was bringing down justice where his younger brother couldn't. because of this 'curse', barok was frequently attacked by underlings of victims of the reaper. however, he was rarely defeated by them.
on the other side of that coin, there was faust. having no means to prove that genshin was innocent, no evidence to follow, and his only lead, stronghart, being practically untouchable (although faust did try to investigate the man in his spare time for a while, but nothing came of it,) faust soon found that the once inseparable bond between the two twins was now rapidly starting to tear and fall apart. not only had he lost his older brother, but he was in a sense, losing his twin brother too...
being certain that stronghart was the key to the mystery, faust continued to work as a prosecutor, same as his brother, in order to have reason to remain in contact with the man. and same as his brother, whenever faust failed to provide a guilty verdict for the defendant, they soon ended up dead regardless. and at first, the defendants would all die in mysterious, but different circumstances each time. and for a brief time, faust and barok shared the title, being the reapers of the bailey.
this would soon change, however.
as faust continued to remain stuck on who really had been the professor, not to mention who really was behind the deaths of the defendants found innocent, faust started to fall into a depression and obsession with discovering the truth. becoming closed off, the only time people would see faust was in court. during this time, faust, in secret, would seek out self-proclaimed seers in hopes of discovering the truth. of course, all turned out to be dead ends. that is, until one night, he was approached by a stranger. a stranger that could fell faust things that none other than himself knew, including that he was looking for any leads to the professor's true identity. convinced by this stranger's display of powers, faust agreed to make a deal, and offered the man money in exchange for anything that would lead to the truth about the professor. however, the man was interested in something else; ... faust's soul.
giving faust little time to think, faust accepted without a chance to consider the grave consequences of this deal. and he was given but one single lead; the key to solving the mystery remained with genshin's son at the time being... before faust could even begin to protest, to point out that this was a riddle more than an answer, the man mysteriously vanished, and while he couldn't put his finger on what it was, faust suddenly felt... different. like something within him had become... hollow.
that night, he didn't sleep.
the next morning, he didn't eat.
nor for the rest of the day.
when evening came, faust realized he should probably attempt to eat something despite not being particularly hungry, but as soon as the food entered his mouth, it tasted as if it had turned to ash. as did the wine when it hit his tongue. after a few more days without sleep, food or drink, faust sought out a doctor, but the doctor found nothing wrong. in fact, he seemed to be in better health than ever.
faust was certain it had to have something to do with the deal he made, that the strange man must have caused him to separate with his soul somehow. though he still wasn't sure what it meant, so he continued his life as normal, except with a new goal; to follow the only new lead he had been given; that the key to this puzzle was with genshin's son. of course, the boy was all the way over in japan, which would make things increasingly harder. any messages he would try to send to the family now looking after him would seem to be lost somewhere along the way, and of course, he would not be permitted to travel personally, as he was "much needed" here in london.
about a month after the shady deal he'd made, faust started to understand the seriousness of what had happened to him, when the thirst finally started to set in, and he found himself unable to quench it, no matter what types of drinks he consumed. it was three nights after a trial which he had failed to provide a guilty verdict due to fabricated evidence to prove the man's innocence, that faust was approached by the man himself and his goons; who were set on killing faust under the belief that it might stop the curse. with guns pointed, one of them shot faust multiple times in the chest. which should've proven to be fatal.
instead, it was the very thing that would unleash the monster within him that he'd become. a monster unfazed by such a thing as ordinary bullets. instinct overcoming him, faust attacked and killed the men swiftly, before draining each one of blood, before returning home, shocked and shivering from what had happened.
it didn't take long before he understood what had happened to him, although it was almost too hard to believe. the lack of need for food or drink, the bloodlust, the invulnerability to bullets, the strength and speed at which he'd torn those men apart... he was... he had become a vampire.
as he went to stronghart's office the next day for a meeting, he could hear the man even before entering the office, discussing with inspector gregson the grisly murders that had been discovered that very night. and stronghart sounded... more troubled than usual. almost as if he had expected something else to have happened. if faust had had suspicions before, he was almost certain now, that there was something darker lurking inside the heart of the lord chief justice, namely that he was connected with the real reaper of the old bailey somehow. though the situation remained unchanged; he only had his gut feeling and no evidence nor leads to follow up on his suspicions.
with his new... condition, however, faust realized he was doomed to a life where he would now have to drink human blood in order to survive. unwilling to prey on the innocent, he saw an opportunity to take matters into his own hands. with hope of rattling some cages with the true reaper of the bailey, faust saw to it that from now on, he would take matters into his own hands while providing himself with fresh, human blood in order to live, and so he set out to attack those who wrongfully were found innocent in his trials due to fabricated evidence or other corrupted means, draining them entirely of blood. naturally, he provided alibis for himself, using his new powers by putting himself in locations too far away from the crime having taken place for him to be able to be the culprit (under the assumption that he's human, that is.)
this new change in how the victims were found, separated faust from his brother further, providing him with a new alias of his own as the devil of the old bailey, as unlike the defendants who had been found innocent after the trials prosecuted by barok, there were clearly a devil's work at play with the defendants who had been found innocent after the trials prosecuted by faust, as no human could possibly be able to drain another human of blood without leaving any traces, and it was soon believed (rightfully so) that faust had made a deal with the devil himself in order for these impossible killings to occur.
[MORE TBA LATER, BUT U GET THE GIST]
VERSES
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