| “ | He said I was endangering everyone with the things I did. He tried to stop me, but he couldn't kill me. He was living by the code. We don't kill our own kind.
— Caelan on Dusk
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” |
Caelan was an exiled vampire who first appears in Dark Days. Caelan was turned into a vampire sometime in the early nineteenth century. Caelan was a dangerous individual even by vampire standards and repeatedly became obsessed with various women whom he would stalk and murder once they either rejected his affections or were exposed to his vampire side. He was found by another vampire, Dusk and his friend Hrishi, who tormented him until he killed Hrishi, leading him to being ostracised by other vampires for breaking their sacred code.
He met Valkyrie Cain after the pair were captured and forced to fight for the amusement of mortals and helped stop the Revengers Club from enacting their plan of starting a war between mortals and sorcerers. He quickly became obsessed with her and after she dumps him for being too obsessed and clingy he tries to murder her. He is thwarted by the arrival of Fletcher Renn (Valkyrie's former boyfriend, who Valkyrie had been cheating on with Caelan) and drowned in the ocean.
Battle vs. Yukako Yamagishi (by Wassboss)[]
Koichi opens up the door of his apartment to the smell of something delicious. Dropping his school bag on the sofa, he walks into the kitchen to see Yukako dishing out soup into two bowls. “Wow that smells great” he says as he sits down at the table. She places his bowl down in front of him and he starts eating ravenously, making her smile. They eat in silence for a few minutes and once they are finished, she takes the bowls over to the sink and begins washing up.
“So how did your study session with Josuke go?” she asks.
“Oh that. Yes, that was good. I think I’m going to ace that maths test tomorrow.”
“And you were studying right?”
“Of course, we were,” Koichi says nervously. Yukako looks over her shoulder at him, her smile gone.
“Koichi. I know when you’re lying.”
“I-I,” Koichi stammers. “Okay! I went there to study that is true but then Okuyasu came round and he had this new video game and we thought we’d have a few games of that before we studied and then it was getting late…”
“And this is how you think you’re going to get good grades!” Yukako says, slamming the bowl down on the side. “Where is your work ethic! Do you want to fail!”
“I-I’m sorry. I’ll do some studying tonight I swear,” Koichi says nervously.
“Now that’s more like it my precious Koichi,” Yukako says, her face once again sweet and innocent. “Oh, by the way my geography lesson tomorrow has been cancelled, Mr Polo has called in sick. So I won’t be able to walk home with you.”
“Oh. Well, what are you going to do all afternoon?” Koichi asks.
“I’ve already booked another shift in at the salon. So, I won’t be back here until the evening. You don’t mind waiting a bit later for your dinner, right?”
“No of course not. Well I’d better get started on this studying then,” Koichi says wearily.
“Don’t stay up too late,” Yukako says sweetly. Finishing up with the washing, she sits down on the sofa and turns the TV on. As she watches she is unaware that she too is being observed…
On the other side of the street, enveloped in the shadows of an alleyway, Caelan feels his heart soar with love as he catches sight of his beloved. She is the picture of beauty and he wants nothing more than to be snuggled up with her. Instead, he is out here in the streets, with no home to call his own and all alone. She too knew the hardship of homelessness once and Caelan remembered his feelings stirring up even back then. There had been others of course over the eight years he has spent in this godforsaken place but never had the light of love shone as brightly as it did with her. As the sun dips overhead, he takes one last glimpse at Yukako before slinking away.
“Is that pompous fool gone yet?” Sweeny Todd asks as he steps out from the backroom of his salon.
“Yes Mr Todd,” Yukako says.
“Good. He comes in here every week, always talking about how he was robbed of his destiny and how handsome and wonderful he is. One of these days I’m going to cut the arrogant bastard’s throat,” Sweeny continues. “Thankfully that was our last appointment for the day. You can go once you’ve cleared up after yourself.”
“Thank you, Mr Todd,” Yukako replies as he returns to the backroom. Once her station is cleaned, she begins the long walk back to Koichi’s apartment. She decides to take a short cut through one of the hobo encampments, weaving her way through the makeshift dwellings made from discarded trash cans and boxes. As she passes one such shelter a man steps out in front of her, a trident clutched in his hands. He starts to speak to her and while she doesn’t understand his tongue the aggression behind the words make his intent clear. “I don’t have any money so get out of my way you moron!” Yukako says angrily.
Suddenly the mugger is flung backwards, crashing through one of the tin shelters. A figure blurs past and snatches the man up by the throat. “Don’t you ever threaten her like that” they snarl, slamming the trident wielder into wall repeatedly before dropping him bloody and broken on the ground. Caelan walks over to Yukako who has been watching the exchange with amusement. “Are you okay?” he asks.
“I could’ve handled that myself you know,” Yukako says. “But thank you anyway.”
“I would do anything for you,”
“What are you talking about. I don’t even know you.”
“But I know you. I’ve been watching you afar for a long time.”
Yukako frowns. “Okay that’s very creepy.” Caelan steps forward and grabs her arm.
“What could be creepy about love?” he says. “You and I are a perfect match.”
“Get the hell off me,” Yukako shouts, her hair slamming into Caelan and sending him hurtling backwards. He turns unnaturally in the air to land on his feet and when he looks up his face has hardened.
“WHY DO THEY ALWAYS REJECT ME” he screams in anguish. Yukako’s hair snakes towards him, aiming for his arms and legs to try and subdue him. He bats away the strands coming for his arms and hops over the ones going for his legs, rushing at Yukako. Just before he can reach her however her hair forms a barrier to block him, flicking out to push him away. He grabs clumps on the hair and pulls hard but instead of causing any pain it just seems to make her angrier. The hair tightens around his hands and begins to squeeze, slowly crushing the bones. In a desperate attempt to free himself, Caelan is forced to use his teeth to shred through the binds before backing away. Yukako’s attack is relentless however and he is forced to duck and weave about just to avoid being grabbed by the tendrils of hair.
Conducting Love Deluxe like an orchestra, Yukako begins to cut off Caelan’s means of escape, unravelling more and more of her hair in the process. Once she feels she has him surrounded the hair begins to close in, wrapping around Caelan and lifting him into the air. He struggles against his binds in vain as he is raised higher and higher. Once she has lifted him to the tops of the nearby buildings, she brings him down, slamming him onto the ground hard. Caelan doesn’t move and her hair begins to retract, satisfied that she has dealt with the threat. Her confidence is misplaced however as Caelan leaps up suddenly, crossing the distance between them in the blink of an eye. He grabs her and shoves her up against the wall, twisting her arm around hard until he hears the bone snap. She cries out in pain but he clamps his hand over her mouth to silence her.
“A broken bone is nothing compared to the pain I feel inside me right now,” he growls. “I thought you were different than the rest. That you would understand me. Maybe you need to be like me. Then you would accept my love.” He leans down, mouth opening wide to bite her when he feels himself being tugged back by his hair. He swings out behind him, hoping to catch his assailant with a strike but he is shocked to find that there is nobody there. Long black hair starts slithering past his eyes and he glances up to see the hairs growing out of his own head. As they slowly begin to drag him back, he watches as Yukako stalks towards him, holding her broken arm tightly.
“How dare you think you could ever replace my dear Koichi. You’re just an insignificant hobo, a pitiful pathetic little shit. I will CRUSH YOU!” Love Deluxe swirls around her like a storm, growing bigger and bigger. Caelan reaches up to his head and feels around for the parts of Love Deluxe which are buried inside his scalp. He grabs them tightly and pulls with all his strength, hissing in pain as he yanks them loose. Now free to move he leaps high into the air just in time to avoid the tidal wave of hair which smashes the dumpster behind him into smithereens. He lunges forward at Yukako, pinning her to the ground. This time he doesn’t waste time with words and clamps his teeth down on her neck as the tendrils of hair start to wrap around him.
While his intention was to simply turn her into a vampire as the blood touches his tongue, his first taste of blood in almost eight years, his instincts prevail. He tears out her jugular, lapping up the spray of blood greedily. Once the bloodlust subsides the realisation of what he has done dawns on him and he gets to his feet hurriedly. “I’m sorry,” he whispers before fleeing, leaving behind the drained husk of Yukako’s body sprawled out in the street.
Winner: Caelan
Epilogue []
Caelan rushes through the city, cursing at his foolishness for allowing himself to be out this close to sunset. He can feel the vampire within straining to get out and he heads towards the slums, where his makeshift cage is waiting. When he reaches the area, it is in however he is horrified to see that it has been ransacked, the metal bars bent out of shape and the chain within snapped. “Who would do this” he says shocked. His ears prick at the sound of footsteps and his nose picks up the scent of a human. He turns slowly to see a man walking towards him.
“Caelan. I knew one day it would come to this.”
“How do you know my name?” Caelan asks confused.
“Everyone knows about you Caelan. The other vampires don’t like you. Which is strange because I heard you tend to stick together. They’re the ones who did that to your cage.”
“And who are you exactly?”
“I’m Alexander Anderson. I’m a vampire hunter, or well I was back in my previous life. And I’ve been keeping an eye on you for a while. Seen all the woman you’ve developed an obsession with. Most of them end up putting you in the hospital when you tried to attack them. But today, you claimed your first victim.”
“Yukako,” Caelan says quietly.
“That’s right. I should’ve put an end to your existence long before this but I didn’t take you seriously enough as a threat.”
“You’ve made a mistake coming after me now” Caelan says his voice low and guttural.
“And why is that?” Anderson asks. Caelan doesn’t answer instead tearing off his human skin to reveal the vampire form beneath. The creature charges at Anderson who pulls several bayonets out of his coat and flings them at it. They cut deep into the vampire’s skin and halt it in its path, screaming in agony as they burn its flesh. Its suffering is short lived however as Anderson decapitates it a few moments later. He then picks up the body of the vampire and hoists it over his shoulder, skewering the head on one of his bayonets before heading towards the nearest sewer manhole.
“It’s not much further now,” the man says as he leads Anderson through the deepest depths of the sewers. Down this far the of the sewers are somehow even worse than the sections the lowest of the lowest warriors reside. The guide points to a particularly large sewer pipe with iron gratings just inside the rim. “That’s what you’re looking for”
“That?” Anderson says confused. “It looks like any of the other pipes down here.”
“That’s just how it tries to trick you,” the man says, unfurling a whip from where it is tied over his shoulder. He cracks it against the rim of the pipe and Anderson looks on in surprise as the pipe starts to move, the gratings inside transforming into teeth and a swirling black void appears within. “Now it knows its feeding time” the man says. Anderson tosses the vampire’s corpse in front of the pipe and it is sucked up like a vacuum, the pipe entrance opening wide enough to swallow the body whole.
“And you’re sure this will work? The users won’t simply be able to revive him like the others?” Anderson asks.
The man shrugs. “As far as we know they won’t even know they’re missing. We’ve been putting anyone who was K.O’d sissily into here and so far, none of them have been revived by the users so we’re assuming it erases the memory of them from our gracious overlords. Or at least that’s what Cioccolata seemed to think anyway.”
“Interesting,” Anderson says. “I don’t mean to be rude but you don’t seem to be the sort of person we normally get in the Cult of El Alamein?” The man sighs.
“I didn’t even kill the guy in my battle. But then you kill one dog and suddenly you’re considering one of them. They practically begged me to join.”
Expert's Opinion[]
This was a very close battle and in the end Caelan only ended up winning by half a vote. Yukako voters said that Love Deluxe gave her the only ranged option of either warrior and because of this she could simply keep Caelan at bay and prevent him from using the enhanced physicality afforded to him by being a vampire to any use. Caelan voters however thought that said physical attributes would allow him to avoid attacks from Love Deluxe and close the distance where he easily dominated her. Caelan voters also said that, while his experience is limited, it was still much greater than Yukako's one singular stand battle.