SOFT HANDS, SHARP TEETH

the crescent moon fits the
line of your cheek

• headcanons
• biography
• abilities
• credit

 
HEADCANONS

I. walks alone are his escape. sometimes through the woods, sometimes along the foggy coast. it’s when his mind can wander without interruption.II. technology makes him uneasy. he avoids phones and cards, prefers cash, and stays off social media. it’s safer that way.III. he keeps a stash of old coins and foreign bills in a box under his bed. sometimes he’ll run them through his fingers when he can’t sleep.IV. he’s got a soft spot for stray animals. cats, especially. they seem to find him, and he never turns them away.
 

V. he doesn’t eat much, but will sometimes order food at his own bar just to look normal. he’ll push it around his plate, maybe take a bite, never finishes.VI. when he does speak about his past, it’s in fragments. half-truths, vague references, or stories that don’t quite add up. he prefers to keep his history a mystery.vii. he writes lists—names, places, things to remember. most of them end up crumpled in his pockets or burned in the fireplace.viii. the hunger is always there, a dull ache in his bones, a gnawing in his gut that never really fades. some nights it’s just a whisper, easy to ignore. other nights it’s a roar, impossible to drown out.ix. every time he kills, the guilt settles in after, heavy and cold. he tells himself he’ll do better, that he’ll find another way, but the cycle always repeats.x. suspicion in a small town is a constant threat. he’s careful, always picking strangers passing through, never locals, always making sure there are no patterns to follow.xi. sometimes, after a kill, he’ll scrub his hands raw, as if that could wash away what he’s done. it never does.xii. keeps his bar dimly lit, partly for comfort, partly to avoid drawing attention to his unchanging face. regulars joke about it, but he never laughs.xiii. enjoys cooking simple meals, often experimenting with recipes from different cultures he’s encountered over the decades.xiv. he’s careful about what he touches. fingerprints, traces, little signs—he’s learned to leave as little behind as possible.xv. he never celebrates his birthday, and if anyone asks, he just shrugs and says he forgot.xvi. can’t stand the sound of heartbeats when he’s hungry. finds it maddening. 

 
KIM YEONG-SU

 BASICS
birth name kim yeong-su.  
current alias tobias fox adair.
date of birth 11/21/1910.
age 114. 28 appearance-wise.
sex cisgender male.
birthplace boryeong, south korea.
current residence astoria, oregon.
occupation bartender/bar-owner.
orientation bisexual, prefers women.
date of death 10/9/1929.PHYSICAL
ethnicity korean-german.
nationality american.
species vampire.
height 5`11"
weight 77 kilos.
hair naturally chestnut brown, but dyed black.
eyes sea blue, almond-shaped.
build slim, but muscular.
scent iron, sharp and detectable.MENTAL
positive traits attentive, humorous, charming.
negative traits impulsive, possessive, standoffish.
hobbies gardening, stargazing, reading, cooking, bird-watching..
alignment true neutral.
languages korean, japanese, english.
likes cats, rain, horror movies, books, space, sunsets/rises, classical music, seashells, flowers.
dislikes dogs, thunder, lightning, loud and abrupt sounds, hallmark movies, werewolves, spiders, bright lights.
fears isolation, fire, death.
mental post traumatic stress disorder.

BACKSTORY

          KIM YEONG-SU was born on the outskirts of boryeong, a town where the wind never really stopped and the salt from the sea clung to everything. he stood out from the start. blue eyes, lighter hair —- no one in the village looked like him. his father was a german trader who passed through town and never came back. people whispered, but no one ever said his name. it was a different time. for his mother, bok-soon, being pregnant out of wedlock was already a disgrace. carrying a foreigner’s child made it worse. her family rushed her into marriage with man-gil, a widowed farmer with a failing plot and nothing left to lose. he was desperate enough to pass off another man’s child as his own, just for two more hands to work the fields, even though everyone knew yeong-su wasn’t his.the kids made sure he never forgot it. his mother, bok-soon, tried to make their small house feel safe. she hummed old songs while she worked, the scent of barley trailing after her. she was gentle, but tired. always tired.his stepfather, man-gil, was a different story. he drank too much and worked too little. when he was angry, which was often, he took it out on yeong-su and his mother. the bruises faded, but the words stuck around. even so, yeong-su learned to fight back. he didn’t like it, but sometimes fists were the only language that made sense. man-gil borrowed money from anyone who would lend it, and when the harvests failed, the threats started.yeong-su found quiet in the woods. the trees didn’t care about blue eyes. that’s where he met hye-jin. she was different, too —- not from boryeong. her accent was strange, her clothes a little too nice for someone just passing through. she never asked about the bruises or the eyes. she just listened. sometimes, she felt cold to the touch, but he was too grateful for her company to care. over time, it became more than friendship. he’d wait for her at the edge of the trees, heart pounding just to see her. she’d smile, take his hand, and the rest of the world would fall away. he loved her, quietly at first, then all at once. she loved him back, in her own gentle, secret way. 

 
everything changed the night the fire started. smoke, shouting, the orange glow eating up the only home he’d ever known. the fire wasn’t an accident. it was a warning for man-gil’s debts. he blindly ran inside, searching for his mother, only finding her scarf in the kitchen. the roof came down before he could get out. darkness swallowed him whole.when he woke, the world was ash and ruin. hye-jin was there, whispering words he didn’t understand. she pressed her wrist to his mouth. the taste was sharp, metallic. he didn’t know what she’d done until later, when the hunger started.the villagers never found his mother’s body in the ashes, nor his. they buried empty boxes, called it a funeral, and went back to their lives. he watched from a distance, hidden in the trees with hye-jin. no one cried for her except him.together they left boryeong behind. new names, new places. always moving, always hiding. hye-jin taught him how to survive, how to blend in. for a while, it worked. they were happy. he was happy. then she was gone. some men in hong kong obsessed with the occult found out what she was. they killed her, right in front of him. she turned to dust in his arms. after that, he drifted. changed names like old shirts. hurt people, sometimes just to feel something. america was supposed to be a fresh start. he became tobias adair. opened a bar, tried to keep his head down. every decade or so, he moved on. never stayed anywhere long enough for people to notice he didn’t age.now, he’s in oregon. keeps to himself. locals know him as …… [unfinished]

 
ABILITIES

i. immortality this concept is self-explanatory. he does not age and cannot die from environmental elements or mortal wounds.ii. regeneration his wounds heal themselves. cuts fade, skin stitches itself back together, and limbs regenerate. however, this process requires a significant amount of energy, especially for more serious injuries like lost limbs. as a result, he becomes incredibly exhausted and hungry afterwards. regeneration time varies on wound severity.iii. shape-shifting he has the ability to transform into a bat or a swarm of bats, which grants him the power of flight and a birds’ eye view. he can also transform into other animals and even humans, although he must know the person/animal he wishes to turn into very well. he can only hold a form that isn’t his own for 90 seconds.iv. weather modification with this power, he can sense, channel, shape, create, and manipulate the weather at will. it is the most difficult of his abilities for him to control, and he has only a loose grip on it. he primarily uses it to enhance his punches by putting wind behind them, making them heavier, or by creating shadows with clouds to move around discreetly during the day.v. illusion he is able to mask his more monstrous attributes—those being his claws, fangs, deathly pale skin, and pupils—from the mortal gaze. however, this human facade starts to fade when he is exhausted, low on blood, or simply angry enough to lose control over it.
 

 
WEAKNESSES

i. sunlight the one thing that can kill him for good is exposure to the sun. yeongsu cannot regenerate any part of his body that has been burned away by its rays. the scars on his chest are from scuffles with other supernatural beings that lasted too long, leaving him vulnerable to the dawn. it’s an agonizing way to go, and it’d take about five full minutes of direct exposure to do him in.ii. holy water splash it on him and it’ll burn like hell. essentially liquid acid on his skin.iii. lack of blood yeong-su can only be without blood for a maximum of two weeks before he starts to weaken and lose control of himself. his human facade will gradually slip, and even his more monstrous attributes will fade. he will revert to his original form, a rotting, burned corpse.iv. garlic while pure garlic can't kill him, its smell triggers intense migraines that can last for hours at even the faintest whiff.v. silver contact with silver burns his skin on touch, leaving angry welts and blisters that sting for hours. though the injuries heal eventually, the pain is sharp and immediate, and repeated exposure can leave him weakened and distracted.