(My) Dr. Jonathan Emmet Reid

[transfundere]

Jonathan E. Reid is a talented surgeon and researcher, widely admired by his peers. During the Great War, he enlisted as a military doctor - partly to test his progressive theories on blood transfusion and organ transplantation. As the war draws to a close in the Autumn of 1918, Dr. Reid is sent home. Returning to London and looking forward to being reunited with his family, Reid is attacked and loses consciousness in the street. His last memory is that of a strange figure murmuring a dark poem, making towards his neck...

It's a branching storyline, with a semi-mutable protagonist, by which I mean some of the side details of the plot can shift depending on choices made and how much killing you choose to do so:

JONATHAN HIMSELF Does he eat people? Jonathan comes from a playthrough wherein he 'embraced' no one; as the achievement notes, 'not even once' did he bite and kill someone known to him who made no attempt to harm him. While he may have drank from and attacked certain members of the Guard of Priwen, I am content to say that he takes a sip and 'knocks them out' as opposed to killing them. This seems fair given the fact that they provide only the smallest amount of XP in comparison to the NPCs that you choose to embrace or not. Where did the Guard members disappear to? Well, let's say they either woke up and walked off or they were collected by their friends. If it works for Daredevil and Batman, I think it's only fair it works for him. TL;DR - The only thing that Jonathan has 'killed' for his hunger since Mary over this time are mindless skals and rats. Modern version? If and when I'm playing Jon from a modern era, suffice to say that he has found a cure for Elisabeth and that while the two spent a few decades together, they did at some point separate and he has been on his own for some years. The reasoning was twofold: the first being that Elisabeth thought Jon should come to know himself and discover what he wanted and enjoyed in this new life without being attached to someone else or the responsibilities he was taking care of all that time. The other being that Elisabeth felt she had some loose ends to tie up and penance to make, especially now that she is entirely cured. This almost certainly involves Jacob Blackwood, and who knows what other business that Johnny has no intent to stick his nose into. TL;DR: Jon's on his own and single. Elisabeth is a friend he keeps up with but their romantic relationship has currently ended. Jon, however, is never the sort to sit back and do nothing for the world. He still practices medicine, learning and growing with the craft; he lectures, researches, and publishes via some careful manipulation of paperwork and the ability to reference his 'great grandfather' who pioneered a certain blood transfusion technique back during WWI. He has a very nice administrative assistant who helps him with matters that require his attention during the day and will claim an extreme version of polymorphous light eruption if questioned, a diagnosis easily backed up by how very pale he appears even at the best of times. By default, I will say that he is still in London but I feel just fine moving him as the prompt might work better. Appearance? Reid is a tall, dark haired man who tends to prefer at least some portion of a beard. His hair is generally longer on top and tight on the sides. His eyes are a clear and pale blue green, almost like sea-glass, and he has a prominent scar over his nose and under his left eye from the war; the nose has clearly been broken a time or two. He is on the thinner side, but still quite solid and will always be relatively well kept in whatever clothes he happens to wear. Mannerisms? Jon was raised upper class in the West End of London during the beginning of the 20th century; as such, he's exceptionally formal and polite, though he can come off a little stuffy. He tends to keep a pretty decent personal space bubble unless he's familiar with you, and then he can be very apt to reach out. He's extremely educated in a number of subjects and delights in exploring them, happy to share his experiences and acting as authority really only in the case of medicine as it is his chosen specialty. He has no trouble in speaking his mind or in airing his emotions, and he makes no bones about his displeasure similarly if someone has called it down upon themselves. Depending on the need, he will air his disapproval gently or more firmly, but air it he will as he is no pushover despite his manners. He tends towards being more poetic and even a little dramatic at times, when he's moved to, and he enjoys referencing legend and myth and history liberally when he speaks. And yes, he can certainly be indelicate and even a little cruel if he is frustrated with someone who isn't seeing sense. Everyone's got flaws. Personality? Jon's a bit of a cinnamonbun, really. He was raised alongside his sister by parents who were kind and supportive and who genuinely wanted their children to be good people. Despite being very well monied, Jon and Mary were encouraged to be respectful and decent to everyone, to keep their minds and hearts open, and see others as people in need of care instead of being encouraged to look down on them due to their means. He tends to try to be gentle until provoked and he will try as many times as necessary to get someone to see reason, to take a path which causes the least harm for them and those around them before taking up arms against them. He is the kind of person who must get involved, who sees a situation where people are in need and cannot help but intercede. He's curious, an investigator by desire as opposed to profession, having loved puzzles from a young age, and he enjoys listening to people discuss their troubles and their interests; I imagine he has a lovely bedside manner, honestly. His patients are of the utmost importance to him and charity comes easily to him; he gives away the medications he makes for free to anyone who appears to require it. He's brave, with a tendency to walk straight into danger if it means accomplishing his goals, and he will perform his duties even quite literally under fire. Sometimes, he can forget that the danger is there or act foolishly when he's moved to by an emotional need, doing what he feels is right and proper against what traditional wisdom might recommend. Honestly, Jon spends the whole game going 'why me' and it's pretty fricking obvious. Profession? Jonathan is a noted researcher and surgeon, a doctor who is well known and admired by his peers. He has given at least three lectures which were widely attended and seems to be a bit of a rockstar in the medical world of his day. His mother, funny enough, thought that he would be a painter like her and his father, surprisingly, was just deeply pleased that he did not turn out a banker like himself. He took up medicine out of a calling, a need to help others and put his resources to work in bettering the world. He takes his profession, and professional ethics, very very seriously and one of the things that most offends him in the entire game is finding out that a fellow physician violated those ethics. He can hardly help himself from trying to help people, and even when resources are slim, he will make due to be able to provide the care and support that others need. His specialties are blood transfusion (lol, this is actually a plot point) and organ transplantation. His abilities? Jonathan, as a vampire, has a number of abilities, including: Mesmerism A mild glamour specifically to hide his nature: the paleness of his skin, the lack of body heat, etc. It can be seen around if you know the trick of it and I would assume any hunters would be able to spot him once closer. Great physical strength Heightened senses including his hearing, his sense of smell, his ability to sense blood specifically inside and out of living beings whether it's been cleaned up or no, his sight in the dark, etc. Diagnosis at a glance, including the stage of an illness Power over blood Power over shadows Physical weapons that manifest at will, including claws and fangs The ability to hide himself from sight The ability to teleport short distances via shadows (think Nightcrawler) The ability to 'sense' some surface thoughts from anyone he drinks the blood of The ability to learn things about people, up to and including their whole lives if he drinks them dry with more specifics listed here Weaknesses? Pretty standard vampire list, with a couple of tweaks: Sunlight burns him, but only direct sunlight, and it apparently cannot actually kill him. It will burn him to a crisp, but come dark, he will start to regenerate if allowed and will make a recovery eventually. It just hurts a LOT and is pretty fricking obvious. UV Light works similarly. Fire, on the other hand, will straight up kill him. We have at least one example in canon (two if you, uh... killed a few too many people). Garlic is deeply unpleasant; he's basically allergic the same way a person would be. Crosses need to be held and their protection actively invoked against him. There's at least one vampire shown to be wearing a cross himself and numerous ones are around and do nothing to him. Holy water? Doesn't seem to do much, honestly. Stakes? are about as deadly as anything else. There's no specific thing that kills vampires so much as the destruction of/severing of the heart or head. Thus enough bullets totally work on them. As do swords, etc. Orihalcum powder weakens them and seems to be the only thing that does. It seems to work a little like kryptonite: the presence is painful and a blade dipped in the stuff takes much longer to heal.

TERMINOLOGY/CANON INFO What time period is Jonathan originally from? As noted above, he returned to London in August 1918 and the events of the game take place over roughly a week to two weeks. That said, being a vampire, I can plop him just about any time period after that. Vampire? Skal? WHAT? 'Vampire', such as it is, refers to any such immortal whose powers come from blood and require blood or flesh to survive. (Note: 'immortal' and 'vampire' are generally used interchangeably.) There are different strains of vampire, all of which have different needs, appearances, and behaviors but ultimately they all come from the same place and one 'subspecies' can create one of the others depending on the quality of the blood used and the circumstances involved. The kinds identified so far: SKAL | Lowest on the totem pole, these creatures are scarred and inhuman looking and very often lack basic personhood or personality. Closest to what you'd think of as a Nosferatu, they are strengthened by the blood of Ekons and are driven to eat and drink human flesh and human blood but it does not need to be fresh. They have the hardest time controlling themselves, even if the person in question was very disciplined and wished to do no harm. VULKOD | A little higher are the Vulkod, whose skin is a deep purple/black caused by an overage of blood consumed. They are much larger than a normal human, monstrous and distinct, but they are fully capable of speech, personhood, and know exactly what they're doing. They seem to be the result of immortal blood mixing with someone who is already a killer, as the examples we've met include a famous serial killer and the lore provided backs this up. They appear to largely act as hired muscle for ekons willing to set them on targets. ICHOR | Almost always a woman (as men apparently cannot survive that which creates them), this immortal is a misshapen disease vector which spreads sicknesses everywhere she goes. The left arm seems to always be a mutated monstrosity with the ability to reach and stretch great distances. They spew poison and seem apt to retch when injured to ward off attackers and kill them in a cloud of vile smoke. They are rarely seen outside of a Disaster. EKON | The 'upper crust' of immortal society, they are the ones who can still deal in the human world as they appear almost the same as humans, despite the same sort of difficulties with sunlight, etc. There are some tells which differentiate them that one can learn and observe, including a change in the eyes which marks them especially when they kill to eat regularly. Ekons who abstain from violent murder, however, are almost impossible to detect purely by sight. NEMROD | A vampire who hunts and feeds from other vampires. There's only been written confirmation of them, and it's hard to say if Jon is considered one of these given that he does in fact tend to drink from other immortals and yes, has hunted and killed them. Canon is unclear if they are another species or just a nickname for a vampire who does so. Which one is Jonathan? Jonathan is, to best of knowledge, an Ekon, at the time of the game a newly born one, but he is somewhat in his own category due to his Maker. Myrddin's 'Champions' are stronger than the average Ekon, with extremely potent blood. 'Maker'? Maker = the vampire who made you. Progeny = a vampire you made. Jon's Maker is Myrddin. The only progeny he has for my version is Edgar Swansea, due to necessity, and to some degree, Sean Hampton. Maybe Geoffrey McCullum if the plot could be fun. 'Embraced'? 'Embrace' is the nice word they use for 'eaten'. Drank. Emptied like a Capri Sun. 'Disaster'? Basically, every once in a while, a certain very angry goddess decides to wreak havoc on the world and she does it using a woman, usually an Ichor, to spread plague and bring death and destruction. She must be fought and beaten back before she'll be sated and go back to sleep. 'Turn'? Make into a vampire. This requires drinking from them and then having them drink vampire blood. This will 'kill' them and they will wake up immortal. Depending on the potency of the blood (basically, how close you are to coming from the Blood Goddess), you can end up as what your Maker was or something else. A very weak Ekon with a poor bloodline can be in a position where they only make skals, for instance. Drinking more potent blood even after one has been turned can affect you somewhat, making you more powerful or infecting you with whatever was in the blood you drank. Can vampires have sex? According to a bit of lore picked up, yes, they can. There's even some evidence they might be able to have children though that's much more dodgy.

WHO'S WHO Who's Mary? Mary is Jonathan's twin sister, and the first (and for most play, only) victim that Jonathan ever killed. He was blind and weakened and completely unaware of what he was at the time, and when she reached out to hug him, the bloodlust took over. He bit her and drank her blood and it was only as her dying thoughts echoed in his mind that he realized what he'd done; he initially tries to end his own life over it, though his vampiric nature prevented the wound from being fatal. It is his greatest regret and his greatest source of pain as he loved his sister more than just about anyone. She had been searching the mass graves for him, unwilling to believe that he would have failed to return to her by choice. Spoilers... He lost her again when it came out that he'd actually accidentally turned her into a vampire, a state which broke her and drove her to kill others, including attempts on Jon and their mother. Jonathan defeated her and, at her request, executed her after the fight so that she could finally know peace. Who's Elisabeth Ashbury? Elisabeth is the first other vampire that Jon meets, and his main love interest in the game. She's older than him by quite some centuries and provides the guidance that his Maker did not, telling him about vampire society, the different abilities and weaknesses he has, how this all works, etc. She's a gentle soul who does her best not to cause harm to others, and she feeds only from terminal cases at Pembroke Hospital to give them a more pleasant send off, even though this leaves her feeling perpetually hungry and unsatisfied. Who's Myrddin? Myrddin is the enigmatic being who made Jon into a vampire, or as he himself called it, his 'bittersweet champion'. Spoilers... The purpose of turning him was so that he could combat the Disaster which was going to destroy London and possibly darken the world for centuries to come. Myrddin is the favored son of the Blood Goddess, and he's not so much a normal vampire as an ethereal being of living blood with horns, and it is his way to raise a champion to push back his 'terrible mother' when she awakens and threatens the world. We know that King Arthur was one of those sons, one who unfortunately failed. There have been others, some who are still around, though of the historical figures mentioned, he does not specify which one is his 'son'. Who's Edgar Swansea / the Order of St. Paul's Stole? Edgar is a member of the Order of St. Paul's Stole, an organization dedicated to learning about the more supernatural subjects of the world with a specific focus on vampires. He became Jonathan's friend after a rather rough start and offered him a place at Pembroke Hospital, which he runs. Who's Geoffrey McCullum / the Guard of Priwen? Geoffrey is a large, angry Irishman who applies a 'kill 'em all' attitude to vampires. He's also the leader of the Guard of Priwen, a branching organization that broke off from the Order of St. Paul's Stole, mostly because they thought it was more important to kill immortals than to study them. Geoffrey and Reid have a semi-antagonistic relationship and the hunter regularly refers to him only as 'leech', though whether he's calling him a vampire or a doctor is anyone's guess. Everyone slashes them. NGL, it kinda works.

GAME PLOTPOINTS Nurse Crane? Jon decided to request that Nurse Crane resign, as her clinic was a lifeline for the immigrants in the Whitechapel district and he had to agree that as unfortunate as it was for Lady Ashbury, it wasn't as if Nurse Crane was WRONG. She's a good woman, a caring woman, and he has no problem in providing her funding for her endeavors. He still goes by to help out on occasion, provide good coin for her medical supplies, and in general considers her something of a friend. Sean Hampton? After meeting Harriet Jones in the sewers, it became clear that Sean Hampton remained as saintly in undeath as he was in life. But having seen enough skals out on the streets, he was far too worried given Sean's somewhat troubled early life and the unrest of the epidemic to leave such things to chance: he gave Sean blood from his wrist, or rather very firmly insisted he drink it, and as such the relationship between them is good but occasionally strained. It is not something he is proud of or happy about, that he used the man's past against him, but he is content that Sean appears to be stable and in control to continue his work. His mother? Given that Jon had embraced no one at the time of his encounter with his sister, Mary did indeed spare their mother's life and their mother returned to the family home in the West End. While she is unwell mentally, Jon does his best to visit and spend time at the house with his mother though her condition continues to deteriorate. He did not, and would not, put her out of her misery through the quick and painless method of the Embrace. Instead, he will do what he can to keep her happy until she passes and spend what time he can with her. Aloysius Dawson? Jonathan spent his time asking others about their opinions on Aloysius Dawson and as such, when the time came, refused to turn him into a vampire. Instead, he convinced him to use his esteemable wealth to help the community properly and eased him into the end of his life with the kind of peace that undeath never would have provided. As such, he is not a member of the Ascalon Club, but given the information he has on Lord Redgrave and his service to the City, they have an uneasy truce as much due to Jon's esteemable potency as his abilities in diplomacy. Geoffrey McCullum? Jon chose to spare Geoffrey, despite his more militant leanings, and the Guard called off their Great Hunt and started focusing on cleaning up the rabid skals and those ekons/vulkod taking advantage of the epidemic to hunt and feed without care. He and Geoffrey also have an uneasy truce (possibly helped by the fact that Jon was careful not to mention that King Arthur was also a vampire) and every once in a while, he can even get the Hunter to use his name. It's great. Edgar Swansea? Jonathan could not bear to let Edgar die, despite the fact that it was his foolish and unethical meddling which caused the whole epidemic in the first place. As such, he did in fact turn him, but he keeps this particular Progeny on a very very tight leash. He has made it clear that Edgar is to keep his experiments to those which abide by practices deemed ethical and that he will not tolerate the other man stepping out of line. He's also told him that whatever his particular aspirations regarding the Brotherhood of St. Paul's Stole, he had best not remove the current sitting primate in any way other than a fair and properly conducted election. Or else. Elisabeth Ashbury? As mentioned, this Jon has killed no one, which means that he did in fact convince her to spare her own life and to allow him to try and cure her of the blood of hatred in her veins completely such that she might never unleash the Blood Goddess's wrath again. They decide to do so while traveling the world, for as many reasons as one might have, one of them being the chance to enjoy one another's company and the wonders available all around.

If you're interested in murder!Reid, feel free to ping in on aigre_doux where things went a little worse...