MERCER, ivan william

[ivan]

Ivan William Mercer !?
'I'll dig on deeper down, deeper into you 'till I find what makes you scream.'

FULL NAME Ivan William Mercer
NICKNAMES Ivo by his younger sister.
AGE Thirty-four
GENDER Male
BIRTHDAY October 15th.
SPECIES Human
ALLIANCE Neutral.
SEXUALITY Heterosexual.

PLAY-BY Colin Farrell
EYES Round, curious and generally good humored hazel eyes shine upon Ivan's face.
HAIR A dark, raggedy brown mop sits upon his head. It's kept messy mainly because the man never cares enough to do much of anything with it beyond keeping it cleaned.
BODY TYPE Ivan's line of work as a Detective makes demands of him physically that has led to an athletic and lean frame, almost wolfish in appearance. There is no denying he is a man capable of power by Human standards.
HEIGHT Ivan stands at 6'1"
WEIGHT 197 pounds.
DISTINGUISHING FEATURES Aside from a few scars thrown across him here and there, none of which are all that exciting in any way, the Detective does carry other reminders of the past upon him. Tattoos of branches glide out from the left side of his rid cage, snaking their way across his chest. The tattoo fades away upon the right side of his chest, and the branches carry no leaves, merely limbs stretching out. The tattoo carries significance within the heart of Ivan, though it isn't one he speaks of with the common person upon the street.
STYLE Hah, now that's a funny concept. Ivan doesn't really have a 'style' to call his own. His usual attire is that of a pair of slacks, a button down shirt and a tie, the general appearance of a street detective. Though with Ivan the tie tends to be a loosened up and a few buttons undone. The man isn't a fan of vibrant colors, though, and you won't ever see him in anything too out of the norm.

LIKES At least 10.

• The night. He's a night owl, simple as that. It explains his work and his odd hours and sleep patterns. The night has always simple spoken to him.
  
• Cigarettes. There's no denying it, Ivan is an addict through and through. He's been told a million times that it would kill him, and he's replied 'We all gotta die someday.' a million times back.
  
• Kel. The nickname of one Kelsey Setter, Ivan's partner in Homicide and probably his bestfriend flat and simple. Kelsey is a man tormented over his name by Ivan.
  
• Mary. A SIG Sauer P226. The gun is a semi-automatic pistol hurling .40 S&W shells, enough to drop any Human that he happens upon in his line of work.
  
• Intelligence. Ivan values intelligence above just about anything else in another person. He deals with people all day, his job is a constant game of talking with people, dealing with them and even manipulating them. Intelligence is something he has learned can be anywhere, and for that he has come to value it even more.
  
• Sarcasm. Ivan is hardly "bad cop" hard ass, in fact it is quite the opposite. Sharp-tongued, foul mouthed Ivan loves and enjoys employing sarcasm in any and all conversations.
  
• Storms. Ivan is a sucker for storms, something about them just throws him into a lull. They clear his mind and calm him down, they give him a sense of peace and for a second everything fades away behind the thunder and rain.
  
• Faith. Not to God or to any church, but within Ivan something does burn proudly. It is a faith in something, a belief in the inherent nature of goodness and the obligation to uphold it. Maybe morals, maybe religion; whatever it is Ivan uses it as a guiding light to his dark world.
  
• Darwin. An American Bulldog and the closest thing he has to family in the city. Darwin is a powerfully built dog that is more than capable of inflicting some damage, which is a little bit of why Ivan loves him so damn much.
  
• Gwen. Ivan's younger sister. She was adopted at the age of three when Ivan was nine. The two are incredibly close and she is one of the few Ivan can say he honestly loves.
  
• Being a detective. Ivan loves it, even when is bitching about it. He works homicide and these days that is a case popping up more and more. It's gruesome stuff, and somedays he sees things that will haunt him till the day he dies, but someone has to do it. It's almost become his motto with life, "Someone has to do it."
  

DISLIKES At least 10.

• Predators. They come in different shapes and forms, ranging from murderers and thieves, to those that simply stalk looking for a quick scam. The people that prey upon those that work for what they can scratch out.
  
• Winter. Ivan hates the cold, simple as that.
  
• The cases lately. Things have been getting weirder and weirder lately with the deaths in the city. It was starting to look like things you only saw in movies, the witness reports sounding like things he would have laughed at a few years ago. Things were changing, and he didn't like.
  
• Full moons. Shit he can't explain happens at full moons, and lately they have been getting worse and worse.
  
• Evil. The term is fluid in it's meaning and application, but the point always remains the same. Ivan has seen things that have made him believe in true evil, and it is something he has grown to hate with a passion that threatens at times to consume him.
  
• Churches. For the life of him he has no idea what's up with him and churches, but just being inside of them has always kind of given him the creeps.
  
• The sight of people crying. Ivan has never been the greatest with delicate emotions so naturally the sight of someone in tears has a way of making him uncomfortable. It's the sense of not being able to help, he hates the feeling of being powerless.
  
• The idea of a family. Ivan has no one special in his life and in all honesty he's grown to enjoy it that way. Some people just aren't meant for that kind of life. He's one of them.
  
• Kids. Kids just complicate every situation they are in, no matter what it is. They are always a liability and it's not something he can ever pretend to enjoy.
  
• Threats. Saddle up and settle your business on the spot or keep your mouth shut. Threats are empty words that need a turned back to be strong.
  

STRENGTHS At least 4.

• Intuitive Personality. A large part of Ivan's success comes from his personality and thought process. His mind naturally takes in everything it can down to the smallest details. It's shown in an extreme capacity for problem solving.
  
• Self-Defense. Trained in personal defense, riot defense and carrying marks in several firearm categories is enough merit for Ivan to consider himself well defended.
  
• Talker. Ivan knows how to talk to people and keep a conversation going. However, he also knows how to steer them towards what it is he is after, making any conversation with him a possible shakedown for information.
  
• Network. Through both his police contacts and the platoon of street contacts he's made Ivan can learn things that happen in the city with a surprising amount of speed.
  

WEAKNESSES At least 4.

• Over-protective. Some people call it the curse of being a cop. Witnessing the horrors of mankind, wondering if it ever follows you home. It's led Ivan to being incredibly protective of the people he cares about.
  
• Abrasive. Some, if not most find Ivan tiresome. Between his natural cockiness and his snappy sarcasm the Detective has managed to make more than one not-so-friendly acquaintance in the city.
  
• Alcohol. Ivan isn't a full-fledged alcoholic yet, but he is definitely working his way there at his current pace.
  
• Anti-social. Ivan isn't a shut in by any means, but he doesn't enjoy ( 'not enjoying' meaning intense anxiety and a sense of being crushed in) being in the heart of large crowds. It's probably why he got into homicide, not a lot of crowds at crime scenes at three a.m..
  

HABITS At least 3.

• Smoking. Ivan burns through at least a pack everyday, doesn't matter the weather or anything else for that matter. When the world does finally burn to the ground you can bet Ivan will be there with a full pack of cigarettes.
  
• Insomnia. Ivan has forced the condition on himself. He has a habit of avoiding sleep. He finds it to be a waste of time and is one of those people that has the estimates for time wasted sleeping total in a lifetime.
  
• Obsessive. An intuitive personality has led to him to also have a near obsessive mind as well. When working cases he ceases to exist in any other world than that of the crime. It is all he cares about, which is why more than one person thinks he is one of the best at what he does.
  

FEARS At least 3.

• Water. At a young age Ivan can vividly remember falling through a frozen pond and then only a few years later he has another memory of being trapped in a riptide. Both experiences nearly took his life and both where enough to ensure a lifetime hatred for all water larger than a shower.
  
• His sister. Ivan is a man haunted by the fictional Demons of his work. They apply themselves to the faces of his real life and taunt him with thoughts of the crimes he's seen on the job tracking down those he loves. Gwen is the one that holds the majority of his heart, and for that reason he fears for her the most.
  
• Burned alive. He's thought to himself it simply went hand in hand with his fear of the water, though fire had no real life connection. However, in his darkest nightmares he can always count on finding himself burning alive.
  

DESIRES At least 1.

• The truth. Ivan isn't a dipshit, he has an idea something is going on even if he doesn't have the slightest hint as to what the truth really is. As far as Vampires and all that goes, he has no idea about it; however, that doesn't mean he's out in the dark. He knows things are changing, he can feel it, he can see it on the job. Something very bad seems to be looming and it is the knowledge of both what is coming and what can he do about it that he desires above all else.
  

SECRETS At least 1.

• When Ivan worked as a Gang Affairs street cop he was forced undercover more than once. In those times he was exempt from the majority of the crimes he committed including drug use. However, one thing that very few know about him is that he's taken more than one innocent life. The details are those that he won't get into with anyone as of yet, though the thoughts haunt him every waking moment.
  

OVERALL Ivan is a man that can be trusted for all the wrong reason, a man who carries flaws that aim to make him that much more Human. He rarely thinks out the things he says, instead following a mixture of what he calls instinct and luck. However, it has suited him somewhat well up to this point. He cockiness yet at the same time honest attitude of wanting to help makes him the kind of person you know you can like but never want to stick around too long. Lucky for everyone, Ivan isn't the kind of guy to hang around anyone that long.

A natural and somewhat annoying ability that manifests itself as somewhat of a personality quirk is that of an incredibly intuitive mind. He is an adept problem solver and if their are details to be soaked in it is a safe assumption that Ivan won't let them go unseen. It is because of this that Ivan has such a natural aversion to crowds.

Somewhat of a recluse by nature, Ivan is plagued by an inability to expertly interact with groups of people. When it comes to seeing three or four he can handle it, he can read them all, take them in and he can feel like he has a grip on what is happening. Large groups induce a sense of chaos, of unorder and it is enough to make him want to go running for the peace of silence. Few understand the nature of Ivan better than Kel, he partner for the last few years, and for that reason few are as close to the Detective as Kel is.

However, everyone possesses masks and Ivan is no different. When it comes to the job he is a calm and assertive man. A silver-tongued tipped with a blade leads the work he does. An ability to match wits and sniff out lies with almost anyone. When it comes to his work he can also be extremely explosive and violent, seeming to snap to anyone watching though within his own mind he is somewhat calm, calm enough to keep from killing them atleast.

All in all Ivan is a decently 'normal' guy. He has his problems, but who doesn't? The stem for most of those problems is a simple inability to truly connect with anyone, something he feels comes from how old he had been when he'd finally been adopted. Whatever it was, Ivan no longer hated it, it no longer brought sadness to him. He'd accepted it as who he was.

MOTHER Michelle Ann Mercer. She is fully alive and kicking but lives in San Diego with Russ, Ivan's father. The pair are retired and doing their happily ever after thing.
FATHER Russ Mitchell Mercer. Pretty much goes a long with Michelle. California living.
SIBLINGS Gwen Adaline Mercer. Twenty-eight years old and living in Manhattan, she's a photojournalist and one of the only people marching around that Ivan can honestly say he'd drop everything for. Their parents consider her the Yin to his Yang, the harmony to his chaos.
OTHER PERSONS OF IMPORTANCE Kelsey and Shannon Setter. Kel Setter, Ivan's partner in homicide and his bestfriend. Kel is married to Shannon, a woman who isn't overly fond of Ivan or his habits of smoking in houses, drinking when he isn't working, foul language. Pretty much the things Kelsey loves him for.

[/li][li] Darwin. Ivan's American Bulldog. The dog is a tank, a solid mass of fur and muscle, and the imposing creature is babied by Ivan. Kel often jokes and says he hopes he loves his kids someday half as much as Ivan loves that damn dog.
ETHNICITY Born an ethnic Slav, adopted by the Mercer family at the age of eight and brought to America.
WEALTH STATUS A rather young Detective means Ivan has shown his merit to the force enough to earn a modest salary, made all the better by his lacking of children or a female counterpart.

OVERALL Born in Moravia, Western Czech Republic, during the height of the wars and genocide. It was a place that had Ivan grown to adulthood in would have left him a completely different person, perhaps even twisting him into a monster. However, Ivan's true mother, a woman he has no memories of, was taken to a Red Cross check point. From here she was watched after until the birth of her child, Ivan. Ivan was fed into the ranks of the adoption network with the death of his Mother in childbirth, the ravaged country being unable to find records of any other living family he may have had.

Over the next few turbulent years the wars continued and Ivan grew up here, watching his world tear itself apart. He was moved from home to home, orphanage to orphanage. The number of children climbed everyday as the civil war claimed the lives of more and more. The closed borders prevented further Red Cross aid from making it's way in and also kept possible Adopters from the swelling orphanages. For eight long years Ivan lived like this, growing up a child known for his temper, his ability to suddenly snap and begin shouting, crying and even becoming physical from time to time. For eight long years he lived like this until finally the war broke. Accords had been forced and agreed upon, peace was settling for the moment.

With the lapse in violence came a surge in aid. Ivan was one of those taken from the terrors of the Czech Republic. Taken by a couple unable to have children of their own. Michelle and Russ Mercer. They were good folks, decent and honest and they wanted only the best. It is because of them Ivan is sure he was able to escape the realities of his past and forget them, it's because of them he was taught that light can break any darkness.

The years of his childhood floated by with the same relaxed and lazy flow it seems to take with many children. He grew into an imposing young man, not because of an enormous physical stature, but instead because he was known to snap at the smallest things and it became quick and common knowledge his younger sister Gwen was not a girl to be messed with.

By the age of twenty Ivan had made his way into the police academy. Brash, cocky and somewhat of a fighter Ivan might not have seemed like the perfect candidate for an Officer, but appearances weren't everything. The fact of it was Ivan had seen awful things in his childhood, far worse than most people would see in all their years, let alone as a child. Ivan knew what people where truly capable of. With that knowledge in mind and an almost driving urge to the better side of things it wasn't that much of a shock to anyone who knew him to see Ivan ending up as a police officer.

With years waxing on Ivan showed a street aptitude, demeanor and natural ability to get himself noticed by both the NARC squad and the Gang Unit. Not a shocker, in cities both departments tended to swallow promising recruits, but it was here Ivan honed himself into a detective. The mentality and realities of the gangs and crime families opened Ivan's eyes to the truths of the city. It was through them that he saw just how violent his home was, and it was here that he began his drive a new for the force.

His third year working Gang Crimes found him undercover. It wasn't his first time and for that reason he hadn't gone in feeling any different than he had anytime before. However, this time it was to be his last assignment with Gangs he'd ever work. After a few weeks Ivan had felt pretty sure as his status with the gang, however, they'd ask him to go and make a hit just for one final show of honor and loyalty. Ivan had accepted, the act was an easy one to pull. He'd been ordered to kill a random man, the random man would happen to be another undercover cop hit with a few blanks. However, somethings never go perfect.

The file is sealed as to what happened that day, media coverage was kept limited. The common knowledge is at the corner of Heights and Grand a shootout erupted. Two civilians died, each under sixteen years old. Each shot by Ivan. That was the last Ivan saw of working with live criminals. After that he turned his shield over to Homicide, opting to work with the dead to bring relief to the living. Not the living to bring them to death.

That brings Ivan to the now. He's been a homicide detective for almost three years. His partner as been a man named Kelsey "Kel" Setter. The two share enough personality traits to get a long great, though their differences are clear and marked. Ivan has grown in reputation among fellow officers as a capable Detective that has a knack for finding the things he chooses to hunt after.

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NAME/ALIAS Jaxson
AGE 20
TIME ZONE Western
HOW YOU FOUND US Advertisement
OTHER CHARACTERS None
RP SAMPLE

Walking paradox's, that's what he and all existed as. It was that simple, at least within the mind of the Reaver it was that simple; and that was enough for him. It was almost comical to the man, however, how a society so obsessed with death and with dodging it that their downfall would come at the hands of the undead. If that wasn't enough to prove that God existed and that he didn't have a sense of humor than Nuada had no idea what it would take to show the world. The graveyard was a perfect testament to that, a useless structure created only by a people completely transfixed upon the ideals of death and the life after. Any logical society would have dealt with the corpses in a cheap and efficient way; after all the dead were good for nothing. So why all the bells and whistles? Why designate a slab of land to those who will never know of it's use to them? More empty traditions that these foolish humans clung to with all they had.

Fucking idiots.

Glancing up to the clouded night sky above him the Reaver allowed his nose to twitch once than twice; rain. The scent hung heavy to the air, a warning clear as day and plain for all those to read; a storm was headed their way and it was threatening to be a big one. Letting the smallest of grins dance it's way across his pale lips the Reaver raised the already burning cigarette to his lips, allowing the toxic fumes to roll through his lungs. The familiar burn was delightful and as the smoke billowed forth from Nuada's nostrils the demonic man extended the cigarette in a single fluid motion.

And with it a scream of pain racked through the silent night splitting the peace with sudden chaos. Oh, the sound was enough to bring a shudder of pleasure from his body, the man's shrieks turning to pitiful and broken whimpers as the seconds passed by. "Let me ask you again." Nuada's voice barked out in a sudden and demanding order, the tone one that clearly had been through enough. He wasn't here to play, he wasn't here to torment and break, he wasn't here to revel in all things twisted and dark; he was here to get a single fucking answer to his question. "When you go home..." suddenly a booted foot lashed out striking the Human in the face, cracking his nose open and spilling blood to the ground. "...when you go home to whatever little bitch you've decided to spend the rest of your miserable life with, just where is home?" The question was a simple one, yet with it so much was carried. So much was depending on the answer of one dying man.

To look upon the man in that moment was to see the image of horror, of pain and terror. Whoever he had been, he now was stripped down to nothing and hung upside down from the low branch of an elm. The elm itself was beginning it's shift to her autumn colors, the shades that were splashed across the leaves looked to almost match the man's blood that had been beaten from his flesh. The flickering light of the nearby fire that Nuada had started bathed the scene in a warm, almost primal glow. The scene was one constructed by the Reaver to draw the truth from this man through overwhelming terror, though there had been one thing he hadn't counted on. One fucking thing that had once again thrown a wrench in the works of his plan.

The human spirit.

It was a statistical anomaly that could not be accounted for nor could it's importance ever be measured. In some it was an x factor that meant the difference between life and death, and in others it was nearly nonexistent. The differences from human to human were astronomical, and it was slowly eating away at Nuada's sanity. It was something he desired to rip from the chest of a Human, it was something he wished to feast upon and devour. Alas, such a fear could never be accomplished, because if the Human Spirit was so easy to crush it would have been exploited long, long ago.

As the man cursed out his last, dying words Nuada couldn't help but feel a tinge of respect for the Human. In the face of certain and unforgiving death he managed to hold onto the secrets of his heart. And for what? A bitch of a wife? A hell of a home? Some useless welp of a child? What did he have to live for that he was so willing to die for? Looking down at the bloodied man, Nuada realized he was as much a mystery to him as he was to the Human. Different in every way possible except for their common history, their united and joined birth as Humans. Truly the Devil was powerful to have broken common children this far apart.

With a swift and single motion Nuada ended the mans' pain. Bringing his foot into the Humans face with enough power to crush the skull. A sudden and almost eerie silence then fell upon the graveyard, though it lasted for only a few seconds. A sudden bolt of lightening screamed across the sky illuminating the world for a heartbeat, followed quickly in tow by ground shaking thunder. The storm had arrived and with it came a rebirth for the night. The downpour extinguished the fire within seconds and washed the blood upon the ground. Looking up into the night sky Nuada smiled softly. Perhaps this mans' God wept for him tonight.

[JURATE]

A C C E P T E D
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