Cullen Bloodstone

Subject Facts

Full Name: Cullen Bloodstone
Codename: Bloodstone
Age: 21
Gender: Male
Archetype: Neutral
Aliases: Baby Bloodstone
Marital Status: Single
Affiliation: Bloodstone Family, (formerly) Braddock Academy

Subject Attributes

Superhuman Abilities: Demonic Parasite - Cullen has an other-dimensional demon termed the Glartrox embedded against his spine, between his shoulder blades. This creature is a mass of tentacles, claws, teeth and talons and can manifest either partially (lashing appendages attacking enemies), or totally, enveloping Cullen and presenting itself wholly. The Glartrox is incomparably strong and durable, capable of shrugging off almost any form of damage.*

*While Cullen has this parasite when he enters the board, I plan on writing him exorcising it very quickly.

Standard Abilities: Hunter Heritage - Cullen was groomed from infancy to follow in the family trade of monster-hunting. He is an expert marksman, hand-to-hand and martial combatant, tracker, survivalist and so forth. He has encyclopedic knowledge of demons and supernatural monsters, and is a font of occult information.

Paraphernalia: Bloodstone Gem - He possesses a ring studded with a bloodstone gem, given to him by his sister. While wearing it, the gem radically increases his physiology to super-human parameters, gives him a healing factor and makes him immune to most, if not all, paranormal diseases, possessions and poisons. The gem's chief use right now is to help Cullen repress and control the Glartrox. He can only fully transform into the demonic parasite if he takes off the ring.

Lethal Inheritance - Cullen has access to the Bloodstone family's wealth of weaponry, artifacts, resources, safe houses and manors for monster-hunting.

Subject Weaknesses: PTSD - He would rather gut you than admit to you, but Cullen's tragic history (his two year+ stranding in another dimension, his time in Muderworld, etc) have had severe mental and emotional repercussions.

Abrasive - Cullen is, quite intentionally, an unpleasant young man. He couldn't care less others' opinions of him, and even derives satisfaction from pissing people off.

Parasite - The demon embedded in his back is a constant source of frustration, resentment, and control issues.

Power of the Name - Having the last name "Bloodstone" automatically paints Cullen as a reviled target for a whole host of evil paranormal communities.

Mortality - Cullen is, at the end of the day, a mortal man with all of the frailties that that entails. He is susceptible to disease, injury, illness, aging and death.

Subject History

Cullen was born the youngest child of Ulysses and Elise Bloodstone, a rich and storied family of monster hunters. He grew up learning all the tools of the trade and, on his tenth birthday, was taken by his father as a gift to another, monster-infested dimension. There, Ulysses left Cullen overnight as a rite of passage, intending on coming to get him in the morning. Tragically, Ulysses was killed before he could come back, and without anyone knowing his location, Cullen was stuck fending for himself in that hostile wilderness for over two years.

Through unknown methods, Cullen made it back to his native reality, where his sister Elsa found him near-deranged from his ordeals. She helped him recover and, when it was revealed a demonic parasite had bonded to his spine, gifted Cullen a Bloodstone ring to help him control it. When he was in his right mental and physical state, Elsa enlisted Cullen in the Braddock Academy, where he actively strove to remain under the radar and on the forgettable fringes of its social circles.

Cullen was one of many teens abducted by Arcade and forced to fight in his diabolical Murderworld. Though he survived, it left him with an unquenchable hatred for the super-criminal. That hatred drove him, in fact, to drop out of the Academy and hunt Arcade down. He was so determined that he found himself in Bagalia's capital city, training under Daimon Hellstrom and working for the Masters of Evil. His friends from Muderworld sought him out and Cullen revealed his plan to use his new resources to find Arcade - which the group of them did, apparently killing him in their confrontation.

Afterward, Cullen and his friends continued to stay with the Masters of Evil as double-agents. Eventually their treachery was made, and Daimon controlled Cullen's demon to use him to attack his friends but, with Apex's intervention, Cullen was able to regain control and turn on the Masters of Evil. The Avengers soon arrived as backup and the fight was soundly ended.

Since then, Cullen has been focusing on his pursuits to uphold the Bloodstone craft of monster hunting. Specifically he has started searching for a way to exorcise the demon nestled between his shoulder-blades.

Subject Interview

"Warlocks," he spat out the word with more disdain than was normal, even for him. "Never met one who wasn't a downright ****." Cullen Bloodstone reached down to grab the handle of a throwing axe embedded in the until-recently-living fellow laying before him. Putting one booted foot on his shoulder for leverage, Cullen grunted and dislodged the blade from between vertebrae with a satisfying squelch.

"You suck at your job, mate," he said to the corpse. Some lookout that idiot was. Cullen ignored the crimson dripping from his weapon and hefted it over his shoulder, pushing open the door that his unfortunate adversary had been "guarding." The smell of nauseating incense and musty books hit him, heavier-handed than any blow. Wrinkling his nose, Cullen moved inward, ghosting through a foyer of sorts that opened into a more proper lair.

He passed between shelves lined with books, tomes, scrolls, relics and talismans. Could this coven be any more cliche? The Bloodstone smirked at himself. He supposed, just this once, he shouldn't be chafing at the stereotype. It was exactly this - this trove of secret, forbidden, hoarded knowledge - that he was there, after all. Splitting the skulls of devil sorcerers was just an added bonus.

Cullen felt his progress was going rather well, and his stealth in it impressive. Until, that is, he passed into the more open central area of the massive chamber and five warlocks materialized in a ring around him. "Well, **** me," he said, grinning.

...

The corpses of the coven lay sprawled across the scene, itself looking like a maelstrom had torn through it. Cullen, sporting a swelling lip and a blooming bruise on his temple, had his back to it all. His focus was bent on the shelves of archaic texts he was rooting viciously through. Piece after piece was snatched up in his hands, quickly scanned, then discarded with a muttered curse. With each failure, his irritation mounted, until he was shredding the knowledge that didn't suit him.

At the height of his discontent, the Bloodstone snarled and shoved the entire shelf he was at over, letting it crash to the floor with a deafening sound. Beneath his leather jacket and shirt, something shifted. Cullen lurched as though struck, throwing out both hands just in time to catch his fall, landing him on all fours. The red gem studding the ring on his finger shone like a tongue of flame. Tendons stood out in Cullen's neck, sweat beaded his brow and bile coated his mouth.

He remained there, struggling with that unseen force, for long minutes. When, finally, the glow of his ring faded, Cullen groaned. He vomited thoroughly, tears joining the contents of his stomach on the floor between his hands. Once that was finished, the Bloodstone rocked back on his heels and wiped his mouth with his sleeve. "Useless," he hissed at the nearest fallen warlock.

The episodes were getting more frequent, and more intense. He didn't know what had changed. Didn't care to know, really. So long, Cullen had spent dealing with the parasite embedded between his shoulder blades. He'd gone through phases of opinion toward it, from revulsion to acceptance to embracing it, but now? Now he was done. Done coping, done managing symptoms, done trying to garner control over it. Maybe once, not long ago, the kind of power his condition allowed, and the prospect of having it bound by his will won out against his wish to be rid of it.

No longer. He had made his mind up. He only hoped that a way existed to properly exorcize it, and that he could find that way before it was too late.

Author's Notes

Player Alias: Di

Other Characters: Wanda Maximoff

How did you find MFT?: Creator/founder