Kallias Barnaby

Outshutters
Disciple of the Cult of Bacchus

Description


~Life's a party; why can't death be one, too? Beyond the Shroud, Kallias Barnaby burns as brightly as an Olympic torch compared to all the other sad souls lurking in the Shadowlands. But if he were an Olympian, the slender young-looking man would have to be a gold medalist for college partying. Because that is about what it looks like Kal does: party. He doesn't seem to bother much with his shoulder-length black hair: it flows neatly of its own, The scarlet highlights are an added touch he may or may not have brought with him to the Other Side. His Corpus is clad in little more than a pair of loose khakis and a white tank top (sans beer stains). His wiry arms and all other skin that is revealed is pale and understandably so. He's dead. But from beneath shines the luminscience of his eager soul. Combined with his animated gestures, often smiling lips, and curious expressions, it seems possible that Kal is more alive now than he was before the Reaping. Slung around his neck, allowed to rest on his chest, is a simple Polaroid camera; it might be functional, but he doesn't play with it much. While the good-looking youth is vibrant and assertive, there is something fantastical about this spirit. Tiny, silvery-gold, glittering stars perpetually dance around this wandering soul. But it is not his laugh or smile or even general mien that draws the attention. It is those eyes: bright-blue orbs that shine with color even in the gray haze of the Underworld, reminscient of the aery sky of the Skinlands. And Kallias is ready to soar.~

OOC: Appearance 3; Notoriety 2; Full of Life, Distinctive Appearance

"Mmm...you look like someone out of a dream I had."

"Oh yes, even the Dead dream sometimes."

History


Promising Life

The Barnabys were a middle class family in the Midwest. St. Louis was their hometown and Kallias, born in 1975, enjoyed the advantages of hard-working parents and lack of siblings. In truth, he was a bit spoiled. That doesn’t mean he didn’t work hard to achieve good grades in school!

But Kal didn’t have to work hard to gain friends. He was also good-looking, active, and popular. The girls loved him and he loved them back. Plus, he boasted artistic promise: he was skilled at writing and had a good eye for photography. He wasn’t sure how he would combine those skills, but he was sure he’d make a living out of at least one of them.

On scholarships, grants, and loans, Kallias attended the University of Missouri in St. Louis. There he studied the basics and learned well; he was a bright kid, after all. After only two years, however, Kallias was growing impatient. He couldn’t think of any serious application for his talents.

Sordid Days

That was when Kallias met the lovely and vigorous young Linda Pell. Linda was not a university student, but was close to Kal’s age. She had ambition though: she wanted to be a porn starlette. But she didn’t want to go to California. She’d heard enough horror stories about what happened to girls who went to Los Angeles to join the film industry, even the adult film industry. And she wanted to be Jenna Jameson, not some harlot or indentured sex servant.

And Kallias discovered that Linda had more than a great body, gorgeous natural looks, and an insatiable hunger for the flesh. She could actually write. Apparently, in high school she toyed with the idea of journalism, but lost interest quickly. Kal decided to take Linda under wing and help her hone her writing abilities. Together they began to cooperatively run an amateur pornography business. She would play around with different men (and women) and come back with such sordid stories to tell. Kallias would write them down, glam them up a bit, and add photographs of Linda herself in various…poses.

Soon major pornographic magazines were picking up their work, including Penthouse and Hustler. Kallias and Linda did sleep together, but he and his protégé spent more time working on their written stories together. Marijuana helped relieve the stress Kallias suffered. He’d dropped out of school and lost financial support. His parents were livid and disgusted. His porn work only paid so many bills. And if life wasn’t plotting against him enough, in fall of 2000 he unknowingly bought a nickel bag of laced pot. He and Linda both fell horribly ill: heroin and cocaine and traces of arsenic were laced into that brick, the police discovered. Linda survived…

The Eternal Celebration

…and Kallias didn’t. Fortune did begin to smile on Kallias’ soul. He was sure he was in hell at first, but the relic blade that cut him free from his Caul was wielded in fair hands. Kal’s Reaper was a relatively generous soul. He showed Kal the ropes of the afterlife, helped the young man calm down in mind and spirit (if not body, heh). The Reaper even let Kal keep his Ghost Cam, a transformed version of the camera with which he was buried. But, Kal’s Reaper warned, he was a profiteering spirit. Kal wasn’t “free”. Existence in the Underworld was a matter of bargaining, trading, of services rendered and oboli or relics collected. Kallias was to be sold to an association that would find him useful.

Kal wondered just how much price one could put on a soul? He probably should have been wondering more if the Reaper was going to turn him over to Masquers or the Hierarchy to be soul-smelted down into a lampshade. Once more luck was in Kal’s favor. The Cult of Bacchus, an ancient heresy with branches all over the Underworld, was watching Kallias ever since the youth was Deathmarked. Kallias’ inclinations and proclivities to enjoy life and sensuality made him a winner for this group. Kal gladly transferred over to a bunch of sybarites like himself. He was taken in and shown the ways of the Eternal Celebration, to use his soul’s sharpened senses to better experience reality, and his ghostly powers to bring the favor and flavor of the afterlife home. This wasn’t hell, he learned. This could be heaven, and it might just be the way to Heaven in truth if Kallias worked hard enough to bring joy to himself, his fellow Cultists, and to enlighten the rest of the Restless Dead.

The Seven Year Itch

Kallias proved an eager student, even as he kept tabs on the Skinlands. His parents wept for him still, but he wept only for Linda. She took his death hard, but at least she was still pursuing the business, oblivious that Kallias lingered on. And while he learned he could reveal himself to her, he dared not. Who knows how she would react? Instead, he watched, while contributing to the Cult’s events in the Shadowlands of St. Louis.

For almost seven years, Kallias partied hard in the dead streets of St. Louis. He became a local thrill for passers-through. But all that was squashed when Stygia returned in full gear. The weak resistance that the Heretics and Renegades offered fell quickly. The local Cult of Bacchus scattered, and Kallias fled down Byways to safer havens. No heresy was safe when the Legionnaires patrolled the street and instituted gay little curfews and such! As fortune (and a little nudge via Arcanoi) had it, Linda was leaving town, too. She had a run-in with a bad character and decided to move her “at home” business somewhere else. She chose Centropolis. And where Linda went, Kallias went. He found that necropolis to be quite a hospitable town for a “free thinker” like he. There Kallias Barnaby looked forward to pursuing his entertaining brand of Transcendence until he found heaven or hell claimed his soul after all.

The Shadow


Kallias' dark side is always on the look-out for something new. His Shadow always searches for the next conquest, pushing Kallias to enjoy himself at all times. If it isn't fun, don't bother! And his Shadow enjoys more complicity than Kallias would like to admit.

Artifacts & Relics


Ghost Cam
Type: Artifact
Level: 3
Origin: Rarely are wraiths Reaped with Artifacts. The item must be special indeed for this to happen. Had his Reaper recognized the Ghost Cam's unique nature, it probably would have been confiscated. As it was, the Reaper's levels of generosity were met by letting Kallias keep what was believed to be a neat little Relic.
Description: The Ghost Cam appears to be a simple Polaroid camera, but its carbon plastic structure is more solid than the average object in the Shadowlands (the Reaper took it as Kal's own more vibrant nature reflecting in his Relic).
Effects: Point, focus, and click -- the Ghost Cam then produces an instant photograph (the photo is considered a Level 1 Relic) that develops in one minute, but only lasts 24 hours. (Skillful application of high levels of Inhabit might make one of these photos permanent.)
Pathos: Artifact: 0; #1: 1
Activation: Photographs cannot be "accidentally" taken. The user must flip the "on" switch first before clicking the shutter.

Significant Other


Muhja Haje is a scary old vampiress that Kallias has no business dallying with. And yet he has since late 2007. The Lemure is determined to bring pleasure and joy to those around him, even those in the Skinlands. The icy Nagaraja’s powers did not frighten Kal – not enough to dissuade him from seducing her and reveling in her affections. Indeed, despite her age the sensations he instigated in Muhja encouraged the wraith’s own passions and needs. Until the Beast rears its head and Muhja proves to be a threat to his very soul, Kallias sees no harm in spending time with Muhja on either side of the Shroud.

The affair ended in 2010. Something happened to Muhja. He lost all connection with her and she physically vanished. He fears she was sucked down into the depths of the Tempest, possibly the Labyrinth. Either way, she's out of his reach.

Muhja

Weakness
Death's a Party


Kallias acts like the Afterlife is one big excuse to party non-stop. Of course, that's far from the truth, and he'll find out the hard way.

Likelihood of Corruption


High.

Though Kal's search for Transcendence through sybarite activities is not necessarily wrong, his Shadow has already laid the groundwork to try and run the show, and it's drawing on dark friends from the Tempest...

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