Artemis Holloway and Grendel

Artemis Holloway and Grendel are characters in Vendetta.

Description:
Artemis is a 15 year old boy, slim and wiry in appearance and dressed mostly in old, dirty clothes – a gray t-shirt and a pair of jeans – that have been ripped in multiple places. He wears no shoes or socks, his feet having become hard and calloused through years of walking barefoot. His brown hair is a messy, uncut mop that reaches to his shoulders, and he has green eyes. Grendel is a lower-class demon from the Second Circle of Hell, and has no physical form save for the transformations he can become, mostly residing as a voice in Artemis’s head.

Artemis is a generally timid character who seeks only to survive every day with the least amount of damage or trouble. He has a strong conscience which often plagues him, as he knows that in order to survive he has to steal from others, and yet when he sets his sights on anything that might help him he goes after it with determination, not giving up until he has obtained it. Knowing his own position in life, Artemis often does his best to help others in distress, his reasoning being that “at least they’re not me” – he’d rather that people not sink to his squalid lifestyle.

Grendel, by comparison, is crude and selfish, caring little about the situation that others find themselves as long as his desires are fulfilled. His desire to earn a promotion, coupled with the knowledge that his existence and future depend on Artemis’s survival, means that he will go to any lengths to obtain what he wants, even committing acts which shock and horrify the soft-hearted boy. He is actually very well educated and knowledgeable, but prefers not to show it for the sake of his reputation as a demon, using it merely to crack lewd jokes.

Equipment/Abilities:
Artemis is not the most physically fit in the universe – all of his skills merely come from his lifetime on the streets. He can run quite fast for a 15-year-old boy, and is also competent in climbing up various structures and hiding in dark corners. These skills, coupled with an excellent sense of direction, have aided him in his life as a street urchin and a pickpocket. When not transformed, Grendel exists as a subconscious voice in the back of Artemis’s mind, advising him on what to do or where to go, or even just poking fun at him. Artemis converses with him via his own thoughts, which Grendel can hear as though they are spoken words – while he can hear Artemis if he speaks normally, they prefer to” talk” in this silent manner to avoid unwanted attention. No-one else can hear Grendel speaking – only by coming into physical contact with another person can Artemis allow Grendel to speak to them as well.

Grendel is a shape-shifting demon, able to take on a variety of forms. As a low-ranking demon, he is unable to exist in his true form outside of Artemis’s subconscious mind, but can exist in physical form by taking on the appearance and properties of different objects that Artemis can use. Whatever the objects are, they always manifest with spiky details or eldritch carvings, hinting at their demonic nature. Grendel’s portfolio of transformations includes various blades, bludgeons and other weapons, but he has also become objects such as lock picks or wooden rafts in the past.

However, there is a limit to the forms Grendel can take. While he is able to mimic organic life-forms such as animals and people, he finds it incredibly taxing, and would rather not do so unless the need to was incredibly pressing. Moreover, he finds mechanical and electronic objects too complex to transform into, as is any sort of firearm or explosive weapon – this means he could not become, say, a car or pistol. He also cannot take the form of anything beyond the technology of the current time period, preventing him from becoming a spaceship or similar, nor can he become multiples of objects – he can only transform into one boot, for example, and not a pair of them.

Grendel has, on occasion, taken complete control of Artemis’s body via possession. When he does this, Grendel has full control over what Artemis says or does, with Artemis himself a silent witness locked away thought magical subconscious nonsense that’s difficult even for Grendel to explain. This only usually occurs when Grendel has an overwhelming need to fulfill his own agendas and the circumstances do not suit anything else, or when he wants to play a prank on Artemis. Needless to say, the results are never pretty.

Biography:
Hailing from the outskirts of Portsheath City, Artemis was abandoned at the doorstep of a religious orphanage by his parents, their fate unknown. He was raised throughout the earlier years of his childhood by an elderly priest named Father John, who taught him to the standards the orphanage practiced. Although he was happy living and playing with the other children who frequented the orphanage, Artemis never truly felt as if he fit in with the strict lifestyle and religious fundamentalism that surrounded him, and longed to be a part of something bigger.

Grendel, by contrast, worked on the Second Circle of Hell, maintaining the machine that created the tornadoes that blow the lustful sinners back and forth. Unsatisfied with the boring menial work he put up with as a lower-class demon, he sought to find a way to move up the corporate ladder and join the big league demons. His superiors, however, merely laughed at his idealism and brashness, and constantly reminded him that he could never manage the more hellish and difficult tasks of the Lower Circles. Determined to prove them wrong, Grendel sought for a transfer to a higher station, and was quite pleased when he received an offer for a twenty-year trial on the Possession ring. Should his final report turn out good (as in, chaotically destructive), then he would be considered for a promotion to the Fourth Circle – a difficult job, but one that the demon relished to take on.

One of the rumors on the orphanage playground, circulated by the children, was that no-one should visit the old yew tree in the grounds, for it was said that a witch was burnt there. Children often dared one another to spend the night under the tree, but none yet found the courage to do so. Needless to say, the ever-curious Artemis (now nine years old by this point) took the challenge and visited the place one night. By sheer coincidence, Grendel happened to be passing on his first day on his new job, and took possession of Artemis, hoping to re-enact The Exorcist for laughs. The strong-willed Artemis fought back, however, and the resulting chaos destroyed the orphanage's sacred relic, the arm of a saint who had once (according to legend) slain a dragon that had plagued the village.

For this act of sacrilege, Father John banished Artemis from the orphanage, leaving him to fend for himself. Feeling guilty for the boy’s situation, Grendel revealed his true name - Clarence - and offered to help the child survive on the streets. Artemis accepted, and for six years now the duo has stalked the streets, surviving against anything the world threw at them. Grendel, however, is not satisfied, and wants to obtain that promotion by any means...