DESMOND GREY - COLORLESS CLAN, STRAIN

"Shut yer fuckin' trap or I'll rip that wailin' tongue right out!"

His mother had never been one to mince words, nor to discipline her pet-child lightly. After all, why should she? He wasn't human. He wasn't her son. He was not really a "he", but an "it", like any lesser creature should be. She told him to pray every night to whatever gods were out there to thank them for his eyes, which somehow made him a marketable asset; had he been a more normal-looking strain, she would have thrown him right over the wall to let the lurkers have their way with him. He should have been thankful to live in the dark and the damp, in that windowless room with the cold floor and the poorly built walls that let the wind wail like screaming banshees through the cracks. He cried a lot, at least at first. He was scared of his mom -- or, rather, Jasmine, as he was forced to call her -- but hated being alone even more. He didn't like how the shadows moved along the walls or how frightening sounds woke him in the night. He didn't like the rats that scurried along the corners, the old blanket that didn't keep out the cold, or the rickety chair in the corner that he couldn't even sit in for fear that his mother would scream at him for making such a racket.

But he was quite fantastic at listening, and watching through the cracks in the walls that let in the wind, so that's what he did most of the time. He didn't fully understand what most of it meant, or why other people got to laugh in the sun while he had to stay silent in the darkness, but it was more stimulating than doing nothing at all. Over time, he began to hear calming music in the wind and see an enveloping safety in the shadows, though nothing had truly changed. The rats and other vermin who scuttled in became his friends, and after Desmond trapped and starved them, they let him play such interesting games...

From time to time, he was allowed to leave his room. Well, more accurately, he was required to leave. He would be brought to other homes with other people who, naturally, were to be treated with complete obedience according to Jasmine. Some of them just wanted a punching bag or someone to make write in pain, while others were satisfied by acts which Dez would only realize many years later were entirely improper. One client in particular had great fun in whipping the young strain until he was too weak to even stand. Dez hated it, and when he began shouting the whole event became completely intolerable. Dez just wanted him to stop yelling; that was all he wanted. Instead, he created a corpse -- his first human corpse -- by sliding that leather whip all the way down his throat. Naturally, Jasmine came to retrieve him after some time, but upon seeing what her little bundle of freakishness had done, she began screaming bloody murder.

Dez had to silence her, too. But when her spirit was gone, he reshaped her into such a beautiful creation. The people who found the bodies -- if they could even be called "bodies" -- would remember that scene for the rest of their lives. Meanwhile, Dez began living on his own in the streets, stealing food and warm clothes when he could. Being young and unfamiliar with independence, there were so many times that he got caught and just barely managed to flee. For better or worse, there was no shortage of homeless children in Piros. He learned quite a bit from them, but was still treated as an outcast.

Unfortunately, Dez was not particularly fit (he had been a scrawny little thing) nor particularly clever at the time, and did eventually get caught. He sent a shard of bone cutting into his captor's arm during the chase, therefore lengthening his prison sentence. And so he was put in another cold room where the wind wailed and the rats scurried across the floor. But this room had metal bars.

He was quite young compared to most of the other prisoners, still a child who didn't know the ways of the world. So he stuck to what he knew: singing softly to the music of the wind, making dolls out of dead rats, and keeping away the cold with the warmth of others. He was obedient to whoever was on top of the dogpile which, without question, meant a man called Syn. He had a way with words (though Dez hardly understood most of them) which caused people to follow and trust him, which was a talent that Dez could respect and admire well enough. After a fashion, Dez began to look up to the man himself, rather than just his abilities.

But he, his king, escaped. Months after this occurred, but months before Syn could return to retrieve the rest of his clan, Dez was sent elsewhere due to reasons hidden by the thin guise of "prison overcrowding". Truthfully, he had been sold to a nobleman in Lilla: Master Raimbeaucourt. He was an odd fellow who, for some reason which Dez could never figure out, treated his strain servants with utmost kindness. He hired people who taught them how to read, how to speak and act properly, how to understand the workings of nature and human society, and many other useful (and not so useful) skills. They were expected to work, of course, but it seemed that what happened to his servants after his death was an important interest of the elderly gentleman. Dez was given enough education and enough freedom to begin developing connections in the city, offering to do little jobs here and there in his free time in exchange for information or valuables.

Fortunately, when their master did eventually pass to the next life, giving each of his servants ownership of their own contracts in his will, Dez had become refined enough to get a job at the city brothel famously owned by the Purple Clan. He will pick up other jobs from time to time, especially if it involves being able to watch something die, but he's far from being a mercenary.

TIMELINE

» BIRTH
Born to a prostitute mother living in the city of Piros

» CHILDHOOD
Treated like a freak show rather than a son. Life alternated between having his body rented out to whomever wanted it and sitting in his locked room.

» AGE 8
Unintentionally killed a client with his strain abilities. Consequently, used the remains to kill his mother. Dez begins living on the streets.

» AGE 10
Arrested for theft and assault. Meets his future king and clansmen while imprisoned.

» AGE 13
Sold in an under-the-table deal to an influential elderly man in Lilla prior to the Colorless Clan's escape.

» AGE 18
His master dies; he begins working at a brothel.