WELCOME TO KATMERE UNIVERSITY, VIRAJ CALDWELL!
Name: Viraj Caldwell
Age/Year in School: 26, graduate (PhD program)
Gender & Pronouns: gender non-conforming, he/they
Major: history
Species: vampire
Faceclaim: Avan Jogia
HEADCANONS:
Ā TW: child abuse (for first bullet point)
Growing up, Viraj had adored the vampire Isabelle. Not knowing better, he assumed that the way he was raised was par for the course for half-vampires like him and being one of Isabelleās favorites to show off to interested vampires, Viraj had been quite comfortable in their position. Two things shook that to the core: Ciara running away and realizing that the meal theyād been eating was his own father. That suitably shattered his idolization of Isabelle and led to him running away. Once they were out, Viraj realized just how much of life had been denied and hidden from him. He threw himself into it with all the enthusiasm of the long-deprived, and would now be considered quite the hedonist. Theyāre determined to soak up everything life can offer them, for better or worse.
When Viraj first left Isabelle, he nearly burned himself quite a few times thanks to the human blood still in their system. Once that was purged, however, they swore to themselves to never again drink human blood and has since subsided on a decent variety of animals, including, much to his dismay, the occasional rat. If pressed on this point, heāll say itās because he simply refuses to miss out on what happens during the day. But thereās another part of him that aches for what might have been, if they had left earlier, if Isabelle had never found his father. They love their family and he hopes beyond all hope that Ciara is still out there, somehow, but that was family by blood. If there is anything he has learned over his many years, itās the importance of blood. Heās never forgiven Isabelle for taking that from them, and they refuse to take that connection from someone else.
Viraj didnāt receive their bachelors from Katmere. He instead had attended one of the ālesserā schools and it was a choice he hasnāt regretted since. Part of that motivation had been fear: they simply didnāt want to be around vampires, of any kind, for longer than they had to be. They just⦠Werenāt ready for it. Not then. Most of their friends ended up being gargoyles and giants, much to Varajās delight. His phenomenal grades turned the eye of Katmere onto him and he accepted their offer to accept him into their PhD program. They miss their friends, though. Some of the people at Katmere seem⦠Well, they seem like Varaj did when they first left Isabelle. They seem ignorant of the world outside of their own experiences and worse, they seem unwilling to fix it. Varaj is thrilled with the resources Katmere has access to; it makes his research much easier? But the people? Oh, donāt even get him started. The underground clubs of the magical āundesirablesā suited him much better than some of these people in their ivory towers.
PENNED BY: HARPER (SHE/HER)