Joel Cardoza

Joel is a sour one, who spends most of his time secluded within his own home, out of the sunlight and napping the day away. He is only ever up and about in the day when he has something to do, so rousing the vampire early is sure to make him grumpy and stubborn to the furthest degree. The nighttime, on the other hand, is when he regularly operates, primarily concerned with taking down The Blue Eyes and the White Mountain Gang. Of course, one may easily get on his bad side and become his next target.

## Appearance

Since Joel is a vampire, it should go without saying that he doesn't spend too much time under the sun. In fact, when does go out during the day, he wears a jacket with a hood, for protection. Because of this, the man is distinctly pale. With his skin tone and swept, red hair, it's not very surprising that he sticks out in a crowd. However, gifted with a tall, athletic body and a somewhat handsome face, he isn't entirely unattractive. He also has well-defined muscles, earned from finding time to beat up punching bags—mostly for stress relief.

As mentioned earlier, the vampire wears a jacket, which is black and leathery, and is always unzipped. However, the hood is only up when it's sunny outside. He owns only this one jacket, as well one pair of black sneakers, but he has many spare red t-shirts and pairs of jeans. When at home, he never wears the jacket, but may even not wear pants, out of laziness, and instead walk around in boxers.

## Affiliations

Joel has encountered and even visited Death occasionally, but otherwise, they do not talk very much. The few times they do meet, they take care of business more than they do socialize. In their first meeting, the young man immediately made his Death Wish. However, contrary to what you may think, he did not wish to be a vampire. At this point, he was already converted, so his wish was instead for the ability to control fire. Because both of these abilities are a lot of power, Death instead gave the power to a demon, who was made to be his partner.

This demon, Kalderich, was made with his own will, so as not to allow too much power into Joel's hands. Despite this, Kal is patient enough to bear with his partner, and acts on command, without issue. He even cooperates in the vampire's variety of schemes, such as playing dead—he plays his part by dramatically fading away (obviously, not permanently), while his conspirator lies motionlessly on the ground.

## Backstory

Joel had a rough upbringing, spending his childhood with an alcoholic father and a neglectful mother, yet he managed to turn out a good kid—more or less. Although he got involved in some unsavory things, like school fights and juvenile delinquents, he managed to be a C student with some struggle. He was held back once in his freshman and sophomore high school years, but in
his junior year, a vampire named Misaki decided to hit up the school, accompanied by her gang of middle school vampire girls, for fun.

Being the only person with enough balls to stand up for theirself (albeit, he was underestimating his foe), Joel tried to act tough by trash talking and being otherwise standoffish, but his efforts were soon put an end to, as Misaki broke his arm and left him defenseless. Amused by his continued "tough guy" act, the group brought him back to their lair, and converted the man into a vampire for the sake of amusement, proceeding to let him out into the world.

Life turned into something more deadly, as the supernatural replaced everything normal in Joel's life before. He learned hard lessons by making brushes with death (figuratively), surviving by the skin of his teeth. As a reminder of the hard, new life, there is still, to this day, a sun burn on his right shoulder, hidden beneath layers of bandage. When Joel made his own Death Wish, he became hellbent on making Misaki pay for what she did to him.

## Abilities and Powers

* Handgun Proficiency
* Knife Proficiency
* Pain Suppression
* Vampire Physiology
	+ Bat Wings
		- Flight
		- Gliding
		- Hovering
	+ Immortality
	+ Retractable Claws
	+ Retractable Fangs
		- Blood Consumption
			* Life Force Absorption
			* Regenerative Healing
	+ Supernatural Condition
		- Enhanced Agility
		- Enhanced Balance
		- Enhanced Durability
		- Enhanced Endurance
		- Enhanced Immune System
		- Supernatural Senses
			* Enhanced Instincts
			* Enhanced Reflexes
			* Night Vision
		- Supernatural Speed
			* Wallrunning
		- Supernatural Strength
			* Enhanced Jump
	+ Vampirization

Also see Kalderich's page, for powers used in conjunction.

## Trivia

* Like his father before him, Joel became an alcoholic at some point. Monkey see monkey do!