CATO

Cato is an 8th gen Malkavian living in Berlin. They work the night shift at a small record store and work small political missions with their somewhat tumultuous coterie. They spend their spare time working on their daredevil skateboard tricks, and use their skateboard as their primary means of transportation besides public transit. Their boss, Mateo, is a gentle man that worries about them a lot, particularly since they're a rather cagey individual. Their very best friend is a mortal named Jess, a college student working at a nearby coffee shop while working on her degree in psychology. (She finds Cato fascinating.)

Cato speaks in a sort of cadence common to Malkavians, full of riddles and apparent nonsense, but much of it has meaning. They struggle a lot with their perception of reality, as their eyes trick them into seeing ghosts all around the city. They visualize memories as cassette tapes, and describe their tapes about their past as being "broken", "scrambled," or just missing. They also come across as a little bit behind the times, as most of the technology they use is very antiquated. They only play music from a portable Walkman, and their phone is a brick.

Details

Pre-Embrace

Cato was originally a young man by the name of Tobias Eckardt, going to school in Hamburg to eventually study law. His best friend was a man named Marcus, with whom he was in a small garage band. He was loud, extroverted, and deeply unrestrained in his personality. He had long hair and dressed a little bit messy, making him stand out at his university, but that only gave him more motivation to succeed, just to prove the whispers about him wrong.

Embrace

Cato was a passion Embrace, much like many Malkavians. Their sire was completely unknown to them, as they woke up alone in an alleyway, unsure of who they were or what they had been doing. The stress and physical strain of the Embrace modified their appearance and broke their mind. They stumbled around alone for a while, sometimes taking refuge in the corners of Nosferatu domains, until they were accepted into a small coterie. This coterie saw them as nothing more than a joke, and treated them as such. They masked it behind humor and false kindness, and gave Cato their name- an irony, to them, considering "Cato" meant "wise," and they did not consider Cato to be wise at all. Eventually Cato broke free of this coterie and found their way into another, which was far more appreciative of their skill in combat.

Appearance

Cato dresses much like the standard "skateboarder" archetype. They wear ripped jeans, band t-shirts, hoodies with the sleeves ripped off, and basic sneakers.
Their hair was turned pure white by their Embrace, and every evening they cut it into a ragged sort of mullet without a mirror. When they haven't cut it, their hair is long and shaggy.
One of Cato's eyes is green, but their right eye was turned yellow by the Embrace. When they're approaching Frenzy, the pupil of their yellow eye seems to shatter, spreading out to cover their iris as they lose control.

Behavior

Cato is quiet and skittish a majority of the time, but also tends to leap into action very quickly. They have a relatively short fuse on their Frenzy, and for a while sported many derangements that made it even easier to set them off. Around people they enjoy, they become loud and chaotic, but they have the restraint to stay quiet when they know it's best.
Cato is determined, and almost always pushes themselves past their limit to get the job done. They frequently put themselves into harm's way and tend to be risky and almost careless in combat.

Notes

• Cato keeps many tarantulas in glass cases in their house. Their favorite is a gigantic tarantula named Amadeus, who they sometimes carry around with them.
• Cato despises mirrors and refuses to look into them. All of the mirrors in their house have been shattered.
• Cato has a strong crush on their friend Jess, but unfortunately doesn't possess the sort of courage to make that move.
• One of their coterie members, Anglerfish, was a former member of the Sabbat, in particular a member of a pack that tortured and attacked Cato several times.

Mechanical Details

Merits
• Eat Food
• Early Riser
• Edetic Memory
• True Love

Flaws
• Amnesia
• Tic

Derangements
• Sanguinary Animism
• Schizophrenia
• Sees Ghosts

Gallery

Image Credits

Image 4: RocketBopet

Image 5: Yenasmatik