treschic: colored: lumidkitty @ dreamwidth (Default)
Sandalio de Rabiffano | Biffy ([personal profile] treschic) wrote in [community profile] ddd_news 2012-11-19 06:09 pm (UTC)

Character: Sandalio de Rabiffano aka “Biffy”
Fandom: Parasol Protectorate
Character Notes:
History:

Not much is known about Biffy before Parasol Protectorate. He apparently comes from the aristocratic class, where he is on the rungs of said class, however, is unknown. He is also of Spanish decent; though whether he has ever been to Spain or if he could actually speak Spanish is unknown and was never explored in the books. Fencing seems to be his pastime and apparently he has an interest in athletics, more so than your typical dandy, but not to the point that it’s an all-consuming thing. At some point in his young life he forsook his aristocratic future in favor of being the Drone of Lord Akeldama. Drones are a kind of vampire servant, I guess one might say, most hope to become vampires themselves eventually…but not all of them. It is their duty to provide their vampire masters with blood and, in Lord Akeldama’s case, information. Lord Akeldama’s Drones tend to be very skilled at gathering information for his perusal and are often trained in such matters. The Drones frequently take care of the certain miscellaneous needs of their master and a lot of the time Drones come with specific talents and skill sets that are unique to them. Biffy actually has some fairly natural talent, particularly when it comes sussing out information, he seems to have a number of innate abilities.

Soulless: Biffy’s role is fairly minor in Soulless; he doesn’t do terribly much outside of playing his part as a Drone most efficiently. He does the bulk of Lord Akeldama’s (his vampire master) bidding which includes gathering information. Toward the end of the book he is reluctant to leave Lord Akeldama’s side as he is insecure in the knowledge that rove vampires have been disappearing in London. His fears are well founded as the moment he and the other Drones leave Lord Akeldama’s side their master is taken and tortured within an inch of his supernatural life by a radical branch of the Order of the Brass Octopus, the Hypocras Club. The Hypocras Club was conducting experiments on supernatural creatures in an effort to find a cure for the supernatural disease. The Drones, with Biffy acting as a kind of leader, turn up just in time to provide Lord Akeldama with the blood he needed to stabilize himself. Biffy’s final act in the book was to assist in the wedding of one miss Alexia Tarabotti to one Lord Conall Maccon. Alexia is the main heroine in the Parasol Protectorate saga, a Soulless with the ability to temporarily relieve the supernatural of their immortality and make them mortal as long as she’s touching them. Conall is her love interest, a werewolf and the Alpha of the Woolsey (later London) werewolf pack.

Changeless: Biffy's role is expanded on in Changeless, but not by overly much. He is first seen outside of a pub where he finds a naked Conall Maccon suffering from mysterious fits of mortality. After throwing a few solicitous and teasing comments in his direction Biffy procures a cloak for the man. He spends the rest of his time in Changeless in the company of Major Channing Channing and Professor Randolph Lyall (Gamma and Beta of the Woolsey pack respectively) after Professor Lyall approached Lord Akeldama with a proposition. The three spend a lot of their time spying on London’s Westminster Hive (a Hive is a kind of vampire family). The vampires did not take kindly to Alexia’s marriage to the werewolf Alpha Conall. So when London was suddenly hit by Changelessness the vampires were eager to find the result and hopefully use it to their advantage. Biffy’s most pivotal role in the book was when he broke into the Westminister Hive and poured tea over their aethographic transmitter before the Westminister Hive could receive the message from Angelique (once the Drone of a rove vampire killed in Soulless who then became the double agent of the Westminister Hive, both working for and spying on Alexia) that the mummy that the Kingair Pack in Scotland brought back with them was actually a preternatural that was causing the Changelessness. The Kingair Pack had been serving Queen Victoria in a militairy capacity over seas, but since military pay is not enough to keep Kingair castle from falling into complete ruin they decided to take some rewards for themselves and pilfered a couple of mummies. What they did not realize was that among their mummies was a deceased and mummified preternatural, a Soulless like Alexia, and as it was being transported throughout Britain it was causing the Changelessness. Apparently when a Soulless dies and its body is preserved the Soulless’ power increases, their ability to turn immortals mortal radiates. The mummy had been traveling by boat and train thus causing widespread Changelessness throughout the country wherever it went. Of course this information would have proved dangerous to Alexia as well as it would have revealed a lot about her and her abilities.

Blameless: In Blameless Biffy’s role is greatly extended and he is somewhat of a catalyst for the events that take place. So, in Blameless everyone is all in a tizzy over Alexia’s pregnancy, the vampires fear the unborn child and Conall believes her to have been unfaithful and casts her out of their home and the pack (because the supernatural can not breed). The Potentate (the vampire adviser of Queen Victoria and representative in her Shadow Council) wanted to get rid of Alexia and since she was no longer under pack protection it would be (or should have been) a simple matter, but first the Potentate had to get Lord Akeldama out of his hair because Lord Akeldama was both a vampire and a friend to Alexia, he could protect her and help her restore her reputation, a wrinkle in an otherwise perfect plan. So the Potentate Drone-napped Biffy, who was doing that information gathering thing he does so well…except he had not expected a vampire would turn on his own by taking another vampire’s Drone. Anyway Biffy’s disappearance led Lord Akeldama to panic which in turn led him to swarm (something vampires do under extreme duress) taking his Drones and Alexia’s protection with him. For the majority of Blameless, Biffy was held captive under the Thames River. Confined under the mud, muck, and water in an egg-shaped prison—there was a tube that was fed from the egg prison to the surface so that Biffy would not suffocate and was also used to slip him food and water. He was eventually found and rescued by Conall and Lyall after much ado, which involved Conall fighting off the Potentate and his Drones and Lyall trying to breathe life back into Biffy who had a hard time resurfacing from the depths of the Thames. While Biffy, fortunately, got his wind back he was unfortunate enough to be caught in the crossfire between the vampire, Drones, and Conall the result found Biffy with a silver bullet lodged into his stomach. He passed out from the pain and was dying from his wounds due to his weakened condition so Lyall suggested that Conall change him into a werewolf—of course it was with some reluctance and insistence on Lyall’s part, but Conall eventually caved and turned Biffy. It was a long process carried out as gently as Conall could manage, but Biffy finally changed into a werewolf and from then on he was left in Lyall’s charge. Lyall took Biffy to the home of former Woolsey pack clavier where Biffy dealt with the painful ramifications of being a werewolf in the comfort of Lyall’s cradling arms. Biffy is devastated by his new lot as he’d hoped to become Lord Akeldama’s vampire companion, but after the shock wore off he spent most of the time sleeping. When Lord Akeldama finally returned to London to see what had become of his favorite Drone he walked in on Lyall who managed to make it back to BUR headquarters (Bureau of Unnatural Registry, they keep track of the supernatural citizens in Britain and they police the immortal set) with Biffy in arm. Naturally Lord Akeldama was feeling betrayed by his own kind and Conall for Biffy’s new, furry little problem and attacked Lyall in his rage. He would have preferred Biffy dead than to have to endure the werewolf's curse. By the end of the book Biffy, however, is still very much enamored of Lord Akeldama and the feeling appears mutual.

Heartless: Biffy spends much of Heartless dealing with the aftermath of becoming a werewolf. It was not something he chose for himself and therefore he has a difficult time bonding with the rest of the pack mainly due to this fact and also because they have very little in common. Biffy loathes the pain and indignity of transformation and deeply misses his former station as a Drone, nights of entertaining ladies on his knee, and procuring information throughout London. He also misses Lord Akeldama and between that and his resistance toward his own change and who he has become it seems to have a painful impact on his pack Alpha, Conall, who is equally distressed that the werewolf he sired is finding it difficult to adapt and connect with the pack. The fact that Biffy refuses to accept his werewolf half also makes him weak by werewolf standards, he cannot tolerate the sun and he prematurely experiences moon madness well before the full moon and therefore has to be locked away in the dungeons at Woolsey manor as a consequence, much sooner than the other werewolves. On one such occasion he managed to escape his cell and run all the way back to Lord Akeldama’s townhouse in London (Woolsey manor is two hours outside of London), the place he still considers home, on instinct. Though when he gets there he attacks Lord Akeldama in his moon maddened state and Lord Akeldama, who is reluctant to harm him, merely goes on the defensive, dodging and disorienting him. Apart from his difficulties Biffy takes on the role of assisting Alexia, he travels with her at night and helps her dress. By the end of Heartless, Biffy has taken over running the hat shop of Madame Genevieve Lefoux (a female inventor who dresses like a male and a sometimes friend of Alexia though their bond is formed in mistrust due to the fact that she is a member of the Order of the Brass Octopus) and underneath the hat shop is the new dungeon for the new London pack. The Woolsey pack ended up having to relocate to London after an incident having to do with a giant deadly octopus and the Westminister Hive swarming to Woolsey manor and taking up residency forcing the werewolves out. So by this time Biffy has a kind of purpose, but regardless he still pines over his previous life and he's still not fully adapting.

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