Invented Original Characters: Jesse Lafontaine

Growing up my dream job was to be a comic book artist/writer. But with very little artistic talent that dream died pretty quickly. Now I do my best to bring my characters to life using apps like factory of heroes, swordmaker, armormaker, you doodle and photo cutout. They don't always turn out looking very good but I get more excited about the concepts and stories behind the characters than how well I can make the character look good. Sometimes my characters are from cultures I am not a part of because I think it fits their story or other aspects about them. I am not a cultural expert but at the very least I hope no one is upset by me using aspects of cultures I'm not a part of and find interesting. That said below is my original character Jesse Lafontaine.

Despite his youth Jesse Lafontaine is one of the world's youngest successful vampire hunters. When the tick like vampires remerged in the 21rst century and began hunting people in the rural areas of Turtle Island Jesse was widely believed to be the first man to have killed one in centuries. At just 19 while on a hunting and camping trip with friends Jesse put rifle round after rifle round into a softbodied tick vampire, kicked it over and cut off its head. Crumbling to dust the tick body could not be used as evidence and Jesse was only a hero to his friends but they dared not tell the world thinking the story was too outlandish to be believed. But as tick attacks became more common and drew casualties Jesse became a bit of a folk hero to the small communities he protected. In just under a year Jesse had brute forced his way to killing a handful of ticks until an old man from one of the small towns shared knowledge on how to more effectively kill tick vampires. The old man shared that there was a tale told for generations about blood sucking monsters that hunt at night. He thought it was just a story to scare children until the recent attacks. Telling the tale Jesse learned that with some exceptions the beasts are weak to the quahog shell that's used to make purple wampum and wild mint. Armed with this knowledge Jesse shifted from protecting towns and occasionally killing ticks, to hunting and killing them far more efficiently.

Now 23 Jesse's hunting skills, lean but powerful build and unique arsenal make him the leading exterminator of tick vampires. Jesse's is now highly methodical and capable in handling whole groups of tick vampires. When getting close he removes his shoes so he can move silently. He does a headcount of the weaker soft body ticks and the stronger ones with armoured bodies. As much as he can he kills the soft body ticks by silently shooting or stabbing them using arrows with tips made of purple quahog shell. Then he will try to silently do the same with the armoured ones but it's harder because their heads are the only part his arrows can effectively harm. If discovered his arrows can still take out soft ticks easily but will switch to his revolver for armoured ones. Though just an ordinary revolver, Jesse learned from a hunter how to make his own bullets, so it is loaded with wild mint laced rounds. They would be less effective bullets aimed at any other target but they are strong enough to pierce tick hide and have the mint start to burn them from the inside. If it comes down to close combat ticks lose some strength near the mint medicine pouch Jesse wears to the point where he's come out alive even at times where he was out of arrows.

The ticks Jesse has encountered have mostly been the average human sized softbodied ones and larger armoured armoured ones all of which are typically unarmed. However when on missions in South America he mostly encountered smaller soft body ticks that carry Incan style maces and spears. Aside from the weakness to wild mint and purple quahog shell, Jesse surmised that ticks are typically weaker in the daytime and in cold weather. However he speculates that far more powerful tick vampires he has yet to encounter may be far less vulnerable to these things.