Vinny
Legacy Name: Vinny

When he was human, Vinny was just a common man. He never married, most of his family had emigrated to other parts of the world by the time he was an adult, and his friends were simply people he encountered through daily life. There were no immediate threatening problems in his life... though there wasn't much of a life to really speak of, but he was content with that. Things were simple, and it worked for him. In his time period, you took whatever you were handed. There were few means of improving your life, and if you were lucky enough to have food, shelter and even a menial job, you were better off than most.

Then one day he died, under fairly innocuous circumstances, and because of one little devious thing he did to a street urchin when he was younger he lost his soul and was sent to wallow in some obscure realm of oblivion. After a while, his human form eroded (nothing physical survived there) and he eventually became... well, nothing, really. Just a "shadow" of his former self. It wasn't until he discovered that he could somehow willfully shift through planes and dimensions that he even felt like leaving. He almost didn't, as he had become accustomed to feeling nothing and thought it might be better than risking mortal pain in a physical realm, but his curiosity grew. He decided to play it safe for starters, and try going back to the one plane that he was already familiar with. After all, he told himself, he could always leave again.

Time had passed at a different pace than while he was in oblivion though, and so he couldn't get back to his own period. His shifting ability couldn't move temporally, apparently. Much like someone experiencing time travel, he was nearly overwhelmed by the changes in culture and locale. He found, however, that the people were much the same. Still troubled, still emotional, still lacking self-realization... Still afraid, and still prey worthy. So now we're stuck with him until he feels like leaving again, which doesn't appear to be happening any time soon as, once he discovered the joy of stalking and feeding on shadows, he forgot all about the realm of blissful nothingness. Nothingness would be better than the possibility of pain, but being a "shadow demon" (their words, not his) seems to agree with him.

He feeds on "shadows", both literally and figuratively. In one capacity, being near those with dark and shadowed tendencies (mostly subconscious) fuels his desires, and then absorbing the physical manifestation of outward shadows seems to feed his own shadowy form. He refers to the shadows as "every delicious dark tidbit that a person refuses to recognize as part of themselves and yet are unknowingly defined by." In other words, it is most likely an aspect of the soul or aura that he senses and collects, and one of three things tend to happen as a result. More often, the soul/aura heals afterward and the dark part regenerates, leaving no change. Occasionally, removing the dark part effectively splits or injures the soul/aura and the remainder is left broken and even more tainted than before. Or, even more rarely, If he removes the dark part, there is a chance that the rest of the soul/aura can heal progressively, thereby purifying it. Vinny doesn't particularly care which happens, just that he's sated. And no matter which happens, it is still physically painful to the psyche and can often leave one comatose for days, if not permanently.

If you see his eyes start turning red (if you can even see him) then don't hesitate. Just run. He's pretty lazy, for a demon. He doesn't like dinner that he has to catch, so he probably won't bother chasing after you.

Probably.