Nightcrawler

Nightcrawler is best known from Youtube videos of his death defying acrobatic shows and stunts. There's much debate about if his appearance is real or an incredible makeup job devised to give him a Gothic mystique and aire of the unusual.

Background
It was a rainy night in the Bavarian woods when the Baroness Wagner met up with a Gypsy Queen known as Margali. A deal was done and a bundle handed over to the Gypsy and then they two disappeared off into the mist never to see each other again. That little bundle was an infant named Kurt. He was a Mutant and his mother was ashamed and scandalized and gave him up to the Gypsy to be taken away and raised.

Kurt was raised by Margali in the traveling circus where she worked as a Fortune Teller to cover her real calling as a sorceress. The circus were a tight knit family and didn't care about abnormalities like having fur or a tail or pointy ears. Kurt was happy and never felt any regrets over not knowing his real family. He had a large family who were totally accepting of him. Even Margali's own children Stefan and Jimaine accepted him as though he were a sibling... or even more as he fell in love with Jimaine. He and Jimaine learned to be acrobats together, and literally put their lives in each other's hands on the trapeze together. They were wildly popular and successful as well. Enough that their little circus caught the eye of Amos Jardine, a rich American who owned a much larger circus in America. Jardine bought the circus with the intentions of joining it with his own, but Margali's place was in Germany with her family beside her. So it was that Kurt had to leave them behind to pursue his destiny.

Jardine's circus was a far cry from the extended family that Kurt had grown up with, and Jardine was a harsh master who felt his money made him able to do anything he wished. Kurt wasn't to become an acrobatic star. Instead his fate was to be a freak in Jardine's freakshow. When Kurt said he wouldn't do it, Jardine arraigned to have Kurt drugged and locked away in the cage like an animal anyways. There he was billed as The Devil Man complete with a back story of his hunger for human hearts washed down with fresh blood. He was very popular as crowds would try to spot proof that all of that was just a makeup act and Kurt tried to just not pass out and find some way to enunciate his need for help.

Fate came in an act of mercy from a small boy. Seeing the pain in Kurt's eyes, then boy slipped the latch of the cage for him and allowed Kurt to escape. Kurt hid out and when the drugs had finally worn off, he went looking for Jardine. Kurt's powers had developed about when puberty hit for him, but they had always been a thing to keep quiet, something to play at. A safety line if anything went wrong on the trapeze. Only now did they first become an instrument for vigilante justice. With a Bamf of brimstone, Kurt appeared before Jardine and used all of his acting skills to put the fear of God into the man. It was enough to get Jardine to promise to treat all the performers better, repent his ways and pay Kurt all of his back pay. Kurt left the circus, but with a warning to Jardine of what would happen if he ever heard of the man going back on his word again.

Kurt decided to travel back to Germany and try to find Margali and his family once more. He came across Stefan who had gone mad from his magical power. He had always feared the power and made Kurt promise to stop him if he ever used it to kill. Now he had killed several people and Kurt felt duty bound to his brother to try to stop him. He tracked down Stefan and began to fight with him, trying to bring him back to reason and restrain him from causing any more harm. In the process, Kurt accidentally exerted too much of his strength on Stefan's neck and snapped it. It was as though Kurt had killed a part of himself.

In mourning, Kurt continued his search for the Circus. But when he found it, he found out that Margali and Jimaine had left the circus shortly after he went to America and no one knew where they were. Kurt was all alone in the world. Despondent, he went to a church to pray for guidance.

In the church, Kurt met up with a Priest who was born in Baltimore and who had seen the act that Kurt and Jimaine used to perform in the circus. Kurt felt he could unload his troubles upon the priest and the priest in turn gave his sympathies at Kurt's loss and prescribed a penance for Kurt's killing of Stefan. He also suggested to Kurt that perhaps this was God's way of showing that Kurt's time in Germany was past and that he should look to the future, perhaps in America.

Kurt returned to America, but not to Jardine's circus. He decided to go out on his own. Starting off with earning money busking and doing acrobatic and tumbling tricks, he gradually caught they eye of promoters of some fairs and the such who asked for him to come perform. He learned about marketing ideas as he traveled about and started playing on his dark appearance. He decided to make up a new costume and started calling himself the death defying Night Crawler. He also got some video clips put up on the internet to help spread his name, earning him even larger bookings with a few weeks doing a show at a casino here, a guest appearance at a small circus there. He hasn't built himself up into a real famous name yet, but he's no longer having to count out the loose change in his suitcase and wondering if it's enough for a burger anymore either.

Personality
Kurt is generally a very friendly and outgoing person. He is quick to try to make friends and often ready with a bit of wit and a ready smile. Even if some people might find his smile a bit disarming. His growing up as a circus performer causes him to generally move about with a dramatic flare without even thinking about it. He speaks with a combination of heavily accented English and German. He seems rather unflappable and able too take anything in stride, at least publicly. Privately he's a much more complex man.

Growing up as a mutant with as many physical abnormalities as Kurt has can be hard, even in a setting like the Circus. Margali always tried to get him to just ignore it, but teasing from children in towns where they would set up would still continue and gradually wear down on a young ego. To help him learn to cope with it, Margali introduced Kurt to the Bible. In it, Kurt found himself rather drawn to the story of Christ. Even though he would never go thinking of himself in such terms as a born again Jesus, he found correlations with his own life. A child who's actually the son of God, yet raised by parents that love him and consider him their own. A child who was hated by some even before his birth and by many more afterward. A child with amazing gifts who sought not to use them for vengeance, but to help other people selflessly. Who grew to a man who never saw himself as better or superior to the men around him. He even called for mercy and forgiveness from his heavenly father as he was slowly tortured to death. That belief and faith is a reassuring rock to anchor himself to in times of hopelessness or despair. Whatever trials we may be given in our lives are just tests, such as those that God gave to Job.

Kurt found himself drawn to stories of heroism and daring-do. His favorite movies were always the sorts with lots of action and adventure. Pirates swinging from one ship to another. An explorer evading deathtraps in an ancient forgotten tomb. A knight racing through a castle full of enemies to rescue the princess. Kurt always envisioned himself in that role, even if he never really talked about it. He thinks of himself as the dashing hero with the beautiful damsel swooning into his arms, and it often makes his choice in actions for him. Alas, despite the romance of his soul, for many women, the swooning takes on more of either a fainting or a screaming their head off in fright. But at least he can play the hero even if he's still working on the romantic side of it all.

Kurt doesn't view himself as the man without sin however. He is very aware and feels guilty for the sins that he has done in his life. When he can, he strives to set things right for his actions in addition to his holy penance. When he can't, such as with Stefan's death, he holds close to the memory of the sin as a reminder to help keep him from committing the same sin again. One sin he does have a weakness for however is the ladies. He knows his looks are not likely to cause love at first sight, so he's learned to overcompensate for that with his attempts to be charming, romantic and flirtatious. His heart yearns for true love and he sincerely hopes that someday fate will let him find it.