Edward Graves's Questionnaire

Edward lives in New York. He moved there because he often needs to change locations so people don’t get suspicious of his lack of aging and his powers as well as being able to find a job as a coroner which he believed would be a good cover as it would be too obvious of a place for a necromancer to hide so no one would look for him there. Before being in New York he has lived in Montserrat, Australia, Taiwan, China, the Netherlands, Ireland, England, Canada and multiple states in the US including Alaska, Washington and most recently Massachusetts. He lives in a small, bare apartment that is well kept with very few items or decorations of any sort other than the bare essentials, with the only items used for leisure being a record player with a collection of goth records and a small, cheap tv.

Edward gets his money working as a coroner for the NYPD in a team with Cpt. Captain Jackson and detective Frazier O’Neill, although his job means that he can have minimal contact with others when he would prefer to be alone. For the most part, Edward spends his money on a mix of the bare essentials and his addiction. Often he spends his money on nice clothes and expensive perfumes in the hopes that it will detract attention from his own appearance or mask any kind of smell from being undead, which is something he is extremely self conscious of. He also spends a lot of money on food as he enjoys cooking and making meals that reminds him of the places he’s been, especially his home island of Montserrat and his parents’ homes of Taiwan and Australia. Other than these he predominantly spends his money fuelling his cigarette addiction that was worsened by a traumatic contract. 

Overall, Edward isn’t exactly an ambitious person. Other than getting by day to day, doing his job well and helping people through said job he doesn’t have many strong personal ambitions. For the most part, his main goal is to reach a mastery over his powers to where he can successfully blend into society and become as close as he can to a regular person. Due to Edward’s personal code of ethics, it’s unlikely that there are many extremes that Edward is willing to go for this goal despite how important it is to him. There’s very little chance Edward would be willing to kill for anything, including this, unless it was involved in some moral quandary which necessitated it in his mind, and even then he would most likely question if it was the right choice afterwards. Despite this, he would be less avert to dying for this, or any, cause as he doesn’t feel as if his life since it started again has been necessary and so would not mind dying.

The most defining date of the life of Edward Graves’ life was Christmas Day 1956. This was the day in which he and his family had died in his home on the island of Montserrat. Earlier in the day, Edward had left the house to go give cards and gifts to the friends of the family in the area when, as he got back, he realised that his home had set on fire and it was engulfed in flames. He entered the house to try and save his parents but died of smoke inhalation while looking for them. Half a day later, once the fire had already died out, the powers that he had tried to hide had somehow brought himself back as an undead. After this, Edward resigned himself to travelling around the world, trying to find some purpose in life.

Joe “ego” Skinner- 

since the 80s, when Joe was just coming up as a young criminal, Edward has had a working relationship with him where, whenever he needs to change location and form a new identity, he will go to Joe to help get it done. Joe hates when Edward calls him that, due to the fact that Joe has took to people calling him “ego” since he started to gain influence in the criminal underworld to create more of an essence of mystery to identity.

Nicolaas Jansen-

Nicolaas is a 16 year old Dutch boy who has resorted to travelling around the world, similar to Edward, because of the fact that Edward accidentally raised him from the dead  while working in the Netherlands and Nicolaas had more sentience than Edward’s usual creations. Although, unlike Edward, Nicolaas is going around the world looking for his creator rather than a personal sense of purpose as Edward left the country before realising he had somehow raised another sentient undead person. He was also raised with his head still detached from the accident that caused his death so he carries his head around everywhere as every time he tries to attach it, it tends not to last long.

Edward spent all of his childhood in Montserrat, a cultural melting pot of peoples with many different backgrounds. Edward himself lived with his mother, Dorothy Graves and his father Jian Wen-hsiung from Australia and Taiwan respectively. Both parents were loving, hard working and supportive of Edward's interest in medicine from a young age, being civil servants themselves. Although, despite this Edward still couldn't bring himself to tell them about his curse out of fear of how they would view him until the very end. Edward attended schools up to the doctorate level, going to university in England (with 1956 being his first year back in which he was planning on applying to become a doctor). Throughout school, Edward mostly kept to himself but had a small group of acquaintances. Edward was always quite reserved so he had very few friends but even the people he was closest to he could rarely be particularly open with due to his powers and lack of control of said powers.

In the 80s, Edward fell into a group of goths while living in England because he was having something similar to a midlife crisis brought about by his feeling of apathy and purposelessness. In this group there was a man called Christopher Stevens who Edward started dating until Edward decided that maybe he had found someone he could be truly open with. When he told Christopher, at first he didn't believe him but as soon as Edward proved it to him, Christopher quickly grew to fear Edward which caused him to leave England and go back into his reclusive state. In more recent years, Edward found himself in a relationship not long after he came to New York but a while before he put contracts on hold and held off on social interactions to focus on work, the relationship was either called off or kept on hold. 

One fear that has pervaded in Edward's life since that fateful Christmas is a fear of fire. Due to his house burning down he has developed a trauma relating to fire. Despite this, he still decides to smoke cigarettes and endure the discomfort lighting one puts him through. Another major fear that affects his life (or unlife) is his fear of himself. Edward is scared of the idea that he could accidentally do something horrible with his powers. This is why Edward chooses to try to become more adept with them, to try and prevent anything like this happening. This fear has been a big factor of what has caused him to be so closed off from people as he is scared of what me may do or how people may view him if they knew about his powers. Linked to this, the idea of hurting people in general, especially people that don't deserve it, terrifies him as he has always had pacifistic tendencies and a strict code of ethics ever since he was young. Breaking this code, even if it is in self defence or done towards people who planned on hurting others like the cannibals of Colgarac, will cause a large amount of distress for Edward.

Edward doesn't really own many possessions but, at the very least, he has a few items from before his death that he holds very dear to him. One example of this is a ring that he got from his mother when he was still young. The ring is silver and it has a green pearl in the middle, partially leading to his affinity for the colour green. Edward keeps this ring on him at all times and rarely lets go of it. Another keepsake he has is the newspaper that was printed not long after he returned to Montserrat and contained an article and photo in it of him, interviewing him about the PhD he just gained studying in England and asking what his plans were for the future. He keeps this one in his apartment in a drawer of his bedside table. He will usually read this again when he feels like he misses his parents or the life he once had.

Currently, and at many stages of his life, one of his biggest continuous problems is the possibility of being found out. If regular people found out that he was both a necromancer and undead himself, it is hard to tell what people would do with that knowledge. This is why only the closest people to him (as well as contractors and people generally of the supernatural community) are among the few people he will tell. Despite this, recently he had a close encounter in the NYPD with someone who was suspicious of him. A cop called Felix Johnson started going down to the morgue and inspecting the heads of bodies to see if Edward had ate any of their brains. to clear up this 'misunderstanding' and try to make things go back to some level of normality, he showed officer Johnson his faked medical records he got his acquaintance Joe to forge in case of an event like this.

Typically, a morning for Edward involves waking up at 6:30 as Edward is quite particular with schedules and timing. First he would cook himself some breakfast and get out the meal he's prepared for the day. In the rest of his time before work he does everything he can to make sure him and his apartment are as clean as possible. this would usually involve starting off with tasks such as vacuuming, washing his sheets and clearing out any kind of dust and then moving on to showering, brushing of teeth (and as much of the inside of his mouth as he can get, sometimes even going as far as the throat just to be safe) applying of appliances that would improve scent and appearance like perfumes and light makeup to hide any inhuman inconsistencies and getting dressed after this. As well as this, if there were any documents he had at home that were needed for work that day or anything else he was doing, he would take them from one of his well organised folders and put it in his messenger bag. He also would prepare anything he may need like his work ID, a laptop (an old, barely functional one but a laptop nonetheless), food and some gum.

If Edward was to go somewhere special that he wanted to look nice for, it's likely that he would spend upwards of several hours getting ready. First off, he would make sure that he smelled absolutely perfect through showering with the nicest shampoo and conditioner and general washing appliances he could get as well as washing the clothes he picked out with an also fancy, nice smelling bio liquid and fabric softener and spending as long as he can brushing his teeth/mouth. He would wear his fanciest, most expensive green silk shirt with clothes that would similarly match it. He would also make sure to bring a decent amount of gum and very few cigarettes to incentivise not smoking too much and ruining his breath (although he does smoke menthol cigarettes to at least reduce the effect they have on his breath). This would most likely end up taking him at least three hours.

For his next birthday, he will most likely spend it in his home island of Montserrat. This is because it is the anniversary of his and his parents' deaths and so he will go home to commemorate this. This is something that he does every year on his birthday which is the same day as Christmas eve. He will most likely not invite anyone unless he is sure that there is someone who wouldn't be busy and would like to go as he is used to being on his own in general but especially during this time of the year. Because he isn't especially close to many people, it's unlikely that he would spend the time with others. In this time he will mostly stay by the ruins of his old home that have somehow stayed there for around 70 years as the locals have noticed that there is still someone who memorialises the spot by placing flowers and other such items. Some locals assume that it is the work of a ghost and have created local legends based on this with some not being too far from the truth.

One of Edward's greatest regrets is the killing of a couple in Colgarac which led to the eventual destruction of the entire town. Despite it felling like the correct reasoning and the correct course of action, there was still something about it that made him sick to his stomach and hate himself more. Long story short, Edward went on a contract with a young boy named Lucius in which they were supposed to investigate a group of mysterious disappearings in this small town in Georgia. In the end, the pair tracked these kidnappings to a hotel they were staying in completely by accident due to the entity attached to Lucius named Michael discovered that the food being served was human meat. Due to this, Edward confronted the couple running the hotel in the kitchen and, after being forthcoming about what they were doing and their plans (even to the point of inviting Edward to join), Edward immediately decided to kill them. He immediately shot the wife and raised her to (in a case of dramatic irony) eat the husband alive. This later shook Edward to his core both due to the barbaric and cruel nature of what he did and the question of if the situation could have been resolved in another way, even if they were horrible people who could have hurt others.

Edward's powers are a completely inherent thing that seemed to be dormant until he was 14 years old when he accidentally brought a squirrel in his backyard back to life. Coincidentally, this power tends to visually have a green tint to it when there is some kind of visual aspect to his powers. The specifics of the way Edward's powers work are somewhat of a mystery to him but he assumes that he taps into some kind of necromantic energy source with the gifts of the harbingers improving his inherent abilities and tapping into and unlocking his potential to use this energy in different ways. This can involve the use of bodies that are already dead but can also involve uses that are much more sinister (sadly for Edward) like the soul shatter ability infused into his snub nosed revolver. It can also involve things like using human eyes as surveillance camera type objects.

Edward would primarily consider himself as agnostic. He doesn't exactly go out of his way to make guesses or assertations about what he doesn't know so he doesn't believe it necessary or even possible to confirm or deny the afterlife or any kind of religion. Epistemic distance between humanity and any kind of deity makes it difficult to testify or falsify their existence so rather than deny Edward decides not to speak on it at all. Despite this, one thing he can confirm through his powers is the existence of some kind of spirit or a soul as he can talk to the spirits of the dead and bring back a soulless body with no sentience or conscience seemingly. This confirms to Edward that a person must be more than just their physical self. Despite this though, Edward still continues to hold no specific theological beliefs to speak of, although his encounters with the supernatural can help to piece together some level of mystery surrounding knowledge humans generally tend to not know about the universe around us.

The events of the contracts don't exactly conflict with Edward's worldview but rather it serves to inform him as he prefers to keep his mind open to possibilities. This means that each contract for Edward serves as putting a piece of a puzzle in place and seeing another part of a bigger picture. This bigger picture shows itself as the wider truth of the world and what happens within it that other people without these experiences will not have realised this before, just like any other kind of scientific breakthrough or discovery of a civilisation. To Edward, finding out that werewolves are goblins exist is only like the discovery that we evolved from apes, or any other discovery that changed the way we look at everything. Anything new is bound to be lauded as being outrageous and later will be accepted as a normality. Finding out at a young age that he could control life and death, Edward very quickly learned to keep an open mind about things like these.

Generally, on contract Edward has never met another contractor more than twice during the contract but there are multiple he sees often due to them living in New York. These contractors are:

Frazier- 

Edward sees Frazier almost daily due to working with him as a partner in the NYPD (as 2 people in the very small group of supernatural people on the force). Edward is sometimes slightly irritated by Frazier not exactly taking his job very seriously but despite this, he respects that he is still very good at said job. He also appreciates Frazier as a friend. Frazier was the first contractor Edward told about his condition and he was very appreciative of this.

Bryce-

Unlike Frazier, Bryce takes his job as a lawyer seemingly very seriously which Edward respects. He also generally enjoys his company a lot.

Cass-

Often Ed feels a responsibility to take care of and act as a mentor for Cass as both an experienced person and the one person who would not die on contact with him. Ed sees a good person in Cass and so he does his best to guide Cass towards being this person that he sees and not slip due to the negative emotions that could fester from her condition.

Edward sees a few other contractors around New York like Nikki, Dill and Scriggles but these are the main ones he interacts with often.

(I have no clue if this question means like bedroom or just any kind of room so I'll write about Ed's ideal bedroom)

To Ed, the perfect room would be one that is well organised so that he can find anything he needs easily. Along with this, it would be quite simple and without anything work related in the room so he can keep work and relaxation separate as it helps with both productivity when working and mental health when not. It would have the essentials like a bed (more so for relaxation than actually needing sleep) as well as drawers and cupboards to keep clothes and any thing else that is less essential like books and a table to put things like records and a record player on.

What Edward graves excels at above anything is the field of medicine. Ever since he realised it was his calling, Ed's philosophy towards the field has been, above all else, that he should always aim to help as many people as possible as well as preventing as many deaths as possible. This extends to him using it in the morgue of the NYPD where he attempts to solve crimes and put the perpetrator to justice as well as the most important part which is preventing any further possible crimes and by extent any further possible deaths. This is because he sees an inherent value in human life generally which was strengthened due to his life and the life of his parents being prematurely lost, even if it is a bit of a circumstance for the loss of his life (even if he may have came back and became undead, his life was permanently altered and the life he had before it was lost).

For one, his first limit represents his trauma towards his death. This usually involves events or actions involving fire in some way. Other than that, his other limits represent his inherent care for human life. Edward believes that lives are extremely precious and there are very few circumstances in which this is invalidated for him. In the past, he has predominantly killed due to self defence, believing that his life and the lives of the people around him were being threatened. Other than this, he would generally only kill if he was forced to for this or some other reason or if someone did something or generally was so evil that Edward Graves would believe that the world may be better off with them not in it. For example, certain people faced during the contracts like The Spectacular Spud and the cannibals of Colgarac. Both of these toyed with human lives and used them for their own ends which, although he would not like to admit it, meant that he believed that it was not only necessary but the best option to kill them.

lil ugly mane- Grave within a grave

This song describes what it would be like to be conscious when dead which is something that is, to some extent, consistently felt by Edward. Especially immediately after dying. It might be assumed that Ed came back to life quite quickly but in reality it was a slow, agonising process. In this process, he became conscious as he was being lowered and only gained the ability to move a few days later. Those days were the most agonising experience ever felt by Edward.

Death Grips- The fear

The song describes what is manic paranoia in which one is scared they will hurt themselves or someone else. Generally, this song links to the self loathing and fear that comes from the dual identity of Dr Edward Graves and the undead necromancer who's power and identity as a whole is intrinsically linked to death. Not only this, but it is especially emblematic of Edward's internal battle since beginning the contract as, despite believing that killing is one of the worst things one could do, Edward is worried that someone is going to come along that is so evil that he may even enjoy killing them, as some he has encountered has come close to.

The Arrogant Sons Of Bitches- Last on My List

This song is about the passing of someone close to you and wishing that it could have been you instead of them. This is a sentiment that Edward would most likely feel about his parents, wishing they could have survived the house fire instead of him.

The Sound- Winning

This song is here because it is a part of the goth rock scene of the 80s. This was a scene that Edward was in England for and actively participated in, to the point where it influenced him heavily at the time and even partially to this day.

Tom Waits- Innocent when you dream (Barroom & 78)

This one is pretty much just about the sound. One sounds slightly nostalgic where the other sounds depressing despite being essentially the same song. This could maybe represent before and after his life changed.

Backxwash- Black magic

This song links to Ed's own use of his magic as a necromancer. So far, he's not exactly sure where it came from or how it works and still has not come to accept it yet he has an anomalous relationship where he still needs it and so he heavily relies on it.

Wintersun- Sadness and hate

here for many similar reasons to other songs.

Edward will likely keep going until he eventually dies as he believes he has already lived a long enough life. In fact, he believes his life has been more than long enough. This means that, as he grows in power, he will continue to carry on contracts and take as many risks as he sees necessary. It is unlikely he would see himself retiring as, since he does not die naturally, he will just continue to live on which he would not want. In terms of ambitions though, he will continue to have the same ambition of helping people to the best of his ability. To this end, the way his powers develop could help or hinder him. His powers could eventually end up causing more death or helping him to prevent further deaths. Edward hopes that it is the latter and not the former but is worried that may not be the case.