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OUT OF CHARACTER

Player Name: Ree
Are you 16 or older: Yes
Contact: what_he_needs or PM
Current Characters: Eggsy Unwin | David 8
Tag: vanessa ives

IN CHARACTER
Name: Vanessa Ives
Canon: Penny Dreadful
Canon Point: Season 1, End of Episode 8
Age: Not stated so we'll go with 33

History:

Canon History

Personal History:

Youth:
Vanessa’s childhood was fraught with sandcastles, and adventures, and Mina. The pair were best friends, compared to that of sisters, and Vanessa pushed the other to explore and seek out excitement. Their families houses were separated by only how fast they could skip across the manor grounds, an open gate nestled in between, and the young girls were never apart.

Interrupting the children's play, which included Mina’s brother Peter, Malcolm Murray arrives home from a lengthy trip to Africa. While he is the father of her friends, Vanessa is equally excited to see him again, and happy with the gifts he’s brought home from his travels.

The party that night was filled with Malcolm’s stories, and laughter from Vanessa’s parents, whom were always invited to dine with the Murray’s. Had she been older, she would have realized that there was an underlying tremor beneath the carefully chosen words from the adults. And would have seen that it was unnatural for two such close families to force pleasant conversation.

That same night, as she strolls through the hedge maze outside the Murray home, she stumbles across something dark. Sinful. Sir Malcolm Murray and her mother intimately embraced, committing the forbidden act, and Vanessa discovered something about herself. She enjoyed the darker nature of what she saw.

Adulthood:
Mina's brother, Peter was speculated to one day marry Vanessa. She seemed content with this notion, accepting of it, but was quietly jealous of Mina’s fiancé and the life that they could live together. She envied the adventures they could have, and a part of her hated Mina for it.

She was losing Mina, Peter wanted to join his father on his travels to Africa, and so she would soon lose him, too. In the maze, she kisses Peter, and he retreats, aghast, and while she wishes she had followed him, she doesn’t. Vanessa knows then that she loves him for his being so weak, and frail, but she sees her life in front of her; Mina married and gone, and Peter never returning from Africa. So, she prays.

I tried to pray that night, but God didn’t answer me. Another did.

The day before Mina is to marry, they hold a party to celebrate, and Vanessa decides that when Mina marries she will be essentially losing herself. Mina doesn’t mind, but Vanessa minds for her. That night, Mina walks in on her fiance and Vanessa having sex. The wedding is then off, and Malcolm Murray, ashamed, closes the gate between their homes forever.

The First Break:
The strain of what she has done becomes too much, and in psychosexual responsiveness, she suffers from a fit of guilt that results in a rapid decline in health. She became steadily worse, the doctors unable to determine what is ailing her, and, in an attempt to fix that indeterminable ailment, admit her for psychiatric evaluation and remedy.

Her clairvoyance and medium abilities begin to manifest, and at the asylum, the doctors suggest and, then practice, harsh treatments to cure her of her mental illness. Hydrotherapy and trepanation, (which are highly graphic so I won’t describe them here), were both used as a means of curing her.

She was eventually allowed to go home, in a catatonic state, and Peter Murray comes to visit. Vanessa speaks for the first time, asking him to kiss her, and he does. She confides in him that he won’t survive his trip to Africa, and he leaves upset.

Vanessa opens her eyes to find Malcolm Murray sitting in her room, and speaks with him, only to discover that is the demon, the voice that she had heard in place of God’s, and he has manifested in the form of her friend’s father. He appeals to the darkness inside her, telling her that she can make him leave, and shut out all of the voices, give up her gifts, but she chooses not to. Vanessa embraces the demon, and her mother enters the room to find her, eyes rolled back into her head, having sex with something that only Vanessa can see. Her mother suffers from severe shock, and passes away.

The Search Begins:
An indeterminate amount of time passes, and when Vanessa’s hair, shorn short at the asylum, is long again, she encounters Mina on the beach. Mina tells her that she has forgiven her, and Vanessa admits that she cannot forgive herself. The conversation takes a turn, and Vanessa realizes that Mina isn’t really there, but a vision asking for Vanessa to save her. Help her.

Vanessa then seeks out Malcolm Murray and tells him that Mina is in trouble and needs their help. The two form an unlikely alliance, and begin to look for her. They encounter vampires, creatures wearing skin to hide their true forms, with sharp teeth and blood red eyes. Believing that Mina is being held captive by one of the vampires, they seek out Ethan Chandler, a hired gun. He assists them in raiding a vampire nest, Mina is not there, and they take the dead creature to a doctor to be examined. Doctor Victor Frankenstein is instantly intrigued, and joins their makeshift group of monster hunters.

In order to decode the hieroglyphics found by Victor on the vampire’s body, they are forced to attend the party of the person who can translate them. The host informs them that there is to be a séance, and Malcolm, Vanessa, and her new acquaintance, Dorian Gray, join them at the table. Vanessa becomes possessed by evil spirits, one who accuses Malcolm of leaving his son Peter to die alone in Africa, and after she regains a slight amount of control, she exits the party, leaving behind a stunned and frightened group.

Ferdinand Lyle, the party host, soon translates the hieroglyphics and states that they are a resurrection spell that will invoke Amunet, the mother of evil, and Amun-Ra, who’s joining would bring about the apocalypse. Lyle warns Malcolm not to tell Vanessa any of this, as she wouldn’t take well to knowing she is hunted by the devil.

Through another encounter with Mina’s spirit form, Vanessa leads them to a zoo, where she thinks Mina is being held. They learn there that Mina was tricking Vanessa, making her believe that she was there, so that Vanessa could be captured. Mina’s master wants Vanessa for his bride, and is using her friend to make this happen.

The group, minus Vanessa whom Malcolm encourages to see Dorian so she wouldn’t be a part of their hunt, board a ship that they have determined, through Vanessa’s visions, Mina is located upon. They fight off many female vampires, and the master appears, holding Mina, but he steals her away before the group can get to her.

The Second Break:
While the others are hunting, Vanessa is with Dorian Gray. He is charming, smooth, and they have an instant connection. Dinner leads to more, and during intimacy, the demon speaks to her, and Vanessa abruptly leaves, frightened.

She returns home, finds Malcolm, and the demon fully possesses her. Malcolm enlists Victor, Ethan, and Malcolm’s friend Sembene to assist him in, essentially, exorcising the demon. It’s a long battle, wrought with pain, and Vanessa is seeming to lose the fight against the demon inside her. It speaks to the others in the group, confessing their secrets aloud, and the demon takes the form of Ethan Chandler as a way of communicating and further torturing Vanessa.

Victor believes that her possession is linked to psychosexual trauma, and they do what they can, but nothing seems to work. Vanessa worsens to the point that Malcolm allows a catholic priest to be called, as Vanessa is extremely religious, and let him perform the last rites. Vanessa, or her demon, attack the priest and Ethan forces him, and all the others out of the room. Through sheer will, and conviction, Ethan performs the exorcism on his own, forcing the demon out of her body.

After resting, Vanessa awakens, and tells Malcolm that she knows where Mina is.

The Search Ends:
Dorian Gray, infatuated, comes to see Vanessa, and she tells him to leave. Later, they speak again, and she tells him that she doesn’t like who she is when she is with him, and that they cannot see each other anymore.

The group head to the Grand Guignol theatre, discovering Mina, whom greets Vanessa with joy after a fight that kills the main vampire. This happiness is discovered to be a falsehood, as Mina captures her, and tells the group that she is going to give Vanessa to her master to be her bride. Malcolm decides that Mina is past saving, and choosing Vanessa over his daughter, he kills her.

Personality:

Vanessa was raised in an environment that gave her privileges that others wouldn't know. An education, fine meals and clothing, the very world at her feet, and yet it wasn't enough. She learned early on, during a midnight stroll through a hedge maze where she witnessed sin in primal form, that she had a penchant for a darker nature. She enjoyed what she saw, and it didn't confuse her. She embraced what she was then and would continue to do so for years to come.

Well into early adulthood, Vanessa discovered something else about herself. That while she was not vain or unkind, she was immensely jealous of certain others and this made her spiteful. She lashes out at her best friend, and betrays her in a way that won't allow the woman to ever forgive her. She mourns the loss of a friend, as well as the loss of a man that she loves but knows cannot and will not ever make her happy. Vanessa might not understand everything that happens in her life, but she knows herself very well.

I prayed to God that night, but he didn't answer. Another did.

When her God doesn't answer her, she is still faithful to him, and she tries to push back the darkness threatening to overwhelm her. She is unsuccessful, and her guilt becomes too much to bear. This is where Vanessa suffers her first break, which results in the sudden development of her abilities, as well as shows that psycho-sexual stimuli wakens the demon inside of her. She learns to utilize her new skills, embraces them, because they were given to her by God.

The realization that she doesn't want to give in to the darkness is a key part of who Vanessa is. She knows without a doubt that she doesn't want to be that kind of person, she doesn't want to lose herself to it. She is who she is, sinful and dark, but she doesn't want to be, and this is what makes her strong. It gives her the strength to refuse Dorian Gray, and it's what keeps her demon from taking her over completely.

Abilities/Skills:

Clairvoyance: She can perceive information or events in the future; insights that are beyond the range of natural vision.

Empathy: She has the ability to apprehend the mental or emotional state of another individual.

Medium: She can communicate with spirits, and is a link between the dead and the living.

Divination: Through the use of tarot cards, she gains knowledge of the future or unknown.

Possession: She has an unnamed spirit or demon inside of her, whose presence becomes stronger after psycho-sexual trauma.

Strengths/Weaknesses:

Strengths:

- Resilient; she takes a lot of hits and gets right back up
- Intuitive; she uses her gut to tell her when somethings wrong
- Quick-witted; she's snappy with her comebacks and witty remarks
- Polyvalent; she has many depths and layers

Weaknesses:

- Possessed; there be a demon up in her
- Attentiveness; the demon spoke to her and she listened
- Rejection; she has faith in her God, but he didn't answer her when she needed him most

Items:

Petticoats, undergarments, stockings, boots, earrings, and one internal havoc-wreaking demon.

SAMPLES
Network Sample:

[When the feed turns on, it's to the pale, confused face of a somewhat exhausted appearing woman. She's been on the ship long enough that she should have already addressed the network, but she had been wary. A photograph machine, she had once heard, was believed to hold the ability to take parts of one's soul.

She didn't quite believe that herself, but this technology was new and she couldn't count it out. However, she needed assistance, and she couldn't wait any longer.]

Good afternoon. I'm Vanessa Ives.

[Formalities aside, she turns her wrist, attempting, and almost but not quite failing, to show the crew where she is.]

What is the purpose of this?

[The camera pans over an elliptical machine in the rec area.]

I would appreciate the information. Thank you for your time.

Prose/Action Sample:

Test Drive Meme Samples: One | Two | Three