Post by ava on Nov 14, 2010 0:48:29 GMT -8
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★ AGE: 86 (appears 30-ish)
★ GENDER: Female
★ SEXUAL PREFERENCE: Heterosexual
★ HEIGHT: 5’7”
★ WEIGHT: 156 lbs
★ JOB: Sleeper Agent/Librarian
★ RACE: Vampire
★ FACTION: The Cult of Rosen Epiphany
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Your ★ Beauty,
Appearance,
A little melodramatic, perhaps; but that makes it no less true. People have never judged Ava Turner on her brains or talent (or relative lack thereof). Whether colored by jealousy or lust, the prevailing perception when people look at her is W-O-M-A-N. She's a tad on the heavy side - in fact just shy of clinically overweight - yet pleasingly proportioned to an astronomical degree, and she knows just how to accentuate her assets with well-tailored clothing and maximally supportive undergarments. Her stark white complexion and ocean-blue eyes are complemented by her fiery red locks, which are always meticulously coiffed in calculatedly flattering styles. She never leaves the house without makeup on, especially since her turning; fire-engine red lipstick and false eyelashes are staples of her cosmetic arsenal.
While she has evolved with the times to a certain degree, Ava's tastes in clothing are decidedly retro. She displays a marked predilection for fashions reminiscent of the 1940s - her own personal "golden age" - though there is also '30s, '50s, and early '60s inspiration to be found in her wardrobe. The '70s and forward more or less left Ava's body type behind, and so she shows little interest in fashion influences from the Twiggy era on.
Though of course she spends as little time in the sun as (super)humanly possible, when she does venture out in daylight, Ava is dressed to the nines, often to the point of wearing some variety of veiled hat or head scarf, enormous tortoiseshell sunnies, and gloves to cover as much of her sensitive flesh as she is reasonably able. She has even been observed sashaying along the walkways of Downtown Saint Calais sporting one of any number of fashionable and ensemble-matching parasols.
A fuchsia rose tattoo on Ava's left ankle denotes her membership in the Cult of Rosen Epiphany.
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LIKES +
★ Unfiltered cigarettes (Lucky Strikes preferred)
★ ModCloth
★ Good jazz
★ A plan well-executed
★ A comfy pair of high-heeled shoes (Her calves are so molded to the things that she can hardly stand to wear flats anymore.)
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DISLIKES -
★ Modern casual wear - jeans, t-shirts, sneakers, and the like
★ Feminists (They just don't know how to work the system, and they're ruining it for the gals who do - !)
★ Animals (they skeeve her out - and of course the feeling's mutual) and babies
★ Filtered cigarettes (though she'll accept one in the absence of an alternative)
★ Cooking/Cleaning/Manual labor of any kind
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POSITIVE TRAITS +
★ Sexy
★ Ambitious
★ Determined
★ Stylish
★ Persuasive
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NEGATIVE TRAITS -
★ Jaded
★ Manipulative
★ Incurious
★ Self-Centered
★ Sadistic
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OVERALL PERSONALITY
Her other predominant quality is ambition. She was born with it; even as the sixth of eight children growing up in an impoverished family in The-Ass-Crack-of-Nowhere, USA, Ava knew she was destined for greater things.
Ever since then, it's been a matter of doing whatever it takes to come out on top - save for the occasional "distraction" (e.g., the few unprofitable romantic entanglements she has entered into in moments of weakness). Ava is always on the lookout for opportunities to turn things to her advantage, and the consequences for others, whether positive or negative, are generally of little interest to her. While she's probably not a full-on sociopath, a diagnosis of antisocial personality disorder might not be too far off the mark. She's also got a bit of a sadistic streak... a characteristic that is perhaps symptomatic of the degree to which Ava values power. She gets a kick out of hurting people in subtle little ways, just because she can.
While for Ava sexuality began as a means to an end, there developed early on a certain narcissistic element to it. She enjoys being noticed, worshiped, and adored; she likes it when people kowtow to her, whether out of fear or adulation - preferably both. As such she tends to surround herself with admirers, and can in fact be rather an indiscriminate lover, so long as her partners show her the deference and consideration she feels she's due. If it were financially and socially feasible for Ava to maintain a harem of male love slaves, she would undoubtedly do so.
It should be noted that Ava smokes like a chimney (after all, she started before they knew it was bad for you; and, now that she's a vampire, it doesn't seem to matter too much). She also hits the liquor a little too hard at times, though her vampiric metabolism usually handles it well.
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Background ★ Info,
History,
Erma's father was a gruff, hard-drinking laborer, a thoughtless employer of corporal punishment and generally sour and unpleasant - especially when intoxicated. She cannot recall him ever coddling her or speaking to her with affection. Her beleaguered mother was nurturing but stern, herding her flock with a firm hand. A devout Catholic, she made sure her little ones went to Mass every Sunday.
Erma herself was an unremarkable child, taciturn and a little sour - perhaps a bit of her father in her. She was average in school, as in most of her pursuits. She tended to keep to herself, whether at class, in church, or among her brothers and sisters, eliciting the occasional remark as to her unsociable disposition - though mostly she just went unnoticed. The only qualities that began to stand out about the child, as she grew older, were her single-minded ambition and her dazzling beauty. Once she hit puberty around the age of 15, the redheaded siren began to garner the notice of almost all the boys... and a disproportionate number of older men as well.
For whatever reason, Erma always had a strong natural sense of entitlement. She hated being poor; hated the way her father treated her. Chafed at her mother's rules and restrictions, at the taunts and impositions of her siblings... and rankled at being so often overlooked. She felt she was destined for something greater than this toiling obscurity. When she began to notice the way men fawned over her, therefore, she quickly developed a knack for turning this to her advantage - though there was a downside as well, in that her rotating schedule of slavering beaus quickly earned her a less-than-sparkling reputation at her high school. Men adored her; women hated and disparaged her. It became an all-too-familiar refrain.
Fortunately for Erma - at least in some respects - it was then very much a man's world. When the young beauty was seventeen and on the job as a waitress at the local greasy spoon, she caught the eye of an out-of-towner who had stopped into the diner en route via I-40 to Los Angeles - a moderately successful talent agent by the name of Mervyn Jessel. Jessel took a shine to Erma almost immediately; and Erma, sensing his interest, and perceiving that he was perhaps a notch above the provincial local types, milked the interaction for all it was worth. A few drinks and a seedy hotel room later, Erma ran home, sneaked a few personal items into a battered suitcase, and joined Jessel on the road to L.A.
The next few years were a whirlwind of intrigue and excitement for Erma, in both good ways and bad. The girl soon discovered that her new... associate had a wife and kids in Arizona; but this concerned her little. She would remain his mistress for nearly two years; and naturally she joined his talent roster - upon which time she changed her name, at Jessel's recommendation, to Ava Turner.
While the aspiring starlet had trouble landing substantial acting work, she quickly found measurable success as a pin-up model. Ava's titian locks, luscious pout, and decadent curves made her a favorite of men throughout the U.S.... and beyond. Fan letters poured in from embattled American troops fighting in the Second World War; one of Ava's fondest memories to this day is of the European USO tour she headlined in 1944, and the thousands of adoring men in uniform who whistled and cheered and fawned over her during and after her performances. The beleaguered soldiers were patently uncritical, and would prove the most enthusiastic audience the distinctly untalented actress would ever enjoy.
The late 1940s saw Ava's career launch into overdrive. She was traveling from coast to coast for photo shoots and press conferences, and signed on for a number of lucrative endorsement deals. Her relationship with Mervyn Jessel had long since soured, but the two continued to have a profitable - if strained - business relationship.
It was around this time that Ava met film producer Martin Gifford at a party - and gained her foothold on the next rung in the proverbial ladder. Despite her dismal acting, Gifford, like so many other men before him, was taken with Ava, and signed her with his small film studio, arranging for a series of projects that would play to her (admittedly limited) strengths. Thus began somewhat of an ego-rollercoaster ride for the would-be movie star, who took it very much to heart when critics panned her lackluster performances and box office returns failed to pass muster time and time again. When her contract ended, the studio elected not to renew, and both her personal and her professional relationship with Martin Gifford ended badly.
Desperate to preserve her flagging career, Ava soon found herself embroiled in Hollywood's dark underworld, becoming a pretty plaything for the entertainment industry's elite - for producers, film executives, and casting directors - a bauble to be passed around amongst any number of Tinseltown's movers and shakers. The prideful young woman lost herself in this dark period of her life; suffered any number of sordid indignities in a desperate bid to maintain the success she had worked so hard to achieve. She rankled at the degrading acts these powerful men demanded of her in exchange for their favor, but she felt trapped; she had long since turned her back on her family, and she had no other marketable skills. This was the only life left to her now.
It was as she traversed StarStruck Town's seedy underbelly that Ava first encountered vampires. The Cult of Rosen Epiphany had a number of high-ranking members among Hollywood's elite; when a film executive by the name of Joseph Vecht first bit into her neck during a tryst, the struggling actress counted it simply another of the myriad deviant appetites men of his influence expected desperate girls like her to fulfill. But he wasn't the last to demand her blood; and, as Ava became more and more a fixture in Vecht's inner circle, she overheard stray comments here and there and began to put two and two together. It took her a while to comprehend it fully; but Ava had, wholly unbeknownst to her, become a feeding vessel for vampires.
Vecht, as it turned out, was quite enamored of Ava - and was able to pull some strings for her as well. Ava, for her part, resented the man; but on top of being too afraid to refuse him she recognized his utility, and thus became his companion, traveling the country with him and serving him - and his associates - as needed.
It was on a fateful evening in November 1952, as Ava was submitting to a group feeding at an exclusive NYC club, that she found herself caught in the middle of a bloody battle between the Cult of Rosen Epiphany and the Chevalerie of the Hallowed Nocturne. When the dust settled, it was the Hallowed Nocturne that emerged victorious; and a woozy Ava was recovered and tended to by a young English vampire and Chevalerie member by the name of Bertram Welles. Welles was kind and solicitous, and treated his patient with such care and consideration that the young model began to wonder why she had allowed herself to be subjected to such indignities all these years. Reluctant to resume the lurid lifestyle that awaited her back in Los Angeles, Ava remained under the protection of Welles and his associates for a while at their Saint Calais home, and, over time, began to develop feelings for her attentive benefactor. Bertram, obviously smitten with Ava, never once asked to feed from her; but, as the pair gradually grew more and more intimate, she began to suggest it, until at last he agreed. The young vampire eventually proposed to the beautiful actress, who readily accepted, believing herself quite in love with him... and, admittedly, coveting the life of ease he could so readily provide her.
And so began a rare quiet period in Ava's life... one that wouldn't last long. Bert was frequently away on the business of the Chevalerie - dangerous business, apparently - and he refused to let Ava accompany him. Bored and lonely, the erstwhile glamor girl puttered away her days in sleepy Saint Calais, chafing at the drab obscurity of the idyllic lakeside town - her bitterness over the commitment that kept her there steadily mounting. She began to long once more for the glory and excitement of Hollywood, despite the degradations she must suffer to keep her place there... Though it wasn't until she received an unexpected visitor in May of the following year that she was forced to make what would prove, in many respects, the defining decision of her life.
It was Joseph Vecht himself who accosted the defunct actress as she was walking alone one day a mile or so from her husband's lakeside abode. He neither threatened nor coerced her; nor did he encourage her to resume her old life as a "blood whore" for himself and his powerful friends. Instead, he offered the ennui-afflicted housewife a choice: she could remain with her husband in Saint Calais, keep his house and bear his children, grow old, and fade into obscurity; or she could revive her modeling and acting career, and thereby her lifelong quest for fame and glory, with the help of Vecht and his associates... for a price.
She must give them Bertram.
Naturally, Ava balked. But Vecht was quick to sweeten the pot. Ava was in her thirties now; she was not getting any younger, he pointed out. Even now, tiny lines were appearing about the corners of her eyes and mouth. But she was still a ravishing creature; it was not as yet too late. Vecht and his friends, he assured her, could offer her eternal youth, like that which they themselves enjoyed; she could start her career anew, without fear that the beauty that was her greatest asset would forsake her as the years wore on. He would not demand an answer now, he told her; she could think on it, and he would return seeking her response in a fortnight.
Bertram returned from abroad that night, finding his wife distant and contemplative. When he inquired as to what was troubling her, she asked him point-blank if he would turn her.
He refused. Vampirism was a curse, he told her; a half-life she would be doomed to endure through the ages, as all that she knew and loved crumbled to dust around her. She cajoled; argued; begged and pleaded, and still he denied her. And so it was that Ava went to bed that night with a cold resolve in her heart.
Vecht would have his wish.
She spent the next fortnight planning how she would lure her husband into the Rosen Epiphany's grasp. And when Vecht reappeared to hear her decision, she described to him a plan so ruthless and cunning that the high-ranking Cult officer was duly impressed with the machinations of his once-plaything. He swore to Ava then and there that, if she delivered on her promise, he would grant her not only eternal youth, but the benefits and protections of membership in the Rosen Epiphany as well.
She did not disappoint. When the time came, the callous beauty betrayed her doting husband with hardly a second thought, delivering him to an unknown fate at the hands of his sworn enemies.
Vecht kept his end of the bargain. That night, he drained almost all of Ava's blood and promptly fed her a small amount of his own, until the young woman sank into the cold, deathlike slumber of gestation. The which, as it turned out, would prove a long and difficult metamorphosis for Ava; the model lay lifeless in her coffin for no less than six years, and, when she awakened, it was to a world that had all but forgotten her...
Although, as promised, she had not aged a day.
The early years were difficult. Ava was eager to resume her modeling and (such as it was) acting career, as Vecht had promised; but her inability to venture forth in daylight condemned her to a solitary existence for the first several years, and her bloodlust was so intense that she could hardly bear to be around humans who weren't designated "donors" (willing or otherwise) for the Epiphany. As such she spent the better part of the 1960s cloistered within the Epiphany enclave in Manhattan, until at last she accustomed herself to sunlight to the point that she could venture out wearing gloves and shades and veils, and her need to feed was not so intense nor so frequent that she couldn't mingle inconspicuously with mortals.
But by then, it was too late.
The world had changed. Reedlike, almost androgynous figures were the new standard of female beauty. Agent after agent and casting director after casting director dismissed Ava out of hand, telling her to lose weight or get out of the business. In the early seventies, the antiquated beauty gave up on show business at long last and dedicated herself to her work for the Rosen Epiphany, where her drive and ambition served her well; she rose steadily through the ranks under Joseph Vecht's expert tutelage. The pair maintained a mentor-mentee relationship, though they would never again be lovers; each rather preferred human companionship in that regard. And, while Ava took full advantage of Vecht's willingness to teach her, she never felt any great affection for the man; in fact, on some level, she would always nurse a grudge against him for the lie that had seduced her into betraying Bertram. Becoming a vampire had not saved her career; it had derailed it completely. The only reason she didn't outright hate Vecht for it was that she reasoned she could bide her time. Trends came and went; surely one day her brand of beauty would come into vogue again. In the meantime, she rather enjoyed the intrigue and power politics of her new lifestyle; she could now be predator instead of prey - and this was much more to her liking.
The 1980s were relatively uneventful for Ava. The erstwhile celebrity had not invested particularly well over the years, and she now lost a good deal of what little she had managed to squirrel away in the market crash of 1987. In this, however, her Cult connections served her well; in short order she was able to find work as a news anchor in Nevada under the pseudonym Sarah Schaeffer.
For a rare period of time at the close of the decade she relaxed her activities on behalf of the Rosen Epiphany; went through a brief period of introspection; even returned to Erick, OK, carefully disguised, to see what had become of her family. Her parents were dead, she learned; her mother from a stroke, her father from cancer. So were two of her seven siblings. The rest toiled in obscurity; none had managed to save enough for retirement, or else had lost it all in the crash. Of all the Schmidt children, Erma was the only one who'd had the gumption to leave Beckham County.
And she was not sorry, she realized. Not sorry in the least. She had taken chances, and she didn't regret them. All she could feel were scorn and revulsion for her brothers and sisters, with their drooping flesh, their tired eyes; their empty nests and empty marriages. Their endless, meaningless drudgery as they worked themselves to the bone and withered away to ash. She might not be the flavor of the month, but Ava was still young and beautiful, and forever would be. She would not repent the actions that had gotten her where she was.
The nineties saw the death of her mentor, Joseph Vecht, on the point of a Chevalerie assassin's stake. Fearing for her life, Ava fled to Europe for a time, cultivating a number of Epiphany connections there. She even did some modeling in Prague, where she became the favorite subject of a rising young artist by the name of Florian Klammer. Florian was a tender twenty-two years old; a sensitive soul, and hopelessly besotted by Ava's opulent beauty. Ava found herself surprisingly beguiled by him as well; he was a beautiful boy with wide eyes and a sensitive mouth, and he treated her like a queen, yielding himself readily to her every whim. For Ava, a proud woman who yet retained a certain bitterness as a result of the patronizing treatment she had endured from so many of the men in her life, Florian was the perfect companion. He posed no threat to her independence as so many men surely would have - even in this post-feminist world.
After a time, Ava revealed her nature to Florian; and he, already deeply in her thrall, readily became her donor. Ava brought her new pet back to the states with her, to join her at the Epiphany enclave in New York. This, however, resulted in some bad blood between Ava and a few of her associates, who couldn't seem to keep their fangs out of the boy. Florian bore it all for Ava's sake, but he was plainly unhappy being the vampires' new favorite chew toy.
This led to what was perhaps the one unselfish act of Ava's protracted life. After some heated back-and-forth with the offending parties, she gave herself over to contemplation; considering, for once, what her relationship with Florian would ultimately mean for the young man: danger and abuse, and, eventually, heartbreak, as he continued to age while his vampiric lover retained her enduring beauty; as, with time - as she knew she would - she tired of him.
When she set about ending her relationship with Florian, hoping to spare him this inevitability, he protested passionately, and ultimately begged her to turn him; which at first she refused to do. But as he continued to plead with her, she recalled how Bertram had denied her the same opportunity, and how embittered she had been as a result. At long last she reluctantly agreed, and commenced the process of turning her young lover; but the effort ran horribly awry. In draining his blood, she miscalculated; she took too much. The young Austrian went into shock, and, despite the skilled efforts of Ava's Epiphany fellows, perished that very night.
Ava was devastated as she had never been in her life. Despite her calloused nature, she had managed to develop a strong affection for the earnest young artist. The vampire secluded herself for almost a year afterward, and would, for another two or three years yet, exhibit a temperament that was noticeably more melancholy than usual. But in the grand scheme of her unnaturally long life, were she honest with herself, poor Florian would prove little more than a brief diversion; and would, she was sure, one day be forgotten altogether. At any rate, centuries yet stretched before her, and it wouldn't do for her to carry the burden of one boy's loss with her through the ages. As such, Ava, ever the pragmatist, resolved to move on; and she entered the new millennium with a reformed outlook and a renewed determination to achieve new heights of power and recognition.
The aughts brought a curious revelation. Ava was surfing the internet one day when she stumbled across a website devoted to... herself. Apparently Ava Turner the pin-up girl had become revered in the modern counterculture as a classic sex symbol, admired for her voluptuous curves and enigmatic smile, as well as her willingness to participate in some more risqué and controversial photo shoots that had surfaced only recently. Fascinated, Ava proceeded to "google" herself and found over two million results, much to her amazement. The number grew over the coming year as vintage fashion and the rockabilly subculture gained popularity, and Ava soon found that people would occasionally approach her in public to comment on her resemblance to the famous Ava Turner. Ava relished the attention, though it dismayed her to realize that she would never truly be able to capitalize on it. She continued to use the name Sarah Schaeffer in her day to day life, for her own protection as well as to avoid the slim possibility that someone might peg her as the actual Ava Turner.
At present, Ava finds herself back in Saint Calais after more than fifty years, on a special assignment from the Rosen Epiphany that she's not at liberty to discuss. She continues to use the alias Sarah Schaeffer, and is currently employed by day as a librarian at Calais' Public Library.
While Ava manages to blend in well enough in the modern era, certain idiosyncrasies of hers may clue people in that she's a little... off. By contemporary standards, she's proper and aloof, affectedly delicate and feminine in manner.
Most people, however, just write her off as being "a little old-fashioned…"
★Circumstances of Transformation/Discovery: In history.
★Circumstances of Faction Initiation: In history.
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The ★ Puppeteer,
★ WHAT SHOULD WE CALL YOU? Loreley
★ HOW TO CONTACT YOU? zeeleenight@gmail.com
★ HOW DID YOU FIND US? The cake is a lie.
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FACE CLAIM
[color=e10e3f]★[/color] [b]HENDRICKS, CHRISTINA[/b], [s] Ava Turner[/s]
The ★ Copyright,
Rosen Nocturne Kai & Kiare.♥
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This should be an example app for everyone else joining the site. ;D