Two Women, One Stroy

[Joanna [DBJ]]

[Name] The Human: Lady Julia Chesterwood

Awakened Entity: The Dark Beauty, Joanna

[Mortal Age] Around 20

[Actual Age] Between 250 and 290

[Sire] Sir Robert Asterlin (deceased)

[Bloodline] Unknown.

[Family]

Julia:
Julia was the eldest out of herself, Rose and Katherine all born in succussion after 3 brothers, Edwin, George and Lucas. Her parents were Lady Jane and Sir Thomas. Through her mother’s malice her father and brothers died. Her sisters and any others who were left perished in her last act as a mortal.

Joanna:
As an immortal she had little understanding of what family was. She had slaughtered countless families after her turning and thought nothing of their pleas or they desire to protect each other. It was all a foreign yet, familiar concept. It was not till her around her hundredth birthday when she came across three of her kind, that family became something that she longed for. These individuals were the first real family after her awakening that treated her as member rather than a tool to be welded. It was Asher, Téa and the little Mag that taught her that she need not walk this life in solitude. To Joanna, Asher was the reincarnation of the brother figures in her nightmares. Téa, the sister and female confidant she needed to help her adapt and become more human in this new world she was entering. Mag, represented the child in her. When she had first met the immortal child she had instantly formed a bond with her. Joanna felt like a child in a new world and here was physical symbol of one. After their deaths and Ashers disappearance, Joanna experienced the emotion true grief for another being for the first time.

While in her stay in America, for the second time, she came across a young vampire and took him under her wing. He became her first son, Blaze (117838). They lost contact after she suffered one of her ‘blackouts’.

After wondering the world again, finding pieces of the puzzle of her past and the source of her nightmares, Joanna stumbled on the Dead City. It was here she found a place she could live in without the fear of exposure. Joanna wondered through the covens, finding friends and trying her hardest not to make too many enemies if any, she found herself wanting more. After walking the streets for a year she realised had become for then just friends with some of the creatures that walked the night with her. Her ties start with her brother, Theo DeathSpirt (96705), though they don’t always agree and have different tastes, Joanna likes having him around. Through him she has gained three brothers, Morpheus Darkshadow (70224), Argosax Vastatio (218655) and Satan (S&L©) (189903). Each one more unique then the other, yet none can take the place of Theo, who gave her his name when she had none.

Another DeathSpirit, whom carries the name has a special place in Joanna’s heart, Lexi Tempest DeathSpirit (426512), she is the little sister Joanna watches over with an eagle eye. A special sister stepped forth from this shadows of this line, River of Darkshadow (152771).

The one tie that is unclear is the one she posses with the immortal matriarch of Yimaraj. Somewhere in her past in her bloodlust she came across an individual as strange as she was entertaining, Envy (Kira) Yamaraj (162305). Through this tie she has met others with the same drive of not only bloodlust but lust itself for more, her four sisters, Kira Belial (309627), Diane Sinclair (150390), Nina Eri Nostradamus (253143) and Vicki Treston (401356).

There is one other who makes up her strange little family, her brother, Tomas “Chev” Mandon(319911).

Siblings out of the way the rest of her children consist of Evalee (95408), Trisha (187578), †Angel Heartless Nox† (266533), Aphrodite (278641). All bonded through a blood share.

Her one and true only childe, her fledgling is Andie (484974), the poor soul whom she drain to quick and decided to revive during a haze of bloodlust.

They are fours others who Joanna calls “Kin”, her nieces Pepper DeathSpirit (259654), Inara ~Baby~ Sin (160572) and Aurora D.A Ahulane (446415), and her nephew Andarlas Khonshu (399945).

[Abilities]

Age {in game}: Over 840
Rank : 70’s
Stats total: 7650

Power points – 76
Proficiency points – 84
Number of Powers – 7

Strength
Speed
Senses

Shadow Play
Sensing
Regeneration
Photographic Reflexes
Furtum di Memoria
Materialization
Mastery of Corpus

{Points will be added}

[Haven] Joanna has never really had a home. Her haven had always been where her weapons lay. Over the last two years, after she had taken up residence in the Dead City, Joanna had lived in several covens and had purchased an apartment with the city itself. All these places were different sizes, had different rooms and were never the same. Most of the covens she’d stayed in either gave her a room or suite with two or three rooms for her to furnish. Her apartment has five separate rooms only 3 of which she uses when she stays.

Her most recent ‘home’ and permanent residence at the moment is the west tower of the Deadly Sinners Castle, which is currently under locked due to her absence.

[Feeding Habits] Joanna feeds whenever she feels the need but does not need to feed to hunt. Knowing nothing but the will to survive, she has become content with almost anything yet finds she has limits. She will only tolerate blood from a human between the ages of 16 and 30, and finds O negative the hardest to resist, fresh or packaged. She will drain a human with O negative without any hesitation and pass by other easier targets because of this.

How she feeds is also unique. When she was first awakened she bit her victims as most vampire do, then she was taught her bleed her victims and consume their blood way from prying eyes. From there she was taught to be civilised and slice her victims draining them into goblets and cups. On the road she found this impractical and began to feed off direct wounds. She would slash or cut her victims wrists or necks and bite into the under flesh to feed. She still does this to this day.

[Appearance] Joanna stands around 5`8, quite tall for a woman. She has a pale complexion and strong dark features, hence the title Dark Beauty. Her eyes are dark brown normally but can be bluish at will, but always become black pools, when taping into the “essence". Her hair is dark auburn to brown and quite long, in that it reaches mid way down her back. She usually has it tired back in a long ponytail or plait.

Her usual attire consists of black leather trousers or a long black skirt with a long white petticoat underneath and a short white petticoat under that. She also wears a white shirt with a black corset over the top, and a black Victorian style coat.

To compliment her outfits she wears a silver locket which is the shape of a book and has a black onyx stone embedded in the middle of it. It hangs on a long chain that is nestled between her breasts sitting over her diaphragm. A silver ring that has a small ruby encased in is stationed on her right ring finger and a simple silver chain bracelet hangs around her right wrist.

Since embracing the “essence” she now poses five distinct tattoos. On her back at the base of her neck she has a Celtic in origin symbol of balance and unity. It consists of five perfectly round circles that overlap their neighbour’s, the fifth circle connect them all. On her left shoulder is the Egyptian symbol Leb, it represents Life. On her right shoulder is the Japanese Kanji for Death. On either wrist she has black swirls branching off one another 1/4 of the way down the inside of her arms. The swirls elongate up her arms and around her body when she engages the “essence”, like shadows.

[Nature] She is sarcastic, strange and somewhat insane. Her personality is somewhat primal; she uses her instincts to guide her and keep her alive. She has a temper and high sense of standard. If something isn’t done right what was the point of having done it. She’s bossy, loyal and trust worthy. If something is none of someone else’s business why should she tell them, when she’d be furious it someone told someone something she didn’t want them to know.

She appreciates peace and quiet. Noise distracts her concentration and makes her cringe. She also enjoys good humour and an extremely good book and nice looking man does not go astray either. She is very protective of people she considers kin and doesn’t appreciate ‘crap’ in any shape or form. Blood and carnage amuse her and arouse her every present blood lust and need for physical destruction. When at war she prefers to manipulate and shield her true intentions behind half truths and possibilities.

Confrontation is not something she endeavours to do. She prefers to pounce of her enemies from the shadows and slit there throat before they can inflict there petty stupidity on her. When in doubt she does not hesitate to use her contacts to her advantage.

Blood thirsty she may be, but she does not get involved in conflicts between her friends or acquaintances unless she is personally brought into the fray. She prefers to sit on the side lines and keep her alliances unhinged, incase the situation arises and she needs them at a later date. Her oldest drive has been her need to survive, thus she adapts to her surroundings and has taken up certain social practises to ensure this.

[Demeanor] Joanna is quiet and has a mysterious glamour attached to her. Some see her and stare in awe from the stories been told, others pass their gaze over her as if she were barely there. Just another of their kind bound to walk the life as one of the undead.

She is as she is depending on the setting and to who she is around. To people she does not know in a place that she does not consider her own or feel completely comfortable in, she can be quite standoffish and quiet. While in a place she feels comfortable in she can be quiet intimidating and loud to whom ever.

One thing Joanna does without too much bias is that she tries to treat people with the same indifference, yet there will always be those whom she favours or respects above others.

[Flaws/Weaknesses] Joanna by no means is perfect. She obsesses about small details, whether it is about a deal, a death, a des-cription. She wants to know every like thing she can, so she doesn`t miss an option or drive herself into a corner.

Her biggest fear is to lose control of the essence and become the “vessel” she was deemed to be. Other fears that haunt her are that she would become like Julia’s mother, Lady Jane or Eric de Gustar, deceiving her family and manipulating them like puppets. The frequently occurring nightmare is one where she loses her new kindred family.

She has come to resent being alone even through her prefers solitude; she likes to know she can if she so wishes be around others. Her pride is her greatest sin, and can lead to undoing in an argument by fuelling her temper and rage.

[History]

Julia’s History:

Lady Julia Chesterwood , was the second youngest daughter of Lady Jane Elizabeth Chesterwood , nee Mandical, and Sir Thomas Chesterwood. They were unfortunately not a typical family. This is what led her to the life she had. Sir Thomas was an heir to a grand fortune and property, which he inherited when his father who died mysteriously, a short time after he married Lady Jane. To Sir Thomas’s misfortune he was not the most intellectual man or the most insightful man, thus making him the perfect husband for Lady Jane. It was Lady Jane that feared what Julia might become and her that moulded Julia into taking actions that lead to the creation of Joanna.

After Sir Thomas mysteriously past away shortly after the birth of Julia’s youngest sister Katherine, Lady Jane took control of the estate to a point. In front of society, her brother in Law was the one running the estate and looking after all the day to day affairs, but unbeknown to society Lady Jane had another business running, one of trade and collection. Julia was only very small at the time but has memories of strange animals and beasts arriving after dark with strange looking men. It was at this time Julia realised that her mother had started drugging them. One feeling she remember with clear clarity is confusion and drowsiness.

Lady Jane’s family had been collecting exotic animals for centuries after a while they found the usual “exotic” animals and the like not so entertaining and delved into collecting creatures and the like not of this world as they called it. She had inherited many mythical animals and creatures. Yet her only inherited collection was not enough she hired slayers and other people to capture and deliver. One such creature was a Vampire names Sir Robert Asterlin. He had the greenest eyes Julia had ever seen; they were the colour of spring grass. When she was little she remembers staring into his eyes when her mother wasn’t looking. She remembered knowing that if she was caught looking at any of her mother’s creatures she would be severely punished. Her older brothers and she would dare each other to touch the cages. Her sisters would not go near them let alone that part of the grounds.

When she was 17 years of age she had stayed away from the estate on an unscheduled night, she hadn’t either family or any or the estate staff chaperoning her and thus had no one to supply the drug to her meal or water. Julia remembers that day like it was only yesterday. She can’t recall what day it was they never took much noticed of dates and we were not encouraged to take heed of them either. Julia and her sisters were to spend their days learning sums and grammar, the latest dance potions and other social practises. Julia and her sisters were trained and conditioned to be the perfect wives and women of her time. To their mother’s despair this did not work as well as she had for seen, they were clumsy and inattentive. The drug she distributed to them had side effects that made them undesirable wives, but Lady Jane’s cunning she had Julia’s younger sisters married to families that would take on a house staff member to that would see to the continued distribution of the drug. To Julia’s misfortune and her own, she kept Julia at her side, as the three brothers either mysteriously died or disappeared. At the time Julia did not ask questions.

As duty called Julia was sent off to represent the family at a social picnic at neighbouring estate. Through events not foreseen she was stranded at the estate and became quite ill for the distribution of the drug had not been administered, for the maid that was sent with her had been sent back to the estate before the storm had really started. This was the Julia’s awaken to her mother’s lies and manipulations of her children. This one event lead to the death of Julia and rise of Joanna.

Returning to the estate, Julia, thus enlisted the help of the Vampire Robert Asterlin. Robert gave Julia the death she asked for and became Joanna’s sire. The deal Julia stuck with him involved his talents to help her decimated her family until she was the last. In short, ended, losing all her memories as Robert had bound her mind. Through Robert’s fear the creature with no inherent memory of life was born. The infant creature only called darling and J at first knew nothing but raw emotions and a distinct drive to survive, that came from somewhere deeper then her. This drive because her “curse” and her salvation.

This in itself caused a great problem. With her blood line was a hidden secret, one that was passed down to one female child per generation which stayed with said woman till her death and would be rebound in the most recent born female child of her line. Julia was one such child and when her body died with no other living relative close enough to take on the curse, the dark power lock in her was awoken and trapped in the creature later to be known as Joanna.

Joanna has only recently started to remember her life as Julia.

Joanna’s History: Read “Vampire Memories.”

Key points:

Joanna joined the Elder Coven in New England almost immediately after awakening, she was in this coven for 70 years before she left. The leader of the coven, Eric, was the one who named her Joanna after his own late daughter. Eric used her as a pawn in his power play with the man he made her marry. After a great deal of trouble she made a deal with Eric. She cleaned up the mess and left.

From New England she explored the rest of the ‘New’ country and somehow made her way across the large colony. Finding herself on the west frontier, she took a boat that took her further west over the sea to the “East”, where she learnt many new fighting techniques. Slowly from here she moved west more toward mainland Europe. While in the Arabian dessert of all places in a place she believed she would die she met a male creature who called himself “Sayyid”. He trained her complex techniques and in a range of weapons, some she’d never seen. She spent 30 years in the dessert place conquering her demons.

Moving on like the sands, Sayyid and Joanna parted and she headed towards Europe once more. It was in Prague that she met Asher and his little family. They spend their years together, peacefully travelling around the beautiful countries. They were in Paris for Christmas when the little world they had created for themselves died before her eyes.

[Insert of memory]
From her position leaning in the door way, she watched. The fire was ablaze, the beautiful smells filled her senses. The tree stood in the corner tall and strong. It was decorated in beautiful fruits and nuts, small candles hung is strategically picked places. The scene was perfect. Asher and Téa danced around the living room. Why two such vampires would reside in a place like this Joanna would never know, but still it was a beautiful apartment though. Little Mag run to her and hugged her from behind. “They look so good together, No? Aunt Joanna.” The girl’s soft angelic voice sung in her ears. Looking down she smiled. Her little Mag was hanging from her again. The angelic red head with the softest blue eyes stared back awaiting her answer. Still smiling Joanna bend down to the shorter girl, “That they do my dear. That they do, sweet Mag.” Satisfied Mag turned back toward the couple. Taking her eyes of her young charge, Joanna too watched her perfectly matched friends as their love filled them all. This Christmas she had promised her would stay awake and enjoy herself, take a break from training and have a holiday.

Asher and Téa’s apartment was only two blocks away. She and Asher had come back to find the place in flames. They had just left to pick up the surprise present for Mag. Ever since Joanna had known her; the young girl had wanted a pony. The young girl had described her invasion to a tea; A 13 hands, chestnut, pony with a white blaze on its face. It had taken Joanna and Asher three months to find one they both found acceptable. In that one moment when the pair rounded the corner to find the apartment catching alight the pony that they had spend so much energy trying to acquire was forgotten.

Joanna had stood there for a moment not quite believing what she was witnessing; Asher on the other hand had run straight forward towards the blaze. Confused, Joanna hitched her skirts higher than acceptable for a lady and pursued him. Upon entering the apartment it became obvious that more than one fire had been lit thus ruling out the blazing heath in the sitting room. Think of the blazing heath, she entered the room to find Asher battling the flames trying to reach the body of Téa and the crying form of Mag. The smell of blood was intoxicating; Joanna had trouble distinguishing its smell from the smell of smoke. Hearing a cracking from above her she pulled Asher away from the flames towards the door. One of the cross beams came crashing down, fuelling the flames more. The screams emitted from Mag broke her spirit. The fear and anguish filled her constantly, causing her to fall to the ground constantly. Her mind screaming there was nothing for either of them to do but flea was what saved them both. Joanna pulled him thrashing from the blaze, sobbing at her own helplessness. She was about to lose two of her dearest friends. Téa had always been there and understood her worries and cares, listened to her and been her council, Mag, her little sweet Mag, her hope, the one that reminded her of what it meant to dream and be young, what her own childhood may have been like...

Crouched and sobbing on the side of the street, holding Asher’s form back from the flames. People were vaguely surrounding the pair, talking amongst themselves. Someone had called the fire brigade, who were racing to the scene. Joanna could not focus on anything but the symbol she’d seen carved in the wall. It was one sign she’d never forget. The two swords crossing in a bath of fire, with a gothic cross under the spot in which the blades met. Vampire Hunters, the realisation this was a countered attack fuelled her. Slowly she released Asher, who pelted to the flames becoming restrained by the humans that had gathered; now standing she closed her eyes and focused. Honing in on their sent she followed it. No one took any notice of her, they all knew she had known the residents quiet well; Asher had introduced her as his cousin. Making her way to the west of the city away from the blaze and nightmare she entered the back streets, here she changed. Her deep brown eyes turned black, her nails elongated and her skin turned a pale white with her veins as black as night. Daggers and other weapons appeared from folds in her attire. Asher shimmered beside her. The words `I’m Coming` formed in her mind, nodding Joanna lead on. The battle was bloody and long, she danced across the night slashing all those who opposed her. Two clans had joined to take them down there was 15 members in the total.

As the last hunter she killed died, the pair left the city in ruins in their anger, agreeing to meet in Japan, which never eventuated.

Asher disappeared from her life altogether.

The next 50 years or so are hazy; in 1941 she met Blaze and adopted him as her son.

In the 1950’s she was in Rome and met Axel Casta. The strange demon vampire gave her answers and insights into her past she could not have fathomed. Axel explained to the “curse” she thought she was damned with was more. Joanna spent the next 50 years with her training and learning new ideas, trying to force the beast within to yield to her command.

In early in 2009 she came to the Dead City to meet up with her son. In not knowing where to start she forged more “Kin”.

[OOC: That was a brief out line.]