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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Elle" data-source="post: 973568" data-attributes="member: 12712">“Queen” Tess – Stats and BackgroundAge: 33Apparent Age: 32Hair: Mostly missing (formerly Blonde)Eyes: Two, one Blue and one greenSkin colour: Varies from livid red to bruise purple to an unhealthy green Nationality: AmericanHeight: 5’3”Weight: approximately 120 poundsSex: FemaleNature: GallantDemeanour: SurvivorClan: NosferatuGeneration: TenthATTRIBUTESPhysicalStrength 3Dexterity 2Stamina 3SocialCharisma 3Manipulation 2Appearance 0MentalPerception 4Intelligence 3Wits 3ABILITIESTalentsAlertness 3Brawl 1Dodge 1Empathy 2Intimidation 1Streetwise 4Subterfuge 3SkillsAnimal Ken 1Etiquette 1Performance 1Stealth 2Survival 3KnowledgesAcademics 1Computer 1Investigation 2Law 1Occult 3Science (psychology) 1ADVANTAGESBackgroundsGeneration 3Contacts 3Mentor 2 (Calebros)Status 1Influence 1DisciplinesAnimalism 1Obfuscate 2VirtuesConscience 2Self Control 4Courage 4Humanity 6Willpower 5MeritsOracular Ability (3pts)Elysium regular (1pt)FlawsAnosmia (2pts)Masquerade Breaker (2pts)Cold Breeze (1pt)Q & AWhere and when were you born and raised?Born Theresa Stokes In Boston on 23rd November 1969. Grew up in a fairly affluent neighbourhood, the oldest of 3 children, one sister and one brother. Tess would have been brought up in a fairly religious Protestant household though she didn’t really have the strength of faith her Parents and Siblings did.    What were your parents and family like?Her Parents loved her and honestly wanted only the best for her and her siblings.  They were just a little easily lead and themselves had been bought up to believe that the Church was the centre of the community, to believe in it’s teachings and to take it’s advice.  What were some significant events of your young life?The most significant event was the first time she had a vision and saw something which had not yet happened.  This was just after her sixth birthday, a jumble of images, most of which she did not understand. After some time she began to make sense of some of the images and realised most of the things she had seen happening had come true.  At age 11, in front of her Sunday School class, Tess predicted that a boy in her school class would die within the week, 4 days later 11 year old Toby Myers was hit by a truck and instantly killed.  There was uproar in the church community and poor Tess was demonised and the family scorned.  Her parents took her to an exorcist but they could not stop her predictions, so they took her to a doctor, a doctor who was a member of the same congregation that had been so terrified by Tess’ ability.  He prescribed a series of tranquillisers until he found one which seemed to dull her precognisant abilities, it also turned her into little more than a sleepwalker through her life, unable to cope without someone with her.What happened when you became an adult?Tess’ parents kept looking after her once she had finished school.  She had grown into a beautiful woman and she gained a lot of attention from the local men, all of which were shooed away by her parents.  As she grew she found the tranquillisers having a slightly lessened effect, she was sure not to let anyone realise it in case they increased the dosage.  She still did not have her visions but she found she had a little more of herself back.  Her parents had grown accustomed to controlling everything for their daughter and Tess found herself frustrated over her lack of control over her life.  Tess had always been allowed to dress herself and keep herself clean and she realised this was her outlet for control.  She could not influence what she did but she could influence how she looked.  This became her obsession, she needed to look perfect at all times to feel she had any say in her life.  To anyone who did not know her she came across as a classic bimbo, blonde, beautiful, immaculately dressed and as dumb as a lump of wood, however this is all some men are looking for and her popularity only increased.  Finally, at age 23 her Parent’s decided it was about time Tess found a husband and settled down, and they knew just the man.  He was the son of a respectable couple who had moved to the neighbourhood after Tess had been put on tranquillisers and so knew nothing of her past.  So Tess was introduced to Grant Lyons and they became a couple, Tess wasn’t asked if she liked Grant but in her drugged haze it seemed the right thing to do to just go along with him.  A year later they were married and moving to New York so Grant could take up his new accountancy job in the city.  Tess’ doctor had a word with her new GP in New York so it was Grant who dealt with her prescription, not Tess. In the Summer of her 25th year it was discovered that the companies Grant dealt with the accounts for were inexplicably missing substantial amounts of money, after an investigation it was found that Grant had developed a gambling habit and owed even more substantial amounts to some quite unsavoury characters.  Grant lost his job and was taken to court for embezzling money from his clients.  He never saw the inside of the courtroom as the unsavoury types now had no chance of getting the rest of the money back and every chance of having their operation compromised, they had him shot, walking into the court, surrounded by police.With Grants’ death all of his holdings were taken to pay back the companies, nothing had been in Tess’ name, she had no savings of her own, was incapable of working, had no friends and no idea how to contact her parents.  The night they evicted her from her house was her first night alone and her first night on the streets.Tess has no memory of those first few weeks on the streets, only the pain and sickness she felt as her body craved the tranquillisers she had been dependant on for so long.  Her first real memory was staring into a puddle and seeing her face dirty and smeared, her hair matted and her clothes torn and muddy.  Her obsession with her appearance jolted her back to reality, she washed her face as clean as she could in the puddle and set about looking for a comb in the nearby dumpsters.  Her sleepwalk through the last 13 years allowed her to accept her surroundings without question and to simply get on with what mattered to her, getting herself cleaned up.  Over the next few days she amassed a comb, a brush, an old sponge, half a packet of tissues, a mostly empty can of hairspray, the last ends of half a dozen bars of soap, a discarded lipstick which had been dropped in the dirt and an almost new dress with only one rip, a brown stain around the hole and a few buttons missing.  Her visions began to come back she would try to interpret them as quickly as she could (i.e. Before they happened) and if possible, make some money from it which she would spend on food, clothes, make-up and toiletries.  After her first year on the street Tess had built up something of a reputation with the street people, they would come to her for advice and predictions.  By scraping together money and favours she had been able to learn more about her gift from others who possessed similar abilities and had become fairly knowledgeable on occult matters in her own right.  The underworld soon began to hear of her abilities and one night she was taken to meet someone. Tess was lead into a back room of a restaurant; she was given food as the man, known only as Mr Adams, began to explain what he wanted from her.  She stunned everyone by interrupting him, telling him why he had asked her there and the answer to the question he was about to ask, after the advice proved correct he gave her some money and some more food and asked her to work for him, she refused saying she would give advice to those who needed it, if he asked she would help but she would help everyone else as well, after veiled hints about curses and the evil eye the crime boss was edgy enough to accept that and let Tess go on her way.As the year’s progressed she became more and more in control of her life, she was known by all as a pleasant, harmless woman and at the same time someone who you did not want to cross (after several lucky coincidences regarding terminal misfortunes and people who had crossed her, no one planned to take the chance).  She had gained more underworld contacts and discovered Mr Adams had been the person who had ordered her husband shot.   She is provided with toiletries by a policewoman called Anne Collins who exchanges it for advice and a possible glimpse of her future.  Tess also became friends with a volunteer worker at a homeless shelter.  Were you married in your mortal life? Were you in love?Married? Unfortunately yes. In love? At the time she wasn’t capable of such a strong emotion as love and, although she always received a lot of attention from men, has never been in love.  What drew your sire to you?Prophecy. Some Nos heard her talking about a vision she had seen several times recently, the imagery meant one thing to it – Niktuku.  It scurried back to its sewer and reported it to Calebros who came to the same conclusion; Tess was predicting the Niktuku’s arrival in New York.  He knew she would be an invaluable tool in the war against these creatures; he just had to hope that her gift would survive the embrace.What was your embrace like?The night of her embrace Calebros took her for a walk. As they walked Tess confided in him, last night she saw the clearest vision she had ever had.  It took no skill to decipher it; tonight she would die.  He asked her if she knew how and as she looked into his eyes he almost felt ashamed that she saw his intent so clearly.  They walked the rest of the way in silence.Tess stopped as they reached the manhole cover, knowing this would be the place and there was an awkward moment, like a couple standing outside the doorway to one of their houses after a date and not being sure whether to kiss, then Calebros lifted the sewer lid and gestured for her to climb down the ladder.She was lead into a small room which had a bed and four large pots in it, then from behind her she heard a resigned sigh and felt teeth plunge deep into her neck.The next few days were agony, as her body distorted and deformed itself and the hunger came upon her. Smelling the blood in the pots and drinking it she was able to gather her wits about her enough to realise she was not dead, and then enough to notice her vile putrid flesh and twisted bones.  She looked into the shiny surface of the dispenser and a monster looked back, again a rage stronger than she had ever felt took her over and when she came to the room had been trashed.  She drank the other remaining dispenser of blood, still not really taking that part in and sat on the floor until Calebros opened the door and began to explain to her what had happened.What were some significant events of your early days as Kindred?The first thing Tess had to accomplish was simply keeping her sanity, the one thing she had always had control of, her looks, had gone.  This, surprisingly, was the most difficult thing for her to cope with.  The years of tranquillisers had given her the ability to accept new situations unquestioningly. The main event in the first few months of her unlife was breaching the masquerade.  She had gone out to collect a package for her sire from a member of the Giovanni clan.  They were to meet in a local club, during a meeting a drunken mortal pulled off the veil hiding her face.  Many of the mortals in the club saw her and panicked however The Giovanni she had been there to meet and who owned the club cleared it up for her. Since then she has taken to wearing a circlet, made out of three plaited lengths of wire with hair grips attached to hold her veil on.  This has started the other nosferatu, and then other Kindred, calling her ‘Queen’ Tess.Going to her first Elysium was also an important event for her.  It was before her sire stepped down as prince and she was being presented to the other vampires in the city as the prince’s childe.  It was one of the most exciting nights of her life.  Now she visits Elysia regularly to capture a little bit of that night again and has made friends with some of the other kindred who often visit them.Not long after her embrace Tess had another vision, Calebros was very pleased even though it didn’t seem to be about the Niktuku.  Her gift has carried over into her new existence for which she and her sire are very happy.How do you view others around you?Tess is still a little distant with members of her clan other than Calebros.  Their appearance reminds her that she cannot control that aspect of herself any more which she still has to come to terms with.  She gets on well with some of the other vampires she meets in Elysia, those who do not seem to find her appearance a factor. She still goes back to her old doorway a couple of nights a week so she may try to help those who come to her.  What are your long term goals? Tess isn’t all that sure what her long-term goals might be, years of hardly being able to think for herself and then living on the streets has not conditioned her to think ahead very far.  She wants to help Calebros with the Niktuku and hopefully stop them doing anything to her and the warren.  She would also like to finally feel in control of her existence.  Her sire has explained the Jyhad to her so she knows she can only have control to a small extent but this desire has nurtured some ambition within her, she feels if she can become a powerful and respected resident of the city she can have as much control as she may be allowed.What are your short term goals?Deal with her appearance issues, she still tries to keep herself as presentable as she can.  She is trying to set up a better street and criminal intelligence network using her contacts and the people who come to her for help.What are you good at? How do you use it to your advantage?Tess has become good at interpreting prophecy which has also helped her develop her knowledge of the Occult.Her other strength is her contacts and knowledge of the streets.If anyone wants an unabriged copy of the background let me know.  I'm also having trouble finding a photograph - I'll put one up when I can find one.</blockquote>

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