T H E H A R P Y
The Basics:Name:Lisa-Joe Hampton (Only for the last 300 years)
Age [appearance]:19-21
Age [actual]:539
Gender:Female
Species:Vampire(Brujah)
Sect:Anarch
Alignment:Chaotic Neutral
Status: Harpy of Central Districr Government, Current Second in Line to Central District Leadership
Permissions Given in reasonable Roleplay:
(Yes = you don't have to ask before acting in RP, No = you ask first)
Feeding: YES
Wounding/Cursing: YES
Killing: NO
Looks:Hair: Long and red. She generally wears it down. The most common style is a series of light curls. She occasionally takes a straightening iron to it.
Eyes:Bright blue balls with large pupils.
Lips: Full, normally painted red, and when she smiles her fangs are just visible, poking out from under her top lip.
Face: Pale, clear of blemishes, and often wearing heavy makeup.
Frame: (5\'2, 120lbs) Lisa-Joe is a small thing, but commands a much bigger presence than her frame suggests. She has small feet and hands, thin wrists that look easily breakable, and an hourglass figure. She is not however busty or has overly wide hips. In general she reads as thin.
Tattoos/Distinguishing Marks: A rose tattoo has been erected on her ankle through magic ink.
Usually Seen Wearing: Her outfits change all the time, but she makes most of them herself and considers herself a student of fashion. Sometimes she can over the top, but she figures that is the consequence for being on the cutting edge. Her looks also tend to favor punk-rock trends, and goth trends.
Personality:Lisa Joe has a few convictions that help bring order to her personality, and provide a moral structure by which she lives her life.
1. Life is a party, so I should never miss out.
2. Fuck with the people I love, and I will end you.
3. Appearances are first impressions, so I owe it to myself to always make an entrance.
4. Strength is not just in the body or mind, but deep in the soul.
5. My house is my rules. Break them at your own peril.
Lisa-Joe is an unapologetic bitch. She is mean to those who disrespect her, violent to those who'd endanger her, and is protective over her "kids." When she likes you she can be dotting, and kind. She will also make fun of people she cares for, enjoying the reaction she gets out of teasing. She is a life of the party kind of person, living her vampire life to the fullest. She is a risk taker, a smooth dresser, and a fan of hard core music.
History: I met Miss Hampton in New York, during the 1920\'s. She was a loyal Anarch, and was off great service to the cause of making New York an Anarch haven. We didn\'t develop a personal connection, until the night Miss Hampton saved my life. The details of the ordeal, although fascinating, are unnecessary. After this instance, we became very close, and Lisa served as one of my top enforcers. Running a city was a big job, so Lisa-Joe and I rarely had time to talk about our personal lives. However, one night in my study, I convinced her to tell me her story. She started by saying she was born in South Carolina, a lie I instantly called her on. She finally admitted her true origins, and told her real history.
"I was born in London," she began. "I don\'t know who my mortal mother and father were. The man who took me in said they were bad people, who\'d abandoned me to die. Whether he was telling the truth I will never know."
There was a slight pause before she continued her tale. Her face was stern and cold. The normal bright and happy light was dimmed at the thought of her past. "What I do know is the man who took me in was a rapist. His family name was Churchill. His first was Simon. Simon ran a bar and brothel in London\'s Black Friars. Men would come to drink, eat and fuck; they would then pack up and go home to their ugly, fat wives. Once I was eleven it was decided I was old enough to work as a lady of the brothel. However, Simon kept me for himself. I would wash the glasses, make the beds and then go to Simon\'s chamber. This was my routine until I was a lady of nineteen. I decided that enough was enough. I was tired of being his whore. My fingers bled as I washed the glasses from the bruises he\'d given me. One day I washed the glasses as usual. Suddenly everyone heard a scream come from Simon\'s chamber. One of the men in the bar went to investigate to find a dead Simon. They said he\'d been poisoned. Some men can\'t hold their arsenic. Of course, nobody suspected me. I was a sweet little bar maid."
At this point Lisa-Joe wore a dark grin, not happy per say, but evilly joyful. I asked what happened next, and after adjusting herself she went on. "Simon hadn\'t a child. Since he\'d raised me from a sliver of a thing the bar went to me, his ward. It was odd for a women to own a business in those days, but it wasn\'t unheard off. I ran the bar for less than a year before a strange woman began to frequent it. She told me her name, and we often talked of England. She said she didn\'t have a husband, or any children. Also, she never ordered a drink, and always left with either a man or a woman. Finally one day after closing, she told me I had a great fighting spirit. She then revealed she knew I\'d killed Simon. For a brief moment I thought she was going to report me to the magistrate, but as if she could read my mind, she told me that she would do no such thing. In contrast, she said how impressed with me she\'d been. The woman asked me if I believed in heaven or hell, or in the human soul. I told her that if God was real, he wouldn\'t let wicked men rape young girls, and then let the police blame the girls in question. God didn\'t exist, and neither did the human soul. At this moment the woman laughed joyfully, and clasped her hands together. The next part is a blur. Before I knew what had happened, the strange woman had sunk her fangs into my neck. I fell into a dreamlike state as she fed, and dreamed of feeling loved. When she\'d drained enough to slow the heart, she retracted her fangs and pulled away from me. The woman told me I had a choice, to die a common whore, or take the devilish power she held, and use it to rebel against the authority\'s of the world for all time. I didn\'t even have to think. I took her awesome power."
At this point in her story, I began to understand why the Brujah was the way she was. It was no surprise she\'d been fighting her entire undead life. She\'d spent her whole mortal life fighting too. I repaid the favor, and told Lisa-Joe of my human years and siring, to which she showed genuine interest. After I finished my tale, I pressed Lisa-Joe to go on with her own, and go on she did.
"I was now vampire," she stated with pride. "I awoke the first night, and looked upon the world with my vampire eyes, and saw more than a human ever sees. My Sire awaited me with a savage smile. She told me that she would only see me through my first few nights, and then she would leave me to my own device. She told me that was the way of my clan. After teaching me how to feed, rest and work on my disciplines, my Sire left me. I was on my own now, a young vampire in the dark alleys of London. I fed mostly on prostitutes, and street trash, as they were the easiest to acquire, and also the least likely for society to miss. I lived wherever I could, wore the clothes of my victims, and stayed relatively out of trouble. I lived this way during the reign of Henry the eighth and his two daughters. I rather liked Mary, for she knew how to enforce martial law. Things began to change during the days when England had no King. Cromwell\'s rule forced me to become more secretive about who I killed, and he even forced me out of my home a few times. It was at this time I began to think about leaving London. I had little contact with the Camarilla during these years. I distrusted them, and they looked down on me for who I was. We coexisted by having a mutual avoidance. That was of course until I broke one of their sacred laws. A young Malkavian attempted to feed from someone I\'d claimed. I started a confrontation with the insane man, and in the end we fought to the death. I obviously came out to be the victor. Although he struck first, the Camarilla punished me by sending me into exile. The first place I was sent to was the Island of Barbados. After a few years, there I received word that I was being sent to an even less populated place. I was to set sale for the crown colony of Carolina."
I nodded my head, and began to understand why she chose to keep her years in England a secret. She\'d killed another vampire, and although the vampires who\'d exiled her had probably been turned to dust, she didn\'t dare risk the wrong vampire speaking about it. Also, her ruff years as a human had scared her in obvious ways. Lisa-Joe had abandoned her old name and the name of her sire, because she wanted to forget where she\'d come from. I understood how that felt. Jacob had recently become Jake. We had a few glasses of blood and spoke of lighter subjects, before my own curiosity forced me to ask her to continue her story. There was a moment where it seemed Lisa-Joe may not go on, but just as I was about to change the subject she began to speak.
"Very well," she said snidely. "I fell in love with the south moments after arriving there. The air smelt clean and unpolluted. London\'s streets were full of dark fog and acid. It was no wonder the humans tasted so different. In South Carolina I found I could breath again. I acquired cheep land in the fields west of Charleston. At the time, you could buy several lush acres for only a few pounds. I named my new plantation Athena, in honor of the most famous fighting women of all time. Cotton was my crop of choice. I grew it by the bushels. I built a private chapel on my land and went there on Sunday nights to appease the religious people of the town. I made up a rumor that I had a very rare, and lethal, skin condition that kept me indoors during the day. People talked, but nobody ever dared to say a word to my face. I showed up at all the local banquets, the dances, the Barbecues. I played the part of southern lady very well. I had documents forged to claim I came from an old family called, Hampton. It was a good enough name to legitimize my presence in Charleston\'s elite. I claimed my husband had died, and I was a young widow. I used makeup as a temporary solution to not aging, but soon found that people hated me for my youth. I was determined to find a way to keep my status, without attracting attention to my supernatural nature. I called together the South Carolina Brujahs, and then I through a grand party. I managed to get all of my peers onto my property, and then the Brujah\'s and I wiped their minds, and reset their memories. I was once again the young widow, and nobody else was the wiser. The American Revolution came, and passed. My property was unaffected. I would have been glad to fight if the redcoats had knocked on my door, but alas, they did not. South Carolina was part of a new country, and I was apart of it. My crops sold well. I made much money in these next few years. I held slaves, but I tried my best to keep them treated well. Many people would call to tell me that my slaves were treated too well. I told them that why attract bees with vinegar, when they really want honey. I was proud of my plantation. I was proud of who I\'d become. Lisa-Joe Hampton had been formed. It was so sweet, untill that awful war."
Lisa-Joe hung her head. The Civil War had apparently cost her everything, and she was about to tell me how.
"After Sherman burned Georgia to a cinder, he moved north into South Carolina. His armies never dared try and take Charleston, for it was a fortified safe house for the Confederacy. I fought on the side of southern Independence, and made my presence known at almost every battle where the North tried to take Charleston. The sun was a hindrance, but I did my best to balance the scales. You know better than I, vampires from all over the world came to fight in the American Civil War. Everyone picked sides, unfortunately the Camarilla picked the North. Most Anarchs were not in favor of slavery, but they were in favor of having the right to secede. I was among those Anarchs. Sherman burned Columbia, and his troops reached as far as my plantation. During the day, Yankee troops burned my fields to ash, and set my wonderful house on fire. One of my slaves, a man named Louis, rushed into my bed chamber during the blaze, and carried my unconscious body into the root cellar. He knew of my \'skin condition\', and therefore did the only thing he knew to save my life. When I awoke, my house was gone. My fields were destroyed and my slaves had run away. All I had left was Louis. I decided to reward him for saving my life, so I made him a vampire, that very night. His loyalty to me, made me reconsider the views I had on blacks. I decided to start judging a person by their actions, and not by the color of their skin. I would later find out, Louis met the true death by the time he was five. His murderer was the sun. He\'d forgotten to go to rest. He\'s the only progeny I\'ve ever sired. I was now a lonely, poor woman in the south during reconstruction. I grew to hate the North, and all that it stood for. I would become an Anarch of some popularity in South Carolina, that is until I left for here."
I knew almost everything about her, I had one more question to ask. "Why are you here," I asked. Her response came quick.
"I\'m here because the Anarch cause needs me. You need me Mr. McCloud. New York needs me, and although I don\'t like being here, I love the cause more."
That was the end of my talks with Lisa-Joe. The rest of her history is this: She fought against the Camarilla, until the city fell in 1930. She fled New York, because a blood hunt was called on her, early after our defeat. Where she has been since 1930, and why she has come asking me for money to open an Anarch bar is a mystery. I can only guess, she is here for a reason only she knows. I gave her the money, because I want this city to become an Anarch safe haven. People like Lisa-Joe can help that happen.
Awareness of Supernaturals: Vampires; both Clans and Catiff, Shifters, Lycans, some Demons and some Fae.
Occupation/Job: Manager and part owner of Anarch haven "The White Rabbit." She runs the bar on a daily basis, and is responsible for it\'s operation. I\'m a silent partner.
Interesting Facts / Quirks: Lisa-Joe is not her real name. She speaks with a thick southern accent, that is very South Carolina. The accent is not faked, as she\'s lived there since the 1600s. Lisa-Joe has a large collection of clothing from her Pre-Civil War days. She likes to play dress up in her apartment.
Hobby/Hobbies:Lisa-Joe likes to drink blood from tea cups. She has a deep obsession with South Carolina, and lives in a fantasy world where the south won the Civil War. She enjoys being a bar maid, and getting in trouble.
Likes: women, sometimes men, fashion, parties, a good fight, books, the History Channel, old movies, playing dress up, the hunt, and a good tube of lipstick.
Dislikes: the Camarilla, the Sabbat, ugly women, shifters, demons, men who mistreat women, urban culture, rap music, modern transportation, the Ventrue and Tremere clans, (I\'m an exception), vampire hunters, the color pink, rape of any kind.
Strengths: Lisa-Joe is as loyal as they come, especially to the Anarch cause. She firmly believes in the freedom of all vampires, and humans alike. She is very caring, kind and protective of those she is close to. She also has no fear, as she has stood up to overwhelming odds over the years. It\'s difficult to intimidate her.
Weakness/Flaw: The Brujah clan largely rejects her, because she is seen as to conforming. The fact that she likes to stay in one place, and hold a steady job has led the greater Brujah community to think she\'s not vampire enough.She responds to these criticisms by beating up her critics. Her style of dress and love of the old south has led to further isolation from her clan. She has a low opinion of most other Brujahs, mainly because they have a low opinion of her. Despite this, she is still called on when the clan is in need, and she always answers the call. The clan is more important than petty dislike.
Vampiric Disciplines:Potence - Lisa has supernatural strength and can channel that strength into various situations. While at a base level Potence just demonstrates the overall strength of the vampire in question, Lisa has worked towards the mastery of specific techniques. At her age and level of blood potency she is beyond the basics.
A. Soaring Leap - By channeling the power of the blood, the vampire can leap to heights beyond that of a normal mortal. Lisa can leap a five story building as well as jump between roof tops with ease.
B. Lethal Body - Lisa-Joe is stronger than any mortal and her base strength is so high that even a friendly fight can do them serious harm.
c. Prowess - Lisa-Joe can temporarily draw tremendous strength for a single activity. At her age and level of mastery this might be crushing a diamond or punching through a titanium door. After preforming such an act, Lisa-Joe is drained and needs to feed. Otherwise she becomes weak.
D. Spark of Rage
(requires presence) Lisa-Joe can use a combination of her Potence and Presence disciplines to pull the rage of a person to the surface. This ability is often used during fights to make her opponent sloppy, or to whip up a rebellious crowd of malcontents. This technique was originated by clan Brujah, and Lisa-Joe is proud to use the technique of her people.
E. Brutal Feed - Nicknamed by the Giovanni "The savage kiss," this unholy ability allows Lisa-Joe to drain a victim of blood at a rapid pace. The effect is almost always fatal to the mortal, and is used only in the heat of battle if it all. She would never use this to feed.
F. Uncanny Grip - At this more advanced level Lisa-Joe is able to burrow her fingers into any surface. The surface shows some sign of damage but allows her to climb up almost anything.
G. Fist of Cain - Lisa-Joe has achieved mastery of Potence as evidenced by her knowledge of this technique. Her strength is now at the level where supernaturals take serious damage and people are likely to come out of fights mangled. When facing her toughest fights, this ability is what helps her clinch the win.
Celerity - Sometimes called "blurring" celerity is a form of supernatural speed. It is said that all vampires begin to develop this ability at some point, but those of clan Brujah study it and learn it's craft. Lisa-Joe has learned some techniques of Celerity but it is not her strongest discipline.
A. Cat's Grace - Lisa-Joe has excellent balance even when intoxicated. She can run across ledges, tightropes and other slim surfaces with ease.
B. Rapid Reflexes - Lisa-Joe can perceive actions moments before they occur and can quickly react. This ability is commonly used to dodge bullets.
C. Fleetness - The most basic form of Celerity. This ability allows Lisa-Joe to move at dizzying speeds up to 50 MPH.
D. Blink - Nicknamed by Theo Bell "Sneak Attack," Blink allows the user to stop directly in front of an opponent, attack, and then retreat all in the blink of an eye. Lisa-Joe has won a lot of fights by never being in the same place long enough to get hit.
Presence - Lisa has what some vampires call, “The Lingering Kiss.” Presence allows Lisa to manipulate her aura in a variety of ways to create certain effects. Lisa can use this form of supernatural charisma to get information, food, or intimidate an attacker. Lisa has almost mastered presence, knowing several techniques.
A. Awe - Lisa can make herself more physically attractive to onlookers. Those who are not sexually attracted to her would at least find her company pleasing and interesting.
B. Daunt - Lisa-Joe can reverse her pleasing aura into an intimidating one. Her warm beauty becomes cold and menacing. This can deter attackers or sublimate mortal and low level supernaturals in social situations.
C. Dread Gaze - Lisa can for a brief time show her fangs and spark terror in mortals and and send an intimidating message to supernaturals.
D. Entrancement - This ability allows Lisa-Joe to cause a single person to become obsessed and infatuated with her. This more advanced ability is how queens made kings bow to them, and how Mata-Hari was a whore for spying. People have died while under the effects of entrancement, making it a risky ability to use.
E. Lingering Kiss - The bite of a vampire is already very addicting, but this horrible technique practically enslaves mortals who are affected by it. They become obsessed with receiving the bite of the vampire who uses it, often to their doom. While Lisa-Joe knows this ability she would never use it.
F. Summon - Lisa-Joe can call forth a person who she has previously used presence on before. The person simply stops what they are doing and in the quickest route possible makes their way to Lisa-Joe. Useful for setting up meetings secretly, or proving your power over someone, summon can be resisted by the mentally strong.
Pictures:
*** Hair is more red than in photograph
